Tiny Liechtenstein helped huge Russia Residents of a small, area of ​​only 157 square meters. km, but the proud principality was presented with a gift to Russia. The Liechtenstein national team, having drawn with the Slovaks - 0:0, kindly gave the Russian team a chance to get into the final part of the World Cup. The gift could have been even more valuable if the Liechtensteiners had converted at least one of their scoring chances at the end of the match. But it turned out well too.

Departments Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is confident that early repayment of debt to the Paris Club will be completed in the near future. The Ministry of Finance must complete the early repayment of part of the debt to the Paris Club of creditors in the amount of $15 billion by August 20. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the number of Russian population living below the poverty line will drop to 10% by 2008 from 17.7 in 2004.

Abkhazia conducts military exercises at its own expense Today in Abkhazia the largest maneuvers in the history of the unrecognized republic are being completed, in which up to six thousand military personnel and reservists, aviation, navy, artillery, and armored vehicles were involved.

Vladimir Putin arrived in Sochi yesterday. According to Vremya Novostei, this time he will spend a lot of time in Sochi. Apparently, this trip to the resort will be called a working vacation, which will last until the end of August or, perhaps, even until the first days of September. During this period, Vladimir Putin will hold a number of meetings in Sochi with famous foreign politicians and leaders of Russian regions.

Two Mi-8 crashes occurred at once Yesterday, two Mi-8 helicopters crashed in one day in Russia - a civilian and a military one. On Thursday at 10 a.m., a Mi-8 passenger helicopter belonging to Argo Airlines crashed near the village of Zvezdny (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Yugra). The aircraft was flying Pobedit - the village of Karkateevsky. Not far from the village of Star helicopter lost altitude and fell into a swamp.

Benedict XVI made his first foreign visit to Germany Yesterday afternoon, Pope Benedict XVI flew to Germany, where he will take part in the World Meeting of Catholic Youth in Cologne. He will stay in his native country until August 21 - this is the first official foreign trip of the head of the Catholic Church. German President Horst Köhler called the Pope's arrival a "great and wonderful day." “Welcome to your homeland, welcome to Germany,” the president said.

Magnitogorsk authorities expelled a foreign element from a kindergarten A curse to the seventh generation threatens the authorities of Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region. This week they decided to take a desperate step - they evicted the Muslim community, recognized as official adherents of the Wahhabi religion, from the kindergarten building. It took officials two years to muster up the courage to take decisive action.

The Munich Opera Festival 2005 has ended The Munich Opera Festival is the black sheep in a long line of summer festivals: from the giant festival in tiny Salzburg and Bregenz with its floating stage on Lake Constance to the scorching sun of Aix-en-Provence or the Glyndebourne estate lost in the meadows - all as one offer to the sophisticated exclusive products to the festival audience, which after eight to ten performances will be thrown away or stored until next summer.

CLUBS Cynthia Scott (vocals). The American singer, who performed as a backing vocalist for Ray Charles, sang on the same stage with Lionel Hampton, Cab Calloway, Oscar Peterson, The Count Basie Orchestra, Winston Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr., etc., will perform in front of Moscow fans. August 19, Jazz Town, 21.00. "Night Snipers" . August 19 and 20, “B2” , 23.00. Apple saved. A large musical and culinary Russian-African holiday. Group "Kimbata" (Kinshassa - Moscow).

Lukashenko does not like seminars with foreign money The President of Belarus issued a decree that limits the possibility of holding seminars and conferences for foreign money. According to the new decree, “international technical assistance” includes funds allocated for seminars, conferences and other public discussions. This money cannot be used for holding elections and referendums, campaigning and organizing street actions.

Yushchenko organized a democratic rally in Artek Yesterday, foreign guests arrived to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the international children's center, and previously the legendary Soviet pioneer camp "Artek". The camp anniversary gave rise to meetings between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and colleagues from Georgia, Lithuania and Poland - Mikheil Saakashvili, Valdas Adamkus and Alexander Kwasniewski.

Forecast for the coming days Dry weather has settled in the north-west and center of European Russia. In the northwest it will last a couple more days. And only on Sunday clouds will begin to roll in from the Atlantic, bringing rain, thunderstorms are possible in places, and the air temperature will not change significantly, during the day it will be mainly +19...+24°C.

FAS proposed the concept of gas market reform, ahead of Gazprom and the Ministry of Industry and Energy The Federal Antimonopoly Service again crossed the path of Gazprom. Igor Artemyev’s department developed a draft government decree “On the development of the gas market of the Russian Federation,” which was sent to all interested parties. The document provides for the start of liberalization of gas prices for industrial consumers from January 1, 2007.

"Pop" on Moscow screens The girl Slava (Elena Velikanova), who had barely reached adulthood, spent a whole week traveling from the northern outback to Moscow to conquer the capital with her songs and become a star.

Two weeks have passed since the day on August 4, when a Nigerian court allowed 12 of our fellow sailors arrested on suspicion of oil smuggling to be released on bail from a prison in Lagos. However, there is still no long-awaited message about the sailors' release. Yesterday, a duty officer at the Russian Embassy in Nigeria told a Vremya Novostei correspondent that he had no information about the release of the sailors.