The presidential election campaign in Ingushetia is arousing obvious interest in Moscow. The desire to see their own man at the head of the republic instead of the poorly governed and unpredictable Ruslan Aushev seems to have gripped the Kremlin inhabitants. Things got to the point that at the end of last week, Vladimir Putin accepted one of 23 candidates for the post of Ingush president - his deputy plenipotentiary representative in the Southern District, Murad Zyazikov.

Financial irregularities have been discovered again in Chechnya The Russian Security Council will deal with Chechnya today. “All aspects of the restoration process in the republic will be considered: both military-political and socio-economic,” Minister for Chechnya Vladimir Elagin said yesterday.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow yesterday issued a verdict in the case of two members of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) who threw flammable bottles at the Kazakh Embassy building in Russia in March last year. They were sentenced to two years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of one year, but the court immediately applied an act of amnesty to 19-year-old Mikhail Belenky and 22-year-old Stanislav Dyakonov.

She is ordered to create a favorable climate The Ministry of Internal Affairs received a new portion of powers, forces and resources. According to the presidential decree signed yesterday, Mr. Gryzlov’s department will now also perform the functions of the migration service that was abolished last year. At the same time, Vladimir Putin appointed a new deputy minister to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who will head the Federal Migration Service (FMS).

We have satellites, but there is nothing to contact them with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov discussed the state of Russian “military space” with President Vladimir Putin yesterday. The minister’s report would hardly have turned out to be optimistic if he had not arrived in the Kremlin from the launch site of the “northern training ground” Plesetsk. On Monday evening, the military satellite Kosmos-2387 launched from there. The launch was successful, providing Mr.

Yesterday afternoon the electricity was cut off at the main railway station of Rostov-on-Don. A big scandal has broken out; railway workers are threatening to stop the movement of trains through the station, which connects the North Caucasus with the rest of Russia. In turn, power engineers are demanding that the North Caucasian Railway (SKZD) promptly repay the multimillion-dollar overdue debt.

They hope to restart peace talks In the Middle East, where the fierce Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on since September 2000, another specter of peace has dawned. The High Representative of the European Union, Javier Solana, seems to have persuaded Yasser Arafat to resume negotiations. And Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov received the Israeli-Palestinian “Coalition for Peace” in Moscow.

In the Chita region, the search for another deserter who escaped from the local military unit of the Ministry of Defense on Tuesday night has been completed. According to information from the Siberian Military District, private Ivan Sapsaev, carrying an SKS carbine with 30 rounds of ammunition, joined the squad to guard ammunition warehouses, and after a few hours the inspector discovered his loss.

Colombian rebels responded to government attacks on their camps in the demilitarized zone with a series of armed actions that left more than 70 people dead. Militants of the right-wing paramilitary organization AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia - 10 thousand people) and the left FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia - 17 thousand people) and ELM (National Liberation Army - 4 thousand people) blow up the lines communications and power transmission.

Because they can't share The international conference dedicated to the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which began yesterday in Moscow, revealed the obvious: the consensus of the five Caspian states on this problem can only be discerned in the distant future.

“It’s a mess if one country’s flag is flown so often.” The scandal with Russian “artists” Alina Kabaeva and Irina Chashchina, who were caught using furosemide, became a continuation of the Olympic doping theme in Russian sports. According to the head coach of the Russian rhythmic gymnastics team, Irina Viner, the fact that the gymnasts’ case was considered during the Olympics is not just a coincidence.

There will still be time for an in-depth analysis of the Winter Olympics, and there will be time for conclusions. In the meantime, I would like to remember some moments that, in years to come, may become the hallmark of the first Olympics of the millennium. Defeat of Rogge Everything is learned by comparison. While Juan Antonio Samaranch was in charge of the Olympic movement, no one particularly extolled his skill as a leader. And only today many realized how tough the Spaniard’s hand was.

The circle of preferences of the business elite has closed The peculiarity of the Idol Award is that its laureates are actors who have managed to achieve recognition in circles far removed from theater and cinema. They are chosen not by colleagues, as is customary under the rules of the Oscar or Nika awards, and not by professional critics, as when the Apollo Grigoriev Literary Prize is awarded.

Enemies even put mercury in cigarettes Last weekend, Nizhny Tagil resident Nikolai K. went to the wholesale market to buy cigarettes. He could not imagine that the purchase would result in a much greater loss of health for him than what the Ministry of Health warned about. Having bought seven packs of Balkan Star cigarettes, Nikolai smoked four already on holidays, and when he opened the fifth, his hair stood on end: between the grains of tobacco he saw shiny balls of mercury.

A major fire occurred yesterday in the city of Zelenodolsk (Tataria) at the Sergo Plant defense production association, which produces artillery ammunition. According to preliminary data, the emergency occurred at about 13.30 directly in one of the production shops due to a violation of safety regulations during welding work - an accidental spark ignited the explosives. As a result, one person, the welder himself, died, and another 18 were seriously injured during the fire that broke out.