TODAY: Putin slams Khodorkovsky in televised Q+A; defends abolition of gubernational elections; Surkov uses weekend violence to justify slow rate of reform, accuses opposition rallies of setting bad example.  European parliament recommends Magnitksy sanctions; US military backs START; McCain highlights Russian political oppression; Japan moves away from Cold War axis.

‘A thief should sit in jail’.  In his four-hour televised phone-in session, Vladimir Putin argued that Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s punishment was light in comparison to that of US Ponzi-master Bernie Madoff, giving weight to the expectation that the jailed Yukos founder will receive a guilty verdict on December 27.  One of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers sees the comment as an outright assertion of legal nihilism, saying, ‘right at the time when the judge is working on the verdict… he removed all doubt about who puts pressure on the court’.  The Guardian reports that Putin had the manner of ‘an out-of-touch despot’ throughout the session, in which he scarcely mentioned President Medvedev, except to emphasize the diarchy’s all-seeing eye (‘we take turns sleeping’.)  Putin also cited recent nationalist violence as a reason for re-enforcing the power of law enforcement bodies, despite the complaints of ‘our liberal intelligentsia’.  The Prime Minister also affirmed the rectitude of his decision to abolish democratic gubernatorial elections and replace them with appointments cherry-picked by the President.  Highlights of the session are provided by Reuters.