Preparations for a change of power have begun in Uzbekistan A significant event took place on the Uzbek political scene. The patriarch of one of the most influential clans, Samarkand (he is opposed by people from the Tashkent clan), Ismail Jurabekov, who in Uzbekistan for many years has been called only the “gray eminence”, is accused of criminal offenses. The news came as a complete surprise to residents of the country.

Super League coaches languished in anticipation of news from the NHL The coaches of the leading clubs, who took their teams onto the ice yesterday after a short break in the national championship, found themselves in a difficult situation. The first round of the Super League after the end of the replenishment period threatened to be the last playing day in Russia for hockey players with contracts with NHL teams.

We continue our conversation about the vicissitudes of cultural policy in Russia. The reform of the budget sector, which caused so much noise in theater circles, for some reason did not cause heated discussions in the academic music community. Perhaps musicians today are concerned about problems of a different order?

The police were again called upon to change lanes The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation at an extended meeting of the board yesterday summed up the work of its department over the past year. Formally, the event went off without surprises. President Vladimir Putin, who usually pays special attention to all law enforcement agencies on such politically important days, did not come to the ministry.

The government will still be able to save on monetization of benefits Federal and regional authorities are not giving up attempts to smooth out the negative consequences of the reform of social benefits for millions of Russians. And not without success. Rallies of pensioners are fading away, no one is blocking the roads anymore, and there are no reports from the localities about clashes in public transport between inspectors demanding money for travel from beneficiaries.

The authorities of an Italian town have begun monetizing street names The leadership of a small Italian town has found an original way to cope with the lack of budget funds. Recently, the mayor of the city of San Giorgio Del Sannio, located near Naples, put up for sale the names of fifteen streets in his locality. This was reported by the French weekly Le Point.

Forecast for the coming days The northwestern regions will be in the next two days far from the atmospheric fronts of the southern cyclone, which is about to visit the center of Russia. Here, light snow is possible only in places; night temperatures will be within -4...-9оС, during the day -1...-6оС. In the central region there is light precipitation at zero temperatures. On Friday the weather will worsen: snow, blizzards and snow drifts on the roads are expected.

The operator of the Sakhalin-2 project, Sakhalin Energy, has already sold about 70% of the gas that is planned to be produced within the framework of this project for 20 years in advance. A new agreement with South Korea made it possible to reach this level (about 50% have been contracted so far).

Government refines banking strategy Almost six months of talk about the fact that the banking strategy requires clarification resulted in only one legislative amendment. True, very, very significant. The Ministry of Finance proposes to sharply tighten the requirements for capital adequacy of Russian banks, which the head of the department, Alexei Kudrin, will talk about at a government meeting today.

The new NHL season will not start National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman yesterday officially announced the final cancellation of the never-started season. Before the deadline set by Bettman for signing a new labor agreement between the NHL and the players' union (NHL PA), the parties did not reach a compromise. There won't be any major hockey in North America until at least October.

Yuri Luzhkov gave huge areas for development to the little-known companies Stroy-Kompleks and Kompleks-Stroy Three large multifunctional complexes will soon appear in the Southern Administrative District of Moscow. This is stated in the order of the Moscow mayor dated February 8, 2005.

Bushehr incident changes oil prices Yesterday, a powerful explosion occurred in the southern province of Bushehr near the port city of Dailam. A representative of the Iranian Ministry of Internal Affairs denied the assumption that the explosion was caused by enemy, that is, Israeli or American fire. According to him, most likely the incident occurred due to the fall of an outboard fuel tank from an Iranian military aircraft.

Russia is required to increase gas prices by one and a half times A new life began for Russia in the World Trade Organization building on the shores of Lake Geneva. Yesterday, the working group began discussing a new, already third version of the report (the final document in which all Russian obligations to join the WTO will be recorded). Thus, the most optimistic forecasts about the imminent completion of negotiations have every chance of coming true.

The company withdrew from the Govsany-Zykh project LUKOIL suffered another setback in Azerbaijan. The company was unable to agree with the government of the country on the conditions for the development of the Govsany-Zykh block of the field and decided to abandon the development of this site.

The French company is going to reconsider its business development strategy in Russia The recent statement by Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev regarding the prospects for foreign participation in the development of Russian subsoil has frightened foreign companies. France's Total said it is going to reconsider its investment strategy in Russia. True, not all Western holdings intend to join it.