Despite attempts to eradicate corruption, Russia has not yet discarded its foggy past, writes Forbes observer. The number of contract killings has declined since the 1990s, but they still have been regularly occurred in Russia. However, they rarely fall into the news headlines, writes the author of the article. As a rule, victims are journalists working at the local level or local managers involved in the issuance of permits or distribution of land.

Anatoly Lokot, a representative of the Duma of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, announced today at the plenary meeting of the lower house about the upcoming disbandment of special parts of the GRU, the correspondent of Polit.ru Lev Finberg reports.

Next week, United Russia will approve the final list of reservists. The project was attended by more than 17,000 people, as a result, about 300 at the ages of 24 to 46 years should remain, Vedomosti write. The longest list of a business reserve was the longest-77 people. It included mainly representatives of regional companies or branches of large business structures.

The State Duma deputy from the LDPR Andrei Lugovoi is ready in the event of a victory in the election of the mayor of Sochi to come to London to adopt the experience of preparing for the Olympic Games, Echo of Moscow reports. A former special services employee in the 90s was engaged in the protection of senior government, including the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council Boris Berezovsky.

In Greece, the anarchists arranged pogroms in Athens and Thessaloniki on trading streets, Echo Moscow reports with reference to ITAR-TASS. They defeated the windows of dozens of stores and damaged many cars. According to the local police, about 40 young people with iron rods and axes appeared in the afternoon in one of the elite regions of the Greek capital and began to destroy the windows of expensive salons in front of customers. None of the local residents were injured.

For the first time, British scientists were able to prove the possibility of “reading” human memory by observing brain activity, reports Reuters . Scientists used a technology known as a functional magnetic resonance study (FMRI), which explores the area of ​​the brain at the time of their activation.

On March 11, the Global Witness human rights organization extended a report entitled “Criminal indulgence”. It states that the German Deutsche Bank supported the brutal dictatorship of the former president of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, allowing him to keep billions of public funds on the account personally controlled, Ferghana.ru reports.

Russia can take part in the tender in the construction of new blocks of PAKSh NPP in Hungary. This became known after the second round of intergovernmental consultations of the Russian Federation and Hungary in Moscow, which took place on March 10. “Russia has a fairly great chance for participating in such construction.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin supported the proposal of the Ministry of Communications of Russia to find funds for the maintenance and repair of the Shukhov television tower in Moscow, Prime-Tass reports. “She is one of the symbols of our television,” he said.

The brother of the 20-year-old Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prikhodko, who will represent Russia at the Eurovision Supervision contest in Moscow, Nazar Prikhodko suits the newspaper Moscow Komsomolets for publication, which, according to Prikhodko, defeats him and his family. He calls a slander an article that speaks of the nationalist views of the performer, reports Echo of Moscow.

If the Extraordinary Congress of the Union of Cinematographers, initiated by Nikita Mikhalkov, will take place, then he will be challenged in court. This was announced by Interfax by the chairman of the Moscow Union of Cinematographers Pavel Finn. Previously, the statement of director Nikita Mikhalkov on the convening of the Extraordinary Congress of the Union of Cinematographers was extended on March 30-31 in the metropolitan Gostiny Dvor.

On the fact of the capture of hostages in the bank branch in the Leninsk-Kuznetsk Kemerovo region, a criminal case has been opened, Gazeta.ru reports. "The Investigative Department of the UPP in the Kemerovo region opened a criminal case under paragraph" Z "part 2 of Article 206 of the Criminal Code (capture of two or more persons)," the press service of the Investigative Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office said.

Rospotrebnadzor unveiled an analysis of the results of radiation and hygienic monitoring for 2008, which assesses the state of radiation safety of the population living in the territories injured as a result of the Chernobyl accident. It, in particular, states that 2008 in the Leningrad Region establishes facts of excess of the content of radionuclides in wild products (mushrooms) - 1.4% of the total number of tests studied.

On March 15, 2009, the opening of the exhibition "Science as a Hungry As Suspense") will be held - the first event within the framework of the SCIENCEARTFEST International Popular Festival, organized by the Dynasty charity foundation and the Snob project. The exhibition exhibition will present the work of the best representatives of the Sci-Art genre, a new direction of contemporary art.

Children's writer Sergei Mikhalkov celebrates his 96th birthday. Last year, the solemn evening on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the writer took place at the Bolshoi Theater. This year the holiday will be held in the family circle, according to the Russian Newspaper . The writer, in addition to the two sons of Andrei Konchalovsky and Nikita Mikhalkov, Sergei Vladimirovich has ten more grandchildren and almost as many great-grandchildren.