TODAY: Rights worker beaten outside home; the increasing difficulty of protesting in Moscow; Luzkhov mulls return, but not to ruling party; Khodorkovsky denied parole. Communist and Just Russia parties take a leaf out of United Russia’s book; women’s movement; Medvedev criticizes Putin’s ‘outdated’ politics; Moscow takes the lead in lethargy

Bakhrom Khamroyev, an employee of leading rights group Memorial has been attacked outside his home by a group of strangers in an assault fellow rights workers suggest is linked to his activities for the NGO.  The Other Russia reports on the increasing repression of small-scale protests by Moscow city authorities, with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin arguing ‘it’s a few dozen debauchers who gather for the sake of their own scandalous behavior, then it would be illogical to close a prospect for them’.  The former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has affirmed he is not quitting politics, but has denied rumors about his possible return to the United Russia party.  After being barred from the Central House of Artists, possibly under pressure from authorities, organizers of a free rock concert to support music critic Artemy Troisky have found a new venue for the event.  A Moscow court has refused a parole requests by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on the grounds of insufficient paperwork.