TODAY: ECHR to prioritise Navalny arrest appeal; Total head says Europe needs Russian gas; US detention of MP’s son angers Kremlin; NATO chief says Russia duplicitous on Ukraine; Lithuania President slams Russian ‘chauvinism’; Sochi to be gambling zone; priest slams football boots.

The European Court of Human Rights is to review and give priority to the appeal made by opposition figure and corruption activist Alexei Navalny against his house arrest; as part of this process, the Court will ask the Kremlin to demonstrate the merits of the case.  The head of French oil major Total says Europe should abandon any ideas about cutting dependence on Russian gas, saying that such a move would pose too much of a risk to winter supplies.  Russian authorities are angrily calling the US detainment of Roman Seleznev, the son of Liberal Democrat MP Valery Seleznev, a ‘kidnapping’; the US embassy in Moscow says it is not yet able to comment on the detention.  Russia wants an official apology from Poland after the demolition of a Soviet war memorial in Limonowa, which was apparently in violation of an inter-governmental agreement.  A controversial new bill banning advertising on cable and satellite television channels could lead to the closure of several smaller, independent stations if it is signed into law.