The Russian side achieved success in negotiations on the debts of the former USSR with the main creditor - Germany. According to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, from sources close to the Ministry of Economic Development, during the trip of German Gref, which begins today, to the next meeting of the Russian-German working group on debts, Germany must agree not to consider the USSR's debt to the GDR as an integral part of the total debt to Germany in within the framework of the Paris Club.

Discussions about returning to compulsory distribution of university graduates have been going on for several years now. They began shortly after the abolition of “serf” employment in the early 90s, but this topic has been especially hotly discussed in the last two years. Coincidentally or not, this timing coincided with the return of the distribution system in Belarus. Soon after this, some Russian regions also introduced distribution for graduates of medical and pedagogical universities.

But it won't be soon The agreement with the IMF will not be signed for several months - perhaps even until next year. This conclusion is drawn from the preliminary results of negotiations between the government and the Foundation’s mission, which has been in Moscow for more than a week.

From now on, the World Speed ​​Skating Championships will be held only on artificial ice. After the World Championships in Budapest in classic all-around speed skating, the largest tournaments in this sport will definitely go under the roof. Hot, hot, sunny weather, but with a strong wind, pretty much spoiled the nerves of the championship participants. And it was the weather, and not sports results, that became the reason for one of the most noisy scandals in the history of skating.

Why Leonid Kuchma became friends with Russia Today in Dnepropetrovsk, President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma receives his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The summit is taking place in an unprecedented environment.

The radioactive five-hundred-ruble bill was seized by specialists from the Moscow NPO Radon in the first branch of the Moscow Main Customs Directorate of the Central Bank of Russia. The five-hundred-ruble note was discovered using special dosimeters, which detected a stack of banknotes with an increased level of radiation. Central Bank employees immediately called Radon specialists.

The graduate distribution system is being restored The Russian President’s assurances that there will be no return to the system of distribution of graduates from “civilian” universities are refuted by practice.

The XIX International Film Festival in Tehran has ended The Iranian film festival has a name - Fajr, dawn. The name is not nearly as neutral as it seems to uninformed foreign guests. Fajr is a holiday that lasts from February 1st to February 9th. These nine days, which began with Khomeini's arrival in Tehran, led to the Islamic Revolution, the twenty-second anniversary of which Iranians celebrated last Saturday. Fajr is the expectation of coming.

Concern "Babaevsky" was visited by servants of Themis Saturday's meeting of shareholders of the Babaevsky concern, initiated to re-elect the board of directors by the owner of 51% of the shares - Inkombank - ended in a scandal. The visit of the bailiffs, who tried to ban it, ended with a “mask show” with a fight and breaking glass.

Deputy Head of the Department for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Ruslan Tamaev on Friday returned from a business trip to Switzerland, where he held another round of negotiations with Geneva prosecutor Bernard Bertossa regarding the investigation of the Mabetex case.

Traffic along Novosuschevskaya Street in Moscow was blocked for several hours on Saturday. Around five o'clock in the evening, an electric lighting mast suddenly collapsed there. Fortunately, when the pillar fell, it did not hit any passers-by or cars passing along the street. The downed wires were live, and the police immediately cordoned off the scene. Traffic along Novosuschevskaya resumed only a few hours later. A special commission is now trying to find out what caused the emergency.

Minister for Reconstruction of the Republic Vladimir ELAGIN told the Vremya Novostey newspaper about how the federal center of Russia plans to work with the government and population of Chechnya. -- This year, 14.4 billion rubles have been allocated for the restoration of Chechnya. Who will control expenses and how? - We want to make the program open and publish it in the press.

The US Navy repaid the Japanese for Pearl Harbor The nuclear submarine Greeneville, which made an emergency ascent, sank the Japanese training ship Ehime Maru on Friday evening. The commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Tom Fargo, explained that nothing extraordinary happened on board the boat - the submariners simply carried out regular exercises on emergency blowing of ballast tanks.

Tomorrow the exhibition “Amazons of the Avant-Garde” opens at the Tretyakov Gallery The exhibition “Amazons of the Avant-garde,” organized by the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, is the same exhibition that Vladimir Putin attended the opening of in New York. The President gave a fiery speech there about the achievements of Russian culture and thus, to a fair extent, ensured the arrival of the exhibition in Moscow. A guarantor after all.

The Czech Parliament has appointed a new director of public television At noon last Saturday, the “strike” icon went off on Czech television screens. For a month and nine days, television journalists resisted the management team, which was brought to the CHT by the now former general director Jiri Godac.