TODAY: Russia says ban on U.S. meat is long term; Kremlin blacklists critical blog hosting site; coal mine death toll reaches 18; Skolkovo embezzling; new probe in Navalny case; Gudkov hearing begins; new death penalty debate; Kremlin challenges ECHR over Yukos; Rosneft to raise over $14 billion in loans; journalists respond to communications minister.

The U.S. is urging Russia to lift the current ban against all American meat imports, saying that it ‘raises questions about its commitment to the global trading system’, as the Russian consumer safety watchdog said that the ban is likely to be ‘long term’.  The Kremlin has added blog-hosting site LJRossia.org to its official Internet blacklist; the site hosts blogs by two particularly critical and anti-Kremlin journalists, Andrei Malgin and Vladimir Pribylovsky.  The death toll for the blast at the Vorkutinsky coal mine in Vorkuta has reached 18.  Two high-ranking Skolkovo officials are suspected of embezzling $800,000, says the Investigative Committee, which has also newly opened a probe against Novaya Gazeta reporter Irek Murtazin, over claims that he may have revealed secret details of the investigation against Alexei Navalny.  Gennady Gudkov’s Supreme Court hearing over his losing his Duma seat last year has begun, hearing him accuse the body of having turned into ‘an instrument for settling political scores’.  Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev’s suggestion that Russia bring back the death penalty has met with criticism from human rights activists and government officials.