TODAY: Putin exhorts Ukraine to join customs union; discusses liberalism with TV chiefs; Medvedev promises fair election, lambasts red tape; CEC chief on Magnitsky blacklist.  PETA activist protest stopped by police; defamation case against Troitksy dropped.  Russia to use carrot and stick in response to US missile shield plans; MI5’s fears that British MP had fallen for a new Anna Chapman; military plan crashes.  Medvedev joins Facebook.

Prime Minister Putin has urged Ukraine to abandon its political ‘phobias’ over accession to the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and focus on its future potential.  Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is said to be considering the offer carefully.  In an interview with the heads of Russia’s three largest television stations, Putin used the career path of NTV’s Vladimir Kulistikov, formerly of RFE/RL, as an example of increased Russian ‘liberalism’ in the media. In the interview, which can be viewed here, he also rebuffs comparisons with Brezhnev on the basis that he is more hardworking than any of the Soviet leaders.  President Medvedev has similarly denied claims that Putin’s return to the Presidency will herald the redoubling of Brezhnev style authoritarianism, also pointing out that ‘any stagnation is unacceptable’.  The President simultaneously highlighted a prime affliction of Russia’s byzantine political structure: ‘It’s a sign of the ineffectiveness of the system of government on the whole when, in order to resolve a basic question, one needs to appeal to the president, governmental representative or governor of a large region’.  Putin’s right hand man has also promised a fair December election.  Vladimir Churov, chairman of the Central Elections Commission, will not be able to observe the US elections next year as he has been, in his own words, ‘honored’ with being on the US’ Magnitsky sanction list which bars him from entry.  Following months of indecision, a gravely ill businesswoman held in pretrial detention in Moscow may be imminently released, after the city court ruled that her arrest had been extended illegally.