Georgia agreed to the presence of Russian military personnel in the Pankisi Gorge - however, not to join the anti-terrorist operation, but to participate in the investigation into the circumstances of the bombing on August 23, as a result of which one person was killed and six were injured. Tbilisi continues to insist that the bombing was carried out by the Russian Air Force, while Moscow continues to deny its guilt.

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Horst Koehler, issued a statement welcoming the decision of the Afghan authorities to introduce a new national currency.

Leading Russian speed skaters, veterans and coaches, including national team coach Valery Muratov, sharply criticized the Russian Skating Union (SKR), linking unsuccessful performances at the last two Olympics with the unsatisfactory work of sports officials. The management of the TFR is blamed for the low level of organization of pre-season training.

“Kinoshok” opens in Anapa tomorrow Officially, the event is called the Open Film Festival of the CIS and Baltic countries and is being held in the health resort city for the eleventh time. This year the jury, led by the director of the Pushkin Museum.

Akhmad Kadyrov reported his contacts with Aslan Maskhadov, who was immediately declared dead Before the shock of Kadyrov’s stated intention to subject them to certification had passed among Chechen officials, another piece of news followed: Kadyrov, it turns out, has “at work” contacts with the separatists.

Another ripper has appeared on the Don In the Rostov region, the search continues for a new serial killer, who has killed at least eight victims over the past few months. After the Don police officially recognized the appearance of Chikatilo-2 in Rostov and announced that the best operational forces had been sent to search for the killer, the maniac went into hiding.

A real tragedy took place on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda after the Niragongo volcano began to erupt in the DRC. Last Thursday, lava (which killed at least 45 people) virtually wiped out the Congolese border town of Goma. The flow of refugees rushing towards Rwanda has increased sharply and, according to the UN, amounted to about 300 thousand people. Pessimistic forecasts say it could reach half a million homeless.

Our team took their breath away with long-range throws Last night at the World Basketball Championship among men's teams in Indianapolis (USA), the fate of the Russian team's further participation in the tournament was decided. In the event of a victory over Germany or the Chinese winning against New Zealand, our basketball players received the right to continue fighting for medals in the playoffs.

The prize fund for the Grand Prix World Series final among the best figure skaters in the world, which will be held from February 28 to March 2, 2003 at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg as part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the city on the Neva, will be $492 thousand. This was announced by the President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev.

Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report opens today. Steven Spielberg is a true pop classic. If Spielberg made all the pop music, humanity would be smarter, more humane, more serious. He is like a good teacher - he is not lazy to come up with a fascinating form for simple truths that have long been chewed by other generations, which, however, are new to someone every time. In this case, he learns the thesis that man is given free will. Spielberg was inspired by the story of Philip K.

Yesterday, a working meeting between the chairman of the board of the concern, Alexey Miller, and the head of Vneshtorgbank, Andrei Kostin, took place at the central office of Gazprom. As the press service of the gas company reported, the discussion was about VTB’s participation in the scheme for repaying the debt of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine to Gazprom. Last Thursday, Alexey Miller once again met with the head of the Ukrainian corporation, Yuri Boyko.

Murtaza Rakhimov is ready to cease being president of Bashkiria President of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov said yesterday that, “having weighed all the circumstances,” he does not intend to run for a third term. Meanwhile, during all the years of his reign, Mr. Rakhimov carefully “weeded the site” and ensured that there was not a single real contender for power left in the republic. And he managed to achieve this.

Only Moscow students were found Immediately after the 1972 tragedy, suspicions arose in the Western press that the militants in Munich acted with the support of the KGB. However, no evidence of this has ever been found. There were only indirect connections or anonymous evidence. “13 days after Munich, the KGB handed over a large consignment of weapons to the Palestinians! - Western correspondents were indignant.

Professor Walter TRAEGER, current President of the German National Olympic Committee and member of the IOC, was Mayor of the Olympic Village during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Our Berlin correspondent Yuri Shpakov talks with him about the events of those days, as well as about the security problems of the Olympic movement. - At first there was a feeling of complete numbness. This is probably an ordinary human fear, which in such situations, however, passes rather quickly. So it was with me.

The head of the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Boris LABUSOV, answered questions from the Vremya Novostey newspaper. --Did the KGB offer assistance to colleagues for the release of athletes?