Sovereign Dynacracy Civil war begins in South Sudan Photo: Goran Tomasevic / Reuters Civil war begins in South Sudan. The reasons for Africa are traditional: the reluctance of the elites to share the proceeds from the plunder of the country and tribal disunity. The warring parties have no serious reasons not to engage in mortal combat, so a brutal and prolonged conflict seems almost inevitable.

On December 20, a court in the city of Ob, Novosibirsk Region, arrested former official Andrei Tretyakov, accused of disorderly conduct on board an airplane, for two months. reports this Interfax . During the hearing, investigators argued that, while at large, the accused could escape or put pressure on witnesses. Tretyakov’s lawyer, for his part, asked to release his client on bail in the amount of one million rubles.

On December 19, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana. On board the rocket was the Gaia space observatory (Gaia, Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, that is, the Global Astrometric Astrophysical Interferometer). Located at the second Lagrange point, the device will collect data on the Milky Way, dark matter and exoplanets.

One of the conditions for the sale of the Mozyr oil refinery to the Russian state-owned company Rosneft is to increase the volume of raw materials processed to 20 million tons by 2020. As BelTA reports, this was stated by Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Prokopovich. At the end of 2012, refining volumes at the plant amounted to 11.3 million tons of oil. Rosneft has taken time to think, the deputy chairman of the government said.

The prototype of the American promising orbital unmanned aerial vehicle X-37B spent more than a year in space. It is unknown what tasks the drone performs in orbit. Data about its payload is also classified. The US Air Force, in whose interests the project is being carried out, does not disclose the return date of the device. According to Space.com, the military only announced that after returning, the X-37B will likely land at NASA's Cape Canaveral facility in Florida.

The head coach of the Kazan football club "Rubin" Kurban Berdyev was dismissed. Berdyev, who worked as Rubin’s mentor for 12 years, was fired by the decision of the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, who had long been dissatisfied with both the players’ performance and the state of affairs at the club. Candidates for Berdyev's place in Rubin are Yuri Semin, Stanislav Cherchesov and a certain Spanish specialist. Berdyev was more than just a coach for the Kazan club.

Tajikistan rejected the accusations of German journalists who reported that cars stolen from Germany (in particular, BMWs) end up on Tajik territory and end up in the possession of people close to the family of President Emomali Rahmon. reports this Radio Ozodi . A refutation was made by the Ambassador of Tajikistan in Berlin, Imomiddin Sattorov. He stated that the information about the stolen cars contained in the article of the German newspaper BILD is not true.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation revealed the theft of 1.2 billion rubles from Rosselkhozbank. This was reported on the department’s website on December 20. Several former employees of the bank, as well as heads of a number of companies, became defendants in the fraud case. Their names are not mentioned. Searches are being conducted in the suspects' apartments in Moscow and Novosibirsk.

Russian mixed martial arts fighter Alexander Emelianenko will hold his next fight on January 26, 2014. Emelianenko’s opponent will be his compatriot Dmitry Sosnovsky. This was reported in a press release received by the editors of Lenta.ru. The fight between Emelianenko and Sosnovsky will take place in St. Petersburg as part of the Colosseum tournament. New story".

Deputies of the A Just Russia party have submitted a bill to the State Duma, if adopted, young families in need of improved housing conditions will receive additional support measures. reports this RIA Novosti . According to the head of the Committee on Family, Women and Children, Elena Mizulina, the document provides for the possibility of providing young large families with an interest-free loan for up to 25 years for the purchase or construction of housing.

The largest car dealer in terms of the number of cars sold, Avtomir, refused to renew the agreement with AvtoVAZ for 2014. Kommersant writes about this in its issue of December 20, citing an unnamed source. Avtomir confirmed to the publication that they decided to refuse cooperation with the Lada manufacturer.

BlackBerry has entered into a partnership with Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn. This was announced in a BlackBerry press release ( PDF ) issued on Friday, December 20. Under the terms of the partnership, BlackBerry and Foxconn will jointly develop low-cost smartphones for emerging markets, particularly Indonesia and Mexico. The devices will be produced by a Taiwanese company. The partnership is concluded for a period of five years.

The Ukrainian leadership has lost the trust of the European Union. This was stated by the head of the Lithuanian presidency of the EU, Dalia Grybauskaite, ITAR-TASS reports . “The Yanukovych government lost the trust of the European Union in Vilnius when it refused to sign the association agreement,” the agency quotes her as saying.

The Ministry of Education and Science will introduce a new permanent position in 2014 - federal professor or federal researcher. The head of the ministry, Dmitry Livanov, stated this at a meeting of the Russian Presidential Council for Science and Education, Interfax reports . Leading Russian scientists and university teachers will be able to occupy such positions on a permanent basis, the minister added. It is proposed to select candidates through national competitions.

State Duma deputies chipped in for the New Year's skit, said Chairman of Parliament Sergei Naryshkin. reports this Interfax . According to Naryshkin, parliamentarians will organize a concert with the participation of invited pop stars. He did not specify who will perform at the event, but emphasized that the performers will not take money for the numbers. The corporate event will take place on December 21 in the State Duma meeting room.