The Tchaikovsky Big Symphony Orchestra opened the season with experiments Vladimir Fedoseev has always strived for originality in his concert programs. But this time the conductor should even be reproached for some inappropriate experimentation. The program of the first Moscow performance of the BSO led by him this season included Beethoven and Mahler.

The head of Vnesheconombank believes that political will is required to restructure the banking system The head of Vnesheconombank Andrei KOSTIN, who attended the annual meeting of the boards of governors of the IMF and the World Bank in Prague, shared with Andrei DENISOV, a columnist for the Vremya Novostei newspaper, his opinion on the prospects for the economic situation in Russia and the restructuring of the banking system.

In the very center of Moscow, an old four-story administrative building on Balakirevy Lane caught fire on Wednesday night. In this mansion, owned by the Moscow Property Committee, two organizations were located: the department for combating banditry and murders of the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office and the research and marketing center of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Russia. The fire broke out on the third floor in one of the center's offices.

On Tuesday, employees of the Vladivostok Civil Emergency Situations Department received an urgent call to a residential building on Uborevich Street, where workers renovating an apartment discovered spilled mercury. It literally spilled onto one of the crew members while he was drilling a hole in the ceiling. Work was immediately stopped. Police officers and rescuers who arrived at the scene discovered that mercury had leaked from a technical thermometer located in the interfloor ceiling.

Dynamo Kiev defeated Anderlecht The next round of the Champions League started successfully. Only the teams from Group E let down, scoring one goal between four of them. The Greek Panathinaikos beat the German Hamburg away - 1:0. And the Italian “Juventus” and the Spanish “Deportivo” parted peacefully - 0:0. But only the score was peaceful. Throughout the match, the opponents acted very harshly, and the referee of the match, Swiss Mayer, had to get yellow cards more than once.

Starting from the new year, the sales tax in the capital will increase to 5 percent The Moscow City Duma approved in the first reading a law increasing the sales tax to 5 percent. This is the third change in Article 3 of the law “On Sales Tax” adopted in March last year: first, deputies limited themselves to two percent, then increased the tax to four and have now reached the maximum allowed rate. Each time the initiative to increase the rate came from the Moscow government.

The Prosecutor General's Office approved the indictment and sent to court a criminal case against American businessman Edmond Pope, accused of espionage. Former US naval intelligence officer Edmond Pope was detained on April 5 of this year by FSB officers. According to intelligence agencies, Pope was collecting information about the latest Russian torpedo used on submarines.

The Danes are once again deciding the fate of Europe Danish statesmen are not spoiled by the attention of the world press. But in recent days, every more or less famous local politician has been literally followed on the heels of journalists from the world's leading agencies asking for their opinion on today's referendum on Denmark's accession to the European Monetary Union.

The Greek ferry crew loved football too much Until yesterday evening, there had been no reliable reports about whether Russians were on board the Greek ferry Express Samina, which sank on Tuesday in the Aegean Sea, a little over three kilometers from the island of Paros. Those rescued claim that some of the tourists spoke Russian.

Volleyball. Men. 1/4 finals . Russia - Cuba - 3:2, Italy - Australia - 3:1, Argentina - Brazil - 3:1, Yugoslavia - Holland - 3:2. Our men's volleyball players with great difficulty defeated the Cubans in the match for reaching the semi-finals, winning in a tiebreaker. Now the rival of Gennady Shipulin's team will be another South American team - the Argentine team, which we already beat at the preliminary stage of the Games.

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Republicans suspect the White House of playing politics around oil prices President Clinton's decision to release part of the US strategic oil reserve to the market quickly led to a drop in oil prices. It is unclear, however, what the long-term impact of this move will be. On Friday, the White House ordered the sale of 30 million barrels of crude oil.

The rise of the Kursk will still take place The Norwegian government has joined the project to raise the sunken Kursk submarine. This happened after negotiations between the Rubin Central Design Bureau from St. Petersburg and the Norwegian-British company Stolt Offshore finally reached a dead end.

Mayors of coal towns decide how to live next A meeting of the board of the Association of Mining Cities of Russia (ASG) was held in Kemerovo yesterday. They discussed a distant but vitally important prospect: how to live without a “coal” loan from the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the term of which expires in a year and a half. For now, it is RRDB that finances social programs designed to mitigate the consequences of the restructuring of the coal industry in Russia.

For the first time in the last 12 years, but at the most inopportune moment Perhaps the loudest sensation of the Olympics was yesterday's loss in the final of the Greco-Roman wrestling competition of three-time Olympic champion, super heavyweight Alexander Karelin. Even a minute before the end of extra time in Karelin’s fight with American Rulon Gardner, I couldn’t believe that this could happen. But the numbers on the scoreboard were inexorable: 1:0 in favor of the American wrestler...