Barack Obama asked the US Congress to increase the national debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion. The corresponding letter was sent by the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate on Thursday, January 12. This was reported by Reuters . “To meet our obligations, we need to increase borrowing,” the letter says. The proposed increase in the limit would raise the national debt ceiling to $16.394 billion.

Mikhail Prokhorov has completed the procedure for collecting signatures in support of his nomination for the post of President of Russia. The former leader of Right Cause announced this at a meeting with voters on Friday. Now the candidate will have to submit the collected signatures to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. Prokhorov intends to submit all materials to the Central Election Commission early next week.

The head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Sergei Ivanov, does not rule out that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will not be able to win the presidential elections based on the results of the first round. This was reported by Gazeta.ru on Friday . “Everything is possible on our land. Of course, theoretically, I also admit this possibility,” Interfax reports Ivanov’s words .

Duty-free shop operator Dufry acquired from Regstaer Group a 51% stake in the company that operates the retail chain at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. The annual revenue of the acquired business (9 stores with a total area of ​​1200 sq. m) exceeds $50 million, Dufry said in a press release . The transaction amount is not disclosed. Under the terms of the agreement, Dufry also receives the right to jointly manage stores at Vnukovo Airport with Regstaer.

photo by RIA Novosti General Director Sergei Soldatenkov leaves Megafon. What key events in the fate of the mobile operator marked his reign? Megafon is leaving General Director Sergei Soldatenkov . He worked in this position for over 8 years - several times longer than any other CEO of Megafon’s competitors in the “Big Three” Russian mobile operators. What happened to Megafon during Soldatenkov’s reign and how is it remembered?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the early termination of the powers of the Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region Ilya Mikhalchuk. The Kremlin press service reported this on Friday. Igor Orlov was appointed acting head of the region. Mikhalchuk has served as governor of the Arkhangelsk region since March 2008. Before joining the civil service, the head of the region was deputy general director of the Gazpromipoteka company.

Famous writers and journalists did not attend the meeting with the prime minister. The government believes that the “refuseniks” missed the opportunity to “establish dialogue” The government awards ceremony for print media ended in scandal on Friday. A number of famous writers and journalists, for various reasons, despite invitations, ignored the meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

A new round of negotiations between the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller and the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yuri Boyko is scheduled for January 17. The meeting is expected to take place in Moscow. This was announced to the Interfax agency on Friday by the Gazprom Information Policy Department. Earlier, a Gazprom press release stated that Russia and Ukraine should continue negotiations on January 15.

Former assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Dzhakhan Pollyeva was appointed chief of staff of the State Duma on Friday. This was reported to the Interfax agency by the deputy head of the Duma apparatus, head of the department for public relations and interaction with the media, Yuri Shuvalov. “Chairman of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin signed the corresponding order,” Shuvalov noted.

The Accounts Chamber (AC) of the Russian Federation plans to check all state corporations and large state-owned companies for corruption schemes in their offshore operations. “In the spring we will begin an inspection of Gazprom, as well as all other major state-owned companies and state corporations. The main topic of the audit will be their offshore operations,” Interfax quotes Sergei Stepashin, chairman of the control agency.

photo Foto SA/Corbis Miguel Torres determined the vector of development of winemaking of two wine-making superpowers, Spain and Chile On the morning of November 11, 2011, residents of the Moscow office center “Red Hills” could see a lean man of about seventy running along the snow-covered embankment. The elderly athlete was Miguel Torres, the man who determined the vector of development of winemaking in two wine-making superpowers, Spain and Chile.

Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin continues consultations on the creation of a new political party that should consolidate “democratic and liberal forces.” He wrote about this on his microblog Twitter . “I am holding consultations on uniting democratic and liberal forces and creating a new party,” this is how the former head of the Ministry of Finance answered a question from one of his readers about his vision of his political prospects.

Photo by Fotobank/Getty Images The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications wants to strictly link purchased phones to specific SIM cards. What will come of this? The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications is going to try to link phones to SIM cards. This, officials believe, will help control the business of “gray” phone sales and will hit the market for stolen devices. The text of the relevant bill can be found on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development.

The international rating agency Fitch on Friday confirmed the long-term issuer default rating of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine in foreign and national currencies at the level of “CCC” (“default is possible”). reports this RIA Novosti with reference to the agency’s message.

photo Itar-TASS Forbes.Ru traced the first steps of the new curator of the Kremlin’s internal policy: several governors may be replaced, the places of political strategists in the Kremlin will be taken by Vyacheslav Volodin’s trusted On Friday, the Kremlin announced the early resignation of Arkhangelsk Region Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk. His successor was Igor Orlov, former director of the Kaliningrad shipyard Yantar. And about.