TODAY: Putin defends Internet regulations, says neither business nor freedoms will be affected; Zvezda journalists speak out; directors call for release of Sentsov; Žižek on Ukraine crisis, Lenin and Stalin; Moldova and Georgia make pact with E.U.; Lithuania fines Gazprom; LGBT activist speaks out against brutal crackdown.

President Vladimir Putin has defended new restrictions on Internet freedoms, saying they are designed merely to protect children from harmful content; but critics say the new laws will allow more general restrictions, and that his explanation does not address the Kremlin’s crackdown earlier this year on bloggers.  Putin himself vowed that ‘no restrictions on human rights and freedoms’ should follow on from the regulations, and emphasised that online communications in Russia are becoming increasingly profitable, currently accounting for 8.5% of GDP.  The CEO of social networking site VKontakte says the site and others like it may become the main platform for distributing mass media content.  Two journalists from the Zvezda channel have spoken out about their detention in Ukraine.  Europe’s acclaimed film directors are appealing to the Kremlin to release Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov, who was arrested in Crimea for protesting against Russia’s annexation of the republic.  Slavoj Žižek writes on the Ukraine crisis and the peculiar popularity of Stalin.  Hillary Clinton’s response to Putin’s sexist insult?  It was nothing to write home about.