The trial of Igor Sutyagin, one of Russia's leading analysts on military-political issues, accused of spying for the United States, began yesterday in the Kaluga Regional Court. The official, who held the post of head of the military-technical policy sector of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was arrested by FSB officers in October last year.

Ten years ago, they joke in Israel, here you could meet people speaking Russian. Today you can meet someone who speaks Hebrew. The rest are in Russian. But these, to the chagrin of Russian tour operators and local representatives of the tourism industry, are not tourists.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov ordered the coordination of the position of the State Customs Committee and the Ministry of Finance on the settlement of Most Bank's debt to these departments. The head of the press service of the customs committee, Vladimir Emelyanov, reported this to the Vremya Novostey newspaper.

The Kremlin is annoyed by the trip of deputies to Nazran An attempt by a group of State Duma deputies to enter into a political dialogue with representatives of the Chechen separatists caused a negative reaction in the Kremlin and a positive response from some regional leaders. The first contact between Moscow politicians and representatives of the separatists since 1998 occurred on Saturday in Nazran.

Traditional biathlon competition “Izhevsk Rifle”. Izhevsk (Russia). Men . 20 km. Sergey Konovalov (Perm region) - 56.21.2 (2 misses). 10 km . Vladimir Drachev (St. Petersburg) - 28.37.7 (0). Relay 4x7.5 km. Udmurtia-1 (Kobelev, Churin, Tcherezov, Maksimov) - 1:26.00.8 (0). Women . 15 km . Lidiya Efremova (Chuvashia) - 52.01.7 (2). 7.5 km. Svetlana Chernousova (Krasnoyarsk Territory) - 26.40.4 (0). The 4x7.5 km relay race was canceled due to frost.

In one day, the Ulyanovsk region renewed almost the entire vertical of executive power. Now there is not only a new governor, but also three new mayors: in Ulyanovsk itself, in the two largest cities - Dmitrovgrad and Barysh, as well as new heads of administration in 11 out of 23 districts. More notable than other victories is the victory of General Vladimir Shamanov over the former governor Yuri Goryachev, who ruled the region continuously for more than 13 years.

Last Sunday, mayoral elections were held in the four largest cities of the Rostov region. In Rostov, Taganrog and Azov, the current heads of administration are celebrating the victory. But in Novocherkassk, the mayor’s chair will now be occupied by the rector of the Military Institute of Communications, General Anatoly Volkov. By the way, perhaps the most scandalous election campaign took place in Novocherkassk.

The immediate targets are NORSI-Oil and the Moscow Refinery “In the coming months, LUKOIL will absorb another Russian oil company,” LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov said in Baku last week. Although the name of the company was not mentioned, it is clear to everyone that Alekperov was referring to the Nizhny Novgorod oil refining company NORSI-Oil and its upcoming privatization.

Leonard Peltier, who is on Clinton's pardon list, was, along with starving astrophysicist Dr. Heider and New York unemployed Joe Mowry, one of the popular characters of the last years of Soviet propaganda. In the mid-1970s, Peltier led the tribesmen's movement against federal intervention in the affairs of Indian reservations. The confrontation became particularly intense in the town of Pine Ridge in South Dakota, where the army destroyed the Wounded Knee Indian camp in 1890.

Applicants for the Apollo Grigoriev Prize and Anti-Booker laureates have been named The nomination for the Apollo Grigoriev Prize can be considered a summing up of the literary year. The tastes of thirty-five critics - members of the Academy of Russian Modern Literature, of course, vary (as evidenced by more than two dozen nominations). Some of the nominators sinned against the statute of the prize by nominating strong essays that were published before 2000.

Khabarovsk authorities left him in place At the largest dairy plant in the Far East - DAKGOMZ (Komsomolsk-on-Amur) - there has been a change in management. This is the result of an extraordinary meeting of shareholders initiated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the largest shareholder of the enterprise.

The national air carrier Aeroflot is preparing to present the tourism market with a New Year's “surprise”. For the second time in the last three years, he is trying to create not just a large tour operator, but a super-large one like the world-famous Neckermann company. This assumption is supported by the fact that, according to an authoritative source, former Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Andrei Kozlov was offered to head the company with the working title Aeroflot World.

Separatists do not want to let riders into the sands of the Sahara Less than a week remains before the start of the traditional Paris-Dakar marathon, which opens the FIM World Cup off-road rally-raid season.

The Federal Energy Commission is increasing the subscription fee for electricity by 5 rubles from January 1, 2001. up to 40.45 rub. for 1000 kWh for all consumers. The FEC reported this to news agencies. In addition, from January 1, the price of electricity from the federal wholesale electricity and capacity market will increase by 20%. "TIME FOR NEWS"

Sberbank will help him with this by issuing an extra-long loan. An unprecedented long-term loan by Russian standards for eight years was provided by Sberbank of Russia to the North-Western Shipping Company (NWP). $49 million was provided to the shipping company to launch its own shipbuilding program. NWP announced the construction of ten river-sea class dry cargo ships back in the spring of this year.