The political project called “Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin” is gradually approaching its completion. Moreover, regardless of whether the defendant himself remains at the helm or cedes it to someone from the team. Apparently, the project will close even harder than it opened. And it opened, as we remember, with the explosions of residential buildings and the second Chechen war. The 2008 scenarios that are being written today in the Kremlin do not bode well for us. None of them.

The sentence of the only convicted militant involved in the Beslan school siege will be reviewed. The Supreme Court of Ossetia sentenced Nurpashi Kulaev to life imprisonment. This verdict does not suit anyone: the victims demand the death penalty, despite the moratorium in force in Russia, and lawyers believe that Kulaev’s guilt has not been proven. The Russian Supreme Court will consider the issue of overturning the verdict on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, December 26, at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko, Gazprom head Alexei Miller said that the company had met Minsk halfway on all issues of gas supplies. Gazprom agreed with the valuation of Beltransgaz at $5 billion, although Miller is confident that the company is “actually” worth a little more than $3 billion. Belarus is offered to use Beltransgaz shares to pay for Russian gas in 2007.

In the Kremlin Landscape before the battle. Part 2 December 26, 2006 Alexander Ryklin Something I got confused. As soon as this Prosecutor General’s Aunt, Colonel Gridnev, revealed her coral mouth in front of the television cameras and told all the progressive humanity that in fact Litvinenko poisoned Nevzlin, I immediately thought about Gaidar. Then who, it turns out, poisoned him?

Something is not visible to the white flags on the towers of Tehran after the adoption of the UN resolution on Iran. No repentant calls to the Council of Council of President Mahmud Akhmadinejad are not heard. They did not receive in New York from him either custom-made telegrams or letters notifying the consent to stop the enrichment of uranium. Strange somehow.

The ITAR-TASS Photo agency's own correspondent, Evgeny Epanchintsev, was detained on Tuesday morning near the Chita pre-trial detention center.

Something incredible is happening in Turkmenistan - Niyazov’s death itself plunged everyone into a trance and amazement. What follows is more interesting: the People’s Council of Turkmenistan “for the first time in many years” adopted a law on presidential elections. Early elections are scheduled for February 11, 2007. And today we decided on the candidates - there were six of them.

Gazprom is going to cut off gas to Belarus starting in the new year. Now it is the only country that still buys Russian gas at domestic Russian prices: $45, and it is in no hurry to agree to the conditions of Gazprom, which since 2007 plans to sell gas to Belarus for $200 per thousand cubic meters. On Tuesday, December 26, a Belarusian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko arrives in Moscow for decisive negotiations on gas.

Turkmen Defense Minister Agageldy Mamedgeldyev and about 120 representatives of the middle and lower ranks of the Turkmen nomenklatura were arrested in Ashgabat, Vremya Novostey reports. The Ministry of Defense of Turkmenistan has not yet confirmed this information. But if this is true, it means that the fight for gas and the presidency has already begun. Mamedgeldyev was assigned the post of Chairman of the People's Council.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the verdict of Nurpashi Kulaev, convicted of the terrorist attack in Beslan. As of today, Kulaev’s sentence to serve a life sentence has entered into legal force. The Russian media happily report this, because according to the official version, Kulaev is the only living militant who was at the school in Beslan. This means that the “incident,” as they say, is over.

S. Gabestro stated this in an interview with the January issue of Foma magazine. But for some reason he cursed all other forms of association, calling them “invented conferences and associations.” Meanwhile, civil society really does not begin with associations (and a parish is exactly the same association as all the others), but with civil solidarity, which, alas, is lacking for both believers and non-believers in Russia.

Since the bishop once again failed to appear at the meeting, the Synod decided that from now on he would be subject to trial by the Council of Bishops. However, in order to resolve the issue in the spirit of peace and brotherly love, its consideration is postponed until the completion of negotiations with representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has already given its consent to such negotiations.