The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, confirmed to RIA Novosti information that at the upcoming meeting in Minsk Vladimir Putin with Alexander Lukashenko will be discussed the issue of creating a joint military group of the Union of Belarusia and Russia on the border with NATO.

A number of independent human rights organizations, as well as individual politicians, from last year have not tired of insisting on the need to introduce a state of emergency in Chechnya, which would limit the war in Chechnya the framework of Russian legislation. The Kremlin usually responds to these statements that for a counter -terrorist operation in Chechnya, a sufficiently existing version of the Law on the Wrestling of Terrorism Control.

Messages about the unification of the two companies that have recently been harshly opposing each other - Sibalyuminia and Sibneft - are perceived by the economic press as a new milestone in the development of Russian capitalism, but at the same time look somewhat phantasmagorically. The press painfully tries to calculate the scenarios of war and the world between aluminum partners-revives.

According to the Polit.ru parliamentary correspondent, Gennady Zyuganov hurried, saying that the voting on START-2 would be held on Friday. Alexander Shokhin came out to the journalists and said that closed parliamentary hearings will be held on Thursday (which Zyuganov also talked about), and following the results of the hearing a decision would be decided on the date of voting.

The Constitutional Court from the filing of the Supreme Court considered and confirmed the right of the prosecutor's office to challenge the laws adopted by the constituent entities of the Federation in the courts of general jurisdiction.

The situation on the border of India and Pakistan remains tense. According to the Indian side, Pakistan increases the number of manpower and military equipment in the border areas. In particular, in the area of ​​the Gulf of the Kach Pakistan, the division of up to 10 thousand soldiers and officers, as well as the infantry brigade, concentrated. Also, the T-85C-made tanks were replaced with more advanced Ukrainian T-80UD.

ASSESSMENTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNTRY LEADERSHIP IN DYNAMICS VTsIOM presents the results of a survey conducted on March 31 - April 3, 2000 using a sample representative of the adult (18 years and older) population of Russia by gender, age, level of education, region and type of settlement. The survey was conducted in 83 settlements in 33 regions of the country (150 survey points), with 1,600 people participating in each.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that at a meeting of the Council of Cooperation of Russia-E, in Luxembourg, the issue of the presence of international observers in Chechnya was not discussed, and this could not be discussed at all. As Ivanov says, the Chechen topic was not in the main negotiations.

The government of the government meets Mikhail Kasyanov with a group of Western investors.

The Cassation Collegium of the Supreme Court recognized the case of the mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov and considered the presidential decree on the dismissal of the head of the Main Directorate of Moscow Nikolai Kulikov illegal. Recall that Kulikova with a scandal was shot on December 2 last year in the midst of the election battles of the Kremlin and OVR.

Putin finally decided to start international visits without waiting for the inauguration. As Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources in the presidential press service, the IO plans to make working trips to Belarus, the UK and Ukraine from April 16 to 18. So far, only a visit to Belarus, which is “not quite abroad,” has been officially confirmed, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

Putin’s assistant Sergei Yastrzhembsky believes that in Chechnya you can "move on to a certain political process." This can only happen if the "former Ichkeria regime" fulfills a number of preliminary conditions, among which the "complete disarmament of the fighters who confront the federal forces" and "the unconditional punishment of the leaders, such as Khattab, Basayev and Gelaev, on whose conscience hundreds of thousands of ruined people." But at any step towards political settlement, "the

Victor Khristenko summed up the results of today's meeting with the leaders of Gazprom and RAO UES. According to him, there is currently such a situation that, due to a decrease in gas production, "you may have to use purchased gas." However, now the situation is not so critical, and "according to existing forecasts, a slight decrease in production in Gazprom can be compensated by independent gas suppliers." The government will have to pay attention to the issues of energy conservation.

As we have already reported, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that cancel 46 decrees of Boris Yeltsin on the provision of benefits for the sale of foreign exchange earnings to various categories of exporters. Thus, in particular, the benefits were lost by the Novokuznetsk aluminum plant, Norilskel, the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant, Elaz, Sakhalinmorneftegaz, the Ivalids of the War Ivials in Afghanistan and others.

A sharp and incessant drop in oil prices forces OPEC countries to take emergency measures. As the OPEC President Ali Rodriguez said today, exporting countries are ready to consider the possibility of reducing the volume of oil production and export if prices fall below $ 22 per barrel, AK & M reports. The organization has already launched a “adjusting mechanism”, which provides for a reduction in raw oil production in case the prices will stay below $ 22 for 20 days.