TODAY: Russia agrees to back U.N. Syria resolution; Gorbachev to help re-form Social-Democratic Party; Moldova uprising? Sports minister vows to fight racism; Kazan protesters demand meeting; bloggers fear crackdown on online expression; NATO hub in the Volga draws criticism; emergency declared in Udmurtia three months late; Putin critic dies.

Having initially vetoed two condemnations of the Syrian regime, Russia and China have agreed to back the latest U.N. Security Council resolution and support Kofi Annan’s calls to end the conflict in Syria, which threatens ‘further steps’ if the peace plan is not complied with.  Reuters says Russia’s decision to back the U.N. resolution is ‘one part public relations, one part cold calculation’.  One analyst suggests that it will be ‘extremely difficult for Putin and the Russian elite’ to take this decision: ‘[t]he relationship between Syria and Russia is the last remnant of Soviet politics in the Middle East.’  Joining the many other opposition figures forming political movements, former president Mikhail Gorbachev has announced plans to ‘participate very actively’ in the recreation of his Social-Democratic Party once rules for creating parties are relaxed in May.  Sergei Radchenko recalls Gorbachev’s dismissal of the Tiananmen massacre in China in 1989, and calls him ‘the prophet’ of BRIC.  Boris Kagarlitsky suggests that opposition protests to be held in Moldova in May could ‘become the beginning of a revolutionary uprising’.  The sports minister says Russia will step up its efforts to stamp out racism among fans ahead of the 2018 World Cup, after a banana was thrown at a Congolese defender.