TODAY: Polls reveal that Russians see negative foreign news as political, anticipate return to Soviet-era repressions; gas talks with Ukraine rescheduled after late-night meeting yields no deal; Germany affected by sanctions against Russia; Sechin threatens to sue Kommersant over Rosneft story, company’s profits crash; Navalny and Khodorkovsky to team up on corruption; Peskov hex.

According to a new poll by VTsIOM, a significant majority of Russians see negative coverage of President Vladimir Putin by foreign media as an attempt to push the country into collapse.  A poll by the Public Opinion Foundation found that nearly half of Russians expect a return to Soviet-era repressions during their lifetime. Rosneft head Igor Sechin is threatening to sue newspaper Kommersant for publishing a report alleging that Rosneft had proposed a package of radical measures to the Kremlin that would protect Russia’s major energy companies against Western sanctions. Rosneft’s profits for the third quarter of 2014 have seen an almost 100% crash since sanctions were imposed.  The New York Times anticipates the ‘Russification’ of the oil industry in response to difficulties with joint ventures caused by sanctions.  Reuters says Gazprom offered Rosneft help in salvaging an Arctic oil project earlier this month, a move that demonstrates ‘how tightly sanctions have bound Russia’s political and business elite together’, given that the relationship between the two has long been difficult.