The Ministry of Finance gave up. Chukotka's overdue debt, for which the Accounts Chamber accused Abramovich of driving the region into bankruptcy, has been restructured. True, his predecessor Alexander Nazarov took the money. More precisely, not money, but gold - only 15.8 tons. The gold had to be given back. However, by 2000, 4.22 tons had been scraped together. The Ministry of Finance hoped that the rich Abramovich would pay for everything.

The Stabilization Fund created last year, which receives excess budget revenues associated with high oil prices, seems to be becoming an irresistible temptation for the country. Citizens, and especially those of them who are vested with at least some kind of power, have lost peace and sleep: everyone is thinking about how to spend money from the treasured moneybox for the benefit of the people or for the glory of the ruler, who called for doubling the GDP for the joy of the same people.

A friend from America called me the other day. “Listen,” he says, “why is your Jewish topic so popular? Are things really bad in the country?” By the way, not an idle question. And a long time ago, the established idea that in line for the role of the guilty in all troubles in the first place are always Jews, because it was not born from scratch. And besides, any incident with Jews, even at first glance, the most insignificant, as a rule, grows up to the universal problem.

The Minister of Health and Social Development is haunting the deputies. The desire of the pro-Kremlin faction to find someone to blame for the monetization woes of the Russians deserves respect. On the other hand, they cannot agree that they adopted a useless law. That is, they did not fulfill their direct responsibilities. Their important people signed up as deputies, but they failed. However, the deputies have no reason to worry: they were hired to vote correctly, not to discuss laws.

However, it is not that they simply ignored the opinion of Russian diplomats. An answer even came from London, but, by God, it would have been better if they had remained silent - the answer turned out to be terribly mocking. The British Foreign Ministry notified its Moscow colleagues that it fully shares their justified indignation and would be glad to help, but, unfortunately, is not able to, since the TV channel is private. They say, guys, England is not Russia for you.

Yes, Yushchenko began cheerfully. A complete change of government and governors - we have not seen this since 1991. This once again proves the similarity between Kyiv 2004 and Moscow 1991, Yushchenko and Yeltsin. Populist-democratic slogans, orientation to the West, direct appeal to the street, a peaceful revolution enthusiastically accepted by the liberal intelligentsia of the capital and the West - everything coincides.

The program contains sections with striking names: “Faith”, “Life”, “Harmony”, “Justice”. In her first speech as a full-fledged prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko stated that “European integration will become a priority for Ukraine’s international activities.” As for relations with Russia, there was a significant reservation. “Russia has always been the first and priority partner, but Ukraine’s path lies to Europe,” said the newly appointed prime minister.

The exorbitant rise in prices is worrying economic officials. President Putin was recently very worried about the high cost of meat. (They haven’t told him about milk yet.) It’s clear: something needs to be done. Strengthening the economy is long and tedious, and it won’t work anyway. Another thing is to strengthen the ruble even more and in this way slow down inflation.