75-year-old Zbigniew Brzezinski, with whom the Vremya Novostey newspaper is talking today, is an extraordinary and frank person. Back in 1977, under President James Carter, Mr. Brzezinski, a Polish-American, took over the post of national security adviser and held the post for four years, firmly establishing his reputation as a “gray eminence.” His assessments of the development of Soviet-American, and later Russian-American relations often hit the mark.

New relations between Russia and Adjara outrage Georgia Tbilisi assessed Russia’s introduction of a simplified visa regime with the Autonomous Republic of Adjara on December 9 as a “gross violation of Georgia’s sovereignty.” This statement from the Foreign Ministry was made public on Tuesday by Deputy Foreign Minister Kakha Sikharulidze, noting that Russia acted “politically unethically” because it did not notify the central Georgian authorities about this.

Ilyushin offered Vladimir Putin's plane to Fidel Castro The leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFK) is negotiating with the Cuban authorities on the sale of two Il-96-300 aircraft for the largest state airline in that country, Cubana de Aviacion. According to the head of the IFC, Alexander Rubtsov, the contract could be signed as early as the first quarter of 2004. True, for this it is necessary to come to an agreement not only with the Cuban, but also with the Russian government.

The issue of doping in sports has always caused noisy debate. Some argued that the capabilities of the human body are not limitless, and sports without new records will lose spectator interest, and since we have taken the path of professionalizing athletes, then why not make doping legal at all. Others categorically disagreed with this formulation of the issue: doping ruins health, and it’s scary to think if this infection will metastasize in children’s and youth sports.

President By his decree, he awarded the head of the State Drug Control Service, Viktor Cherkesov, the special rank of police general. Signed the federal law on amendments to the federal law “On the budget of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation for 2003.” Federal law provides for funding in 2003 from the budget of the Pension Fund for compulsory medical insurance of non-working pensioners who are recipients of old-age labor pensions.

The land of the rising sun has sunk into Iraq Yesterday, energy-dependent Japan decided to consolidate its position in oil-rich Iraq by sending troops there on a humanitarian mission to restore the water supply and healthcare system. The Japanese expeditionary force will number up to a thousand troops. Its backbone is the ground forces. On December 15, an advanced detachment of the Air Force (eight military transport aircraft), several transport ships and destroyers will head to Iraq.

Chuck Berry's performance was fun, but fast Everyone who came to the Chuck Berry concert was in a very good, recklessly joyful mood. Not because of the notorious “spirit of rock and roll”, but because of the general atmosphere of madness brought by the rather original organization of the event. At Chuck's first concert on Monday, the hall is half empty.

Government and business are looking for a compromise Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov decided to consult with businesses about the upcoming introduction of VAT accounts. To this end, yesterday he convened the Government Entrepreneurship Council, which had not met for a very long time. The report “on the topic” was made by First Deputy Minister of Finance Sergei Shatalov.

Shchepkin's house received its first guests The museum is not open yet. Although Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy, having visited the first event of the Mikhail Shchepkin museum-estate, promised that everything would be fine in the summer, museum staff are not so optimistic and hope to be able to prepare the exhibition only by the fall.

There were those willing to take the place of Leonid Nevzlin Yesterday, the Academic Council of the Russian State University for the Humanities announced candidates for the post of rector, which remained vacant after the high-profile resignation of the former head of the university, YUKOS shareholder Leonid Nevzlin.

Yuri Luzhkov is in no hurry to make personnel decisions Capital officials awaited the first meeting of the Moscow government after the elections with caution, since Yuri Luzhkov, who had lost a fair amount of weight during his pre-election vacation, had promised the day before to begin renewing the mayor's office.

“The Lord of the Rings. Two Fortresses" on Moscow screens Two-thirds of the difficult and indirect road was left behind. You can (but really don’t want to) take a breath and calm down for another whole year. However, be careful when exiting the penultimate door of the penultimate carriage: from the circular line of the general path, the Guardians have switched to radial ones.

The President believes that the country's Basic Law is quite good Vladimir Putin once again denied rumors about the impending change of the country's Constitution. “Our task is to stop all talk about the need to change the Constitution,” said the president. For these words, the president chose a fairly representative platform.

Belarus is against the “policy of force and dictatorship” and is ready to support Syria, which the Americans are threatening with sanctions, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with the Syrian newspaper Al-Baath on the eve of his official visit to Damascus that began yesterday. “In all conflicts, I spoke for the Arab people, for the policies that they themselves want to pursue,” Mr.

By the end of December, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan expects to sign a trilateral agreement with Gazprom and Itera to purchase a total of 5 billion cubic meters of gas from them in 2004, SOCAR President Natik Aliyev told RBC . “We discussed this issue with the head of Itera. After December 20, the president of Gazprom will come to Baku, we will discuss all the details and sign an agreement,” he said.