TODAY: Dutch say ‘homosexual propaganda’ law is grounds for asylum as relations worsen on various fronts; HRW wants IOC to investigate journalists’ treatment in Sochi; Syria peace talks stall; Tolokonnikova moved to Siberia; ‘new nationalism’; Kasparov wants Latvian passport; Baumgertner wanted; Ukraine gas deals completed.

The Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, says Russia’s new laws against ‘homosexual propaganda’ may be grounds for asylum in his country: ‘The anti-homosexuality propaganda law has a stigmatising and discriminatory affect and contributes to a climate of homophobia.’  The Netherlands’ legal case against Russia, a bid to secure the release of the 30 people detained during a Greenpeace protest in the Arctic, begins today – although Russia has already said that it will not participate in the proceedings.  So much for this year being ‘Netherlands-Russia year’; the Guardian recounts a year of bad blood.  Russian police allegedly repeatedly detained and harassed two journalists from a Norwegian television station who were reporting in Sochi; Human Rights Watch is calling on the International Olympic Committee to demand a full explanation.  Not content with merely shooting the Sochi Winter Olympics torch into space, the Kremlin is sending it ‘on a spacewalk’.  Russian officials say that an international peace conference for Syria cannot go ahead as planned, due to all sides failing to agree on a basis for the talks.  ‘The conference will not be held before December.’