TODAY: Entrepreneurs freed under new amnesty; Navalny is second most popular for Moscow mayor; legistlating hooligans and luxury cars; Dutch gay rights protesters banned from entering Russia; Politkovskaya’s children will boycott murder trial; Snowden may be granted asylum in Russia; Public Television out of cash.

Thirteen people thus far have been freed under President Vladimir Putin’s amnesty for entrepreneurs, and thousands more could follow.  The amnesty only applies to those who agree to repay damages, and whose crimes fall under the 27 permitted, including credit card fraud and evasion of debt repayment (but not to high profile cases like those of Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Alexei Navalny).  According to an opinion poll by VTsIOM, Navalny is ‘the highest-rated challenger’ of acting Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin (albeit with 9% support to Sobyanin’s 54%).  Yulia Latynina says the Kremlin only released the anti-corruption whistleblower ‘to torture him’.  New pieces of legislation ban convicted hooligans from sports events and set higher transportation tax rates on luxury cars.