The Moscow theatre "Helikon-Opera" begins its last season in the familiar form of a small opera troupe in a small hall. In a couple of years we should not recognize it. In recent years, director Dmitry Bertman has been designing his theater's performances so that they fit both on a small area with three columns in the former House of the Doctor and on a stage in Montpellier, France, which is almost larger than the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

"There will be no serious production [of the H2] in Kaliningrad: the car is niche, expensive, not for mass demand," says Andrey Kormilitsyn, an analyst at Troika Dialog. Maxim Matveyev from Alfa Bank agrees with him and adds that establishing assembly in Russia will help GM overcome the grey market for Hummers. The world's largest automobile manufacturer, General Motors, and the Russian company Avtotor have signed a contract to assemble Hummer 2 (H2) SUVs in Kaliningrad at Avtotor's facilities.

BMW plans a "model offensive". MOSCOW - Next year will be a year of "model offensive" on the Russian market for the German automobile manufacturer BMW, representatives of the concern announced at the 6th Russian International Motor Show in Moscow. In particular, next year the new compact SUV BMW X3, BMW 6-series (coupe) and the new 1-series car will be launched on the Russian market.

PETERSBURG - In the anniversary year, city authorities predicted an almost twofold increase in the number of tourists, but their expectations did not come true. However, participants in the tourism market are not despondent: they believe that the wild celebration was not in vain and foreigners will travel to the Northern capital, albeit in a few years. In the year of the 300th anniversary of St.

The oil situation is particularly interesting right now. Prices are hovering around $30 a barrel despite low demand. The once-fashionable theory that an American takeover of Iraq would bring down oil prices has not worked. It will take several more years of investment to bring the Iraqi oil industry to a serious level. The American economy is quickly coming back to life. So oil prices are likely to remain high or even rise for the foreseeable future.

BUCHAREST - Romania this week began accepting bids for the sale of state oil company SNP Petrom. The government hopes to sell a 51 percent stake in Petrom by March 2004, raising about $1 billion. Analysts say Russian companies are interested in buying SNP Petrom to gain control of its distribution infrastructure. A consortium including Lukoil, Hungary's MOL and Austria's OMV could be formed.

When the financial sector downturn began in 2000, the heads of the largest investment banks consoled themselves with one hope: the crisis would drive out the smaller competitors that were making it so hard to make money in Europe. Now that the situation has begun to improve, it has become clear that this hope has been dashed: not a single second-tier bank has left the investment banking business.

The full-length French cartoon "Children of the Rain" has a backstory that is usually told either about avant-garde or about super-successful box office projects. But Philippe Leclercq's film is neither: the tale of two warring tribes - pyros and hydros, people, i.e. fire and water, who were reconciled, of course, by love - is interesting mainly because it is drawn in a style close to Japanese "anime".

Teatr.doc announced its upcoming projects, or rather, ideas that, given favorable circumstances, have a chance to turn into performances. In the new season, the public is promised such interesting topics as "black PR", "sectarians", "suicide", "old ladies and sex", as well as a continuation of the project "Unknown in the City", which began with the recent performance "Moldovan War for a Cardboard Box".

The authorities of Khakassia have decided to cancel the privatization of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. In this way, the government of the republic is trying to save local enterprises on electricity costs. Experts believe that nothing will come of this venture and that starting next year, industrial consumers of electricity, the largest of which is the Sayansky Aluminum Plant (SaAZ), will have to pay twice as much.

"If we focus on dividends, we will always be poor." Rumors that the capital's vice-mayor Valery Shantsev is about to replace Mayor Yuri Luzhkov have arisen more than once during their eight years of working together. Two weeks before the nomination of candidates for the new mayoral elections, Shantsev firmly states that he is interested exclusively in the economy and in no way in politics. Now the vice-mayor oversees the entire economic complex of the capital.

Alfa Bank analyst Maxim Matveyev emphasizes that the global market for walking excavators is a one-off. Only a few machines are sold per year. "Price and technical characteristics alone are not enough to win a tender; established contacts with consumers and strong political connections of the company are needed," the expert notes.

Groups of dissatisfied party members are breaking away from regional United Russia organizations and are being gathered into their ranks by the New Russia movement. United Russia, which has half a million members, is ignoring this process. And political consultants close to the new movement claim that the Novorossiyans will soon join the left-patriotic coalition of Sergei Glazyev and Dmitry Rogozin. Today in Ulyanovsk a split among local "United Russia" members will be announced.

The rules stipulate that current participants in the wholesale electricity market will automatically be able to enter any segment of the future wholesale market. Other consumers wishing to buy energy at state prices will first have to obtain the status of "participant in the free trade sector." At the same time, the document does not describe the procedure and timeframe for consumers to enter the regulated market segment.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 21, 2003 No. 514 "On the Government Commission for the Development of Regulatory Acts in the Sphere of Reforming and Regulating Land Relations".