Today, at a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Roman Abramovich asked the president to terminate his powers as governor of Chukotka, Ekho Moskvy reports. True, Abramovich promised not to abandon Chukotka and to continue economic projects aimed at improving life in the region. According to the head of state's press secretary, Alexei Gromov, the president has not yet made a decision regarding Abramovich's resignation.

On Friday, December 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Kyiv. At the forefront, as always, are gas prices. Moscow is already warning that there will be no mercy. Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia will not provide discounts to anyone on energy supplies. In principle, this is what they formally want from Russia.

In the courtroom, the defendants in the so-called Khudyakov case, accused of shooting civilians in Chechnya, were taken into custody. These are officers of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Evgeny Khudyakov and Sergey Arakcheev. The court considered the arguments of the state prosecution that the officers exerted and are exerting pressure on witnesses sufficient, Interfax reports.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov made a proposal that young people who received a free higher education would then work at a state-owned enterprise for 5 years. Like: “Repay your debt to the fatherland!” Ivanov misses the Soviet “distribution” and he is not the only one: after all, it can be considered as “bondage”, or as a guaranteed job, depending on how prestigious the specialty is.

The prosecutor's office has charged Sergei Tsivilev, First Deputy General Director of the Russian Aircraft Corporation (RSC) MiG, with fraud on an especially large scale. The company is confident that all this is the machinations of envious people who do not want Tsivilev to be appointed general director of RSK instead of Alexei Fedorov, who has left. The appointment of Tsivilev would help Fedorov retain control over the RSK.

On Tuesday, a Libyan court sentenced to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who worked in a Benghazi hospital where hundreds of children were infected with HIV. As the Libyan court established and wrote in the verdict, the nurses infected the children on the orders of the United States and Israel.

The Americans are tired of the failures of the Republicans. The US Congress elections showed that voters voted for changes. In Washington, they even joke that while America fought for changing the regime in Iraq, Iraq changed the regime in the USA. If the Democrats receive control over the White House in 2008, then a situation will develop that mirror the current one, when one party has a monopoly on decision -making in the country.

The declaration will be signed by EU leaders in March 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which laid the foundation for the formation of the EU. The Berlin Declaration should not only include a list of the EU's values ​​and goals, but also reflect the source of common values, said a statement by COMECE, the body that represents the interests of the Roman Catholic Church in the EU.

Fail Sadretdinov, accused in the murder of Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, tried to commit suicide, lawyer Ruslan Koblev told Interfax. Now Sadretdinov is in the psychiatric department of the hospital at the Butyrsky pre-trial detention center. The lawyer noted that the trial in the case was taking place with numerous violations: the court repeatedly refused to question defense witnesses, and a medical examination of the accused was also denied.

Judges are protesting against the law adopted today by the State Duma in the third reading. According to the new law, meetings of the Constitutional Court can only be held in St. Petersburg. “Courts of any instance can hold their sessions anywhere, but for some reason only the Constitutional Court was deprived of this right,” representatives of the Constitutional Court are perplexed. Because of such rigidity, the great relocation of the Constitutional Court to St. Petersburg may be in doubt.

“So, the headquarters is also poor,” said Maxim slowly. - Also not ready ... - How can they be ready? - objected Zef. - Some dream of destroying the towers, others - to keep the towers ... underground - this is not a political party for you, this is a vinaigrette, a salad with lake fungi ... (...) “Grinkled price to you,” said Maxim, unable to resist. Zef immediately boiled. - Well, you! He barked. - Fighter! Who are you to determine our price?

The coincidence of the Easter celebration may cause difficulties in organizing a pilgrimage of believers to the Holy Land - just how many people will rush there. The last time Christian Easters coincided was in 2004, and before that - in 2001. Pope John Paul II once proposed celebrating Easter simultaneously starting from the third millennium, but this idea did not meet with universal approval.

Eh!.. If Brezhnev is already a hundred, and we still remember him very well, it means we are no longer twenty... I remember how on the day of the funeral I stood guard at his portrait, I remember how in the pioneer camp an older comrade whispered: “ If Brezhnev dies, war will begin. He is the only one keeping America out of war.” If I still remember it, it means I probably believed it myself then. A few months later, Brezhnev died, I stood guard at the portrait, but the war never started.

Signed by Deputy Minister Vladimir Starodubov, a new state standard for “medical care for people with an illness caused by HIV” was approved. Experts are simply shocked: on the list, commonly used medications are replaced with those that are needed by 1-2% of patients, cheap ones with expensive ones, and so on. Experts say the decree will lead to mass deaths of patients.