US Defense Secretary does not rule out war with Russia America needs a powerful military to be prepared for future threats, including those from Russia . This was stated by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at a hearing in the Armed Services Committee of the US House of Representatives.

An information battle for the post of President of Chechnya is unfolding On Thursday, rumors about impending grandiose personnel changes in Chechnya thickened again. In the first half of the day, a number of news agencies reported, citing sources in the plenipotentiary representation of the republic to the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow, that the secretary of the Council for Economic and Public Security of Chechnya, German Vok, had resigned.

Chronicle of sporting events The first match of the season was played at a tournament in Paris with a prize fund of 600 thousand dollars by one of the best tennis players in the world, Justine Henin from Belgium. In the second round she broke the resistance of Frenchwoman Emilie Loi - 3:6, 6:2, 6:2. Three Russians - Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze - reached the quarterfinals of these competitions.

Russia has confirmed the ban on entry into the country of Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko, a member of the Our Ukraine presidential bloc who headed the National Security and Defense Council in 2005. Last Saturday, border guards at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport denied entry to Mr. Poroshenko, who had arrived on a private visit. The press service of the Russian Embassy in Ukraine confirmed this fact, explaining that we are talking rather about “non-permission” to enter.

An article was found for ex-senator Chakhmakhchyan The Prosecutor General's Office yesterday formally charged former member of the Federation Council from Kalmykia Levon Chakhmakhchyan, who was at the center of a scandal involving extortion of $1.5 million from Transaero Airlines for changing the materials of an audit of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. Investigators assessed the senator’s actions in that situation under Art. 159-4 (fraud on an especially large scale).

The new residence of the Russian President will be built on the site of the Bismarck Estate Rumors that the head of state would be “registered” in the westernmost Russian region have been circulating for a long time. The Vremya Novostei newspaper first wrote about this last year. On January 31, we also reported about the potential location of the new residence - in the city of Pionersky. However, only now this information has been officially confirmed.

Cold Arctic air entered European territory along with an anticyclone from the northwest. In the next 24 hours, it will become even colder in the center of Russia. At night, in some places the temperature will drop to -30°C. It will be cold on Friday as well, but the atmospheric front of the southern cyclone will divide the center of Russia into two parts: very cold and moderately cold.

CLUBS Jason Webley (USA). The singer and accordionist from Seattle plays carnival music heavily mixed with improvisation, making each concert a real theatrical performance and focusing on intimate venues filled with fairly heated audiences. Webley's solo concert will take place on February 10 at Gogol' , 10 p.m., and on Friday, February 9, he will perform with the group “Children of Picasso” at the Club on Brestskaya , 10 p.m.

Rosnedra begins to decide the fate of the Kovyktinskoye field The Rosnedra Commission plans today to consider the issue of revoking the license for the Kovyktinskoye gas condensate field, owned by TNK-BP's subsidiary, RUSIA Petroleum. A source at Rosnedra, familiar with the agenda of the meeting, told Vremya Novostey about this.

A surprise has been prepared for Vladimir Putin's arrival in Jordan The Russian president, who began his first trip to Israel in April 2005 with a prayer at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, remains faithful to the tradition of visiting Christian shrines even with an extremely busy schedule of foreign visits.

Gazprom and SUEK created the leader of the Russian electricity market Gazprom is increasingly becoming an energy concern, in which the electric power industry occupies a significant place. Yesterday it was announced that the concern and the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) intend to create a structure by the end of the first half of the year into which the energy and coal assets of both enterprises will be transferred. Gazprom will own 50% plus one share, SUEK will own the remaining stake.

Janacek's opera Jenufa was staged in Stuttgart The new opera director of the Stuttgart theater, Albrecht Pullmann, is sweeping with a new broom where in recent years, during the tenure of Klaus Zeelein, the most interesting performances in Germany were made. He began with a remake of the play by the famous Martin Kushay - “Othello” was remade by a certain Lydia Steyer, and the name of the original director disappeared from the poster.

Is an “eternal” presidential term possible in Russia? Vladimir Putin abandoned the term “successor”, which is actively used by the Russian political elite. It was first put into circulation during the 2004 presidential elections. This gave political scientists a reason to make unflattering comparisons between Russia and not very democratic countries, such as Mexico.

In 15 years, the Russian vocabulary has changed no less than society On Wednesday, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) published data from a “landmark” public opinion poll. “Epochal” because sociologists decided to compare how we treated the words and expressions of our native language in different eras - now and 15 years ago, in 1992.

Russia insists that IMF capital quotas match the size of the country's economy As part of the meeting of G8 finance ministers opening today in Essen, Germany, the discussion on reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will continue. The essence of the proposed changes, in particular, is the redistribution of state participation quotas in the IMF capital and, accordingly, the weight of a particular country in the fund.