TODAY: Defenders of the Fatherland day heralds pro-Putin rallies; weekend’s opposition protest organizers claim website hacked; Putin’s ‘dirty’ election campaign; church decries Pussy Riot appearance. Kaliningrad airbases to receive upgrade; Estonian accused of espionage.  Foreign intervention in Syria must be avoided, say Medvedev and Ahmadinejad

The Moscow Times has a live blog following the pro-and anti-Putin marches in Moscow today: among them a rally at Luzhniki stadium, a Liberal Democratic Party event at Pushkin Square; a rally sponsored by the Communist Party and opposition group Left Front at Teatralnaya Ploshchad and an ‘anti-orange’ event at the All-Russia Exhibition Center.  Around 120,000 people in total are expected to be seen on the streets of Moscow.  The rally at Luzhniki Sports Complex, organized by Putin’s All Russian Popular Front, has attracted 30,000 people so far, say police estimates reported by Ria-Novosti, which also has a live video blog.  The organizers of the anti-Putin Big White Circle protest planned for the weekend claim that their website has been subject to a cyber-attack.