Livejournal, the company that hosts the President’s blog, was cyber-attacked yesterday, leading to speculation that the attack was a ‘field exercise aimed at preventing public unrest during the State Duma elections in December and the presidential vote in March‘.  The police department is praising the recent reforms for already showing ‘tangible‘ improvements: the Interior Minister says that citizens rights and freedoms have already changed for the better, ‘without providing any factual evidence‘.  Dmitry Medvedev’s recent spate of assertive actions is no surprise, says Brian Whitmore: his ‘current hyperactive assertiveness has actually been building for months‘.  The FT focuses on waning support for both elements of the tandem.  What happened to Vladimir Posner’s promise to invite opposition leaders onto his television talk show?  Russia is not happy about Poland’s apparent failure to respond to requests for information on the Smolensk plane crash.