Russians learn to fight in the Asian-American War The third stage of the World Cup in short track speed skating took place at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg. For the first time since the 2002 Olympics, the strongest athletes in this sport gathered under one roof.

After the abolition of benefits, enterprises get rid of disabled people The other day, more than four thousand employees of the Yekaterinburg perfume and cosmetics concern “Kalina” received notices of dismissal. All of them are disabled and for a long time provided the concern with significant benefits on income tax and VAT.

The heads of the State Customs Committee visited investigators frequently Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee Boris Gutin was interrogated yesterday by employees of the Prosecutor General's Office. A day earlier, as our newspaper already reported, they also talked with the head of the State Customs Committee Mikhail Vanin. The conversation with the latter was short and concerned the scandalous case of the Grand and Three Whales furniture centers. Mr.

In Pyatigorsk, the jury yesterday delivered a verdict in the case of the explosion at the Pyatigorsk railway station on October 6, 2000. After a three-hour meeting, the defendant - former employee of the Pyatigorsk police department Vladimir Muhanin - was found guilty of carrying out a terrorist attack and storing ammunition. Then, as a result of the explosion of a bomb planted in a garbage can, two people were killed and more than ten were injured.

German Gref is against natural monopolies raising tariffs The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade does not want to encourage the growing appetites of natural monopolies to increase prices for their services. Today at a government meeting, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, German Gref, will talk about the dangers that higher tariffs will provoke.

VimpelCom, together with the fixed-line operator Equant (formerly Global One), began providing high-speed mobile access to corporate data networks based on GPRS technologies and the integration of fixed and mobile communications Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC). Unlike conventional wireless Internet access, the new service guarantees the user the safety of information and protection from unauthorized access, noted Viktor Markelov, director of product and service development at VimpelCom.

The museum program of “December Evenings XXII” is dedicated to Italy in general and Venice in particular The day before yesterday the festival “December Evenings of Svyatoslav Richter” opened at the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka. Music lovers have already enjoyed the music of the 14th-17th centuries performed by the famous Estonian ensemble Hortus Musicus. Ahead are concerts composed of works by Italian composers from the 14th century to the 20th.

Americans are making it difficult for Russian companies to do business in Iraq The humanitarian program “Oil for Food” may end at midnight on Thursday. The reason is disagreements in the UN Security Council between the United States and Russia on the issue of sanctions against Iraq. The Americans want to expand the list of goods prohibited for delivery to Iraq, and in this regard they are slowing down the extension of the humanitarian program. Russia is outraged by this.

Argentina begins to unfreeze bank accounts The government of Eduardo Duhalde on Monday decided to unfreeze citizens' bank deposits. Since the beginning of December last year, Argentines' accounts have remained blocked, after about $20 billion were withdrawn from bank accounts amid general panic, which ultimately led to the virtual collapse of the country's financial system.

Yesterday the Sea of ​​Okhotsk presented the Russian authorities with a mystery no worse than the Bermuda Triangle. In the morning, 12 crew members of the fishing schooner "Maria", registered under the flag of Belize, disappeared without a trace. The day before, the schooner hit reefs off the northern coast of Primorsky Krai and sank a few hours later.

Moscow increases the cost of parking spaces Spaces in multi-level parking garages, it seems, will be available only to wealthy metropolitan car owners. Yesterday, the Department of Investment Programs for Construction of the Moscow Government announced its intention to increase the cost of parking spaces from February 21.

SIBUR is not hindered by military equipment SIBUR will retain Kurganmashzavod, an enterprise that also produces infantry fighting vehicles. This is the result of the working visit of the SIBUR delegation to Kurgan. Vice-presidents of the oil and gas chemical company Viktor Zorkin (supervises personnel, security and relations with government agencies) and Andrey Medvedev (corporate and property relations) held a board of directors and a series of consultations with the management of the plant.

If the head of the Leningrad region is given five years, he will think more “promisingly” Yesterday, the regional legislative assembly of the Leningrad region began a preliminary discussion of the law on the election of the head of the subject. If it is adopted, the current governor of the region, Valery Serdyukov, can rule without interruption for a minimum of 9 years and a maximum of 14 years. The current head of the region was elected to his post in September 1999 for four years.

The Federal Border Service Commission yesterday completed an internal investigation into the emergency that occurred on Friday at the Ptysh outpost of the Circassian border detachment in Karachay-Cherkessia. As a result of shooting opened by one of the soldiers, five were killed and six more border guards were seriously wounded.

The government will keep its word on abolishing the sales tax On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin took back his reckless words that the government intends to extend the existence of the sales tax beyond 2004. The phrase about the continuation of this fee, uttered by him back in September in the heat of criticism of tax reform, caused bewilderment bordering on shock.