Putin convinced Seoul of the sincerity of Pyongyang's intentions Yesterday in Seoul began for Vladimir Putin with a visit to the monument to the memory of the fallen at the National Cemetery. The East, as we know, attaches great importance to symbols, which is why the scene of Putin burning ritual incense was perceived as a significant point at the end of the half-century history of confrontation between Moscow and Seoul.

ALROSA accuses Russian diamond cutters Almost all cutting enterprises in Russia (there are about 130 of them in total) smuggle diamonds abroad. The president of ALROSA, Vyacheslav Shtyrov, announced this at yesterday's press conference. In his opinion, only the Smolensk Kristall plant and the cutting firms that are part of the ALROSA group of companies are not guilty of this. “Maybe there are a dozen enterprises in all of Russia that are clean, but maybe not,” Mr. Shtyrov said.

Russian Prime Minister seeks understanding from creditors In early March, Russia will make all overdue payments to the Paris Club countries in January and February. Yesterday, according to sources in the White House, the Ministry of Finance sent an order to the federal Treasury to transfer $686.2 million to Vnesheconombank to make payments on the debt of the former Soviet Union. VEB should start paying creditors today.

Kasyanov and Lukashenko prove that they cannot do without Borodin The American court will make a decision regarding the extradition of Pavel Borodin to Switzerland no earlier than the second half of April, but in the meantime the defense again applied for release on bail.

The main sensation of the press day of the international automobile show was the official statement by General Motors Vice President for Cooperation with European Countries Michael Burns about the concern’s decision to participate together with the largest Russian passenger car manufacturer AvtoVAZ and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the creation of a joint venture in Russia to produce all-wheel drive vehicles. VAZ-2123.

On Monday evening, the Presidium of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation extended the powers of the head coach of the country's men's volleyball team Gennady Shipulin for four years. It seems that everything is logical, why fire the coach who returned our team to the volleyball elite and gradually taught us not to be content with even second places. There is nothing surprising here. Another thing is strange: we practically had to learn about this event through third parties.

A mass protest of teachers against education reform took place in Russia After a long break, Russian teachers reminded the government of their troubles. Yesterday, an all-Russian protest action by teachers, organized by the trade union of workers of public education and science, took place in schools and universities in more than half of the country's regions. In Primorye, over 20 thousand teachers and students joined it.

Judge Thomas Jackson's decision last year to split Bill Gates's empire is now in question. The appeal court can put an end to this story. On Monday, the first day of the hearing, lawyers for Microsoft (MS) and their opponents from the US Department of Justice tried to convince the judges that they were right. Analysts find it difficult to make predictions. But, according to investors, MS has a better chance of success.

Yesterday, the Russian team set off for Anchorage, Alaska, to take part in the Special Olympics World Games. These games will be the largest sporting event for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Special Games have received recognition from the International Olympic Committee. Their founder is Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy. The games are supported by a lot of celebrities - US President George W.

The joint meeting of the Russian Government Commission for the implementation of the presidential program for economic development of the Far East for 1996-2005 ended in an extraordinary way in Khabarovsk. and the Council of the interregional association "Far East and Transbaikalia".

"Fish" auctions are becoming overgrown with scandalous details The Ministry of Economic Development and the State Fisheries Committee held a repeat “fish” auction yesterday (though without the “new” head of the committee, Evgeniy Nazdratenko: “Evgeniy Ivanovich was solving more important problems,” his subordinates explained).

Recently in Russia, more and more financial instruments have been moving online: Internet technologies are widely used, for example, in account management and securities trading. Such an exotic instrument of trade finance for Russia as factoring (financing sales by assigning rights to claims on receivables) is also moving in the same direction. Yesterday, the investment banking group NIKoil announced the launch of the e-Factoring Internet system.

The losses of Russian metallurgists from 50 anti-dumping investigations carried out today have exceeded one and a half billion dollars a year. The head of the metallurgy department, Svetlana Stepanova, announced this at a board meeting of the Ministry of Industry and Science held yesterday. In this regard, according to Ms.

Ren TV announces a season of documentary films In the West, documentary films are now in great fashion, but in Russia they are not very popular. And although good Russian films exist and even win prizes at Western festivals, there is practically no place to watch them. All over the world, the main habitat of documentary films is television. Documentary films are now rare guests on Russian television.

15 years ago Olof Palme was killed Sweden experienced a shock, which has practically no analogues in the history of the country, on February 28, 1986. Late that evening, Prime Minister Olof Palme, one of Europe's best-known leaders and undoubtedly his homeland's most prominent politician, was shot dead in the center of Stockholm.