In his blog on The New York Times, journalist Masha Gessen called for Madonna to boycott concerts in Russia, as some stars of Western show business did. Then there was no such wide public discussion around the work of girls from the Pussy Riot group who performed in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Madonna stated that in St. Petersburg it would oppose the prohibition of propaganda of homosexuality among minors.

Yuri Pilipenko Elena Rykovtseva : Inquisition on the march. So we called our program today. Our guest is Yuri Pilipenko, the editor -in -chief of the weekly "interlocutor". Today we are discussing several topics at once-this is Pussy Riot, this is the next split in the tandem of Putin-Medvedev along the line of South Ossetia, this is Putin Makarevich’s answer for kickbacks, this is a possible quick liberation of Plato Lebedev.

Alexey Mukhin The documentary "Lost Day" , in which high-ranking military criticize ex-president Dmitry Medvedev for indecision manifested in 2008 during an armed conflict in South Ossetia, many experts regarded the beginning of the PR campaign against Prime Minister Medvedev. According to the supporters of this version, both the content of the film and the reaction of the Prime Minister and the President, indicates a split within the ruling elites.

Irina Lagunina: How did the Russians react to the Criminal Code of the Article “On Cleles”, excluded from it six months ago? This was found out by the analytical center of Yuri Levada through a massive survey conducted throughout the country in a representative sample among a thousand six hundred urban and rural residents. Who and why did you need a slander law? Does he limit, according to citizens, freedom of speech in the country? Tells Veronika Bode.

In the Luhansk region of Ukraine yesterday, when a passenger train collided with four wagons with coal, seven people were injured. According to the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine, three people are hospitalized, the state of one of them is serious. It is reported that three cargo cars and a diesel - traffic wagon have left the rails. There were no delays in the traffic.

On August 12, in the castle of the city of Vyborg , the twentieth festival "Window to Europe" will open. The festival competitions participate in 63 gaming, documentary and animated films. They will be judged by three jury, led by director Romayan Balayan, writer Yuri Polyakov and Oleg Zhinov, author of animated paintings.

The Kuban press lively discusses the problem of attracting Cossack squads to the protection of public order in the Krasnodar Territory. The regional administration, led by Governor Alexander Tkachev, made the initiative to create professional Cossack formations that will assist the police.

Peter Fomenko. Director Peter Fomenko died at the age of 80. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the Department of Culture of Moscow. Pyotr Fomenko was the creator and artistic director of the "Workshop of P. Fomenko." In 1993, the director was awarded the title "People's Artist" of Russia, and then he was alternately awarded the Order "For Merits to the Fatherland" IV, III degree.

XXX Summer Olympic Games. London, Great Britain Basketball. Women. The semifinals Russia - France 64:81

The flag of the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia over the city of Tskhinvali The Russian blogs are discussed by the dispute between Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin on the beginning of the armed conflict in South Ossetia. Medvedev said that he personally and timely was made on the commissioning of troops.

Football. European League. 3rd qualification round.

The Center for Business Against Corruption of Business Russia received an appeal of the ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky to conduct an examination of the sentence in the second case in relation to the entrepreneur. This was announced today by Interfax by Vice President of Business Russia and adviser to the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Tatyana Marchenko.

In the capital of Chile Santiago on Wednesday, thousands of students participated in a demonstration demanding free education. The police applied vodtetes to disperse the demonstrators. During the action by the hooligans, three buses were burned. 75 people were arrested, about 50 police officers were injured. The authorities say that the leaders of the demonstrators will not be able to evade responsibility due to arson of buses.

The international (gold and foreign exchange) reserves of Russia for the period from July 27 to August 3 increased by $ 1.9 billion or by 0.4% to $ 507.4 billion. This is stated in the materials of the Central Bank. Great than Russia with gold and foreign exchange reserves today have two countries in the world - China and Japan. According to the latest published data, their volume is 3.2 trillion and 1.1 trillion dollars, respectively.

Peter Fomenko The famous theater director, People's Artist of Russia Peter Fomenko died in Moscow. He was 80 years old. In 1961, Fomenko graduated from the director's faculty of the Russian University of Theater Arts - Hitis. After 20 years, he returned there as a teacher. Pyotr Fomenko staged more than 60 performances in theaters of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Wroclaw, Salzburg and Paris. From 1993 until the last days he headed the theater "Workshop of Peter Fomenko".