TODAY: Germany shocked at Russia’s acknowledgement of Ukraine separatist vote; NATO says border is porous; Putin speech to mark National Unity Day today; Russia low on Prosperity Index, financial woes spread to neighbours; posthumous honour for de Margerie; Apple monument dismantled in St. Petersburg.

President Vladimir Putin has not yet formally recognised the validity of the separatist elections held in eastern Ukraine over the weekend, but a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was ‘incomprehensible’ that other ‘official Russian voices’ had done so.  Merkel herself suggested that Europe may need to intensify sanctions ‘if the situation worsens’.  NATO’s top military commander says Russian troops are still training and equipping separatists in Ukraine; that the border between the two countries is almost completely porous; and that recent Russian incursions into European airspace have been increasingly ‘provocative’.  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden ‘went out of his way to correct himself’ yesterday after describing Russia as having ‘invaded’ Ukraine.  Putin will speak in Moscow’s Red Square today to mark National Unity Day – only 50% of Russians know that the day is held in celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution, according to a Levada Center Poll.  The nationalist community will hold its annual march in Moscow and other Russian cities to celebrate, though the Moscow event ‘has been pushed to the edge of the city’, a reflection of the Kremlin’s ‘long-term ambiguous relationship with […] nationalists‘.