TODAY: 40 detained at Moscow gay rights rally; whether the arrested were participants or opponents remains unclear; the activities of art’s enfants terribles Voina; Britain’s secret Magnitsky blacklist; FSB authorized to kill abroad, says Telegraph.  Putin’s return and the brain drain; think tank sees realignment of Russia-China relations; military to cut conscript numbers; forest fires; China’s peace prize, for which Putin nominated, scrapped

A rare authorized gay rights rally in Moscow on Saturday culminated in the arrest of 40 people.  Ria-Novosti reports that the arrested were rally opponents wielding tomatoes and paintball guns. RFE/RL says the authorities are still evaluating how many were actually participants in it.    Authorities in the province of Arkhangelsk have banned all gay rights demonstrations in a move ‘warmly supported’ by the Russian Orthodox Church.  Studio 306, via the Other Russia, has an interview with Moscow’s correspondent for Newsweek on the Voina art collective and how the Kremlin attempts to co-opt the movement whilst punishing its practitioners.   According to the Observer newspaper, Britain has introduced a secret blacklist on at least 60 Russian officials who are implicated in the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, replicating an official US policy.  The Telegraph has apparently received a document which outlines how the FSB authorized the ‘elimination’ of enemies of the Russian state living overseas and oversaw the creation of special units to conduct such operations.