The election headquarters of the Union of Right Forces, Yabloko and the Communist Party throughout Russia are negotiating the coordination of the work of observers during the December 7 election. This was reported by RBC with reference to sources in the Yabloko party. It is possible that a decision will be made to jointly carry out the observation procedure.

Chairman of the OSCE Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Jaap de Hop Scythra Dear Mr. Chairman! The processes that are currently undergoing in Russian society cause serious concern of Russian human rights organizations. We regard the policy of Vladimir Putin as a purposeful destruction of democratic institutions in the Russian Federation.

Since the beginning of 2003, in 29 developed countries of the world there has been a sharp reduction in the number of applications for the provision of political asylum, the UN said on Tuesday. At the same time, the largest number of petitions was submitted from the Russians who even overtook the Iraqis.

About the scandal, which was arranged yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and Minister of Economic Development German Gref at a meeting of the “round table” of industrialists in Russia and the EU, the newspaper Kommersant writes. They stated that Russia is unprofitable for 2004 by the expansion of the European Union (despite the fact that Moscow cannot affect this process in any way).

Vladimir Zhirinovsky can get "freedom of speech" He apologized to NTV for a fight Towards the election Yesterday, the NTV television company received an official apology from the leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who on November 21, on the air of the Freedom of Speech program, made offensive statements to the representative of the Rodina Bloc, General Georgy Shpak, and after completing the current show, made a fight in the studio. Mr.

The amount of taxes allegedly unpaid by YUKOS has nothing to do with reality, YUKOS press secretary Alexander Shadrin told RBC, commenting on reports that the Prosecutor General's Office had received relevant information from the Ministry of Taxes. “These figures are, of course, amazing,” he added. Shadrin said that YUKOS's more extended comment in connection with the emergence of information about the underpayment of 150 billion rubles by the company and its subsidiaries to the Russian budget.

About two hundred Moscow students today took part in a protest rally against the actions of the administration of the Moscow State Linguistic University (former Institute of Foreign Languages ​​named after Maurice Torez), which is trying to impose paid education to its students. The leadership of a linguistic university is trying to introduce a fee for "additional services", or rather for the study of foreign languages.

The Yabloko party requires a criminal case against State Duma deputy Leonid Maevsky. Today, a statement on the initiation of a criminal case against this deputy accused by the Yablochiki of slander was sent to the Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, Interfax reports. We are talking about the performance of Maevsky on the air of the Echo of Moscow radio station, in which he actually accused the Yabloko and individual deputies of this party of ties with illegal gangs and terrorists.

Today, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Vladimir Ustinov was recognized as the “man of the year - 2003” for “strengthening the rule of law and law and order,” RIA Novosti reports. At the award ceremony, which was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the main striker in the game “The State against Big Business” made a sensed speech: “Reducting order and the revival of the state is possible only through an increase in spirituality.

The Council of Ministers of the Union State of Russia and Belarus today approved the draft Union budget for 2004 as a whole. This was announced by a source close to the Belarusian government delegation. After refinement, the draft budget will be sent to the parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus, and then submitted for approval by the highest state council.

Alexander Voloshin returns to take the place of the Chairman of the Board of Yukossibneft, the newspaper publication writes today with reference to sources close to negotiations between Yukos and Sibneft. The representatives of the two Russian companies on the eve of negotiations in London, where, as reported, it was decided on personnel rearrangements. Today, information appeared that the shareholders of the Yukos are ready to abandon the leading posts in the created Ukossibneft.

In Moscow, from December 4 to 7, the fourth film festival “French Cinema Today” will be held, which will present nine new films shot by French directors over the past two years. Among the films presented at the festival: “Unlucky” (director-Francis Weber), “Happy Way” (Jean-Paul Rappno), “Meet your widow” (Catherine Corsini), “Maximum Extreme” (Olias Bark), “Kid Lily” (Claude Miller), “In my skin” (Marina de Van), “Babochka” (Philip Muil), “18 years later” (Colin Cerro).

The US administration announced the decision to cancel the mandatory registration of immigrants with temporary American visas, but reserved the right to restore this measure if necessary in the future. At first, the obligatory registration was introduced for immigrants from 25 countries - mainly Arab and Middle Eastern - and then spread to 150 states.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell accused Belarus and Turkmenistan of violating a number of fundamental provisions of the OSCE. Speaking on Tuesday at a meeting of the Council of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE member countries in Maastricht, Powell said that the official Minsk “regularly conducts campaigns to discredit and persecute the country's independent media”, despite the sharp protests of the OSCE representative on the freedom of the media.

On November 22, in the editorial office of the St. Petersburg magazine "City" a round table on the theme "The behavior of an intellectual in the restoration era" was held. As the task of the event, a discussion was stated the personal strategy of the intellectual in the context of restoration, the collapse of “controlled democracy”, the crisis of existing forms of interaction with the authorities, the crisis of languages ​​of power, personal responsibility for what is happening in the country.