A football performance is not only made by football players, coaches and fans. Often the main character on the field is the referee. The World Championship will be served by 36 chief referees. But there are not many candidates for refereeing in the final match of the World Cup. One of them, German referee Markus MERK, who will referee the match between Group H Japan and Russia, gave an interview to the Vremya Novostei newspaper. — Quite often pressure is put on judges.

The date for the elections of the St. Petersburg parliament has been set The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (LA) yesterday supported the decision of the Central Election Commission on the date of elections to the city parliament. A law was adopted in the third reading, according to which voting is scheduled for December 2002. Thus, the election campaign actually starts in the city and at the same time an acute political crisis flares up.

An evening in memory of the victims of the Gulag was held in the Great Hall of the Conservatory On May 29, 2002, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, as part of the IV international conference “Resistance in the Gulag,” a concert of symphonic music was held, at which Alexander Lokshin’s “Requiem” was performed for the first time in Russia. “Requiem” was performed by the State Academic Orchestra named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky conducted by Rudolf Barshai.

Laws on the reform of the Ministry of Railways entered the lower house The reform of one of the natural monopolists - the Ministry of Railways - has moved another step forward. Recently, the State Duma received a package of reform bills. There are four of them in total: “On railway transport”, “On the peculiarities of management and disposal of railway transport property”, “On amendments and additions to the law “On natural monopolies” and “Transport Charter”.

Pink Floyd leader arrived in Moscow As part of his world tour, the cult musician, long-time leader of Pink Floyd, arrived in Moscow the day before yesterday and settled in “Balchug”. Roger Waters was highly anticipated, rumors about his arrival have been circulating for a year now, and they are waiting for him not as another “ghost from the past,” but as a musician who will show us something and tell us something that will take our breath away!

Now she's in no danger The Guta-Insurance company insured the Ostankino TV tower, the tallest in Europe, for $114 million. The next height that insurers plan to reach by the end of this year is to increase the company's authorized capital to 1 billion rubles. The insurance agreement was signed with the Federal Unitary Enterprise "Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network" (RTRS).

The festival season in Moscow ends with Chereshnevy Les The organizers of the Chereshnevy Forest festival - Krauterconcert, Bosco di Ciliegi, the Pushkin Museum and an impressive board of trustees headed by Oleg Yankovsky (there are also Galina Volchek, Edward Radzinsky, Yuri Bashmet, Viktor Tretyakov, Slava Zaitsev and others) - selected the event is a difficult genre of social reception on an artistic occasion.

In the group, which includes the national teams of Brazil, Turkey, Costa Rica and China, the main attention will be focused on the “tetracampeons”, and not only because Pele’s compatriots cannot leave anyone indifferent. And although the “ball wizards” are going through one of the darkest periods in their history, the Brazilian national team has enough players who can lead it.

The Lazarevsky district of Sochi was hit by heavy rain, hail and squally winds yesterday morning. The impact of the disaster was unexpected - all the previous days, the weather on this section of the coast had been hot like summer, and local weather forecasters predicted its deterioration only for today. The rain, according to eyewitnesses, more like a waterfall, continued for two hours.

The joint Russian-Slovak tire production company Matador-Omskshina will not pay a fine of $2.5 million for foreign exchange transactions. This decision was made by the Arbitration Court of the West Siberian District in Tyumen. The two-year legal battle with the Novosibirsk Regional Center for Currency and Export Control over what to call the transfer of money from Bratislava to Omsk ended in favor of the joint venture.

The new edition of the Presidential Law “On Basic Guarantees of Citizens' Electoral Rights” received approval from the Federation Council and was sent to Vladimir Putin for signature. The law establishes new rules of the game in Russian elections. A mixed principle of elections to regional legislative assemblies is being introduced: half of the deputies are elected from single-mandate constituencies, the other from party lists. Governors are elected in two rounds.

Roulette lovers will fly into the air Starting next year, the world's first air casinos will begin flying from Israel to Iceland and back three times a day. Roulettes, card tables and slot machines will be installed on board the huge two-story Boeing 747 airliners. “This is an important contract for our aircraft industry,” Israeli Transport Minister General Ephraim Sneh said yesterday. The wings of the casino did not grow out of happiness.

Long Sight of Jose Maria Aznar The head of the Spanish government, Jose Maria Aznar, has recently attracted special attention in Europe. And not only because it is he who currently chairs the EU (in this capacity, Aznar headed the EU delegation at the Moscow summit yesterday).

MNVK does not give up Events around the “sixth button” are acquiring more and more new details. Yesterday it became known that the Khimki Court of the Moscow Region declared illegal the actions of the management bodies of the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation CJSC to stop broadcasting on the sixth meter frequency.

Refugees are better off in Ingushetia than at home The leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia, Akhmad Kadyrov and Murat Zyazikov, signed yesterday an agreement on cooperation in the field of science, culture and other important areas.