Outraged by the daring act of the Limonovites, the plaintiffs initially charged NBP activists with attempting to violently seize power, damaging state property and vandalism. Later, the Moscow prosecutor’s office reclassified the charge (“mass riots”), and the reception staff completely withdrew the claim ((http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/activism/m.98557.html)). Nevertheless, today the Tverskoy Court of Moscow issued a guilty verdict in the case of NBP activists.

The customs service is one of the most corrupt departments in Russia. This opinion was expressed during today's government meeting dedicated to discussing the concept of development of customs authorities until 2010. The head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade immediately proposed an effective way to combat the problem - by increasing the salaries of customs officers (now it averages 6.5 thousand rubles). The Prime Minister supported the idea.

Lack of comments about elections to the Moscow City Duma No. But one point remained somehow underestimated. Namely, the role of administrative resources. After all, it was only thanks to this resource that the democrats got into the Moscow City Duma. This is “to Hedgehog” clear: on the very eve of the elections, the Kremlin made a “strong castling” - it threw out the littered “Motherland” from the list of winners and thereby brought the United Democrats into the heavenly palaces of the Duma.

A notable event last week was Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to the federal tax service and his announcement that he still insists on reducing VAT to 13%. During the prime minister’s stay at the tax service, the head of this service, Mr. Serdyukov, made a speech with a proposal to take an additional, in his estimation, 2 billion dollars from Russian oil companies, which they keep offshore.

Christmas in the West falls on Sunday this year, and pastors of large churches fear that parishioners will stay home on this “family holiday.” In 1994, when Christmas also fell on a Sunday, very few people came to the service. Meanwhile, the so-called megachurches can accommodate up to 8,000 people - it takes considerable effort to gather them.

Did you feel better? Last Sunday, December 5, Vladimir Putin instructed the head of his administration to take into account the recommendations of European experts and concern expressed by members of the Public Chamber, and within five days to submit to him the draft amendments to the law on non -profit organizations for introducing to the State Duma. " It seems to be a reason for optimism, regardless of the reasons for unexpected enlightenment!

After the news of an accident at a Chinese chemical plant, drinking water became the most popular product in the Khabarovsk Territory. The contaminated water of the Songhua, according to experts, will end up in the main river of the region in a week and a half, but the excitement for bottled water is already obvious today.

In 1992, Russia's population was 149 million people, and by 2003 it had dropped to 143 million. If the current economic and social policies are maintained, the country could suffer a 30% demographic decline over the next 5 years. Such data is contained in a World Bank report published today. The ten leading causes of death in the Russian Federation are non-communicable diseases and injuries. The average life expectancy for men and women is 58 and 66 years, respectively.

The Russian Writers' Union awarded Silantiev the Eduard Volodin Prize in the History category. He was supported by the Union of Muslim Journalists of Russia (SMJR), considering it reasonable that this supposedly scientific monograph belongs to the category of fiction - and immediately nominated an opus that was largely offensive to Muslims for the award “Best Work of 2005 in the Genre of Fiction.”

The key to understanding Khodorkovsky’s rise and fall comes from the clarity of thought and disregard for reality that he demonstrated in his article “Left Turn 2,” published in mid-November, says Robert Skidelsky, a professor of political economy at Britain’s Warwick University and a member of the House of Lords. In his opinion, the economic program proposed by the ex-head of Yukos is excellent.