TODAY: Bout pleads not guilty as extradition case darkens US-Russia relations; START faces multiple stumbling blocks, White House continues to push; Clinton solicits Republican support; NATO may trade arms with Russia.  Kashin speaks to investigators; have prisons really cleaned up since Magnitsky’s death? Artists to face arrest; Russian universities no longer source of pride; Putin seeks puppy name

Extradited arms dealer Viktor Bout has pleaded not guilty before a US judge to charges of supporting terrorism.  According to RFE/RL, Russia’s consul general in New York has accused the US of attempting to coerce the 43-year-old ‘businessman’ into confessing to crimes he did not commit.  Republican Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio moderate, has chimed in with Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona’s concerns about START, signaling spiraling antagonism to the landmark treaty.  As opposition to the agreement mounts, Sam Nunn in the New York Times argues that improving nuclear security is indispensable for preventing international terrorists from gaining access to weapons.  Julian Borger in the Guardian responds with a bleak conclusion: ‘The question now is whether such cooperation will be feasible if the New Start treaty dies in the Senate’.  Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is on a charm offensive to seek GOP backing, says the New York Times.  Desmond Butler of the AP argues that, ‘at a time when America’s political winds are blowing overwhelmingly in the Republicans’ favor’ there is little reason for Republicans to defy their leadership and back Obama.  White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, has said the President will continue to push.  US Vice President Joe Biden has warned that a failure to ratify START will jeopardize national security.