The international rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) immediately downgraded Greece's credit ratings by three notches, bringing them to the so-called junk level. If until today Greece's rating was BBB+, now it has collapsed to the level of BB+, going into the speculative category. This means that government bonds are now of greater interest to speculators, since investing for the long term involves greater risk.

In Moscow, on Bolshaya Butovskaya Street, 17A, an unknown person threw a bottle with a Molotov cocktail at the window of the office of the head of the department of organization of inquiry of the Moscow Region Central Internal Affairs Directorate. As reported by the capital's law enforcement agencies, as a result, a fire broke out in the office. However, it was possible to put it out before firefighters arrived. According to preliminary data, no one was injured.

The volume of housing construction in Russia in the first quarter of 2010. decreased by 8.3% compared to the same period in 2009. - up to 9.6 million sq. m. At the same time, during the reporting period, 105.3 thousand apartments were put into operation in the Russian Federation, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) reported. Based on the results of the first quarter of 2009. the volume of housing construction was 10.4 million square meters.

The Government of St. Petersburg approved the design and construction of the 110 kV substation N124A of JSC Lenenergo on Ushinsky Street in the Kalininsky district of the city. As Vyacheslav Semenenko, chairman of the city administration’s construction committee, said during today’s meeting of Smolny, the work will be carried out on a land plot with an area of ​​5 thousand 230 square meters. m. JSC Lenenergo was founded on January 22, 1993.

As of April 27, the balances of credit institutions in correspondent accounts with the Bank of Russia in the Russian Federation amounted to 552.1 billion rubles.

By the evening, traffic police officers will partially block off the center of Moscow, where the Victory Parade rehearsal is planned for today. RBC was informed about this by the Moscow traffic police department. Currently, it is already prohibited to park cars on some central streets of the capital.

The majority of Russians, as before, are confident that Russia will be able to adequately organize the Olympics in Sochi, but every year there are fewer and fewer such respondents (from 92% in 2007 to 84% in 2010). Such data are provided in a study conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). At the same time, compared to 2007, the share of respondents who are skeptical about Russia’s capabilities in this area has increased almost fourfold (from 2% to 7%).

Today is the last day of the official visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Norway. Dmitry Medvedev is expected to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg during the day. On the agenda of the two politicians are issues of energy, ecology, nuclear safety and measures of interaction between countries in other sectors. After completing the official program of his visit to Norway, Dmitry Medvedev will continue his Scandinavian tour: he is already expected in Denmark.

JSC "Lenenergo" May 19, 2010 will sum up the results of an open auction for the right to conclude agreements on the provision of credit resources in the total amount of 3 billion 25 million rubles. for a period of 2 years. As reported in the company's official materials, the loan amount for the first lot is 800 million rubles, for the second - 1 billion 255 million rubles, for the third - 1 billion rubles. The maximum rate is set at 9% per annum.

That night, an unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail into the building of the Moscow police department. A Molotov cocktail hit the window of the office of the head of the department of organization of inquiry of the Moscow Region Central Internal Affairs Directorate. As a result, a fire broke out in a room on the second floor covering an area of ​​0.5 square meters. m, which was extinguished before the firefighters arrived. It is reported that the documents in the office were not damaged.

Negotiations on providing financial assistance to Greece will be completed by early May. This statement was made today by the European Commission, which, together with the ECB and the IMF, is developing a mechanism for financial assistance to Athens for a period of three years.

The magistrate of the court district No. 1 of the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region issued a resolution to terminate the criminal case against the deputy head of the regional police department Nikolai Tikhomirov, accused of violating traffic rules and operating vehicles (part 2 of article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Trading on the Russian foreign exchange market today is taking place under the sign of the strengthening of the ruble against the dollar and the euro. The official dollar-ruble exchange rate, set by the Bank of Russia since April 28, 2010, decreased by 3 kopecks. and amounted to 29.0623 rubles/dollar. As of 12:40 Moscow time, the weighted average dollar exchange rate for tomorrow settlements was 29.0633 rubles/dollar.

Member of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) and budget expert Jürgen Coppelin believes that “Greece may have to leave the eurozone for a while” if Athens fails to fulfill its promises to cut the budget deficit and, as a result, does not receive financial support. assistance from the EU and IMF.

Soon Russian citizens will be able to travel to Norway without visas. True, we are talking only about those who live in the 30-kilometer border zone. Agreements on a visa-free regime for residents of a small part of the Murmansk region were reached at negotiations in Oslo by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. However, they did not specify when they planned to sign the relevant document.