TODAY: Pro- and anti-government activists fight for protest space; Medvedev meeting with opposition disappoints; Russia will not send envoy to Syria; gay rights activists paint rainbow on United Russia building; state poll predicts Putin win.

Pro-government activists won permission to hold rallies on all of Moscow’s major squares on election day, which will effectively bar opposition activists from using the same space – Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov says that the door to the mayor’s office had been closed to the opposition.  Hackers have shut down an opposition website containing details of a February 26 Moscow rally.  President Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with opposition leaders does not indicate that the Kremlin is serious about reforms, and did not lead to any breakthroughs, analysts concluded.  Medvedev, for example, rejected demands for new parliamentary elections.  The Foreign Ministry says that Russia will not participate in the Friends of Syria summit this week because it has ‘unclear’ goals and lacks government representation, but is urging the United Nations to send a special envoy to coordinate security issues.