In Crimea, they are concerned about the replacement of Russian names of settlements on the peninsula with Ukrainian ones. Chairman of the Crimean Society of Russian Culture, professor of the Tauride National University Vladimir Kazarin called this “another act of outrage against the culture of Crimea.” The population was particularly outraged by the renaming of Russian villages, the names of which reflect historical events.

Today the fate of the news editorial staff of the AST channel may be decided. This satellite TV channel belongs to Gazprom and broadcasts only to the regions. Starting from April 14, a significant part of AST broadcasting is the broadcast of Channel 4. Almost all news broadcasts that AST broadcasts are also taken from the “new” NTV.

The syncretic religious sect Aum Shinrikyo is conducting a large-scale campaign to recruit new adherents using e-mail, the Ananova website reports. In 1995, a sarin gas attack carried out by a sect on the Tokyo subway killed 12 people. Tokyo police believe Aum Shinrikyo may have used university databases to contact more than 40,000 college students.

Kamchatka is on the verge of energy collapse, NTV reports. As of today, electricity has been turned off in boiler houses serving part of the city of Petropavlovsk. Seeing no real chance on the part of the authorities to pay off debts, Kamchatskenergo intends to turn off the transmitters of central television and radio channels in the near future. There is currently a discussion going on about the possibility of cutting off the supply of cold water.

In Moscow, the government today approved the draft land code. This document provides for the introduction of private ownership of land. After the final approval of the law, most people, for example, will be able to obtain ownership of their summer cottages.

After Galatasaray's home victory over Real Madrid, when the Turks lost 0:2 during the match but managed to snatch victory, the return game aroused particular interest, although preference should still have been given to the hosts, who were performing successfully at the Santiago Bernabeu. Now we can say that Madrid punished the upstarts from Turkey with little blood, demonstrating an excellent game in the first half and not allowing Zhardel and his comrades to score in the second.

The capital's police are looking for a man who committed a robbery last night, an ITAR-TASS correspondent was told at the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate. On Wednesday night, 45-year-old Lyubov Asmolova, director of state gymnasium number 1514, adviser to the district assembly of the Lomonosovsky District Administration, contacted the police. She said that near house 28 on Butlerov Street she was attacked by an unknown man.

Spanish prosecutor Eduardo Fungarinho will not appeal against the court's decision refusing to extradite Gusinsky to Russia Thus, the Spanish prosecutor's office decided not to appeal the decision of the Higher Institution of the National Judicial College of Spain.

ITAR-TASS reports this with reference to the president of the UNICS basketball club Evgeny Bogachev. “On May 8, we will renew the contract with Avleev, suspended during the period of disqualification due to the emergency that occurred on November 7 last year . Naturally, he will not receive the same money, we will pay less, he did not help us in the Saporta Cup.

The administration of Odessa invited former US President Bill Clinton to participate in the international jazz festival, which will be held there in August of this year. This information was confirmed today by ITAR-TASS in the Department for Youth and Family Affairs of the Odessa City Executive Committee.

6 million Jews died during the years of the catastrophe from 5700 to 5705 from the creation of the world, during the Second World War, if we use the calendar more familiar to us. On the eve of Holocaust Day, the victims were remembered in Moscow. 6 million, one and a half million Soviet citizens among them. This is a statistic and a personal tragedy for those whose loved ones disappeared in concentration camps and ghettos, and for you and me, who were unable to prevent this.

Over the course of a whole day of searching on the ice of Lake Baikal, the NTV film crew and fish inspection staff managed to discover more than 80 rookeries where female seals hid newly born “puff puffs” under the snow 2-3 weeks ago. Now it’s like being in a graveyard. There was not a single living squirrel left. Only occasionally do you come across fragments of nets. Already at sunset we were lucky: we discovered a hole in which there was still an inhabitant - a dead one.

Vladimir Gusinsky decided to sell all his shares in the NTV television company. The head of the Media-Most holding stated this today in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station. According to Gusinsky, “the company in its current form and with the new current management” does not represent “any interest” for him as a shareholder. According to Gusinsky, “with the departure of most of the journalists who were the face of the company, NTV no longer has” any attractiveness for him.

The first case of suspected foot-and-mouth disease has been recorded in Latvia. This was announced by the press secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Dagnia Muceniece, Interfax reports with reference to the BNS agency. According to the press secretary, a case of illness in a cow was detected in the Maliensky volost of the Aluksne region of Latvia. And according to experts, it could be foot and mouth disease.

Canadian police prevented a terrorist attack that one of the radical youth groups planned to carry out during the economic summit of North and Latin America in Quebec. The police conducted an investigation for more than a year, and eventually arrested six activists, including two military men and a retired reservist.