Muslim leaders promise to thank the president The conference of Russian muftis that opened yesterday in Moscow began with deep political nods to the secular authorities. In the tradition of party congresses, the leaders of Muslim communities began the meeting with heartfelt gratitude to the leaders of the state for the good conditions in which citizens professing Islam live and work in our country today.

Yesterday the Second US-Russian Energy Business Summit opened in St. Petersburg. The main distinguishing feature of the event, as LUKOIL head Vagit Alekperov noted, was the signing of several contracts and agreements, as well as the discussion of specific projects.

Yesterday in Brussels, the NATO Council named the future Secretary General of the Alliance. Briton Lord George Robertson, whose four-year mandate expires in December, will be replaced in this post by Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Powerful lobbying of candidates has been going on since February, when Robertson announced that he would not extend his mandate.

The governor of the Leningrad region promises to punish opponents for black PR In the elections held last Sunday, the current governor, Valery Serdyukov, defeated Vadim Gustov, who led the region in 1996-1998 and in 1998-1999, worked as Deputy Prime Minister of the federal government, by more than a two-fold margin and already in the first round. The new governor is expected to officially take office this Friday.

Russia is ready to help all CIS countries with grain At the traditional meeting of the president with leading members of the cabinet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev reported on the prospects for the harvest. True, there will be less grain than last year, but there will still be a lot. According to forecasts by the Ministry of Agriculture, the harvest will be about 70 million tons compared to 86.5 million last year.

The new department was headed by the old minister The President signed a decree appointing Gennady Fadeev as head of Russian Railways (RZD). This became known yesterday evening, and last Saturday the head of government signed a decree on the creation of JSC Russian Railways itself. Thus, the assumptions that these events would occur almost simultaneously were justified.

Roddick could become the leader of two ratings at once After the semi-final matches for the Davis Cup ended last week, the world's leading tennis players returned to solving individual problems. Yesterday the ATP International Series tournaments started in Bangkok and Shanghai.

Having won the elections, Eduard Rossel is going to fight the opposition Sverdlovsk Governor Eduard Rossel was re-elected for a third term.

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Portfolios of Key Japanese Ministers Retained Re-elected on Saturday for a second term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Junichiro Koizumi yesterday updated his cabinet. The reorganization of the government, the second since he came to power in April 2001, is a natural consequence of the past elections. They also guarantee the extension of Koizumi’s prime ministerial powers for another three years.

Laurent Fabius, one of the leaders of the French socialists, former prime minister and president of the National Assembly, was quite surprised to receive a letter these days by e-mail: “A professional killer is looking for work. The result is guaranteed. The tariff is flexible: 100,000 euros plus overhead costs.

Russia is creating its own air base in Kyrgyzstan For the first time since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian armed forces are beginning to build their outpost on the immediate approaches to the country. Yesterday, the Ministers of Defense of Russia and Kyrgyzstan Sergei Ivanov and Esen Topoev signed an interstate Agreement on the status and conditions of the Russian air base on the territory of the neighboring republic.

The Central Bank will withdraw from the capital of foreign banks by 2005 The Central Bank is asking the government for another year to withdraw from the capital of five Russian foreign banks. According to the amendments he prepared to the Banking Sector Development Strategy, he must terminate his participation in these banks no later than January 1, 2005.

The arbitration again took the side of Severnaya Verf The Ministry of Finance has lost another round of litigation over the debts of the St. Petersburg Severnaya Verf to the budget. The state demands $603 million from the largest shipbuilding plant in Russia, which is tantamount to bankruptcy of the enterprise. The amount that the Ministry of Finance wants to receive is several times more than the shipyard’s annual turnover.

CLUBS “VeDaKi” (“Tops and Roots”) . A wonderful joint project of wonderful musicians, true experimenters. The musicians live in different countries, but the project has been alive and well for nine years, combining different cultures, languages ​​and creative ideas in music.