Heidi Hautala, the head of the European Parliament parliament’s subcommittee on human rights who attended last week’s Strategy 31 protests in Moscow, told journalists that ‘Russia would be better off without Putin‘ and criticized the country’s prison conditions as its ‘main catastrophe of human rights‘.  A weekend Washington Post editorial draws attention to the treatment of protesters at last week’s rally.  Nashi’s lawsuit against opposition leader Ilya Yashin has been thrown out by a Moscow Court, which means that Yashin will not have to retract his accusations about Nashi’s ‘doctored‘ anti-opposition videos.  The 22-year prison sentence for mother-of-four Yulia Kruglova has been suspended until 2022, following a campaign that included members of the public as well as the prosecution.

Yesterday’s suicide bombings in Dagestan (3 people were killed and 33 wounded) have prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to send his defense minister to the North Caucasus.  But Russians have more sleepless nights worrying about inflation than about terrorism, says a VTsIOM poll.  The death toll for the new wave of wildfires has risen to 8.  The Independent suggests that St Petersburg’s governor, Valentina Matviyenko, could be Russia’s next president (you may recall that RA made the same prediction in 2007).  Russia will sign a military cooperation agreement with Israel today, says Itar-Tass. 

Vladimir Frolov usually uses his Moscow Times column to criticize Dmitry Medvedev.  In his latest installment, he insists that Medvedev’s decision to temporarily halt the destruction of the Khimki forest makes the President look ‘wishy washy‘.  Here’s a brilliant article on the opportunities for crimesolving presented to ordinary citizens by the internet.