The death of the Russian submarine K-159 divided Vladimir Putin's visit to Italy into two parts. Judging by the events of the first day, the visit of the Russian president was supposed to be semi-secular in nature. That is why it was decided to hold it on the resort island of Sardinia at the Villa Certosa, owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Of course, Putin’s visit to Berlusconi, who heads not only Italy, but also the European Union, could not but carry a semantic load.

The nuclear submarine K-159 (project 627A “November”, according to NATO classification - “Whale”) was designed at the Malachite naval engineering bureau in St. Petersburg, built in Severodvinsk, launched in 1963. A total of 14 submarines of this project were built. Their main purpose is to conduct combat operations against large enemy surface vessels, including formations of aircraft carriers and battleships.

TNK-BP acquired Vladimir Rugu Vladimir Ruga left his post as head of the public relations department at Sibneft last Friday and will soon begin work at the merged company TNK-BP. According to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, after the structure of the new company is approved (it formally began operations just last Friday), Mr. Ruga will take the post of vice president for public relations. Vladimir Ruga himself was unavailable for comment over the weekend.

Nuclear submarine sank due to negligence August is traditionally difficult for Russia, and this year was no exception. On the penultimate day of summer, tragic news again came from the Northern Fleet - on Saturday night, three miles northwest of Kildin Island in the Barents Sea, the nuclear submarine K-159 (Project November according to NATO classification) sank.

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The cyclone, which quickly broke through from foreign Europe into the middle zone, without slowing down and almost without losing activity, continues to move to the north of the European territory of Russia. A cyclone travels at least 1000 km per day. The result of his forced march in the middle zone is strong winds (up to 20 m/s) due to large pressure differences.

President Congratulated workers and veterans of the coal industry on Miner's Day. The congratulations say that “today the Russian coal industry is going through a period of fundamental structural transformations, the economic basis of its functioning has been changed, and a self-development mechanism has been created.” Sent congratulatory telegrams to President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

Household deposits in banks increased by $7.5 billion The dynamics of household deposits in commercial banks continues to meet the expectations of economists and businesses. According to the State Statistics Committee (GKS), published on Friday, the volume of private deposits in the first half of the year increased by $7.45 billion (21.5%) - to $42.1 billion.

"Populists" intend to initiate a revision of the law on civil liability By the beginning of autumn, the People's Party (NPRF) had already managed to collect a good harvest of signatures in support of its initiatives. As party chairman Gennady Raikov said last Friday, seven and a half million citizens across the country have already signed in support of the party’s initiatives.

Five Russians made it to the fourth round of the US Open At the US Open Tennis Championship, our girls repeated the record set this year at Wimbledon for the number of players reaching the fourth round of Grand Slam competitions. Five Russians made it to the 1/8 finals - Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva, Nadezhda Petrova, Elena Likhovtseva and Dinara Safina. Petrova looks the most powerful at the tournament.

Media registration certificate: EL N ° 77-2909 dated June 26 2000 Any use of materials and illustrations is possible only in agreement with the editorship Questions, suggestions and comments are accepted: By the content of publications - info@vremya.ru By cooperation and development of the site - web@vremya.ru

Aznar appointed his successor The chairman of the Spanish government, Jose Maria Aznar, has appointed his party successor. It was Mariano Rajoy. Tomorrow his candidacy will be approved by the governing council of the ruling People's Party, at the head of which Rajoy will lead the fight for the post of prime minister in the elections in March 2004. Back in January last year, Aznar announced that he would not run for a third term.

By volume of dividends LUKOIL top managers, having held a meeting of the company's board of directors on Friday, decided that at least 15% of net profit would be used to pay dividends. Against the background of YUKOS's promises after the creation of the united company YukosSibneft to pay shareholders at least 40% of profits, LUKOIL's dividend policy does not look as attractive as that of its main competitor.

Issuer State register. Number Denomination, rub.

Schoolchildren will begin the school year by meeting firefighters and police officers The first lesson in the coming school year in many Russian schools will be the All-Russian Safety Lesson, and the first teacher that first-graders will see will be a firefighter. The press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported this yesterday.