President Dmitry Medvedev ‘didn’t know‘ that dozens of his own bills had gone unchecked by his 2009 anti-corruption legislation. ‘A check by Transparency International indicated that at least 17 provisions of the new police law were open for abuse.‘  The Kremlin has declassified its terror list of 2,000 names in a bid for ‘more transparency‘.  The Kremlin’s human rights council has gone public with the names of officials implicated in the case of Sergei Magnitsky. ‘The Kremlin council’s report stresses that the investigators who carried out the inquiry against Magnitsky should not have been involved in the case because they were the same people Magnitsky had accused of fraud.‘  The Washington Post looks at the history of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Under new rules, FSB officials will be fired for owning real estate abroad, holding dual citizenship, or joining a political party, with ‘specific restrictions‘ to be written into individual contracts.  ‘The current state of Russia’s presidency is a good example of how the country’s institutions have rotted. It is clear that the current president does not hold the power that is provided to him by the Constitution,‘ writes Konstantin Sonin.  A report on recent measures to require abortion ads to carry health warnings notes this surprising statistic: ‘In 2007 there were 1.5 million abortions, nearly as many as the number of life births that year (!) according to the Duma’s web site.‘  

A Tupolev Tu-154 is the second plane of its kind to make an emergency landing this week following engine failure.  Three forest fires have been extinguished, but six continue to rage in the Far East.  Moscow’s DJ Smash has made a dance remix that samples Vladimir Putin’s rendition of Blueberry Hill (the track is here).  The DJ, whose real name is Andrei Shirman, insists that the mix is not political.