In 2007, the number of budget places in Russian universities will be reduced by 3.8 percent. The reasoning is simple: the reduction will affect supposedly unclaimed specialties - political scientists, economists, managers, teachers. The move is excellent - the struggle for education in our country is limited to the crazy Unified State Exam and talk about loans.

For the New Year they even promise us a minus: “According to our calculations, the most likely temperature will be minus 2 - minus 7, minus 4 - minus 9 in Moscow and adjacent regions,” said Roman Vilfand, director of the Hydrometeorological Center of the Russian Federation. If you're really lucky, snow will fall on the holiday night. True, “winter” will end very quickly - already in the afternoon of January 1, the temperature will rise and will fluctuate between minus 3 and plus 2 degrees.

It turns out that the issue of introducing export duties for Belarus is not only decided by Gazprom. Isn't it strange? It turns out that we have a government, a cabinet of ministers, and that’s why they doubted it. They say that such a step will complicate the already difficult consultations with Minsk. They say you need to carefully consider the issue and think about it.

Law enforcement officials are trying to find out the fate of 100 million rubles allocated to Rosprirodnadzor for research. For their work, the investigators were given a separate office right in the ministry.

“On the one hand, the soldiers conscientiously perform their military duty in an environment close to combat. On the other hand, the spread of drunkenness and obscene language was unpleasantly striking,” a priest who returned from Chechnya admitted to Krasnaya Zvezda. Ay-ay-ay, what bad boys - they swear! In Chechnya, there are probably fewer outrages typical of internal Russian units - beatings and atrocities that even go as far as murders: after all, people are doing their job.

“There is still a 30-day period. A pardon will require the president's signature. Anything can happen,” said Cardinal Martino. The prelate recalled the position of the Catholic Church, which considers the death penalty unacceptable. “You cannot compensate for a crime by committing another crime,” the hierarch is convinced. - Execution is not a natural death.

After the New Year, life, as usual, will become more expensive. Firstly, the price of a metro ride will increase – one trip will cost 17 rubles (instead of 15). The same goes for ground transport. And prices for electricity will be raised by another 8%, and gas prices by 15%. From February 1, fixed-line telephone fees will also increase. On average, telephone fees across the country will increase by 10%. According to the new rules, all calls will be paid per minute.

In the Kremlin Leonid Borisovich Borgia December 28, 2006 Julia Latynina The General Prosecutor's Office finally suspected who killed Litvinenko. It turned out, as one could expect, not Berezovsky at all, but Leonid Nevzlin. And now the Prosecutor General will investigate the connection between the mysterious poisoning of the mercury of several Yukosov managers and the poisoning of Litvinenko. And, apparently, he will add his considerations to the requirements of extradition.

The court of the city of Berdsk, Novosibirsk region, sentenced three members of a skinhead group to imprisonment for a term of 5.5 to 8 years. They were found guilty of attacks on foreigners motivated by national hatred. Four young people were accused of beating two Tajiks, as well as participating in a mass pogrom at an enterprise where immigrants from Uzbekistan worked.