The Communists named a new presidential candidate The Russian Communist Party will not ignore the elections. However, Gennady Zyuganov will still not be nominated as a presidential candidate. Yesterday, the congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, during a secret ballot, determined which of the communists will try to compete with Vladimir Putin in the election of the head of state.

Everyone responded, but Israeli help was rejected The number of victims of the earthquake that occurred on Friday night in the Iranian city of Bam is estimated at 10-25 thousand people. The force of the push reached 6.7 points. Tens of thousands have survived but are in need of medical attention. Bam is an ancient Iranian city; 200 thousand people lived in it and its immediate surroundings. In total, 70% of city buildings were destroyed. The city looks like it was after a massive bombing.

It’s funny to plan upcoming masterpieces even on New Year’s Eve. New talent brings joy precisely because it is unpredictable, and I believe in my writers regardless of the season. It would be nice, of course, to see new opuses by all the writers dear to me, but that doesn’t happen. However, we will not be left without nutritious reading.

I sleep and see how wonderful it would be if our art community stopped resembling spiders in a jar, and finally remembered the prestige of the profession. So that two Ministry of Culture institutions (NCCA and ROSIZO) would accidentally suddenly make peace and start preparing the first Russian Biennale, which is scheduled to open in January 2005.

UWC banks merge into Rosbank Alexander Smolensky last year finally left the large banking business, selling his second financial empire - the OVK group of banks - to the Interros holding company. The most famous banker of the late 90s and his son, 23-year-old Nikolai Smolensky, still have a very small credit organization - "Capital Credit Partnership", the former bank "North-Western OVK".

One of the main “hitmakers” of the outgoing year is the Basmanny Court of Moscow. This institution fell to examine the cases of both Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Leningrad group! It’s time to state: we have show business instead of art, business instead of show, show instead of politics, etc. Jokes aside, the bitterness of television and radio clearly came to light. Now there is some kind of ardent anti-musicality.

The first major film of 2004 is already out. And in fact, he is, of course, the third. The Return of the King, the final part of Tolkien's trilogy. Peter Jackson and his team, who have done work in comparison with which even the megalomania of “Cleopatra” seems like the handiwork of parallelists, will finally receive all possible awards, which (obviously on purpose) were not particularly indulged in by the first two films.

The export of weapons to Russia has been suspended again The leadership of Transnistria has once again suspended the export of weapons from the former 14th Army to Russia. If earlier such demarches were motivated by the demand to cut down the gas debt, now the arguments of the leaders of the unrecognized republic are different.

Only on New Year's Eve the weather in Moscow promises to please with frost On the pre-holiday days, the weather in Russia will not be winter at all. “Over Europe and the entire territory of Russia, right up to Siberia and the Far East, zonal flows from the Atlantic dominate, so in almost all regions the temperature is slightly higher than usual for this time.

A correspondent for the Vremya Novostey newspaper in Tbilisi, Mikhail VIGNANSKY, talks with the famous Georgian astrologer, candidate of biological sciences, associate professor at the Medical Academy, Mikhail TsAGARELI, about how Georgian-Russian relations will develop in 2004 and how the presidential elections will take place in Georgia and Russia. - Before Georgia has time to sober up after the New Year, on January 4 we must go to elect a president.

CLUBS AND MORE "Forbidden Drummers" December 29 at “B2” , 23.00. "AuktYon" (St. Petersburg). December 30 in the new club “Bilingua” (Krivokolenny lane, 10, building 1) , 22.00. Club parties on New Year's Eve "Zeppelin". Sonique (Great Britain) will perform on the dance floor - one of the highest paid DJs in the world, who captivated everyone several years ago with the song It Feels So Good. Besides her, Daryl Bonneau (USA), Shaken Spirit, Blast and others play.

Moscow's first light metro line opened Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and other leaders of the capital's government became the first passengers of the light metro line in Butovo, which was inaugurated last Saturday. The mayors took a ride from the Starokachalovskaya station to the Buninskaya Alleya station and were very pleased with this type of transport, which was unusual for officials. “We arrived very quickly and pleasantly,” said Mr. Luzhkov, leaving the station doors.

A resurgence of terrorist attacks is expected around the world This year's Christmas holidays are spent in anticipation of not only the tales of Santa Claus, but also the terrorist attacks of Bin Laden. Moreover, in a number of countries the specter of terrorism has already materialized. There was, however, no major bloodshed. On Saturday, a homemade bomb exploded in the hands of European Commission President Romano Prodi.

It is known that Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas (clairvoyant Georgian Lena Lolishvili cured him of a serious illness), Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and others turned to astrologers and clairvoyants, although such consultations are not advertised. Some famous people also turned to the Indian astrologer Jugal Joshi, whose father and grandfather also specialized in drawing up horoscopes for the powers that be, including the Gandhi family.

Alexander Veshnyakov wished parliamentarians strong nerves Freshly elected State Duma deputies who entered parliament on the federal party lists received brand new deputy certificates at the Central Election Commission on Saturday. Let us recall that according to party lists, 29 representatives of the Rodina bloc, 36 members of the LDPR, 40 communists and 120 United Russia members were elected to the Duma.