The company's dividends will exceed a billion dollars for the first time Surgutneftegaz, known for its cool attitude towards minority shareholders, unexpectedly pleased investors. In March, the company's CEO Vladimir Bogdanov promised that dividends for last year would be at least 15% higher than the year before. However, the amount of payments to shareholders approved last Tuesday at a meeting of the board of directors is almost twice as much as last year.

At the Jazzahead jazz festival! Three and a half thousand musicians performed in Bremen Several years ago, first the Netherlands, and then Finland and Hungary, began to organize national jazz festivals simultaneously with exhibitions and fairs in order to maximally attract the international musical community - managers, journalists, promoters. The results were immediate: the demand for jazz from these countries jumped noticeably.

VTB, following the Russian Bank for Development, signed an agreement on lending to a car plant Vneshtorgbank became the second state bank to enter into a strategic partnership agreement with AvtoVAZ. Following the Russian Development Bank, VTB will lend to the Russian auto giant both from its own funds and by attracting money from Western investors. According to the agreement, Vneshtorgbank will “significantly increase” the current limit (5 billion rubles) on lending to AvtoVAZ.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic “died of natural causes; there is no evidence that the death was due to criminal causes.” This conclusion is contained in the final report of Dutch experts, released yesterday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Milosevic, 64, was found dead in a holding cell at Scheveningen prison on March 11. An autopsy performed the next day showed that death was due to myocardial infarction.

At the tennis tournament in the American Amelie Island, Russian Nadezhda Petrova reached the third round of the competition, defeating Czech Katerina Bokhmova - 6:1, 6:7 (6), 6:3. After the match, Petrova admitted that she unexpectedly lost concentration in the second set. “This has never happened to me before,” said the Russian woman. - Only in the third set did my strength begin to return, and I felt the game.

Armenia is tired of myths about Russia Today begins a two-day visit to Moscow by Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. He will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov. Official reports on the agenda of the negotiations are extremely sparse - bilateral relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, regional issues, cooperation in international organizations.

Avtotor is in a hurry to launch new models Until the issue of Russia's accession to the WTO is resolved, Kaliningrad's Avtotor is in a hurry to make the most of the advantages of working in a special economic zone. Yesterday, the car plant and its American partner General Motors announced the start of official assembly of the Hummer H3. This year the company expects to produce 150-200 cars of this model (since June 2004, Avtotor has been producing the Hummer H2).

CIA prison planes even landed in Moscow The scandal surrounding the CIA's secret prisons abroad for terrorism suspects has taken a new turn. Yesterday, the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) published a report with the eloquent title “U.S. Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and Extinction.” The document, divided into 25 sections, consists of 20 pages of very concise text.

"Yellow Submarine" heads for the finale The 2005/06 Champions League will end only in mid-May. But she already has her own triumphant. The Spanish Villarreal, in the year of its debut in the main European Cup tournament in Europe, made it to the semi-finals, beating Lille, Benfica, Rangers along the way and Inter in the quarter-finals - 1:0. After Villarreal lost the first match in Milan, Inter's task of taking the lead in a two-round confrontation looked more than feasible.

Europe will forgive Russia for its uncertainty regarding the death penalty Russia's position on the death penalty will have symbolic significance and will not affect Moscow's future chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This was stated yesterday at a press conference by Luke van den Brande and Theodorus Pangalos, rapporteurs on Russia's fulfillment of its obligations to the Council of Europe from the monitoring commission of the European Parliamentary Assembly.

Home sellers are spending buyers' money too early The capital's prosecutor's office announced yesterday the completion of the investigation into two more criminal cases initiated last fall after mass protests by defrauded shareholders during the construction of residential buildings. The defendants are the general directors of Uyut-Kompaniya LLC Sergei Uyutin and Taiminveststroy LLC Lyudmila Ivanova.

The names of new laureates of the Fund for Support of Russian Science have been announced Big business continues its own national project to support Russian science. In 2006, 760 scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences received grants from the Foundation for the Promotion of Russian Science, whose founders are Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Mamut.

Investments in the development of the airport will amount to $180 million this year The East Line group of companies yesterday announced the volume of investments for this year for the implementation of the development program for the Domodedovo airport complex it manages.

Khimki and Dynamo St. Petersburg will compete for a ticket to the final The Final Four of the FIBA ​​European Cup starts tomorrow in Kyiv. On Friday, two Russian clubs will meet in the first semi-final - Khimki near Moscow and the current trophy winner (last season the tournament was called the FIBA ​​Euroleague) Dynamo St. Petersburg. The second pair was made up of the Spanish “Juventud” and the host of the competition, BC “Kyiv”.

Moscow public sector employees will receive a salary increase The Moscow authorities have prepared compensation for the capital's public sector employees for the shortened May holidays. Deprived of the opportunity to spend an extra few days off at their dachas, teachers, doctors and other employees will receive a salary increase from May 1. Their salaries will increase by about 10%.