The marriage contract is the main weapon of Sverdlovsk politicians The campaign for elections to the Duma of the Sverdlovsk region ends today. Voters will finally breathe a sigh of relief - behind the painful weeks when candidates went to great lengths in the fight for their votes. In August next year, residents of the Sverdlovsk region will have to elect a governor. The Duma campaign is just a warm-up.

The timing of marriage in Russia may be clarified On Tuesday, the State Duma Council considered a bill establishing the procedure and conditions for marriage for spouses aged 14 to 16 years. After consideration, the bill was sent for the preparation of comments and proposals to the president, the government, the Federation Council and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Two antique violins, one of which may have been made by the famous master Antonio Stradivari, were discovered on Wednesday by employees of the Pskov Customs (North-West Customs Department). The tools were found during a routine customs inspection before crossing the border of a Latvian citizen traveling on the St. Petersburg-Riga train.

The Verkhovna Rada distributes seats A political marathon called “formation of a parliamentary majority” has begun in Ukraine. As a result of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada, no force received a numerical advantage, and now, in order to gain the 226 mandates necessary to pass the laws, the factions will have to enter into coalitions. The formal winner of the elections was the bloc of ex-Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko “Our Ukraine”, which received the most votes on the party lists.

The Tyumen Oil Company began negotiations with the Croatian company INA to acquire a stake in its subsidiary White Nights. The White Nights company operates in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and holds licenses to develop the West Varieganskoye and Tagrinskoye fields with total reserves of 11.86 million tons of oil. Estimated reserves of the fields amount to about 60 million tons of oil. "TIME FOR NEWS"

The great German artist Martin Wuttke came to Moscow Martin Wuttke first came to Russia several years ago. On the stage of the Mossovet Theater he played “The Career of Arturo Ui” staged by the German playwright Heiner Müller, who headed the Berliner Ensemble at that time. We all gaped. Well, the tradition of Brechtian theater seemed to remain forever in its time. And here it is - on you. As if dipped into a miraculous cauldron of milk, she appeared before us as good as new.

Russian gymnast Olga Korbut will not stand trial for stealing food from a supermarket. Korbut was detained by store security on January 31 of this year, and unpaid groceries worth $19.35 were found in her bag. The gymnast herself explained this incident by her absent-mindedness, and not by self-interest.

The British branch of the notorious accounting firm Arthur Andersen has announced a merger with Deloitte & Touche UK. According to a mutual statement, both parties agreed that the partners and staff of Andersen's British divisions would go to their former competitors. The deal must be confirmed by government authorities. “Our customers have demonstrated their loyalty and now have confidence that they will be served by world-class professionals,” said Andersen UK managing director John Ormrad.

Omsk and Yekaterinburg butchers are fighting for markets On April 11, the Central Court of Omsk rejected a claim by a minority shareholder of the Ekaterinburgsky Meat Plant against the management of the enterprise.

The office of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, confirmed a tabloid newspaper report that Charles's son and the Queen's grandson, Prince Harry, dabbled in drugs and alcohol, the BBC reports. The News of the World claimed the 17-year-old prince was taken to see a counselor at a drug treatment center after he admitted to regularly smoking marijuana at parties and drinking alcohol in a local pub.

While the President of Sberbank of Russia Andrei Kazmin was participating in the Russian-German forum in Weimar, clouds slowly began to gather over his head in his homeland. Informed sources in power structures speak unofficially, and minority shareholders of the bank speak quite openly about the need to terminate Mr. Kazmin’s powers ahead of schedule.

Lukashenko would like to employ his former prime minister Today a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the union state of Russia and Belarus opens in Moscow. In Minsk they prepared especially carefully for the meeting. The Belarusian delegation intends to give a decisive battle on a number of union agreements. But the stumbling block remains the issue of levying indirect taxes.

The Museum of Architecture doesn't care about political correctness The AcropoliU exhibition, which opened yesterday in MUAR, became a powerful ideological message. Anyone who wants serene contemplation and concentrated meditation should better not attend it. In the first hall, the viewer finds himself in the epicenter of an information typhoon. The epigraph of the exhibition is not a captivating poem about the transparent veins of the Parthenon marble and the blue sky of Athens.

Energy companies were asked to reduce costs As Yuri Luzhkov promised, electricity tariffs in Moscow have not increased much. At yesterday's meeting of the Regional Energy Commission (REC), they were increased from May 1 for the population by an average of 20%, for industry - by 15%. Residents in houses with gas stoves will pay 76 kopecks. per kWh (until May 1, the tariff is 63 kopecks/kWh), with electric stoves - 55 kopecks (previously - 44 kopecks).

The head of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, called on Israel to stop the “inhumane” siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. More than 200 Palestinian militants, including wounded, and about 30 Catholic monks have been sitting in the holy basilica since April 2. They have run out of food and water. “Residents threw food and bottles of water to the besieged.