At the end of last year, the Russian government managed to agree with Italy to exchange part of the Russian debt for investment, but it turned out that no one knows how this project can be implemented. As a result, Italian and Russian businessmen decided not to wait for their governments to develop a suitable plan, and got down to business themselves. Moreover, very little time was allocated for the preparatory process.

Moscow will prohibit investors from liquidating enterprises being removed from the center Yuri Luzhkov’s emotional speeches addressed to the owners of industrial enterprises who are repurposing and moving their production facilities out of the center of the capital were promptly formalized into an entire city program. Already on March 18, the Moscow government will consider the PromCity program.

The Ministry of Labor abolishes the unified tariff schedule The Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Russian Federation is completing work on a bill reforming the wage system for public sector employees. Last Friday, Alexander Pochinok announced that this law would be submitted to the government for consideration in the second half of January. Now the reform project is being finalized by commissions, which include representatives of regions and federal departments.

Andrey Vavilov, senator, scientific director of the Institute for Financial Research, former first deputy minister of finance of the Russian Federation: A package of bills on local government reform, recently submitted to the State Duma, was presented by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kozak. It seems that the reform started from above received unexpected and strong support from below.

The Minister of Labor organized a meeting with trade union leaders The upcoming wage reform became the subject of heated debate between the government and trade unions yesterday. The United Russia party confronted Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok and trade union leaders. According to the initiators of the negotiations, the State Duma will insist on considering only the agreed version of the reform of the wage system, which is expected to be carried out after October 1 of this year.

The new Vatican ambassador arrived in Moscow The Vatican is sparing no effort to normalize damaged relations with Russia. On Saturday, the new official representative of the papal throne, Archbishop of Ferenti Antonio Mennini, arrived in Moscow.

Young people cannot withstand competition from masters A little more than half of the super tournament has been played in Linares, and the interim results can be summed up. The tournament table shows an interesting picture, quite consistent with the table of ranks: ahead is the entire color of the FIDE rating list.

Basketball. NBA Regular Season . “New Jersey” — “Utah” — 90:91 — Kirilenko “U” (15 points + 6 rebounds + 2 assists + 4 steals + 2 blocked shots), “Cleveland” — “Orlando” — 76:102, “Toronto” – “Boston” – 104:92, “Milwaukee” – “Atlanta” – 120:93, “Minnesota” – “New York” – 99:90, “Hughton” "-" San Antonio" - 88:97, "Miami" - "Washington" - 93:83, "Portland" - "Detroit" - 103:86, "Denver" - "Philadelphia" -- 94:100. Utah hasn't lost in East Rutherford since 1994.

The Andrei Rublev Museum was unlucky again. The attempts repeatedly made in Soviet times to close it (“for excessive religiosity”) unexpectedly intensified in our officially Orthodox times. Efforts to “optimize federal budget expenditures” led to the emergence of a blacklist of museums within the commission created for this useful mission.

OPEC will cope with oil prices Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday at an extraordinary conference in Vienna, as expected, decided to increase the oil production quota by 1.5 million barrels per day - from the current 23 million to 24.5 million. According to the OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, the decision to increase quotas comes into force in February.

Tomorrow the first echelons with surplus troops will leave Chechnya, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Anatoly Kvashnin announced. Mr. Kvashnin arrived in the republic together with the new commander of the North Caucasus Military District, Colonel General Vladimir Boldyrev. According to the generals, the situation in Chechnya is quite stable and is even conducive to a constitutional referendum.

Last week, the Pyatigorsk court concluded the trial of a local hospital doctor accused of “causing death” by negligence. The head of the neurosurgery department of the Pyatigorsk City Hospital, Khasan Bolurov, was found guilty of “causing death” due to improper performance of his professional duties. According to the local prosecutor's office, in February 2001, a colonel of the FSB Directorate for the North Caucasus was taken to the hospital intensive care unit with a stroke.

Referendum and elections are useful and good things. But in order to carry them out, it is necessary to create proper peaceful living conditions. In conditions when the most guarded government building in the republic is blown up and hundreds of people are killed, in conditions when there is a curfew, when militants control many populated areas at night, when 75 thousand of our soldiers and officers are stationed there, and there is no order— the referendum will look like a farce.

German Gref found where $150 million can and should be invested The discussion of a package of energy bills in the Federation Council took an unexpected turn. Yesterday, at a meeting of the industrial committee dedicated to the passage of the package in the upper house, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref made a statement that the Duma amendment banning rolling blackouts is estimated at $100-150 million in investments.

Five representative tennis tournaments ended last week. The largest of them, with a prize fund of one million dollars, took place in Dubai (UAE). Here, in the final match, the first racket of the competition, the Swiss Roger Federer, prevailed over the Czech Jiri Novak - 6:1, 7:6 (7:2) and won the sixth title in his career. The winner has excellent results this season - out of the last 15 matches, he lost only one.