The heads of LUKOIL and Gazprom Vagit Alekperov and Alexey Miller at a meeting on Friday discussed the implementation of joint projects of the companies provided for by the general agreement on strategic partnership. In particular, at the meeting they discussed gas supplies from LUKOIL in the amount of up to 10 billion cubic meters per year starting in 2005 from the Nakhodkinskoye field to the Gazprom gas transportation system.

Investigators of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Tula Region recently refused to allow two-time absolute world champion in wrestling without rules Magomedkhan Gamzathanov, detained on suspicion of extortion, to translate five volumes of his investigative file into the Avar language.

The Ministry of Defense wants to revive officers' meetings The General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces seems to have decided to revive officer meetings. The directive “On the preparation and holding of the All-Army Conference of Officers of the Russian Federation” was sent to the troops. The event will take place on February 20-22 in Moscow under the leadership of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

CSKA leads in Russia and Europe After a two-week break due to the Russian national team's performance in the 2003 European Championship qualifying matches, the men's super league games resumed. Four meetings took place last Friday and Saturday, and last night the final game of the 12th round took place between the capital’s army team and Ekaterinburg Evraz. However, the outcome of the meeting in favor of the hosts did not raise any doubts.

The crew of the International Space Station is awaiting the results of the investigation into the disaster The bright trail left last Saturday in the skies over Texas and Louisiana by the Columbia shuttle falling apart into fragments could become a line that crosses out all the many years of efforts by Russia, the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan to build the International Space Station.

Secretary of State Powell to Perform a Parody of Ambassador Stevenson The United States intends to present to the public evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and is hiding them from international inspectors in every possible way. On Wednesday, February 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell will make a report on this matter at the UN Security Council.

60 years ago the Battle of Stalingrad ended Hitler wanted to go to India In June 1942, Soviet troops suffered a major defeat near Kharkov. Thus, all the prerequisites were created for the Germans to break through to the Stalingrad area. On June 29, Army Group B of General von Bock began to develop an offensive against Kharkov. But this was only an imitation of a large-scale offensive in the Voronezh-Moscow direction.

The Russian team is below the medal list, but with a ticket to Athens For the third major official international tournament in a row, the handball players of the Russian men's team remain below the medal list. Having won gold medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, at subsequent world and continental forums our grenadiers were sometimes just a step away from getting on the podium, but each time they could not do it.

Kathleen Battle managed to surprise the Moscow public It was assumed that the appearance in Moscow of the capricious black prima donna and owner of one of the best operatic voices of the twentieth (at least) century, Kathleen Battle, could become a direct competitor to last year's Moscow concert of another majestic African-American woman, Jessie Norman. But there was another version of the development of events organized by the Krauterconcert agency - not so much sensational as scandalous.

The road to acquiring Ruhrgas is open for the German energy concern E.on Düsseldorf energy giant E.on, whose main product is electricity, has won the battle for natural gas. The “battle” with opponents of his acquisition of the Essen gas company Ruhrgas lasted a full year and a half.

Russian lawyers have elected their boss Evgeniy Semenyako, head of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, former judge of the St. Petersburg City Court, was elected the main Russian lawyer on the night from Friday to Saturday. This is the most important result of the first All-Russian Congress of Lawyers, which took place in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions and lasted more than 12 hours.

The Ministry of Communications established new denominations of postage stamps from February 1. By order of the ministry, now the denomination of stamp “A” costs 3.7 rubles. used to send a simple letter, a stamp with a face value of “B” worth 3.7 rubles. -- simple cards. Previously, for sending a simple letter they paid 3.25 rubles, a simple card - 2.45 rubles. In 30 regions there are now increased tariffs, where sending correspondence costs 10-100% more than the basic tariff.

In London, Zakaev found himself between a drunk driver and a peeing passerby Last Friday, in a long series of criminal cases, at the Magistrates' Court on London's Bow Street, one was heard that some in Moscow hastened to call almost epoch-making.

Accused of stealing Turkmen millions returned to Moscow The authorities of Turkmenistan, as the Vremya Novostei newspaper learned, extradited back to Russia Murad Garabaev, a former employee of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan, accused by Ashgabat of involvement in the theft of $41 million from the country's budget. In October, at the request of Ashgabat, he was arrested in Moscow and handed over to the Turkmen special services. However, Mr. Garabaev's lawyers initiated an unprecedented scandal.

On Friday, January 31, the winners of the VIII National Television Award “TEFI” were announced. The winners of the Academy prizes - Orpheus statuettes were: Nomination Winner Broadcasting channel 1. “Information program - national (network) news” "Time" ORT 2. “Information program - regional news” "Rush Hour" TV-2, Tomsk 3. “Information and analytical program” "The other day" NTV 4. “Host of the information program” Sergey Brylev, Vesti TV channel "Russia" 5.