The upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and George Bush in Bratislava is increasingly surrounded by myths and fortune-telling as it approaches. Meanwhile, this summit will be one of the most useless in the history of such meetings, at least since the collapse of the USSR.

“We drew attention to the statement about strategic partnership in the fight against our common enemies, and we will intensify this fight,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on George Bush’s speech yesterday. The head of the Foreign Ministry grabbed the usual cud about strategic cooperation, carefully ignoring the condition that the American president called mandatory for such cooperation. Namely: the return of Russia to democracy and the rule of law.

Dad was fed up. At a meeting with the leadership of law enforcement agencies, he attacked the West, which “finances” the preparation of revolutions. “They believe that Belarus is ripe for some kind of “orange”, or, scary to say, “blue”, or “cornflower blue” revolution. We haven’t had enough of this “dovecote” yet,” fumes the Belarusian president.

There are such coincidences. On the one hand, the only significant event of the meeting between Bush and Putin should be the signing of an agreement to strengthen control over man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). On the other hand, the Ukrainian president declares his desire to meet NATO standards. And then the attackers stole the Strela 3M MANPADS from a Ukrainian military warehouse. Here is a demonstration of both the importance of the problem and the state of the Ukrainian army.

It would be naive to assume that they are just sitting and waiting for their cabinets to lead signs with names and positions from the doors. I remember when Gleb Pavlovsky returned from his not too successful tour of the fraternal republic, he immediately shared plans with the public to restore the collapsed reputation. It was then that the word “counter-revolution” was first sounded from the lips of the main court technologist.

What our politicians feared has happened. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, speaking in Brussels, said that the future of his country is “inextricably linked with Euro-Atlantic integration” and with NATO. But, contrary to Russian fears, he did not speak at all about his intention to provide NATO with military bases. Yushchenko simply stated that the establishment of independent justice, freedom of speech and the elimination of corruption make broad cooperation with the alliance possible.

At a meeting of the city government, Yuri Luzhkov made a proposal to take money from meteorologists. He promised to stop funding the weather service until an agreement was concluded that would provide for financial liability for mistakes. In recent days, the mayor of Moscow has been speaking out in rather non-trivial ways on various occasions. He recently said that he has no intention of asking the president to confirm his powers. Maybe Luzhkov knows something that everyone else missed?

Someone Ilyin expressed the thought rich in political consequences: in Russia it is necessary to create a department that is responsible for patriotic education and for patriotism as a whole. The ministry, for example, or an agency. Type of the Russian Agency for the Education of Patriotism (Rosvospatra) or the Federal Service for Patriotic Education of the Population (Fedspers). In other words, the idea is to turn patriotism into a separate bureaucratic fishing.

The conflict between modern artists and part of the Orthodox believers was discovered several years ago. It all started with the art manage exhibition in 1998, when the artist Avdeus Ter-Oganyan chopped Orthodox icons with an ax, considering this an artistic action, a form of artistic expression.

February 23 - the date is contradictory. Not only because the beginning of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in 1944 was on the day of the Soviet Army. And not only because a lot of questions causes the appointment of festive events on February 23, 1918 under Pskov and Narva. Many, however, have no doubts about this: everything that was done in the "great era" is right.

The monument, which sculptor Grigory Pototsky presented to the city 5 years ago, was demolished and a plastic Santa Claus was installed in its place. Nicholas the Wonderworker stood on a pedestal in the shape of a globe, as if blessing the whole world - Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Now Turkey is striving with all its might to join the European Union, where religious symbols are not favored. Obviously, you have to comply. Different times, different symbols.

To be precise, when asked by Izvestia whether our army will really switch to a one-year service life from 2008, the minister replied: first we will do something by this time, and only then “we can talk about reducing the term.” That is, it turned out that 2008 is not the date for reducing the service life, as everyone thought earlier, but a milestone after which it will be possible to talk about it.

Those over thirty, of course, remember Nevzorov’s famous Nashi report about how the valiant riot police seized a TV tower in Lithuania. Then this word, “ours,” turned into an indecent word for decent people. Now they say that in the Kremlin offices, on the sidelines and behind the scenes, a new fruit of the imperious imagination is ripening with the same name - “Ours”. In general, rumors on this topic have been circulating for some time and are extremely diverse.

Does this figure remind you of anything? Alfa Bank demanded approximately the same amount from the Kommersant newspaper for the suffering caused by the publication of the Baku crisis, and received it. And now Bure is demanding through court from the Arbat Prestige - TV Guide magazine 10 million dollars for defamed honor and moral damage. Bure is seeking a court ruling that he did not deprive Anna Kournikova of her virginity, as the magazine wrote.