TODAY: Russia to spend emergency budget on Crimea, upgrade Black Sea fleet; Obama says Russia will not turn back on Crimea, warns against further action; U.S. seeks to boost energy output to hurt Russia; Duma wants to limit showings of American films; Tymoshenko urges violence in leaked audio; Kosenko verdict upheld; economist Mikhail Dmitriyev violently attacked.

Russia may need to use a minimum $2.8 billion of its emergency budget reserves to subsidise Crimea this year and avert an economic crisis, and a Moscow-based analyst is anticipating a renewal of the Black Sea naval fleet.  6,500 Crimeans have received Russian passports this past week.  U.S. President Barack Obama has made his first public acknowledgement that Russia is unlikely to cede control of Crimea, but said that the international community would never recognise the takeover.  Obama belittled Russia as a ‘regional power’ that invaded Crimea out of ‘weakness’, and warned President Vladimir Putin to stay out of Ukraine.  In addition to its current sanctions (shrugged off by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday), Congress is pushing to expand exports of natural gas in a bid to challenge Russia’s energy dominance.  Western business leaders are coming under pressure to send a message over Crimea by boycotting the upcoming St. Petersburg economic forum in May.  A new bill being drafted in the Duma seeks to limit the number of foreign films that can be shown in Russian cinemas, with a United Russia deputy arguing that American films ‘promote the stereotypes, national interests and values of the United States’.  At very least, diplomatic disagreements are not affecting space partnership: a team of astronauts and cosmonauts headed to the International Space Station yesterday.