The re-voting of the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine on December 26 ended in favor of the opposition leader, 50-year-old Viktor Yushchenko, who headed the country's government in 2000-2001. He received 51.99% of the vote, his main competitor, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, 44.19%. The previous vote took place on November 21, but then the Ukrainian Central Election Commission gave victory to Viktor Yanukovych (49.46%), and not to Viktor Yushchenko (46.61%).

But Yanukovych doesn’t want to resign Yesterday in Kyiv, the Minister of Transport of Ukraine Georgiy Kirpa, who died on December 27 under unclear circumstances, was seen off on his last journey. The entire leadership of the country came to say goodbye to him, including President Leonid Kuchma, Speaker of the Rada Vladimir Lytvyn, head of the presidential administration Viktor Medvedchuk and the still-current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who lost the presidential election.

The sale of Guta Bank to the state-owned VTB brought the banking system out of the crisis, but slowed down its development The purchase of Guta Bank by the state-owned Vneshtorgbank (VTB) became one of the key anti-crisis decisions of the government and the Central Bank in July. It was adopted in a hurry, when depositors of Guta itself and the systemically important Alfa Bank and Bank of Moscow were panicking on the streets of Russian cities.

The administration of St. Petersburg saved the Ice Palace from bankruptcy at the expense of the budget The authorities of St. Petersburg, it seems, have finally managed to deal with one of the most problematic assets inherited from former governor Vladimir Yakovlev - the Ice Palace. The city had to save this facility from bankruptcy - the total debt of the sports complex reaches 2 billion rubles.

On November 2, 58-year-old US President George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term. During the presidential election, he defeated the Democratic Party candidate, 61-year-old Senator John Kerry. The outcome of the vote was influenced by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States - the fight against international terrorism and the war in Iraq were at the center of the election campaign. The inauguration of the American President will take place on January 20, 2005.

President Viktor Yushchenko, who will be inaugurated in January, is considering the composition of the new government. The former head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine and the current chairman of the Rada Committee on Industry and Entrepreneurship, Yuri EKHANUROV, is one of the possible candidates for the post of prime minister.

The capital authorities will congratulate Muscovites on the new tariff year The Soviet tradition of presenting workers with another price increase for the New Year has been preserved in the new Russia. Following the letter of the Budget Code, officials promise to review tariffs no more than once a year, but at the same time, all services stubbornly try to catch up with price increases by January 1st.

The privatization of Magnitogorsk has ended “There has always been, at least in recent years, fears that control of the enterprise would go into some strange, not very conscientious hands; As far as I understand, this did not happen, everyone is satisfied.” This description, given by Vladimir Putin a week ago at a press conference in the Kremlin, most accurately reflects the essence of the privatization of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, which ended on December 22.

FIRST JANUARY 3 , MONDAY 6.00, 10.00, 15.00 News 6.10 "Cat and mouse". Animated series 6.40 "DINOTOPIA". Series 8.20 “NINJA TURTLES: THE MYSTERY OF THE EMERALD POTION.” Hood. film (S) 10.10 "SPIDER-MAN". Super Action (S) 12.20 New Year's joke with Mikhail Zadornov 13.20 “GRANDFATHER FROST 1”. Comedy 15.10 “LOVERS 2”. Hood. movie 17.30 “Jumble” 18.00 "SHREK". Cartoon (S) 19.30, 21.15 “TWELVE CHAIRS.” Music comedy 21.00 Time 22.40 “MOSCOW HEAT”.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has paved the way to retaining power. The October 17 referendum will allow him to run for a third term in 2006. More than 77% of voters supported Mr. Lukashenko's desire to participate in future presidential elections as a candidate for the post of head of state.

ConocoPhillips became a shareholder of LUKOIL and an investor in its projects In September, the largest privatization deal in Russian history took place: the state finally parted with its stake in LUKOIL, selling a 7.6% stake for $1.988 billion to the American ConocoPhillips.

The highest-grossing premiere of 2004 was, as one might expect, the computer animated film “Shrek 2” by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. The premiere of the sequel to “the most wrong fairy tale in the world” took place on May 15 at the Cannes Film Festival, less than a week later the second “Shrek” opened in the American box office, was released without delay in the rest of the world - and to date its box office totals $880,871,036.

On New Year's Eve, power engineers left officers without power Despite the investigation launched by the Primorsky Territory prosecutor's office in the fall of this year, Far Eastern power engineers on Tuesday, December 28, resumed cutting off electricity to Ministry of Defense facilities for debts. The first New Year's "gift" to receive was the apartment maintenance unit in the village of Shkotovo, which services the houses where the officers' families live.

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The government enters 2005 without an economic policy The main issue of today's cabinet meeting will be the approval of the state defense order for 2005. His project was approved a week ago by the government commission on military-industrial issues headed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.