Today: Gunvor denies links with Putin; Fifth State Duma opens; Medvedev to begin presidential campaigning; Zubkov initiates wage hike for public sector; Khodorkovsky lawyers apply for case dismissal; corruption; Badri Patarkatsishvili assassination plot. The oil company Gunvor has spoken out about its alleged links with Vladimir Putin, denying that the Russian president was the company’s “beneficiary” owner but admitting that he was a friend of its founder. “None of the shares of this organisation are held by President Putin or anyone allied by him,” Tornqvist wrote in a letter published in today’s Guardian.