TODAY: Putin speaks out on Syria, issues decree to help flood victims; MAKS air show brings in $21bn; oil cooperation with Azerbaijan; Sechin warns would-be foreign saboteurs; oil tax breaks; Kremlin bans Belarus pork; Moscow protesters detained; anti-gay laws lead to increased violence and tensions, reports say. 

In his first comments about the Syria question, President Vladimir Putin urged U.S President Barack Obama to hold off on making a decision to attack, and to submit evidence about Syria’s alleged chemical attacks to the U.N. Security Council for evaluation.  He also offered his own opinion on the chemical weapons allegation, saying that it would have been ‘utter nonsense’ for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to use them when he was already defeating the rebels. ‘I am convinced that it (the chemical attack) is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict.’  Within this dispute, says Reuters, Putin has ‘glimpsed a chance to turn the tables on Obama’ because, in a reversal of their usual roles, most of the pressure at this week’s G20 summit in St. Petersburg will be on the American President.  A presidential decree aimed at speeding up authorities’ responses to devastating floods in the Far East focuses on rebuilding efforts, and the provision of compensation for victims.  Aviation companies signed contracts worth more than $21 billion at the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky over the weekend – an impressive result, although not when compared to foreign counterparts.  Russia’s oil deals with Azerbaijan mark ‘a new chapter of economic cooperation’, but gloss over problematic diplomatic issues, says RFE/RL.