TODAY: Embassy slams gay hate crime documentary and denies homophobia, despite evidence; Egypt close to sealing arms deal; Sochi activist jailed for three years; Dozhd lawsuit dropped; Lukoil pulls out of Vietnam project; Yukos lawsuits continue.

A British documentary about attacks on homosexuals in Russia carried out by neo-Nazi group ‘Occupy Pedophilia’ has been slammed as ‘well-timed and cynical propaganda’ by the Russian embassy, which also denied the existence of a hate crime epidemic.  But the attacks have been well-documented, as explained in this piece, which calls on the authorities to investigate those who have been filmed baiting and victimising gay Russians.  A European NGO says requests for asylum from Russia’s LGBT community have increased eightfold in recent months.  Environmental activist Yevgeny Vitishko is to be jailed for three years in a case that is widely seen as political, a punishment for Vitishko’s outspoken criticism of and campaigning against the Sochi Olympics.  Vitishko’s sentence follows an earlier vandalism charge, after he spray-painted the fence of a lavish property that he said was built illegally on national park land.  But Vitishko’s supporters say he was harassed by the authorities – the act which finally led prosecutors to decide that he had violated his parole was swearing in public.