TODAY: Top economic adviser flees country; Pussy Riot hunger striker hospitalised; 23-fold income increase for drugs official; Vkontakte share sale linked to raid; Russia to supply Syria with missile shields, criticises EU for suspending embargo on rebels; Duma wants to ban adoptions by same-sex couples abroad; Rosneft swallows Itera. 

Top economist and government advisor Sergei Guriev has stepped down from his post and possibly fled Russia completely, reportedly to avoid political pressure and an investigation into his role in exposing the prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky as unjust.  Guriev also apparently declined an invitation to run for a seat on the board of directors at Sberbank.  Jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has been hospitalised seven days into her hunger strike, held in protest against what she is calling her political persecution, and sparked initially by not being allowed to attend her own parole hearing in person.  The director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov, saw a 23-fold salary increase last year, and his wife’s income apparently increased by over 100 times.  A Kremlin-linked private equity firm reportedly bought a 48% stake in VKontakte ‘the day after VKontakte’s offices were searched’.  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has given a vague indication that the Kremlin might eventually start to think about renewable energy.