United Russia won all Sunday elections Yesterday the results of elections to the legislative assemblies of three regions of Russia were summed up - in Moscow, Ivanovo and Kostroma regions. The United Russia party won everywhere. As you know, in the elections to the Moscow City Duma she gained 47% and won in all single-mandate constituencies. In the Ivanovo and Kostroma regions, the victory of United Russia was not so crushing, but still impressive.

The Kremlin has determined the fate of the law “On subsoil” The law “On Subsoil”, developed by Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev, may still be considered by the Duma in the first reading before the end of the year. As Vremya Novostey learned, the result of a working meeting held last Thursday with Vladimir Putin with the participation of the leadership of the Cabinet of Ministers was the decision not to delay the adoption of the law.

Communists broke into the Moscow City Duma for the first time The main surprise of the recent elections to the Moscow City Duma was the success of the Communists, who not only entered the capital’s parliament for the first time, but also showed second results after the party in power.

The authorities have set strict rules for celebrating the New Year The coming year 2006 promises to pass in severity and sobriety for Russian citizens, if you believe the popular saying “how you celebrate the New Year is how you will spend it.” The federal and Moscow authorities decided to separate two things that seemed to have long since merged together in the minds of Soviet people: champagne and the striking of the Kremlin chimes.

Yesterday, at a meeting with journalists at RIA Novosti, the President of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, named Alexander Borodyuk as one of the possible contenders for the vacant post of head coach of the national team. It is assumed that Borodyuk can take over the team temporarily, for a six-month period, starting in February. “In principle, his appointment is one of the likely options,” Mutko said.

Speaker of the Ukrainian Rada Vladimir Lytvyn will hold talks in Moscow today. This is a planned trip - the parliaments of the two countries exchange visits at the leadership level every six months. But against the backdrop of cooling relations between Moscow and Kyiv, Mr. Lytvyn’s arrival takes on special significance.

The trial of 27-year-old unemployed Vladimir Harutyunyan, who threw a live grenade towards the presidents of Georgia and the United States on May 10 in Freedom Square, began on Monday in Tbilisi. The grenade was wrapped in a scarf and did not explode only by accident. Harutyunyan, who had grown a beard after his arrest, was yesterday nervously pacing behind bars in a vest and hat and demanding the presence of representatives of international organizations.

Curfew introduced in the Palestinian Authority Yesterday at 12.30 Moscow time in the Israeli city of Netanya, a terrorist detonated an explosive device. Five were killed, 58 were injured, three in serious condition. One of the victims, judging by her name (Alexandra Zarinitskaya, 65 years old), came to Israel from the former USSR.

Jonas Vaitkus hatched the idea for the play for thirty years. The second Baltic House festival in Moscow opened unsuccessfully. The play “The Master and Margarita,” staged by the Lithuanian Jonas Vaitkus in St. Petersburg and, of necessity, included in the program instead of the La Mancha Palace of Culture, turned out to be a ponderous, loose and old-fashioned work—no, simply inert.

At the World Cup, none of our jumpers even made it into the top 30 The second stage of the Ski Jumping World Cup in Norway ended with a complete failure of Russian flying skiers. The maximum that our athletes achieved in two competitive sessions last weekend was Denis Kornilov’s 34th place.

Sverdlovsk parliamentarians did not increase child benefits so as not to irritate residents of the region At the end of last week, Sverdlovsk United Russia deputies received an incomplete pack of diapers from their colleagues in the Regional Duma. Thus, the opposition minority tried to convince the pro-government majority of the need to increase the amount of child benefits, demonstrating that families cannot survive on the current rate.

French cinema today has an old face This year the festival “French Cinema Today” emigrated from Moscow. Its opening took place in Vladivostok, and will continue in Yekaterinburg. Unfortunately, over five years in the capital, this festival failed to become a conceptual event, as happened, for example, with the Japanese festival.

Saddam is pleased with the US lawyer The trial of ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seven of his associates is turning into an adventurous series. Yesterday's meeting of the special tribunal was interrupted for an hour and a half after the team of lawyers left the meeting room. The procession was led not by Iraqi Khalil al-Duleimi, Saddam’s defender from the beginning of the trial, but by former US Justice Secretary Ramsey Clark, who joined the defense a week ago.

Russia and Ukraine have not budged in resolving the gas issue The words of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko that negotiations between Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine on the conditions for gas transit to Europe have acquired “positive dynamics” have not yet been confirmed, although officials from Kyiv planned to find a solution to this issue until today. Yesterday, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz Igor Voronin spent the whole day at the Gazprom office.

The results of the first year of monetization in the Ministry of Health and Social Development are assessed as four with a minus The reform of preferential payments, which began in January 2005, was prepared in such a hurry that almost a year after the start of monetization, the leaders of the Ministry of Health and Social Development have to solve problems, the inevitability of which was obvious even during the parliamentary discussion of the notorious federal law No. 122.