TODAY: Coordination Council voting begins this weekend; Kirov governor investigated; Udaltsov aide arrested; Rosneft makes offer for BP’s stake in TNK-BP; Putin is against headscarves in schools; Medvedev orders review of Kyoto involvement; Magnitsky and Samutsevich take complaints to European Court.

The Kremlin’s opposition is using the ‘confrontational format’ of political debate on television to help build anticipation for this weekend’s online election of the Coordination Council, a non-parliamentary opposition organisation.  The Internet vote will be held to choose a ‘shadow parliament’ to create solidarity in the disparate opposition movement, although ‘it is unclear what role will be played by the council’, and the Kremlin says it will ignore the vote.  The BBC says that 100,000 voters have registered to vote for 200 candidates over 48 hours.  In what appears to be part of the ongoing crackdown on the opposition, authorities have questioned Nikita Belykh, the governor of Kirov, on suspicion of misappropriating $3.5 million from an opposition party and giving it to Alexei Navalny.  A Moscow court has authorised the arrest of Konstantin Lebedev, the aide of Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, and formally charged him with plotting to organise mass riots, for which he could be jailed for ten years.