15 people were killed and dozens of people were injured as a result of a powerful explosion in the business center of the Thai capital Bangkok, Nation TV reported on Monday, August 17. Among the victims are foreign tourists, writes the Turkish agency Cihan. The local newspaper Bangkok Post clarifies that among the victims there is at least one foreign citizen, possibly a tourist. The head of the Thai Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the explosion occurred near a Hindu temple.

Increased content of harmful substances was detected in wines, the department said. Rospotrebnadzor has withdrawn from circulation batches of American alcoholic beverages that do not comply with the law, according to the agency’s website.

A Serbian court has decided to extradite to Russia one of the co-owners of the Labyrinth tour operator, Sergei Azarskov, who has not fulfilled his obligations to several tens of thousands of clients, the writes on Monday, August 17. Kommersant newspaper The court in the Serbian city of Uzice granted the request of the Prosecutor General's Office to extradite Azarskov to Russia.

photo TASS Neither age nor managerial failures could have caused the resignation of the head of Russian Railways Many years ago, when Anatoly Chubais just began desperately to reform RAO UES, in a conversation with one insider, I suggested that Chubais should head Russian Railways in order to carry out an unthinkable reform in yet another natural, well, or unnatural monopoly. “Oh well,” the insider disagreed.

Rosneft challenged Vagit Alekperov ’s Lukoil’s receipt of the right to use the East Taimyr subsoil area adjacent to the offshore part of Taimyr, Kommersant reported on Monday, August 17, with reference to a letter from the oil company Igor Sechin to the Ministry of Natural Resources on this issue. In the letter, Rosneft indicates that its proposal for the site was the best and demands that the results of the competition be annulled.

Former Defense Ministry official Evgenia Vasilyeva, convicted in the “Oboronservis case,” paid her share of the penalty imposed by the court and received the right to parole, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax on Monday, August 17. According to him, the convict paid both for herself and for other convicts about 82 million rubles in compensation for damage to OJSC “31 State Design Institute for Special Construction”.

The dollar exchange rate on the Moscow Exchange increased as of 10:20 Moscow time to 65.37 rubles, which is 38 kopecks more than the closing level of previous trading, according to exchange data on Monday, August 17. The euro costs 72.39 rubles, which is 21.9 kopecks higher than the previous day’s closing level. The last time the dollar and euro were traded on the Moscow Exchange around these values ​​was in February.

photo TASS Cars will be imported from Japan The Japanese automaker Toyota has abandoned the production of Land Cruiser Prado cars at the Sollers-Bussan site in Vladivostok, wrote on Monday with reference to a company statement. Kommersant Toyota announced that it intends to produce the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado at its own Toyota Tahara plant in Japan and import the cars to Russia.

The events of recent days in eastern Ukraine resemble preparations for the next military operations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday, August 17. He also noted that we are no longer talking about the line of contact in Donbass, but about the front line, Interfax reports . “The situation at the front is alarming. We can’t even talk about the line of contact, unfortunately, but in essence, about the front,” Lavrov said.

The Russian Embassy in Thailand and Rostourism recommend that Russians staying in Bangkok not leave their places of residence and avoid visiting crowded places after the terrorist attack that killed at least 27 people, according to the Rostourism website. The agency also recommended that Russians exercise extreme caution and comply with the requirements of local authorities.

Former CEO of Uralkali Vladislav Baumgertner became CEO of Global Ports Investments, according to the company’s website. Baumgertner takes office on August 17. The previous CEO, Alexander Nazarchuk, left his post of his own free will; he will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors as a non-executive director.

Russia has decided to introduce a fingerprinting procedure for foreign citizens to obtain visas, but this may lead to a drop in the tourist flow into the country from abroad, Interfax reported on Monday, August 17, citing the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov.

The person who ordered the murder of Boris Nemtsov paid the alleged perpetrator of the crime 500,000 rubles as an advance, reported on Monday, August 17, citing a source in law enforcement agencies. Rosbalt According to the agency’s interlocutor, the key person involved in the case, Zaur Dadaev, announced the amount of the advance during videotaped testimony. He allegedly stated that the advance was paid by “Rusik”. Later Dadaev refused to testify.

Olga Proskurnina Author Yulia Sapronova Forbes Editorial Board What happened to the people who made the most resonant decisions in August 1998? Monday, August 17, 1998, went down in modern Russian history as a black day: the government and the Central Bank announced a default on government securities and at the same time refused to maintain a stable exchange rate of the national currency - the so-called currency corridor, the upper limit of which was 6 rubles per dollar.

photo TASS New rates will range from 12.5% ​​to 15.5%, and for participants in the state support program - 11.4% Sberbank announced a reduction in rates on most of its mortgage programs by an average of 0.5 percentage points from August 17, Interfax reported on Monday, August 17, citing the head of the department of retail non-transactional products of Sberbank Natalya Alymova. According to her, the new rates will range from 12.5% ​​to 15.5%.