He has been cooperating with RS since 1991. The editor and host of the Road to Freedom Program Vitaly Portnikov on Facebook , Twitter Portnikovv@rferl.org

Ukrainian border guards allowed entry into the country to Russian observers in the upcoming presidential election - after confirming information about their registration in the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. A group of 92 Russian citizens who went to the Donetsk region to observe voting in the second round of elections was detained at the Goptovka checkpoint.

Seven days a week at exactly 12 o’clock - about what happened today and what else should happen. The day is in full swing, we follow the events.

In Iraq, a US citizen who worked in the country under a contract was stolen. One of the extremist groups posted a video on the Internet in which the hostage sets out the requirements of the kidnappers - to free a group of Shiite militants in conclusion. According to the Iraqi authorities, the abducted is 60 -year -old Issa Salomi, an American of Iraqi descent. The group, in the hands of which he is, is suspected of kidnapping five British in 2007.

Divers managed to discover the whereabouts of one of the on -board recorders of the Ethiopian airliner, which fell on January 25 to sea off the coast of Lebanon. This was announced on Saturday by the Lebanese Minister of Transport of Gazi Aridi. According to him, the "black box" will be raised to the surface in the near future. The aircraft of the Airlines Ethiopian Airlines, which was from Beirut to Addis Abube, suffered a catastrophe immediately after takeoff.

At the security conference, the speakers expressed disappointment due to the fact that Iran did not change its position in the dispute about the country's nuclear program. As our correspondent Alexander Mannheim reports from Munich, representatives of Germany and the USA still do not exclude the application of serious sanctions if Iran does not compromise in this matter. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov sharply criticized the OSCE work.

Germany stated that Iran’s promise to agree to enrich his nuclear fuel abroad is “a good beginning, but you need to move on.” Speaking on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, the German Foreign Minister Gido Westerwell said that Berlin "is still holding out Tehran's hand," but the minister added, "so far into the void." Even yesterday’s performance in Munich, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Manucher Motaki did not change the position of Germany, ”Westerwell said.

Yakov Krotov: Today our program will be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the collection "Milestones". Our guest is a historian and culturologist Andrey Viktorovich Martynov and sociologist Alexander Mikhailovich Nikulin. Andrei Viktorovich, the author of many and many articles on the Russian intelligentsia in the magazine "Sowing", was with us on the program about Boris Vysheslavtsev, wonderful.

In the Pakistani city of Karachi, hundreds of Shiites gathered for the funeral of 25 victims of yesterday's explosions. In protest against the inability of the authorities to ensure security in the country's largest city - today many stores are closed there. The Pakistani authorities are responsible for the Taliban and militants of Al-Qaeda.

At a security conference that takes place in Munich, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that the ongoing conflict between his country and Armenia around Nagorno -Karabakh threatens regional stability in the Caucasus. Aliyev, in particular, noted that the presence of Armenian troops in Nagorno -Karabakh for almost two decades interferes with full -scale regional cooperation and can cause damage to the development plans that Baku bear.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fog Rasmussen does not believe that the North Atlantic Union is threatening to Russian security. Speaking today on the sidelines of the International Security Conference in Munich, Rasmussen called “not reflecting reality” to the inclusion of the NATO Union in the list of such threats. According to the Secretary General of NATO, he intends to affect this issue in negotiations with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Grigory Chekalin Maryana Torocheshnikova: With me in the Radio Studio Freedom today, lawyers of the Bureau of Koblev and Patreres Ruslan Koblev and Andrey Surov. Their clients are two young people - the lives of Ukhta Anton Korostelev and Alexei Pulyalin. In October last year, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the verdict issued by the Verkhov court of the Komi Republic, who found Korostelev and Pulilin guilty of arson of the Passage shopping center in Ukhta.

Sprinkle jumps. World Cup. Willingen (Germany) Personal offset. HS-145 1. Gregor Schlirenitsauer (Austria) 2. Anders Jacobsen (Norway) 3. Michael Neimayer (Germany) In the overall standings in front, Simon Ammann (Switzerland)