United Russia members will tell people about replacing benefits with money according to a cheat sheet United Russia deputies, who approved the government law on the monetization of benefits, are preparing to meet face to face with voters who did not react very positively to this legislative initiative.

Russia and Georgia do not hide their irritation It was not difficult to guess what instructions Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze, who arrived in Moscow for negotiations, received: to verbally agree with all the proposals of the Russian military and to press on the need to resume cooperation between the defense departments of the two countries. The stakes are too high - Russia's position in resolving the problem of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The new prime minister appointed his father as “minister-mentor” Tomorrow there will be a new prime minister in Singapore. He will be 52-year-old Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of the first prime minister and patriarch of local politics, Lee Kuan Yew. This is only the second transfer of power since 1965, when Singapore became an independent republic.

An exhibition of artist Vladimir Yakovlev is open at the NCCA It is intolerably vulgar to justify the artist’s work by his physical illness. If the master is epileptic, then so be it, we will forgive him for the inaccurate color and uncertain composition. After all, we are all people, we are all human! What if the artist is blind? Then the vocabulary of the compassionate critic drips with flattering lisp: about foresight, intuition, chosenness...

The government of Valentina Matvienko is preparing the first large-scale sale of municipal assets. First of all, the city's shares in 11 hotels will go under the hammer, for which, according to the first deputy chairman of the city property management committee (KUGI) Alexei Chichkanov, Smolny expects to earn 4 billion rubles. Then it will be the turn of more significant assets - the city’s shares in OJSC Sea Port of St. Petersburg and in the North-Western Thermal Power Plant.

Forecast for the coming days On the European territory of Russia, summer has only a few days left to rule. The combined efforts of the southern cyclone and small wave disturbances, which will roll into the center of European Russia from the North Atlantic, will establish cold northeastern winds. In the second half of the week, at an altitude of approximately 1.5 km, the temperature will drop to +5°C. Such high altitude temperatures are typical for our latitudes only in September.

“Evil is a bad stylist,” noted Joseph Brodsky. What happened and is happening to the oldest Moscow district of Zaryadye confirms the truth of the aphorism. The cheerful, bright and lively area behind the shopping arcades of Kitay-Gorod (hence the name Zaryadye) was associated with the spirit of old Moscow before the revolution. In the place where the walls of China Town met, along the banks of the Moscow River, there were countless shops that belonged to Russians, Jews, Armenians, and Persians.

Megafon subscribers will pay not for time, but for the number of calls The Moscow cellular operator Megafon came out yesterday with another initiative that had no analogues on the market before. In the new FIX tariff plan, unlike existing tariffs, you need to pay not for every minute, but for every telephone connection made, regardless of its duration. True, analysts and competitors believe that Megafon miscalculated the potential audience for the new tariff.

Tomorrow the final tournament of the European Handball Championship among men's teams starts in Slovenia. Winner of Olympic gold in Sydney, the Russian team arrived at these competitions with a light heart - a ticket to the Games in Athens is already in their pocket, it was won a year ago following the results of the 2003 World Championships.

Terrorists blew up two hotels in Istanbul In Turkey, terrorists staged another bloodshed. Yesterday, at least two people were killed in two explosions that rocked two Istanbul hotels. One of the dead is Turkish, the other is Iranian. 11 wounded are reported - four Spaniards, two Dutch, two Chinese, a Turk, a Ukrainian Magdalena Vageko and a Turkmen Jennet Babekova. It is known for certain that Russians are not among the victims, the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul reported.

A Washington court yesterday ordered the detention of Time correspondent for the American political weekly Matthew Cooper for refusing to cooperate with the court. We are talking about an investigation into the case of disclosing the name of a CIA agent, which in the United States is punishable by a prison term of up to ten years. The warrant was issued on July 20.

Human rights activists and local authorities disagreed on the situation in Ingushetia and Chechnya An unusually sharp reaction from the regional authorities of Chechnya and Ingushetia was caused by three reports by human rights activists from the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), which were presented last Monday. The reports talk about the deteriorating situation with respect to human rights in the “counter-terrorist operation zone” and its environs.

The trial of an accomplice to the September 11 tragedy is on the verge of collapse The Hamburg Higher Regional Court resumed hearings in the case of Munir al-Mutassadiq yesterday. The Prosecutor General's Office has again charged a 30-year-old native of Morocco with complicity in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Athletes will be awarded a motorcycle for the world record The winter season for Russian track and field athletes promises to be short and fast. The reason is clear: the Olympic Games start in Athens in August. The season will begin at the end of January, end at the beginning of March and will be limited to five competitions.

The Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yesterday, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the verdict in the case of investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Pavel Zaitsev.