TODAY: Opposition parties make a dent in United Russia predominance at elections?; cascade of disapproval from Western envoys falls on Imedi media after TV hoax; Medvedev continues shake-up in Caucasus; Lukoil using the blogosphere to persuade public of innocence of exec in crash?; UN concerned about environmental despoiling in Sochi. 

The New York Times reports that the opposition made slight advances in the weekend’s elections, with one representative of the Communist party elected mayor, suggesting that Medvedev’s promises of electoral reform have not been as illusory as pre-election reports suggested.  ‘Observers attributed the poor showing to a poor economy as well as a reduction in vote rigging, a sign that long-promised reform by president Dmitry Medvedev may be starting to bear fruit’: Charles Clover in the FT.   RFE/RL looks at why United Russia may have fallen out of favor.  ‘Many analysts, […] interpreted the outcome as “catastrophic” for the ruling party and a sign of a “fundamental” shift in the public mood’: see the Power Vertical for the full report.  Opposition parties are, apparently, ‘satisfied’ with the results, according to Ria-Novosti, with the Liberal Democrats saying, ‘the process of democratization of elections in our country has activated’.  Other reports maintain that the elections were riddled with fraud: Golos electoral watchdog expert Leonid Volkov has called them ‘the filthiest in all of history’.