The Ministry of Natural Resources began to revoke licenses from oil workers The Ministry of Natural Resources revoked the first license from YUKOS. The right to use the subsoil of the Ust-Silginsk group of fields, the recoverable gas and condensate reserves of which amount to about 9 billion cubic meters, was lost by the subsidiary of the disgraced company, Tomskneftegazgeologiya-VNK. Two other oil companies - Rosneft and Russneft - have so far gotten away with only a warning.

Government formation completed in Lithuania Today, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas will present to parliament the program and composition of the new government, already approved by President Valdas Adamkus. The new government headed by the former prime minister promises to reduce and differentiate income taxes and reform the municipal electoral system. The centre-left government coalition included four parties.

CLUBS Kid + Khan. Festive concert in honor of the birthday of the B2 club. A duet of Chicago guitarist Kid Congo Powers (played with Nick Cave) and vocalist Kan Oral (Khan), the son of a Finnish woman and a Turkish mother, who grew up in Germany. The duo plays very flamboyant disco with elements of techno and rock. "B2" , 23.00. Leoncia Erdenko (vocals) and the Gipsyroad group. Erdenko participated in joint projects with Gidon Kremer, Emir Kusturica, Vladimir Chekasin, Zdob Si Zdub and others.

Valencia lost the Champions League The last round of the Champions League turned out to be a success for many teams. But in some groups there was a serious struggle even for theoretical chances of reaching the playoffs. The champion of England and one of the main favorites to win the Champions League, Arsenal only managed to secure exit from Group E in the last round.

At the Stanislavsky Season festival, Eimuntas Nekrošius showed “Song of Songs” The Old Testament names the author of this book as King Solomon (c. 965-928 BC), the greatest of the rulers and wisest of the sages of Israel. The authorship is quite conditional: it is only intended to certify the holiness and wisdom of the book, which begins with a joyful female cry: “May he kiss me with the kiss of his lips! For your caresses are better than wine.

Officials reproach investment experts Russian financial and investment analysts go from mistake to mistake - their use of standard approaches developed by world practice is not suitable for analyzing the market environment that has not yet developed in Russia. This opinion was expressed yesterday by the head of the presidential expert department, Arkady Dvorkovich, during the federal investment forum.

Forecast for the coming days In the center and north of European Russia on Thursday, a low background of atmospheric pressure will remain, so snow will still fall in the northwestern regions at daytime temperatures of -1...-6°C, and in the central regions, where 0...- 6oC. On Friday, a new atmospheric front will approach from the west, which will cause light precipitation in the north-west of the European territory of Russia, and it will again become warmer, -3...+2оС.

The Rada curtailed the power of the president and purged the Central Election Commission Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted on a “package” of amendments to the constitution and the law on presidential elections, possibly putting an end to the three-week confrontation between the government and the opposition. Leonid Kuchma personally arrived at the Rada and signed documents “on the spot,” as demanded by the opposition that did not trust him.

Filing tax claims against VimpelCom crashed the market The Federal Tax Service (FTS) filed claims for more than 4 billion rubles against the mobile operator VimpelCom. for non-payment of taxes in 2001. This news caused the Russian stock market to collapse yesterday. Shares of leading domestic issuers, mostly unrelated to VimpelCom and the telecommunications business in general, fell sharply in price.

CSKA did not have enough help from Abramovich's team Russian CSKA will continue to perform in the European arena. The Muscovites' victory over Paris Saint-Germain with a score of 3:1 did not allow them to advance to the next stage of the Champions League, but gave them the opportunity to compete in the 1/16 of the UEFA Cup. The second representative after Chelsea in the 1/8 finals from Group H was the current Champions Cup winner Porto, who beat the Londoners 2:1.

Andrei Kolesnikov published his articles about Vladimir Putin At the time when Andrei Kolesnikov, working in the mid-90s at Moscow News, already became famous as a talented journalist, Vladimir Putin was still a little-known official of the St. Petersburg mayor's office. Of course, the idea could never have occurred to them then that in a few years the book of observations of the Russian President by a special correspondent for the Kommersant newspaper would be considered a bestseller.

Campina and Arla create a new company European food manufacturers Campina BV and Arla Foods AmbA have decided to merge and create the world's largest producer of dairy products. The merger agreement was reached on Tuesday. The new company will be based in Copenhagen. Keeping both names, it will appear on the world market under the Campina Arla brand.

It has not yet been possible to create a new right-wing liberal party in Russia either from above or from below After the failure of right-wing parties in the December Duma elections, the question of the presence of an active opposition seemed to have been resolved by itself. For a while. According to recent sociological surveys, Russians confirm that now in our country there is no political opposition to the authorities that would be able to have a serious impact on the life of the country.

Russian missiles are ready to destroy terrorist bases anywhere in the world Yesterday, Russian air defense specialists celebrated the 90th anniversary of the creation of this type of armed forces, which is now part of the Air Force. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Chief of the Main Staff, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Colonel General Viktor Cheltsov, pleased taxpayers with the results achieved and no less rosy plans. There really is something to show off.

The Ministry of Science and Education is preparing a fundamentally new model of universal secondary education. For the first time, it is proposed to calculate the curriculum based not on the mandatory minimum knowledge for a schoolchild, as has been the case until now, but on the physical capabilities of the children.