News about the BP-TNK deal caused the oil market to grow British Petroleum (BP) is negotiating the acquisition of a stake in the company, which could arise through the merger of Sidanco and two companies currently owned by TNK International (owns 97% of TNK shares). Yesterday information appeared that BP intends to spend up to $4.5 billion on this purchase, and we are talking about acquiring 30-50% of the shares of the new structure. Today, BP owns 25% plus one share of Sidanco.

A phantom organization is trying to restore unity Seven former socialist countries (including the three Baltic states), invited to join the NATO military bloc in November, found themselves in a delicate situation. The alliance they so strive to join is in a grave crisis. NATO Secretary General yesterday assessed the situation as “very serious,” and US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on the Alliance for unity.

The fate of the hotel near the Kremlin walls has not yet been decided Memory of a place You can imagine Moscow before “Moscow” from the photographs in the Museum of Architecture named after Academician Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev. Maria Rogozina, head of the catalog section of the museum’s photo library, shows them and comments: “Three can be considered truly historical squares near the Moscow Hotel: Red, Voskresenskaya (Revolution Square) and Teatralnaya.

Gazprom has not yet learned to count its money In previous years, by and large, there was no such concept as a “budget” at Gazprom. “State capitalism” in the monopoly was built on informal principles, which became one of the reasons for the deplorable situation in which the concern now finds itself. The landing force, led by Alexey Miller, was, as is known, sent to the company, among other things, with the aim of bringing order to Gazprom’s financial flows.

The State Customs Committee agreed with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the terms of a loan of $140 million to modernize the information system of customs authorities. A protocol on this was signed at the end of last week by the Chairman of the State Customs Committee Mikhail Vanin and the head of the program Carlos D.K. Ferreira.

The St. Petersburg court yesterday announced the verdict of gang members accused of murdering the head of the North-Western Shipping Company port, Evgeniy Khokhlov, in the summer of 1997. All five defendants were found guilty of murder and fraud. According to the prosecutor's office, local businessman Vladimir Shelkov organized the assassination attempt.

“Weekly Magazine” changes its editor and merges with “Business Chronicle” The publishing house "Ostrov", which unites the magazines "Business Chronicle" and "Weekly Journal", has undergone serious changes. The editor-in-chief of the Weekly Journal (EZh) Sergei Parkhomenko resigned. His first deputy, Masha Lipman, also leaves with him.

A member of the working group on subsoil use under the President of Russia, rector of the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, Vladimir Litvinenko, in an interview with the Vremya Novostei newspaper last week, said that Gazprom should abandon “adventurous projects” such as the development of the Shtokman field. According to him, they require enormous costs, which make the extraction and transportation of gas from them economically unprofitable today.

Starting next week, new residents will be able to use a telephone hotline to complain about deficiencies they discovered in their new apartment. Thus, the first deputy mayor in the Moscow government, Vladimir Resin, who oversees urban construction issues, responded to Yuri Luzhkov’s dissatisfaction with the activities of his department. As Mr.

The NBA's "star weekend" ended in Atlanta, the culmination of which was a duel between the stars of the "West" and "East". For the first time in the history of the All-Star Games, it took two overtimes to determine the winner, but in the end the stars of the West turned out to be stronger than the East - 155:145. The first star of the match was Kevin Garnett from Minnesota, who scored 37 points and made 5 steals. But it was not he who was the center of attention, but Michael Jordan.

The State Fisheries Committee wants to strengthen its position The head of the State Fisheries Committee, Evgeniy Nazdratenko, apparently intends to launch another campaign to concentrate control over the fishing industry in his own hands. He considers it wrong that 25 different control services are involved in inspections of fishing vessels in Russian ports. Mr.

Kent Nagano conducted the Russian National Orchestra Various Japanese graces are now in fashion. Over the weekend, there was new confirmation of this known circumstance.

Rene ANDRE is a prominent figure in French politics. A well-known lawyer, long-term permanent neo-Gaullist parliamentary deputy from Normandy, vice-president of the delegation of French parliamentarians in the Council of Europe, he heads the France-Russia parliamentary friendship group in the National Assembly. Therefore, the special correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper in Paris, Peter ROZVARIN, asked Mr. Andre to comment on President Putin’s visit to France.

Iraq again denies LUKOIL the development of West Qurna 2 The Iraqi leadership, in anticipation of a solution to the issue of bombing the country, is making feverish steps - from statements about hypothetical cooperation with American oil companies to a final refusal to cooperate with Russian LUKOIL. Yesterday, for the first time, Baghdad declared so sharply that the end of relations with this company had been reached. At a press conference for Moscow journalists, acting.

Relatives of the victims and those injured after the crash of the Mi-8 helicopter, which occurred in April last year in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, filed claims for compensation for moral and physical damage. The Mi-8 helicopter carrying Governor Alexander Lebed crashed on April 28, 74 km from the village of Ermakovskoye. The car's main rotor caught on a power line support and crashed to the ground. As a result, eight people died, including Mr.