The Minister of Defense of Uruguay, former Minister of Culture and Education, Mr. Yamandu FAU, visited Moscow. The minister told the Vremya Novostei newspaper why relations between Russia and the distant South American country in the military sphere are suddenly growing stronger. - First of all, this was facilitated by the remnants of the Russian debt to Uruguay, left over from the times of the USSR - about 50 million dollars.

A modern dance festival will be held in Moscow This autumn festival has existed since 1997, it just had different names. Either ADF or EDF - depending on which troupes - American or European - the festival management managed to lure to Moscow. Now we have come to a stable name, not related to geography - Dance Inversion. But, having established themselves in the name, they lost the venue - the Musical Theatre, whose management organizes these festivals, closed for reconstruction.

The youngest Moscow theater festival begins today in Moscow The premiere of the play “Transfer” based on the play by Maxim Kurochkin, staged by Mikhail Ugarov, will open the second festival of modern dramaturgy “New Drama”. Since the first time it took place in the spring and not in the fall, the break turned out to be more than a year. During this time, a lot has changed in the theater, and the new drama has turned from a downtrodden stepdaughter into a very confident princess candidate.

The refusal of the leaders of the Belgian national team plays into the hands of the Russians Encouraging news for the Russian women's team, which in mid-November will take part in the Final Four of the Federation Cup on the courts of the capital's Olimpiysky sports complex, comes from the camp of the Belgian team. World classification leaders Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne, number one and two respectively in the BTA rankings, do not intend to come to Moscow.

The Central Bank has facilitated the work of Russian banks with foreign countries From now on, the eight offshore zones for Russian business are essentially not offshore zones. The Central Bank's instructions cancel all restrictions on transactions with banks of amnestied offshore companies: Cyprus, Switzerland, Ireland, Malta, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Singapore, as well as certain administrative units of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Channel Islands and Isle of Man).

Gazprom's board of directors wants to know about loans ten years in advance At yesterday's meeting, the Board of Directors of Gazprom instructed the board to develop a strategy for the company's long-term borrowings until 2013 and submit it for consideration by the board in November.

Massacre at the market A massive brawl occurred yesterday at a food market near the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya metro station. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, the conflict broke out at 10.15 between members of two Azerbaijani families who did not share a trading place in the market. After a brief verbal altercation, the Caucasians used knives. As a result, 25-year-old Raghib Maliev was killed.

Tomorrow a farewell ceremony will be held in Stockholm for 46-year-old Anna Lindh, Swedish Foreign Minister. She died on September 11 after being stabbed by an unknown assailant in a store the previous day. US Secretary of State Colin Powell will fly in to pay his last respects to his “friend and colleague.” The Swedish police will also say goodbye to the deceased with a clear conscience. The probable killer was detained on Tuesday evening.

The unremarkable village of Ovsyannikovo, which is gradually fading away among the fields overgrown with weeds in the Kaluga region, suddenly became famous not only in its area, but even in the capital. The Indian colony brought glory to the village. They came here two years ago and began buying up bankrupt collective farms.

300 inspectors were fired in a year The Road Safety Inspectorate seems to have carried out instructions to identify “werewolves” in its ranks. More than 300 traffic police officers were dismissed from internal affairs bodies in 2003 as a result of 12 thousand special measures carried out by control and preventive units.

The astronauts themselves will monitor the skin of the shuttles. The American Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has again postponed the resumption of American shuttle flights to the International Space Station. The reusable spacecraft Atlantis, which will be the first to go into orbit, will remain in hangars at least until next summer.

But he got a trump card in the fight for Sukhoi Log As a result of the open auction held yesterday, the state-owned stake in Lenzoloto OJSC in the amount of 44.9% of shares (58.55% of votes) went to MMC Norilsk Nickel (part of the Interros holding) for 4.665 billion rubles, with a starting price of 1.065 billion rubles. On the eve of the auction, few doubted that control over Lenzolot would go to Norilsk Nickel. Meanwhile, observers believe that the victory was too costly.

The Ministry of Natural Resources failed its privatization The introduction of private ownership of forests, just like the issue of land ownership in its time, could become a new political and economic game. However, its meaning, effect and balance of power are not yet as obvious as in the land issue.

"United Russia" has risen to fight against administrative resources The United Russia party, known for its uncompromising attitude towards the exploitation of administrative resources, continues to maintain the purity of elections.

Prime Minister Signed an order approving the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, agreed with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Science and the Belarusian side, on the development of a draft scientific and technical program of the union state “Increasing the efficiency of production and processing of fruits and vegetables based on advanced technologies and equipment in 2004-2006.” .