TODAY: House arrest for Ukrainian star painters; transmission tower in Ukrainian makeover; Foreign Ministry vows it will send aid trucks in; Putin plans to expand influence of Russian media abroad. Avoiding Western food harder than it looks; prices rise; Russia seizes Japanese whaling ship. 

A Russian court has ordered that the four Muscovites who hung the Ukrainian flag from a Moscow tower should be placed under house arrest.  Two Russian daredevils have hung the Russian flag from a neighbouring tower in retaliation.  Six workers are being investigated after painting a Moscow transmission tower Ukrainian colours, which they maintain was not done on purpose.  The first trucks from the dispute-loaded Russian aid convoy to Ukraine have cleared customs in the country’s east.  The Foreign Ministry has expressed exasperation at delays to the convoy’s progress.  With opinions on Ukraine causing public divisions, the Moscow Times takes a look at the current state of Russia’s political opposition movement.  This article considers how Putin hopes that Russian media expansion in Europe will ‘illuminate abroad the state policies‘.