On December 20, it turns a year as the most famous convict of Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, after two ships and sentences and 10 years of prison and camps, was released.

subscription.newtimes.ru On December 8, exactly on the day of the 15th anniversary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Minsk defiantly restored the customs border with the Russian Federation. And from the Russian side, a barrier to Belarusian cargo was put up even earlier.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi refrained from going to the airport. On the morning of December 11, when the leaders of two of the five BRICS powers posed with might and main for the press at the World Diamond Conference, the incident was smoothed over - the head of the Indian government even wrote on his personal Twitter: “Times have changed, but our friendship has not,” but the sediment remained.

In theowers to them. Pushkin opened an exhibition of the largest German avant -garde artist Paul Klee. For the first time, Moscow saw his paintings 90 years ago - and forgot for a long time podpiska.newtimes.ru Paul Klee in his workshop, after the “First Universal German Art Exhibition” in Moscow in 1924, two works by Paul Klee were bought by the State Museum of New Western Art. Then there were many tragic events in both the artist’s life, and in the life of the two countries.

The New Times went to the Lugansk People’s Republic to collect the stories of volunteers who decided to go to the Donbass podpiska.newtimes.ru Volunteers go to the Donbass from all over Russia: Cherepovets, Pskov, Kostroma, Kazan ... Not all of them are personnel military, acting or in reserve. They had a choice, and they made it, knowing very well that they could return home in zinc, without legs, without arms ... There are already dozens of such stories, if not hundreds.

About the minister of Medinsky, put up the word podpiska.newtimes.ru The Minister of Culture V. Medinsky is studying the contents of the bookstore "Bukvoed" in St. Petersburg, December 2014. Photo: Zamir Usmanov/TASS A meeting with readers of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, who took place in the St. Petersburg store "Bukvoed", overshadowed all the latest events in the entrusted Minister of the industry.

The Ukrainian program at the Artdokfest festival was opened by the new film by Sergey Loznitsa "Maidan" On the screen is a huge area filled with people. People stand silently, sometimes talking quietly, waiting for something. “Let's start with the anthem of Ukraine,” says someone invisible, and people, taking off their caps, sing together: “Shche did not free Ukraine and glory and will.” Sing the entire anthem from beginning to end. So the film "Maidan" begins.