As the press secretary of the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy, Richardas Slabshis, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, the position of the Lithuanian government regarding Gazprom’s final application for the privatization of 34% of Lietuvos Dujos, submitted a week and a half ago, will be made public on April 28. During the remaining time, it is planned to hold consultations with deputies of the Seimas of Lithuania.

The Italians turned out to be more skillful in a two-round fight On Tuesday there was a big Spanish-Italian confrontation. Barcelona hosted Juventus from Turin, and old acquaintance Hector Cuper came to Valencia. The former Valencia coach arrived not alone, but with a new club - Inter. The results of the first meetings gave the Spaniards cause for optimism. A successful draw in Turin made Barça the favourite, and Valencia did not consider the task of beating Inter 2-0 impossible.

A tournament with a record prize fund will be held in Moscow At the end of September, a grand athletics tournament will be held in Moscow, in which one hundred of the best athletes in the world will take part.

Yesterday, Perekrestok Trading House officially confirmed rumors about the sale of 7.7% of its shares to the international investment fund Templeton. The seller was Perekrestok Holdings Ltd (Gibraltar) - a 100% shareholder of the Perekrestok trading house and Templeton Strategic Emerging Market Fund. According to Lev Khasis, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC Trading House Perekrestok, additionally issued shares of the Gibraltar company were sold.

Yesterday, the Moscow City Court began a retrial of the criminal case against Pavel Zaitsev, an investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. He is accused of abuse of power and illegal detention of suspects during the investigation of a sensational case of smuggling furniture sold in the Three Whales and Grand shopping centers. The Prosecutor General's Office accused Mr.

The Ministry of Property Relations accuses the Ilim Pulp holding and its registrar TsMD of forgery of documents, due to which the state representative was unable to vote with the “golden share” of Bratskcomplexholding OJSC against the merger of a number of controversial timber enterprises into a single joint-stock company. In this regard, the Ministry of Property intends to contact the Prosecutor General's Office.

Smog from peat fires has crept into the capital again Yesterday morning, smog from burning peat bogs reappeared over the southeastern regions and suburbs of Moscow. The gray haze that enveloped the residential areas was only vaguely reminiscent of what was happening in the capital last summer, but this was enough for the residents of Vykhin, Novokosin, Lublin and Lyubertsy to unleash a real barrage of phone calls on firefighters and epidemiologists.

The exact date and place of the next fight of the WBC, WBA and IBF junior welterweight champion Konstantin Tszyu have been determined. On September 27, 2003, Kostya will defend his titles in the 12,000-seat Moscow Luzhniki Sports Palace. This decision was recently made by project directors Alexander Polinsky and Alexander Klimov, as well as Konstantin’s promoter Vlad Wharton and WBC vice-president Edmund Lipinsky.

The program of the 56th Cannes Film Festival has been announced The annual prestigious film forum will open on May 14 with a new version of the famous film “Fanfan Tulip” directed by Gerard Krawczyk and end on May 25 with a restored version of “Modern Times” by Charlie Chaplin. This year the jury is chaired by Patrice Chéreau, winner of the Berlin Golden Bear for the film Intimate. Twenty full-length films will take part in the competition.

The Federal Securities Commission has agreed on the rules for trading Gazprom shares on the MSE through the MICEX clearing system. This document was considered again at yesterday's commission meeting, since the original version of the rules contained technical flaws. Trading in Gazprom shares on the International Stock Exchange via the MICEX will apparently begin in the near future.

CSKA remained the sole leader In the sixth round of the Russian Championship, CSKA could say goodbye to its sole leadership. Previously unbeaten Chernomorets faced death in the match with the army team, but once the Novorossiysk defense cracked. And Gogniev, inspired by an unexpected call to the national team, brought his club a victory, thanks to which CSKA will now not share the first line in the standings with anyone until at least May 4.

Investigators found the first ill-wishers of Deputy Yushenkov The first person detained in the case of the murder of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov, who was shot dead on March 17 in Moscow near his home, appeared on Tuesday evening. Investigators captured a certain Artem Stefanov, who looks like an identikit of the killer and had reason to harbor a grudge against the parliamentarian. Stefanov’s father once sent Mr. Yushenkov a threatening letter, for which he spent six months in prison.

Central Telegraph, operator of the Centel network, which primarily provides services to corporate clients, is intensifying its work with individuals. As part of the agreement signed yesterday with the Moscow Telecommunications Corporation (Comcor), the operator of the data transmission network and cable television, Centel will provide a full range of communication services to the population of new buildings in Moscow and the Moscow region.

The other day, unknown persons stole all the military awards of the Great Patriotic War, including the Gold Star and the Order of Lenin, from the apartment of the only Hero of the Soviet Union in the Volgograd suburb of the city of Volzhsky, Alexei Filippov. Alexey Filippov literally earned medals and orders with his own blood when, at the very beginning of the war, as a 16-year-old boy he joined a partisan detachment. During the war years he was seriously wounded several times.

The Moscow City Duma forced the mayor's office to delay raising rents An attempt by the capital's mayor's office to agree with the Moscow City Duma deputies on the next increase in housing payment rates resulted in the loss of tens of millions of rubles to the city budget.