Valentina Matvienko demanded to urgently improve the status of St. Petersburg State University The government will prohibit universities from accepting, even for money, applicants with low Unified State Examination grades or unsatisfactory entrance test results. This was stated yesterday during a visit to St. Petersburg by the Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko.

Bankers believe that car loans will not cost less than 9% per annum The car loan service continues to remain popular in the market. Russians are happy to switch to new cars, and banks are happy to provide citizens with money to buy these cars. The high degree of competition among banks has led to the fact that car loan rates on the market have leveled out and today amount to 9-10% per annum, depending on the loan term and the size of the down payment.

Mask of Vestris This festival is the last one before the reconstruction of the Mariinsky Theater. It is unknown where the next one will take place and whether it will happen at all, at least until the new building is put into operation. In anticipation of change, the themes of the Mariinsky Festival were readiness for new things and being true to oneself.

The struggle for land continues in the North Caucasus Official events in Kabardino-Balkaria on the day of the revival of the Balkar people (yesterday marked the 49th anniversary of the end of the 13-year deportation of the Balkars) were overshadowed by a press conference given in Moscow by several representatives of the Balkar public.

Tomorrow, the Iranian nuclear issue will be the main topic at a meeting in Berlin of the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, Great Britain, China, the United States, France), as well as Germany. The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said that the UN Security Council “could come out in support of the IAEA,” whose report on Iran’s nuclear program he is currently discussing, but the Security Council should not take on the functions of experts.

Forecast for the coming days The anticyclone, and with it the night frosts, are leaving the center of European territory. Warm and humid Atlantic cyclones are rushing to replace it, which will radically change the nature of the weather. Spring will become cloudy and damp, but the temperature will finally rise noticeably, even at night it will be close to zero, and during the day it will gradually begin to approach +10°C.

Aeroflot is ready to take the RRJ onto the runway At the upcoming meeting of the Aeroflot board of directors today, the issue of updating the aircraft fleet, including the acquisition of new regional aircraft, will be discussed. The company's directors are reportedly planning to approve a previously concluded deal to purchase 30 RRJ aircraft.

By the finale, the festival demonstrated the diversity of artistic paths The festival, as is known, differs from the usual flow of the repertoire in that at it works not only coexist, but form a kind of new dramaturgy, a confluence of meanings. I had the chance to review the last three evenings: let’s see how Farukh Ruzimatov’s benefit performance, “Swan Lake” with Ulyana Lopatkina and Jose Martinez from the Opéra de Paris and the gala concert corresponded with each other.

Former Alania coach could go to jail While street passions are raging in Paris, the trial of the former leaders of the football club of the same name continues in Marseille. In the dock were Robert-Louis Dreyfus, who held the post of president in the late 90s, the head coach of that time, Roland Kurbis, and ten other people, mostly football agents. If the guilt of Dreyfus and Kurbis is proven, then the former Alania coach will spend the next five years behind bars.

There was no place for the Christ-loving Afghan in his homeland Afghan Abdul Rahman, who under his country's Sharia law was facing the gallows for converting to Christianity, was released yesterday from a Kabul prison. According to Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, his country is ready to provide political asylum to 41-year-old Rahman. The release occurred after the intervention of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

CLUBS Goldemnask.Club. The Golden Mask Theater Festival continues the wonderful undertaking of last year - a music club project near the festival. This year, Alexander Cheparukhin, who brought John Zorn and David Sylvian to Moscow, as well as Eduard Boyakov, are responsible for the club’s program. The club will open with a concert by Geoffrey Oryema (Uganda, France) and the “Orchestra of Unknown Instruments” .

The government of the republic chooses a new owner of Mazeikiu Nafta Negotiations on the purchase by Lithuania of 53.7% of the shares of the Mazeikiu Nafta concern from YUKOS are coming to an end. On Monday it became known that the Lithuanian side managed to reduce the price for the stake owned by the Russian company from 1.4 to 1.2 billion dollars. However, YUKOS will still receive about 1 billion litas (approximately 290 million euros) in dividends from the concern’s activities last year.

The former head of state security of Ichkeria surrendered to the authorities The Chechen prosecutor's office announced yesterday that the former head of the state security department of the self-proclaimed republic of Ichkeria, Sultan Gelikhanov, turned himself in to law enforcement agencies. After a standard interrogation by the FSB and the prosecutor's office, he was released home.

The Noga case comes to life as a Latin American TV series Chilean President Michelle Bachelet last Monday opened the largest air show in Latin America in Santiago de Chile, the highlight of which was the American F-16 fighter, which will become the basis of the Chilean Air Force.

Opening limited liability companies will increase in price by 100 times Complicating the rules for registering companies seems to be a thing of the near future. As follows from the bill prepared by specialists from the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service, registration rules will be closer to European ones.