The US Federal Reserve System (FRS) raised the base rate by 0.25 percentage points, to a range of 2.25% -2.5%. This is stated in a press release from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) FRS. The Committee noted that the increase in the rate is associated with the expansion of economic activity, labor market conditions and inflation. Economists and experts expected such a decision by the Fed, reported . RIA Novosti Note that this is the fourth rate increase since the beginning of 2018.

Crimean Tatar activist Edem Bekirov, who was detained by Russian border guards at the entrance to Crimea, was formally charged with illegal arms trafficking and illegal transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of explosives (part 2 of article 222 of the Criminal Code and part 2 of article 222.1 of the Criminal Code) . FSB officers in Crimea and Sevastopol repeated the version presented to the court during Bekirov's arrest.

The US Treasury will lift sanctions on EuroSibEnergo, En+ and Rusal in 30 days, owned by Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. This is stated in an official letter from the Ministry of Finance sent to Congress. At the same time, Deripaska himself will remain on the sanctions list. His assets will still be blocked.

Roskomnadzor asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to check the article of the publication “My friend, you are a transformer”, which tells about a woman who uses heroin. This is reported by "Open media" with reference to the representative of the department Vadim Ampelonsky. The piece is titled "Heroin Owned by the Model," which tells the story of a woman who, according to the article, has been using heroin for ten years. The material was published on December 18.

The US Treasury Department has added the names of 18 Russians to the sanctions list, including those suspected of poisoning ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov. The document is published on the website of the Ministry of Finance. Bellingcat and The Insider have released a series of investigative reports suggesting that Petrov's real name is Alexander Mishkin and Boshirov's is Anatoly Chepiga.

The social networking site Facebook has been providing user data to about 150 tech companies without their consent for years, including Russia's Yandex, according to the New York Times. Representatives of the social network denied this information to the publication, Yandex told TASS that since 2015 they stopped receiving information about users from the CIS countries on the basis of an agreement signed in 2014 and valid for about a year.

Six special representatives of George Poltavchenko and one official who survived the two governors of St. Petersburg were dismissed in one day Leonid Bogdanov. Photo: Alexander Nikolaev/ Interpress/ TASS The only official, who recently resigned in St. Petersburg, is the chairman of the Committee on Law, Law and Order Leonid Bogdanov. In his position, he survived two governors - first Valentina Matvienko, then George Poltavchenko.

Based on the results of a scheduled inspection, the Department of the Ministry of Justice for St. Petersburg drew up an act recognizing the St. Petersburg Center for Social and Information Initiatives “Action”, which is engaged in the prevention of the HIV epidemic, as a non-profit “foreign agent”. This was announced on Facebook by its director Valery Sozaev. At the same time, "Action" has not yet been included in the register of non-profit "foreign agents".

Akhmatova Museum in St. Petersburg on his Facebook page published a heartbreaking statement Photo: Alexander Shcherbak/ TASS It immediately caused hundreds of responses, dozens of comments, 276 reposts. Such close public attention to the activities of the museum was not observed, probably, over the entire time of its existence on Facebook. “Last night, a cat was again brought to the museum. The surveillance camera recorded how the girl left a carrier on a bench, with a tray and bowls.

The Krasnodar Regional Court overturned the decision to arrest lawyer Mikhail Benyash for 14 days in an administrative case of disobedience to a policeman (part 1 of article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The court website reports that the decision was made on to this .

Protecting such a circus, the state approves not traditional values, but barbarism Construction of the circus 1903 in London. Photo: PA Images TASS We have already submitted the corresponding norm to the federal law on responsible treatment of animals, which we prepared for the second reading, ” - so on December 12, RIA Novosti quoted the head of the relevant committee Vladimir Burmatov (EP).

Alexander Perepelichny, a Russian businessman and whistleblower in the Magnitsky case, who died in the UK in 2012, "most likely" died of sudden arrhythmia death syndrome. This was stated by the British coroner Nicholas Hilliard, who is leading the proceedings on the death of a businessman, reports Sky News. “I cannot completely rule out that he could have been poisoned, but there is no direct evidence right now that Perepilichny was killed,” he said.

Valery Ivanov, a Russian citizen convicted of participating in hostilities on the side of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, died in penal colony No. 40 in the Ukrainian city of Drogobych, Lviv region, the Russian embassy in Ukraine .

The United States defeated the Islamic State in Syria (the organization is banned and recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia). this US President Donald Trump announced on his Twitter. He also ordered the withdrawal of a contingent of American troops from the country. At the same time, sources for The Wall Street Journal , CNN , The Washington Post , Reuters , AFP and Bloomberg claim that the US is withdrawing its military from all over Syria.

The Sovetsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod fined Pavel Nikulin, editor-in-chief of moloko plus, a thousand rubles under the article on disobedience to a police officer (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), reports , citing the journalist himself. Mediazona The publication notes that neither Nikulin nor his lawyer Alexei Matasov were present at the meeting.