TODAY: Gay rights law sparks fears for Olympic tourists; analysts discuss Navalny verdict as a mistake; Alyokhina denied parole; Serdyukov refuses to testify; Politkovskaya witnesses plead not guilty; Magnitsky lawsuit funded by Kremlin? Snowden to remain in Russia; Moscow River, consumer loans, corruption.

In the wake of the detention of four Dutch citizens in Murmansk last week on ‘homosexual propaganda’-related charges, the international community is beginning to express concerns over the impact of anti-homosexual legislation on those traveling to Russia for the Sochi Olympics next year.  Six gay rights activists were detained and released in Moscow yesterday for holding an unauthorised rally near a children’s library.  ‘Russia’s “propaganda law” is staggering in its disregard for the founding principles of a democracy,’ says The Guardian, and asks why the pro-LGBT National Hockey League isn’t standing behind a boycott of Sochi.  The guilty verdict for Alexei Navalny was a ‘tactical error’, says Boris Kagarlitsky, demonstrating the authorities’ inability ‘to assess the consequences of their actions’.  This Reuters blog speculates that the Kremlin regrets the guilty verdict.  Jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has been denied parole for a second time: her lawyer called the decision ‘legally unfounded’.  Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is refusing to testify as a witness in the ongoing Defense Ministry fraud probe, and is unlikely to face prosecution due to the amount of information he has, as a former Kremlin employee, about other senior officials.