Turkey's economic crisis is undermining its influence in the region Yesterday, the next summit of heads of Turkic-speaking states ended in Istanbul. Although the participants, as always, announced the strengthening of the unity of fraternal peoples, in fact the Turkic idea is going through hard times. Türkiye, which served as a driving force for rapprochement throughout the 1990s, is weakened by a protracted financial and economic crisis.

Inga KARAMCHAKOVA, a two-time world champion, scored a hat-trick at the recent European Championships in Budapest, to use the language of hockey players. For the third time she became the champion of the continent. But that’s not even the point. It was Karamchakova who brought the Russian team its first gold medal. Correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper Olga ERMOLINA met with the athlete in Moscow to talk in a calm atmosphere.

Preliminary results of ideological propaganda 492 works were submitted to the “Normal Life in a Normal Country” script competition, announced by SPS several months ago (240 scripts for feature-length feature films, 57 TV series, 121 synopses of both). Organizers believe that although the deadline for submitting scripts is April 15, a few more will arrive in the mail and the round figure of 500 will be received. This is about twice what was expected.

CIS countries are creating the first joint “mini-army” The member states of the Collective Security Treaty (CST) have officially confirmed their intentions to create a joint “mini-army” this summer. At the meeting of the committee of secretaries of the security councils of the countries participating in the CST, which ended on Friday in Yerevan, the political aspects of the creation of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces (CRDF) in the Central Asian region were finally agreed upon.

Investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs brought official charges yesterday against major Moscow businessman Alexander Babayan. A twice-convicted 47-year-old businessman was detained on April 24 in Moscow during a joint operation by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. He was found to have on him an identification card of an employee of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office and a permit to store firearms.

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Employees of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department solved the murder of singer Natalya Vetlitskaya’s security guard. On March 27, on the Taras Shevchenko embankment, two unknown people attacked 29-year-old Dmitry Tuvin. He was in a Mercedes jeep, waiting for the singer, who was in a beauty salon at the time of the attack. The criminals tried to throw the guard out of the foreign car, and when Tuvin reached for his service pistol, one of the criminals shot him in the chest.

Interros came to Krasny Vyborgets Late on Thursday evening, bailiffs came to the St. Petersburg metallurgical plant "Krasny Vyborzhets". They accompanied the new general director Oleg Dyachenko, a protégé of Interros and Norilsk Nickel. The bailiffs changed the security of the enterprise and peacefully transferred power at the plant.

In mid-April, the All-Russian Regional Development Bank increased its authorized capital to 575 million rubles. As a result of this issue, the bank completely came under state control: more than 90% of RRDB shares now belong to the Russian Federal Property Fund and the state company Rosneft. As RRDB President Dmitry TITOV told Vremya Novostey columnist Vladimir FEDORIN, being a state bank today is not easy, but RRDB is not yet looking for a better share.

15 provincial department stores unite into a network GUM shareholders held an annual meeting yesterday, at which management for the first time publicly announced a change in the development strategy. The fashionable principle of network development of retail business has been adopted. GUM President Vyacheslav Vechkanov admitted that their attempt last year to build a non-core retail network of Verenitsa food stores was unsuccessful.

A large batch of toxic substances was seized during a joint operation by employees of the capital's Regional Organized Crime Control Department and the FSB Directorate for Moscow and the Moscow Region. During one of the investigations, security officers received information that an illegal deal was being prepared in Moscow to sell a large amount of poison.

Football. Russian Championship. 7th round. April 28 : Rostselmash - CSKA, Saturn - Spartak, Fakel - Chernomorets, Dynamo - Sokol, Krylya Sovetov - Zenit, Torpedo -- "Lokomotiv", "Alania" - "Anzhi". April 29 : “Torpedo-ZIL” - “Rotor”. Who would have thought that the central match of the seventh round would be the meeting between Samara “Wings” and “Zenith”. And we are not talking about “local battles”, but about a dispute for leadership in the national championship.

Liberal party activist online The Ministry of Economic Development decided not to yield to the Ministry of Finance in terms of holding ceremonial events. The head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, German Gref, very pompously arranged the meeting of the extended board, at which the results of the past year were summed up and plans were made for the future.

Islam Karimov will be received at the highest level in the Kremlin The Russian President will have short May holidays. Already on May 3, serious negotiations await him with one of Moscow’s most important partners today - President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. The Uzbek leader arrives in the Russian capital for a three-day visit, which unexpectedly for many observers received the highest rank - state. Not every CIS president has received such an honor.

Oil exporters throw a scandal at the government Yukos, the country's second largest oil corporation, actually accused senior government officials of personal bias and stifling competition in Russia's most profitable market - the market of oil exporters. The charges were brought yesterday against the accused - the commission for access to the oil pipeline and its head, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko.