Diamonds got soaked Flooding in Lensk is a disaster for its residents, local authorities, and the ALROSA company, which has its main production base in this city. “5 thousand company employees live in Lensk, 15 thousand live with their families, and this is half the city,” Yuri Beskakotov, an employee of the ALROSA press service, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper.

The largest cement producer in Siberia changes ownership Yesterday, the Kuzbass Arbitration Court received a petition from the council of creditors of the Topkinsky Cement plant to declare the debtor bankrupt. Lenders insist that the property of the largest producer, which controls more than half of the Siberian cement market, be sold at a competition. Meanwhile, the enterprise has been increasing production for three years now, and its bankruptcy is only necessary in order to change the owner.

Beslan Gantamirov resigned Beslan Gantamirov announced his resignation from the post of mayor of Grozny. Last December, he was appointed mayor by presidential decree, but in fact all this time he was serving a probationary period, which by law cannot exceed 6 months. In addition, Gantamirov’s candidacy did not pass all the required official approvals.

From all Soviet films at once Ensemble of electromusical instruments by Vyacheslav Meshcherin, Easy USSR, "Lungs" The idea of ​​publishing the disc came to Artemy Troitsky. He shared it with Oleg Nesterov, and he went to the archive, where he discovered 70 hours of Meshcherin’s music. As a result, 22 compositions were selected, which made up the first disc. The ensemble arose in 1956 in a country where button accordions and wooden spoons were held in high esteem.

Governors will be taught to count The Duma, it seems, has finally figured out the length of time the current governors will stay in power. Two terms in a row - and not a day more, regardless of whether any of the governors held office on the day of October 6, 1999. An exception was made for the heads of only those regions whose charters and constitutions did not contain any references to the number of presidential or gubernatorial terms.

The American holding MCT yesterday presented a new brand of Russian mobile communications, Indigo. The brand unites 25 Russian telecom operators, whose shares are owned by the holding. These include, for example, Moscow Cellular Communications and Delta Telecom. As the holding's president, Garth Self, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, these companies already provide services to 425 thousand clients.

Judo. France, Paris. European Championship. May 18--20 . On Sunday, the final matches of the European Judo Championship will be held at the Bercy sports complex in Paris, which will make Russian fans of this sport worry. The fact is that the tournament is held in France, and the athletes of this country are considered trendsetters in judo. Russian national teams (men's and women's) are represented by 16 athletes.

Parties in Russia survive according to Darwin By Sunday there will not be a single liberal party left in Russia. All those still existing will have to dissolve themselves in order to reunite in a week in a new, united, liberal party, the Union of Right Forces. On Saturday, the decision on self-dissolution will be made by veterans of the movement “Democratic Choice of Russia”, “Democratic Russia”, as well as the “New Force” created before the Duma elections-99 by Sergei Kiriyenko.

The head of the OSCE mission in Belarus, Hans Georg Wieck, may be expelled from the country. This was stated yesterday by Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov. The Belarusian authorities believe that Vik is conducting subversive activities and has actually turned into one of the leaders of the opposition. Minsk is irritated by the fact that Vic is training observers for the upcoming presidential elections.

Two options for energy reforms will collide on Saturday The controversy over the restructuring of the electric power industry continued yesterday. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said that the Cabinet of Ministers will consider the issue of reforming the electric power industry this coming Saturday. The head of the Cabinet of Ministers emphasized that it is unacceptable to delay making a decision on such an important issue, since it is time to take concrete steps to implement the reform.

Commerzbank moved to an office overlooking the Kremlin Foreign investors tend to complain about the poor business climate that prevents them from investing large amounts of money in Russia. The experience of their more successful colleagues, who work quietly in our country, shows that such complaints should be taken with a certain amount of irony.

Viktor Kazantsev intends to check the work of the administration of the Rostov region On the eve of the gubernatorial elections, district authorities began checking the Rostov region. The audit is carried out by the Southern District Inspectorate of the Main Control Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. The embassy emphasizes that the current inspection is planned and is in no way connected with the upcoming gubernatorial elections in the Don in the fall.

Krzysztof Penderecki conducted himself The visit of Krzysztof Penderecki was presented as one of the main events of the Days of Polish Culture currently taking place in Moscow. One of the founding fathers of the post-war avant-garde, the renowned composer has occupied the top lines of the world rankings for four decades, being a kind of musical heavyweight. Nowadays such figures are expected not to make discoveries, but to confirm their own authority.

Vneshtorgbank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed an agreement on cross-border trade settlements yesterday. The agreement provides for the possibility of conducting counter Russian-Chinese settlements on cross-border trade within one day on the basis of mutually established credit lines. “The amount of credit lines has not yet been determined,” Anatoly Chernyshev, chairman of Vneshtorgbank, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper.

The fairy tale about the “Spanish Cinderella”, which ended up in the highest football society, did not have a happy ending: Alaves lost in the final match of the UEFA Cup to the English Liverpool with a score of 4:5. However, such defeats sometimes mean more than other victories, and fans of the modest club from Vitoria can be proud of their team. “It was a fantastic match,” Liverpool head coach Gerard Houllier did not hide his delight.