President Met with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who informed the president about the government’s concept for reforming the budget process. During this meeting, Vladimir Putin stated that the administrative reform being carried out in the country should contribute to economic growth and be accompanied by the unconditional fulfillment of all social obligations of the government to the population.

OSCE is concerned about the use of force against the opposition In Yerevan, there is only talk about the dispersal of an opposition rally near the walls of parliament on the night of April 13 with fire hoses, rubber batons and electric shockers. They are talking about dozens of people injured, detained, and about the destruction of the offices of opposition parties.

Andrei Fursenko is convinced that school reform is dangerous for children Russian parliamentarians yesterday called on the new Minister of Education and Science, Andrei Fursenko, to abandon a number of school modernization projects.

Alexei Ratmansky's team won the majority of ballet prizes Before opening the envelopes with the names of the laureates, Yulia Rutberg and Nikolai Tsiskaridze exchanged a couple of phrases about how this evening was Pushkin’s evening: the award ceremony, together with the director of “Mask” Eduard Boyakov, was hosted by Ilze Liepa (Countess in “The Queen of Spades” by Roland Petit ), Tsiskaridze - in the same play Hermann, and Rutberg plays the Countess in Vakhtangov's play by Pyotr Fomenko.

Lawmakers propose punishing terrorists with fire and rubles The State Duma declared a mortal battle against terrorism. Yesterday, after parliamentary hearings initiated by the Security Committee, First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Lyubov Sliska even spoke about the need for the death penalty for terrorists. “Given the gravity of this crime, as well as the consequences for citizens and the state as a whole, the terrorists must be sentenced to death,” Sliska told reporters.

First bilateral visit of the new Russian Foreign Minister Russians discuss problems related to the expansion of the European Union and NATO not only with these organizations, but also with their neighbors - for example, with Ukraine. This was the focus of yesterday's short working visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Kyiv, where he held negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart Konstantin Grishchenko. “This is my first bilateral visit,” said Mr.

Muslim communities are ready to protect indigenous people from ethnic minorities The Muslim community, concerned about the recent events in Volgograd, which the newspaper Vremya Novostey wrote about, decided to warn Russians against pogroms on religious grounds. Co-chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia Ismagil-haji Shangareev is confident that law enforcement agencies too often pass off such pogroms as criminal showdowns.

SIBUR signed an agreement with Beltransgaz to supply 1 billion cubic meters of gas to Belarus in April-May. By the end of April, the holding will supply 700 million cubic meters of gas to the republic. As the company said in a statement, the terms of delivery are similar to those in the March agreements between SIBUR and Beltransgaz - the gas price will be $46.7 per cubic meter.

Ariel Sharon's plan is taking shape Flying out on a working visit to Washington on Monday night, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled some details of his plan for unilateral separation from the Palestinians. So, in exchange for the withdrawal of troops and the liquidation of settlements in the Gaza Strip, Israel will retain control over five enclaves in Judea and Samaria (Ariel, Givat Ze'ev, Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arba), as well as three Jewish neighborhoods in Hebron .

Hunting the Iraqi way End. Start on page 1 Technopromexport was the only Russian company that had already decided to evacuate. A representative of LUKOIL-Overseas told the Vremya Novostey newspaper that the company’s Baghdad branch is now only “studying the possibility of evacuation,” but he refused to say how many of the company’s employees are currently in Iraq.

Forecast for the coming days Following the cyclone that traveled to the Middle Volga, a portion of cold and dry air from the northern latitudes entered European territory. There was light rain in the northwestern regions and in the middle zone. In the central region it will be cool, no significant precipitation is expected, the daytime temperature will be +5...+10оС, the north-west wind will be moderate, with isolated gusts up to 10--12 m/s.

Alexey Miller and Akhmat Kadyrov signed a five-year cooperation agreement The conflict between Gazprom and the leadership of Chechnya was settled yesterday. The head of the company, Alexey Miller, and the President of the Republic, Akhmat Kadyrov, signed the first cooperation agreement in the history of relations between the gas monopoly and the region for the next five years. The protocol exchange of documents was sealed with hot hugs at Gazprom headquarters.

The “promoter” of brands fell victim to a production conflict On Monday, the head of the advertising group New Found Quality (NFQ), Boris Goldman, was blown up in Moscow; the perpetrator placed a backpack with a bomb on his car. Along with the businessman, the driver, bodyguard and the killer himself died. There has not been such a loud crime in Moscow for a long time, both literally and figuratively. Which immediately caused a stir both in the intelligence services and in the advertising world.

Hockey. NHL. Stanley Cup. 1/8 finals. "New Jersey" -- "Philadelphia" -- 4:2 (series score 1:2) -- Zhamnov "F" (0+2), "Ottawa" -- "Toronto" -- 0:2 (1 :2), "Islanders" -- "Tampa" -- 0:3 (1:2), "Dallas" -- "Colorado" -- 4:3 (1:2) -- Zubov "D" (0+ 1), V. Bure (0+1), “St. Louis” – “San Jose” – 4:1 (1:2). Tampa Bay goalkeeper Nikolai Khabibulin kept his goal intact for the second time in the series with the Islanders. This time the Russian repelled all 28 of his opponent’s shots.

The anniversary festival is over It was a very good festival, maybe the best of all over the past decade. It started well and ended well. The new Minister of Culture, Alexander Sokolov, neatly failed the awards ceremony (he did his best to portray a kind of bon vivant, who, by the way, is a statesman), but the presentation procedures have never been the main event for “Mask”. This festival is a celebration of theater masters who know the value of themselves and each other.