The cause of a strong fire in a high-rise building of the Grozny City complex in the center of the capital of Chechnya, according to preliminary data, was a short circuit in the air conditioning unit, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for Chechnya Beslan Galaev said at an emergency meeting of the government of the republic on Tuesday evening. “The preliminary cause of the fire is a short circuit in the outdoor air conditioning unit.

Photo by ITAR-TASS The Soviet government and German fascism had rich experience in liquidating “wrong” public organizations The Russian prosecutor's office, with the participation of other government agencies, zealously checks non-profit organizations (NPOs). Visits demanding hundreds of papers paralyze the activities of NPOs. In St. Petersburg they promise to check all 5 thousand. In Volgograd, quite loyal structures included in the ONF, such as the Children's Fund, came under audit.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has discovered some inconsistencies in the investigation documents about the causes of the death of 3-year-old Maxim Kuzmin, adopted from Russia, in the United States, according to a commentary by the Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Konstantin Dolgov, published on Wednesday on the department’s website .

The largest Russian oil company, Rosneft, has distributed almost all of the 12 Russian shelf areas allocated to it among its partners from different countries and is looking for partners to develop areas for which the company has submitted new applications, NK President Igor Sechin told reporters on Wednesday. “We have almost all of our licensed areas distributed among various partners, and the formalization of our agreements is at various stages,” RIA Novosti quotes Sechin .

Pavel Sokolov Author What chairs, stools, sofas and secretaries are collectors willing to pay tens of millions of dollars for? All pieces of antique furniture that have set price records at auctions at the largest auction houses in the world, be it the throne of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong, a Faberge chair or an armchair with dragons by Eileen Gray, are true works of art and striking examples of furniture design of their time.

The meat scandal that flared up in Europe due to the fact that some producers passed off horse meat as beef has given way to fish, Interfax reported on Wednesday, citing Rosselkhoznadzor representative Alexey Alekseenko. According to him, during an inspection in Germany, almost a third of the fish products tested did not correspond to the labels on the packaging - cheap fish was sold under the guise of expensive fish.

The Far Eastern Directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development, which was involved in preparations for the APEC summit in Vladivostok, is conducting an investigation on Wednesday into delays in employee salaries, told RIA Novosti . labor inspectorate press secretary Andrei Afonin “On Wednesday, the inspectorate began an unscheduled inspection of compliance with labor legislation regarding the issuance of wages by the directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development.

The Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) under the Ministry of Education and Science intends to publish on the Internet all defended and rejected dissertations and the conclusion of the Anti-Plagiarism system on them, so that the names of the pseudo-heroes who falsified the works become known to everyone, Vladimir Filippov, Chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission, told reporters on Wednesday.

Elimination of the “gray” labor market in Russia and a subsequent increase in tax collection would make it possible to increase pensions by one and a half times, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told reporters on Wednesday. “If we all pay (taxes), then only due to this pensions will increase by one and a half times, which is significant for current pensioners.

A fire broke out on Wednesday in the Olympus tower of the Grozny City complex in the center of the capital of Chechnya, in which the apartment of the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu reports is located, ITAR-TASS . Several floors are on fire in the western part of the Olympus Tower. There is heavy smoke. The center of Grozny is blocked off, and fire truck sirens can be heard. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

The head of the Bank of Russia, Sergei Ignatiev, denied statements by a well-known blogger and oppositionist that the regulator did not contact law enforcement agencies regarding the identified dubious transactions in the economy, noting that interaction with the investigation has not yet brought results, RIA Novosti reports . “We are interacting, but the result is not very effective,” Ignatiev said at a briefing on Wednesday.

The oil company Rosneft has repaid a loan of 184.4 billion rubles ($6 billion), raised from Gazprombank on March 18, said the bank’s deputy chairman, Alexander Sobol. “Rosneft has already repaid the loan. She has no other debt to Gazprombank,” the Prime agency quotes him as saying . Repayment of the loan became possible thanks to Rosneft attracting loans from TNK-BP structures totaling 152 billion rubles and $4.8 billion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced the final figures on arms exports from Russia and the volume of export military orders for 2012, emphasizing that the growth was 12%, RIA Novosti reported . “The growth was 12%, and in value terms, arms exports from the Russian Federation to partner countries are equal to $15.2 billion,” the agency quotes Putin as saying at a meeting of the commission on military-technical cooperation (MTC) with foreign countries.

The head of the largest Russian oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, on Wednesday promised to pay dividends for 2012 in the amount of 25% of net profit according to international financial reporting standards (IFRS), RIA Novosti reported . Dividends must be approved at a general meeting of shareholders in mid-June. According to Sechin, standard approaches to the issue of dividends have already been determined - this is 25% of net profit. “I think that they will be supported,” Sechin assured.

Apple will begin selling the new iPhone 5 smartphone this summer, according to the website of The Wall Street Journal newspaper . According to the publication's sources, production of the new iPhone is planned for the second quarter, which allows us to count on the start of sales of the device during the summer. As WSJ notes, Apple's new smartphone is expected to be "similar in size and shape" to the latest version of the iPhone 5, introduced in September 2012.