A Chinese citizen, who was in possession of secret drawings of a Russian submarine, was detained at the end of last week at Khabarovsk airport. According to the Far Eastern Customs Department, the Chinese man, who intended to fly to Harbin, was captured last Thursday. During the search, they found secret military documentation on him, including drawings of a Russian submarine based in Avacha Bay in Kamchatka. The FSB and military counterintelligence began an investigation. Alexey MIKHAILOV

The Russian government has decided to pay off the bonds of RAO High-Speed ​​Railways (HSM), and transfer the assets of this enterprise to the treasury. This is stated in the draft government resolution on measures to implement the 2001 budget, approved at a government meeting on March 1. This decision actually brings the final line to the high-speed railway project from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Sales tax deemed somewhat constitutional The Russian Constitutional Court recognized the existence of a sales tax as lawful. However, many provisions of the law “On the Fundamentals of the Tax System”, which establishes this tax, have been recognized as unconstitutional. In order to save regional budgets, the Constitutional Court made a paradoxical decision - it kept the illegal law in force, granting a deferment for its correction until January 1, 2002.

Lobbyists retreat, but don't give up The government has taken the first step in freeing business from administrative supervision. On Friday, at an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, part of the first package of “deregulatory” bills prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development was approved. The first pancake almost went wrong: the government meeting did not end in a scandal only thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Kasyanov.

In Great Britain, special units have been created to identify and prosecute illegal teams of workers, in our words - covens. Customs officers, the country's tax department, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries have acquired such units. Tax evasion, practiced by English covens, costs the UK budget 100 million pounds sterling annually. Officials estimate there are up to 400 underground employers in the country, charging clients £3 per hour per worker and paying workers £1 per hour.

It took less than a day to inspect the airborne regiment and the Chechen village The results of the Caucasus trip of the President's Special Representative for Human Rights in Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, were summed up at the end of last week. Vladimir Kalamanov, as expected, spoke about his inspection of the 45th Airborne Regiment in the village of Khatuni, Vedeno region, where he managed to fly for several hours.

The metropolitan government is preparing to levy tolls on some road bridges. It is possible that in addition to bridges, some of the interchanges on the Moscow Ring Road will become tolled. It is not yet known which roads the meters will be installed on. According to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the capital's government, Boris Nikolsky, there is now only one road, for which drivers are charged money for travel. This is a small part of the International Highway to Sheremetyevo-2.

The state “builds” military personnel, judges, prosecutors and tax officials according to the Tax Code The system of benefits for military personnel, judges, police officers, prosecutors, customs authorities and the Federal Tax Service is ending its existence. In particular, from this year, former “beneficiaries” are required, like everyone else, to pay income tax in full. In exchange, they receive a corresponding increase in salary.

“Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich was revived at the Bolshoi This “Swan” is not a new performance. Staged in 1969, it went down in history as an innovation, scandal and sensation. Innovation - because Yuri Grigorovich was one of the first to decide to make a ballet with a tragic ending, as Tchaikovsky intended. The sensation was that for the first time on the Soviet ballet stage, a positive hero did not look so positive.

Promstroybank found new shareholders abroad A decisive moment has arrived in the fate of the oldest bank in Russia, Promstroibank, which has been trying to avoid bankruptcy for more than a year and a half. According to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, the international investment group Carlingglen Services Ltd. sent a letter to Vladimir Putin expressing its intention to allocate 2.5 billion rubles.

Alexander Lukashenko against the Bank of Russia “If the Central Bank of Russia is offered to us as a single emission center of the union state, then there can be no talk of such a center,” Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday at a meeting with Belarusian diplomats. Until now, Alexander Lukashenko has refrained from expressing his opinion on the agreement on a single currency area.

The Metropolitan Administration defends the legality of the sales tax The January 25, 2001 issue of Decent Money published an interview with Anna Pichkur, a specialist at the UNICON/MS consulting group, under the title “Sales tax is illegal.” It argued that the increase in sales tax in the city of Moscow to 5% from January 1, 2001 is illegal. The Moscow City Duma demanded that a refutation of this information be published.

The Komi Republic has decided to return to five-year planning, as in Soviet times. The head of the republic, Yuri Spiridonov, is no longer satisfied with the current two-year planning, which he considers “survival and stabilization tactics.” Mr. Spiridonov now needs a “strategy for real economic development and growth,” for which he considers planning five years ahead to be most appropriate.

The Ukrainian opposition believes that President Kuchma will have to leave The political struggle in Kyiv has reached its climax. After the authorities practically admitted that opposition journalist Gongadze was killed, the opposition intends to prove that President Leonid Kuchma was involved in this. Will the head of state resign or will the anti-presidential riot be suppressed?

Marat Safin was one step away from winning the ATP tournament in Dubai. In the final, he stopped fighting with Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero with a score of 2:6, 1:3 due to back pain. Marat was injured in the semi-final match against Swede Thomas Johansson. “I couldn’t even play at 50 percent of my capabilities. And I really didn’t want to aggravate the injury,” Marat explained his decision to refuse to continue the fight.