TODAY: Presidential election date set; Putin sees power vertical as antidote to recession; United Russia’s waning popularity; the booing phenomenon.  Date extended on Magnitsky investigation; Sobyanin maintains anti-gay parade stance; Kirov’s crackdown on protests.  Medvedev continues to decry US missile defense plans; Russian hacking.

According to the BBC, the upper house of Russia’s parliament has set March 4 2012 as the date for the presidential election; election campaigning will commence immediately.  Using the examples of the US and the eurozone, Vladimir Putin has, in an address to United Russia leaders, warned that a ‘lack of consolidation in the society’ can lead to recession and financial turmoil.  According to an opinion poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, the ruling party has the support of 39% of voters.  When the party won parliamentary elections in 2007, it gained 64% of the vote.   The New York Times has a report on how smartphones are allowing ordinary citizens to capture evidence of electoral malfeasance.  Charles Clover from the FT looks at the trend of booing which has developed over the past month as a manifestation of popular discontent.  This Moscow Times op-ed offers some alternative explanations as to why Putin faced a barrage of catcalls at Sunday night’s boxing match.  ‘After 12 years of pulling the PR levers and blowing a lot of smoke, the “Wizard of Russia” was finally exposed by mixed martial arts fans, who — like Toto in the final scene of “The Wizard of Oz” — pulled back Putin’s curtain, revealing a meek, ordinary man’.