Last Wednesday, the “President-Hotel” hosted the intersectoral conference with the long name “Mass media, book publishing, printing: the results of 2005 and development prospects”. The conference opened at 11.00. But the day before, the employees of the Federal Security Service scared the organizers, and they, in turn, scared the journalists that they would not allow the President-Hotel to the building later.

The court rejected the LDPR's complaint about the refusal to broadcast cartoons with the hero “Governor Bukhailov.” The animated character is very reminiscent of the head of the Kursk region, Alexander Mikhailov. The cartoons were shown on February 21, and the next day all TV channels refused to show them. The reason is not the sharpness of the political satire.

According to Koptsev’s father, the young man had never shown aggression before. “His depression began after his sister died of cancer in December last year. After that he completely withdrew into himself,” he said. Koptsev’s mother was shocked to learn about her son’s act. “I think he went crazy,” she said, answering a question about the reasons for the incident. A forensic examination has already found the young man sane.

Vladimir Putin included the Ostankino television center in the list of strategic enterprises. The President has repeatedly emphasized the special significance of Ostankino. Immediately after the fire at the TV tower in the summer of 2000, Putin included television in the list of services whose broadcasting should be restored first. The list then also included ambulances and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

At the beginning of the week, the Ministry of Economic Development released inflation data for the first two weeks of February. If you believe official statistics, the ruble has depreciated by 0.8%. Thus, over a month and a half, inflation amounted to 3.2%, that is, almost half of the lower limit (7-8.5%) of the corridor determined by the government for the entire 2006.

Two-thirds of Russians (62%) would view the legalization of polygamy in Russia negatively, according to a foundation survey. At the same time, every tenth (10%) would not be averse to having more than one wife: this would help solve the problems of the “shortage of men” and the birth rate (2%), as well as legitimize the existing de facto extramarital affairs and illegitimate children (1%).

Now Alexey Pichugin, already sentenced to 20 years in prison, is accused of preparing attempts on the life of Evgeniy Rybin, manager of the East-Petrullium Handelsges mbh company, in November 1998 and March 1999. Today the indictment was approved, and the case was sent for consideration on the merits to the Moscow City Court. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Pichugin organized these crimes on the instructions of Leonid Nevzlin, a member of the board of directors of YUKOS.

The Russian group Industrial Investors is considering the possibility of acquiring Eesti Raudtee, which currently owns the Estonian railways. The Russian company plans to purchase shares in partnership with the German consulting company Transcare AG. According to Kommersant, in addition to the Russians, the Finnish railway company VR, the Estonian government and the port of Tallinn are interested in the purchase. The German railway company Deutsche Bahn is also vying for a controlling stake.

The number of United Russia members has reached a million people. Its leader Boris Gryzlov solemnly announced this on Monday. “The larger the number of our party, the more ambitious tasks we solve. Today we can say that the quality of implementation of decisions is improving, the standard of living is rising,” he said. Of course, the speaker of the State Duma had in mind the standard of living of adherents of the country's main party. But he was embarrassed to bring the thought to the end.

News that doesn't exist is sometimes more revealing than news that does exist. It’s been a month since we were shown a film by Arkady Mamontov about the English stone and valiant counterintelligence officers. And even then it was strange. For example, why, instead of catching the spy red-handed, we were shown a film in which this stone is carried away by a shadowy figure?

The package of amendments proposed by the Ministry of Economic Development, in particular, provides for an increase in the length of work experience as a lawyer for a candidate for judge from 5 to 10 years. A more stringent system for qualifying judges is also proposed. The ministry also proposes to introduce an “automatic mode” of checking the activities of judges in qualification boards, that is, the proceedings will begin after the accumulation of a certain number of violations.

I believe that bird flu does not exist! Have you forgotten about SARS yet? I feel like not everyone immediately remembered what we were talking about, right? And we are talking about the Plague of the 21st century, which can claim the lives of millions of people, causing monstrous damage to all humanity. Such are the things. And we even have a hard time remembering that it was there. And there was a panic that gripped the planet since the end of 2002.

The human rights organization “Civil Control” proposed placing information on airline tickets that the plane could be shot down. The initiative arose in connection with the recently adopted law allowing the shooting down of civilian airliners hijacked by terrorists. It’s just not clear who such warnings will help. Passengers are unlikely to fly less. But the authorities, if, God forbid, they take advantage of the new right, they will not have to justify themselves to the public for long.