Christmas comes twice to Belarus In neighboring Belarus, Christmas is celebrated twice - both December 25 and January 7 are declared official holidays. Yesterday, President Alexander Lukashenko congratulated believers of non-Orthodox Christian denominations on the holiday. Different faiths have coexisted in Belarus since ancient times.

Russia gave Ukraine a border on Azov Yesterday's negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma in Kerch brought a sensation. The signed agreement on cooperation in the use of the Sea of ​​Azov and the Kerch Strait looks completely unexpected and fully reflects the position of Ukraine - the Sea of ​​Azov will be divided by the state border line in accordance with the agreement between the parties.

The government guarantees the stability of economic growth Today the government is summing up the results of almost five years of work and making plans for the future. The Ministry of Economic Development proposed priorities for 2004 to cabinet members. True, they turned out to be not very ambitious.

United Russia intends to do something useful The United Russia party gathered yesterday for its fourth congress at the Rossiya State Concert Hall. The main topics of the congress were support for Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections, summing up the results of the State Duma elections and changes in the charter and governing bodies of the party.

Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Essentuki and Moscow The mouthpiece of the Chechen separatists - the website "Kavkaz-Center" - on Tuesday evening published a statement by the "amir of the Islamic Shaheed Brigade Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris", as Shamil Basayev calls himself, in which he took responsibility for two recent terrorist attacks.

Georgian presidential candidate Mikheil SAAKASHVILI, in an interview with VN’s special correspondent in Tbilisi, Mikhail VIGNANSKY, outlined his vision of the prospects for relations between Russia and Georgia. — Vladimir Putin and Nino Burjanadze are meeting in Moscow today. What do you think these negotiations mean? -- The beginning of a warming in our relations. At first, Moscow reacted rather strangely to the change of power in Georgia, one might say unfriendly.

An exhibition of parsuna opens at the Historical Museum “Parsuna” is a “person”, a symbol for the portrait genre of the transitional era, from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. Parsuna is no longer an icon, but not yet a portrait. It is impossible to call it a mirror of the soul; rather, it is a cocoon in which the soul wraps itself as a chrysalis, humbly hiding from human “shame.” Time will pass, the cocoon will split, and the butterfly soul will fly out.

A unique series of concerts opens today All symphonies and all instrumental concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven are performed at least once during each philharmonic year. One subscription may include one of the piano concertos, another - a violin concerto; the symphonies of the great German also roam through different subscriptions with enviable consistency. So, in terms of novelty, the program “Beethoven and...

Georgia and Russia are looking for a way out of the impasse Today Russian President Vladimir Putin will receive acting Georgian President Nino Burjanadze in Moscow. “In recent years, Russian-Georgian relations have been practically at a dead end,” Ms. Burjanadze said yesterday upon her arrival in Moscow.

During the break, the clubs focused on personnel issues The happiness didn't last that long. The week and a half break in the Russian Championship flew by unnoticed, and the caravan of Super League clubs continued to march along the tournament distance. For the first time in our history, a brutal game schedule forced teams to play during the New Year holidays. We played, of course, at this time before, but more for the soul and the wallet - during foreign tours.

Russia has banned the import of beef from the United States Yesterday, Russia temporarily banned the import of beef from the United States into its territory. The reason was a case of mad cow disease identified in America, which is deadly not only for animals, but also for people. True, so far only one cow in Washington County has fallen ill, but this was enough to immediately refuse American supplies. In addition to Russia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan announced a ban.

Sergei Ivanov announced the “successful completion of the experiment” on the transition to a contract Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, summing up the work for the year, yesterday named among their obvious achievements the development of a federal target program for the transition to contract acquisition. The work born in the offices of the military department is approved by the president and approved by the government.

A new head of the Russian State University for the Humanities has been elected The troubles that befell the Russian State University for the Humanities because of the figure of its former rector - co-owner of the Yukos oil company Leonid Nevzlin - are practically over. Yesterday, at a conference of the Russian State University for the Humanities, a new rector was elected.

CLUBS Kevin Mahogany (USA) and Igor Butman Big Band. Mahogany is one of the most sought-after jazz vocalists, and for the past four years, according to polls by several jazz publications, in particular the authoritative Down Beat, he has been the number one jazz vocalist. December 25 and 27 at Le Club , 20.00. Heinz-Erich Goedecke (trombone, gongs, didgeridoo, Tibetan horns), Alexander Suslin (double bass), Mark Pekarsky (drums) with the project of new improvised music “Christmas”.

Taiwanese politics rocked by spy passions Yesterday, a political scandal broke out in Taiwan related to the disclosure of a “Taiwanese spy network” by the intelligence services of mainland China. Although Hong Kong media reported this a couple of days ago, it was only on Wednesday that the official Chinese news agency Xinhua confirmed the detention of 24 Taiwanese and 19 Chinese citizens suspected of involvement in espionage.