In the near future, documents will be published on the merger of several leading helicopter manufacturing enterprises in Russia into a single holding company, OJSC Mil Helicopters Corporation. General Director of the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant (MVZ) Yuri Andrianov told Interfax yesterday. According to him, these documents have already been signed. Mr.

Economists and political scientists talk about the reasons for the slowdown in economic growth Today's trends in the Russian economy make us look at its future more pessimistically than vice versa.

The minister could not stand the 20-hour work US Homeland Security Secretary Thomas Ridge (pictured) is the seventh senior member of the current administration to leave since George W. Bush's re-election to a second presidency in November. Ridge announced that he will leave as soon as the president finds his replacement, but no later than February 1 of next year. Earlier, George W.

FAS is going to approve the deal between Interros and Siemens The Federal Antimonopoly Service intends to approve the actual sale by Interros of the Power Machines stake to the Siemens concern, but sets several conditions. First of all, a German investor must guarantee the development of his Russian business.

Forecast for the coming days Winter has finally officially arrived. But in fact, she has long been the sovereign mistress of the European territory of Russia. But the coming December is in a hurry with changes. In the central regions, unusual November frosts are being replaced by a thaw, which has not occurred since mid-November. The cold anticyclone moves to the southeast, giving way to a cyclone. It snowed and the frosts subsided.

The UN Secretary General was let down by his son “The wave of criticism against UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (pictured) , in our opinion, is unfounded. The thought arises that all these attacks are in one way or another motivated by the desire to belittle the role of the UN, as well as to undermine the basis of the principles of multilateralism in international relations,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov decisively stated yesterday.

The Russian holding will supply components to Ukraine for the production of mainline freight electric locomotives As it became known, CJSC Roslokomotiv, created by Transmashholding (which unites six factories that produce products for railways) to manage its locomotive-building plants - Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive and Bryansk Machine-Building Plants - signed on December 1 a contract with the Ukrainian JSC Luganksteplovoz on a joint production of 51 mainline freight electric locomotives

French lawmakers allow passive euthanasia France became the third country to recognize the right of a seriously ill person to independently decide whether to live or die. Yesterday, deputies of the National Assembly of the lower house of parliament adopted a bill that recognizes the right to “early” death. Despite the fact that euthanasia is a completely unpopular measure in Europe, French legislators unexpectedly demonstrated unanimity: 549 deputies voted for the bill, and only two abstained.

Since yesterday, the center of Moscow has been closed even to Gazelles. Instead of a systematic solution to Moscow's transport problems, capital officials persistently continue to fight traffic jams in the city center exclusively with the help of fines and bans. As of yesterday, another restriction came into force in Moscow.

The Bolshoi Theater will close for three years On July 2, 2005, the main stage of the Bolshoi Theater will close. At least until 2008. This was announced yesterday by its leaders, who convened a joint press conference with the Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov and the head of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography Mikhail Shvydkiy.

The British head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs fights for honor and fatherhood In the UK, the scandal surrounding Home Secretary David Blunkett continues. Newspapers and then the conservative opposition accused Blunkett, 57, who was blind from birth, of abusing his official powers by speeding up the issuance of a residence permit for a certain Leoncia Casalma.

A serious banking scandal is brewing in America. Bank of New York is suspected of laundering funds and hiding information from law enforcement agencies. Federal authorities believe the ninth-largest bank in the United States failed to promptly report suspicious financial transactions to one of its clients, RW Professional Leasing Services Corp., a medical equipment leasing company.

Russian business is looking for a new image It is no secret that over the past year business, especially large ones, has been depressed. The authorities, despite all the aspirations of entrepreneurs, do not give them a clear message on how they should act in the current conditions. Not a single key question - whether their capital is recognized as legitimate, whether nationalization will begin, and how to behave so that it does not begin - receives a clear answer.

The banking sector of Ukraine shuddered. President Leonid Kuchma predicted a financial crisis - a consequence of a protracted political confrontation. And the words of the governors about the creation of a separate South-Eastern Autonomous Republic brought the financial market into a state close to panic.

The non/fiction fair has opened The International Fair of Intellectual Literature, usually referred to as non/fiction, is taking place for the sixth time. As usual, in the first week of winter (from Wednesday to Sunday), as usual, in the Central House of Artists. Habit is a substitute for happiness: there are no catastrophic innovations in non/fiction, and, it seems, there cannot be.