Vnesheconombank (VEB) and the Ministry of Education signed a cooperation agreement yesterday. The ministry and the bank will jointly develop and implement projects and programs in the field of education. The priority areas have been identified as improving education management, developing a system of open education and creating a national system of multi-level training of specialists for innovative activities.

Russia proposed to Ukraine to limit exports The Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade officially notified the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy about the possibility of introducing anti-dumping sanctions against the import of Ukrainian steel pipes to Russia. The Russian side proposes to reduce supplies for a three-year period to volumes that ensure equalization of competition conditions on the Russian market.

Rostov governor is angry The administration of the Rostov region yesterday signed a general agreement on cooperation with Alfa Bank. The signing ceremony was not without a fly in the ointment: Governor Vladimir Chub expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Alfa Group (which includes Alfa Bank) joined the fight for a controlling stake in one of the largest enterprises in the Don - the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant (Tagmet). .

The launch of the sixth - and last - hydraulic unit took place yesterday at the Zagorsk pumped storage power plant. Thus, the first station of this type came into operation in Russia (it is intended to level the daily load schedule). The principle of operation of the Zagorsk pumped storage power plant is as follows: at night, when consumption is lowest and electricity generation is inexpensive, the units operate as pumps, pumping water to a height of 100 meters.

World oil prices hit records for the third day in a row. Yesterday on the London Stock Exchange the price of a barrel of Brent oil reached $34.5. This has not happened since October 1990, since the crisis in the Persian Gulf. However, yesterday the rise in prices for “black gold” slowed down somewhat. This happened on the eve of the OPEC meeting opening on September 10 in Vienna, where a decision will be made to increase crude oil production by 500-700 thousand barrels per day.

The investigation into the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow turned into an entire campaign against “persons of Caucasian nationality”: for several months, almost no Muscovite of any southern appearance could feel confident, even if his passport was in perfect order. Not to mention the guests of the capital who had to, let us remind you, undergo re-registration on a voluntary-compulsory basis.

Duma postpones budget consideration date After a long separation due to the summer parliamentary holidays, deputies will finally be able to see each other today at the first plenary meeting of the autumn session of the Duma. Parliamentarians must approve a rough lawmaking program for the fall, as well as a work calendar for September. Meanwhile, it is possible that the main issue of this session - the budget for 2001 - will no longer be included in the September plan.

New customs tariff approved The government approved the draft changes to the customs tariff structure. Russia abandons the use of prohibitive 30 percent rates, unifies import duties on homogeneous groups of goods and moves from seven levels of rates to four. According to Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Maxim Medvedkov, out of 11 thousand commodity items, tariff changes will affect 3.5 thousand, while more than half of the changed rates will be reduced, the remaining ones will be increased.

According to the FSB, saboteurs received half a million dollars for the death of Muscovites. Over the course of a year of investigating the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow, the special services were unable to handcuff either the organizers of these crimes (according to the investigation, these are Khattab, Movladi Udugov and Arbi Barayev), or the direct perpetrators.

US Open Tennis Championships. New York. USTA National Tennis Center. Friday, September 8th. Semi-finals of the men's tournament . Saturday, September 9th . Women's tournament final. Sunday, September 10th. Final of the men's tournament.

It is ideally clean and tidy, the lawns are fenced with freshly painted fences. As many as three children's playgrounds delight the eye with bright sandboxes and swings. This courtyard, surrounded by seven houses, could easily qualify for a prize in the Moscow courtyard competition. Just a year ago there were eight houses in this yard. Now on the site of the eighth house there is a mound with a small monument. There are wreaths and photographs around.

Sixteen people were slightly injured on Thursday night as a result of an explosion in the very center of Moscow. At 3.45 on the Garden Ring, not far from the building of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, a Zhiguli car stopped. A man dressed in black jumped out of the car, ran up to a group of prostitutes on duty along the road and threw a hand grenade at them. Then he jumped back into the car and disappeared. Fifteen women and one man were slightly wounded by shrapnel.

Russian Ice Hockey Championship in the Super League . Saturday, September 9. "Dynamo" (Moscow) - "Molot-Prikamye" (Perm) (television broadcast on the TVC channel, starts at 12.50) , "Lokomotiv" (Yaroslavl) - "Metallurg" (Novokuznetsk), "Torpedo" (Nizhny Novgorod) -- "Vityaz" (Podolsk), "Lada" (Tolyatti) -- "Severstal" (Cherepovets), "Salavat Yulaev" (Ufa) -- SKA (St.

Before leaving prison, Günter Schabowski will exercise his legal right to rest It came as no surprise to anyone that Günter Schabowski, the former first secretary of the Berlin district committee of the Honecker SED, sentenced to three years in prison, will soon be officially released again. On Wednesday evening, the ruling burgomaster of Berlin, Eberhard Diepgen, announced his decision to pardon two accused in the case of murders at the Berlin Wall - Schabowski and Kleiber.

Czech prison for Russian bandit - hotel Only about 20% of organized criminal groups operating in the Czech Republic are of “domestic” origin, while the main actors on the local stage of organized crime are “guest performers” from abroad. This conclusion was made by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Pyotr Ibl.