TODAY: Ukraine death toll at 3,000; Medvedev promises to retaliate against sanctions by barring airspace, bankrupting airlines; Dalai Lama says Putin is all about himself; Russia building new Arctic military bases; Rosneft could get its requested billions; new U.S. Ambassador appointed; pipeline threatens heritage site; Yandex password hack, Golos, Lake Baikal.

According to U.N. estimates, the death toll in the Ukrainian crisis has now exceeded 3,000, including victims of the MH17 plane crash.  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia will respond to any new western sanctions against its energy or financial sectors ‘asymmetrically’, potentially barring airlines’ access to Russian airspace.  He said that such a ban could bankrupt ‘many airlines’. The concept of ‘Novorossiya’, or ‘New Russia’, is hitting the opinion pages; Artis Pabriks, the former foreign minister of Latvia and current E.U. Parliament member, called for NATO to provide Ukraine with resources to help it defend itself against Russia; and the Dalai Lama spoke out against President Vladimir Putin’s self-centeredness as ‘the root of the problem’ behind Russia’s downfall: ‘Mr. Putin was first a president, then a prime minister, then a president again. It’s a bit too much,’ he said, calling the current international situation a return to the Cold War.  A spokesperson for the Defense Ministry says Russia is building new military bases in the Arctic.  The Washington Post attempts to guess Putin’s motives in eastern Ukraine.  The WSJ suggests that perhaps Putin ‘thinks of himself as [a] Bonaparte’.