TODAY: Bulgaria on high alert; Nato says no withdrawal of troops from Ukraine border; Russia warns Ukraine on Nato integration, Nato suspends cooperation with Russia; Kremlin says JPMorgan blocked embassy transfer; Kiselyov berates U.S. on television; Gazprom hikes Ukraine prices; pipeline to Crimea; government seeking to increase punishments for public gathering; VKontakte founder steps down.

Bulgaria is on high alert thanks to a recent spike in Russian military flights near its aerial borders.  Nato Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said there was no evidence of Russia making good on its promise to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border.  ’Russia’s most immediate task is to prevent Ukraine from joining Western economic and security structures such as the European Union or Nato,’ says the BBC.  Russia warned Ukraine that the future of economic ties between them depended on it not integrating with Nato, blaming their earlier exchanges for currently strained ties with both parties.  Nato has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia to protest its annexation of Crimea and is formulating plans to increase military co-operation with former Soviet states south of Russia such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.  Russia accused U.S. bank JPMorgan of blocking an embassy money transfer ‘under the pretext of anti-Russian sanctions’, calling the action ‘unacceptable, illegal and absurd’, and vowing to retaliate.  Responding to America’s criticism of the Ukraine crisis, popular television anchor Dmitry Kiselyov (‘Russia’s chief spin doctor’) has slammed the U.S. as – among other things – incapable of rising to the global responsibility proper to its status.