The USA-Russia Investment Fund celebrated its fifth anniversary yesterday and announced the official opening of a division that specializes in mortgage lending, the DeltaCredit company. By the time of opening, the company had already concluded cooperation agreements with 12 Russian banks and approved about 430 loans totaling $13.5 million. Now the company plans to ease the conditions for obtaining a mortgage loan.

The Ural Transport Inspectorate is ready to license everything Ekaterinburg entrepreneurs began to fight with the local branch of the Russian Transport Inspectorate (RTI). Representatives of medium-sized businesses providing services in the transport sector believe that RTI infringes on their rights by forcing them to obtain licenses.

The Kemerovo chemical plant fell into the orbit of Gazprom Last Friday, a meeting of shareholders of Kemerovo Azot, the largest chemical enterprise in Kuzbass, took place. Shareholders elected a supervisory board and an audit commission and approved the report of General Director Anatoly Gubkin. Behind the seemingly routine decisions, however, lies the end of an entire era in the history of the plant. After this meeting, Azot finally and irrevocably fell into the orbit of Gazprom’s influence.

Gazprom and Media-Most made the secret explicit The negotiation process between Gazprom-Media and the Media-Most holding has ended. Both sides went all-in by making public the confidential details of the agreement they signed on July 20. These agreements, according to the documents presented on NTV, consisted in the fact that Vladimir Gusinsky was given freedom and the right to leave the country in exchange for agreeing to sell Media-Most to Gazprom.

The best breaststroker in Russia is ready to exchange “bronze” for “gold” Four-month-old Roma Sludnov watched his first Olympics, held in Moscow... lying in his dad's arms. And 20 years later, he went to the start of the Games in Sydney himself, winning a bronze medal for the Russian team in swimming at a distance of 100 m breaststroke. However, the swimmer is dissatisfied with this result.

Walt Disney Co is introducing a new version of its web portal to users. According to The Wall Street Journal Europe, it took just over eight months to finalize the initial version, launched in early 1999. If in the initial version Disney's Go.com was built as a “horizontal portal of general interest” and was close in structure to the products of Yahoo!

Ukraine is moving towards Europe again Last Saturday, going to Paris for a meeting with the EU leadership, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed a program for integration into the European Union right on the plane. For nine years of independence, Kyiv postponed the final choice of foreign policy priorities, balancing between Moscow and Brussels. Now there is a year or two left to catch up, no more.

Today the name of the new owner of ONAKO will be known A special commission of the Russian Federal Property Fund (RFFI) is to sum up the results of the investment competition for the sale of an 85 percent state stake in the Orenburg Oil Company (ONAKO). Four companies are participating in the tender, which closed on September 14. However, the RFBR has not yet disclosed information about them. Potential participants also preferred to refrain from public comments on the eve of the competition.

Railway prosecutor's office against Krasnoyarskenergo There was no electricity for almost a day in eight villages of the Mansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. 12 thousand people's winter supplies were spoiled. Due to a lack of power, the water pumps stopped working, so a local nursing home had to haul water from a nearby stream. Rural businesses were also affected.

The winner of the title “Miss Russia-96” was killed on Saturday evening in Cheboksary. Alexandra Petrova won a prestigious beauty contest when she was only 16 years old. On Saturday she was returning home in the company of two friends. At the entrance of the house, an unknown criminal opened aimed fire at them with a pistol. Petrova and one young man died on the spot from their injuries, and the girl’s second companion was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

Rosbank plans to attract half a billion dollars from private investors Formally, yesterday's press conference by the head of the holding company Interros, Vladimir Potanin, and the president of ONEXIMbank, Mikhail Prokhorov, was timed to coincide with the decision made at the end of last week to merge the two main banks of the group - Rosbank and ONEXIM - and to complete the restructuring of the latter. However, the conversation turned to the group's plans in the banking business.

The International Monetary Fund is waiting for Russia in Prague At the end of the week, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Kudrin flies to Prague in his new capacity as manager of the Russian Federation to participate in the annual session of the IMF and the World Bank. The session will provide Mr. Kudrin with an opportunity to discuss the IMF's activities in Russia and exchange views on economic policy issues.

Despite the fact that the attention of sports fans is primarily drawn these days to the Olympic Sydney, the group tournament of the Champions League football continues in Europe. The first matches of the second round will take place today. In Group E, the first two matches ended in a draw: Juventus (Italy) - Hamburg (Germany) - 4:4, Panathinaikos (Greece) - Deportivo (Spain) - 1:1 . And now the matches in Turin (Juve - Panathinaikos) and La Coruña (Depor - Hamburg) can become decisive.

Americans are trying to stop Russian fighters on the distant approaches to Indonesia The sensational statement made by US Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday in Jakarta could cost Russia dearly. According to military sources of the Vremya Novostei newspaper, just a few phrases from Mr. Cohen could reduce the revenues of the domestic defense industry by between 650 million and a billion dollars.

A batch of counterfeit toilet water was seized yesterday during a joint operation by employees of the Main Directorate for Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Department for Economic Crimes of the Moscow Region. While checking one of the Ramensky municipal markets, operatives noticed a man offering passers-by to buy Marianna cologne from him at one hundred rubles per bottle. The toilet water seemed suspicious to the police.