TODAY: Medvedev defends premiership plans, promises fresh government; Australia calls out ‘cheque-book diplomacy’; Udaltsov denied proper medical treatment; Nashi members cut off opposition electricity; Posner calls for human rights reset; Yemeni leader expects Russian support; open investigation into Litvinenko’s death. 

President Dmitry Medvedev (who has ‘kept the presidential seat warm until Putin can be re-elected next year’) tried to get his supporters excited about his upcoming premiership over the weekend during a speech in which he promised a government of fresh faces next year, outlined plans to reconstruct the United Russia party, and defended his decision to step aside to allow Vladimir Putin return to the presidency as the result of ‘sufficiently long analysis’. Putin meanwhile pooh-poohed the notion that Russian citizens don’t have any real political choice.  ‘It is [Dmitry Peskov’s] job to put a positive spin on the neo-Brezhnevite stagnation that Russia will enter with his boss’ return to the presidency in 2012.’  A pro-Putin analyst rues the Prime Minister’s disregard for the rule of law.  Duma deputy Ashot Egiazaryan agrees: ‘Russian citizens need a system that allows for official accountability’ –  but this businessman says that neither ‘markets [n]or geopolitics’ care about the rule of law.