Yuri Luzhkov is preparing personnel changes at the mayor's office The results of the Moscow mayoral elections allowed all city officials to breathe a sigh of relief. Yuri Luzhkov's convincing victory meant that key figures in the mayor's office would remain in their posts and everything would generally remain the same. However, the mayor dashed the hopes of his subordinates for a quiet life, without even waiting for the official voting results to be summed up.

The Russian leadership decided “to introduce, from December 9 on a temporary basis, a simplified procedure for the entry and exit of Georgian citizens living in Adjara to and from Russia.” This was announced last night by the Russian Foreign Ministry, whose representatives emphasized that this measure was taken taking into account Russia’s line on the gradual easing of the visa regime with Georgia, as well as “taking into account the humanitarian aspect of this problem.” Moscow's move did not

“President Vladimir Putin took control of the Russian parliament last night, destroying the last stronghold of opposition forces and opening the way to autocratic power. <...> The first step towards the defeat of Russian democracy was taken in 1993, when President Yeltsin deprived parliament of many powers and appropriated them to himself. After Putin came to power in 2000, the process accelerated.

Lalo Schifrin played a Hollywood classic in Moscow The famous composer, pianist and arranger Shifrin was born in 1932 in Argentina. His parents are descendants of immigrants from Russia and Italy. Shifrin came to the USA in the mid-50s at the invitation of the great jazzman, pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz Dizzy Gillespie. Their collaboration began when Gillespie asked Lalo to write a Latin jazz suite. Schifrin wrote what is now known as Gillespiana.

Soviet music performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy turned out to be unexpectedly relevant Pianist and conductor, Russian emigrant from the first league of current world music Vladimir Ashkenazy often visited Moscow, but his current visit lost in the intense December competition for the audience.

Murtaza Rakhimov is no longer the master of his republic On Monday, at half past two local time, the head of the election commission of Bashkiria, Bariy Kinzyagulov, summed up the “final preliminary results” of the presidential election. The republic is awaiting a second round, in which the two strongest participants in the presidential race will have to compete.

Zimbabwe leaves the Commonwealth of Nations President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe yesterday announced his country's withdrawal from the British Commonwealth of Nations (CHN). The Commonwealth unites 54 countries that were formerly part of the British Empire.

Americans withdraw Russians from Georgia Georgian State Minister Zurab Zhvania on Monday called on Russia to follow the “spirit and letter” of agreements reached at the 1999 OSCE Istanbul summit on the withdrawal of four military bases from Georgian territory, of which two still remain in the country. “Georgia views the unresolved issue of the presence of the Russian military as a factor of constant irritation in bilateral relations,” he said, answering a question from VN.

Hockey. NHL. Regular season. "Rangers" -- "Tampa Bay" -- 2:3, "Chicago" -- "Phoenix" -- 2:2 -- Yakubov "C" (0+1), "Calgary" -- "Pittsburgh" - - 6:1 -- Saprykin "K" (1+0), Koltsov "P" (0+1), "Anaheim" -- "Dallas" -- 4:0 -- Fedorov "A" (1+0) , Chistov “A” (0+1) . Anaheim's Russian forward Sergei Fedorov scored a short-handed goal when the Mighty Ducks' victory was no longer in doubt. This goal was Fedorov's tenth in the current championship.

An official of the Ministry of Natural Resources almost began the liquidation of nature reserves A technical glitch in the work of the Ministry of Natural Resources almost turned into a new attack by the environmental community on the ministry.

English writer Nick Hornby is the darling of fortune. He is a walking icon for the 90s generation. All four of his novels have been filmed. Moreover, he is the rare European intellectual recognized and accepted in America. The English screen version of Hornby's next bestseller is invariably followed by an American adaptation. Only one novel by Nick Hornby, Hi-Fi, has previously been published in Russian. A cute London story about the cutest guy, a typical representative of the X-generation.

Ruhrgas is building a new concept of cooperation with Russia The largest foreign importer of Russian natural gas, the joint stock company Ruhrgas from Essen, is intensively working on a new concept of cooperation with Russia. This was stated at the end of last week in an interview with the Financial Times Deutschland by the chairman of the board of the company, Burkhard Bergmann.

All that was left of the culprit of the plane crash was a suicide note. Even the court verdict could not put an end to the case of the commander of the Berdsk helicopter regiment, who rented out combat vehicles until a group of snowboarders crashed on one of them in the Altai mountains. Neither the criminal investigation department nor the court know where Colonel Alexander Chibeskov, sentenced to six years in prison, is.

The President has become the only defender of democracy in the political field “Today, after the elections, we live in a new Russia,” Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the presidential administration and concurrently the main Kremlin “party builder,” said yesterday. Mr. Surkov meant that the previous political structure with “left” and “right” having suffered a crushing defeat is becoming a thing of the past.

The Central Election Commission announced the results of the parliamentary elections The Russian Central Election Commission announced the results of the parliamentary elections yesterday. CEC Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov predicted a high turnout - 60-62%. However, voters somewhat disappointed his expectations, turning out only 56%. United Russia won a crushing victory, gaining 37% of the votes.