TODAY: Medvedev outlaws pre-trial arrest for tax evasion suspects, fires another senior prison official in wake of Magnitsky report; Putin’s concerns that missile defense will jeopardize replacement START treaty rebuffed by the US; the Prime Minister asserts himself, but for whose benefit? Medvedev introduces house arrest; exacts time limits for regional governors.  Russia’s national projects.

Medvedev has approved a law which makes first time tax evasion a civil, rather than a criminal offense, banning the pre-trial jailing of suspects in tax evasion cases, in the wake of the outcry over the death in custody of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky whilst awaiting trial for tax evasion. The President has, according to the Washington Post, also fired another senior prison official, Alexander Piskunov, deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, in another decree.  The Wall Street Journal looks at the case of Yana Yakovleva, a businesswoman who similarly faced trial for tax evasion, and once freed, began campaigning for Business Solidarity to put an end to harassment and corruption by law enforcers.