Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree declaring May 5 a day of mourning in Russia in connection with the plane crash in the Krasnodar Territory. The same document instructs the government to provide assistance to the families of the dead and injured. Presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov announced this on May 3. “Expressing grief for the victims and condolences to their families and friends, I decide to declare May 5 a Day of Mourning,” the document says.

1K 2 minutes. ... Yesterday, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced the former general director of the construction company Isko LTD LLC, ex-deputy of the Chelyabinsk City Duma Alexander Silin to 3 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony for embezzlement and embezzlement of property in the amount of more than 8 million rubles (part 3 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) .

Due to the ongoing May holidays, no significant social events are expected in Moscow this week. Read the “In the Week” section on May 10.

The deciphering of negotiations between the crew of the A-320 plane that crashed and the dispatchers at Sochi airport has begun. This was announced by the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin. The recordings are deciphered by technical specialists and employees of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to Mr. Levitin, the “black boxes” have not yet been discovered.

The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) sent a letter to President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko with a request to meet before May 5 and discuss the issue of forming a parliamentary coalition, RIA Novosti reported on May 3.

Vladimir Plotnikov re-elected leader of the APR congress The Agrarian Party of Russia (APR) intends to create its own faction in the State Duma following the results of the next elections. This goal was set for the party at the 13th Congress, which met last weekend. But first, the APR must solve the problem of leadership. The agrarians opposed to the re-elected party chairman Vladimir Plotnikov have already declared the last congress outlawed and are now preparing to prove it in court.

air transport Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov approved the new charter of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Transport Company 'Russia'" (STC "Russia"). This means the completion of the merger of state airlines Rossiya and Pulkovo. It follows from the document that the merged company will be registered in St. Petersburg, although Moscow will remain its second base airport.

Calin Popescu-Tariceanu Prime Minister of Romania "I can honestly say that corruption is no longer a problem for us." This statement was made by Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu in an interview with the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, backing up his words with a recent EU report on the progress Romania has made in recent years in the fight against corruption. "Before I became prime minister, most of the media were paid to be compliant," he said.

Today it became known that on the night of May 1-2, in the city of Belogorsk (Crimea), an act of vandalism was committed against the monument to the Crimean Tatar poet and scientist Bekir Choban-zade. As Kommersant was told by the press service of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, unknown attackers broke the marble slab on which the monument is located and also damaged the base of the sculpture.

In the coming days, Gazprombank will announce the purchase of 6.74 million shares of OJSC United Machine-Building Plants (OMZ) at 230 rubles. for paper. In the interests of its clients, the bank intends to acquire 19% of the company's ordinary shares. The securities controlled by the pool of investors led by the bank will be transferred to the balance sheet of the Moscow Forpost Management CJSC, which will become the owner of 95% of OMZ shares.

Gazprom will enter Centrica through NEGP OJSC Gazprom and Centrica PLC held preliminary negotiations on the British company receiving a share in the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) construction project, the British newspaper The Observer reported. This move could be a precursor to an asset swap deal in which Gazprom will receive a stake in Centrica. Gazprom declined to comment, although they did not deny the fact of negotiations.

Today, the press service of Pravex-Bank (Kyiv) announced the appointment of Stepan Chernovetsky, who had served as senior vice president of the bank since 2004, as acting chairman of the board. Mr. Chernovetsky will replace Alina Aivazova in this post. The candidacy for the head of the bank's board will be officially approved on May 25 at the general meeting of shareholders. JSCB Pravex-Bank was founded in 1992.

President of the National Bank of Georgia Roman Gotsiridze, speaking in parliament on May 3, proposed terminating licenses for Russian banks located in Abkhazia. Gazeta.Ru reports this According to him, banks in Abkhazia do not have a Georgian license and, accordingly, the operation of Russian banks in this territory is illegal. The President of the National Bank of Georgia also noted that Russian banks launder money in Abkhazia and, thus, Abkhazia faces economic annexation. According to Mr.

cultural policy / Milena Kommersant-Orlova Last week, unprecedented “Russian” auctions ended in New York (Kommersant wrote about them on April 21, 24, 26 and 28). Two auction houses - Sotheby`s and Christie`s - sold Russian art for a total of $70 million ($15 million - Christie`s, the rest - Sotheby`s), price records were set for individual artists. Everything would be absolutely fine if there was at least some logic in these numbers.

From May 13 to May 30, the VIII International Arts Festival “Kyiv Travnevy” will be held in the capital of Ukraine. About 20 theater groups from Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Syria, the USA, France, Korea, Great Britain and other countries will take part in the festival. Festival performances will be shown on the stages of the Young Theater, the Kyiv Operetta Theater, the Theater for Young Spectators on Lipki, the Center. Les Kurbas, Suzirie Theater Arts Workshop.