The Tverskoy Court of Moscow on Thursday sentenced the former director of the charitable organization Valery Gergiev Foundation, Igor Zotov, to eight years in a general regime colony in the case of embezzlement of 245 million rubles from the fund, RAPSI reports . A criminal case against Igor Zotov and his alleged accomplice, Gergiev’s cousin Kazbek Lakuti, was opened in November 2011 at the request of the maestro.

Minority shareholders of Rostelecom, who disagreed with the merger of the operator with Svyazinvest or did not take part in the vote on this issue, offered to buy out 31.39% of the shares, the Prime agency reported on Friday , citing a source close to the company’s board of directors. . He told the agency that in total the shareholders presented 31.39% of both types of shares for redemption.

The death toll in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, according to the latest data, has reached 343 people, Al Arabiya TV channel reports , citing the Egyptian Ministry of Health. Earlier, the Ministry of Health officially confirmed information about 287 dead and more than 2,000 injured. According to the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs, 43 police officers were killed in the clashes.

Billionaire George Soros (No. 30 in the global ranking of billionaires according to Forbes, net worth: $19.2 billion) has more than doubled his investment in Apple over the past three months, according to the reporting of the Soros fund, published on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission. USA (SEC). According to the document, according to the results of the second quarter, which ended at the end of June, Soros owned 66,800 shares of Apple Inc.

The head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, on Thursday, in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, praised the owner of the Anzhi football club, billionaire Suleiman Kerimov (No. 20 on the list of the richest businessmen in Russia, worth $7.1 billion) for the new concept of development of the Makhachkala team and relying on his own players. The interim president of Dagestan recalled that Kerimov bought the world's best players for the team, investing huge amounts of money in it.

One of the defendants in the case of the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Dzhabrail Makhmudov, was attacked on Wednesday evening, Makhmudov’s lawyer Murad Musaev reported this on his Facebook page . “This evening an attempt was made on the life of my client Dzhabrail Makhmudov. He was wounded by a firearm and has just undergone surgery,” Musaev said. According to the lawyer, it has not yet been established who fired, how many times and with what weapon.

The rating of oppositionist and blogger Alexei Navalny increased by almost 5% over the week and reached 19.9%, according to a survey conducted by Synovate Comcon and published on Thursday. 63.5% of those who have decided on their choice of Muscovites are ready to vote for the acting mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin in the elections of the capital's mayor - this is 11% lower than seven days ago.

During raids to combat illegal migration, the police checked a number of construction and agricultural markets in the Odintsovo district, finding 1,800 foreigners there, the reported on Thursday. press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Moscow Region According to the department, all detained migrants were taken to local police departments.

The Indian submarine Sindhurakshak, which sank after an explosion on Wednesday night at a shipyard in Mumbai, is most likely beyond repair and restoration, RIA Novosti reports , citing a source in the military-industrial complex (MIC). According to the source, the average cost of repairs can reach 35% of the cost of a new submarine. In the case of Sindhurakshak, we are not even talking about repairs, but about complete restoration, the feasibility of which is questionable.

The world's largest payment system PayPal will begin working with rubles from September 17, 2013, which will allow its clients to pay for purchases in online stores, accept payments in rubles, transfer money to bank accounts and withdraw them through Russian banks, reports the Digit.ru resource with with reference to the regional director of PayPal in Russia, Vladimir Malyugin.

The design and construction of a bridge across the Lena River, the cost of which is now estimated at a record amount of 64 billion rubles, will be paid for up to 85% from the budget, the Vedomosti newspaper wrote on Thursday, citing Rosavtodor employees. The project is planned to be implemented using a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. Now Rosavtodor, as a rule, enters into contracts with exclusively government funding.

Regulation of imports of products from Ukraine into Russia is within the competence of customs authorities; no decisions on this issue have been made at the government level, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday with reference to the government press service and information department. They noted that the government is concerned about the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border, as it affects trade and economic ties.

photo Fotodom/Rex Features Lynda.com, a site with educational videos, was created during the first dot-com bubble and has since amassed 3 million subscribers and increased its revenue to $100 million. At the Education Innovation Summit, Linda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, the couple who run the online video tutorial site Lynda.com, felt like aging rock stars compared to young startups. “We've been surprising the market for 18 years,” laughs Weinman, who is 58.

On August 14, the Bank of Russia once again shifted the boundaries of the floating corridor of the bi-currency basket (0.55 dollars and 0.45 euros) by 5 kopecks up - to 32-39 rubles, as follows from the materials of the Central Bank . It is worth noting that in July-August the Central Bank shifted the boundaries of the floating corridor of the bi-currency basket upward by 5 kopecks five times against the background of the weakening of the ruble.

The Berkshire Hathaway company of American billionaire Warren Buffett (No. 4 on the Forbes list of the richest people on the planet, net worth $53.5 billion) increased its stake in General Motors by 60% in the second quarter of 2013 and actively purchased shares in the Canadian oil and gas company Suncor Energy, reported in Thursday Reuters.