On February 6, 2004, near the Oryol Regional Clinical Hospital named after MOPR, a group of 10 skinheads attacked archery athletes from Buryatia who had come to Orel for competitions. The details of the incident and the number of victims are unknown. The fact was reported when the case filed on the fact of the beating of Buryat athletes on February 27, 2004 was transferred to the court in June 2005.

Periodically intensified talk about extending the presidential term has finally resulted in a legislative initiative.

Within the framework of the " Christmas Readings " a meeting of the section devoted to the military-patriotic education of youth was held. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defense, military educational institutions, military registration and enlistment offices, military-patriotic clubs.

Bishop of Saratov and Volsk Longin (Korchagin) took part in a meeting of the regional government. The archbishop told the audience that the budget funds allocated for the restoration of the architectural monument, the Trinity Cathedral, are not enough: only the initial restoration work is estimated, according to him, at 20 million rubles, and only 1 million has been allocated.

Novoye Vremya continues the discussion of the topic of political correctness, which was started in issue 4 of the magazine with the thematic selection "Their language is our enemy" . In continuation of the theme in issue 5, the magazine publishes a detailed essay by Mikhail Globachev "Protection of fools from impotent" . M. Globachev is rather skeptical about the phenomenon of political correctness that has developed to date.

A number of educational institutions in Rostov-on-Don introduced a course in the history of religions as an experiment. Since this course requires good training of teachers, the Ministry of Education of the Rostov region organized refresher courses for teachers. Sources In Rostov, a course on the history of religions is introduced into the school curriculum // Don-TR. 2004. February 5.

In early February, Minister for Nationalities Vladimir Zorin released data from the Ministries of Press, Broadcasting and Mass Media on abuses of freedom of the media. According to him, in 2003 the Ministry of Press issued 45 warnings, 35 of which concerned cases of inciting ethnic hatred.