The Civic Platform party will allocate $50,000 to each family that adopts children affected by the so-called “Dima Yakovlev law” adopted today in the Duma, prohibiting Americans from adopting children from Russia. This was announced by the chairman of the federal political committee of the party, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (7th place in the Russian Forbes ranking , fortune $13.2 billion).

photo by RIA Novosti When the president is asked about the same thing many times, it can hardly be called a press conference. Ordinary human communication is simple: you asked and they answered. When a person is asked about the same thing almost ten times, not in a private conversation, but in the presence of thousands of journalists, at a press conference broadcast live by several central channels, this is already an action akin to bullying.

The State Duma adopted in the third final reading the “Dima Yakovlev Law,” which introduces a ban on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens. 420 deputies voted for the document, seven were against: “United Russia” Boris Reznik, members of the Communist Party faction Zhores Alferov and Oleg Smolin, “Socialist Revolutionaries” Ilya Ponomarev, Dmitry Gudkov, Valery Zubov, Sergei Petrov and Andrei Ozerov. Marina Maksakova from United Russia abstained.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange promised to publish more than a million new documents in 2013. A 41-year-old Australian made a similar statement on Thursday from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. “These documents affect every country in the world,” Reuters quoted Assange as saying . In addition, the disgraced journalist said that he was ready for negotiations to resolve his status.

In 1880, the Russified Austrian Stanislav Propper bought the St. Petersburg newspaper Birzhevye Vedomosti, paying 13 rubles 50 kopecks for it. The newspaper published stock market reports that were not of interest to the general reader. And to get rich, Propper launched the second edition of his newspaper, aimed at a provincial audience. Along with the main product, readers received many applications. One of these applications, released on December 21, 1899, happened to outgrow its parent.

The head of the Rosalkogolregulirovanie department for state policy in the sphere of regulating the alcohol market, Dmitry Shablinsky, a lawyer and a former federal judge, was detained in Moscow on suspicion of fraud worth several million. According to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Central Federal District, the attackers tried to steal funds from a commercial company operating in the field of storage and sale of alcohol.

In Ukraine, supporters of the nationalist Svoboda party are trying to storm the Odessa City Hall building, where a city council meeting is being held. Fans of Oleg Tyagnibok are unhappy that the deputies decided to rename the street Ivan and Yuri Lipa. They claim that they decided to come to the mayor's office and express their protest against the city council's plans, since there are more important problems in Odessa.

Novaya Gazeta handed over more than 100,000 signatures to the State Duma reception office for the repeal of the “Dima Yakovlev law.” They were collected electronically on the newspaper's website for the period from December 18 to December 21. Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Sergei Zheleznyak confirmed to the publication that “more than 100,000 signatures have arrived at the reception.” “We heard the opinion of 100 thousand people,” Novaya Gazeta quotes him as saying.

The former head of the legal service of MIRA LLC, Dmitry Mityaev, testified about the involvement of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in a corruption scandal in the military department. However, the ex-minister was never summoned for questioning, and Mityaev was not allowed to leave the pre-trial detention center on bail. The Tverskoy Court of Moscow extended his arrest until February 24.

The Federal Penitentiary Service found no grounds for the release of Vladimir Akimenkov, a defendant in the riots on Bolotnaya Square, for health reasons. Anatoly Tikhomirov, head of the FSIN Moscow department, told reporters about this. “There are absolutely no grounds for referral for a medical examination under the third government decree,” RIA Novosti quotes Tikhomirov . According to him, Akimenkov consulted twice at the city ophthalmological hospital: on August 27 and November 23.

The Ministry of Energy issued a refutation of the information disseminated today by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko about an allegedly concluded agreement with Russia to supply 23 million tons of oil to Belarus in 2013. “The information about reaching an agreement on the supply of 23 million tons of Russian oil to the Republic of Belarus in 2013 does not correspond to reality,” the ministry said in a statement .

Photo by Fotobank/Getty Images How the FSB uses the SORM wiretapping system to control the opposition movement and maintain Moscow's influence in the countries of the former Soviet Union Joint investigation by Agentura.Ru, CitizenLab and Privacy International. Published in English in Wired. On November 12, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the right of the special services to wiretap oppositionists only on the basis that they are conducting protest activities.

Russian Technologies are thinking of selling their 4.5% stake in the Garsdale holding, which owns 51% of Megafon shares and 100% of Scartel shares. “At the moment, this is already a non-core asset, so we will sell it soon,” the Prime agency quotes the statement of the head of the state corporation, Sergei Chemezov, made to journalists on Friday. In total, according to Chemezov, in 2013 the state corporation plans to sell 118 assets and gain 34 billion rubles from their sale.

The Chuvash human rights organization “Shield and Sword” became the first non-profit organization in Russia that decided to voluntarily join the register of “foreign agents”. The relevant documents were sent to the Ministry of Justice by the chairman of the NGO Alexey Glukhov, Forbes was told by the Agora human rights association, which is a partner of Shield and Sword. “Of course, we are not and do not consider ourselves foreign agents.

The Moscow prosecutor's office approved the indictment and transferred to court a criminal case against 56-year-old businessman Viktor Baturin, brother-in-law of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov. He is accused of committing under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale) and Part 3 of Article 30, Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted fraud on an especially large scale).