TODAY: Putin begins TV Q+A; United Russia stalwart Boris Gryzlov resigns; protest march scheduled for Dec 24, permission granted for turnout of 50,000; Kommersant journalists express anger.  Russian humanitarian convoy blocked amid tensions in Kosovo; South Ossetia impasse; fire on nuclear icebreaker

Commentators have remarked that Vladimir Putin has been somewhat taciturn since the elections.  Today he will break the silence with his annual televised public Q+A session.   ‘The programme, which usually lasts for hours and is a forum for Putin to promote his cult of personality, comes as the prime minister faces an unprecedented challenge to his 12-year domination of Russian politics’ says the Guardian.   The newspaper is running a live blog covering the event.  Parliamentary speaker and United Russia veteran Boris Gryzlov has resigned after eight years in the role, in a move widely seen to be an attempt to quell public anger over the election results which many maintain were falsified.  ‘[U]nder Gryzlov the Duma had deteriorated into an appendix of the presidential administration’ says the Moscow Times.  RFE/RL’s Brian Whitmore considers, with some surprise, the suggestion, raised yesterday, that Medvedev might resign.