Minister of Economy of Ukraine Vladimir MAKUKHA told Vremya Novostey about the prospects for Ukraine’s accession to the WTO and the development of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation. -- Will Ukraine become a member of the WTO in 2007? -- Ukraine has completed negotiations with almost all countries - members of the WTO working group. There were 16 official meetings of the group at which Ukraine's application for membership in the organization was considered.

VEB will have another tool for the “silent” Vnesheconombank may receive the right to invest pension savings in mortgage-backed securities that are not backed by government guarantees. The corresponding amendments to the legislation were prepared by the Ministry of Finance and submitted to the government for consideration.

A cyclone of southern origin brought snowfalls and blizzards to the European territory of Russia on Tatyana’s day. And another cyclone, more powerful, is moving in the north of European Russia, and all this bad weather is in a hurry to cover the northwestern regions. But thanks to this, the frosts here will begin to weaken: if next night it’s -17...-22°C, then on Friday afternoon it will be -8...-13°C, on Saturday night -13...-18°C, and in the daytime -5...

Dmitry Medvedev makes his debut at the World Economic Forum in Davos The next World Economic Forum kicked off on Wednesday in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

"Drums in the Night" - premiere at the Et Cetera Theater Drums in the Night is an early play by Bertolt Brecht; it was written in 1919, the author was 21 years old. Director Ulanbek Bayaliev, a graduate of Sergei Zhenovach's directing course, is ten years older, but the performance at the Et Cetera Theater is his debut on the big stage.

“Canned Food” on Moscow screens At the very end, Marat Basharov wakes up with a wild cry, in a cold sweat. The viewer will have to watch the dream that plunged him into horror over the previous two hours - called “Canned Food” (director - Yegor Konchalovsky, genre - action movie, total budget - $ 5.5 million).

Police officers suspected of corruption were armed with slingshots Very original special protective equipment entered service with the police of the Mexican city of Tijuana. Law enforcement officers were given slingshots and ammunition for them in the form of balls, and now law enforcement officers recall their skills in handling these objects, familiar only from children's games.

The Law on Information Transparency does not make government more open Russian officials do not seem to intend to follow the lead of their few colleagues, who want to force them to work in conditions of maximum possible openness to society. Vremya Novostey has at its disposal the text of the bill “On ensuring access to information on the activities of state bodies and local self-government bodies,” recently submitted by the government to the State Duma after lengthy approvals.

Dmitry Kozak is not preparing to replace the President of Chechnya Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak yesterday denied reports about the upcoming early change of President of Chechnya, which appeared the day before in some capital media. The plenipotentiary also has no information about the likely appointment of the current head of the republic, Alu Alkhanov, to a high post in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Nuclear energy is coming back before it left The 14th annual energy conference, held under the auspices of the Handelsblatt newspaper, which ended yesterday in Berlin, outlined two primary goals for the industry in Europe. The European Union, on the one hand, must become more independent from individual suppliers of hydrocarbon energy resources. On the other hand, the region must make an even greater contribution to climate protection.

Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov failed to regain the title of European champions At the European Figure Skating Championships in Warsaw, sports pairs competed for the first set of awards. The duo from Germany Alena Savchenko and Robin Zholkov won gold at the European Championship for the first time in their careers - 199.39 points. Russians Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov became silver medalists - 179.61.

Prime Minister Kulov turned out to be superfluous Yesterday the powerful Kyrgyz tandem Bakiev-Kulov ceased to exist. At the morning meeting of the Jogorku Kenesh (parliament of Kyrgyzstan), deputies again rejected the candidacy of Felix Kulov, submitted by the president for the post of head of government. The voting results differed little from those received on January 18; yesterday 25 votes were cast for Kulov - two more than a week ago. And 38 votes against - one less.

CLUBS “Aquarium” will perform on January 26 at “B2” , 23.00, and on January 27 at the Music Town club, 21.00. “Marimba Plus” at the “House” on January 26, 20.00. “Moral Code” at Tabula Rasa on Friday, 23.00. 5`NIZZA at Tochka on January 26, 21.30. Tequilajazzz at the “Club on Brestskaya” , 22.00. Billy`s Band January 26 and 27 at the Ikra club, 21.00. “White prison” January 27 in the “Duma” , 21.30. “Children of Picasso” on Saturday at the Gogol` club, 22.00.

Foreign embassies suspected of excessive consumption of computers The Moscow-Smolensk Transport Prosecutor's Office has completed an investigation into a criminal case of smuggling, which last spring almost caused a diplomatic scandal with several foreign countries. As it turned out, a group of businessmen managed to arrange the supply of large quantities of electronics and office equipment under the guise of goods necessary for the work of diplomatic missions.

Mass disappearance of agricultural enterprises does not threaten Russian agriculture Over the past 11 years, the number of peasant farms in Russia has almost halved, and 26% of large and medium-sized agricultural enterprises have stopped operating. This was announced by the head of the Department of Agricultural Statistics of Rosstat, Alexandra Epikhina, at a press conference dedicated to the start of publication of the results of the All-Russian Agricultural Census 2006.