Russia and Belarus will unify customs legislation The Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus approved the budget for this year - 2.3 billion rubles. Russia's contribution is almost twice as large as Belarus': 1.5 billion rubles versus 0.8 billion. The head of the Russian government, Mikhail Kasyanov, emphasized that the issue of the efficiency of using funds from the union budget was seriously discussed.

A flu epidemic has begun in Russia. It started on both sides. At the end of last week, an epidemic was announced in Nizhny Novgorod, and yesterday the corresponding order was signed by the chief sanitary doctor of Yekaterinburg, Viktor Chirkov. In Yekaterinburg, the epidemic threshold for the incidence of influenza and acute respiratory infections has already been exceeded almost twice. In Nizhny Novgorod, 15 thousand people fell ill, including 10 thousand children.

British bands thought to have long disappeared will perform at the Olimpiysky The rock bands T. Rex, Garry Glitter Band, Mungo Jerry, Slade and Christie, famous in the 70s, will play at the Olimpiysky in early February. It would seem that this is what it’s like: old bands have been brought to Russia before, mostly “one-hit wonders”. Now they began to transport them in packs. And it’s cheap: the organizers claim that a ticket to the show will cost about a hundred rubles.

Chekhov was asked from the car plant The management of the Izhevsk Automobile Plant refused to participate in the joint venture that existed since 1999 with the Czech company Skoda Auto SA. The Czech side had to agree. There is no longer talk of creating a joint production facility for assembling cars, although the Czechs do not lose hope of continuing to work independently at the plant.

The deadline given by the government to the State Customs Committee and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to agree on the final version of the new edition of the Customs Code expires today. The draft of this document was approved in the first reading by State Duma deputies on November 23, 1999, and since then it has been under revision. This fall, the draft of the new Customs Code was approved by all interested federal departments.

Sibneft intends to create a consortium of minority shareholders of the company's subsidiaries, which will unite their fractional stakes for exchange for new shares of the holding. During the consolidation that is currently underway at Sibneft, shareholders were offered to exchange their shares for shares of a higher par value (which led to the formation of fractional stakes), as well as to sell their stakes.

The growth of the capital's budget revenues allowed to reduce the city's debt Yesterday, Moscow authorities announced preliminary results of the past financial year. Its main result, according to the head of the Moscow Department of Finance, Yuri Korostelev, was a significant increase in budget revenues. During the year, the budget was revised three times in the direction of increasing both revenue and expenditure.

Yesterday, at the Grand Kremlin Palace, the eight-time national football champion, Moscow Spartak, accepted congratulations. The players and club management were awarded the gold medals they won in the 2000 season.

The Obermaneken group has its own audience "Obermanken" has existed for more than ten years, but is not that well known. Music reference books are silent about the group, and the omniscient Internet provides meager information. But when rock in Russia was just getting used to legal status, the duo from which the group grew up rightly laid claim to the role of guru. On a par with Grebenshchikov himself.

Developers are instilling in Russians the desire to live outside the city A new player may appear on the housing market. The non-profit organization intends to cover Russia with a network of factories producing cheap cottages for the development of urban suburbs. Experts believe that factory-assembled houses will not reach the mass consumer soon.

Four people died on Saturday night in the city of Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Kemerovo region, as a result of criminal clashes between warring factions. The first alarm signal came to the police from the office of the wholesale and retail base. According to preliminary data, representatives of the two groups met there in the evening to resolve some controversial issues. The negotiations were accompanied by copious amounts of drinking.

Mosfilm will report to the Ministry of Culture The fate of Mosfilm seems to be decided. On January 26, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov determined the future of the film concern by signing a corresponding order. From now on, the country's largest studio will be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture. The story with the Bolshoi Theater is repeating itself - the difference is that the change in the fate of Mosfilm has not yet caused a storm of protests.

"Alpha ECO" has withdrawn its claims against "Tagmet" The Board of Directors of the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant canceled the extraordinary meeting of shareholders scheduled for February 19. As the head of the legal department of the plant, Alexander Minchenko, told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the initiator of the extraordinary meeting - the Alfa ECO company (which bought 25% of Tagmet shares) - withdrew its application.

The new owners of Volgotanker are offering to foreign shareholders In Samara, the conflict continues between the Volgotanker oil shipping company and one of the company's shareholders - the ING Barings investment group. Volgotanker managers stated that they intend to soon return under their control 16 tankers previously leased to a subsidiary of ING Barings.

There were days when the Moscow student-age public hung out at numerous protest pickets outside the embassies of NATO countries, not very politely protesting against the alliance’s actions in the Balkans. They had fun, drank beer and threw bottles of ink at the imperialist facades. Now in Moscow there is the “Russian Youth Initiative “Support to the North Atlantic Alliance”. It was invented by several students from Moscow universities.