Books published with the support of the Soros Foundation were burned at the Vorkuta Mining and Economics College. This was reported by the local publication “7x7” with reference to the response from the Ministry of Education of the Komi Republic. We are talking about 53 copies of two books.

The US Treasury will begin to determine the ownership of luxury housing in Manhattan and Miami in order to combat money laundering, writes The New York Times. Previously, the newspaper found such real estate from former Russian senators Photo: Reuters/Pixstream The US Treasury Department is concerned about the illicit flow of funds into luxury real estate, so it will begin to identify secret buyers of these assets and monitor their transactions.

In Armenia, 10 people died from swine flu (H1N1). reports this with reference to data from the press secretary of the country's Ministry of Health, Anahit Haytayan Reuters . Since the beginning of 2016, 7 people have died from the H1N1 virus in the country, and three more died at the end of last year. At the same time, Aytayan assured that there is no threat of an epidemic. With reference to the press secretary , News.am reports that the tenth death was recorded today in Yerevan.

Cigarettes have disappeared from free sale in Turkmenistan. This was reported by the website “Chronicle of Turkmenistan” under the human rights organization “Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights”. According to him, in Ashgabat, sellers were visited by employees of the state service for protecting the safety of a healthy society and threatened with a fine of 10 minimum wages (5,900 Turkmen manats, or $1,735) for selling cigarettes.

Deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan asked the country's President Nursultan Nazarbayev to make a decision on the early dissolution of the chamber, Interfax reports . “We, representatives of all three parliamentary factions, are putting forward an initiative for the early dissolution of the Mazhilis of Parliament,” said deputy Nurlan Abdirov, reading out the text of a joint statement by parliamentarians on Wednesday.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with the leaders of Germany and France Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande and discussed with them the situation in Donbass. This was reported on the website of the head of the Ukrainian state.

Deputy Chairman of Vnesheconombank Andrei Klepach said that oil prices may briefly fall below $20 per barrel. At the same time, he did not rule out that in the second half of 2016 oil could rise to $40–50 Deputy Chairman of Vnesheconombank Andrey Klepach (Photo: RBC) “They may fall below $20, but these may be temporary falls,” Klepach said, speaking at the Gaidar Forum at RANEPA. At the same time, the deputy chairman of VEB noted that in 1999 oil prices fell to $9 per barrel.

Iranian authorities announced the release of ten US Navy sailors who were detained in the Persian Gulf the day before when two boats found themselves in Iranian territorial waters. Earlier, Tehran demanded an apology from the United States. Photo: Reuters/Pixstream Ten American sailors detained by Iranian authorities have been released in international waters. This was announced by representatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), IRNA reports .

Sales of personal computers from manufacturers fell in the last quarter of 2015 to their lowest level since 2007, when Apple launched the iPhone.

The traffic police called on residents of St. Petersburg to refrain from riding snowboards around the city, clinging to cars. The propaganda department of the regional department reported this to the Russian News Service . appeared on Instagram Earlier, a video in which a snowboarder, clinging to a car, was driving along Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. a video of extreme sports enthusiasts riding around the city, in particular on Vasilyevsky Island and Palace Square .

Turkey has asked the United States to train and arm Sunni rebels in Syria so they can guard its southern borders. Washington previously demanded that Ankara cut off access to extremists in and from Syria Last week, Turkish authorities asked the US military to create units of moderate pro-Western rebels in Syria that could guard the Syrian-Turkish border.

The head of the Ministry of Economic Development, Alexey Ulyukaev, proposed returning to the issue of privatization of Sberbank and VTB. According to him, these are “very high-quality assets” that are “attractive around the world” Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev considers it necessary to return to the issue of privatization of state banks. He expressed this opinion while speaking at the Gaidar Forum 2016, TASS reports .

The Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow decided to ban information about “zatsepers” posted on more than 100 pages of the social network VKontakte, RAPSI reports from the courtroom. Thus, the court satisfied the claim of the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor's Office. In support of its claim, the prosecutor's office indicated that during the inspection it was established that there was information on VKontakte promoting travel by rail in a prohibited manner.

Former head of the Russian Ministry of Finance Alexei Kudrin called the proposal to reduce pensions for working pensioners controversial. He stated this during his speech at the Gaidar Forum in Moscow, an RBC correspondent reports. “Those pensioners who are ready to work, if their pension is reduced, this will disincentivize them to work in conditions of shortage of labor resources,” Kudrin explained. The former minister also reiterated the need to raise the retirement age.

Photo: from personal archive The current authorities had the time and resources to turn Russia, if not into another China, then into a new Emirates, laying the foundations for economic recovery for several decades. What happened in reality? Lost years In the first working days of 2016, the attention of Russians was focused on the dollar exchange rate and oil prices - already 77 rubles. per dollar and $31 per barrel of Brent on the morning of January 12.