The turnkey federation subject Crimea is hastily preparing for a referendum Photo: Baz Ratner / Reuters There is less than a week left before the Crimean referendum, which will raise the question of joining Russia. Initially, it was planned that the vote would take place in May, but then it was postponed to March 16, and as a result, the peninsula had to prepare for the plebiscite in an emergency mode. Meanwhile, the new Ukrainian authorities consider the planned referendum illegal.

The website thepetitionsite.com has begun collecting signatures for a petition to include The Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen in the list of nominees for the MTV Movie Awards. The list of candidates for the award was announced on March 6.

The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) hired several former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including the former head of the Mordovian department of the department, Sergei Kozlov. newspaper reported this on Tuesday, March 11, The Kommersant citing sources in the space industry.

Malaysian authorities have officially confirmed that one of the two passengers who boarded the missing Boeing with stolen passports was Iranian, the Associated Press reports . According to Malaysian police inspector general Khalid Abu Bakar, cited by CNN, 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad was most likely not associated with terrorists. According to the authorities, the Iranian, who was flying on false documents, was planning to seek asylum in Germany.

Fluctuations in the world economy have a much greater impact on Russia than any sanctions from Western countries. This was stated by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, RIA Novosti reports . According to Dvorkovich, the Russian government is constantly analyzing how possible Western sanctions in connection with the situation around Ukraine may affect the domestic economy.

The European Media Group stated that the radio station Europe Plus Kiev, which decided to speak “in Russia” instead of “in Russia,” has no relation to the network of radio stations Europe Plus and that the holding does not support the political position of its journalists. This is stated in a press release received by Lenta.ru. “The political statements of the Ukrainian station completely contradict the ideology of the Europe Plus brand,” the press release states.

The St. Petersburg football club Zenit confirmed the resignation of Italian Luciano Spalletti as head coach. A message about this was published on March 11 on the official website of Zenit. News of Spalletti's resignation appeared on Monday evening; the decision was made at a meeting of the club's board of directors. Sergei Semak, who was part of the Italian specialist’s staff, was appointed acting head coach.

Former head coach of the Russian national football team Valery Gazzaev was among the contenders for the post of new coach of St. Petersburg Zenit. As Sport-Express reports, Gazzaev is “one of the real candidates” for the position from which Italian Luciano Spalletti was fired on March 10. The conversation on the possible appointment of Gazzaev took place some time ago.

The new album of Grigory Leps “Gangster No. 1” topped the chart of the Russian branch of iTunes. Information on sales volumes for the period from March 3 to March 9 is available to Lenta.ru. “Gangster No. 1” is Leps’s 12th work. The album includes 15 compositions; Timati and Ani Lorak took part in the recording of individual songs. Gangster No. 1 went on sale March 4, with pre-orders available on iTunes starting February 28.

American writer George Saunders became the first winner of the British Folio Book Award. This is stated in a message posted on the award website. The award was given to Saunders' collection of short stories, Tenth of December, published in 2013 and becoming a New York Times bestseller. As Reuters clarifies , the book by the American writer was the only representative of short prose that made it to the finals.

Moscow will provide veterans of the Great Patriotic War from Sevastopol with a one-time payment for Victory Day in 2014. “Today we must make a decision to allocate one-time social assistance for Sevastopol veterans in the amount of five thousand rubles,” said the mayor of the city, Sergei Sobyanin, at a meeting of the capital’s government on March 11, RIA Novosti reports .

The Syrian government said it had released 25 prisoners from prison in exchange for the release of Orthodox nuns kidnapped by rebels. reports this with reference to the words of the country's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi Agence France-Presse . The government said it released only those prisoners “who did not have Syrian blood on their hands.” Al-Zoubi stressed that all other reports about the number of released are untrue.

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova lost in the third round of the Indian Wells tournament to Italian Camila Giorgi, according to the championship website. The match between the fifth and 79th rackets of the world ended with a score of 6:3, 4:6, 7:5 in favor of the latter. Sharapova, who won the Indian Wells tournament in 2006 and 2013, admitted she played quite poorly. In the fourth round, Giorgi will meet her compatriot Flavia Pennetta.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek hit a moped driver. Česká televize reported this on March 11. The incident occurred on the evening of Monday, March 10, in Prague. According to the police, Belbradek, while driving a car, did not allow a moped moving along the main road to pass at the intersection. The driver of the two-wheeler suffered minor injuries as a result of the collision.

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill allowing foreign pilots to work for Russian airlines. agency reported this on Tuesday, March 11 The Interfax . The bill gives foreigners the right to work in Russian civil aviation in any position, including as an aircraft commander. It is expected that, first of all, Russian companies will hire foreigners in this capacity, since the most acute shortage of personnel is observed in this area.