They will talk about this in Ashgabat Today in Ashgabat the next meeting of the Special Working Group (SWG) to develop a Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea begins. It will be attended by special representatives of the presidents of the five Caspian states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The Russian delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny. It is not entirely clear who will lead the host delegation.

The government is ready to borrow for 12 years or more The Ministry of Finance has published a strategy for its behavior in the government securities market for 2003. Yesterday, at a meeting with professional participants and investors, Deputy Minister of Finance Bella Zlatkis spoke about the plans of the Ministry of Finance.

Russian business wants to participate in Hungarian privatization For ten years, Russian leaders did not visit the Hungarians. And today Mikhail Kasyanov will arrive on a visit to Budapest. According to the Russian government, Hungary, of all the former countries of Eastern Europe, has the most favorable attitude towards Russia. And, apparently, the favorable atmosphere will continue in the coming years, since the government of Mr. Medgyesi is today considered stable.

Gazprom is not allowed near Lietuvos dujos The Lithuanian government is going to suspend negotiations with Gazprom on the sale of a 34% stake in the gas company Lietuvos Dujos. At least, this was the statement made to the Lietuvos rytas newspaper by Lithuanian Economy Minister Petras Chesna. The exchange of tough statements between the parties has been going on for several months, which is why the timing of the privatization of the package has been repeatedly postponed.

55 companies are recognized as pension investors The Ministry of Finance has summed up the results of the competition among companies applying to manage the pension savings of Russians. 55 out of 59 management companies (MCs) that submitted applications passed through the “sieve”. Of these, 40 million future Russian pensioners must choose a company that will be entrusted with managing the funded part of their pension.

There is an armed struggle for information space in Chechnya The resignation of Chechen Press Minister Bislan Gantamirov led to a scandal that almost disrupted the start of the campaign campaign of presidential candidates on Friday. The minister was fired last Wednesday, the Ministry of Press was merged with the Ministry of Nationalities, and Taus Dzhabrailov, a close ally of the head of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, became the head of the new ministry. Mr. Gantamirov publicly supported one of Mr.

Vladimir Putin wrote a preface to the new school textbook A new subject will appear in Russian schools - ninth-graders will study the Constitution. It is possible that the course will begin to be taught this winter: an educational standard for it is currently being developed, and in December the textbook “The Constitution of Russia and the Fundamentals of Law” will be published, the preface to which was written by Vladimir Putin himself.

Igor Yusufov’s “first pancake” will become a lump among energy liberals Mikhail Kasyanov signed the first significant document prepared by the team of Energy Minister Igor Yusufov. The energy strategy, after consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers on May 22 and until August 28, was under revision, and as a result, the forecasts for gas and coal production, as well as electricity generation, underwent major changes. Mr. Yusufov can confidently state that almost all of Mr.

Yesterday the election campaign officially started in Russia We would like to warn you right away that the election law prohibits political betting so that, God forbid, it does not influence the expression of the people’s will. Probably, legislators were afraid that people would rush to put money on outsider parties and, accordingly, vote for them, which would lead to a “distortion” of the real mood of citizens. But, despite the ban, gambling voters will probably still play this game.

LUKOIL is counting on Transneft in negotiations on Burgas-Alexandropolis transit LUKOIL continues to develop a project to build an oil pipeline from Burgas (Bulgaria) to Alexandroupolis (Greece), through which oil from Western Siberia will be delivered to the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, and from there to the east coast of America.

In the north of the European territory of Russia, the influence of anticyclone intensifies, there almost without precipitation and cool nights, but during the day the air gradually warms up to +13 ... +18 ° C. Small rains are not excluded only in the Vologda region and in the south of the Komi Republic, where the temperature is not higher than +8 ... +13 ° C.

The Indian government trade promotion organization ITPO under the Ministry of Commerce of India is organizing an India trade exhibition in Moscow from February 17 to 21, 2003 in the Forum Pavilion at the Expo Center on Krasnaya Presnya. It will present various types of products and services - from construction tools to meditation.

The main owner of a block of shares (worth $622 million) of the computer giant Microsoft, Bill Gates, will soon receive about $100 million. According to the British Daily Telegraph, the decision to pay the first dividend in the company's history in the amount of 16 cents per ordinary share on January 27 was made last week. Microsoft previously reported net income of $2.55 billion (47 cents per share) in the fourth quarter of last year.

The premiere of the film “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” took place at Pushkinsky After watching this delightful film, an additional point should be added to the classifier of world cinema: from now on, there are good, bad, Indian and Charlie's Angels films.

How a former policeman and a criminal ataman deceived Rosrezerv Last week, the Krasnodar Regional Court began the trial of a scandalous criminal case involving the theft of $6 million from the Russian Agency for State Reserves. (“Rosrezerv”). According to the Investigative Committee (IC) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the ataman of the Kuban Cossack troops, Anatoly Strukov, and his friend, the head of several companies, Sergei Natashkin, perpetrated the scam.