TODAY: U.N. seeks Russian support, Lavrov distances Moscow from Assad regime; Peskov defends opposition detentions; Canada warns gay travelers in St. Petersburg; new allegations of police brutality in Kazan; Bhagavad Gita ban upheld; Parnas registration ban upheld; Medvedev calls for full army.

The U.N. Security Council’s Western members are toning down the draft statement backing Kofi Annan’s drive to end violence in Syria in a bid to win Russian support, after Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would support a statement that contained no ultimatums.  Lavrov has been making attempts to distance Moscow from the Assad regime, saying that the Syrian President had made ‘very many mistakes’.  A Russian Orthodox official says that God ‘has already judged’ punk band Pussy Riot and ‘is now waiting for their repentance.’  Orthodox nationalists have apparently called for the group members to be publicly flogged.  Canada has issued a warning to gay travelers visiting St. Petersburg, recommending that they do not show affection on the streets.  The Washington Post reports on the municipal election in Yaroslavl, where anti-graft and non-United Russia candidate Yevgency Urlashov is leading the polls with the campaign slogan ‘return the city to the people’.  The WSJ reports on the activist Ilya Yashin, who has ‘made a career of tweaking Vladimir Putin’s regime’, and Russia’s virtual opposition.