Vladimir Putin delivered his annual report to the State Duma yesterday, spurring many to speculate that his generous promises on the next decade of spending in defense, agriculture and infrastructure indicate that he intends to stay in power.  Comments made by the U.S. Ambassador to Russia suggest that visa-free travel is a long way off.  Following an interview with the BBC in which he said that uncontrolled migration threatened ‘the survival of the white race‘, Federal Migration Service spokesman Konstantin Poltoranin has been fired.  Margarita Yefremova, the Deputy Chief Editor of Rostov-na-Donu newspaper Yuzhny Federalny, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to bribe government officials into paying her not to publish articles on their activities.  Music critic Artemy Troitsky will be fined $4,600 and could be jailed for two years after publicly criticizing police officer Nikolai Khovansky for his response to a February car accident involving a LUKoil executive.  Moscow police are investigating the illegal felling of birch trees near the planned route of the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, highlighting Khimki activist Yevgenia Chirikova’s assertion that the highway plan is causing ‘uncontrolled deforestation in the region‘.