TODAY: Putin marks Orthodox Christmas; Patriarch Kirill urges citizen adoptions and Kremlin clemency; Ukraine wary of customs union; beer laws receive mixed response; Radio Free Europe President explains changes; Polonsky arrested in Cambodia. 

President Vladimir Putin marked the Orthodox Christmas with a message to believers, praising the holiday’s ‘light of belief, hope and love’.  Patriarch Kirill has urged Russians to adopt in the wake of Putin’s anti-adoption law, and has urged the Kremlin to be moderate in new legislation aimed at punishing religious offenders.  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has given his approval to a ‘roadmap’ for a special program to promote competition and improve antimonopoly policy.  Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych canceled a scheduled visit to Moscow last month, claiming that his country was not ready to commit to joining Russia’s customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.  The new law that classifies beer as an alcoholic beverage, thereby preventing its sale at kiosks, is receiving mixed responses, although ‘some people whose businesses will suffer said they supported the government’s goals’ with regard to reducing alcohol consumption.  Ellen Barry reports on some of those involved in last year’s initial wave of protests, and the ‘despair’ they feel at having ‘turned back into Internet hamsters’ in the wake of Putin’s crackdowns.