President Signed a number of federal laws , including a law amending some articles of the Tax Code; a law providing for measures to reduce the tax burden as it relates to the unified social tax; a law aimed at lifting restrictions on the admission of students to state and municipal educational institutions.

Kyiv does not want to join NATO and the EU A sensational prelude to yesterday's meeting in Yalta between Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma, which became the eighth rendezvous between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents since the beginning of this year, was a message received from Kyiv a few hours before the Yalta meeting. It turned out that the thesis about preparing the country for membership in NATO and the European Union was excluded from the Military Doctrine of Ukraine.

The English public is pleased with the Bolshoi Ballet The Bolshoi Theater brought to London a verified and balanced program - for all tastes. The tour opened with Don Quixote - that is, with the ballet from which the new history of the Bolshoi began - not a provincial theater that received shabby productions from the capital as gifts in the 19th century, but an innovative theater that is not afraid to revise old performances.

The new head of Chechnya will have to choose between Kadyrov’s team and Putin’s team The process of electing Akhmat Kadyrov's successor has entered a decisive stage: the vote is just over a month away, and the deadline for registering candidates officially expired on Saturday. The Republican Election Commission did everything right: already on Friday it formed a list of names that will be included in the ballot papers.

Gazprom promises to continue legal proceedings Attempts to regain control of Northgas through litigation never brought Gazprom anything other than legal costs. Yesterday, the Moscow Arbitration Court terminated proceedings on the concern's claim against the Ministry of Natural Resources regarding the illegality of re-issuing a license for the development of the North Urengoy field, owned by Northgas, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

In Athens there will be no Russian representatives in only five sports The principle proclaimed by the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, “The main thing is not victory, but participation,” is now only suitable for underdeveloped countries. Leading sports powers delegate their athletes to the Games with one goal - to win as many medals as possible and take a high place in the team competition for awards.

Yesterday in Moscow, negotiations were held between the heads of the Russian and Spanish Foreign Ministries Sergei Lavrov and Miguel Angel Moratinos. The guest also talked with the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov. Among the main topics were strengthening the strategic partnership between Russia and the EU, strengthening the role of the UN in the Iraqi settlement and the fight against terrorism.

Price regulation of monopolies remains an unanswered question The Federal Tariff Service (FTS), which yesterday held its first meeting with the heads of regional executive authorities, is not yet able to prove itself as a full-fledged tariff body. According to the head of the FTS, Sergei Novikov, his service has not yet managed to master all its functions.

From January to July, the artistic life of Russia flowed quite happily. The Contemporary Art trend, which was semi-legal until recently, was particularly successful in its promotion. Just judge: the Moscow-Berlin exhibition opened in the spring, skillfully constructed and clearly thought out. For the first time, the conservative cultural institution called the “Historical Museum” brought works by masters who were fundamental to the art of the 20th century (from Beuys to Kabakov).

Alexander Levin agreed to become a producer for NTV The new general director of NTV, Vladimir Kulistikov, seems to intend to gather under the banner of the channel some of the representatives of the “old guard”, who were not particularly radical in their judgments and were capable of implementing projects that were quite rated and, at the same time, far from slippery political topics.

Banco Santander prepares to take over Abbey National The European banking industry is preparing for the emergence of a new giant. Yesterday, the largest bank in Spain and Latin America, Banco Santander Central Hispano SA (BSCH), made an offer to the British mortgage bank Abbey National, which it could not accept. According to Reuters, BSCH is ready to buy Abbey shares at a rate of $10.12 to $11.09 per share. The total value of the deal is estimated at $15.7 billion.

There are 21 candidates for the post of President of Afghanistan Political life in Kabul these days has become unusually lively. The deadline for registering candidates to participate in the presidential elections scheduled for October 9 expires tomorrow. They have already been postponed twice, first from June to September, and then to October. The parliamentary elections, which were supposed to take place simultaneously with the presidential ones, have been completely postponed until next year.

Forecast for the coming days No sharp changes in the weather are expected in European Russia in the next two days. In the north, the weather pattern is determined by the anticyclone, in the center - by the frontal zone, and in the south - by cyclones, one of them is still gaining strength in the west of the Black Sea, and the other has already gone to the Southern Urals, but its fronts do not yet intend to leave the Volga region .

Security forces ask to reduce the “unpunished” dose of drugs The size of the “non-punishable” dose of drugs established by the government seems too large to official Russian drug fighters, and the State Drug Control Service intends to seek their revision in the near future. This was stated yesterday by Alexander Mikhailov, Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Service for Control of Drug Trafficking.

A series of explosions in Voronezh are the work of the same criminals The explosion that occurred on one of the streets of Voronezh early on Monday morning shocked the entire city. The regularity and similarity of the style of committing such crimes allowed the special services to conclude: the Voronezh explosions were the work of the same people. Yesterday, fortunately, there were no casualties, only a passenger in a passing car received minor injuries.