Demolition of the burnt-out part of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater has begun in the center of Moscow. According to the NTV television company, the special equipment began to destroy dangerous walls and ceilings. A giant crack formed in the brickwork due to the high temperature. The official version of the fire has not yet appeared. Investigators are on the scene.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Russia lowered its forecast for GDP growth this year from 6.5% to 5.8%. German Gref announced this in an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday. According to the results of four months of the year, the GDP growth rate amounted to 5.4%, the minister added. At the same time, according to him, the Ministry of Economic Development's forecast for inflation in 2005 remains unchanged - 10%. .

Capitol. Grani.ru collage It seems that in Russia no one even noticed that in Washington this week a constitutional crisis broke out. The Americans could well wake up in another country. At the last moment of the most unpleasant scenario, it was possible to avoid, but the situation may be repeated, and the long -term consequences for both parties and the 2008 presidential campaign are already inevitable. So it always happens when the ruling party decides that everything can.

Pascal Lamy has been appointed the new CEO of the World Trade Organization. According to AP, this decision of the General Council of the organization was announced on Thursday by its current head Supachai Panitchpakdi. The appointment of Lamy, who previously oversaw trade issues in the European Commission, was the result of two months of consultations between representatives of WTO member countries.

American science fiction writer Robert Sheckley, who spent about a month in a Kyiv clinic with a respiratory disease, will fly home on Friday afternoon. According to the Novosti-Ukraine agency, according to doctors at a private Kiev clinic where Sheckley was treated, the writer's condition remains rather serious, however, according to their conclusion, he is ready to postpone the flight to the United States.

State Duma Vice Speaker Vladimir Pekhtin denied rumors about the possibility of his appointment to the post of head of RAO UES, RIA Novosti reports. "I'm not going to step down as deputy chairman of the State Duma. I'm sure that in this position I will bring no less benefit to the country's energy industry than I did as chairman of the board of RAO UES," Pekhtin told reporters on Friday.

Picket near the Beshchansky Court building. Photos of faces The second week of the announcement of the sentence Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Plato Lebedev is completing in the Meshchansky court of Moscow. According to Echo of Moscow, lawyers believe that there is only a minimal chance that everything will end on Friday. Most likely, the announcement of the sentence will end on Monday or Tuesday.

Boris Berezovsky is going to do business in Brazil. According to the newspaper GZT.Ru, the businessman is suspected of intending to buy the oldest football club in Brazil Corinthians. Berezovsky himself claims that the rumors about the proposed deal are related to the fact that the manager of the company that bought this team is Kia Jurabchian, who once bought the Kommersant newspaper for him. However, Berezovsky denied the information about the purchase of the football club.

The military representatives of the CIS member states this week agreed on a document on their new status. As Grany was told at the CSTO secretariat, the Commonwealth military representatives will no longer be at the Headquarters for the Coordination of Military Cooperation (SHKVS) of the CIS, but at the Joint Headquarters of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Anatoly Chubais. Photo from the site www.altnet.ru The interrogation of the head of the RAO UES Anatoly Chubais in the prosecutor's office ended late in the evening on Thursday. According to RIA Novosti, this was announced by a member of the board of energy holding Andrei Trapeznikov. “Chubais left the prosecutor's office and“ went home to sleep, ”Trapeznikov told reporters.

In 2006, the Russian Air Force will receive new serial Mi-28N Night Hunter helicopters, RIA Novosti reports. This was stated in an interview with the agency by the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force for Aviation, Colonel-General Alexander Zelin. "The task has been rigidly set, as soon as state tests are completed in 2005, the machines will begin to enter service with the Air Force," he said.

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, called the ratification by Latvia of the EU Convention on National Minorities in a truncated form "profanity", RIA Novosti reports. The ratification by the Latvian Parliament of the European Convention on National Minorities "with very large exceptions is in many respects a profanation of Latvia's obligations, which it allegedly assumed," the minister told journalists.

Anatoly Chubais. Photo from the site www.vremea.net Anatoly Chubais arrived for interrogation in the prosecutor's office with a four -hour delay, RIA Novosti reports. It was summoned for interrogation in the case of turning off electricity in Moscow by four hours of day, but at that time he convened a press conference at which he said that he would find time to communicate with the prosecutor's office. "The prosecutor's office is sacred.

Evgeny Adamov. Photo from the site '' Novaya Gazeta '' Former Minister of Atomic Energy Evgeny Adamov abandoned the procedure for simplified extradition to Russia. According to RIA Novosti, this was announced by his Swiss lawyer Stefan Verenberg. The procedure for simplified extradition to Russia was proposed by Adamov last Friday, but the authorities and lawyers of the ex-minister refused to disclose his answer.

The Saeima of Latvia, after many hours of sitting, ratified the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on Friday, ITAR-TASS reports. The document was signed by the authorities of Latvia 10 years ago, and all these years international organizations insisted on its ratification. As the agency notes, the Latvian deputies approved the convention with two significant reservations.