TODAY: Metro attack death toll rises as Moscow mourns; Lavrov hints at Afghanistan militant connection.  Speculation mounts about political fallout.  Newsweek editor fights off controversy; Ryabinin case closed; emergency light abuse. START conclusion disappointing?  Red Square photo ban ends; struggle to keep housing promise to war veterans

The death toll from yesterday’s metro bombings has risen to 39, according to ITAR-TASS.  There is a sampling of opinion from Russian language blogs compiled in the New York Times.  The same newspaper’s Room for Debate blog has a handful of Russia experts commenting on what the bombings spell politically.  Analyst Liliya Shevtsova foresees the following government trajectory: ‘Terrorist atrocity; threat to national security; strengthening of the regime’.  There is some speculation in Bloomberg as to whether the attacks will impugn Medvedev’s ability to quash terrorism, rather than Putin’s.  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has reportedly said that militants operating on the Afghan-Pakistan border may have helped organize the suicide bombs, although he did not specifically mention al-Qaeda.  Following reports that ‘Muslim-looking people’ has already been the victims of vigilante reprisals, with two Muslim women apparently being beaten on a metro train, the Head of the State Duma Security Committee has urged that the bombings should not affect Russia’s immigration policy nor its attitude towards minorities.  ‘Are the siloviki about to have a Mathias Rust moment?’ wonders Brian Whitmore here.  Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry has announced its detention of eight people who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks on a school and a kindergarten in the capital, Baku.