We publish the prefaces of the famous journalist and writer Oleg Moroz to two of his books: “So who destroyed the Union?” and “Why did he choose Putin?” “So who destroyed the Union?” Dear friend! Much has been written about the collapse of the Soviet Union. So much that for a person who is not very “in the know”, it is not so easy to figure out what exactly happened in the last years and months of the life of the Soviet empire...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticized the decision of the National Assembly of France to approve the bill on the recognition of the fact of denial of the denial of the Armenian genocide, AFP reports. The Turkish prime minister believes that this document "is based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia." He also stated that in response to the decision of the deputies, Türkiye cancels all current military, economic and political relations with France.

For several years, waste dumps caused Lake Baikal damage to 1.5 billion rubles. According to RIA Novosti , the press service of Rosprirodnadzor stated this, referring to the results of the study by the Federal State University of Subreginovodkhoz. The customer of the work was the department of Rosprirodnadzor in the Irkutsk region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he would not allow “outside interference” to the country's domestic policy. The head of state said this in the message to the Federal Assembly, the broadcast of which is on the channel "Russia 24". “We will not let the provocateurs and extremists draw society into their adventures, and we will not accept the interventions from the outside into our internal affairs,” Medvedev noted. - Russia needs democracy, not chaos.

The Anji Makhachkala football club chose the head coach. According to Sovetsky Sport , it became Yuri Krasnozhan, who previously headed the Moscow Lokomotiv. According to the publication, Krasnozhan's consent to the post of Anji coach has already been received. Currently, the coach is on vacation in Italy. It is expected that Krasnozhan will sign a contract with the Makhachkala club as soon as he returned to Russia.

Steve Jobs will be posthumously awarded the special award of the Grammy music award for the fact that the Apple Corporation invented products and technologies that helped him to make music, television programs, films and books, according to the official website of the award. The decision to award Steve Jobs was made by the trustees of the Award of the American Academy of Sound Recording Grammy.

On December 21, a record amount of precipitation fell in Moscow - 13 millimeters. According to RBC with reference to the Moscow Reference of Moscow and the Moscow Region, this is the first weather record of the current winter. Earlier, the record of the day on December 21 was set in 2002, then 6 millimeters of precipitation fell per day. At the same time, this winter is still 5.7 degrees warmer than the norm, and 2011 as a whole by 1.7 degrees is warmer than average values.

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin believes that the proposals for reform of the Russian political system proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev in his annual address to the Federal Assembly are not related to the rally on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. “Some will say that the proposals appeared under pressure from Bolotnaya Square.

The CEC published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the parliamentary newspaper and the journal Vestnik of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation "Information on the income of a candidate for the post of President of Russia Vladimir Putin. According to documents submitted to the CEC, he has more than five million rubles in banks in banks. Putin also belong to the property of the ownership of the land for individual housing construction and apartment.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev began a speech with the annual message to the Federal Assembly. The direct broadcast of the appeal goes on the TV channel "Russia 24". This is the last appeal of Medvedev to the parliament in the current position, since the current head of state refused to run for the presidential election in 2012. It is expected that in the event of the victory of the current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the elections, Medvedev will be headed by the government.

On December 9, the Nemiroff board was held in Vienna, at which Alexander Glus, Director of Nemiroff Vodka Limited (owns Nemiroff Holding), once again called for translating a corporate conflict between part of the shareholders (Y. Gribov, B. Finkelshtein, A. Kipish and V. Kipish) to a structural channel.

On December 22, as part of the Public Lectures of Polit.ru in the intellectual cafe Zavtra (former Pir.G.I. on Sretenka), the Doctor of Political Sciences, the leading researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Director of the Center for the Study of Citizenship and Identity, Professor of the faculty of social sciences, Vladimir Sergeyevich Malakhov, acted.

Rosneft became the world leader in oil production according to the results of nine months. This was written by Kommersant with reference to the materials of the oil and gas company. In the nine months of 2011, the company's production amounted to 88.6 million tons. The next “Rosneft” in terms of production was the American Exxonmobil, which produced 87 million tons of oil.

According to a member of the Expert Council of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives, Peter Shchedrovitsky, the economic situation in the Asian region is positive for Rosatom and gives state corporation a chance to gain a foothold as a leader in Asia. Peter Shchedrovitsky , member of the Expert Council of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives: All the events of the outgoing year to one degree or another are associated with the consequences of the accident in Fukushima.

The capital of the capital sold for almost 4.7 billion rubles the famous National Hotel in the center of Moscow, which operates in the interests of entrepreneur Mikhail Gutseriev, RIA Novosti reports. The five-star hotel in the construction of 1901-1903 in the center of Moscow, following the auction, went to CJSC Smart Finance Group. In addition to CJSC Smart Finance Group, only TG Trading Group LLC took part in the auction.