TODAY: Lavrov and Clinton to meet and discuss Syria, world leaders to meet this weekend to discuss next steps; opposition leaders allege Kremlin pressure; Yurgens explains decision to leave rights council; Kirill defends the Orthodox Church.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denies that Russia will push for the Syrian president to cede power, continuing Russia’s long-standing line that Bashar Assad’s ‘fate should be decided by the Syrians themselves’.  The U.S., Britain and France have rejected the changes Russia proposed for Kofi Annan’s Syrian national unity government plan.  Lavrov will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later today ahead of a weekend conference aimed at using Annan’s plan to ending Syrian violence; Clinton said it was very clear that those invited to the conference were on board with Annan’s plan, despite Lavrov’s contrary comments. Russian denies that it has had any hand in Turkey’s deployment of 30 ‘precautionary’ military vehicles along its border with Syria.