TODAY: Kerry and Lavrov meet in Paris to discuss Syria; prominent U.S. journalist banned from Moscow; state purchases unregulated; new restrictions for Navalny? ‘New’ Magnitsky investigation opened; Kalashnikov regrets revealed; Nobel laureates appeal to Putin over gay rights.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presented Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with two potatoes yesterday at their pre-Syria-talks meeting in Paris.  The two sides continue to insist that they share common views on the Syria question.  Distinguished U.S. journalist David Satter has been expelled and banned from Moscow, after being read a prepared statement in Kiev informing him that ‘[t]he competent organs have decided that your presence on the territory of the Russian Federation is not desirable’.  Satter allegedly violated the rules of his business visa last November.  U.S. nonimmigrant visas issued to Russians hit a new record last year.  Thanks to government delays, state purchases ‘are now essentially unregulated’, and will remain so until 2016.  Only India has more recorded HIV cases than Russia – possibly in part because it refuses to legalise methadone.