Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with students and lecturers of the Southern Federal University at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, May 22, 2013.
Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, attends a news conference in Moscow, May 22, 2013. Jagland demanded on Wednesday that Russia allow gay rallies, weighing in on what has become an increasingly divisive issue since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency.
Nikita Belykh, governor of the Kirov region, attends a court hearing in Kirov, May 22, 2013. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest critics, said the testimony of Kirov region governor Belykh showed he was not guilty of charges of stealing from a timber company. Belykh, for whom Navalny was working as a political adviser at the time of the alleged crime, was summoned as a witness by state prosecutors at his trial in Kirov, about 900 km (560 miles) northeast of Moscow. The Russian official undermined state prosecutors' case against protest leader Navalny at his trial on theft charges on Wednesday, saying that he had done no harm.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 file photo, jailed feminist punk band Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina is in a defendant's cage in a court room in the town of Berezniki, some 1500 km (940 miles) north-east of Moscow, Russia. The imprisoned member of the punk band Pussy Riot is going on hunger strike on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, after a judge refused to allow her to attend a court hearing. Alekhina was convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, last year, along with two other Pussy Riot band members for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia s main cathedral.
Head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Vladimir Shmakov attends a meeting on shipbuilding industries chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Tuesday, May 21, 2013.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Leonid Tibilov, leader of South Ossetia, during their meeting in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, May 21, 2013.
