Riga decided to allow public events planned for March 16, the unofficial day of remembrance of the Latvian SS legionnaires. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ivars Godmanis, called on fellow citizens to “peacefully, within the framework of the law, use the democratic right to express their opinion.” But the demonstrators are not gathering “peacefully”: nationalists are planning a march, and anti-fascists are planning protests.

We are fighting corruption, literally, tirelessly, and it is still growing. Now the Ministry of Internal Affairs has compiled a “black list” of persons who are prohibited from holding leadership positions. They worked on the list for a whole year - it includes those who have ever been convicted of abuse in the workplace. Moreover, what is confusing is that the ban applies not only to government organizations, but also to commercial organizations.

The arrested man was charged with committing a crime under Articles 30 and 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted murder): as a result, he cut the priest with a knife in the chin area, but aimed at the heart. Ryzhikov has already confessed to investigators. Since he is registered at a psychoneurological dispensary, a forensic psychiatric examination has been ordered.

Changes to Russian legislation granting theological schools the right to accreditation were developed by a working group of the Government Commission on Religious Associations and agreed upon with the Ministry of Justice. The amendments are expected to be finalized by the Ministry of Education and Science by early April. According to the amendments, private religious schools wishing to obtain a license must obtain the consent of the relevant religious organization.

Over the past few days, domestic television has been showing with voluptuous pleasure how poorly George Bush is received in Latin America - here are protest demonstrations, here is the burning of the American flag, here are pickets with “Bush go home” posters. Frankly, the American president, whose foreign policy looks like an endless series of big and small mistakes, fully deserves such a reception.

The last couple of months have been marked by high-profile criminal cases in Russia: Mayor Vladimir Nikolaev, Senator Igor Izmestyev and millionaire Vasily Boyko were imprisoned in pre-trial detention; clouds hung over Senator Andrei Vavilov. When you see this triumph of justice, you experience ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, I don’t feel sorry for the characters. The mayor, nicknamed Winnie the Pooh, was considered a scumbag even among the criminal elite of Primorye.

Today, by decree of Vladimir Putin, five presidential representatives have been appointed to the Central Election Commission - Veshnyakov is not among them. This means that the resignation of the head of the Central Election Commission, which has been talked about for a long time, has actually taken place. Of course, the entire modern “electoral system” was built under Veshnyakov: he considered it as “necessary” and was silent when asked.

State Duma deputy Viktor Alksnis sent a parliamentary request to the Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation Leonid Reiman. He asks to “deal with” the “low level of security of electronic mailboxes” on free services such as Mail.ru. ((http://v-alksnis2.livejournal.com/Personal blog)) deputy, was recently hacked using the password that was stored on such a box.

United Russia, which had 26 seats out of 50 in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly before the elections on March 11, lost 3 seats as a result of Sunday voting. “A Just Russia,” on the contrary, increased its representation from 8 to 13 people. And the Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party demonstrated, if not the best results in their entire history in St. Petersburg, then at least the best in the entire 21st century.

A bill to restrict smoking in public places has been introduced to the State Duma. In 2006, deputies were asked to consider five similar documents, but none of them reached the first reading, writes Kommersant. The document is strict: all catering establishments are obliged to either ban smoking or allocate space for non-smoking rooms. They want to completely ban smoking on airplanes and significantly limit it on trains, on ships, in train stations and airports. Scary?

A group of Russian human rights activists filed a complaint about the violation of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberger.