As current European champions, our women's team is heading to Latvia, where EuroBasket 2009 starts on Sunday. Rivals in the group - Turkey, Serbia and Lithuania - are unlikely to create problems for Russia and prevent it from reaching the final. Opponents at the playoff stage will already be stronger, but Valery Tikhonenko's team will also become stronger: a little later, 32-year-old naturalized American Rebecca Hammon will join the Russian athletes.

The main rival of the Russian national team in the fight for second place in the qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup will play at home on Saturday with an outsider - the team of Liechtenstein. At this time, Guus Hiddink's team will be preparing for the game with their main competitor, who by the second meeting - in June, in Helsinki - in all likelihood, will almost catch up with our team in the standings.

The season of the strongest hockey championship in the world - the NHL - has reached its final stage: the final games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings begin this week. Both clubs, meeting in the final for the second year in a row, with the help of their leaders - Russian stars Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk - confidently overcame the teams from Carolina and Chicago at the semi-final stage.

Several projects prepared by public and private cultural institutions and showcasing contemporary Russian art are opening as part of the 53rd Venice Art Biennale, which will be held from June 6 to November 22, RIA Novosti correspondent reports. Currently, before the official opening, the projects of the Biennale are available for inspection only to accredited specialists.