TODAY: Medvedev’s strength is Putin? The British Council drama continues. Georgian elections; Bukovsky will not be permitted to run for President; Zubkov speaks about gas safety; Polish President warns against drive to improve relations with Russia. Khodorkovsky – lawyer’s new complaint. Dmitri Medvedev’s “closeness to Putin”, together with the First Deputy Prime Minister’s having the President’s trust are the top two reasons why he is so popular with voters, according to a new poll. Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s complaints about the Georgian elections “pretty much sum up the Kremlin’s strategy for installing […] Medvedev as the successor to Vladimir Putin.” Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov sent a 17-page statement to the Prosecutor General’s Office yesterday disputing the State Duma election results in Mordovia. The Supreme Court of Russia has sustained the resolution of Central Election Commission refusing to register Vladimir Bukovsky as a presidential candidate. Today is the last day on which Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) will be accepting registration documents from presidential candidates for the upcoming election.