The relaunched newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti will be less vociferously critical than its previous incarnation, but intends to focus on ‘civil society trends‘ and ‘will try to stand against disgusting things‘.  Central Elections Commission head Vladimir Churov, decorated in the past by Vladimir Putin, has been re-elected for a five-year term (although no other candidates were running).  United Russia lost a weekend election in Berdsk to Communist candidate Ilya Potapov.  In contrast, election results in the Tambov region, in which United Russia apparently took 65% of the vote, are being disputed amid widespread allegations of election fraud.  This week’s Strategy 31 protest will be the last of its kind, says Lev Ponomarev, partly due to the movement’s split with Eduard Limonov and partly because ‘I think it’s silly to call for free assembly at a rally that has been authorized.‘  The latest opposition report from Boris Nemtsov, among others, claims that corruption worsened under the rule of Vladimir Putin between 2001-5, and is now ‘killing the country’s economy‘; the report also focuses on the fortune of Gennady Timchenko, and alleges that many of Putin’s friends and relatives have amassed fortunes with the aid of state companies.