Revaz Gedzhadze devoted this action to the Olympic traffic in Georgia, as well as, those 36 Georgian athletes who will take part in the Olympics in Sydney. The veteran of the Great Patriotic War crossed the river twice. Being a disabled person of the second group, Revaz Gedzhadze sailed to Kuru completely unusual: in his hands and fingers of one leg he held the green branches and at the same time did not soak them.

Trading in Russian shares opened with a good rise in prices, traders say. The main resistance levels have been broken, the prices of shares of oil companies are growing most consistently. AK&M reports.

Defense spending in the 2001 budget could be increased by increasing the budgeted GDP figures or by abandoning the zero-deficit budget. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Budget Committee, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Budget Legislation Vitaly Shuba told reporters about this today. According to him, one can try to solve this problem by redistributing expenses between individual budget items.

A working meeting between the Secretary of State of the Union of Russia and Belarus Pavel Borodin and the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Belarusian Government Andrei Kobyakov took place in Minsk. They were talking about the agenda of the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Russian-Belarusian Union scheduled for August 30. During the meeting the following agreements were reached.

The case on the fact of the death of the Kursk crew was opened under Article 263 part 3 of the Criminal Code - "Violation of the rules of traffic safety and the operation of railway, air or water transport, which entailed by negligence the death of two or more persons." Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said on August 24 that the criminal case has already been instituted, but the article would be determined only after the causes of the submarine disaster are known.

According to the Center for Macroeconomic Research of the UNICON/MS Consulting Group, the increase in the money supply in Russia in the first half of 2000 amounted to 26.6%. This level exceeds the forecast level of money supply growth, which was determined by the Bank of Russia for the entire year 2000. According to the Center's calculations, the increase in the money supply in real terms for the first half of 2000 was 15.6% when calculated using the consumer price index.

Indiana police officer Ben Endres has a conflict between his religious worldview and professional duty. Faith has prevailed, and now he faces dismissal. Endres was ordered to oversee gambling on a floating casino on Lake Michigan. Being a devout Baptist, he refused to comply with the order because Baptistism considers gambling a serious sin. The authorities decided to punish the overly pious policeman, and he was fired. Endres has filed an appeal and is now awaiting a decision in his case.

In Moscow, a fraudster was detained, who forged registration documents. According to the investigation, criminals who are on the federal wanted list could take advantage of his services. As the NTV television company, Yuri Savelyev, who "helped" the guests of the capital, was told to receive Moscow registration, was detained by employees of the department for the fight against economic crimes of the North-Eastern District of the capital.

In Cherepovets, a tournament began for the prizes of the Severstal Joint -Stock Company, also known as Belyaev's memorial. The main surprise of the first day was the defeat of the country's champions √ the capital Dynamo - from the Neftekhimik from Nizhnekamsk √ 1: 3. The team of Zinetulla Belyaletdinov later began to prepare for the season and is far from their best form.

The Russian Aluminum company intends to acquire a stake in Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant OJSC, owned by the former chairman of the board of directors of KrAZ Anatoly Bykov. This was stated by the press secretary of the Russian Aluminum company, Vladimir Alexandrov, as reported by RBC. The day before, Anatoly Bykov announced his intention to sell his stake in the aluminum smelter, which amounts to 28%. According to Aleksandrov, offers to the former head of KrAZ to sell shares were made before.

Kazakhstan strengthens the southern borders in case of the invasion of Islamic extremists from the territory of Uzbekistan. The Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan Sat Tokpakbaev, speaking on television, said that specially prepared detachments of mountain shooters were sent to the border. Plans for their deployment are coordinated with the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and border guards.

US Minister Richard Danzig said that "if there is some useful information that we can share, we will be happy to discuss it with the Russian side." Earlier about the existence of such data collected by the Loyal Navy intelligence ship and two submarines that ply at the time of the accident in the Barents Sea, unnamed sources in the Pentagon said. We are talking about the records of two explosions that were supposedly recorded by submarine equipment in the disaster.

This was announced today by the deputy of the State Duma, Alexander Klyukin, who, among four more people, filed a petition to the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk on the release of a famous entrepreneur from custody, which became the basis for his exit to freedom.

President Vladimir Putin discussed today with the head of the Central Bank Viktor Gerashchenko the state of Russian finances.

In the first league of the Russian football championship, 10 matches of the 25th round took place. The tournament leader, Saratov's Sokol, lost away to Baltika Kaliningrad with a score of 0:1, but is still the main contender for promotion to the major league. However, the Moscow Torpedo-ZIL approached the Saratov team, defeating the Krasnoyarsk Metallurg 4:1. Now the Torpedo team is only four points behind Sokol.