TODAY: Russia retains hard line stance on ABM in Europe at Moscow talks; Putin offers aid to Ukraine’s Tymoshenko; opposes soccer boycott. Moscow authorities allow 5000 attendees for March of a Million; Pussy Riot members castigated in prison; probe into journalist attack.  Medvedev raises eyebrows by honoring Churov; signs law on protecting rights of disabled; new poll reveals 98% of people believe income declarations to be false

Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov has caused a stir by announcing at the missile defense conference currently underway in Moscow that the state does not exclude preemptive use of weapons against NATO’s missile defense systems in Europe, though this would only be a last resort.  NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is apparently optimist that an agreement can still be reached with the Kremlin on the plans, though Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has apparently said negotiations with the US over the proposed shield are near a ‘dead end’.  Russia has no intention of pulling out of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in response to a European missile defense system.  President-elect Vladimir Putin believes that the West would be wrong to boycott the European soccer championships held in Ukraine over the treatment of jailed opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko.  He has told the press that Russia would be willing to take the jailed former Prime Minister in for medical treatment, an offer speedily rebuffed by Kiev.  Russian has pledged that it will retaliate against U.S. ‘attempts to interfere in our domestic affairs’ by way of Magnitksy sanctions, if passed.