Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov was not allowed into London, the company's press service reported yesterday. As stated in the press release, “the trip to participate in the meetings of the Russian Economic Forum on April 3-4 was disrupted for reasons of an extraordinary nature.” The company described the reasons of an extraordinary nature as follows: when Mr.

Alexander Babayan achieved leniency for robbery Alexander Babayan, one of the former oligarchs of the capital’s metro, may soon be released. He was arrested in April 2001, and last spring he was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbery and extortion. But, as the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned, the Supreme Court (SC) recently reduced this term to three years, and in the coming months Mr. Babayan may be released on parole. Until 2001, Alexander Babayan’s business was going well.

The Volgograd military court found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison the former chief of staff of the artillery battalion of the 20th motorized rifle division, Major Evgeniy Shiryaev, who was accused of exceeding official authority and causing bodily harm to five soldiers. The military prosecutor's office and the court established that in September last year, at the Prudboy training ground, five soldiers, celebrating their imminent demobilization, went on a drinking binge.

And the fee was answered with a fee The industrial group MAIR, which accounts for a sixth of the ferrous scrap metal collected in Russia, will send a letter to the government today or tomorrow with a proposal to introduce export duties on the products of metallurgical plants, including wire rod and strip, in the amount of 20% of the cost of a ton, which will amount to 40--60 dollars per ton.

Moscow spectators will be frightened and shocked For the first time during the existence of the Chekhov Festival, a portrait of the theater is being presented within its framework. The experimental program of the festival includes eight performances by the State Drama Theater Stuttgart.

In mid-April, Ingosstrakh Insurance Company will open the company's first representative office in Ukraine - in Kyiv. According to the head of the public relations and marketing department of Ingosstrakh, Alexey Zubets, the purpose of opening a representative office is to find new partners among policyholders and insurers of Ukraine, as well as to expand the company’s insurance operations in this country.

Units of the federal forces in Chechnya completed a search operation in the Vedeno region of the republic, where on March 20 two Mi-24 helicopters disappeared during a combat operation. Early yesterday morning, 2 km north of Mount Daikhoh, where at the beginning of the week rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations discovered the crash site of one helicopter, a second missing car was found at an altitude of 2.5 thousand meters.

Shevardnadze is ashamed of his army in front of Bush Georgia decided to reduce its armed forces from 18 to 15 thousand by 2005. On the one hand, this is a recommendation from international military advisers who believe that in a country aspiring to join NATO, the army should be professional.

Except it's bad The Caspian region is one of the main priorities of Russian foreign policy in terms of not only its energy resources, but also national security. This statement by the head of the Caspian working group at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Andrei Urnov, began yesterday the final day of the CIS oil and gas summit in London.

They want to force Putin to increase defense spending “For political and economic reasons, Russia is not interested in the defeat of the United States,” Vladimir Putin said yesterday in Tambov, adding that it is interested in moving the Iraqi issue “to the UN platform” as soon as possible. The point, of course, is not that a US military defeat could become a reality.

A record batch of weapons was seized on Monday from the house of one of the residents of the village of Ushakovo in the suburbs of Tyumen by local criminal investigation officers. They found the hiding place by accident - the 51-year-old owner of the house got involved in an operational investigation during the investigation of the murder of a traffic police officer, whose body was discovered on January 29 near the airport.

Yesterday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe made an extremely unpleasant decision for Russia - despite the opposition of Russian representatives, PACE members voted for the resolution proposed by the German socialist Rudolf Bindig. According to Herr Bindig, Russia is not yet capable of coping with human rights violations in Chechnya, and the actions of federal troops in the republic are accompanied by murders, torture, beatings and disappearances of people.

The company spoke about its successful acquisitions LUKOIL managers decided to stir up investor interest in their company and yesterday held a conference “Strategy for the acquisition of assets in the Komi Republic,” where they brought final clarity to the details of the transaction to acquire assets from the Urals company, which belongs to Boris Yeltsin’s former son-in-law Leonid Dyachenko. For the first time, LUKOIL reported that the transaction amount was $130 million.

Prime Minister He stated during a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Russia and Belarus that trucks produced within the union state of Russia and Belarus must meet European Union standards by 2008. At the meeting, the problem of the automotive industry, mainly the production of trucks, was discussed. According to the chairman of the Russian government, both Russia and Belarus have factories that require modernization and improving the quality of produced trucks to European levels.

The new tournament benefits only Premier League officials The first round of a new competition for Russian football - the Premier League Cup - ended last night. But from a sporting point of view, the results of this tournament do not carry any meaning. And why the new Cup was created remains a mystery. However, some prospects for the new tournament still emerge. Not long ago, UEFA officials promised additional places in the EuroCup to those countries that host the League Cup.