**February 2, Monday** The main events: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is leaving for the Republic of Belarus on a working visit, during which he will take part in the third joint meeting of the boards of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

In the office of Senator Bill Freest, a suspicious white powder was discovered today. As preliminary tests have shown, it may contain a fatal ricin poison, AP reports. According to representatives of the government, further examination will be carried out in a chemical laboratory in Maryland, its results will be known tomorrow. The powder was discovered in an envelope in the office of Bill Frist, on the fourth floor of the Senate building.

The Prosecutor General of Georgia was detained by the Minister of Transport and Communications Merab Adeishvili. The minister was detained by a special unit of the Prosecutor General in the building of the State Chancellery. Adeishvili managed to tell reporters that an anonymous source informed him of the meeting, which he arrived at.

Soon, 70% of the Russian territory may be in private property - just so much land is now covered with forests. This involves the draft of the new Forest Code, which the government intends to submit to the Duma in March. It remains to decide on the details: the Ministry of Economic Development believes that the one who wants to get the forest must first rent it for 15 years, and the MPR has been acting for a longer lease - at least 50 years.

The Russian government is currently not considering the possibility of raising the country of retirement age in the country. This was announced today by Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova, commenting on publications in the media about the possibility of increasing the age of retirement by 8 years. Last Friday, the head of the Pension Fund, Mikhail Zurabov, said that he opposed the reduction of deductions of insurance premiums by employers to the Pension Fund, Interfax reports.

Computer viruses, similar to MyDoom (aka Novarg), can be used in the future to “pour out” money from Internet businessmen, writes The Independent , referring to the expert opinion. As you know, the SCO website literally scattered and disappeared from web space under the influence of attacks from computers infected with MyDoom virus.

US President George Bush submitted a budget draft in Congress, the total amount of which is 2.4 trillion dollars. In the next financial year (which in the United States begins on October 1), the White House plans to spend about $ 50 billion on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, AP reports. Defense expenses in the new budget were increased by 7 percent (up to $ 400 billion). The States will spend 30 billion to fight terrorism. The budget deficit will be 363 billion dollars.

Deputy Head of the Department of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Administration of the General Staff of the Major General Vladimir Konstantinov, speaking at the International Conference "Civil Service in Russia and Germany", announced that the country's military registration and enlistment offices have so far registered only 2 thousand statements from the draftees who expressed instead of military service to be called up for an alternative civil service, reports Interfax .

Today, on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova officially closed the topic of a possible increase in the retirement age, announcing that "the government is not considering such an opportunity." The adviser to the chairman of the board of the Russian Pension Fund Vladimir Vyunitsky made a similar statement: “Mikhail Zurabov (the head of the Pension Fund of Russia - “ Polit.ru ” ) and the Pension Fund were and remain consistent opponents of raising the retirement age, since this measure

The Moscow government decided not to hold this year in schools of a compulsory unified state exam. The decree of the capital's government, the text of which was published on Tuesday, notes that in connection with the “ambiguous attitude of students, their parents and the pedagogical community of Moscow”, the Moscow government considers the participation of schools in the experiment to introduce it to a single state examination and the need to improve it, Interfax reports.

The Ministry of Justice of Iran sent official warnings to eight printed publications of reformists, which say “the unacceptability of the content of some publications”. According to Deputy Minister of Culture Mohammad Sophie, these newspapers are accused of “sowing discord, hiding behind the parliamentary crisis,” Le Monde reports. At the same time, the Ministry of Press believes that these media simply performed its work, informing the population about the political crisis in the country.

Svetlana Dyndykina The political scandal erupted in the Sverdlovsk region. The regional election commission refused to register a number of parties and blocks for upcoming elections to the regional Duma. Among them: two "homelands", "Union of Budgetables of the Urals", "SPS-" Yabloko "," Justice "," Our House-Ural "," Union of New Right ", as well as the regional branch of the" Party of Renaissance of Russia ".

In a residential building in Ryazan, law enforcement officers found a arsenal of weapons and ammunition, including explosive devices ready for use.

"Homeland" completed a high -speed sheep haircut Rogozin was subjected to tonsure, to whom Surkov showed who in the Kremlin is still managing deputies Anatoly Kostyukov What happened on Monday late at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Rodina Bloc is described by an old formula: went for wool, and returned with a haircut. The most eloquent of the leaders of the Bloc - Dmitry Rogozin was subjected to forced tonsure.

** Themes of the day ** At the federal level, the topic of the day was the decision of the Central Election Commission to register V. Putin as a presidential candidate . As the central media notes, for decency, there were no short debt, but, in the end, the decision was made unanimously. The Tsikovites were not even embarrassed by the remark made by a member of the commission with an advisory vote from the Communist Party of V.