So it came together: on the day of the 45th birthday of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russia-EU summit opened in Khanty-Mansiysk. This time no one remembered the disgraced oligarch in the city, which until recently was the main pearl of his financial empire. The New Times tried to understand: why Khanty-Mansiysk? The EU leaders ended up in Khanty-Mansiysk at the behest of Vladimir Putin.

I'm going for the smell. The fragrance of a woman, the smell of travel, the smells of childhood... The New Times analyzed the interethnic characteristics of the perception of pleasant and unpleasant aromas. He listened to a gentleman who said to another: “it’s funny how they smell the same, burnt through the perfume, all these dry, pretty brown-haired girls,” and, as often happens, vulgarity, related to no one knows what, tightly wrapped around the memory, feeding on his sadness.

It just so happened in Russia from the Senate Square, from December 14, 1825. The authorities declared war on the youth, its aspirations, daring, stupidity, dreams and delusions. First, the romantic Decembrists were rotted or hanged. In 1849, the same pacifier and despot Nicholas I dispersed the Petrashevsky circle, where young people eagerly read Fourier and Saint-Simon. They both offered the purest nonsense, but was it necessary to put Dostoevsky on the firing post for this?

Secrets of the success of the Russian team But still, in vain at the European Championships, the match for third place was canceled at one time - a sort of consolation finale. He was removed to please the giants - he caused the wrong emotions among the Germans, Italians, French and Dutch who were eliminated in the semi-finals. But ours with the Turks would have come just right ... To continue the "banquet" However, entering the top four is enough for us for now.

Director Sergei Ovcharov swung at Chekhov Cherry sadism. "The Garden" by Sergei Ovcharov became the most talked about film of the 30th MIFF competition: it provoked accusations of mockery of Chekhov and admiration for the bold handling of the textbook text. One way or another, one of the brightest Russian directors of the 1980s-1990s was again in the spotlight The esteemed closet goggles saucers, opens its mouth and pulls out a drawer-nose.

Yuri Chudetsky - The New Times Secrets of the Tunguska phenomenon. One hundred years ago, on June 30, 1908, something happened in Eastern Siberia that went down in human history as the “Tunguska meteorite”. What was it?

Bishops' Council approved the foundations of the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church on human rights The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the most powerful institutions in the country, has taken decisions that can have the most serious impact on the life of the Orthodox in Russia.

Mikhail Kasyanov — The New Times The new government of Vladimir Putin is almost two months old. It has declared social policy as its priority, which, obviously, will require considerable financial investments in the economy. At the same time, experts predict that inflation could reach 16% by the end of the year. What are the chances for the government to pass between Scylla and Charybdis - not to disperse inflation and at the same time begin to solve long-standing problems?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky turns 45 On June 26, Mikhail Khodorkovsky turned forty-five years old. This birthday, a symbolic peak of maturity, is celebrated by Khodorkovsky in prison, and his few supporters are celebrating in pickets demanding his freedom.

The New Times face to face with Liv Ullman The 30th MIFF is closed. At the time of submitting the issue, it was not known who received the main prize (the competition was weak, and the results were not that interesting). But it is known who awarded this prize: the president of the jury, the great Norwegian actress Liv Ullman, who gave the only interview to The New Times columnist You are one of the few successors of Bergman's work in cinematography in the world.

From party maximum to the list of Forbes magazine. Who was smarter: the leader of the world proletariat and the creator of the world's first workers' and peasants' state, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, or "the head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals (cats, etc.) in the M.K.Kh." Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov?

Completeness complex. Estonia has become a normal European state. Almost without post-Soviet complexes. What Russia still cannot understand, arranging actions such as granting visa-free entry and exit to non-citizens - holders of “gray passports”.

The Yabloko party carried out Operation Successor. On a much reduced scale, the “Putin plan” was implemented, when the former leader formally leaves, while remaining a “national leader”, and continues to control his successor The permanent leader of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, was replaced as chairman of the party by Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin. Yavlinsky announced his resignation only at the congress, and for most of the delegates this came as a complete surprise.

Question: what should a police squad do with a group of drunken and obviously overexcited citizens, heart-rendingly screaming at night, jumping along the roadway, pounding on the hoods of cars with their palms and paralyzing traffic? The answer is clear. But what should the same police squad do if this group of drunks in the f ... jumps along the roadway with a tricolor, and yells “Russia! Russia!"? Consider these citizens just drunk in the well ... or enroll in the patriotic part?

Andrey Arshavin: the opening of Euro 2008? They say that the first Russian football player who said out loud about himself that he was a star was Valery Voronin. And this is symbolic in its own way, since the period of Voronin's performances in the Soviet team of the sixties accounted for almost all of our successes. More precisely, they came. Now new ones have arrived. With new stars The image of a star does not always imply an example to follow in everyday life.