The Baltic Star Hotel, built for the 300th anniversary of the city on the territory of the Konstantinovsky Palace of Congresses in Strelna, turned out to be the first St. Petersburg hotel to receive the five-star category according to the Ministry of Economic Development. But such legends of the hotel business as Grand Hotel Europe and Astoria did not receive this honor. New rules for the state classification of hotels were approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in June 2003.

Mikhail Kasyanov's "technical government" turned out to be long-lived The government of Mikhail Kasyanov was created on May 17, 2000. Although it was stated from the very beginning that the government was “technical,” the cabinet worked for about four years. Throughout the work of the government, they spoke officially, and even more often unofficially, about its impending radical restructuring.

The State Property Management Committee of Kyrgyzstan yesterday officially proposed to Rostelecom to buy out a 51 percent stake in the national telecom operator Kyrgyztelecom. Rostelecom and the Svyazinvest holding, which includes the Russian operator, have so far refrained from commenting: “First there must be an offer, we have not received one,” said Rostelecom CEO Dmitry Erokhin.

Officials and businessmen will come face to face Today the forum “Administrative Reform and Small Business” opens, held by the all-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses “OPORA Russia”. It is no secret that it is small businesses, having neither extra money nor the lobbying capabilities of the oligarchs, that suffer the most from bureaucratic arbitrariness.

Ermakova and Davydova won the first round against the Olympic champions The Russian Open Cup in synchronized swimming was initially supposed to decide which of the duets - Olympic champions Brusnikina and Kiseleva or world champions Davydova and Ermakova - would represent Russia at the Olympics in Athens? However, the executive committee of the Synchronized Swimming Federation decided to supplement the Olympic selection with two more starts.

US and Pakistan jointly raise Bush ratings In the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, US special forces began an operation to capture the leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden. Information about this is actively leaked in the media, which indicates the Americans’ confidence in success. Although this is the fourth time such an operation has been carried out in the mountains, the hunters are clearly not afraid of spooking their prey.

President Signed federal laws on the ratification of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Cooperation between Russia and Romania and the Treaty on the Fundamentals of Relations between Russia and Nicaragua. The agreement between Russia and Romania was signed in Moscow on July 4 last year, adopted by the State Duma on January 23, 2004 and approved by the Federation Council on February 11.

The state buys shares of Rostvertol An extraordinary meeting of shareholders of the Rostov Helicopter Plant, the only 100% private aircraft manufacturing enterprise, scheduled for March 5, intends to decide on the sale of part of its shares to the state. By absentee voting, Rostvertol shareholders will have to decide on an additional issue of shares of the company, which the Russian Ministry of Property is going to buy in full through a closed subscription.

Luzhkov suggests drivers pay extra for traffic safety Yuri Luzhkov, who is planning the construction of another transport ring in Moscow, seems to have found a new source of funding for road work. Yesterday he proposed introducing a special tax on studded tires. “It seems logical to me that motorists should pay the city to repair the roads they ruin,” the mayor said.

Grigory Berezkin received control of the most modern Russian thermal power plant Yesterday, a precedent was created for the transfer to management for three years (with the possibility of extension for another year) of a large Russian power plant - the North-Western Thermal Power Plant.

Niyazov denied transit to CIS energy workers Two years after Anatoly Chubais presented a plan for synchronizing the power systems of all Europe and the CIS countries, an embarrassment suddenly arose in this matter. As is known, last summer Turkmenistan abandoned parallel work. In January, Mr Chubais wrote a letter to Turkmenbashi asking him to restore energy relations.

January 14--15, 2000. The All-Russian Conference of Education Workers is taking place in Moscow, at which the then Prime Minister and Acting President Vladimir Putin for the first time briefly formulated the needs of the new government in the educational sphere. The main task of education is to prepare the necessary “literate, proactive, enterprising and sociable people, prepared to meet the requirements of the 21st century.” In addition, Mr.

CSKA's new Euroleague rivals rarely lose at home The draw for the second stage of the ULEB Euroleague men's basketball took place in Barcelona. CSKA, which, as the winner of Group B of the preliminary stage, got into the first “seeding basket”, found itself in the same quartet with the Croatian “Cibona”, the Spanish “Tau Keramika” and “Olympiacos” from Greece. The army team will play the first match of the Top 16 tournament on March 3, when they will meet the Greek club on their site.

The arrest of Shevardnadze's son-in-law caused panic in business circles The son-in-law of former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgiy Jokhtaberidze, will spend the next three months in prison. This is what the Mtatsmindo-Krtsanisi District Court of Tbilisi decided on Sunday, refusing to release the owner of the country’s largest cellular communications company, Magticom, on bail of 1 million lari. Mr.

Representatives of the special services yesterday announced the destruction of one of the direct organizers of the terrorist attacks carried out by Chechen militants last summer in Mozdok and Moscow. According to the FSB, 25-year-old Khamzat Tazabaev was an assistant to Shamil Basayev and trained female kamikazes for his Riyadus Salihyin (Black Widows) brigade.