TODAY: Lebedev appeals for freedom of speech;  Lyudmila Alexeyeva investigated for Magnitsky comments; Moscow Kashin rally attracts 500 people; protester faces 5 years for police injury.  Medvedev intransigent on Kuril claims; meeting with Obama stresses friendly ties and hopes for START ratification. Russia pressing to oust Lukaschenko?  Forgetting Stalin.

‘[S]hining into the dark areas where the powerful and corrupt want to keep things hidden’: newspaper owner and ex-KGB man Alexander Lebedev emphasized the importance of freedom of press at the annual Society of Editors Lecture in Glasgow.  Extracts from the address can be found in the Guardian.  RFE/RL argues that what it terms the ‘Moscow paradigm of journalism‘ is prevalent across the whole of the post-Soviet space.  A Moscow rally to protest against the beatings of Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin and Khimki forest defender Konstantin Fetisov in Moscow drew 500 people on Saturday.  The New York Times reports on the swell of support for Oleg Kashin dominating the blogosphere.  ‘It is no secret that the movement that called for Kashin to be punished is financed and directed by the presidential administration’.   A Russian opposition activist faces up to five years in prison for hitting a policeman during an unsanctioned Left Front movement ‘Day of Wrath’ rally in Moscow.