TODAY: Putin says Greenpeace activists are not pirates, charges to be changed; Belarus and Ukraine seek E.U. alliances amid ongoing financial warnings; no agreement on Syria, Russia insists; Gazprom seeks to cash in on LNG position; Baturina sues government; gay rights protesters detained; Sochi floods.

‘It is evident that these people are not pirates,’ said President Vladimir Putin of the Greenpeace workers detained earlier this week, but maintains that ‘they violated international laws’; the charges against the group are likely to be changed to reflect this.  Putin defended the actions of the coast guard who allegedly shot at the Greenpeace ship before ‘storming aboard’.  also outlined his industrial vision for the Arctic, involving plans to extract the estimated 80 billion tons of oil and gas in the area.  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev doesn’t see an E.U. union with Ukraine as a catastrophe, but acknowledges that it would reduce the extent of Russia and Ukraine’s bilateral cooperation.  Slowing export demand from both Ukraine and Belarus will damage their respective currencies, says the Foreign Ministry.  Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych says integration with Europe will be his country’s ‘defining vector of development’.  Russia denies other diplomats’ reports that the U.N. security council has reached an agreement on Syria.