TODAY: Medvedev gives BBC interview; Nemtsov registered to run for mayor of Sochi; Duma passes pro-opposition bill readings; Medvedev and Obama to meet this week; Kremlin blocks European Court of Human Rights.

President Dmitry Medvedev was interviewed by the BBC over the weekend, speaking about the economic crisis; missile defense – ‘is it an order to make us nervous, or an order to really prevent some threats?’; Iran – ‘its nuclear program should be peaceful’; military modernization – ‘completely normal work’; and Vladimir Putin  – ‘I believe we are both good cops‘.  He also said that the current climate of relations between the UK and Russia is ‘springlike – like the weather outside’, and said of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky case, ‘let’s wait and see […] this will be decided by the court’.  Seemingly in connection with his military refurbishment drive, Medvedev also made a 30-minute flight on Sukhoi-34 fighter-bomber this weekend.  Time Magazine writes on young Russians who want to evade military service as the country approaches a peacetime draft.