The rival of the CSKA basketball players in the group tournament of the second stage of the Euroleague basketball, the Turkish “Ulker”, cost dearly its failure to show up for the match with “Maccabi” from Tel Aviv. Let us remind you that last Thursday in the capital of Israel, the Istanbul club was supposed to play another match of the main club tournament in Europe, but, citing the tense situation in the region, asked to move the match to a neutral field.

The Moscow City Court yesterday left without satisfaction the private complaint of Galina Yashina, the wife of a professor at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman Anatoly Babkin, accused of high treason. She asked to return half of the 8 thousand US dollars seized during a search of her home carried out by FSB officers after the arrest of US citizen Edmond Pope, with whom Mr. Babkin collaborated.

Gazprom switches to long-term lending Gazprom's plans to switch from short-term borrowings to long-term ones are gradually being implemented. Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Concern Vitaly Savelyev told reporters yesterday that short-term loans have been reduced by half over the past six months and their amount is less than $2 billion.

Lawyers managed to defend their independence Having listened on Thursday, April 18, to the annual presidential message in the Kremlin and German Gref’s report on the government’s new approaches to reforming housing and communal services in the Duma, deputies will consider the law “On advocacy and the legal profession” in the second reading. The first version of the law presented by the presidential administration caused violent indignation among the wider legal community.

Now Alpha and MDM will fight for him Before the Alfa group had time to openly enter into a conflict between the shareholders of Conversebank - nuclear industry enterprises - and MDM Bank, it received a more than worthy response. A few days ago, Alfa, whose interests had long been discerned behind the nuclear industry that opposed MDM Bank, bought about 20% of the shares of Converse Bank and announced its intention to bring it to liquidation in defiance of MDM.

An unprecedented batch of the rare earth metal zirconium - more than 9 tons - was seized by employees of the Main Directorate (GU) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District. In addition, the dealers also tried to offer potential clients 200 kg of mercury. The sellers of such goods turned out to be a motley company of police officers, bandits and businessmen, led by the former military commissar of Saratov.

The growth rate of the Chinese economy in the first three months of the year reached 7.6% of GDP. And while this is one of the fastest growth rates in Asia, China's debts are also rising rapidly, Finance Minister Hiang Huaicheng said yesterday. The country's budget deficit, the AP quoted the minister as saying, rose from less than 1% last year to 2.7% of GDP this year, and the national debt stood at $190 billion.

Tomorrow the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships starts in the Greek city of Patras. The management of our team is again counting on experienced team leaders, among whom Alexey BONDARENKO plays a significant role. On the eve of the tournament, a correspondent for the newspaper Vremya Novostei spoke with him. — Alexey, how has this season been for you? -- Started it on January 2 at 10 am.

Royal Dutch/Shell bets on Gazprom Yesterday was marked by a sharp activation of Western oil companies in Russia: the Anglo-American BP announced the purchase of a 15% stake in the Russian oil company Sidanco for $380 million, and the head of the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch/Shell Philip Watts came to Moscow for one day to meet with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov and Gazprom head Alexei Miller.

City on the Neva will teach politicians to speak correctly The long debate about the reform of the spelling of the Russian language and the creation of a unified spelling code seems to be coming to an end. In any case, Lyudmila Putin, a graduate of the philological department of the then Leningrad State University and the wife of the Russian President, tried to put an end to the protracted discussion between philologists, politicians and members of the public yesterday.

National Theater Award awarded for the eighth time “You can’t live without the theater!” - exclaims one of the characters in Chekhov's "The Seagull". The character's name is Peter Sorin. He is a landowner and the brother of actress Arkadina, but it’s not just about family ties. “You can’t live without the theater!” - the overwhelming majority of intelligent people could exclaim at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Representatives of the FSB announced yesterday that they had found poisonous substances in the militants' possession, with the help of which the separatists were preparing a new series of terrorist attacks against federal forces. According to counterintelligence officers, on April 14, a special operation was carried out in the village of Alkhan-Kala to identify the remnants of Islam Chalaev’s gang, which was liquidated along with the leader during the battle on April 6.

Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher is recognized by UNESCO as the most outstanding sports champion. This was announced after the driver won the 56th Grand Prix in his career. According to tradition, athletes are awarded such recognition from a reputable international organization not only for professional achievements, but also for active charitable activities.

But they expect to find a recipe for victory over Russia Today the Russian team is playing its first and last match with a serious opponent on the eve of the World Cup. And the game with the European and world champions should give a clear answer: should Russian fans hope for something in Japan? In France, the upcoming match is treated with quite a lot of attention. The French had a choice: to play with the Russians or with the Italian national team.

Sergey Ignatiev is recruiting his team The new head of the Central Bank, Sergei Ignatiev, made the first personnel appointments. His first deputies were Oleg Vyugin and Andrey Kozlov. Now Mr. Ignatiev will be assisted by as many as three first deputies - two new ones and Tatyana Paramonova, who remained in post after the resignation of Viktor Gerashchenko at the request of Mikhail Kasyanov and Sergei Ignatiev. At the same time, the candidacies of Messrs.