Russia's largest social network VKontakte is discussing with banks the possibility of holding an IPO in New York as early as next year, told Bloomberg . sources familiar with the negotiations The final decision on the IPO has not yet been made. Mail.Ru Group Ltd., which owns 32.5% of the social network, also has a stake in the social network Facebook. Both Mail.Ru and VKontakte were unavailable for comment. Last year, about 28 million people visited VKontakte.

Sergei Ivanov joined the board of directors of Gazprombank , the credit institution said in a statement following the results of the shareholders meeting held on June 22. In the council, the youngest son of Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov , chairman of the board of the SOGAZ insurance company , replaced the head of SIBUR Dmitry Konov . Otherwise, the board of directors of Gazprombank has not undergone any changes.

June 23, 2011, 11:45 pm News Participants in a picket in support of sexual minorities were detained on Pushkin Square In the area of ​​Pushkinsky Square, police detained nine participants in a rally in support of sexual minorities, a source in the city’s law enforcement agencies told Interfax. “The girls unfurled a poster with the words “Homophobia Kills” and handed out leaflets to passers-by,” the agency’s source said.

The Winklevoss twin brothers have decided not to appeal to the US Supreme Court due to a disagreement over the payment of $65 million in compensation and thereby end a long-term lawsuit with the founder of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg , writes The Wall Street Journal . The brothers are co-founders of the social network ConnectU. They have been suing Mark Zuckerberg for a long time, insisting that he stole the idea of ​​their website for his Facebook network.

June 23, 2011, 15:18 Business A group of Ukrainian hackers robbed banks of $72 million The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with law enforcement agencies of the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Cyprus and Latvia, uncovered the activities of an international criminal group of hackers organized by citizens of Ukraine under the guise of a legal commercial structure.

June 23, 2011, 07:41 Sports Espanyol sign defender AZ Moreno AZ defender Hector Moreno has moved to Espanyol, signing a five-year contract with the club. The transfer fee for the 23-year-old Mexican was €4 million.

June 23, 2011, 04:17 Sports Kunitsyn: it was a good season on grass Russian tennis player Igor Kunitsyn believes he had a good season on grass, despite losing in the second round of the Wimbledon tournament. On Wednesday, the 29-year-old Russian was defeated by the 17th seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet ( 1:6, 4:6, 4:6 ). “I had a very good season on grass. Showing very good tennis, I played six or seven good matches, but, unfortunately, today, let’s say, there was such a failure.

The first “new model small retail trade module” went into operation in the center of Moscow. A stall in the “Classic” style was installed on Tverskaya, near house number 8, instead of the “Ice Cream” kiosk, which was dismantled in the fall. They also sell ice cream there. The owner of the kiosk is the Iceberry company. A representative of the company said that the cost of such a tent is about 500 thousand rubles.

— 23.06.2011 10:18 — Grigoryan: if Khimki cannot win in the next two rounds, I will resign Khimki head coach Alexander Grigoryan explained what he sees as the reason for the protracted crisis in the club and what needs to be done to resolve this situation. “I see two ways,” Grigoryan told Onedivision . – First, you need to win the match. Because the winless streak has dragged on. This should happen in the next two rounds. The second way is to change the head coach.

23 June 2011, 17:41 Sports The Japanese Olympic Committee supports Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Olympics On Thursday, Japanese Olympic Committee chief Tsunekazu Takeda asked Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to submit a formal bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. According to the AP , Ishihara wants the Tokyo Olympics to become a symbol of Japan's recovery from the earthquakes that occurred on March 11, when 23 thousand people died or went missing in the country.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially confirmed that the American government is conducting direct negotiations with representatives of the Taliban movement, calling them “an unpleasant matter,” thus confirming reports that appeared earlier in the American press. Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that true peace could not be achieved in Afghanistan without reconciliation among the disparate sectors of Afghan society.

June 23, 2011, 04:31 Sports General Director of "Atlanta": there were no negotiations on Barulin's transfer to SKA or Ak Bars Atlanta general director Andrei Verevko confirmed that Ak Bars and SKA are interested in the team’s goalkeeper Konstantin Barulin, but the Moscow region club is not conducting any negotiations on his transfer.

General Vladislav Achalov, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, commander of the Airborne Forces in the late 80s, died in Moscow. “Over the years of his life, Vladislav Alekseevich made an invaluable contribution to strengthening the defense capability of the armed forces and the Airborne Forces. The life of Colonel General Achalov was an example of serving his people and the Fatherland,” Interfax quotes the head of the press service of the Russian Airborne Forces, Alexander Cherednik .

At the headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, a meeting was held with bikers dedicated to an accident involving a Porsche Panamera sports car, which hit motorcyclist Rauf Abzalov on June 8 on Vorobyovy Gory. The bikers asked representatives of the Moscow traffic police and the investigation questions about the progress of the investigation of the case.

Cameron Diaz will join Bear Grylls in the next season of Survive at All Costs. A British traveler will teach an American actress how to survive in wild places with limited civilization. The host announced that Diaz had already agreed, but they still had to agree on work schedules. “She agreed - and it’s great. Now we will try to put on a good show,” Grylls said. The program “Survive at Any Cost” has been airing on the Discovery Channel since 2006.