Pre-election purges have begun at Gazprom After a year and a half of personnel lull, a “bomb” exploded again in the management of Gazprom. Yesterday, one of the most active and “multi-disciplinary” deputy chairman of the concern’s board, Alexander Ryazanov, ended his contract, which was simply not renewed. Mr. Ryazanov is leaving not only his office on the street. Nametkin, but also the post of president of Gazprom Neft.

Global investment banks compete with the London Stock Exchange Leading European exchanges will soon have a powerful competitor. Seven of the largest Western investment banks - Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS - plan to create a pan-European stock market trading platform next year. This will allow market participants to reduce costs for transactions with securities.

An “anniversary” child was born under the birth certificate program A computer program of the Russian Social Insurance Fund (FSS) determined that the millionth baby born ten months after the start of a new form of incentives for doctors aimed at improving the quality of their work was a girl from an average Russian family. The child was born into the Nesterov family - Andrei, a Moscow metro worker, and Natalya, a technologist at a sewing company.

Kaliningrad officials cannot determine the budget for the five-year cultural development program For the second time in the last six months, the government of the Kaliningrad region has reviewed a five-year cultural development program. In July, relevant minister Mikhail Andreev already told his colleagues about his far-reaching plans - then he asked for 6.5 billion rubles to implement his plans.

Severstal has determined the price for placing an additional share issue Severstal announced yesterday that the board of directors that met the day before determined the price for placing an additional issue of 85 million shares with a par value of 0.01 rubles. For shareholders who have a pre-emptive right to repurchase, it is set at RUB 322.81. ($12.10) per share, for placement by public subscription - RUB 332.74. ($12.5).

Chronicle of sporting events Hockey. NHL. Regular season. "Rangers" -- "New Jersey" -- 3:2, "Phoenix" -- "Minnesota" -- 4:3 -- Saprykin "F" (2+0), "Calgary" -- "St. Louis" "- 3:0, "Vancouver" - "Detroit" - 2:3. In the first period, the Rangers combined to make only three shots on target at the New Jersey goal, and after the second 20 minutes they lost with a score of 0:2. But at the beginning of the last third of the match, the hosts scored three goals within 90 seconds.

Ukraine, where the powers of the president and prime minister are not clearly divided, is reaping the fruits of dual power. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the ruling Anti-Crisis Coalition of the Verkhovna Rada are trying to “cleanse” the government of ministers elected under the president’s quota, whose supporters have now gone over to the opposition. Yesterday's report by two ministers - defense Anatoly Gritsenko and foreign affairs Borys Tarasyuk - caused a storm of emotions in the Rada.

Russia's role is invisible, but there are results Yesterday it became known about the possibility of resuming, after a year-long break, six-party negotiations on the Korean nuclear issue with the participation of the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan. They may resume in Beijing before the end of the year. The timing is now being discussed by diplomats gathered in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The State Duma approved new rules for election campaigns The State Duma yesterday adopted in the second reading a package of amendments to the electoral legislation and the Civil Procedure Code of Russia. Among the most notable innovations is the scandalous amendment of United Russia MP Alexander Moskalets to abolish the minimum 20 percent threshold for turnout in elections, as well as a bill prohibiting candidates from using their legally allowed airtime to criticize opponents.

Bush will have to withdraw troops from Iraq and fire Bolton Democrats, who won the midterm elections to the US Congress on November 7, are already promising that they will increase pressure on Republican President George W. Bush to change the country's foreign policy. Democratic Senator Harry Reid, who will lead the majority in the upper house of Congress in January, is preparing for a heated public debate on the issue of the war in Iraq. “What we're doing there now isn't working,” he explains.

Iran yesterday criticized the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which summarizes the work of its experts over two and a half months. A senior Iranian official told the national Mer news agency on condition of anonymity that the report "is a repetition of paragraphs and phrases from previous reports and does not contain anything new." The IAEA report makes serious claims against Iran.

Energy security of the CIS At the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi on November 18-19, Vladimir Putin will propose new ideas that confirm Russia’s claims to be a guarantor of energy security not only for Western Europe, but also for the powerful and developing economies of the East. Recently, Kazakhstan has also been vying for this role.

An arms dealer from Singapore, known to be 46 years old and named Chandran, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of $50,000 for attempting to illegally sell Syria 20,000 Bulgarian AKMS (a variant of the assault rifle developed for the airborne troops). A Kalashnikov with a folding metal stock) for a total of $3.4 million.

At the International Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Leipzig, the best films told about family ties Relatives as authors of non-fiction films and their characters - the reality of one of the largest European documentary (plus animation section) film festivals - in Leipzig. As part of the Leipzig documentary programs, there were films that daughters made about mothers and fathers, granddaughters about grandmothers, grandchildren about an entire army of relatives.

The last days have been marked by architectural awards. Yesterday's issue of the newspaper talked about a new ambitious award for young masters, “Challenge of Time.” It was established by the Jacob Chernikhov International Foundation (ICIF) and is designed to encourage the most intelligent conceptual projects and stimulate lively and subtle creative thought. The venerable institution Venice Biennale and the new ARX magazine recently organized two more premium aptitude tests for architects.