Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov arrived on a working trip to Khankala, ITAR-TASS reports. On Wednesday morning, he took part in a meeting of the command of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus. In addition, Ivanov will hear a report from the commander of the 42nd motorized rifle division, stationed in Chechnya on a permanent basis, and will visit one of the regiments of this formation.

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said that Lithuania is not going to demand compensation from Russia for damages from the Soviet occupation through international legal institutions. He said this in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Adamkus emphasized that he considers compensation for this damage a matter of historical justice.

On Wednesday, a man died in the Moscow metro, RIA Novosti reports. It happened at the Paveletskaya station. The man fell onto the tracks. The details of the incident are unknown. After the incident, the movement of trains from the Krasnogvardeiskaya station to the Avtozavodskaya station was temporarily stopped.

German Galdetskiy. Photo from Newsru.com The subway police officer conducted a search in the office of the Interregional Public Organization "My Law", located on Bolshaya Tatar Street. This was announced by the correspondent of the newspaper.ru head of the organization Maxim Anshakov. According to him, the search is carried out in connection with the appeal of one of the citizens who claimed that human rights activists extorted money from him.

Photo from the site www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/PR-2004/PR-20-04.html The international staff of astronomers received important information about the age of the Milky Way - the Galaxy, to which the solar system belongs. This message appeared on the website of the European Space Agency. The measurement of the life of our galaxy has long been considered one of the key problems of star astronomy and cosmology.

Anatoly Nasonov. Photo from the site finiz.ru The Chairman of the Government of Russia Mikhail Fradkov fired the first deputy minister of transport Anatoly Nasonov. According to Kommersant, this is the first resignation in the government of Mikhail Fradkov. The newspaper see this as the “personnel puncture” of the prime minister - in mid -March, he appointed Anatoly Nasonov to this position without consulting with the presidential administration.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, a four-seater sailing-motor yacht "Assol" with three crew members on board disappeared, RIA Novosti reports. The yacht participated in the regatta along the route Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Nikolaevsk-on-Amur - Shantar Islands - Komsomolsk and was supposed to return to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur ten days ago. It is known that the yacht reached Bolshoi Shantar Island - according to the rules of the regatta, on July 29 the crew left a note on the island.

At a meeting of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, chaired by Patriarch Alexy II on Tuesday in Moscow, a decision was made to "refuse to initiate lawsuits and stop existing court cases" to determine the succession to churches, buildings and land plots in Israel and Europe. The Synod decided to consider all conflict situations "at the church level." It is reported by ITAR-TASS.

Handcuffs. Photo from the site www.gazeta.ru In the Altai Territory, a 38-year-old international master of sports Yuri Kovalenko, suspected of a double murder in Omsk, was detained. According to Gazeta.ru with reference to Interfax, Kovalenko was detained shortly before departure to the Olympics in Athens, where he was supposed to take part in the work of the Russian judicial brigade. The suspect was put on the federal wanted list in 1990.

Igor Sutyan. Photo from the site www.kommersant.ru The choice of jury, which issued a verdict in the case of Sityagin, was not accidental and took place with serious violations, writes the Russian Courier, whose correspondent talked with jurors from the first and second composition of the assessors in this case. There are many inconsistencies in this story. Firstly, without sufficient grounds, the composition of the court was replaced.

Frame from the film from the official site As is known from folklores, fairy-tale plots around the world-one-two and expected. But that only from these cubes they did not create - and the princess is a snag, and Snow White, and Hollywood. The last achievement of the fairy-tale industry was the green cannibarian Shrek, the second part of the adventures of which is released on Russian screens. The official Russian premiere of Shrek will be held on Wednesday at the Pushkinsky cinema.

The Moscow Arbitration Court recognized as lawful the refusal of the Bailiff Service to accept 20% of Sibneft's shares owned by Yukos in payment of the company's tax debt, RIA Novosti reports. Thus, the court dismissed Yukos' application regarding the actions of bailiffs who refused to allow the company to pay off its debts with a 20% stake in Sibneft. On June 30, 2004, the Bailiff Service initiated enforcement proceedings as part of the recovery of 99.3 billion rubles in taxes from Yukos.

In the south-east of Moscow, the body of a senior detective of the Main Directorate for Combating Smuggling of the Federal Customs Service (FTS) of Russia, Yevgeny Shibarshin, was found. This was reported to RIA Novosti by a source in the Moscow police department. "25-year-old Shibarshin was found dead between the ninth and eighth floors of house number 13 on Graivoronovskaya Street on Tuesday at 09.15 with a bag on his head," the source said.

The Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan has begun the first hearing of a criminal case on the grounds of extortion committed by prior agreement by a group of former and current police officers, RIA Novosti reports.

Grani.ru collage The Yukos oil company and the Russian-British concern TNK-BP completed the transaction to transfer to the TNK-BP management 56 percent of the shares of the Rospan International gas company. According to Kommersant, the transaction amount is $ 357 million. Due to the arrest of Yukos accounts, he cannot sell its assets, but Rospan International formally belongs to the Cyprus company Rospan Overseas, so the ban has successfully bypassed.