TODAY: Protests against jail time for Nemtsov dispersed, more activists arrested; US senators add to chorus of disapproval; the single person picket phenomenon; ‘creeping censorship’.  Medvedev to visit Palestinian territories; Polish president will mark anniversary of presidential plane crash with trip to Russia

The New York Times reports upon how single person pickets are being disrupted by pro-Kremlin forces.  ‘It’s becoming clear we are on the way back to the 1940s and a totalitarian state. How can one sit and watch quietly as it happens?’  19 people have been arrested in the most recents protests against the jailing of Boris Nemtsov; Amnesty International has called the opposition leader a ‘prisoner of conscience’.  Three separate picket actions in support of the jailed opposition activists have taken place and been dispersed.  United States senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman have released a statement heavily criticizing Russia over Nemtsov’s incarceration.  ‘[U]nlawful arrests on the street, the falsification of charges in the police station, the rubber-stamped court decisions’: Garry Kasparov gives his verdict on the weekend’s events.  Arch Puddington and Christopher Walker on RFE/RL examine the disquieting trend towards ‘creeping censorship’ in democracies.