TODAY: Putin allows new treason laws to pass, amid criticism; Internet laws also criticised; Lavrov condemns Syria bloodshed; Magnitsky Bill progressing in U.S. Senate, Stepanova implicated in second case; all eyes on Merkel; MegaFon’s London listing.

President Vladimir Putin has allowed ‘sweeping’  new amendments to the legal definition of treason to pass, with the new laws allowing Russians employed by international organisations to be tried as traitors, and, more broadly, putting ‘anyone who has contact with foreigners’ at risk of arrest.  U.S. organisation Freedom House said that the laws said the laws would ‘create an environment of fear’, and they were quickly denounced as Stalinist by rights groups, who said that it will be used to silence Putin’s critics.  Putin apparently promised to ‘take a more attentive look’ at the law, in response to the criticisms.  A separate law, ostensibly aimed at making the Internet safer for children, is drawing criticism for leading to the blocking of two popular sites, an online library and encyclopedia.  Putin was absent from the congress of a major business lobbying group this week, stirring rumours of his back ailment.  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has condemned the bloodshed in Syria as ‘outrageous’, urging President Bashar al-Assad’s government to form a united front to end the current crisis.