TODAY: Pussy Riot detention extended to 2013; Alexeyeva criticises Putin on her birthday as the President signs WTO and NGO bills into law; Krasnodar officials face jail; United Russia protester dies; investments from Italy.

The detention of political protest and punk group Pussy Riot has been extended for another six months to 2013, prompting a global outcry, with a member of the German parliament calling them Vladimir Putin’s ‘personal prisoners’, and their lawyer calling the ruling illegal. ‘It’s not a matter of law. It’s not a matter of reason. It’s a way of saying, ‘We can do what we want.‘  Lyudmila Alexeyeva gave a speech on her birthday criticising Vladimir Putin’s policies, saying ‘repressions don’t solve problems […] only aggravate them.’  Putin signed into law both Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation and the measures to brand internationally-funded NGOs as ‘foreign agents’.  The organisations Memorial and For Human Rights have said they will ignore the law.