Today there is no one to protect and strengthen the Russian economy Published in the latest issue of Expert magazine, an article by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov , in which he tries to clarify and develop the concept of “sovereign democracy,” aroused, as they say, keen interest in scientific and expert circles. And it doesn’t matter that everyone still understands Mr. Surkov’s terminology in their own way, and some still don’t understand it at all.

The British Ministry of Defense saved on ammunition for its paratroopers fighting off Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, putting the lives of the military at risk. The servicemen even refused to go on combat missions because the ammunition they received got stuck when fired from Browning heavy machine guns. As a result, the British borrowed cartridges from their Canadian and American colleagues.

VTB-24 will satisfy the needs of small businesses The volume of loans to small businesses issued by VTB-24 Bank will amount to about $700 million, Nadezhda Karsalova, vice-president of Vneshtorgbank, said yesterday. Market participants note the rapid growth of lending to small businesses, pointing out that financial institutions so far satisfy demand only by 15-20%.

BP President called on European businessmen to let Russian companies into the markets of their countries The head of BP, Lord John Brown, flew from Moscow to Helsinki yesterday, where he made a short report at the general meeting of the “round table” of industrialists of Russia and the European Union on the topic of the work of TNK-BP. The Kremlin cannot but like this report. This is Lord Brown's second speech on Russia's role in global energy, the first was in the summer of 2004.

CLUBS Zhanna Aguzarova. One of the rare concerts today by the best soloist of the Bravo group, the queen of domestic rock and roll of the second half of the 80s, Zhanna Aguzarova. In 1990, she left for the USA, and six years later she returned to Russia and again began to appear on Moscow, mainly club, venues, convincingly showing everyone that crazy and carefree times, at least for her, were in full swing. November 24 at the “Club on Brestskaya”, 22.00. Alexey Aigi and the ensemble “4'33”.

Spartak got a chance to stay in the UEFA Cup Moscow Spartak, which has not yet won a single match in the group stage, nevertheless has not lost its chance to compete for a place in the UEFA Cup. To do this, you need to do very little - beat Sporting in Lisbon. And then the doors of the second most important tournament will open for the “red-whites”. For the second Russian delegate, CSKA, they are already open. Another thing is that the army team wants to remain in the highest football society.

Air France-KLM mulls takeover of AlItalia The French Air France-KLM Group, Europe's largest airline, has decided to expand its business by acquiring the unprofitable Italian airline AlItalia SpA. Yesterday, the leaders of both companies began discussing the terms of the merger, but have not yet agreed on anything definite.

"Big Book" awards presented Since the “Big Book” is famous primarily for its very large reward amounts, we’ll start with them.

Insurers can be connected to the DLO system As early as next year, insurance companies may be recruited to help government agencies monitor the implementation of the additional drug supply program (ADS). Of course, if they are not afraid of huge debts and the general financial opacity of the system built by the Ministry of Health and Social Development.

“Latvia is for Ukraine and Georgia to be in the Alliance” The North Atlantic Alliance summit will be held in Riga on November 28-29. For the first time, NATO leaders will gather so close to Russia. The hosts of the summit will be represented by Latvian Defense Minister Atis Slakteris. This 50-year-old politician is the champion of Latvia, the USSR and the world in powerboating. Having started his career as an engineer on a collective farm, after 1995 Mr.

General Motors expects to increase sales in Russia next year by as much as 75% and sell at least 175 thousand cars under different brands (including 49 thousand cars produced by the American concern's joint venture with AvtoVAZ). Warren Brown, Managing Director of General Motors - CIS, spoke about this yesterday. According to him, by the end of this year the company expects to sell more than 100 thousand cars - 88.7 thousand have already been sold in ten months.

Young authors showed their works on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater The “Workshop of New Choreography” was held for the third time - the year before last, the country’s main theater for the first time provided the stage of the Great Rehearsal Hall to debutant choreographers.

The theoretical platform of the II Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art was the scientific conference “Creating Thinking Worlds” organized by its commissioner Joseph Backstein together with co-curator Daniel Birnbaum and the Interros publishing program. The conference became a kind of brainstorming of a very complex and poorly structured topic in the minds of the art community for the biennale: “Notes. Geopolitics. Markets. Amnesia".

In the center of Russia, the average daily temperature is three to four degrees higher than usual for these days in November. In the east of the region, where the influence of the Siberian anticyclone is felt, on the contrary, the weather is cold. The weather pattern in the region will not change significantly in the coming days. With southern winds, Mediterranean heat will continue to flow to the west of European territory.

Shell will participate in new auctions in Western Siberia Despite the protracted conflict with the Russian authorities over Sakhalin-2, the main shareholder of the project - the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch/Shell - is going to expand its activities in Russia . Through its subsidiary Salym Petroleum Development, which the concern owns on a parity basis with Sibir Energy, Shell intends to participate in auctions for the sale of licenses for oil and gas areas in Western Siberia.