A non-profit organization under the Ministry of Regional Development is promoting the tourism opportunities of the Czech Republic abroad. Until last year it was called the National Tourist Office, and since September 2003 it was renamed CzechTourism. Foreign representative offices of CzechTourism operate in 19 countries, including Russia. Director of CzechTourism David GLADISH believes that the Czech Republic will continue to be attractive to “middle class” tourists.

Today, the new Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, is leaving for Kabul. Much of the career of the 50-year-old diplomat, who speaks Dari, Farsi and English equally well, has been connected with Afghanistan. Zamir KABULOV gave his first interview as ambassador to Arkady DUBNOV, a columnist for the Vremya Novostei newspaper. —Can the appointment of an experienced and sophisticated Afghanist as ambassador to Kabul be considered a sign that Moscow has “remembered” Afghanistan again?

Roshydromet was lost during government reform Critical and not always decent remarks from Russians addressed to weather forecasters, heard throughout the country after each incorrect weather forecast, were finally heard in the Kremlin. Moreover, the authors of the administrative reform, which broke out like a downpour in the middle of winter, seem to have decided that criticism will not correct the climate in Russia anyway, and therefore immediately began to draw organizational conclusions.

The Czech Republic was one of the most significant “discoveries” for Russian mass tourism in the mid-90s, when it became fashionable among certain sections of our people to go “to Prague for the weekend.” The Czech Republic suffered a rather painful “closure” when, in 2000, it was the first of the former Eastern European allies to introduce a visa regime for Russia. Now the Czechs are expecting the “second wave” of tourists from Russia with great hope.

Military industry in search of a control system Changes in the structure and personnel composition of the Russian government have practically not affected the security sector. Three special services remained in their previous status - the FSB, the SVR and the FSO, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs with its internal troops and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Some changes occurred only in the Ministry of Defense and the military-industrial complex.

In response, he was interrogated about the “Iraq dossier” Russia is a concern for the White House, and there are elements of both cooperation and competition in relations between Moscow and Washington. CIA Director George Tenet stated this at a hearing in the US Senate on Tuesday. In a report on the dangers facing the United States in 2004, the head of the CIA spoke primarily about terrorism.

An extraordinary congress of the All-Russian voluntary society “Sports Russia” was held yesterday in Moscow. And although the main topic on the agenda of the congress was the reports of the chairman of the VDO Vyacheslav Fetisov and the chairman of the board of the central council of the VDO Irina Rodnina, the reason for an emergency meeting of members of the society was the need to make changes to the charter of this organization.

A new prime minister, Gerard Latorte, has been appointed in Haiti, whose candidacy satisfied even supporters of ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Latorte is a former UN official and foreign minister in the government of President Leslie Maniga, who was overthrown by the military in 1988. Yesterday he was supposed to arrive in Haiti from Miami, where he had lived in recent years. He will have to assemble a temporary coalition government that will operate until new elections.

CLUBS Lydia Lunch (New York). Music author, theater and film actress, photographer and writer. According to the weekly Boston Phoenix, Lunch is one of the ten most influential performers of the 90s. During her 25 years of musical activity, Lunch has collaborated with Brian Eno, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, musicians from Einsturzende Neubauten and Sonic Youth.

The exhibition “About Bodies and Other Things” opened at the Moscow House of Photography When the connection of times first “broke”, photography did not yet exist. The matter from which Germany was made began to crumble much later - and this process was recorded from different, seemingly irreconcilable positions.

The Moscow City Duma cancels the property tax of religious organizations Patriarch Alexy II, an honorary citizen of Moscow, once again tried to convert his friendship with the capital’s mayor into hard cash. Recently, the Patriarch turned to Yuri Luzhkov with a request to return to the church property tax benefits for religious organizations, which were cut by the new edition of the Tax Code.

The Qatari authorities, as VN was told by the law firm Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners, do not issue visas to Russian lawyers. This means that the Qataris do not want to allow our lawyers to consider the case of two Russian security officers arrested in Qatar last month and accused of involvement in the February 13 murder of Chechen Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. So for now, the interests of Russia are represented by English and American lawyers. A Qatari lawyer has also been hired.

The Washington Post, USA President Vladimir Putin, without waiting for his re-election on Sunday, named on Tuesday the new composition of the cabinet of ministers with whom he intends to work in his second term. The government included economic reformers and former KGB officers. <...> Putin retained the strongest supporters of market reforms in the government and left the army and internal security agencies in the hands of his colleagues in the State Security Committee (KGB).

Left march of French science Thirteen French trade unions representing scientists and scientific workers staged a 24-hour strike. In the largest scientific centers of the country - Bordeaux and Marseille, Nantes and Rennes - demonstrations were held by scientists and employees of research centers. In Paris, the entire Latin Quarter was cordoned off due to the demonstration.

Russia is looking for keys to its CIS partners Perhaps the main achievement of the last four years in the CIS space is that the Commonwealth still exists. During Yeltsin's presidency, every CIS summit since the 1997 Chisinau summit was expected to announce almost a final announcement of his death. Or a scandal with the clarification of the relationship between the presidents. Now scandals are not expected. And if something like this arises, they try not to wash their dirty laundry in public.