TODAY: Lavrov urges caution on Libya; Russia will deploy missiles to Kuril islands; Vitaly Churkin defends Belarus on UN’s Ivory Coast accusations.  Khimki forest activist claims threats to her children; new police law met with a new stunt from Voina; Russian Nobel Peace Prize?  Gorbachev’s legacy examined as last Soviet leader turns 80; nightclub takes Putin’s name in vain.

As pressure mounts for an international response to the situation in Libya, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described the idea of a no-fly zone as ‘superfluous’.  A ‘living political corpse who has no place in the modern civilized world’ is apparently one Kremlin source’s verdict on the restive nation’s embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.  According to the New York Times, Russia will arm the Kuril Islands, the subject of a territorial dispute with Japan, with P-800 rockets.  Russia’s $650 million rearmament plans are a signal to China that it takes the Asia-Pacific arena seriously, says a Reuters analysis.  Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, has criticized Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon comments accusing Belarus of violating an arms embargo on Ivory Coast as ‘regrettable’ and ‘premature’.  As Great Britain tightens its purse strings, Russia will no longer be a recipient of aid.  The parliament of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic has approved Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s proposed candidate, Rashid Temrezov, to succeed Boris Ebzeyev as the republic’s president – find out whose camp he’s is in on RFE/RL.