TODAY: Putin confronted about human rights by rock singer activist; migalka protest accelerating; gay pride parade held with no detention due to cat-and-mouse strategy; vigilantes target corrupt policemen; teenagers miss exams due to deputy’s hunting trip.  EU-Russia summit today; heralding new era in relations?  Saakashvili appears on course to win first election since 2008 war; Medvedev urges a wait and see approach with START signing. Architecture; statue news

Vladimir Putin apparently fielded some rather awkward questions relating to human rights and the right to assemble from rock star Yury Shevchuk at a charity event in St Petersburg; to see details check the Moscow Times.  ITAR-TASS reports that Putin expressed support for the right to assemble as long as in a suitable location.  A Solidarity activist will appear in court today to face charges of public hooliganism, after jumping onto the roof of a bureaucrat’s car wearing a blue bucket, as a stunt to alert people to the unfairness of the privilege-flashing migalki.  The Guardian has the video.  Gay rights activists in Moscow have managed to hold the first pride rally not to have been broken up by police by holding brief bursts of protests, then dispersing to re-group in other areas.  Activists were quick to assert that the lack of beatings was not due to a softened attitude by the police (who were omnipresent), but rather to tactical planning of the march.  Vaclev Havel, Desmond Tutu and a handful of leading intellectuals have penned an article urging President Medvedev to break the ‘chain of human tragedy’ that is the state of human rights in Russia.  A series of torchings of police buildings have been attributed to members of a blogging group who are apparently seeking revenge on corrupt policemen.  Seventeen teenagers from two remote villages in the far eastern republic of Sakha failed to make it to their school exams after a helicopter reserved for their use was taken for a hunting trip by Mikhail Everstov, a United Russia  deputy.