TODAY: Snowballers detained and lectured; U.S. warns Russia on Syrian banks; adoption cases; economic growth, Skolkovo; speakers’ corner delayed; Depardieu offered culture minister post.

Police detained several people in St. Petersburg yesterday for participating in ‘a massive snowball fight’; video posted online showed police lecturing participants ‘on their civil and family duty not to participate’.  A senior U.S. treasury official has warned Russian banks against dealing with blacklisted Syrian financial institutions, saying that it believes the unnamed banks still working with the Commercial Bank of Syria and the central bank are in ‘a particularly vulnerable posture’.  The U.S.-Russian adoptions case studies are continuing to come in. The Washington Post profiles the story of Joelle Ziemian, who adopted one of the last children from Russia before the ban came into effect; RIA Novosti reports on two American parents facing trial over alleged abuse of their Russian adoptee.