Talks were held in the Kaliningrad region between Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov and US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. The meeting was dedicated to the implementation of the Minsk agreements to resolve the conflict in Donbass. “It was a kind of brainstorming to find compromises for the implementation of the Minsk agreements,” Surkov said after the meeting.

A hotel has been attacked in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. According to BBC News, two cars exploded outside the hotel building. After that, three or four armed men burst inside. There was a shootout between them and the security service. There are no data on casualties yet. according to AFP . The Splendid Hotel is frequented by Westerners and UN staff,

How today's middle class and intelligentsia are the runaway serfs of a virtual borderland Photo: Sergei Savostyanov / TASS / Scanpix Perpetually in the headlines because of new laws and regulations limiting its use and reach, but simultaneously a surviving bastion of freedom, the Russian Internet is one of Russia's most curious spaces.

State Duma Vice Speaker Nikolai Levichev called on the head of Sberbank, German Gref, to resign after speaking about Russia as a “downshifter country.” The deputy's statement was published on the Just Russia website. “These assessments could have been left to Gref's conscience if he had not headed the country's largest bank. What must millions of depositors be thinking when they listen to such irresponsible statements? Levich wrote.

A passenger Boeing-737 operated by UTair Airlines, flying from Moscow, made an emergency landing at Samara's Kurumoch airport. The plane landed with the engine off, according to the RF IC. The incident occurred at 18:40 local time (17:40 Moscow time). There were 43 passengers and six crew members on board the plane, none of them were injured. An investigative team is working at the scene.

ISS astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peak have interrupted spacewalks due to the discovery of water in Kopra's helmet. According to NASA, the astronauts were not in danger, they returned to the ISS in normal mode. What caused the appearance of water in the helmet is still unknown. The spacewalk lasted 4 hours and 43 minutes. The main goal of the work - the replacement of a broken voltage regulator - was completed.

The Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow arrested until March 14 the mechanic Alexei Belousov, who was detained in the case of the collapse of the floor of the elevator car in the Scarlet Sails residential complex. According to the investigation, at large, Belousov could "influence the witnesses and the course of the investigation," TASS reports. During the meeting, the suspect stated that he did not admit guilt. “I do not admit my guilt. The inspection was carried out as planned.

The cost of one barrel of Brent oil on the ICE exchange fell below $29 . As of 20:32 Moscow time, a barrel cost $28.88. The 2016 budget of the Russian Federation, which includes a GDP deficit of no more than 3 percent, is drawn up based on the average annual price of Russian Urals oil of $50 per barrel. Urals is always cheaper than Brent. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the federal budget for 2016 should be adjusted based on the average annual oil price of $40 per barrel.

The Russian delegation refused to travel to the Green Week 2016 agricultural exhibition in Germany , as the Germans refused to issue a visa to the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Alexander Tkachev. Germany did not issue a visa to Tkachev, as EU sanctions were imposed on him in connection with the annexation of Crimea to Russia. The European Union announcement ( .pdf ) on the imposition of sanctions states that Tkachev was one of the first to support the annexation of the peninsula.

Photo: Warner Music The British Brit Pop Group Suede releases the new Night Thoughs album on January 22, the second after the Reunion of 2010. Especially for him, Suede was asked by the photographer Roger Sargenta to make a film that became a video of each song from the record. "Medusa" represents an exclusive premiere of the clip for the song No Tomorrow from the new album of the group. The video on No Tomorrow is the most gloomy, as the musicians themselves say, part of the film.

Russian "Wikipedia" published a list of articles that were most often edited and edited. The top ten includes several summary articles about people who died in 2012-2015 - such articles are corrected throughout each year due to their specifics. If you remove them from the list, it turns out that the article about Joseph Stalin was most often edited - it survived 9853 edits.

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the government's idea to transfer the powers to collect pension payments to the Federal Tax Service. In addition, the Federal Tax Service will collect customs payments. “Thus, there will be a unified system of administration, collection and, accordingly, the subsequent use of all tax and non-tax payments,” the prime minister emphasized.

How a Russian city councilman was pressured into apologizing for harsh words aimed at Ramzan Kadyrov Photo: Viktor Khrebtov / TASS / Scanpix Krasnoyarsk city councilman Konstantin Senchenko did something this week that few people in office ever do in Russia.

Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP / Scanpix The Economist magazine in the room of January 16 honored the memory of David Bowie, compiling a subtitle in a news review of the musician's songs. Note to reduce oil prices is called Under Pressure; A message about a 32 billion dollars between pharmaceutical companies is called Golden Years, and the text about the last appeal of Barack Obama - The Man Who Fell to Earth (that is the name of the film, where Bowie was shot).

Undeserved bestsellers: new books from the authors of Shantarama, Cloud Atlas and Elegance of the Hedgehog A weekly literary critic Galina Yuzefovich tells at Medusa about the most important, noticeable and interesting book novelties. In this issue there are three pseudo -intelligent novels that will certainly become bestsellers, although it is not clear why: “Elf life” Muriel Barberi, “Shadow of Mountain” by Gregori David Roberts and “Easy mortals” David Mitchell.