TODAY: Viktor Bout sentenced to 25 years in jail; attack on Novaya Gazeta journalist; Kirill’s disappearing luxury watch.  Kudrin forms new think tank; governor reshuffles; prisoners make dramatic protest against brutality; head of Tatarstan police force steps down; Stalin haunts schools

In a sentence deemed ‘unacceptable, biased and not objective’ by Russia’s envoy for human rights and democracy, arms trader Viktor Bout has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on four charges of conspiracy by a New York court.  Bout’s lawyer has said he does not plan to seek extradition to Russia for his client, though the Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation believes that the man dubbed the ‘Merchant of Death’ should be repatriated.   Details are emerging regarding the attack upon Novaya Gazeta reporter Elena Milashina and Freedom house employee Ella Asoyan; it remains unclear as to whether the assault was related to their professional activities.  Amnesty International has lambasted Russia’s arrest of three members of Pussy Riot as an unjustified ‘response to the peaceful (if, to many, offensive) expression of their political beliefs’.  Prominent theologian Andrei Kurayev has called on the government to deny a visa to singer Madonna, who has voiced her support for Russia’s LGBT community.  Patriarch Kirill’s press service has apologized after being caught out attempting to airbrush the head of the Orthodox’ church’s pricey wristwatch from a photograph.  Some critics ‘say Kirill would do well to follow his own admonitions against rampant consumerism’.