The Russian Embassy in Damascus does not have information about the death of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, reports of which appeared on social networks on Monday, the Russian diplomatic mission told Interfax . “We know nothing about this, but, as far as I know, denials have already appeared in a number of Arabic-language media,” said the embassy representative.

A group of fraudsters was detained in Moscow for forging and selling bank guarantees worth 1 billion rubles, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Moscow Region announced on Monday.

The administration of the Norwegian prison "Ila" did not allow terrorist Anders Breivik, sentenced to 21 years in prison, to attend the funeral of his mother, who died on Friday in Oslo, according to the website of the English-language Norwegian newspaper The Nordic .

The terms for restructuring a €2.5 billion Russian loan that Cyprus announced at talks in Moscow last week amount to writing off 10% of the debt, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Monday. "We are monitoring the situation, how it is developing. Because we are not indifferent to what decisions will be made. Our actions also depend on what final results we get from the Troika negotiations, the decisions of the Parliament of Cyprus.

President Vladimir Putin appointed Senator Svetlana Orlova as acting governor of the Vladimir region, the Kremlin press service reported on Monday. Elections for the head of the region will take place on a single voting day in September 2013. On Sunday, March 24, the fourth term of office of Nikolai Vinogradov, who served as governor of the Vladimir region since 1997, expired. The head of the region had little chance of retaining his acting status until voting day.

In Moscow, at the age of 88, the last president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Guriy Marchuk, died after a long illness, the ITAR-TASS agency reported . Guriy Marchuk headed the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1986 to 1991. Marchuk took part in the Great Patriotic War. After graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University in 1949, he worked at the Moscow Geophysical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Most banks in Cyprus will open on Tuesday, March 26, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a representative of the Central Bank of Cyprus. “All banks, except Bank of Cyprus and Popular Bank, will open on Tuesday,” the agency’s source said. At the same time, Bank of Cyprus and Popular Bank will resume their work on Thursday. Cyprus banks have been closed since March 15 due to the crisis.

About 30% will be written off from deposit balances containing more than 100 thousand euros in the largest bank in Cyprus - Bank of Cyprus as part of the implementation of an agreement with the “troika” of international creditors , RIA Novosti reports with reference to a statement from an official representative of the country’s government, transmitted by Cypriot television channels .

Russia is concerned about the possible impact of the crisis in Cyprus on the stability of the euro and the eurozone, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. "This (Cyprus) is a eurozone country, it is an EU country. And we generally regret that such problems are happening, since this is not a Cyprus problem.

The Federation Council has received an application from Senator Boris Shpigel about the early surrender of his mandate; it will be considered at a meeting on Wednesday, March 27, Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Parliamentary Procedures Vadim Tyulpanov told RIA Novosti on Monday. “The committee received a statement from Boris Shpigel; on Wednesday this issue will be brought up at a meeting of the chamber,” Tyulpanov said.

The Investigative Committee of Russia published an explanation in connection with the publication of the article “Moscow Yurt” in Novaya Gazeta, in which it explained that the suspects in the kidnapping of the victim Grigory (information about his identity are not disclosed in the interests of the investigation) and extorting money from him, about which the newspaper wrote , they were released from custody due to the completion of the main investigative actions with the accused and the identity

Uniastrum Bank denied information that appeared in the media about possible assistance to its parent division - Bank of Cyprus (Bank of Cyprus), which owns 80% of the Russian bank. “No taxes or measures to improve the Bank of Cyprus will be applied to Uniastrum Bank, which operates on the territory of the Russian Federation in full compliance with current legislation in the tax aspect and banking regulation,” the bank’s press service said in a statement .

British authorities have not contacted Moscow in connection with the death of businessman Boris Berezovsky in London, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Monday. “The last official contact was a telephone conversation on Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, ” Interfax quotes Ushakov . “After this, I don’t know about any official contacts between Moscow and London,” he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that the agreement reached on Monday on the Cyprus issue prevented Cyprus from defaulting, Bloomberg reported on Monday . “I am extremely satisfied that a solution has been found and Cyprus will avoid insolvency,” Merkel said at an event in Langenfeld, Bavaria. The German Chancellor emphasized that attracting the private sector to distribute losses to save the banking system of Cyprus is fair. But she noted that taxpayers should not bail out banks.

In Cyprus, no decision has yet been made on the opening of the country's banks, which were closed during negotiations to save the country from default, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday, citing the Central Bank of Cyprus. Due to the crisis, banks in Cyprus have been closed since March 15.