The fun begins at the Giro d'Italia The prestigious multi-day cycling race "Giro d' Italia" has come close to its equator. Yesterday the peloton rested, today the race participants will take to the start of the tenth, completely flat stage with a length of 212 km between the city of Ravenna and the town of Rossano Veneto. Tomorrow will mark the first of five planned mountain stages of the highest difficulty category, with cyclists having to finish at 1514 km after a steep and tiring 12 km climb.

It is not true that only the names of the winners remain in history. The finalists are also remembered. They remember all the missed opportunities, they remember the hurt of defeat. Like that Barcelona final in May 1972, when Dynamo Moscow lost to Glasgow Rangers with a score of 2:3. I will never forget how, while on an expedition in the Turkmen desert, I listened to a radio report about this match, and then in my heart I almost crashed the expedition Speedola (there was such a shortwave radio).

Israelis, opponents of the plan for separation from the Palestinian Authority and the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, blocked almost all roads in Israel yesterday. The “We will stop the country” campaign has begun. Opponents of the plan (mostly young Jews) are blocking roads across the country with burning tires and plastic spikes. Traffic stops for several hours and there are traffic jams. The police arrested 75 minors and spent the night in the police station.

In Turkmenistan Today the Agreement on the settlement of dual citizenship between Russia and Turkmenistan is ending. Finally and irrevocably. The agreement was signed on December 23, 1993 during the visit of Russian President Boris Yeltsin to Ashgabat. To commemorate this event, the first Russian president was then presented with a Turkmen passport.

Organizers of the US Open have announced they will change the color of the court this season. If it was green before, it will now turn blue. The organizers of the US Open explain their decision by saying that this will make it easier for spectators at the Flushing Meadow stadium in New York to watch the flight of the ball. Russian Nikolay Davydenko won the opening round match at the ATP tournament with a prize fund of 323,250 euros in St. Pölten (Austria).

Political scientist Belkovsky made revolutionary forecasts The head of the Institute of National Strategy, Stanislav Belkovsky, at a press conference in Moscow yesterday, determined the schedule for the next revolutions in the post-Soviet space. According to the analyst, Russia is in the second “risk group.” That is, there are chances for a revolution, but they are not yet critical. Mr.

Forecast for the coming days Residents of the northwestern regions cannot hope for good weather due to the cyclone moving from the southwest to the northeast. The rain will continue throughout the day and will be heavy in some places at night. At night +6...+11оС, during the day +10...+15оС. In the central region, on the outskirts of the anticyclone centered over northwestern Kazakhstan, significant precipitation is not expected.

VEB acquired 8.3% shares of AvtoVAZ AvtoVAZ announced yesterday that Vnesheconombank became the owner of 8.3% of its voting shares (7% of the authorized capital).

The past year 2004 was marked in the history of the country as an important step in the implementation of pension reform. In 2004, in accordance with the will of the insured persons, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR) transferred pension savings funds into trust management to management companies selected through a competition. Most analysts initially predicted that there would not be a big revolution in this area in one year.

The theme of war in the interpretation of the 21st century Of the numerous exhibitions about the war, two were especially memorable. They opened on the same day. And they form a common diptych. The first is “Art at War” in the new exhibition center “Project Factory”. The second is “1418 days” in the halls of the Moscow House of Photography. Strong teams of curators worked on both (“the foreman” at MDF was Olga Sviblova, at “Factory” - Elena Kuprina).

There is not a single defense argument in Khodorkovsky’s verdict yet “The guilt of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in committing fraud has been fully established.” This conclusion was reached yesterday by the Meshchansky District Court of the capital, where the announcement of the verdict in the case of the ex-head of YUKOS and the head of Menatep continued yesterday. Thus, the court confirmed the charge for one of the 11 crimes he was charged with.

1/16 finals. First match. February 17. Krasnodar. CSKA - Benfica - 2:0 (V. Berezutsky 12, Vagner Love 60) . Giovanni Trapattoni, Benfica head coach: “Usually whoever creates the most chances wins. But today everything happened completely differently: Benfica created chances, and CSKA scored. The condition of the field influenced the result, especially considering that our forwards have excellent technique. But in any case, everything will be completely different in Lisbon.” Second match.

Kronstadt miraculously escaped destruction Yesterday, each of the 50 thousand residents of Kronstadt once again realized that the naval town located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland lives on a powder magazine. On Tuesday, the city almost blew up, but a miracle saved the Kronstadt residents: there was no TNT in the part of the “cellar” where the fire started, and firefighters managed to neutralize the burning arsenal in time.

Domodedovo policeman is on trial for letting terrorists escape Only one police officer, Captain Mikhail Artamonov, could have prevented terrorist attacks on planes in August last year. This is what the state prosecutor said at the trial that began yesterday in the Domodedovo Court on charges of negligence leading to the death of two or more people.

Four basketball playoff matches will be held in the capital over two days The semi-final series of the Russian Basketball Championship among men's teams starts today. They are held until three victories of one of the opponents using the “2-2-1” system. If a fifth match is needed to determine the winner, it will take place on the court of the team that took a higher place in the regular Super League championship.