TODAY: Kremlin inaction on Kyrgyzstan scrutinized as domestic military alleged to be incapable of retaining order; Poland maintains friendly position on Russia.  ‘Putin: Results’ pamphlets seized; presidential immunity extended to presidential aides; rally against education changes; Strategy 31 organizers offered negotiation on Moscow rallies; Magnitsky play; art collective criticizes phallocratic society; Moscow City Hall tries its hand at integration techniques

‘[W]hat is holding Russia and the CSTO back?’ is the question posed by Simon Shuster in today’s TIME magazine on the ongoing Kyrgyzstan crisis.  The inexperience of Moscow’s NATO-style military alliance and a lack of domestic support are some of the theories proferred.  Former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev has urged Russia to send in peacekeeping forces to the Central Asian country on the belief that the interim government cannot control the situation unaided.  Meanwhile a Kyrgyz military convoy is attempting to maintain order in Osh, with limited success this report suggests: ‘citizens reported that some soldiers also were looting food aid’.  ‘It is clear that the provisional government will not be able to quell the riots without external help’ argues Erica Marta in the Moscow Times.  An article in the Washington Post argues, as others have done this week, that the crisis in Kyrgyzstan is an opportunity for Russia and the US to exercise its ‘reset’ relationship.  Whilst many media pundits may be promoting this view, Brian Whitmore suggests that ‘it’s probably too soon to say the events of the past week mark a turning point in Russian policy or a watershed in Moscow’s relations with its neighbors’.