TODAY: US State Department condemns Russia’s government accountability. Putin talks with Yavlinsky. Carbomb threat outside Federal Security Service. Anti-inflation bill could fail. Russian farmland going to waste. President Vladimir Putin has held “rare closed-door talks” with Grigory Yavlinsky, the Yabloko opposition-party leader. Few details have been confirmed, but Putin has reportedly agreed to personally look into complaints about election violations and the detention of Maxim Reznik. The Central Election Commission has submitted its final accounting report on the December elections to the State Duma. The US State Department’s annual report of human rights practices around the world has condemned Russia’s “centralization of power in the executive branch, a compliant State Duma, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law” for eroding government accountability to its citizens. Read the full report here. A man who threatened to blow himself up in a car parked outside the Federal Security Service in Moscow explained that he was trying to draw attention to the “difficult situation in Russia”. If negotiations are completed this summer, Russia may become a full member of the World Trade Organization from January 2009.