TODAY: Medvedev says Romney comments smack of ‘Hollywood’; Obama defends ‘flexibility’ on missile defense; but is flexibility with Putin the real problem, wonder some observers; the perils of swapping Jackson Vanik amendment for Magnitsky sanctions.  UN torture report confirms state responsible for lawyer’s death; Investigative Committee vows to probe torture death in Kazan police cell. Pussy Riot decry church’s involvement in elections; the history of homophobia

President Medvedev has hit back at US presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s suggestion that Russia is Washington’s greatest enemy, by saying the comment ‘smells of Hollywood’.  The Russian president also recommended that other candidates ‘use common sense in wording their positions, and look at the calendar – now it is the year 2012 rather than mid-1970s.‘  Most Russian deputies are equally unimpressed, Ria-Novosti says.  President Obama claims that the private comments he made to President Medvedev on missile defense are ‘not a matter of hiding the ball’.   This editorial argues that Obama’s promise of a flexible policy with Vladimir Putin spells the end of US pressure ‘for democratic change in Russia’.