TODAY: Russia hits back at West on Khodorkovsky comments; judge says Gref’s testimony did little in Yukos founder’s favor; trial by jury suspiciously dismissed in Izmestiev case. Khimki official among 3 arrested for ecologist’s beating; Burnt by the Sun director accused of exploiting links with Putin. Military plane crashes; how the West sells Russia

The Kremlin has firmly rebuffed international criticisms of the Khodorkovsky verdict, saying ‘judgments about the selective application of justice in Russia are groundless’ and that the government hopes ‘that everyone will mind his own business –at home and internationally’.  The Kremlin also accused the West of exerting ‘unacceptable’ pressure upon the trial, the BBC reports.  Apparently Mr Khodorkovsky’s lawyers expect a verdict within a few days – thanks to judge Viktor Danilkin’s relatively rapid monotone, though as Mr Khodorkovsky’s lawyers allege, at the tycoon’s first trial, a slow reading of the verdict was strategically used to reduce public interest.  Presiding judge Viktor Danilkin has said that the testimonies by Sberbank CEO German Gref and Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko for the defense only served to confirm the guilt of the Yukos founder and his business partner Platon Lebedev.  The BBC has a useful round-up of the reactions from the unsurprised Russian media on the verdict.