TODAY: Regional elections see low turnout and reports of falsifications; extended U.S. sanctions target energy sector and raise doubts about Arctic projects; crisis fund to help sanction-affected companies on the cards; plans for railway to bypass Ukraine; Orthodox Church takes to the air waves. 

United Russia candidates have reportedly shown a strong performance in the regional elections which were held yesterday.  Whilst the Central Election Commission claimed it had received no complaints throughout the day, the leader of St. Petersburg’s branch of the A Just Russia party, Oksana Dmitriyeva, has announced that her party would not recognise the results in the city on the basis that the elections were not free.  Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin has indicated that his party might follow suit in the case of the Moscow City Duma.  Golos has received 656 complaints of electoral violations in the polls which also had a low turnout; the Moscow Times estimates 15-20% attendance.  At 45%–60% (depending on which source you use) turnout was considerably higher in Crimea, whose first ever vote in a parliamentary election since the reunification with Russia in mid-March saw United Russia apparently glean 70% of votes.  Reports of pressure to vote for the party of power have emerged in the case of newly absorbed region.