TODAY: Ukraine refuses Russia’s concession on gas contract, Putin says talks at a ‘dead end’; Freedom House blames Russia for democracy decline; Visa and MasterCard offered get-out clause; Navalny’s aides charged with fraud; Pamfilova encourages work with Western rights activists; eastern Ukraine death count at 270.

Following a fresh round of inconclusive negotiations, President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s insistence on its desired gas price amounted to a ‘dead end’, indicating that Moscow will make no further offers after Ukraine rejected Russia’s proposal to reduce its original asking price by over 20% (to $285 per 1,000 cubic meters), calling it a ‘trap’.  In addition, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he wants alterations made to the original contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz.  Putin slammed Ukraine for rejecting an offer made ‘in a partnership spirit, aimed to support the Ukrainian economy’.  Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak says Russia will not introduce advance gas payments for Ukraine if Kiev pays off $2 billion of its current gas debt by June 16.  U.S. based watchdog Freedom House says Russia is playing a key role in the decline of democracy among post-Soviet countries.  Crimea-themed t-shirts celebrating Putin’s conquest of the republic have appeared for sale in Moscow.  In a bid to prevent Visa and MasterCard from leaving the Russian market entirely, the Central Bank is proposing a reduction in the payments owed if the companies relocate their processing centers to Russia.