"The Coast of Utopia" by Tom Stoppard at the Youth Theater Premiere theater The Russian Youth Theater produced a nine-hour epic performance based on Tom Stoppard's trilogy, dedicated to the history of Russian revolutionary thought of the 19th century. Having started a grandiose project two years ago, the implementation of which was hard to believe, the theater did not get bogged down, but sailed to a worthy premiere. ALLA SHENDEROVA reports.

The head of customs received a suspended sentence for bribery 47 2 minutes. ... Yesterday, the Kirov court of the city of Astrakhan sentenced the head of the customs post of the Olya port, Alexander Steklyannikov, accused of fraud. The head of customs extorted a bribe from a company transporting a cargo of grapes from Turkmenistan through the port, but he was tried under Part 3 of Art.

The international rating agency Fitch has downgraded the long-term issuer default rating of Russian Standard Bank from BB to BB-. According to the agency's press release, the rating outlook is assessed as "stable".

The company will be headed by a friend and colleague of Vladimir Putin After almost a month's delay, the candidacy of the new head of Transneft, the state monopoly for oil transportation in Russia, has been agreed upon. This chair will be occupied by a personal friend and colleague of President Vladimir Putin, general director of the state-owned Zarubezhneft OJSC Nikolai Tokarev. His candidacy, agreed upon by the relevant departments, was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration.

"Ukrspirt" has developed a program for the development of the industry until 2011 The Ukrspirt State Concern has found a way to make the work of its member enterprises profitable. The concern has developed a program for the development of the alcohol industry until 2011, which involves increasing Ukrspirt's revenue by 1 billion UAH per year due to the production of biofuel at distilleries.

Police fined guests of the forum in memory of Anna Politkovskaya 29 3 min. ... The international human rights organization Human Rights First accused the Nizhny Novgorod authorities of persecuting foreign human rights activists who arrived at the forum in memory of Anna Politkovskaya. The statement was a reaction to the fact that a forum scheduled for Saturday was disrupted, and foreign guests were detained and fined for violating immigration laws.

Official opinion Supporters of the Flemish far-right party Voorpost, which advocates the independence of the northern Belgian region of Flanders from southern Wallonia, held a rally near Brussels under the slogan “Belgium, die!” After shouting a number of slogans offensive to the French-speaking Walloons, the radicals burned the Belgian flag.

742 1 min. ... Delivery immediately Delivery in 3 months SettlementPrev. ClosingLastPrev. closing Aluminum 2335.5 2379.5 2395.5 2433 Copper 7990 8269 7932.5 8225 Nickel 29550 31090 30200 31700 Zinc 2930.5 3067 2950 3060 Tin 15850 15965 15900 16200 Lead 3740 3801 3630 3700 London Metal Exchange quotes ($/t). According to Reuters. Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 176 dated 09.10.2007, p. 10

Today, October 9, in Kyiv, as part of an information meeting for representatives of foreign states and international organizations, the book “Declassified Memory.

Today, October 9, President Viktor Yushchenko issued a decree according to which the heads of departments and regional bodies of the Security Service (SBU), the Anti-Terrorism Center and a number of other bodies of the SBU are appointed and dismissed by the president.

More than 6 thousand residents of Vladivostok have been left without electricity for more than ten hours due to a power failure, a representative of the city's control room told RIA Novosti on October 9. “Late in the evening of October 8, vandals cut the power cable on Russky Island, which is territorially part of Vladivostok, as a result of which the entire island was cut off. To date, power supply has not been restored,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

Russia and France will jointly fight improvised explosive devices, Brigadier General Jean Michel Gras, the defense attaché at the French Embassy, ​​said in an interview with RIA Novosti on October 9. Mr. Gra said that a meeting of experts from the military departments of the two countries in the field of mine clearance is planned for the end of 2007.

Contracts FIFA President Sepp Blatter intends to reconsider the terms of the agreement under which the former Secretary General of this organization Urs Linsi will receive 8 million Swiss francs ($6.8 million) for early termination of his contract. Let us remember that Mr. Linsey left FIFA in June of this year. Mr. Linsey's case will be considered at a meeting of the FIFA executive committee, which will be held on October 29-30 in Zurich. Reuters

Irakli Okruashvili exposed himself on TV The scandal surrounding the arrest of former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili received an unexpected continuation yesterday. The Rustavi 2 TV channel, controlled by the Georgian authorities, showed footage of Mr. Okruashvili’s confessional testimony, in which the arrested man confessed to acts of corruption, admitting at the same time that he deliberately slandered the country’s president.

Monitoring/Expectations In the third quarter of 2007, Rosstat's consumer confidence index (CII) dropped to 0.5%. In the second quarter, this figure was zero (the maximum in the entire history of observations). Rosstat notes “continued positive trends in consumer expectations.” Those who assess the situation positively and negatively are approximately equally divided; in 2000, there were 25% more pessimists than optimists.