Twelve-year-old record broken Oil prices are increasingly approaching the levels that were recorded during the military operation in Iraq “Desert Storm” in the early 90s. In the middle of last week, the cost of raw materials reached record highs over the past 12 years. After this, the growth continued, and in the very near future one can hardly expect a significant drop in prices. Last week prices peaked on Wednesday.

To defeat Saddam Yesterday, Iraq destroyed six more Al-Samoud-2 ballistic missiles. The first four missiles were destroyed on Saturday, which was confirmed by international UN inspectors. Baghdad met the ultimatum deadline set by UNMOVIC head Hans Blix to begin getting rid of missiles by March 1.

On February 28, Nikolai Dudov, head of the Magadan Region Administration, officially took office. Nikolai DUDOV gave his first interview in his new capacity to the correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper Maxim GLADKY. -- Will the policy of your administration change compared to the previous one? Will you follow the line of Governor Tsvetkov or will you bring something new?

Gazprom cannot reach an agreement with the Lithuanian government The final deadline for submitting an application to purchase a 34% stake in the Lithuanian gas company Lietuvos dujos (LD) expired last Friday.

The Moscow City Hall proposes to the State Duma to amend the law on local self-government The Moscow government intends to put forward a proposal to amend the package of bills on local government reform. At the end of last week, Deputy Mayor of Moscow Anatoly Petrov announced the desire of the capital authorities to correct the deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak.

Late on Thursday at a meeting of the TVS board of directors, a new budget for the TV channel was adopted. In order for the channel to maintain its position in the Russian electronic media market, in 2003 the shareholders agreed to spend about $89 million on the current activities of the channel, of which the channel should earn 50 million from advertising, and the rest should be allocated by the shareholders.

Irena Lesnevskaya is looking for new investors RAO UES of Russia withdrew from the shareholders of the media holding REN TV. This decision was made unanimously on Friday evening at a meeting of the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia chaired by Alexander Voloshin.

The session of the National People's Congress opens in Beijing this week. The country's highest representative body is called upon to complete the transfer of power to a younger generation of politicians, which began last fall at the party congress. There are no surprises to be expected in the distribution of key government posts.

President I sent a message to the participants of the meeting of heads of state and government of countries - members of the League of Arab States. The message says: “The situation in the Middle East is becoming increasingly tense.

Hockey. Russian Championship. 48th round. "Amur" - SKA - 3:2 (OT), "Metallurg" NK - "Spartak" 3:2 (OT), "Avangard" - "Molot-Prikamye" - 2:1, "Salavat Yulaev" " - "Lokomotiv" - 2:2, "Metallurg" Mg - "Wings of the Soviets" - 4:2, "Lada" - "Ak Bars" - 1:1, CSKA - "Siberia" - - 2:0, Neftekhimik - Mechel - 1:1, Dynamo - Severstal - 0:0. The leaders are: Lokomotiv - 103 points, Severstal - 96, Avangard - 60.

Mikhail Shemyakin staged “Princess Pirlipat” at the Mariinsky Theater Two years ago, when Shemyakin was just beginning to stage his “Nutcracker” at the Mariinsky Theater, he complained that Hoffmann’s entire story could not be squeezed into the framework of Tchaikovsky’s score, which was intended only to tell the story of the girl Masha and the brave, toothy doll given to her.

The peak of perfection of automatic transmissions has long been reached, and it is unlikely that anything radically new will appear outside the executive class, I thought before meeting the new Audi A6 2.4 multitronic. This particular model was provided by the manufacturer to the Vremya Novostey newspaper for a test drive.

Ariel Sharon played a brilliant ministerial combination Over the past week, Ariel Sharon managed to form a government cabinet from representatives of four right-wing and center-right parties (Likud, Shinui, MAFDAL and Ihud Leumi). The stumbling block was the distribution of portfolios between key Likud political players - Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and ex-Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert.

The trial in the Energoatom case resumes in Nizhny Novgorod Moscow police officers recently arrested the general director of the investment company Energoatom, Oleg Klimkin. He is the main defendant in one of the largest cases ever investigated by Russian fighters against organized crime. Klimkin and a number of other prominent entrepreneurs and crime bosses are accused of issuing unsecured bills worth 22 trillion “old” rubles and attempting to steal $2 billion.

Following the reduction in the Central Bank's refinancing rate, the Savings Bank traditionally revised its rates on deposits and consumer loans. Since March 1, the yield on ruble deposits of individuals in Sberbank does not exceed 13.5% per annum, most rates, as before, significantly lag behind the inflation rate predicted by the Central Bank of 12%. For foreign currency deposits, the new rates do not exceed 8.5%. As expected, this month retail rates will go down in other banks.