As the newly-elected head of the Right Cause Party, billionaire businessman Mikhail Prokhorov wants to make the party powerful enough to contend with United Russia. ‘Let’s forget the word ‘opposition.’ This is a word linked to marginal parties that have lost their connection to reality long ago.‘  Reuters suggests that Prokhorov’s appointment could be a boost for reformists.  President Dmitry Medvedev is backing St Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko as the new speaker of the Federation Council, praising his own choice of a female for this powerful Kremlin post as making the state ‘more modern‘.  Medvedev’s Nagorno-Karabakh talks in Kazan failed to achieve and breakthroughs, with Armenia and Azerbaijan blaming each other for the stalemate.  Russia is blocking the publication of a UN report detailing Iranian sanctions violations.