Abkhazia temporarily withdrew from the negotiation process Abkhazia made a significant demarche and at the last moment refused to meet with the Georgian side today in Geneva. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized republic, Sergei Shamba, in an interview with VN, explained this by saying that there is no need to “duplicate” the negotiation process.

The words included in the title of this note will turn into an over-the-page column in our newspaper for the next almost month. Today it is Four Years of the President: Chechnya . By starting a series of thematic “final” publications, we are pursuing a very specific and even prosaic goal for journalists - to understand what happened in the country during the first term of Putin’s rule.

Modern nuclear technology is a “subject of national pride” for Iran. According to the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Kamal Kharrazi, the country does not have nuclear fuel, but has the potential to produce it: “My words are a response to the statement of US President Bush that only certain countries have the right to create modern nuclear technologies.

And he came to Gazprom to negotiate friendship The new head of YUKOS, Semyon Kukes, continues to demonstrate his political equidistance. Yesterday he came to Gazprom to negotiate the development of his gas business with the chairman of the board of the state monopoly, Alexei Miller, whose name among the business elite is strongly associated with political opponents of YUKOS and its shareholders. A source in the concern said that the parties decided not to talk about political topics in advance.

President I sent greetings to the participants and guests of the All-Russian Forum dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the student movement. “It is important that today’s students continue the best traditions of their predecessors and are actively looking for new forms of development of the “construction brigade” movement.

The shareholders of Slavneft (TNK-BP and Sibneft) have finally agreed on the principles of division of the company and now the licenses of the main production enterprise of Slavneft - Megionneftegaz, which accounts for about 90% of the holding's total production, will be reissued into two specially created companies, one of which will come under the control of TNK-BP, the second - Sibneft.

In the investigation into the causes of the tragedy at the water park, all versions have been “reanimated” again The investigation into Saturday's tragedy at the capital's Transvaal water park yesterday took on a very intriguing character.

The Klitschko brothers are ready to replace the Englishman on the boxing throne Briton Lennox Lewis voluntarily vacated his place as WBC world heavyweight champion. This title remains vacant for now, and will remain so at least until the end of April. A title fight between Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko and South African boxer Corrie Sanders is scheduled around this time. The WBC management gave the duelists 12 days to determine the final date of the fight.

The big European “troika” represented by Great Britain, Germany and France has already been nicknamed “the directorate” by opposition-minded European countries. Today they don’t like the word “directory”, and tomorrow they won’t like the word “constitution”, French journalists sarcastically about the so-called small countries that reacted painfully to today’s summit of the big European “troika” in Berlin.

It's rush hour on the international calendar. This week is the busiest in the international tennis calendar. It is the only one in 2004, during which three ATP and WTA tournaments are held at once. The Russians have not yet won singles titles this season, and our girls have a very real chance to achieve victory at the competition in Memphis (USA) - here Vera Zvonareva is “seeded” number one, and Maria Sharapova is number three.

The airline intends to conquer the domestic market Aeroflot announced yesterday that it intends to restore its leadership in the domestic Russian air transport market. The company intends to achieve this goal by creating a network of joint ventures and franchise airlines. In the coming month, a tender will be held among Russian and Ukrainian developers of regional aircraft for the supply of aircraft equipment for these enterprises.

The development of domestic astronautics is paid mainly from abroad To some extent, yesterday’s speech to journalists by the Director General of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Yuri Koptev, was a reproach to the country’s authorities. However, unlike his previous press conferences, Mr. Koptev did not put forward direct financial demands on the government, but limited himself to a very transparent hint.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa At-Thani, yesterday signed an anti-terrorism law, according to which terrorists in Qatar will now face the death penalty. Terrorists are those who, through violence or the threat of violence, “undermine peace and order, and also endanger the safety of society.” The law was signed after the murder of Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Yandarbiev in Qatar last Friday, but the document had passed all approvals even before that. Valentina KULIABINA

The trial of Lazarenko is dangerous for the Russian elite Yesterday, court hearings in the case of Pavel Lazarenko began in San Francisco. An American court accuses him of laundering in the United States $114 million of “dirty” money that he made while serving as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 1996-1997. The indictment contains 31 counts. The Lazarenko case, associated with corruption in almost all CIS countries, has become the most scandalous in the last decade.

David Rigert is in no hurry to name the Olympic roster The Russian Championship, which took place unnoticed in Veliky Novgorod, became an important stage in the selection for the spring European Championship of the continent in Kyiv, based on the results of which the composition of the national team for the Athens Games will be formed.