TODAY: Anti-corruption activist faces investigation; six police officials sacked; President blames cabinet for under-performing of Russia’s defense industry. The motivation behind Putin’s people’s front; Medvedev considers chemical castration to decrease sex crimes against children; Evgeny Lebedev on freedom of speech

According to the Moscow Times, the Investigative Committee has reopened a fraud case against whistle blowing blogger Alexei Navalny, for causing material damage to the interests of a timber company during his tenure as adviser to the governor of Kiron where the company is based.  The decision to re-open the investigation into Navalny’s activities, will, says this article, raise new fears about state-sponsored suppression of the Internet ahead of State Duma elections in December and the presidential vote next March.  Navalny has dismissed the criminal probe as ‘falsified’ and ‘fabricated’.  Six senior regional police officers have been fired in the latest round of Kremlin-ordered sackings at the Interior Ministry, prompting some observers to suggest that police reform is becoming a reality.  Following Monday’s Victory Day parade, the annual tribute to Russian military might, President Dmitry Medvedev has chastised the Cabinet, in remarks broadcast on public television, for failing to acquire arms for the military.  The President has urged the government to devise ways of increasing the influx of investment into the defense industry of the world’s second-largest arms exporter.  The Kremlin has said it hopes Kiev will punish members of a Ukrainian nationalist movement who disrupted Victory Day celebrations in Lvov, attacking Russian diplomats and allegedly trampling on a wreath dedicated to fallen Soviet soldiers.