One of the leading providers of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS countries, the American corporation Golden Telecom, announced yesterday the completion of the merger of the business of its subsidiaries TeleRoss and Sovintel, which provide services for corporate clients under the single Golden Telecom brand.

This article has a very simple and very specific reason. My responsibilities include reviewing reports from Russian and foreign cultural agencies, although many years of experience show that the usefulness of this activity tends to zero. And if for journalists specializing in politics or economics, information from agencies is their daily bread, then culture is passed on as stepchildren.

Marseille striker Dmitry Sychev scored his first goal in the French Championship. Sychev's club, at the top of the standings, beat another leader, Nice, with a score of 2:0. The second, largely decisive goal was scored by a young Russian forward. Coming on as a substitute in the 83rd minute, Sychev first ruined a one-on-one with the Nice goalkeeper, but literally two minutes later he made up for his mistake.

The State Customs Committee intends to rid the ports of smugglers Today, the operational department of the State Customs Committee and the main department for combating smuggling are starting a large-scale operation under the prosaic name “Proseka”, the goal of which is to identify and stop smuggling of goods in all major ports of Russia. Mikhail Bernovsky, head of the operational department of the State Customs Committee, reported this to the Vremya Novostey newspaper yesterday.

The prosecutor's office of the Siberian Military District came to the conclusion that there was no crime in the actions of the crew of the Mi-8 military helicopter that crashed on May 7, 2002 in the Altai Mountains. The accident occurred during landing approach to a high-mountainous snow-covered area - the helicopter caught its propeller blades on a rock and crashed from a height of 700 meters. All eight snowboarding passengers and three crew members on board were killed.

Government allocated 210 million rubles in January. regions due to accidents in heating systems. The funds were allocated back in the first ten days of January; since then, no money has been allocated to anyone in connection with problems in housing and communal services.

In Volgograd, over the weekend, 40 new passports, or rather, their blank forms, disappeared from the passport office in the Sovetsky district of the city. It is assumed that they were simply stolen by attackers who entered the poorly guarded premises of the local passport and visa service (PVS) at night. Previously, this could not have happened even theoretically, since passport offices were located in regional police departments.

Olympic champion preferred to famous ski coach The Russian cross-country skiing championship, which ended the other day in Rybinsk, was the main qualifying competition before the World Championships. Based on its results, a national team was named, which will soon go to the Italian Val di Fiemme, where the world championship will start in less than three weeks.

Minsk strengthens financial policy Belarus managed to fulfill last year's budget only thanks to the sale of the state stake in Slavneft. As the head of the department, Nikolai Korbut, said yesterday at the final board meeting of the Belarusian Ministry of Finance, in 2002 the republic received 402.3 billion Belarusian rubles as a result of the sale of state-owned property.

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Sharon calls on Zionist parties to cooperate For the Likud party, led by Ariel Sharon, the results of the Knesset elections were a doubly victory: over the past three decades, not a single Israeli prime minister who risked going to early elections retained his post. In the near future, President Moshe Katsav will officially instruct Ariel Sharon to form a new cabinet of ministers. Likud received 37 parliamentary seats, which is almost a quarter of the seats in the Knesset.

The President of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) Lamine Diack demanded that the world's best sprinters, Americans Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, explain why they are working with Charlie Francis, the former coach of the scandalous Canadian Ben Johnson, who was repeatedly convicted of using stimulants and was deprived of an Olympic gold medal. In his opinion, this cooperation damages the image of athletics.

Yesterday, the head of the Russian Basketball Federation (RFB) Sergei Chernov talked for about an hour and a half with the head coach of the Russian men's team Sergei Elevich.

Natalya Dudinskaya died Four months ago she turned 90 years old. Ballet takes a lot away, but in return it often gives longevity. The queen is retired, but not in exile (the 30 years when she was prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater are lost in the smoke of decades; Dudinskaya never betrayed St.

And before the elections, do not frighten motorists with civic responsibility The start of compulsory motor third party liability insurance, scheduled by law for July 1, 2003, may be postponed by a year. As it became known, State Duma deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin proposed to amend the Law on compulsory civil liability insurance of car owners, and to avoid a rush in considering the amendments, to postpone the date of entry into force of the law until next year. Already on Tuesday, Mr.