What happened anyway, in your opinion? In a nutshell, this is called: "She drowned." There was a war. Do you think you have lost South Ossetia and Abkhazia or not? No. I think that the existence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will move from one plane to another. Previously, it was, in a sense, a cabal, such a discussion with Russian accompaniment. Now it's an international dispute. There was an incomprehensible riddle: Russia was both a party and a peacemaker.

On the second day after the fall of the Boeing 737-500 in Perm, an observation deck was opened over the crash site. Pensioners Angelina Sergeevna and Irina Alexandrovna were among the first, when the cadaverous smell had not yet disappeared. They were sure that they themselves could die in their 12-story building. They thanked the pilots and scolded the head of Aeroflot, Valery Okulov, who, after the news of the death of 88 passengers and crew members, first of all disowned Aeroflot-Nord.

A little less than a year ago, after early parliamentary elections, members of the Party of Regions (PR), who were not included in the ruling "orange" coalition, were surprisingly cheerful and with undisguised pleasure gave out forecasts regarding the timing of its existence. Some predicted a quick death, others predicted prolonged agony and endless intra-coalition conflicts. As a result, both were right.

There has never been such a rise in the Russian stock market. Stock prices didn't go up last Friday - they went up. Paper "Gazprom" started from 168 rubles. apiece, and after 10 minutes they left for 198 rubles. Traders did not have time to place orders for the purchase of shares, and soon sales for individual securities stopped: everyone wanted to buy, for example, VTB shares (in 20 minutes they grew by 40%), but no one wanted to sell them.

Immediately after the elections, on March 10, the opening of the first modern Russian luge and bobsleigh track in the village of Paramonovo near Moscow was attended not only by leading sports functionaries, but also by the new president, Dmitry Medvedev. Having made a short opening speech and wishing the athletes good luck, he went to inspect the sports bean. "Do you want to sit?" - suggested the athletes, pointing to the massive steel structure.

The election of the leader of the Kadima party brought the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, 50-year-old Tzipi Livni, closer to the chair of the country's prime minister: according to Israeli laws, the first number on the electoral list of the ruling party becomes the head of the cabinet. The former lawyer and foreign intelligence officer Mossad got into politics relatively recently - in 1999.

How do you assess the events of August? We lost the war for sure, but Russia did not win it either. What is Russia's political goal - to isolate itself from the whole world? Or is it to pander to separatist movements within Russia? Then the goal is reached. Russia has long tried to provoke Georgia into a war, as an example I can cite President Putin's decree in April on establishing direct relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. You have been twice. O. President of Georgia.

Maria Zheleznova

On the morning of September 17, in the Serebryany Bor forest park in Moscow, one could observe the following picture: a bloody man in only shorts and handcuffs climbed onto the three-meter fence of one of the dachas, jumped to the ground and rushed to run. People living in the neighborhood reported that after half an hour someone came out of that house and asked if they had seen a suspicious man.

Victoria (name changed) has been eating very little in recent years: a little cabbage, a little cottage cheese, kefir, a couple of sips of coffee. But neither diet nor medication helped, and Victoria waited for her illness - type II diabetes - to give fatal complications. “In January of this year, I went for a bypass operation at the clinic of the Center for Endosurgery and Lithotripsy (CELT), since then my life has changed completely,” says the 51-year-old manicurist, who is on the mend.

The Bolivian "crescent" in the struggle for autonomy can bring the country to civil war The year 2008 can be boldly proclaimed the year of separatism if the list of Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia is joined by the exotic region of Media Luna, which means “half-moon” in Spanish.

In September 1998, the default and devaluation of the ruble in Russia brought the American fund Long Term Capital Markets (LTCM), which at that time was one of the largest investors in the Russian market, to the brink of collapse. LTCM's problems caused the US stock market to decline. Exactly 10 years later, the situation repeated itself exactly the opposite: the bankruptcy of one American bank - Lehman Brothers - plunged the Russian stock market into an abyss.

When the American cable TV channel Comedy Central learned from a Newsweek correspondent that Russia was trying to ban the cartoon South Park ("South Park") - the channel's calling card since 1997 - they laughed a lot. “It can't be, it can't be! Are you kidding me?! - choking with laughter, said the girl Kathy from the press service of Central Comedy.

What kind of music do you like? It seems to me that musical love does not disappear and lives deep in the soul of every person. I grew up listening to the music of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, ABBA, Bob Dylan. Annie Lenox and Bruce Springsteen made a huge impression on me. We grew up with him in New Jersey. But singing and dancing are not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Meryl Streep." Was it not scary to agree to the musical?

For many years, no other pictures of the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, have been found on the tapes of photo agencies, except for front cards with pompous structures made of marble like the Palace of National Manuscripts, a monument to independence or a monument to those killed in the Ashgabat earthquake with a huge bull on a pedestal. But the bull cannot be shot from the side of the tail in the foreshortening from below.