The suspect refused to recognize the attempt on Chubais as a crime A new huge scandal broke out yesterday in the epic investigation into the assassination attempt on the head of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais, committed on March 17 in the Moscow region. The main suspect in this case, retired GRU colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, from the “Matrosskaya Tishina” pre-trial detention center, gave an interview to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Zavtra” Alexander Prokhanov.

Olympic programs will be tested at the Grand Prix stages Tomorrow in the American city of Atlantic City a new season of figure skating starts for the leading athletes of this sport. The season is unusual in many ways, since the upcoming Winter Games in Turin next February will be held under new rules for the first time. Fans will be able to see the Olympic programs much earlier, since the skaters will present them to the audience at the Grand Prix stages.

Bird flu is conquering Europe and approaching Moscow Bird flu, which spread from China to Siberia in August and almost disappeared in the fall, unexpectedly manifested itself near the borders of the capital region. Despite the fact that the presence of the H5N1 strain has not yet been laboratory confirmed, veterinarians have serious concerns that this particular virus recently became the cause of the mass death of poultry in the Tula region.

The Central Bank points out the “undercapitalization” of Russian banks An analysis of the unaudited financial statements of Russian banks according to international standards for the first nine months of last year seems to have seriously worried the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Tatyana Paramonova. In particular, bank profits according to international reporting turned out to be 20% less than according to Russian standards (RAS).

The mayor of Moscow ordered the urgent completion of Tsaritsyno Yuri Luzhkov, who has long immortalized himself in the capital's architecture, in the last years of his tenure as mayor, seems to have decided to put himself on a par with the Russian emperors. At yesterday's meeting of the Moscow government, the mayor demanded to hurry up with the reconstruction of the palace complex in Tsaritsyno in order to complete the work by 2007.

Dynamo loses for the third time in a row in Moscow with a score of 2:3 The central match of the 17th round of the Hockey Super League was supposed to either radically clarify the situation at the top of the standings, or restore the dual power that already existed this season. Before the meeting with Magnitogorsk, the current national champions, the capital's Dynamo, were three points behind their opponents. Metallurg retained sole leadership, increasing its advantage by one point.

In memory of Alexander Yakovlev We have lost a man, without whom, perhaps, there would not have been that historical turn in our country, which is called perestroika. In any case, without Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, it would not have begun in 1985, but many years later, or, having begun, it would have immediately choked. It is not for nothing that in the last twenty years the opponents of freedom have hated no one so staunchly, so consistently, so furiously, as Alexander Yakovlev.

Polish parliament in anticipation of a scandal Today in Warsaw the new parliament, elected on September 25, will convene for its first meeting. For the first time in the post-socialist history of Poland, the inaugural meeting of the Sejm foreshadows a scandal. Immediately after the deputies are sworn in, the work of parliament may be paralyzed due to disagreements surrounding the candidacy of the Marshal of the Sejm.

Toyota recalls almost one and a half million cars Leading Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. launched the largest car recall campaign in its history. Yesterday he announced his readiness to return for revision a total of 1.41 million cars in the world, Reuters reports. Of these, about 1.27 million will be recalled in Japan and about 140 thousand abroad (approximately 70 thousand in Australia, 19 thousand in Singapore and 17 thousand in Thailand).

Saddam's trial begins The trial of Saddam Hussein begins today in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone. The US State Department says that this is an “Iraqi process”, that is, prepared with American assistance “in accordance with international norms and Iraqi laws.” The trial, according to the Americans, is intended to “close a dark page” in the history of Iraq.

A boy lost during the flight of Georgians from Sukhumi became part of the Abkhaz family The family of refugee from Abkhazia Valery Berulava, despite all the suffering experienced in recent years, is today the happiest in Georgia. Twelve years after the end of the Georgian-Abkhaz war, the son who disappeared during the conflict returned to it. Lost during the exodus of ethnic Georgians from Sukhumi, Tamaz Berulava has been Beslan's Shamba for the last 12 years.

International Book Fair opens in Frankfurt Yesterday evening the grand opening of the 57th International Book Fair, the largest book forum in the world, took place in Frankfurt. This year, the guest of honor was Korea, although mainly South Korea.

Renaissance Insurance takes over insurers Renaissance Insurance plans to acquire three or four insurance companies. For these purposes, its main shareholder, the Sputnik Group, is going to allocate $100 million. The head of Sputnik, Boris Jordan, and the general director of Renaissance Insurance, Nikolai Klekovkin, told reporters about this yesterday.

In the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, which will be published next Monday, Maria Sharapova will lose first place. True, it is still unclear who will lead the world classification - Kim Clijsters (Belgium) or Lindsay Davenport (USA). In any case, Maria will have to part with the title of the strongest player on the planet, hopefully temporarily. In the current rankings, Sharapova has 4729 points, Clijsters has 4467, Davenport has 4396.

22 Altai organizations refused to apply for seats in the Public Chamber Tomorrow a regional meeting will be held in Barnaul to nominate delegates to the district conference in the Siberian Federal District to form a Public Chamber. 36 regional public associations out of 60 that applied for participation will be allowed to attend the meeting.