Translated material
Short
Prayer for freedom 
Many in Russia know how she sings, few - as she says. On August 7, in the midst of Madonna’s concert, a pause suddenly arose in Moscow-and the pop diva turned to the hall:
“Thank you, Moscow! I also love you ... Here in the front row there is a man, on it a T -shirt with the inscription “Sagarro JO” ... Everyone who has been to (mine) shows is known that this song is about freedom ... Here, on stage, people from different parts of the Earth - from Africa, America, from France, from Russia, from England. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Gays, Naturals - all you can imagine. But we are a family. We are together. We are people. And this last word - “people” is the most important ... I am very lucky, because I am from America, a country where you can freely express myself, my point of view. As an artist, as a person and as a woman I use this freedom. Even if other people and the government do not agree with me. And this is democracy. My dreams and my prayers are that everyone has this right everywhere in the world. Therefore, I want to say a few words about Pussy Riot. I know, not all questions are unequivocal answers, and I do not want to show disrespect to the church or the government. But I think that these three girls - Masha, Katya and Nadia - committed something bold. They have been under arrest for five months, and they have already paid the price for their act. And I pray for their freedom ... I know that everyone on this scene feels the same. And all my fans in this hall know that they deserve the right to be free ... So let's hope that one day we will really live in a society where peace, freedom and tolerance reign. ”
The hall exploded by standing. True, the video camera was recorded by the young girl's voice somewhere on the right and very close to the stage. “This is not your business!” She shouted several times. The neighbors did not support the hall.
Fall from Olympus
Having held a shock weekend at the Olympics in London, the Russian team completed games with 82 medals, 24 of which are gold. Sports leaders of the country have already expressed full satisfaction with the result, noting that we exceeded the indicators of the last Olympiad in Beijing by 9 medals, including one gold. And this is true, but the truth is that for the first time in recent history the Russian Olympic team was outside the first three in the general standings. It should be noted that traditionally, according to the rank of Olympic standings, the teams are built precisely in the number of gold medals. And here we lost not only the US team (40 gold) and China (38 gold), but also the team of the owners - Great Britain (29 gold).
Under the rule of fire 
145 forest fires raged in Russia on August 10. According to Rosleskhoz, on this day, an area of 12.34 thousand hectares was covered with fire - mainly in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Tomsk Region, Yakutia. In total, according to the department, from the beginning of the summer, 16.8 thousand forest fires have occurred, the fire burned 1.4 million hectares. The Rosleskhoz explains the disaster with hot weather, the careless treatment of citizens with fire and dry thunderstorms. Independent ecologists consider the data of officials strongly underestimated. According to the Coordinator of the Greenpeace Russia forest programs Alexei Yaroshenko, the territory passed by forest fires over the summer is already about 10 million hectares. At the same time, he refers to testimonies from satellites, which "are several times different from data discovered only by aviation and ground forces." The area of forests burned this summer, environmentalists are convinced, significantly exceeds the one that has suffered in the hottest in the last years of the summer of 2010. Then the damage from forest fires, according to official figures, amounted to 85.5 billion rubles.
Velsky breakthrough 
This sensation was the decision of the chairman of the Velsky Court of the Arkhangelsk Region Viktor Ivanov on August 8 to reduce the term ex-head of Menatep Platon Lebedev by 3 years 4 months, which allows him to be released in six months-March 2, 2013. Only the cassation appeal of the prosecutor’s office of the Arkhangelsk region, which did not agree with the “excessive decrease” of punishment to Lebedev, can prevent this on August 10. Arithmetic at the prosecutors is simple: Judge Ivanov ate the term of the ex-head of Menatep from 13 years to 9 years and 8 months, while the prosecution insisted on a lesser decrease-up to 11 years and 3 months. Where does the discrepancies come from?
Ivanov was guided by the amendments made in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in December 2011 in the light of presidential (Medvedev) initiatives to mitigate the punishment for economic crimes. But the courts approached the innovations with extremely carefully-the terms of “economic” if they were reduced, then at a minimum-for months or a year or two. For example, the Yukosovtsa Vladimir Pereverzin, who was released ahead of schedule, was chosen 1 year and 2 months.
Light breath 
The death of an outstanding person forces the speaker about him to pathos. But Peter Fomenko was a stranger. At one of the meetings of the directors, where they seriously and deeply talked about the fate of the Russian theater, about his greatness, Fomenko called on those gathered for "light breathing." So that among exclamations about greatness, greatness itself does not disappear. And the greatness of the Russian theater (now this can already be said) in our time was held on Peter Naumovich Fomenko.
In 1993, we, students of the Theater Faculty, began their studies in GITIS simultaneously with the new course of Peter Fomenko. Polina Agureeva, Inga Oboldina, Elena Neva, Mikhail Krylov, Vladimir Epifantsev, Garold Strelkov, Ilya Lyubimov then, like us, were freshmen. Our teacher Natalya Krymova advised us to closely monitor how the students of Fomenko are developing - it was an elite course of the Academy, all those entering the theater universities dreamed of studying there. And those whom Fomenko chose considered themselves lucky.
Peter Fomenko was built a theater-house in which masterpieces were created, for which bonuses and awards were hit, but he did not cease to be a home. As in the Moscow Art Theater at Stanislavsky went to “three sisters” and said: “We are going to visit Prozorov,” and visiting his theater became such a “visit”.
Its performances became part of personal experience. The “magnificent cuckold” in Satyricon with Konstantin Raikin in the title role is probably the most confessional performance of Peter Fomenko. It was a performance about a high illness that every big artist was sick - about the power of imagination over reality. The main character, the village poet Bruno, said: "Inspiration takes me beyond common sense."
People who are “outside common sense” create real art.
Albert Camus said: "Art is not worth it without reality, but even without it, reality is not much worth it."
The performances of Peter Fomenko confirmed these words.
It was not possible to say without pathos.
** Arthur Solomonov
**