The reform of the banking system, which the Central Bank successfully torpedoed five years ago, has finally “caught up” with it. Never before has the country's main bank looked so vulnerable, never before has the prospect of a redistribution of its functions been so real.

Our skiers should have less hemoglobin and more medals The World Ski Championships in Sapporo have passed the equator. Six races out of 12 planned are behind us: the Russians have the victory of Olga Zavyalova in the women's duathlon and the silver won by Vasily Rochev and Nikolai Morilov in the team sprint. There is no need to talk about the prospects of our combined athletes. Dmitry Vasiliev showed the seventh result in ski jumping on Saturday.

Experts interviewed by the Vremya Novostei newspaper believe that today's Russian legislation does not have enough mechanisms that would facilitate the rapid development of voluntary health insurance as an alternative to compulsory medical insurance policies, which are very expensive for budgets but do not guarantee the quality of service.

The insurance market is waiting for consciousness from Russians and the state Without loud reports and regular reports to the president, Russians, in parallel with the priority national project “Health,” are implementing their own program to increase funding for the medical industry. Companies involved in voluntary health insurance (VHI) in Russia will publish preliminary results of their work for the past year in early March.

Officials and the Russian language are returning to Turkmenistan The new President of Turkmenistan Kurbanguly Berdimuhammedov , who is also the head of government according to the constitution, has practically completed the formation of the cabinet. The latest were the recent appointments of heads of law enforcement agencies.

Alexander Medvedev consolidates external sales of Gazprom At Gazprom, before Defender of the Fatherland Day, the final victory of Deputy Chairman for Foreign Economic Affairs Alexander Medvedev in consolidating the group’s export capabilities was recorded.

The regulator plans to introduce certification of payment devices The Bank of Russia is preparing a regulation according to which all banks will be required to purchase only certified ATMs, as well as banknote authentication devices. The Russian regulator decided to borrow the experience of the European Central Bank in order to prevent counterfeit banknotes from entering banking circulation. Note that the number of counterfeits of Russian rubles has doubled over the past year.

January 22 -- February 22, 2007 “Politicians Through the Eyes of the Media,” a joint project of Vremya Novostei and the Medialogia company, are ratings of the political figures most actively discussed in the Russian media.

Russian aid to Palestinians in exchange for Israelis Unusual guests are coming to Russia today, who will immediately be taken under special protection - these are the leaders of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, known as Hamas . This time the excitement around the visit will be less than in March 2006, when the head of the Politburo of the “brother” organization Khaled Meshal came to Moscow for the first time.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim in Moscow Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played for two days in a row in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Great Hall of the Conservatory.

“The False Temptation” by Robert De Niro on Moscow screens In April 1961, the CIA's covert operation, code-named Operation Zapata, to invade Cuba failed miserably when someone in the know apparently tipped off the Cubans. Among the main suspects is one of the highest ranks of the department and, in fact, its creator - Edward Wilson (Matt Damon). And while he is intensely thinking about who the “mole” really is, the story of the last almost 30 years of his life flashes before his eyes.

Collection of conceptual art of the Sigmund Freud Museum at the Stella Art Foundation Have you ever observed a strange effect - as if you were not looking at a painting, but the painting was looking at you, studying you carefully? Now imagine that a similar incident happened to the space of an entire exhibition, which seemed to capsize through the looking glass, became empty, and made the bright vernissage audience the object of its secret observation.

Morozov repeated Makarov's scoring record The best player in Russia last season, Kazan Ak Bars forward Alexey Morozov, scored a goal against Khimik near Moscow in the away match of the 54th round, achieving a repeat of Sergei Makarov's scoring record, set in the 1980/81 USSR Championship. According to the “goal plus pass” system, Morozov scored 79 (32+47) points.

Sharon Stone named worst actress of the year While the bulk of the stars of the American film industry were putting their final polish on last weekend, preparing to step on the red carpet of the Hollywood and Highland complex, where yesterday the 79th Oscar was presented, the famous actress Sharon Stone learned that she had been awarded Golden Raspberry Award for his performance of the leading role in the film, named one of the worst last year.

Boris Gryzlov threatens to take away the post of Chairman of the Federation Council from Sergei Mironov The struggle between United Russia and A Just Russia is heating up more and more. At the end of last week, the leader of United Russia, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said that his fellow party members in St. Petersburg would deprive the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, of the post of speaker of the upper house - the Federation Council. It is the St.