April 4 -- May 4, 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.

The economic sanctions that Russia imposes or threatens to impose against post-Soviet states whose policies the Russian authorities do not like bring us neither economic nor political benefits. Therefore, before “punishing” unwanted neighbors in a jingoistic frenzy, it is fundamentally important to calculate the consequences of such punishment for ourselves and for those whom we are trying to protect in this way.

Russian peacekeepers billed the government The Supreme Court ruled on yet another lawsuit to invalidate a number of regulations of the Russian government, which brought to light a completely unexpected and scandalous topic - the truly plight of the Russian “blue helmets” carrying out the UN peacekeeping mission as civilian police officers.

Moody's changed ratings of Russian banks Moody's Investors Service yesterday announced a revision of the ratings of 79 Russian banks. This happened in connection with the emergence of a new methodology for assessing credit institutions at the agency. And although, thanks to the updated methodology, many banks have had their ratings raised, none of them are financially stable enough to reach investment grade, the first level of which (at Moody's - Baa3) has long been occupied by Russia.

Russia dropped in the ranking of information technology development The research division of The Economist magazine, with the participation of the IBM Institute for Business Value, has published its latest annual ranking of e-readiness for 69 countries. The main results of the 2007 rating are as follows. Denmark, the USA and Sweden, like a year ago, retain their leadership, but Asian countries, led by Singapore and Hong Kong, have come close to them.

A fine anticyclone with sun and warmth briefly looked into the center of European territory. It quickly moves to the southeast, giving way to the approaching Atlantic cyclone. Already tomorrow, atmospheric fronts will approach, and on the holiday of May 9, the center of the cyclone will approach. The weather will change: it will become cloudy and it will rain more often.

The ballet part of the Moscow tour of the Mariinsky Theater has ended This year, the Easter Festival included dances in its program for the first time - in addition to symphony and choral concerts, in addition to Ringing Week and a short visit to the opera (today at the Musical Theater St. Petersburg residents sing “The Love for Three Oranges”), the Mariinsky ballet was shown during the May holidays in Moscow. The theater has not had such large-scale tours in the capital since 1998 - St.

In an interview with Vremya Novostei, Mikhail CHECHETOV, deputy head of the Party of Regions faction in the Rada, comments on the situation in Ukraine. — How should the prime minister’s concession on the issue of holding early elections be assessed as a victory or a defeat? - In this situation, neither the president nor the prime minister lost or won. Ukraine won .

CLUBS “Songs of the War Years”: “Fruit Kefir” , “Cabernet Deneuve” , Positive Orchestra , Beat Devils , “Seen! We know” , “Paperny TAM” , “My rockets up” , “Arkhip and his Alice” , “Bay of the Whale” , Miss is Big , “GDR” . “Chinese pilot Zhao Da” , May 8, 21.00. "Meaning hallucinations." At the Ikra club on May 9, 21.00. Dog Korolenko May 9 in the “OGI Project” , 22.00. Anatoly Gerasimov (saxophone), DJs Studitsky , A. Nikolaev , Dima Yaponets . Soul, house, techno, disco, funk.

The World Judo Super Cup in Moscow ended with a convincing victory for Russia in the men's, women's and, accordingly, overall standings. Our team won twelve awards, of which two were gold, four were silver and six were bronze. Both top awards were won on Sunday in the most prestigious heavyweight division - men's and women's.

Eurotunnel allowed to restructure debts A French court yesterday gave Eurotunnel , the operator of the Channel Tunnel railway that went bankrupt last August, a chance to get out of the crisis on its own. The Commercial Court of Paris decided to temporarily stop the bankruptcy procedure, approving the restructuring of debts, a significant part of which, according to experts, will simply be written off.

Aluminum corporations staged a race for leadership Perhaps the primacy of the United Russian Aluminum Company , recently created as a result of the merger of RUSAL, SUAL and the alumina assets of the Swiss Glencore, in the global aluminum industry will end just before it began. Yesterday, one of the industry leaders in the production of primary aluminum, the American corporation Alcoa, made an offer to purchase its main competitor - Canadian Alcan.

The State Duma is discussing the need for a Russian language test for migrants Despite the federal government's satisfaction with the results of the new "market" and migration policies , Russian legislators seem to believe that the measures taken are still insufficient to effectively screen out guest workers . Some State Duma deputies believe that a document confirming knowledge of the Russian language should be a mandatory condition when entering the country to work.

Bank of China is concerned about the stock market The Chinese central bank remains concerned about excessive stock market activity and is monitoring inflation and asset prices, which are too high even for such a fast-growing economy. Since the beginning of the year, the Chinese stock market has grown by more than 40%, and, according to the head of the Chinese Central Bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, the existence of a “bubble” in the stock market is a matter of concern.

Manchester United won the English Championship Manchester United took the title of English champions from Chelsea. After the Blues failed to beat Arsenal, Manchester United's lead over Jose Mourinho's team in the standings became insurmountable. But the Red Devils were in no hurry to celebrate the championship for a couple of hours after the end of the Chelsea match: the management of the English Premier League could deduct from United the points they won in the game with Everton.