Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is the new leader of United Russia’s Moscow branch, having been put forward for the role by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. ‘This means that Moscow’s United Russia will finally be brought under control.‘  The party has apparently accused the Communist Party of trying to stage an attack on its campaigners with air guns and pepper spray; claims which the party dismissed as ‘provocation‘.  A defamation lawsuit brought against Vladimir Putin by three opposition leaders has, predictably, been won by the Prime Minister.  Nonetheless, ‘[t]he notion that Putin is a leader who instills fear and discipline among bureaucrats and citizens is a myth,‘ says Yulia Latynina.  Police have arrested four Left Front demonstrators protesting in Moscow against new laws that will prevent police from voicing their opinions in the media.  Japan is not going to investigate the desecration of the Russian flag by Kuril Islands protesters, on grounds that the extremists desecrated ‘not the Russian flag, but “a self-made object” resembling a flag‘.