NTV may remain without a license The meeting of the Federal Competition Commission (FCC) scheduled for today could end in a major scandal. One of the items on the agenda will be the issue of extending the license for the right to broadcast on the fourth meter channel, which now belongs to the NTV television company. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin did not rule out yesterday that the license may not be renewed, and the “fourth button” will be put up for competition.

Europe is waiting for Russia in the WTO The main topics of today's Russia-EU summit will be electricity prices and the problem of the Kaliningrad region in connection with the expansion of the European Union. This became completely clear after the international conference “Prospects for Russian-European Integration in the 21st Century.” Despite the numerous compliments generously scattered by all speakers, it is clear that the upcoming negotiations will be extremely difficult.

MTV Russia shared its presenters with Channel Six There are big changes on Russian MTV, the largest music channel. Yesterday, the founder of the project, Boris Zosimov, officially announced that he intends to leave the post of chairman of the board of directors of the MTV Russia television channel from June 20. The day before, he gathered his team (about 200 people) for a farewell dinner. Mr.

The government is looking for money for the military Budget execution in the first quarter went according to plan. At the government meeting, “this issue was one of the most boring,” explained the participants in the cabinet meeting. A little later, however, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin considered it necessary to declare that in four months the budget would still not receive the expected 17 billion rubles in tax revenue.

On the eve of the Russia-EU summit, Javier SOLANA, the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, answered questions from Vremya Novostei newspaper special correspondent Katerina LABETSKAYA. — Do you agree that there has been a turning point in relations between Russia and the West? - This week is an amazing week. An important summit with the United States, an important summit with NATO, and today an important summit with the European Union took place.

The French oil company TotalFinaElf intends to create a working group to prepare for the development of the Kazakh Kurmangazy field, TotalFinaElf President Thierry Desmarais said in Astana. Previously, Kazakhstan and Russia agreed to develop this field, located on the Caspian shelf, on a parity basis. The Russian partner of the Kazakh concern Kazmunaigas will be named by the government by mid-June. The contenders are Rosneft and the Caspian Oil Company founded by LUKOIL and YUKOS.

Gennady Seleznev makes new friends Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gennady Khodyrev announced his resignation from the “Zyuganov Party” as a sign of solidarity with State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev, who was expelled from the ranks of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. This news was announced at an extraordinary extended meeting of the political council of the “Russia” movement, the leader of which is Mr. Seleznev.

The clay sculpture of the head coach of the Chinese national football team, Yugoslavian Bora Milutinovic, was sculpted by his young fan, 14-year-old Chinese schoolgirl Wang Meihui from the city of Anshan. She dreams of personally presenting the statuette as a gift to the famous football player. “I adore Muli (as the Yugoslav coach is called in China). He is leading our team to the final games of the World Cup,” said the young fan.

First Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valery Goreglyad, speaking yesterday at the “Investment in Russia” conference organized by the “Securities Market” magazine, summed up the first results of the new tax system. According to him, the reduction of income tax to 24% with the simultaneous abolition of benefits did not worsen the situation with federal budget revenues, but significantly increased the tax burden of the regions since the beginning of 2002.

A number of senior officials of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy may be held criminally liable for the theft of military equipment. Military counterintelligence officers came to these conclusions during a preliminary investigation into the case of a former Baltic Fleet officer detained by customs officers on May 23 at a border post in the city of Nesterov, Kaliningrad Region. In the mail car of train No.

The North Atlantic Alliance has become a political club It's finished. Yesterday, at the Pratica di Mare military base near Rome, the leaders of NATO countries solemnly signed the act of surrender. The “Declaration on a New Quality of Russia-NATO Relations,” signed by the heads of state of the Alliance and Vladimir Putin, actually means recognition that the North Atlantic bloc is turning from a military-political bloc into simply a political one.

The prosecutor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Vladimir Demidov, opened a criminal case yesterday regarding the negligence of employees of the regional police department who participated in the release of two-year-old hostage Timur Khalbolaev.

The first half of the opening round matches played in men's and women's singles at the French Open in Paris instilled some optimism among fans of domestic tennis. Indeed, in the matches held on the courts of Rolland Garros with the participation of our athletes, success was more often on the side of the Russians. I was especially pleased with Andrey Stolyarov, who made it into the main draw only due to the refusal of one of the previously announced participants.

The opposition lost to the Rada Leonid Kuchma's dream came true: the chair of speaker of the traditionally opposition Verkhovna Rada was taken by Vladimir Litvin, the former head of the presidential administration, leader of the pro-presidential bloc “For a United Ukraine!” (in common parlance “For FOOD!”).

The Minister of Defense overpaid his girlfriend Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien could not stand the constant accusations of corruption from the Liberals and carried out an unexpected purge of his cabinet. The last straw was the scandal with Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton. Several years ago he appeared in society with his girlfriend, the rather cute blonde Maggie Mayer. Then their paths diverged.