Moscow is ready to sign an agreement with Riga without politics Russia will agree with Latvia's proposal to sign an intergovernmental agreement on economic cooperation and create an intergovernmental commission that will deal with issues not related to politics. Russian Ambassador to Riga Viktor Kalyuzhny announced this to the Latvian news agency BNS on Friday. “The proposal made by the Latvian executive branch does not at all contradict our vision,” said Mr. Kalyuzhny.

Exhibition of Georgy Ostretsov in the Marat Gelman Gallery Georgy Ostretsov is a very good designer. He studied at the art school at the Bolshoi Theater. Lived in Paris. He collaborated with couturier Castelbajac and director Luc Besson. For the film, Taxi made a collection of latex masks that looked absolutely monstrous. If my memory serves me correctly, Ostretsov’s latex masks were also in demand in the arthouse trash film “April” directed by Murzenko.

The Prosecutor General's Office fulfilled the president's instructions ahead of schedule On Saturday, at a meeting with members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, President Putin instructed Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to send representatives of the central apparatus of the Prosecutor General’s Office to Beslan to conduct “a comprehensive representative check of the entire body of information available on this case.” The reason for this was Vladimir Putin’s meeting the day

In the Irkutsk region, elections have been postponed in more than 30 municipalities The reform of local self-government in different regions of Russia is faced with the reluctance of people to join municipal authorities. In more than 30 municipalities of the lower level of local government of the Irkutsk region, elections of heads of administration and deputies of local dumas will be postponed to a later date.

Hockey players of the Swedish national team became early winners of the first stage of the Eurotour - the Ceske Pojishtovna Cup. Traditionally, the opening match was taken away and played in another country. On Russian ice in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Krikunov’s team lost to the Swedes - 1:2. For the hosts, the capital's Dynamo recruit Sushinsky (ex-Avangard) scored, and Tre Krunur scored the decisive goal 32 seconds before the end of regular time.

Afghanistan prints 15 million spare ballots As Afghan parliamentary elections approach on September 18, observers are raising concerns about the integrity and transparency of the vote. Numerous violations have already been discovered during the election campaign, and the CEC Commission on Complaints and Violations has examined more than a thousand complaints.

Customs officers clarified sanitary requirements for participants in foreign economic activity Russian customs officials have clarified the list of goods for which sanitary and epidemiological reports or state registration certificates must be issued. From now on, they will not be able to arbitrarily demand sanitary certificates from cargo carriers.

Tonight, 39-year-old Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrives in Moscow for a four-day state visit. He is accompanied by his wife Asma and a large group of ministers and businessmen. Speaker of the Syrian Parliament Mahmoud AL-ABRASH talks to Vremya Novostey about Russian-Syrian relations. -- The visit of the Syrian president to Russia is accompanied by the hype inflated by Israel and the United States around an alleged deal to sell Russian missiles to your country. How do you rate this?

Yulia Tymoshenko dictated terms to Gazprom The Russian-Ukrainian gas negotiation process is still at a standstill. The parties continue to demonstrate to each other that their positions are principled. “There is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia that is valid until 2013, where the Russian Federation will pay for transit through the territory of Ukraine with natural gas,” said the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, at the end of last week.

Political show for unsteady Germans Last night, the first pre-election television duel between current Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, his rival from the conservative bloc CDU/CSU, took place on four German television channels at once. The fight was broadcast by the socio-political channels ARD and TsDF, as well as the largest private ones - Sat1 and RTL.

Yuri Semin's team easily coped with Liechtenstein The Russian team has reached the final stage of the qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup. The Russian team, having beaten Liechtenstein - 2:0, caught up with the Slovak team on points and now in the three remaining meetings - with Portugal, Luxembourg and the same Slovaks - will solve the problem of taking second place in the group, which gives the right to play in the play-offs matches.

Forecast for the coming days The Atlantic cyclone is rushing towards the European part of Russia, touching the north-western regions and the center with its outskirts, there is light or short-term rain in places, +14...+19оС during the day. On Tuesday, both in the north-west and in the center of European Russia there will be no precipitation, during the day +14...+20оС, in the Chernozem region up to +23оС.

FOOTBALL. September 7. Qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup. Europe. Group 3. Russia - Portugal, Latvia - Slovakia, Liechtenstein - Luxembourg . Premier League. 22nd round. September 10. CSKA - Shinnik, Krylia Sovetov - Torpedo, Rostov - Amkar, Alania - Moscow. September 11th. "Dynamo" - "Rubin", "Terek" - "Spartak", "Tom" - "Saturn". The match between the Russian and Portuguese national teams will begin at 19:00 on the field of the Lokomotiv stadium in Cherkizovo.

And they evacuate from Uzbekistan The United States entered into an agreement with Ashgabat to transfer its military equipment from a base in Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan to the Turkmen military airfield Mary-2. The Deutsche Welle radio station reported this yesterday, citing a source in the Turkmen Ministry of Defense, as well as an anonymous Western diplomat in Ashgabat.

The Russian Navy has a new command Yesterday, Vladimir Putin changed the leadership of the Russian Navy. As previously predicted by many experts, instead of Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, Admiral Vladimir Masorin, who previously held the post of Chief of the General Staff - First Deputy Commander-in-Chief, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. Former commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Mikhail Abramov, was appointed to Masorin’s previous position.