The rating of the best signs to the first persons of the state for 2009 was headed by artists - actor Mikhail Boyarsky and poetess Irina Konnova. With difficulty, the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov fell into the top three of the leaders. All three winners spoke about Vladimir Putin. Among the leading best flatts of Russia-2009 were also a musician, interrogator, patriarch, coach and deputy.

The Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II, who arrived on Christmas holidays in the English castle Sandringham, decided to celebrate them this year in a narrow family circle - only with relatives. 27-year-old Kate Middleton, a friend of the eldest grandson of the monarch of the 27-year-old William, the third in line in the British throne after the father of Prince Charles, was not invited to the celebration.

In Georgia, the investigation of the Saturday explosion of the "Memorial of Glory" in Kutaisi, as a result of which two people were killed-a woman and her 8-year-old daughter. People were killed by fragments of tens of meters of the monument, erected in honor of imminent from Georgia who fell in the Second World War. As part of the investigation, 10 people have already been detained, including the technical director of Avtantil Darselidze Gruzdryvprom JSC.

Spyker Cars - a manufacturer of sports machines with Russian roots - again applied for the purchase of SAAB, Vedomosti reported with reference to Vladimir Antonov, the owner of the Conversion Group. Spyker acts in a consortium with the “Converse Group”, Antonov owns 29.9% of Spyker shares. On December 18, General Motors announced that the deal with Spyker would not take place, as there were problems that cannot be solved quickly.

The scandal with the dismissal of the head of the investigative department in Moscow Anatoly Bagmet continues. As a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Monday, the chairman of the CCP of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, has not yet signed an order to dismiss Bagmet.

In Moscow, in house 22 on Marshal Savitsky Street (South Butovo microdistrict), a hand grenade exploded. This was reported by "Interfax" with reference to a source in law enforcement agencies. "The incident occurred at 0:30 in the elevator lobby of the entrance. As a result of the explosion, heavy fragmentation wounds received a tenant at home, it was hospitalized. The elevator was damaged by the explosion," the agency’s interlocutor said.

Last week, Rosstat stated that the volume of construction work in January–November 2009 decreased by almost 18% compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the volume of housing commissioning over the current 11 months decreased slightly compared to January–November 2008 – by less than 1%. Officials see this as a reason for optimism, but independent experts see it as an alarming sign: Russia will face a serious drop in the volume of housing commissioned, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta .

Unknowns shot in the village of Gurbuki of the Karabudakhkent district of Dagestan the head of the village branch of the police. “About midnight from Sunday to Monday in the village of Gurbuki near his house, the head of the village police department Abdul Magomedov was mortally wounded. Unknown people opened the shooting when he left the house. Having received a mortally wound, the officer died on the spot,” Interfax told the district department of the internal affairs.

The French dairy concern Lactalis is considering the possibility of buying OJSC "Efremovsky oil -heated plant" in the Tula region. The plant produces about 2.5 thousand tons of solid cheeses "Vityaz", "Pokrovsky", "Russian" per year, also produces milk, kefir and other dairy products, Kommersant said. The amount of the transaction, including the purchase of shares and investment in modernization, will not exceed 14 million euros.

Polish police officers are convinced that people who stole a metal plate with an Arbeit Macht Frei slogan last Friday at the former Hitler's concentration camp "Auschwitz-Birkenau" (Auschwitz) are not members of neo-Nazi groups. “According to our data, none of these five people are related to neo -Nazis and does not support neo -Nazi ideas,” said the head of the local police, Andrzej Rokita in Krakow. According to him, thieves acted exclusively from selfish considerations.

The leading media of the Western countries with disappointment took the Copenhagen Conference on the problems of climate change, which ended with the adoption of an “optional” declaration. Excerpts from materials of a number of publications leads

The Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia (FSGR) summed up the results of the outgoing 2009 and, through traditional voting, determined the ten best athletes of the country, the strongest team and coach. At the end of January, all laureates at the ceremony at the Russian Olympic Committee will receive the traditional prizes of the FSGR - Silver Lan figurines.

The Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation published on Monday a list of 500 persons who will replenish the reserve of managerial personnel under the patronage of the head of state. According to the head of the department for civil service and personnel of the President Sergey Dubik, these 500 people, together with the so -called "first hundred" will be part of the "presidential thousand" managerial personnel.

The organization of oil exporters is satisfied with the current oil prices and does not intend to change the level of production, said the President of OPEC and Minister of Oil Angola Jose Maria Botelo de Vaskonselos, Bloomberg reports. Representatives of the OPEC countries, whose share accounts for about 40% of world oil production, will hold the next meeting on December 22 in the capital of Angola Luanda.

The Georgian side submitted an application to the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation to resume air communication between Russia and Georgia. It is reported by ITAR-TASS with reference to the Russian department. "Currently, the Georgian side has provided relevant documents that are considered by our department," the source confirmed.