Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Colonel Nadin Iskhakov as head of the FSB border department for the Leningrad region and Colonel Ruslan Teziev as head of the FSB border department for Karelia; signed a decree appointing Alexander Glazkov as acting governor of the Astrakhan region (Governor of the Astrakhan region Anatoly Guzhvin died on August 17, 2004 from acute heart failure).

personnel certification Yesterday, a meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was held, at which it was announced that the second stage of its restructuring had begun - the universal certification of all scientific employees. Certification at 454 institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences will last throughout 2005, but after its completion there may be a significant decrease in the number of scientists in Russia.

Nizhny City Hall began to destroy illegal buildings 18 3 min. ... Yesterday, representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration, headed by the mayor, paid attention to small businesses: an illegally built cafe on the Grebnoy Canal was demolished. Kommersant correspondent ALISA VYATNIKOVA observed the altercation between the owners of the cafe, the Bagdasaryan couple, and Vadim Bulavinov.

To complete the restructuring corporate governance Yesterday MMC Norilsk Nickel announced an offer to exchange its securities for shares of RAO Norilsk Nickel. Within six months, the company's management intends to find the owners of 1.89% of RAO shares. They are not enough to complete the restructuring that has been ongoing for almost four years, aimed at increasing the transparency of the holding.

State Duma deputy Anatoly Ermolin, who last week disclosed facts of Kremlin pressure on United Russia deputies (see Kommersant on November 4), was expelled from the United Russia faction yesterday. This decision was made at a meeting of one of the four groups of this faction, headed by Vice Speaker Oleg Morozov. Mr. Ermolin said that he will remain an independent deputy and will not move to any other factions.

Conviction for selling ancient weapons upheld The Moscow City Court upheld the verdict in the case of artist Boris Melnikov, convicted of manufacturing and selling edged weapons - decorative copies of a club and a mace. As already reported, on January 27, 2004, near the Arbat Prestige store in Ochakovo, the artist Melnikov sold a club and a mace to two young men for $500. After completing the transaction, he was detained by police officers.

Why Yasser Arafat is not allowed to die power struggle Yesterday morning, French doctors reported that last night the health condition of Yasser Arafat, who has been in a coma for a week in the intensive care unit of the Paris military hospital Percy, sharply deteriorated. In the afternoon, a delegation of senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) leaders visited the hospital. They actually confirmed that Yasser Arafat as a person no longer exists.

shipwreck Yesterday, traffic resumed on the Suez Canal, blocked three days ago due to the accident of the Tropic Brilliance tanker, which ran aground due to a control failure. After pumping 23 thousand tons of oil onto the Karnak barge and the Al Nabila-4 tanker, the ship was refloated and towed to the dock. The owner of the ship, the Russian company Sovcomflot, suffered its first losses: chartering rescue ships cost about $1 million, which significantly exceeds the average rates in such cases.

7 2 minutes. ... Morning fixing ($/troy oz.)Daily fixing ($/troy oz.)Meas. (%)Buy / sell ($/troy oz.) Gold 432.3 433.65 +0.41 435.55 / 436.3 Silver — 7.43 -0.20 7.51 / 7.54 Platinum 848 846 -0.12 848 / 852 Palladium 214 213 -0.23 211 / 216 Rhodium — — — 1280 / 1380 According to Reuters. Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 210 dated November 10, 2004, p. 18

Today marks the 85th anniversary of the chief designer, head of the small arms bureau of Izhmash Concern OJSC, Mikhail Kalashnikov. Chairman of the Board of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais congratulates Mikhail Kalashnikov on his anniversary: — I sincerely congratulate Mikhail Timofeevich on his 85th birthday! Kalashnikov is the creator of the glory of Russian small arms, successfully continuing the traditions of Russian gunsmiths.

Another 27 are considered missing search operation Yesterday, during search operations in the Sea of ​​Japan at the site of the sinking of the motor ships Arosa and West (Kommersant wrote about the disasters on November 4 and 5), the bodies of five Russian sailors were found. 27 cargo ship crew members are considered missing. There was practically no chance of finding them alive. The transports Arosa and West sank during a storm off the coast of Primorye on November 2.

Russobit-soft faces a loss of $1.5 million intellectual property Yesterday, a long-standing dispute between the largest Western record companies and the Russian CD manufacturer Russobit-Soft developed. Foreign companies are demanding $1.5 million from the plant for illegally duplicating their products (Kommersant wrote about the start of the process on December 18, 2003).

He could go to court for this 46 3 min. ... Yesterday, the department of the Prosecutor General's Office in the Northwestern Federal District announced that the former vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Viktor Krotov, had been charged with a new version. According to the prosecutor's office, in 2000-2003, Mr. Krotov handled bank loans too freely and entered deliberately false data into the budget execution report for 2000.

The Ministry of Education has identified new priorities reform The Board of the Ministry of Education and Science approved the draft priority directions for the development of Russian education. It was developed in conditions of budget optimization: it was decided to preserve only economically profitable areas of the educational process, expanding the scope of additional (paid) educational services. It is impossible to call a new project a document written from scratch.

After his registration as a candidate was cancelled. 45 2 minutes. ... Yesterday, the head of the administration of the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug (UBAO) Valery Maleev said that on November 8 he sent a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation against the decision of the district court to cancel his registration as a candidate for the post of head of the district administration.