Ilham Aliyev gets rid of his entourage Yesterday in Baku, a general cleansing in the inner circle of the country's President Ilham Aliyev continued for the second day. On Tuesday, Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev and his brother, President of the Azpetrol company Rafik Aliyev, as well as former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Nijat Guliyev were arrested.

Deputies declared a crusade against foreign newspapers, magazines and films The State Duma Committee on Culture yesterday held parliamentary hearings on the topic of legislative regulation of the dissemination of cultural values ​​and the formation of moral ideals in the media. It must be said that individual parliamentarians with enviable regularity try to morally strengthen the media and cinema, at the same time clearing them of sex, violence and foreign products.

Today, at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, one of the laureates of the Global Energy Prize established in Russia, Professor Klaus Riedle, will meet with young Russian energy scientists. The Prize is an independent international scientific award designed to enhance the significance of scientific, applied and technical developments in the field of energy. It was established in Russia and its trustee is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Forecast for the coming days The cold air of the Arctic will not stay long on the European plain. A cyclonic vortex from the north Atlantic is pushing the cold into the southeast of European territory. And warm and humid ocean air will begin to flow into the northern half of the European territory of Russia with western currents. The northwestern regions will fall into the warm sector of the Atlantic cyclone, and there will be little rain here, during the day +5...+10°C.

MMK and Rinat Akhmetov are bidding for the enterprise The Pakistani government has decided to sell a controlling stake in the country's largest metallurgical plant, Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation, built in the early 80s by Soviet specialists with a capacity of 1.1 million tons of rolled steel per year. Now the state controls 100% of the company, and is going to put up for auction from 51 to 74%.

Chairman of the Federation Council Budget Committee Yevgeny BUSHMIN voted for the adoption of amendments to the law on local self-government, allowing regions to delay implementation of the law until 2009. The senator explained to Vremya Novostey correspondent Daria GUSEVA what problems and how these amendments will help the regions solve. -- Evgeniy Viktorovich, senators approved amendments to the law on local self-government, postponing the entry into force of the law until 2009.

In my opinion, this is an adventure, big and spreading. When I talked with Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko, I told her that there are only five class A festivals in the world. “Why can’t we have a class A festival?” - she asked me. “Can you join the EU”? - “No” - “It’s the same with the Class A festival.” Encrypting the void is what, it seems to me, Mark Rudinshtein is doing now: “We are now going to organize an international festival...” - this is such manilovism, in my opinion.

An unknown company wants to get its hands on a masterpiece of Moscow constructivism Last Thursday, the thirteenth architectural festival “Zodchestvo”, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia, opened in the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall. The definition of “official” is most suitable for this event.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found in the uranium mine zone The former head of YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to eight years in prison, will serve his sentence in a general regime colony in the city of Krasnokamensk, Chita region. Yesterday this was officially confirmed by the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) for the Siberian District (SFO). Over the next two weeks, Khodorkovsky will be in quarantine under medical supervision.

The political scandal that erupted in Italy around the agreements between Gazprom and Eni on the sale of Russian gas over the next 22 years reached a sad conclusion last night. At a meeting in Moscow, the heads of the two companies, Alexey Miller and Paolo Scaroni, recognized the agreement concluded on May 10 as “irrelevant.” Translated from diplomatic language, this means that it was terminated.

In the middle of next week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will make a two-day trip to Israel and Jordan. The main topic of the negotiations is the Middle East settlement. Its prospects were also discussed in Moscow by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-GHEIT. Vremya Novostei columnist Elena SUPONINA talks to him. — Mister Minister, how do people in Cairo perceive the Russian idea of ​​holding a representative international conference on the Middle East in Moscow this fall?

Mark Rudinshtein took up a new festival Mark Rudinstein first spoke about the idea of ​​a new grandiose international festival in St. Petersburg back in the spring, at a press conference dedicated to the sale of Kinotavr. At the same time, Andrei Konchalovsky was mentioned as the future president of the film forum. Since Mark Rudinshtein is bursting with ideas and constantly throws out a wide variety of projects for public discussion, no one paid serious attention to this one.

NHL. Regular season. "Rangers" -- "Islanders" -- 2:3 (bullet) -- Tyutin "R" (0+1), Yashin "A" (1+1), "St. Louis" -- "Anaheim" - - 3:2, "Minnesota" - "San Jose" - 6:1, "Colorado" - "Los Angeles" - 4:5 - Frolov "LA" (0+1) . The Islanders broke a long winless streak against their fellow countrymen. The Islanders have failed to win the New York Derby in their last ten meetings.

FAS is trying to protect independent gasoline traders The Nizhny Novgorod Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service recognized LUKOIL-Volganefteprodukt as a violator of the Law on Competition. The company’s fault lies in the fact that in the spring prices at the holding’s gas stations in the Nizhny Novgorod region were lower than the wholesale prices at which fuel was sold from the plant to independent retailers.

Rosneft became a partner of TNK-BP in Eastern Siberia Interros finally managed to find a buyer for a 25.94% stake in Verkhnechonskneftegaz, which is developing a large oil field of the same name in the Irkutsk region. It turned out to be the state-owned Rosneft. As a high-ranking employee of TNK-BP told Vremya Novostey, his company, which owns 62.7% of the shares, considered the price offered by Interros (which one, he refused to name) too high and refused the purchase.