Vladimir Putin positively accepted the proposal of the three governors to extend the term of powers of the President up to seven years, but he believes that if this idea is supported by the people, then the corresponding decision should be applied only to the president elected in 2004. It would apparently be difficult to extend the terms of the presidential powers to the immediate elections.

The letter of three governors and their colleagues in the workshop, and journalists consider primarily as a political document.

Andrei Babitsky gives either conflicting testimony, or generally refuses to give them - he complained to the "Interfax" by the deputy prosecutor of Dagestan Khazbul Aliyev.

Khristenko, speaking at a meeting of the College of the Ministry of Trade, defended Russia from cheap imports, the danger of which in consolidation of low consumption standards. "Cheap imports worsen the quality of life of Russians, so the necessary measures should be taken to prevent this," the Deputy Prime Minister said. He also noted that after the crisis there was no import substitution, but import exaltation, and many market segments simply closed.

Izvestia correspondent Oleg Blotsky is going to sue a German television company who distributed a video of the mass burial of Chechen militants. According to Blotsky, he shot these shots, and not a German journalist, in addition, the comment that accompanied the record had nothing to do with reality.

The Simonovsky inter-municipal court of Moscow today satisfied the lawsuits against Boris Berezovsky head of the media-Moscow holding Vladimir Gusinsky and NTV television and business reputation. The court ordered Berezovsky to publicly refute his allegations of the unconviding lighting of the First Chechen War within 10 days.

Today, the Minister of Defense of Germany Rudolf Sharping arrives in Moscow. As stated in the Polit.ru, a press release from the Ministry of Defense, during a visit, Sharping will meet with Igor Sergeyev. Negotiations will be devoted to the discussion of European security issues, the prospects for the further development of bilateral Russian-German military-technical cooperation.

Today Russia and Moscow are paying off their debts. The Ministry of Finance transfers more than $62 million to the IMF, the Moscow government transfers $17 million to an unknown creditor (non-disclosure of his name is one of the conditions of the loan). In total, Russia must pay foreign creditors $3 billion in the first quarter, and the total debt to the IMF at the beginning of the year was $15.23 billion. Moscow's debt is $295 million, its repayment will take place in 2002, AK&M reports .

Yesterday, the Constituent Congress of the Unity party was held at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. According to Sergei Shoigu, safely re -elected by the leader of the organization, "the first and main task is ... consistent support of our candidate." Then he invited the candidate present there to the same candidate to head the party after the elections.

Mikhail Zadornov said that the Budget Committee may offer to revise the law "On the Protection of Competition in the Financial Services market", adopted exactly a year ago. According to this law, the right to control over banks and other financial structures was received by the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy, thus invading the competence of the Central Bank.

The governors at the weekend discussed the letter of the heads of the Novgorod, Belgorod and Kurgan regions to Vladimir Putin with a proposal to increase the term of presidential powers and introduce the appointment of governors from Moscow. As notes "Time of MN", the reaction is mainly, of course, negative. The Samara Governor and presidential candidate Titov said that “if you appoint governors from the cent, then they” will comply with the will of the Center, not their voters.

A few hours after Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​extending the deadline for presidential powers up to seven years, the speaker of the Federation Council Yegor Straev, who supports this idea completely, made a similar statement.

Tomorrow begins a trip of the representative of President Alexander Livshits to seven countries of Western Europe as part of the preparation of the Great Eight summit on Okinawa. Livshits gave a press-conferenced, where he spoke in detail about the plans of the trip. The plans include a trip to London (where, in particular, he will meet with the leadership of BP Amoco), on March 2 - Paris, and on March 5 - Brussels, where one of the main meetings is with Romano Prodi.

Babitsky’s lawyer Alexander Zozul told reporters in Makhachkala today that Andrei Babitsky yesterday announced an unlimited hunger strike in protest against his arrest. Today, Babitsky met with his wife Lyudmila, who continued in the building of the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs for 1 hour 20 minutes. As Babitskaya said to journalists, she and her husband spoke mainly on personal topics.

At the congress of the Congress of Russian communities, a decision may be made to merge with the socio-political movement "Unity; according to Zyuganov, the folk-patriotic forces completed the preparation of the program that will double the revenues of the country's budget; details are in the third monitor .