TODAY: Putin to stage early elections? Moscow newspaper editor in critical condition after being beaten; EU-Russia talks resume today amid Kremlin’s tensions with Ukraine and worries over NATO expansion; Gates critical of missile plans; Putin’s colourful language. A former Duma deputy slams the Kremlin’s ‘feckless budgetary policy’ and ponders the likelihood of Vladimir Putin staging early elections to lessen the possibility of social unrest stemming from the financial crisis. The Moscow Times has fixated on Dmitry Medvedev’s evasion of a question during his Le Figaro interview on whether or not he will step down early from the presidency. A criminal investigation has been launched after Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a small, Moscow-based opposition newspaper who has fought to protect Russian forestland, was beaten up outside his home. Beketov is in a critical condition, and reports say he may not survive. A court has ruled that Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the Ingushetiya.ru website who was shot dead in custody, had been illegally detained by police.