A new contract has been signed for the construction of the second stage of the Mariinsky Theater A new contract for the design and construction of the second stage of the Mariinsky Theater was signed in St. Petersburg. The document was signed by the heads of the North-Western Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration and OJSC Design Bureau for High-Rise and Underground Structures, the directorate’s press service reported.

03 July 2008, 16:02 Russian Air Force planes will clear the clouds over Astana Ten aircraft of the Russian Air Force flew on Thursday from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow to Kazakhstan to work to ensure good weather (dispersal of clouds) over the city of Astana on Capital Day of the Republic, said Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Drik, acting assistant to the Air Force commander in chief for information support . .

03 July 2008, 13:40 OPEC oil price hits record $137.73 The price of oil reached a new historical record and rose to $137.73 per barrel on Wednesday. This is stated in a message issued today by the OPEC secretariat. A day earlier, one barrel of the OPEC “oil basket”, consisting of 13 main export grades of oil from all member countries of this organization, cost $136.94.

03 July 2008, 13:36 Storm warning announced in Western Siberia Forecasters have announced a storm warning for the next two days in five southern regions of Western Siberia due to expected thunderstorms and hail, said Renad Yagudin, press secretary of the West Siberian Hydrometeorological Center .

21:10 (July 3) Romanian police found 12 Moldovans in a furniture van In the Romanian city of Arad, police found 12 Moldovan citizens in a truck with furniture heading to Italy. The truck driver presented documents to customs officers for verification. During control of the vehicle, police and customs officers found eight women and four men among the furniture. The detainees turned out to be citizens of Moldova who intended to go to Italy to work.

03 July 2008, 21:40 A school burned down in the Tver region As a result of the fire that broke out on Thursday evening, a one-story school building in the village of Olenino, Tver Region, completely burned down; no one was injured, a representative of the press service of the Central Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported .

03 July 2008, 18:18 Consideration of the Federal Customs Service's claim to recover $22.5 billion from the Bank of New York will continue on July 28 At a meeting on Thursday, the Moscow Arbitration Court postponed until July 28 the consideration of the claim of the Federal Customs Service of Russia (FCS) against the American bank Bank of New York Mellon for the recovery of $22.5 billion for the illegal laundering of funds through goods exported to Russia.

03 July 2008, 15:21 Deripaska has no plans to gain full control of Magna Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska has no plans to become a majority shareholder of the famous auto components manufacturer, Canadian company Magna International, reports Reuters . Magna top manager Siegfried Wolf spoke about this in the Austrian press . According to him, Deripaska became a shareholder of Magana International to gain access to the company’s technologies, and he doesn’t need more.

03 July 2008, 12:30 More than 40% of the capital's food products are counterfeit Currently, more than 40% of products sold in Moscow, according to Rospotrebnadzor, are counterfeit and smuggled. This was announced today by Deputy Head of the Moscow Department of Consumer Market and Services Anatoly Kochetkov. According to him, vegetable and butter, condensed milk, tea, coffee, mineral water, beef stew, honey and confectionery are most often counterfeited.

03 July 2008, 12:41 Chaika will ask Bastrykin about business in the Czech Republic Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika intends to discuss with the head of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office ( SKP ) of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, media publications about the latter's alleged business in the Czech Republic. An article with a statement about the entrepreneurial activities of the head of the UPC abroad was published the day before in the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

As Vedomosti learned, ex-Chairman of the Central Bank and member of the board of RAO UES of Russia Sergei Dubinin will continue his career at VTB , which will help attract clients to the investment bank. Several bankers told Vedomosti about Dubinin’s return to the banking sector. “As far as I know, [VTB President Andrei] Kostin called him to his place,” says a top manager of the investment bank. Another banker saw Dubinin in Kostin’s reception room three days ago.

03 July 2008, 14:03 Politics National Bolsheviks got rid of explosives Abel was released Ksenia Solyanskaya A Latvian court acquitted one of the leaders of the National Bolsheviks, Vladimir Linderman (Abel), who was accused of possessing explosives. True, the prosecutor's office has not lost hope of bringing the case to trial on suspicion of possession of weapons and calls for the overthrow of the state system.

03 July 2008, 10:02 Vedomosti: Ferrari is going to independently import its cars to Russia Following other global automakers, Ferrari has decided to import its cars to Russia independently: an importing subsidiary should appear within 15 months, Vedomosti newspaper wrote on Thursday. “So far we have only one dealer in Moscow, but the time has come to take the next step.

03 July 2008, 11:09 St. Petersburg tourists cannot fly to Tunisia for 10 hours For more than ten hours, a group of St. Petersburg tourists, gathered for a vacation in Tunisia, has been waiting for their flight at Pulkovo Airport. As the Express Tour company, which is the customer of the flight, explained to AZHUR, they do not yet know the exact reason why the Tunisian plane did not arrive to pick up the tourists in the northern capital.

03 July 2008, 11:19 Putin noted the need to publicly address environmental issues in Sochi During the construction of Olympic venues in Sochi, an optimal compromise must be found between the need to develop infrastructure and preserve nature, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting on the problems of compliance with environmental requirements in preparation for the 2014 Olympics.