TODAY: Moscow refuses to sanction gay parade; presenter comes out on television, loses job; Putin meets with Israeli PM on Syria; nickel mine activists beaten in Voronezh Oblast; security services arrest ‘C.I.A. agent’; Medvedev calls for luxury tax; Kremlin seeks higher state dividends, may raise crude tax.

Moscow authorities will not authorise a gay pride parade requested for later this month, saying that ‘there is no need for such events in the city’.  Anton Krasovsky, who lost his job as a presenter for speaking out about his homosexuality on television, discusses the daily fears of living as a gay man in Russia, thanks to widespread homophobia and anti-gay laws.  The Indepedent looks at some of the more high-profile members of Russia’s openly gay community.  President Vladimir Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow yesterday, with the two pledging to ‘continue our contacts’ about Syria and the problems of regional security.  Russia is opposed to the U.N. resolution, to be voted on this week, that condemns the Syrian authorities and accepts the opposition coalition.  Ten activists were ‘savagely beaten by private security guards’ at a nature reserve near the Khopyor River in the southern region of Voronezh Oblast, in connection with their ongoing efforts to block the mining of large nickel deposits in the area.