Today is the last day of campaigning before the Sunday elections, which will see a record 100,000 candidates running in four parliamentary parties.  One commentator suggested that United Russia has done so much to ensure it will win as to make ‘direct vote fraud unnecessary‘.  But evidence of foul play reportedly remains, including alleged restricted registration for opposition candidates.  Despite the ongoing ‘anti-Lukashenko campaign‘, the Belarussian President nonetheless wished Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a happy birthday yesterday and praised ties between their countries.  A second Putin birthday calendar has popped up to rival the lingerie version: featuring students with tape over their mouths drawing attention to human rights issues such as corruption and the death of Anna Politkovskaya.  The Other Russia reports on the memorial events held yesterday to mark the journalist’s death.  The Washington Post reports on a 200-strong gathering in Moscow, some of them older Russians who lamented the lack of a ‘second wave‘ of democrats to oppose the government.  ‘Now look at us, a few hundred gray-haired people.‘