An increase in salaries for scientists will be accompanied by a reduction in “dead souls” The government took the first step towards thousand-dollar earnings for employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to the decree signed in the last days before the holidays by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, an increase in official salaries for RAS employees began on May 1.

Now the company expects to receive only $10 billion from the IPO The volume of Rosneft's IPO could be reduced to $10 billion, Peter O'Brien, head of the group of financial advisors to the president of Rosneft (with the rank of vice president), told the British newspapers The Financial Times and The Sunday Times. According to him, continued high oil prices have changed the holding's financing needs compared to the fall, when discussions about placing shares began.

Former speaker of the Belarusian parliament, 71-year-old Stanislav Shushkevich, as Vremya Novostei learned, received a summons demanding to appear at the police station. The politician told VN that this was due to his participation in the protest that took place on May 1 under the slogans of abolishing the contract system in the field of employment and the release of political prisoners.

Brussels sent an energy letter to Moscow An unexpected summary of the skirmish that flared up recently between Gazprom and the European Commission was given by the head of Europe's largest energy concern E.ON, Wulf Bernotat. “I believe that the controversy surrounding Gazprom is completely exaggerated and inflated. And, to be honest, this is absolute nonsense,” he said bluntly in an interview with the British Financial Times.

The Alvis Hermanis Theater went on tour in Moscow The NET festival organized an event - an exchange tour of two directors, Russian and Latvian. They are almost the same age, both work with modern literature, rethink the classics, both are active, productive, and have a reputation as avant-garde artists and pranksters.

Guardians of the Summer Garden sculpture are trying to save the famous statues The annual unveiling after winter of the famous statues of the famous St. Petersburg Summer Garden invariably becomes an occasion to become convinced that marble sculpture endures the atmosphere of a modern metropolis less and less well.

And the Palestinians are without money “In the last two or three months, events have occurred in the Palestinian Authority, which resulted in the emergence of problems that are beyond my competence,” James Wolfensohn explained yesterday his resignation from the post of special representative of the Quartet of international mediators for the Middle East settlement (Russia, USA, EU, UN).

CSKA won the title of ULEB Euroleague champion 35 years later, CSKA again won the right to be called the strongest club in the Old World. The fourth consecutive appearance in the Final Four of the ULEB Euroleague finally brought the “red-blues” a long-awaited victory. In Prague, the army team first beat Barcelona - 84:75, and in the decisive match they deprived the Israeli Maccabi of the title of champion - 73:69.

The Gazprom board unscheduled revised the budget Before the May holidays, the Gazprom board decided to change the company's financial plan for 2006. Most likely, the board of directors will be asked to approve an increase in capital investments by $1.1 billion in absentia. Previous versions of the concern's budget and investment program were approved by the directors just two months ago. In the new edition, Gazprom’s investment program should increase by 27.1 to 337.2 billion rubles.

Today, the issue of extraditing former Bosnian Serb commander 64-year-old Ratko Mladic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will be discussed by European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn and ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will also speak on this topic today. Ratko Mladić, suspected of crimes against humanity, has been hiding from the ICTY for ten years.

Evgeniy Adamov was charged with 3 billion On April 28, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia completed the investigation of the criminal case against the former head of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, Yevgeny Adamov, who has already served more than six months in a Swiss prison, and is now languishing in the capital's "Matrosskaya Tishina" pre-trial detention center.

The Central Election Commission of Russia is creating an interdepartmental commission on the development of the state automated system “Elections”. Vremya Novostei correspondent Daria GUSEVA found out what innovations in the voting and vote counting process are planned for the next federal elections in 2007-2008 - Duma and presidential. -- Valery Aleksandrovich, why did the idea arise to reform the State Automated System “Elections” system? -- The system must comply with federal law.

Before the start of the Moscow tour, Alvis HERMANIS met with Moscow journalists and talked about his work on the imported performances. --You perform the play “Long Life” without any words at all. Does this mean that you had no text, no play? - Yes. In Riga they didn’t even want to pay us royalties, they said: “Show me the text.” And only after the play was invited to the Biennale of Contemporary Drama, they said: “Well, okay. But we still won’t pay 11% of the fees.

Earthquake in Koryakia could lead to global displacement At a meeting yesterday with members of the Cabinet of Ministers, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to provide effective assistance to the residents of Koryakia affected by the devastating earthquake on April 21.

The government crisis in Kyrgyzstan was fleeting Yesterday morning, a government crisis erupted unexpectedly in Kyrgyzstan. The Deputy Prime Minister, 12 ministers and the head of the Prime Minister's Office submitted their resignation to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. However, in the afternoon the crisis was successfully resolved; the head of state did not accept their resignation at a meeting with the ministers.