TODAY: Sberbank head’s testimony at Khodorkovsky trial hailed a boost for Yukos founder; journalist freedoms protected by new law; damning report of North Caucasus sees United Russia acquiesce with activists; artists under attack on charges of inciting hatred, FSB offers material incentives for info. Medvedev heads to US; Kyrgyzstan unrest flairs up; vodka; caviar; the wobbling bridge.

The head of Sberbank, German Gref, has made his appearance at the Khodorkovsky trial, where his comment that ‘if embezzlement had been discovered, I would have been made aware of it’, has been seen as a ‘major victory’, by the jailed oilman’s lawyers, the New York Times reports.  Gref also testified that Yukos was lawfully buying oil from producing companies at prices lower than those on the European exchanges at that time.  The Other Russia has a full report.  A positive step for freedom of speech: the Guardian reports on a new law safeguarding the legal conditions for political journalism.  The Moscow Times informs us of a ‘rare show of unanimity’ between human rights activists and a United Russia lawmaker, who have concurred on a highly critical report of the rights situation in the North Caucasus.  Moscow artist Lena Hades is apparently in serious trouble with the authorities for a painting which they say incites hatred against Russia, charges for which she could face two years in prison.  Meanwhile prosecutors want to sentence curators Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev to three years in prison for the 2007 ‘Forbidden Art’ exhibition, which authorities claim incited religious hatred.  The Federal Security Service plans to start paying for tip-offs about terrorists.  A bomb has gone off outside a synagogue in Tver.