TODAY: Putin not ‘fussing’ over 2012 election; denies image cultivation; Stalin-era mass grave found.  Duma attendance increases; man faces 2 1/2 years in prison for rally incident with policeman; officials to lose migalki?  Yukos executive sentence reduced.  Russia serious on Afghan drug crackdown; vodka could double in price; communities disappearing; golden age ballet star dies

Vladimir Putin has told the French media that he is not making ‘too much fuss’ about the 2012 elections, but has already discussed with Dmitry Medvedev their roles in it.  The Prime Minister also told journalists that he does nothing ‘special’ to achieve his image of a strong leader, and rebuffed any suggestions that a Stalin-like cult of personality policy could re-develop in the modern era.  Vladimir Milov in the Moscow Times would beg to differ: ‘Soviet revanchism is alive and well’.  Workers digging a road outside of Vladivostok have unearthed 495 skeletons in a mass grave that is assumed to date from the dictator’s purges.  From vacuum to cacophony – is the Duma, with contrite deputies returning after the absenteeism scandal, becoming too noisy?  ‘The document is a death sentence for universal access to education and health care’: this commentator believes that a new bill will have grave consequences for social equality.  A man sentenced to two and a half years in jail for allegedly breaking a policeman’s nose whilst assisting a protestor during an opposition rally, will, RFE/RL argues, have plenty of time ‘to mull over the oddities of the Russian justice system, which allows police to routinely batter citizens while punishing peaceful attempts to stop the beatings’.