Here’s a quick recap of some of today’s biggest news:
– Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled the G8 summit as the “G7+1” in reference to Putin’s isolated stance on Syria. As The Moscow News reports, when asked if he felt “lonely” during the summit he replied, “Of course not. That’s absolutely not true. Somebody, apparently, wants that to be the case.”
-The requirements for adopting Russian children are becoming ever more stringent, and are accompanied by a blatant disregard for LGBT rights. The Russian Duma has passed a law that forbids unmarried singles in countries that allow same sex marriages from adopting Russian children. RIA Novosti reports, “Russia’s lower house of parliament has given its final approval for a bill to ban adoptions of Russian children by same-sex couples abroad.”
-In another ominous sign for the struggling natural gas giant Gazprom, Putin has ended its monopoly on the export of natural gas, paving the way for Rosneft and Novatek to challenge the former national champion. Reuters reports, “Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled the gradual end of state-controlled Gazprom’s (GAZP.MM) monopoly on exports of natural gas, opening the way for rivals Novatek (NVTK.MM) and Rosneft (ROSN.MM) to compete for huge new Asian markets.”
– A fake e-mail was circulated announcing the resignation of Putin acolyte and railways head Vladimir Yakunin. It alleged that he was being replaced by his deputy Alexander Misharin. However, the rumor was quickly denied by Yakunin and the Kremlin. The Moscow Times reports, “A report circulated late Wednesday from an email account resembling that of the government press service saying that Yakunin had been replaced by his deputy, Alexander Misharin, but Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova later denied that report.”