Russian Railways begins a large -scale reduction in electric trains , which will affect hundreds of routes across the country, so as not to incur losses from them. The monopoly is forced to take this step due to the critical financial condition of suburban passenger companies, Kommersant writes .

The opponent of the Christian Society Family Research Council, who opens against same -sex marriages and abortions, Floyd Lee Korkins opened the shooting at the organization’s office in Washington. As a result, the guard was wounded, reports on Thursday AP . The man opened fire immediately as he entered the office. Nevertheless, the guard and visitors wounded in the hand were able to stop the attacker and transfer him to the police.

The Moscow Biryukov, responsible for the improvement of the vice-mayor of Moscow, said that the city authorities are not going to abandon plans for the capacity of tiles of sidewalks. It is reported by Interfax . “This information is incorrect for several reasons. The first is ignorance of the situation, the second - the Moscow government does not save on the comfort of Muscovites, ”Biryukov said on Thursday.

Ecuador provided political asylum to the founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange. This was announced on Thursday at a press conference by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patinho, BBC reports.

Investigators conduct an audit at the Kolomensky Builder enterprise, which belongs to the family of the State Duma deputy from Fair Russia Gennady Gudkov . This was reported to " Interfax " by Gudkov himself. “ SK employees came with a check for the Kolomensky Builder,” the deputy said. In addition, on August 16, police officers in the Rostov Region stopped the work of the local branch of the Frequency security company, RIA Novosti reports.

The judge of the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow Marina Syrova, considering the case of Pussy Riot punk group, is provided with state protection, RAPSI reports. As explained in the Moscow City Court, state protection was allocated in connection with incoming threats to the judge. Earlier, the head of the Moscow City Court, Olga Egorova, asked for the safety of Syrova.

Member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Center of Carnegie Nikolai Petrov told Polit.ru, why he considers the July political laws to be counterproductive, and the system of government is ineffective. But, according to the political scientist, you should not despair: a clear positive dynamics has been outlined in the relations of power and society.

The British musician Paul McCartney wrote a letter in support of the Pussy Riot group. “I hope that you will remain strong and I'm sure that I, like many other people who, like me, believe in freedom of speech, will do everything possible to support you and the principle of freedom of creativity,” McCartney wrote in the message that producer Alexander Cheparukhin published on his Facebook page.

The Investigative Committee once again extended for three months the term of the preliminary investigation on charges of employees of the Kopeisk Internal Affairs Directorate of the death of a pensioner Anatoly Ryzhov. In total, as the employees of the Public Verdict Foundation explain, the investigation of the criminal case has been going on for 18 months. Currently, the accused continue to get acquainted with the case file.

The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is preparing a proposal to transform the structure into a state corporation. This was announced by the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin, RIA Novosti reports . The official used Rosatom as an example, which also used to be a government agency, but is now a state corporation. Popovkin said that he had a “difficult conversation” with the prime minister and the president.

The Committee of Civil Initiatives (KGI) Alexei Kudrin in the first analytical report criticized the system of election commissions for insufficient informing about the upcoming elections, and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the legislation playing in favor of the "Leader party". Regional beatings - because their sites often contain only “minimal information” about the elections, and sometimes in a smaller volume than the Central Election Commission (CEC) prescribes.

The commission on the abnormal launch of the missile from Baikonur on August 6 has claims not only to the Breez-M accelerated block, but also to the engine of the third stage of the Proton-M launch vehicle. About this, as Interfax reports, said the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin. However, malfunctions in the work of the third stage were not critical, the official said.

Residents of the Soviet district of Omsk discovered on August 16 in the morning that several streets were covered with strange white powder, the Russian Ministry of Emergencies in the Omsk region reports.

Several dozen Russian tourists cannot fly out of Barcelona to Samara from Wednesday due to a malfunction of one of the three aircraft of the Kuban airline, which operates charter flights in this direction, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the representative of the Krasnodar Office of Ruslan Kravets. According to him, the flight, which was supposed to fly out of Barcelona at 22:00 on Wednesday, first had to take out tourists from Antalya with a flight of 10.00.

Ksenia Iskovich The idea of ​​promotions in support of Pussy Riot is in the air. That is, it cannot be said that the action on August 15 among the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is something supernova or unexpected. Once, two weeks ago, my friend W. wrote in the FB that it was time to go to the temple in Ballavas. True, she wrote about 200 people, and not about 17, and had in mind just some meeting, and not a flash mob. But, nevertheless.