TODAY: Khimki forest champion’s offices raided; opposition divided on March 31 rallies; Pearl Ensign trial delayed (again); Putin puts business before rights in Minsk.  Medvedev cautions against military intervention in Libya; Latvia’s Waffen SS tributes irk Moscow; Baturina loses lawsuit; Bolshoi ballet head forced to step down amid photo scandal

RFE/RL reports that the offices of the engineering firm owned by indefatigable Khimki activist Yevgeniya Chirikova and her husband have been subject to a police raid, a move which the campaigner views to be the result of their authority-displeasing ‘civil activities’.  According to the Moscow Times, the opposition has filed two requests for separate rallies on March 31, marking the ongoing divisions between leaders Lyudmila Alexeyeva (whose request is for Pushkin Square) and Eduard Limonov (Triumfalnaya Square) over the practice of rallying for freedom of assembly.  The trial of the police officer known as Pearl Ensign, who faces charges of abusing protesters, has been delayed for the second time.  The second podcast produced by RFE/RL’s Power Vertical offers an analysis of the troubling results of the recent United Russia dominated elections.  A Russian activist heading up a rights-monitoring mission has been detained in Belarus and will be deported, a colleague has informed Ria-Novosti.  The news outlet notes that Vladimir Putin was conspicuously taciturn on post-election human rights abuses in Belarus when he met with President Alexander Lukashenko, in a visit that privileged cementing business ties.