"O.G.I." published a collection of prose by Sergei Soloukh Sergei Soloukh has a strange fate. There is probably no greater “Westerner” and modernist in Russia now than this Kemerovo prose writer. Who else believes so sacredly in the intrinsic value of the poetic word? Who is always ready to endlessly twist metaphorical garlands, reveling in the play of the subtlest sound and semantic shades?

Slavneft reaches an agreement with the leadership of Belarus Yuri Sukhanov's first visit as president of Slavneft to Belarus, which took place yesterday, outlined problems that the parties intend to resolve in the near future. This is the modernization of the Mozyr Oil Refinery, which is part of the oil company, oil supplies to Belarus and participation in the privatization of the republic’s petrochemical enterprises.

Railway workers strive to make income out of nothing Two railways at once - the North Caucasus and West Siberian - were fined yesterday by the territorial departments of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy (MAP) for providing mandatory additional services. Actually, railways have the right to offer customers additional services for additional money.

Popov again failed to get ahead of Hoogenband The confrontation between the Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband and the Russian Alexander Popov in the 100-meter freestyle was once again resolved in favor of the Dutchman. Since 1991, Popov had no equal at this classic distance, but in 1999 the Hoogenband era began. In 2000, he took the world record from Popov, which now stood at 47.84 seconds.

The head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry is alarmed by Russian “amateur activities” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Irakli MENAGARISHVILI answered questions from his own correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper in Tbilisi, Mikhail VIGNANSKY. -- Georgian-Russian relations are again going through difficult times. Moscow is talking about militants in Pankisi, Tbilisi is talking about the bombing of Georgian territory...

IBM has decided to acquire the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The transaction amount will be $3.5 billion (in 2000, PWC negotiated the sale of its consulting business to Hewlett-Packard for $18 billion), while about 30 thousand employees of the PWC division will move to IBM's most profitable division - Global Services (Global currently has about 320 thousand employees), reports AP.

Top Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe started the British Commonwealth Games in Manchester with a new world record. He swam the 400m freestyle in 3:40.08, which was 9 hundredths of a second better than his previous achievement. The brilliant swimmer has his sights set on the competition's top seven honors. He admits that such a result is unlikely to be achieved, but there is a great desire to break the record of Susie O'Neill , who won six gold medals at one Commonwealth Games. Vladimir ILYIN

The Russian President appointed a Georgian highlander The top leadership of Russia, it seems, has decided to launch a “general offensive” against the Georgian authorities on the issue of resolving the problem of the Pankisi Gorge, where, according to our special services, the main forces of Chechen militants have long settled.

Ballot boxes will eventually disappear completely. At the next Duma and presidential elections, approximately a third of the country's polling stations will do without them. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Alexander Veshnyakov announced this yesterday.

The winner of the Tour de France cycling race that ended on Sunday, American Lance Armstrong, occupies only third place in the world ranking, noticeably losing to German Eric Zabel and Italian Paolo Bettini, who are respectively on the top two lines of the list of the best cyclists in the world. It is no coincidence that the Tour de France is considered the main event in the world of cycling. It is after its completion that the most noticeable changes occur in the UCI rankings.

The crises in Brazil and Argentina buried the Uruguayan economy The financial crisis forced the Uruguayan government to take extreme economic measures. Following the example of Argentina, which was fleeing a catastrophic influx of depositors into banks, the Uruguayan authorities decided to close all the country’s banks (and the day before, the operations of the central bank were completely suspended).

There are not enough reception centers for refugees in Chechnya Five thousand Chechen refugees returned home from Ingushetia. According to the Minister for Chechnya Vladimir Elagin, the Federal Migration Service has another 10 thousand applications from those wishing to return. In his opinion, this is “a barometer showing a change for the better in the situation in Chechnya.” However, the return of five out of 150 thousand displaced people does not mean much.

Boris Mikhailov is not ready to lead the Russian national team for free The tiresome soap opera entitled “Appointment of a new head coach of the Russian national hockey team” continues. It was expected that yesterday at a meeting of the executive committee of the Russian Hockey Federation, the long-awaited end to this matter would be reached.

Smoke over Moscow is harmless, but still dangerous Moscow was covered with a smoky cloud. Yesterday it was no longer possible not to notice it with the naked eye: visibility in the city in the morning dropped to 1 kilometer or less, and even nearby buildings were lost in the yellow haze. And the persistent smell of burning, which was felt even in the northwestern regions of the capital farthest from the peat bogs burning near Shatura, indicated that the atmosphere in the air was far from normal.

The Chinese military is learning new things quickly Today is a big holiday for the Chinese military - 75 years ago, in August 1927, the Chinese Communist Party decided to independently lead the armed struggle for political power. Over time, the Communist Party won, and August 1 was declared a holiday in China by the People's Liberation Army (PLA).