Yuri Zhigalkin, New York: The White House tactics in communicating with Russia on the issue of missile defense become the object of criticism in the United States. Summing up the Moscow visit of the US Minister Donald Ramsfeled, the influential New York Times is finding several reasons to reproach the White House in unpreparedness to a serious dialogue with Russia.

Oleg Panfilov: Today the program has one topic. New "Iron Curtain" or Russian censorship for the elect. In Soviet times, the words "well, like a do not traveling." There were such people in the Soviet Union, who were not released from the country due to the fact that they allegedly had secrets. In the West, this category of persecution was considered a very serious and gross violation of human rights.

Russia will take response measures in connection with the refusal of Latvia to issue an entry visa to the adviser to the mayor of Moscow Alexander Perelygin. Perelygin was supposed to participate in the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Riga as part of the Moscow delegation. The metropolitan city hall officially announced the cancellation of the visit of the delegation to Riga. The Latvian Foreign Ministry did not report on what basis Perelygin was denied a visa.

Observers of the security and cooperation organization in Europe have not yet received visas to enter Belarus, where presidential elections will be held on September 9. According to the head of the observers mission today, invitations were received only yesterday and the Belarusian authorities promise that visas will be issued without delay. According to the practice of the OSCE, experts arrive in advance to countries where the elections are held to monitor their preparation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with the president of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev at the meeting discussed the development of the Olympic movement in Russia and the problems related to preparations for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games of 2002. Further, the famous Russian hockey players Vyacheslav Fetisov and Pavel Bure joined the conversation. The meeting participants exchanged opinions about the future of the Olympic hockey team of Russia.

The advanced detachment of NATO peacekeepers, which will include 400 British troops, may arrive in Macedonia at the end of this week. The decision on this was made yesterday by the Council of the North Atlantic Union in Brussels. According to the Minister of the British Armed Forces, Edam Ingram, the main task of the detachment is to help in the implementation of a peace agreement, concluded on Monday by the leaders of the Slavic and Albanian communities of Macedonia.

The program involves the Uzbek artist in exile, Shukhrat Babajanov and the director of the Center for Extreme Journalism Oleg Panfilov. Tengiz Gudava: The simple trick of dictatorial authorities - to present criminal articles to the dissenting - has been known for a long time.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Perez is not sure that peace negotiations with the Palestinians will begin at all. But even this will happen, Perez is not sure that Israel will again make the Palestinians a proposal similar to what was nominated last year during the Campa David summit. Then Israel offered the Palestinians control over almost the entire territory of the west coast of the Jordan and the Gaza Sector.

Ex-President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevich, who is in the investigative isolator of the International Tribunal for Military Crimes, sent a claim to the court demanding to free him from custody. According to the Dutch news agency Anp, Milosevich claims that the Serbian authorities, who sent him from the Belgrade prison to the Hague tribunal on June 28, acted contrary to the law. In addition, Miloshevich believes that his extradition to Gaga was a gross violation of human rights.

In Primorye, during the flood of the 7th-9th floods, 10 thousand small-caliber anti-aircraft shells from the arsenals of the Pacific Fleet took water with water. The incident occurred in a military warehouse in the vicinity of the village of Filza Kuznetsov Partizan region. Boxes with shells were carried away by the flow of the river, the channel of which passes along the territory of the warehouse. Employees of the local department of the Internal Affairs Directorate are conducting search work.

The colonel of the army of the Bosnian Serbs, Voroaya Blagievich, who had presented today before the International Tribunal in The Hague, did not plead guilty to war crimes. The tribunal accuses Blagoevich, who commanded the brigade during the war in Bosnia, in the massacres of Muslims in the city of Srebrenits. According to the tribunal, the Serbian troops, which Blagievich commanded, participated in the mass executions of Muslims.

In Chechnya, in the city of Argun last night there was a collision between the Chechen fighters and the police detachment. As ITAR-TASS reports to repel the attack, the military had to apply artillery. The battle lasted about two hours. There is no data on losses. According to the Chechen side, in the Vedensky district today an attack on a military motorcade was committed. It is reported about the dead and wounded on both sides. Official information about the clash has not been received.

Baghdad said that he would restore relations with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait if these countries prove their good intentions regarding Iraq. The Foreign Minister of Iraq Naji Sabri proposed Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to ban the basing of the US aircraft and the UK in their territories. The Gulf countries interrupted diplomatic relations with Baghdad after the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990. Later, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates restored them.

Strong thunders with a storm wind fell on Wednesday to the southwest of France. Two people died. The police still cannot establish the personality of a man who died from a lightning strike. The second sacrifice is a young woman whose car fell a tree. In a number of areas, power lines are damaged, trees are felled. Due to the storm, the water level in the rivers rose sharply. Several settlements are flooded. Local authorities are conducting rescue work.

The command of the headquarters of the United Group of Troops in the North Caucasus today confirmed that on the eve of the Chechen village of TsA-Vedino, a military helicopter was shot down. Two crew members died in the disaster. Yesterday, Chechen sources reported this. However, in the apparatus of the assistant to the President of Russia Sergey Yastrzhembsky, they said that the helicopter crashed as a result of technical problems.