In April, the concept of alternative service may appear in Russia Despite the fact that the right to replace military service with an alternative one is guaranteed both by the Russian Constitution and by Russia’s international obligations, the procedure for completing it is still not defined by law. In this regard, military commissars refuse recruits applying for ACS. On the other hand, many young people, using this gap, quite successfully evade conscription.

The leader of the Chechen community in Jordan, former Minister of Employment of Jordan, Said BENO, told Vremya Novostey special correspondent Elena SUPONINA how Chechens abroad react to the situation with the theft to Saudi Arabia. — How did the Chechens of Jordan and Turkey react to the kidnapping of the Russian plane? -- Chechens in Jordan and other countries condemn operations against civilians.

The administration of the Samara region and the Kuibyshev Railway (KZD) have made another attempt to resolve the dispute over who should own the railway station being built in Samara.

Mintimer Shaimiev took up small business At the end of last week, Mintimer Shaimiev eliminated, perhaps, the last reason why he could get fewer votes in the presidential elections in Tatarstan than he would like. The Tatar president stated that from now until 2004, the entrepreneurship development program (recently adopted by the State Council of the republic) will receive presidential status.

And he fired the chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is gradually fulfilling the demands of the opposition put forward last year. On Saturday, Novy Kanal, citing informed sources, reported that President Kuchma fired Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, appointing Kyiv police chief Yuri Smirnov in his place. This was not officially confirmed yesterday. In February, the president already fired the head of the Ukrainian security service, Leonid Derkach.

All electoral laws will be compiled into a code after the next round of elections in 2003-2004. This was stated by the head of the Central Election Commission Alexander Veshnyakov. The Code, in his opinion, will become a significant stage in improving the Russian electoral system.

Residents of Tatarstan will have more pages in their passports In the near future, the passports of residents of Tatarstan will have four additional pages, where the last name, first name and patronymic, year and place of birth will be indicated in the Tatar language (the same pages will be introduced in the passports of residents of other national entities of Russia).

Berlin has been placed under siege The capital of Germany intends to meet the foot and mouth virus, if it manages to penetrate here, fully armed. All capital services are preparing for the worst and working out a state of siege scenario in advance. Emergency measures to strengthen controls on air passengers arriving in Berlin have been in effect for several days at the capital's Tegel Airport.

Russia, following OPEC, intends to reduce oil exports Russia will follow the example of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and reduce oil exports in the second quarter. This statement was made on Saturday in Vienna by Russian Deputy Energy Minister Alexey Miller at the OPEC summit. On the same day, OPEC countries announced a decision to reduce oil production by 1 million barrels per day from April 1.

NTV is losing the Belarusian advertising market There has been a new turn in the conflict between NTV and Belarusian television, which arose due to the illegal placement of local advertising on the channel’s frequencies in Belarus. The head of Belteleradio, Viktor Chikin, said that at the height of the conflict, it suddenly became clear that NTV and the company that represented the interests of the television company in Minsk did not have a license for advertising activities in Belarus.

It remains to find out who is to blame for the hijacking of the Russian plane A group of passengers on the Russian Tu-154 plane, hijacked by Chechen terrorists to Saudi Arabia at the end of last week, decided to sue the organizers of the ill-fated flight.

To fight hijackers, we need not only security guards, but also psychiatrists The drama of a Russian plane hijacked by Chechen terrorists in Turkey raises questions about whether the world, well into the 21st century, could face a new surge in political hijackings that seemed to have passed their peak three decades ago. The very practice of hijacking passenger aircraft appeared after the end of the Second World War. From 1948 to 1957, only 15 attempts to hijack aircraft were recorded.

As the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned, MENATEP shareholders decided to transfer assets worth over $130 million to the Russian government to compensate for the bank's outstanding debts to the budget in the amount of over 2.5 billion rubles. In addition, payments begin to depositors and private shareholders of the bank who did not receive compensation during the restructuring of the bank's debts in 1999-2000 or during bankruptcy proceedings.

The outcome of the Suproliga basketball group tournament turned out to be favorable for the CSKA basketball players. The fight was for one of the two first places, which guaranteed home-court advantage at the playoff stage. And this gives good prospects for reaching the Final Four, which, by the way, the army team has not played in since 1996.

Victor Krivulin was one of the key and heroic figures of the St. Petersburg poetic avant-garde. It is impossible to imagine his poetry and fate outside the aura of the Neva capital. Although the future poet was born in the Voroshilovgrad region in 1944, all the main events of his life are connected with the city of Peter. Here, at the age of sixteen, he was introduced to Akhmatova and heard her blessing.