The court began reading the sins of the Ural oligarch The trial of one of the richest and most scandalous entrepreneurs in the Urals, Pavel Fedulev, began yesterday in the Savyolovsky Court of Moscow. The businessman is suspected of securities fraud and other scams. The list of investigators' complaints against him is so long that yesterday was not enough for the judges to announce the entire indictment in the case.

Viktor Ilyukhin believes that Gennady Zyuganov should no longer try to become president There will most likely not be a single bloc of leftists in the 2003 Duma elections. But this should not lead to a split in the forces that should prepare for victory in the next presidential elections. This is the position of the socio-political “Movement in Support of the Army” (DPA), headed by member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Duma deputy Viktor Ilyukhin.

Turkmenistan is looking for sponsors, Russia gives a pipe and a guarantee The election of Hamid Karzai for the next year and a half as the head of post-Taliban Afghanistan launched a broad campaign to revive the trans-Afghan gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan to South Asia, known since the early 90s.

Yesterday a briefing was held by the artistic director and director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev, dedicated to the upcoming concert performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s opera “The Tale of a Real Man”. The event will take place on June 20 as part of the X International Festival “Stars of the White Nights” and, according to the organizers, should become almost central.

Bomb jokes have become popular Yesterday, Yemelyanovo, the main airport in Krasnoyarsk, was blocked by security services for several hours. In the morning, at 9.15 local time, an intercity bus driver approached the police officers patrolling the station square and reported that someone had left a cardboard box on the bench next to the stop.

Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Chingiz IZMAILOV tells what is missing to load transit transport corridors across Russia. -- Switching cargo flows between Asia and Europe to transport corridors passing through the territory of our country involves “taking away” part of the cargo from transnational sea carriers. How strong is their resistance? - First of all, I want to emphasize that this is not about resistance, but about healthy competition.

Rostov authorities decided to subsidize loan rates Starting next year, the administration of the Rostov region intends to abandon lending to local enterprises at the expense of the provincial treasury, as well as any other forms of budgetary support for Don business. The authorities want to spend the freed-up money entirely on subsidizing interest rates on loans. If this plan is implemented, then from next year every loan issued in the region will be preferential.

At the competition. Tchaikovsky finalists-instrumentalists have been determined The names of the finalists, who today will begin to compete for the increased main prize (one Japanese corporation added 10 thousand dollars to the first prize, and now it is 30 thousand), were named after the second round late at night.

The Ministry of Economic Development proposes to collect health insurance contributions from workers The health of workers is in the hands of the workers themselves. Experts from the Ministry of Economic Development came to the conclusion that without the financial support of citizens, domestic medicine is unlikely to be able to improve the health of these same citizens.

Norwegian Komsomol member The board of directors of the Norwegian media holding A-Pressen decided to purchase a 25% stake plus one share of the Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House CJSC. The preliminary amount of the transaction, according to A-Pressen, ranges from 5 million to 7.5 million dollars, the final amount will depend on the size of Komsomolskaya Pravda’s profit in 2002-2003.

In terms of murder rates, Russia came in third place. Only Colombia and South Africa are ahead of it. Professor Yakov GILINSKY, head of the Center for Deviantology at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the New York Academy of Sciences, tells our correspondent Anastasia NARYSHKINA why this is happening. — Yakov Ilyich, why, in your opinion, is crime growing both in the world and in Russia?

Kafelnikov celebrated his anniversary, Navratilova remembered her youth Next week, perhaps the most prestigious Grand Slam tournament on the international tennis calendar starts - the British Open, better known as Wimbledon. This is the only competition of this rank whose matches are played on grass courts.

The charter of RAO UES of Russia will allow managers to sell power plants Some minority shareholders of RAO UES of Russia drew attention to the fact that the draft new version of the charter lacks two clauses that two years ago caused a loud scandal between the management of the energy holding and minority shareholders. The point is that the board of directors of the parent company, if a new charter is adopted, will not be able to control the sale of “daughters” to “granddaughters”.

Chelyabinsk authorities and media magnates accuse each other of beating a journalist In the Urals, an undeclared war continues against journalists who, in their articles, criticize the executive power of the federal subjects and municipalities. Thirteen months ago, in the Kurgan region, the editor of the newspaper “Kurganskie Vesti”, Vladimir Kirsanov, who wrote articles incriminating the regional administration, disappeared without a trace.

Another consortium has announced claims to the inheritance of a bankrupt tycoon. Even the latest news about the division of the fragments of the bankrupt empire of the largest European television magnate Leo Kirch, as it turns out, has a very limited shelf life.