TODAY: Georgia accuses Russian secret services of fomenting military plot; Kremlin retaliates to NATO spy row with expulsion of Canadian diplomats; Russia extends pork ban to Britain; gay pride march to take place in tandem with Eurovision

Georgia has accused Russia of backing a foiled mutiny at a military base on the eve of the NATO exercises.  The claims that Russia is accumulating troops near the Georgian border are ‘libelous’ according to the Foreign Ministry.  Armenia has withdrawn from the NATO war games following the attempted ‘coup’ in a show of support to Russia.  The Foreign Ministry will withdraw accreditation from two Canadian NATO envoys, in retaliation for NATO’s expulsion of two Russian diplomats.  Sergei Lavrov will not be attending a NATO-Russia Council meeting this month.  The Eastern Partnership summit is, according to officials, to ‘prevent the emergence of some vacuum between the union and Russia’, not to build up a European influence in the region.  Reuters features an analysis of US-Russian relations in advance of Sergei Lavrov’s meeting with Hillary Clinton.  American opinion of Russia has apparently worsened in the past two years.