The government of Mikhail Fradkov approved the investment program of Russian Railways The government yesterday reviewed and approved the investment program of Russian Railways for the next year. “The company began to operate more efficiently. We must pay tribute to its president, who is trying to make maximum use of the government platform to resolve important issues for the entire railway industry,” Mikhail Fradkov said yesterday.

Fradkov, Zhukov and Shoigu began building a power vertical in sports The leaders of the Russian government, no doubt skeptical of Lenin's slogan that every cook is capable of governing the state, seem to be convinced that every minister can certainly govern sports. Even if we are talking not only about football, beloved by cabinet members, but about rowing or rhythmic gymnastics.

Ella Pamfilova will tell the president how to build civil society Kremlin human rights activists will stop examining complaints from citizens. Instead of helping ordinary Russians, they intend to switch to the president and help Vladimir Putin build a civil society in Russia. In any case, this is how its leader, Ella Pamfilova, interprets the change in the status of the Human Rights Commission to a presidential council of a similar profile.

Human rights activists gained access to investigative documents on Nord-Ost The prosecutor's office still does not know what gas was used to free the hostages captured by terrorists two years ago at the Dubrovka Theater Center. In any case, this follows from the decisions to refuse to initiate criminal cases against security officers and doctors, whose actions led, according to the relatives of some hostages, to the death of more than a hundred people.

Passengers of passing trains on the Asha - Ulu-Telyak section are silently greeted and escorted by eight-meter granite figures. They are installed here in memory of the victims of the largest disaster in the history of oil pipeline transport. On the night of June 4, 1989, 11 kilometers from the Asha station, in the Iglinsky district of Bashkiria, 1,200 people were injured - 573 died, 620 were injured.

Russian tennis players lost to the hosts of the WTA Championship The first playing day of the final tournament of the year - the BTA Championship with a total prize fund of $3 million in Los Angeles - cannot be called successful for Russian tennis players. Our compatriots are represented here in record numbers; five girls entered the fight for the title at once, but on Thursday night, Moscow time, both Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva in the “red” group lost to their rivals.

In recent years, Russian women's figure skating has been in decline. With the departure of Maria Butyrskaya from the sport, Irina Slutskaya should rightfully take the place of leader in the team. But a sudden illness prevented her from doing this for now. In the current situation, Elena Sokolova could take on the role of “helmsman,” but after the successful season before last, the skater admits that she has lowered the demands on herself.

Forecast for the coming days The anticyclone will still determine the weather in the central regions of Russia over the next two days. With the southeast wind, relatively humid air will continue to flow into the Central region. Therefore, there will be a lot of clouds, which means that there will be no strong cooling of the air in the surface layer. No significant precipitation is expected. During the day the temperature will rise to -3...-8°C.

To reach the Russian shelf of the Barents Sea The struggle for oil and gas resources concentrated on the Russian shelf of the Barents Sea is reaching the interstate level. A representative of the Norwegian oil and gas corporation Statoil, whose controlling stake is owned by the state, called on the country's political leaders to seek from their Russian colleagues a decision on the joint development of oil and gas fields in this region.

Bush promised the Palestinians a state Washington saw in the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a new chance to resolve the Middle East conflict. George W.

- What is the current state of the criminal case accusing you of abuse of power? — Until now, I have not commented on the progress of the investigation. I thought that the claims of the Prosecutor General’s Office against my person were not the most noteworthy event. I would not like the Yaroslavl region to be associated with a criminal investigation. Our region is famous in Russia, but until now scandals and criminal sensations have not been our calling card.

President Signed the federal law “On the ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on facilitating mutual travel of citizens of the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany.” In accordance with the agreement, a simplified visa procedure is being introduced on the basis of reciprocity for a number of categories of citizens traveling as part of youth exchanges, contacts in the field of culture,

The Ministry of Industry and Energy and Gazprom calculated production differently The Federal Antimonopoly Service continues to pursue Gazprom. Let us recall that the FAS recently ordered the concern to cease restrictions on the acceptance of gas from independent producers into the Unified Gas Supply System.

Considerable power was concentrated in the hands of Yasser Arafat. And the redistribution of power began yesterday. Mahmoud Abbas was elected head of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). But Arafat’s Fatah organization, which is the main one in the PLO, was headed by 72-year-old member of the Central Committee and head of the political department of the PLO Farouk KADDUMI (Abu Lutf).

FFMS will update the exchange trading system On the eve of January 1 of next year, the date for the entry into force of new requirements for trade organizers, the Federal Service for Financial Markets has started yet another amendment to the exchange rules. Today, the changes proposed by the Federal Financial Markets Service should be published on the agency’s website for discussion by market participants.