Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria. He reported to President Vladimir Putin to fulfill the order, which he gave on December 11 during a visit to the Khmeimim base. At the same time, on Friday, the Syrian agency AMN reported that Russian military aircraft continued to strike at objects in the south of the Idlib province.

In recent weeks, the Prague monument to the Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev, located in Prague-6-one of the administrative regions of the capital of the Czech Republic, was in the spotlight several times. At the end of November, a demonstration organized by the Communist Party of the Czech Republic was held here against the plans of the district administration to partially change the appearance of the monument.

The court in Khakassia decided to return the seven adoptive children seized by the custody of the custody of the custody of the local resident due to supposedly too long hair from one of them. This was reported by "New Gazeta". The day before, the human rights organization Amnesty International demanded that the Khakassia authorities immediately cancel the decree on the removal of Lyceghevich from raising adoptive children.

The most interesting of our common past. Incomplete story. Unjust wounds. Still live hopes. Could Russia go the other way? Radio Liberty this week 20 years ago. Archive project. Ivan Tolstoy chooses from our ether still relevant and turned out to be eternal.

The Moscow City Court has fired a ban on the "Day of Free Elections" - a stock planned on December 24 in the Krasnoselsky district in the "Festive event" format. The court decision on the ban was made on December 20. The organizer of the action, the head of the Krasnoselsky district of the city, Ilya Yashin, appealed the ban. He called him "politically motivated and illegal." Yashin announced the "Day of Free Elections" last week.

Beijing, China In the section "Memories" - the Mongol artist Dan Barsboldt. At the end of the last century and at the beginning of the present, he often visited China. For the past five years, he lived in Beijing with his wife Ivana, a Czech diplomat. At the end of 2017, they returned to Prague. Dan Barsbolda recalls Beijing. ​ I first arrived in Beijing at the end of the last century.

The UN Security Council tightened sanctions against North Korea. Members of the Security Council voted for the resolution prepared by the United States unanimously. The resolution was supported, among other things, China, the main trading partner of Pyongyang. Among the new sanctions measures is the restriction of the import of fuel into North Korea by 90 percent. All oil suppliers in the DPRK must report this to the UN.

In the zone of armed conflict in the Donbass, 85 civilians died over the year, another 384 were injured. This was announced at a press conference in Kiev by Alexander Khug, First Deputy Head of the OSCE monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine. He noted that in just 2017, observers recorded 16 thousand cases of violation of the ceasefire in the Donbass, which is almost twice as many last year.

In St. Petersburg, pickets were held in support of the protest Moscow movement, the supporters of which were searches on Friday. The action at the St. Petersburg branch of the Center "E" (the Center for Combating Extremism) organized four activists of the opposition movement "Vesna". They held in their hands posters with a hashtag #fucked, reports Mediazon. The searches of the supporters of the “protest Moscow” began on Friday morning.

An illustrative photo Police officers on Friday morning came with searches for five activists of the “protest Moscow”. This is stated in the message in the telegram channel of movement. One of them - Mikhail Chichkov - was taken to the department of the Investigative Committee on the Central Administrative District. In the framework of what business the searches took place, the police did not explain. We came with a search at the place of registration. They say something about the 5th number.

Vladimir Putin in the Russian Spiritual and Cultural Center in Paris, May 2017 France is offered to deprive the RT channel license On May 29, at a press conference, after a meeting with Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron accused the Russian state information agencies in Russia Today and the Sputnik of spreading false news and propaganda. Six months passed, and on December 18, RT channel began broadcasting in French.

Vladimir Putin, albeit unofficially, but in fact he already leads his election campaign. On Thursday, he held two important meetings, one of them with representatives of large business. Oligarchs in the Kremlin: Putin's meeting with representatives of large business Pic.twitter.com/zkpunz8xk4 will begin to begin now - Dmitry Smirnov (@Dimsmirnov175) December 21, 2017 Scheme of the seedlings of oligarchs, bankers and sharks of business at a meeting with Putin.

George Orwell in BBC studio Conversation with the biographer of the writer Maria Carp The St. Petersburg publishing house Vita Nova released a 600-page volume-"George Orwell: Biography." The author of the book is Maria Poilevna Karp, a journalist and translator, a many-year-old employee of the BBC, chairman of the London Pushkin Club and a member of the board of the British Orwell Society.

Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences signed an open letter with criticism to the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov for an interview that he gave to the Rossiy newspaper. In it, Bortnikov talked about the repressions and work of the modern special services. The letter was handed over to the newspaper Kommersant Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, physicist Sergei Stishov. Scientists accused the head of the FSB of justifying repression.

The former head of Catalonia, Carles Puchdemon, called on the authorities of Spain to dialogue. Puchdemon claims that he is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the country's prime minister Mariano Rakhay. It is reported by Reuters. The ex-leader of Catalonia added that he was ready to meet with the Spanish Prime Minister in any EU country except Spain. In addition, Puchdemon once again reminded that he could return to Spain.