The executive branch has created an ideal parliament for itself The pro-presidential alliance yesterday turned the Duma to the right, removing representatives of the communists and their allies from almost all leading posts. The left actually only retained the chair of the chairman of the lower house. And then, perhaps, not for long. Having completed the procedure for changing the chairmen of ten Duma committees, Gennady Seleznev said that he would “think” about resigning.

A city minibus with three hostages was seized yesterday in Anapa by an armed terrorist. In order to free the captives, the security services, after unsuccessful negotiations, had to shoot the criminal. The signal about the hostage taking was received by the Anapa police department at 12.30. As it turned out, 15 minutes earlier, a man entered a minibus in the suburban village of Vityazevo, grabbed a sawn-off shotgun and declared all passengers hostages.

Pre-election processes in Yakutia may be replaced by post-election processes Residents of Yakutia finally elected a new president yesterday. According to preliminary data, the second round of elections was won by the head of the ALROSA company (Almazy Russia-Sakha) Vyacheslav Shtyrov. As it turned out after processing 84% of the ballots, 50.89% of voters voted for him.

The chief state tax inspector of State Tax Inspectorate No. 34, Sergei Burmistrov, was detained on Wednesday by employees of the capital’s department for combating economic crimes. According to operatives, he is suspected of extorting bribes. According to investigators, the official demanded that the director of one of the auto parts stores give him part of the goods - cans of engine oil, carburetors, spark plugs, etc. - in exchange for his future patronage.

The Russian cargo ship Vadim Popov collided with Chinese transport in the Sea of ​​Japan on Wednesday night. According to preliminary data, for foreigners the accident resulted in minor dents, but our ship, assigned to one of the ports of Kamchatka, received a large hole. By evening, the team managed to partially repair it on their own. So far there is no direct threat to the ship - water still flows into its holds, but the pumps manage to pump it out.

The Russian leader will receive Kamal Kharrazi Today, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi arrives in Moscow for a two-day visit. The visit was planned back on the 20th of February, but then it was suddenly canceled to “refine” the program. The Iranian minister hoped for a meeting with President Putin, but it was not included in the latter’s plan, and then, by mutual agreement, the trip was postponed.

Directors of RAO UES of Russia did not like the program to support energy workers At yesterday's meeting, the Board of Directors of RAO UES of Russia did not approve the program of social support for energy workers.

Tyumen is mastering cardboard and paper production A new cardboard and paper mill will be built in the Tyumen region by the end of this year. The project worth $123 million is being implemented by the administration of the city of Uvat, which intends to attract loans secured by forest areas. The new enterprise, according to forestry companies, will be comparable in production volumes to industry leaders.

Creating a gas market: time to take the first steps Reform of the gas industry has recently seemed to fall out of the government's priorities. Constantly postponing consideration of the concept of gas market development, officials are generally extremely reluctant to enter into discussions on this topic. This is understandable: Gazprom is still undergoing a deep inventory after the change of leadership in June last year.

The issue of redistribution of ALROSA shares remains open Russian diamond monopolist ALROSA announced its production plans yesterday. The global diamond market, after a two-year decline at the end of 2001, began to show signs of recovery, and therefore ALROSA planned to increase sales while slightly reducing rough production.

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The Ministry of Property is ready to earn money for the state If market conditions are good, the federal budget will receive about 35 billion rubles from privatization. It is planned to earn approximately the same amount by managing federally owned blocks of shares. This was stated yesterday by First Deputy Minister of Property Relations, State Secretary Alexander Braverman.

Gennady Fadeev promises reforms and money While the cabinet is preparing for hard work after the long holidays, the head of the Ministry of Railways, Gennady Fadeev, as befits a new recruit, is showing maximum activity. During his first ten days of work, he held a conference call, made an inspection trip to St. Petersburg and outlined his views on key industry issues. At the same time, Mr.

Four people died on Tuesday as a result of a fierce shootout that broke out in the north of the Khabarovsk Territory between poachers and local reindeer herders. The corpses of three men, 45, 41 and 35 years old, shot in the chest, were found 300 kilometers from Okhotsk, in the area of ​​the Kulu River, near the border with the Magadan region and Yakutia.

The meeting of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, at which the issue of canceling the registration of presidential candidate Khamzat Gutseriev was supposed to be decided, ended in nothing. Yesterday, during a meeting of judges, representatives of the Southern Federal District appeared at the courthouse and seized Mr. Gutseriev’s case.