TODAY: US Congress to consider visa bans on officials implicated in Magnitsky death; details emerge on investigations into slain journalists.  Conjecture continues on Luzhkov firing; trouble ahead for gay rights Swiss Air protest; Medvedev states Russian claim to South Kurils. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov hangs on to FIFE presidency whilst allegations of unfair tactics rage

Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, and Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, have introduced legislation to Congress that would impose financial sanctions and visa bans on the Russian officials who were believed to be involved in the death in detention of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, in an attempt to undermine the climate of impunity in which they allegedly operate.  ‘That will not set the Kremlin trembling. But increasing personal inconvenience for those involved in abuses of power (and their spouses, children etc) is a potentially potent tactic’ says the Economist.  More details here on the newly empowered Investigative Committee’s decision to re-open the cases of journalist murders: 5 provincial killings between 2001 and 2005 will be examined.  Dmitry Medvedev has sacked a bureaucrat who attempted to falsify his earning claims, the first time a dismissal has been made in relation to the income declaration rulings.  The Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow has reportedly completed the investigation in the case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.