UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived yesterday on a visit to Turkey for negotiations on the Cyprus unification. “This is a defining moment for Cyprus. The time has come,” he said. Today and tomorrow he will have negotiations in Greece and Cyprus itself. However, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said that Cyprus, apparently, will have to join the EU in mid-April without signing the reunification plan proposed by the UN.

President Signed a decree awarding the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, IV degree, to Ivan Tretyak. Retired Army General Tretyak was awarded for his great contribution to strengthening the country's defense capability and active work in the patriotic education of youth. Sent greetings to the participants of the XIII Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Malaysia.

The company paid $400 million for control of its subsidiary LUKOIL became the sole owner of the LUKOIL-Perm company. Until now, the leader of the Russian oil industry controlled only 73% of the shares of his Perm subsidiary, but on Friday it was announced that LUKOIL would acquire PFPG-Energy, which owns the remaining 27% of LUKOIL-Perm shares. Thus, now Vagit Alekperov’s company fully controls its Perm structure. LUKOIL paid $398 million for its purchase.

Army reminds opposition that war is not over yet The results of the first round of presidential elections in Armenia have inflamed the situation within the country and led to the consolidation of the opposition around the leader of the People's Party Stepan Demirchyan. Let us remind you that Mr. Demirchyan received 27.7% of the votes and entered the second round along with the current President Robert Kocharyan, who received 49.8% of the votes.

Nina Aleksandrovna Dmitrieva died at the age of 86. She was one of the most prominent figures in modern Russian art history. For more than half a century, her work was perceived by the art historian and artistic community as a standard of honesty, incorruptibility, uncompromising judgment, impeccable taste, sharpness and beauty of thought, talent for interpreting artistic phenomena, as an expression of a unique literary gift. The range of her scientific interests was extremely wide.

In Kazan on Friday, an attempt was made on the life of the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, Colonel Daut Korigov. At about 7.30, when he, getting ready for work, as usual, left the entrance of his house on Zakiev Street, an unknown criminal fired at a policeman with a pistol. With several injuries, Mr. Korigov was urgently sent to the hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. 5 hours later the colonel died. It was not possible to apprehend the criminal without delay.

The Patriarch agreed to receive a Vatican representative Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican have moved from confrontation to the stage of negotiations. Last week, the apostolic nuncio - de facto ambassador of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia - Archbishop Antonio Menini was received by two Orthodox hierarchs at once.

"Milan" Shevchenko does not sell and does not even show Today, at their stadium in Cherkizovo, Lokomotiv will try to take revenge on Milan for their defeat a week ago. And, as Loko’s head coach Yuri Semin said, in the upcoming match his team will only be satisfied with a victory. True, it is not clear how Lokomotiv is going to win.

Mothers were forced to take their children out of an elite school to save their lives On Defender of the Fatherland Day, the command of the Russian Navy had no time for a holiday. On February 23, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Mikhail Zakharchenko, had to urgently fly to St. Petersburg in order to conduct an on-site investigation of the incident at the Nakhimov Naval School.

The relationship between TVS shareholders is becoming more and more confusing The balance of power on the board of directors of the TVS channel has changed again. The advantage in share capital, which the group of shareholders led by Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich and General Director of Basic Element Oleg Deripaska received in December last year, has been lost. At the end of last week an event occurred that Messrs. Abramovich and Deripaska hardly counted on it.

The industrial group MAIR intends to spend about $20 million on the modernization of the Sulina Metallurgical Plant (STAX), which it bought three years ago from the Rostov financial and industrial group Doninvest in a virtually bankrupt state. The outdated open-hearth furnaces should be replaced by the so-called powder metallurgy. Reconstruction of the plant will begin this year and will be completed by 2005-2006. The estimated payback period for the project is 7-8 years.

Last weekend, the main participants in the future coalition government of Israel were revealed. In accordance with the preliminary agreement, it will include representatives of the Likud party led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the far-right National Religious Party (CHP) and the secular Shinui. The coalition will have a majority in the Knesset.

Gallery "Dacha" congratulated you on Defender of the Fatherland Day The alliance between Tretyakov Gallery employees and commercially successful auction houses and antique salons seems to be growing stronger, to the satisfaction of both parties. Our newspaper talked about the presentation by the Antique Interior gallery of the biographical reference book of Fyodor Bulgakov “Our Artists” .

The US turned to China for support Having put aside work on the second resolution on Iraq for a while, US Secretary of State Colin Powell went on a tour of the Far East - he was expected in Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul. The centerpiece of this tour was China. Unlike Tokyo and Seoul, Beijing is not allied with Washington. However, only China, with its real influence on the DPRK, is capable of forcing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Iraqi Minister of Information Muhammad SAKHAF, who is currently at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur, spoke about the situation around Iraq to Elena SUPONINA, a columnist for the Vremya Novostei newspaper. —Have people in Baghdad gotten used to the fact that war is inevitable? - Not at all. Moreover, Iraq has always cooperated with international disarmament inspectors and is cooperating now. The issue is not weapons of mass destruction.