A monument to the Dagestan poet Rasul Gamzatov was erected at St. Petersburg State University. This is stated in a message on the university website. A sculpture with a bust of the poet was unveiled in the courtyard of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, the St. Petersburg TV channel reports. A delegation from Makhachkala, led by Deputy Chairman of the Government of Dagestan Ramazan Jafarov, came to the opening ceremony of the monument in St. Petersburg.

Bravery of the first category How Russian airborne troops work Photo: Alexey Kudenko / RIA Novosti November 2013 marked a year since the Ministry of Defense was headed by Sergei Shoigu. The arrival of Shoigu, one of the most unsinkable Russian politicians, to the department was perceived, among other things, as an “anti-crisis” measure.

Rebels in a city near Damascus besieged by the Syrian government army have signed a truce agreement with the authorities. reported this on December 25 Agence France-Presse , citing representatives of the rebels. According to the agreement, which entered into force on December 25, the official flag was raised over the city of Moadamiyet al-Sham for 72 hours. In exchange for this, the authorities will provide food and medical care to city residents.

In 2013, the Russian Air Force received more than a hundred new helicopters of various types. This as reported by RIA Novosti was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev, . According to him, the state defense order for the supply of Ka-52 attack helicopters this year was fully completed; The military received 14 vehicles of this type. The pace of delivery of the Ka-52 in 2014 will continue.

Newborn babies at a medical center in California were placed in large Christmas boots, reports the Associated Press . More than two hundred fleece boots were made for the babies, sewn by volunteers who donated them to the maternity ward. 16 volunteers took part in the project and took up sewing. All children born in December 2013 received boots. When they are discharged from the hospital, the Christmas diapers are given to their parents as souvenirs.

The recording company "Melodiya" will upload the recording of Svyatoslav Richter's solo concert, which was considered lost, to the iTunes store. reports this RIA Novosti with reference to company representatives. The film of the pianist’s performance as part of the “December Evenings” festival at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts on December 29, 1985 was digitized. A digital copy will be available for purchase starting December 29, 2013.

Photographer Denis Sinyakov, who worked on the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise on behalf of Lenta.ru, has been granted amnesty. This is stated in a press release from the environmental organization published on December 25. In total, 29 out of 30 ship crew members received a resolution from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to close the criminal case under the article “hooliganism.” Only the Italian Christian D'Alessandro did not receive the document.

The administration of the Habrakhabr blog service has decided to resume the work of the Dura Lex hub (thematic section), dedicated to the discussion of laws governing the IT industry. this on December 25 The founder and owner of the resource, Denis Kryuchkov, announced on his Twitter. “Bringing back Dura Lex, but renaming it to something clearer and more predictable,” he said in a tweet. According to Kryuchkov, the site realized that they were wrong and “got overboard” by deleting the hub.

The alleged leader of a gang that supplied heroin to the whole of Siberia was detained in Tomsk. agency reported this on December 25 The ITAR-TASS with reference to the head of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Tomsk Region, Igor Tolstonosov. According to investigators, a 42-year-old resident of Tomsk led a network through which wholesale quantities of heroin from Tajikistan and Kazakhstan were supplied to the Siberian Federal District and some regions of other federal districts.

For the first time since 1998, Evgeni Plushenko failed to win the Russian Championship. reports this Interfax . The ten-time national champion lost in total points to Maxim Kovtun. After his performance in the free program, Plushenko announced that at the Olympics in Sochi he intended to take part only in team competitions. “I think I will choose a team tournament and give individual competitions to a young promising athlete. I understand everything sensibly and adequately.

One of the activists of the Kyiv “Euromaidan” (actions in support of the European integration of Ukraine) injured himself with a knife. was informed about this UNN by the local police department. The man did not explain the motives for his action. “He did this in front of witnesses in one of the tents erected on the Maidan. Witnesses say that the man behaved inappropriately, began to cut bread, and then, out of nowhere, plunged a knife into his throat,” the agency’s interlocutor noted.

Near Kiev, two unknown persons attacked Ukrainian journalist Tatyana Chornovil, reports the Ukrayinska Pravda publication. The journalist, who published on the pages of Ukrayinska Pravda and wrote a blog on the publication’s website, was taken to the emergency room after the attack and was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, hematomas and facial injuries.

The British television channel Channel 4, part of the BBC, will show an alternative Christmas greeting from Edward Snowden on the afternoon of December 25th. A video of the congratulations, which became Snowden's first television interview since his arrival in Russia, has already been posted on the Channel 4 website (you must register to view, but the video is available in your RT America account ).

“Ustvolskaya is a typical outsider” Lenta.ru publishes an excerpt from the book “Conversations with Contemporary Composers” Galina Ustvolskaya At the end of December, the Ivan Limbach Publishing House published a book by critic and writer Dmitry Bavilsky, “On Poste restante: Conversations with Contemporary Composers” - a collection of interviews with the main figures of today’s world of academic music: from Anton Batagov and Sergei Nevsky to Dmitry Kurlyandsky and Olga Raeva.

At the end of December, the Ivan Limbach Publishing House published a book by critic and writer Dmitry Bavilsky, “On Poste restante: Conversations with Contemporary Composers” - a collection of interviews with the main figures of today’s world of academic music: from Anton Batagov and Sergei Nevsky to Dmitry Kurlyandsky and Olga Raeva.