The presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation discussed the Ukrainian crisis by phone On Tuesday, for the first time in six months, US President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The conversation took place on the eve of a meeting in Minsk in the “Normandy format”, on which many pin their last hope for resolving the conflict in Donbass.

The head of the administration of Rostov-on-Don has a new deputy. As reported on the administration’s website, since February 2, 2015, 37-year-old Viktor Fomin has been working as Sergei Gorban’s deputy for organizational, legal and personnel issues. Mr. Fomin’s last place of work (2014-2015) was the federal state budgetary cultural institution “Agency for the Management and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments” in Nizhny Novgorod, where he was director.

The head of the Nizhny Novgorod administration, Oleg Kondrashov, is suspected of abuses in the sale of shares in one of the companies.

The last appointee of ex-head of the region Sergei Darkin leaves the administration The first vice-governor of Primorye, Alexander Kostenko, who oversaw the budgetary sector and the economy of the region, is leaving his post. He will receive a deputy mandate from the head of the Committee on Economic Policy and Property of the Legislative Assembly (LA), Viktor Grebnev, who is moving to work in the regional administration.

How did the negotiations take place in the Normandy format? On February 11 in Minsk, the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine - Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and Petro Poroshenko - held negotiations in the Normandy format to resolve the situation in Ukraine. Many call the summit the last chance to stabilize the situation in the country. How the meeting went - in the Kommersant photo gallery.

The head of a district in the Volgograd region is accused of abuse of power In the Volgograd region, a criminal case has been initiated against the head of the Surovikinsky district administration, Alexander Bozhko. According to the regional investigative department of the Investigative Committee, he is accused of exceeding official powers. According to investigators, in June 2011, Alexander Bozhko purchased a plot of 400 square meters. m in the village of Nizhny Chir.

Regulators have become too expensive In February, the decline in the volume of banks' current debt to the Central Bank accelerated. Previously, there was a redistribution between different types of borrowing - banks borrowed less against securities (through repo transactions), but increased lending from the regulator against non-marketable assets.

According to Rosstat, inflation in Russia from February 3 to February 9 was 0.6%. Since the beginning of February, consumer prices have increased by 0.9%, since the beginning of the year - by 4.8%. Earlier, Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev said that the peak of inflation in Russia will be in March-April in the range of 15-17%. Read more about inflation in Russia in the Dengi magazine article “Does your personal inflation coincide with the official one?”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko returned to negotiations in the Normandy format, RIA Novosti reports. Earlier it was reported that the Ukrainian leader left the room and went up to the second floor of the Palace of Independence in Minsk. Kommersant is conducting an online text broadcast of what is happening in the capital of Belarus.

Payments to depositors (KhMAD), deprived of a license by decision of the Central Bank of Russia, will begin no later than February 25, 2015. According to the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), agent banks for payment of compensation will be selected by February 17. Depositors will be paid 100% of the amount of all their accounts (deposits) with the credit institution, but not more than 1.4 million rubles in total.

On June 21, 2013 , a 63-year-old pensioner, detained on suspicion of murdering a man, died at the Mezhdurechensk police station in the Kemerovo region. During the interrogation, he became ill; the arriving ambulance team carried out resuscitation measures for an hour, but they were unable to save the suspect. The cause of death was acute heart failure.

The US military and its allies carried out ten airstrikes on the positions of militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group on Tuesday and Wednesday, the US military reported. Coalition aircraft carried out four strikes on militant positions in Syria and six on positions in Iraq, Reuters reports. In Syria, bombings were carried out on targets near the city of Kobani, two firing positions, a tactical unit and a checkpoint were destroyed.

The auction for the sale of the property complex of the Chernoluchinsky recreation center “Vzlyot” was recognized as successful. “The initial price was 5 million rubles, as a result, the auction ended at 13 million. The winning party was Omsknefteprovodstroy,” Deputy Minister of Property Relations of the Omsk Region Evgeny Kozlov said today. The lot includes seven prefabricated panel houses with a total area of ​​416 sq. m. m, sports facility with an area of ​​359.8 sq.

The sale of Eurasia Drilling raised questions from the FAS Problems arose during a large and unexpected transaction for the sale of 45.65% in the Russian oil services company Eurasia Drilling to the American Schlumberger, announced three weeks ago. The FAS, which has already sent a corresponding request, wants to carefully study it. Eurasia Drilling itself believed that approval of the service would not be required. Kommersant's sources call the threat of a complete breakdown of the deal real.

The Russian Foreign Ministry proposed opening an analogue of the Soviet Beryozka store in Moscow. According to Gazeta.Ru, the head of the ministry, Sergei Lavrov, sent a letter with such a proposal to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the end of last year. It is reported that the Duty Free store will be available to foreign diplomats and their family members. Details are in the material by Ivan Koryakin and Evgeny Snegov.