TODAY: Lavrov and Kerry fail to reach agreement on Ukraine; Lavrov denies that Russian-backed troops are in Crimea; U.S. State Department slams Putin’s ‘fiction’, Clinton compares leader to Hitler; Kremlin pre-empting foreign sanctions; RT news anchor quits live on air in response to ‘whitewash’; Central Bank supports ruble with foreign currency sales.

Western powers are still hoping to persuade Russia to engage in dialogue with the new government in Ukraine, but Russia still does not recognise Kiev’s interim government.  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry failed to reach a deal on Ukraine during ‘frantic’ meetings last night.  U.S. sources denied Lavrov’s report from the meeting that both sides had agreed to help Ukraine implement an E.U.-brokered reconciliation deal. ‘There were no agreements in this meeting’.  Lavrov continues to deny that Crimea has been seized by Russia-controlled troops, dismissing video evidence to the contrary as ‘complete nonsense’.  The U.S. State Department has published an out-of-character fact sheet accusing President Vladimir Putin of lying about Ukraine and slamming Russia’s ‘illegal actions’. A Wikipedia article on Adolf Hitler’s autobiography will be blocked in Russia for ‘extremist’ content, coinciding with Hillary Clinton’s comparison of Putin’s actions in Crimea with those of the Nazi leader in the 1930s, a comment which has sparked a ‘political uproar’.