TODAY: Medvedev challenges Putin in verbal address; Russia’s richest man to enter politics? Foreign Ministry dismisses Amnesty International rights criticisms; Khimki forest activists detained at demo. Belarus jails presidential candidate; Japan takes issue with Vice PM’s Kuril visit; Lavrov affirms opposition to foreign interference in restive Middle East; anti-Semitic text deemed ‘educational’; Sochi countdown

‘A person who thinks he can stay in power indefinitely is a danger to society […] Excessive concentration of power is a dangerous thing‘: the words of President Medvedev at a meeting with young lawmakers, which has prompted the Telegraph to speak of a veiled attack on Prime Minister Putin.  The Moscow Times, on the other hand, underplays Medvedev’s ostensible defiance, arguing, ‘the phrasing was vague enough to pass for an ordinary pre-election speech’.  ‘[N]o place for Medvedev’: a Reuters analysis suggests that Putin’s All Russia People’s Front is the culmination of many steps sidelining the President.  Could billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov take up the helm of the Medvedev-leaning Right Cause party?  The Financial Times has an interview with Russia’s answer to Julian Assange, Alexei Navalny.  The Foreign Ministry has criticized Amnesty International’s Russia-critical human right report as being ‘politically biased’.  Police have detained five activists at an unsanctioned rally, believed against the demolition of the Khimki forest, in downtown Moscow.  According to the Other Russia, Kasparov.ru correspondent, Viktor Shamaev, has been arrested at a Day of Wrath protest rally in Penza.  In Belarus major opposition figure Andrei Sannikov has been sentenced to five years in jail following a conviction for helping to organize a rally against Lukaschenko’s re-election.