Ruhrgas wanted some more Gazprom shares The Financial Times Deutschland, published yesterday in Germany, was apparently going to present the business world with a sensation on at least a European scale. In an interview published by the newspaper with the chairman of the board of Ruhrgas AG, Friedrich Spaeth, it was said that his company intends to increase its stake in Gazprom from the current 5% to 8-10%.

The Ministry of Property, which owns 51% of the shares of Rosterminalugol OJSC (which is building a coal terminal in the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland), yesterday blocked an additional issue of shares in the company. A ministry representative said that the issue would reduce the state stake to 27.7%, so permission for such “dilution” must be given by the government.

Valery Gergiev at the Golden Mask One of the trump cards of the current “Golden Mask” has been played. The Mariinsky Theater showed two productions from last season, selected by festival experts as the most successful. One of them is Das Rheingold, the first opera from Wagner’s grandiose tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelungs” (Gergiev promises to stage the other three over time), without which it is already indecent for such a progressive theater as the Mariinsky to remain.

No one knows what Ted Turner bought yet. “News is our profession.” The rebellious TV channel played out this slogan in full yesterday. Firstly, apart from news broadcasts devoted mainly to the fate of the TV channel, NTV did not show anything. Secondly, the audience witnessed such long and passionate conversations that have not happened in Russia, probably since the days of the State Emergency Committee.

Yesterday, at a meeting between the head coach of the Spartak football club Oleg Romantsev and journalists, an open letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov was read. Naturally, it was about the recent clashes between fans and law enforcement forces at the Spartak - CSKA match. “We unconditionally condemn the vandalism of football hooligans who carried out massacres on the streets of the capital and destroyed the stadium.

The Bailiff Service, which has existed under the Ministry of Justice since 1997, is now quite similar to a full-fledged law enforcement agency. Its employees in black masks and camouflage have recently appeared on television screens much more often than employees of the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. Actually, this structure was conceived almost as a special service, which was supposed to ensure 100% implementation of court decisions.

Today at Udarnik there is a premiere of the film "Enemy at the Gates" “Enemy at the Gates” was shot by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud with American money in a gigantic set of the besieged Stalingrad, built at a studio in Babelsberg - the former GDR Defa. It is surprising that the events of the Battle of Stalingrad are shown in the film from the Russian point of view, because it is the enemy who is standing at our gates, and the viewer has no choice - it’s not sympathizing with the fascists.

A fire in a warehouse nearly poisoned half of Moscow It took the capital's firefighters seventeen hours to cope with the severe fire that occurred on Tuesday evening at a household chemicals warehouse on 4th Street in Maryina Roshcha. According to experts, nothing like this has happened in Moscow since 1996, when the building of the Ministry of the Navy in Teatralny Proezd burned down. The ill-fated warehouse is located on the territory of Mostransagentstvo, in one of the brick warehouses.

Only a new harvest will reduce prices for Russian grain The grain market's hopes that prices would come to their senses by spring were not justified. In winter, most analysts assured that the resulting shortage was a seasonal matter, but when producers understand how much seed they need for sowing and throw away the surplus for sale, the market will balance. However, spring did not bring relief. High prices for both food and feed grains may persist until the new harvest.

The Ministry of Finance was not allowed to look into the president's pocket The government will today make the most serious attempt in the last ten years to thoroughly understand what is going on not only in the main public purse - the budget, but also in all ministerial and departmental stashes.

"Sibal" found something to answer "Severstal" Just two days after reaching an agreement between GAZ (the main shareholder is the Siberian Aluminum group) and the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant (the main shareholder is Severstal), the conflict over the supply of engines flared up with renewed vigor. GAZ General Director Viktor Belyaev yesterday tried to prove that Sibal now has its own leverage over Severstal.

Brazilians play the leading roles in the Champions League The quarter-final match of the Champions League between Manchester United and Bayern had its own subtext. It was the Mancunians who, in the dramatic final of 1999, were able to snatch a victory from the German club - 2:1, in the added time by the referee. Bayern have been waiting 678 days for an opportunity to get even, and the time has come. At Old Trafford in England, Ottmar Hitzfeld's team managed to take revenge.

Mumiy Troll gave the biggest concert of his life in Moscow The level of pathos was such that it was not the Mumiy Troll group that was performing, but at least a duet between Eric Clapton and Elton John. However, we must give MT its due - this pathos was very clearly organized, which has not been seen at Olimpiysky for a long time. This is despite the fact that it was almost the first time that a rock band prepared a concert itself, without intermediaries.

The US Republican administration is parting with Clinton's legacy Today's issue of the Roll Call newspaper (a publication of the US Congress, which this time is entirely devoted to various parting words to the new composition of the highest legislative body) publishes an appeal from 33 “representatives of the democratic public of Kazakhstan” sent to Congress and the US Department of Justice.

The government and the Duma continue their dispute over income tax The twenty-fifth chapter of the second part of the Tax Code, “Organizational Income Tax,” was adopted yesterday by the State Duma in the first reading. This is where the truce in the struggle for this tax between deputies and the government can be considered ends. Today the Cabinet of Ministers will discuss its amendments to the bill, which was considered agreed upon yesterday.