There is no shortage of train tickets for Muscovites This year's holiday season has not been an "emergency" for those who want to travel to the resort by train. In any case, that’s what the railway workers themselves say. “The situation is difficult, but not catastrophic,” Oleg Prokhorov, head of the passenger service of the Moscow Railway, said at a press conference yesterday. Already in June, railway workers appointed 14 additional trains to the “hottest” destinations: Adler, Anapa, Crimea.

The founding congress of the Fatherland and Unity union will be held in Moscow on July 12. The decision was made at the coordination council of the two organizations held yesterday.

The cabinet is dissatisfied with the appetite of large oil companies A scandal in a noble family: the peaceful course of the tax revolution may be disrupted by the head of the Tax Code on the mineral extraction tax. As the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned from sources in the White House, the new tax in the form modified by the Duma members was no longer liked by several departments at once - each for its own reasons.

After January's Davos, which turned out to be perhaps the most disastrous for Russia in all years, the just concluded European economic summit in Salzburg marked a clear turn for the better. At the final meeting of the forum, Neville Isdell, Coca-Cola's vice president for Europe, even stated the need for common efforts to urgently correct the image of Russia, which is much worse than the actual situation in the country.

Death of royal family emboldens Nepali leftists Despite attempts by Nepalese authorities to maintain a semblance of stability and dynastic continuity, the ancient slogan “The King is dead, long live the King!” does not seem to be working. The people were too shocked by the recent story of the mysterious death of most of the royal family, which the opposition did not fail to take advantage of.

The participants in the most high-profile money laundering case will be free while they await their verdict. Most of the defendants in the scandalous case of laundering half a billion dollars by the offshore Cassaf-bank, which is now being considered in the Moscow City Court, were recently released from custody. Cassaf-bank cashier Alexander Tikhomirov, as well as two former tellers of this bank, Agris Freifalts and Agnis Liepins, were released.

Kyiv is in no hurry to let Russian electricity flow into Europe A delegation from RAO UES of Russia visited Kyiv, which intended to agree on the conditions for resuming the parallel operation of the energy systems of the two countries. This is provided for in a memorandum signed back in February during a meeting in Dnepropetrovsk between Presidents Putin and Kuchma.

TagAZ is ready to assemble anything, just not Zhiguli. The Taganrog Automobile Plant (owned by the Doninvest financial and industrial group), the favorite brainchild of Rostov Governor Vladimir Chub, has begun serial assembly of South Korean Hyundai cars. According to the governor, 350 cars will roll off the assembly line in July, and 3,500 by the end of the year. The agreement with Hyundai provides for the annual assembly of 10 thousand foreign cars, and since 2003 - 20 thousand.

Last year's amnesty, timed to coincide with the 55th anniversary of the Victory, has been outlawed. The Constitutional Court came to the conclusion that the State Duma, which adopted the amnesty resolution, did not have the right to pardon repeat offenders and those who committed serious crimes, and certainly it was impossible to later reverse its decision. The amnesty announced in May last year is perhaps the most scandalous act of its kind in recent years.

The State Duma will today consider in the second reading a new law on licensing certain types of activities - the most important in the package for de-bureaucratization of the economy developed by the government. A source in the leadership of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the department responsible for passing the law through parliament, is confident that by the end of the spring session the law will be adopted in three readings.

Vladimir Putin yesterday discussed Russia’s energy strategy until 2020 and the concept of the gas market with Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and Gazprom Chairman of the Board Alexei Miller. Mr.

Tomorrow marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vittorio de Sica To go down in cinema history, the Italian Vittorio de Sica would have had enough of his acting work. Already in the late 20s, he was the leading hero-lover of Italian theaters, and managed to star in dozens of unassuming comedies.

Russia moved to the EU This week, the Russian authorities were overwhelmed by the desire to move to Europe. First, President Putin reminded his colleague Chirac about the ideas of de Gaulle - Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. At the economic forum in Salzburg, the presidential representative in the Volga Federal District, Sergei Kiriyenko, and then Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov himself announced the possibility of Russia joining the European Union.

Two new novels from the Fandorin project have been published The events described in the latest diptych by Boris Akunin occur simultaneously. The venerable Erast Fandorin sends several gangster bosses and a couple of equally criminal police officers to their forefathers (“Lover of Death”), and also liquidates the inventor of the decadent suicide club (“Lover of Death”).

Next week, the World Bank, with the support of the Russian government, will host an International Conference on Law and Justice in St. Petersburg. The fact that Russia is just beginning a complex and radical judicial and legal reform played an important role in the choice of its venue. Its initiator, Russian President Vladimir Putin, together with World Bank President James Wolfensohn will open the conference.