TODAY: Arab Spring damages Russia’s arms reputation? Foreign Ministry wants U.N. to take charge in Libya; Putin removes shirt, accuses opposition of corruption, gets free taxi rides, Medvedev ratings fall; Pavlyuchenkov’s lawyer underscores that he has not yet been charged; Interior Minister says corrupt police have  been removed from the force; police theft; Abkhazia elections.

Howard Amos says that Russia’s reputation as a reliable arms supplier is damaged now as a result of its responses to the crisis in Libya, and examines the significance of the ‘well over $4 billion’ that Russia currently has at stake in active arms contracts with Syria.  The Foreign Ministry is calling for the U.N. to take charge of rebuilding efforts in postwar Libya.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin finds a $15 billion case of mismanaged healthcare funding to be the perfect occasion for taking off his shirt, as public approval ratings for President Dmitry Medvedev, recorded by the Levada Center, hit an all-time low.  Putin is accusing opposition parties of selling parliamentary seats, lashing out against broad opposition to his plan to make primaries mandatory for all parties.  The Prime Minister says he is ‘grateful’ for a certificate granting him free taxi rides for life.  Valentina Matviyenko’s fellow candidates in the ‘political circus’ that constituted last week’s municipal elections ‘included a cloakroom attendant [and] a railway worker’.