Astana riders suffered due to a positive doping test for their leader Before the start of the 16th stage of the Tour de France stage race, the peloton lost the Kazakh team “Astana”. At the request of the organizers, this cycling group in its entirety completed its participation in the “Big Loop” due to the fact that the “A” sample taken from Alexander Vinokurov on the day of his winning race with a time trial gave a positive result for the presence of traces of someone else’s blood.

The weather is changing on the European territory of Russia - an Atlantic cyclone is heading from the north-western regions with clouds and rain. It has already caused heavy rains with thunderstorms in the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions and in Karelia. In the center, the most water spilled out in the Kaluga and Bryansk regions. Moscow and the Moscow region have so far been spared heavy rains. On Thursday, the influence of the cyclone will continue in the northwestern and central regions.

With the help of regional heads, Gazprom intends to completely gasify Russia First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on regional authorities to intensify work on gasification of cities and villages, while strictly observing the principle of cost co-financing embedded in the large-scale gasification program currently being implemented, as well as to look for mechanisms for financial support for the poor and pensioners when connecting their apartments and houses to gas networks.

While the creation of a joint venture between Gazprom and SUEK was stuck at the stage of discussion between the parties to the deal and its terms, the coal company took an important step in its business. SUEK yesterday announced the shipment of the first trial batch of coal to China by rail. At the same time, the company reached an agreement with its client, the state corporation China Datang Corp.

At the age of ninety-three, the outstanding actress and star of Soviet cinema, Lidia Nikolaevna Smirnova, died. She was born in Tobolsk in 1915, after school, she moved to Moscow, became a student at the Aviation Institute, and was actively involved in sports. In my second year, I applied simultaneously to the Vakhtangov School, the Chamber Theater School and VGIK and was accepted everywhere, but in the end I chose the Chamber Theater, since it was closest to home.

Today, cartoonist Alexander Tatarsky will be buried at the Miusskoye cemetery in Moscow. We offer a fragment of an interview that Alexander Tatarsky gave to the magazine “Life in the Estate”. They talked mainly about the country house that he had been building for many years, but as always happens, they also talked about many other things, for example, about clowns, the circus and the art of working with their hands...

Anatoly Byshovets drops out of the race for gold Lokomotiv has finally given up its chances of finishing in the championship in the first two lines of the standings.

The two depositories cannot resolve the conflict peacefully Roman Goryunov, who previously headed the exchange's derivatives market department, was elected chairman of the board of Russian Trading System OJSC. The corresponding decision was made yesterday by RTS shareholders. Mr. Goryunov considers his main task to be increasing the capitalization of the exchange and developing all areas of its business. In addition, he will have to take an active part in solving one very important problem.

American pension funds may sell Gazprom securities Today or tomorrow Gazprom intends to determine the price of two Eurobond issues in London and New York. The amount that the concern plans to raise is not disclosed. Despite the not very favorable situation on the financial markets, it is expected that each tranche will be worth no less than $1 billion. Meanwhile, information appeared yesterday that could complicate the course of the placement.

The Kaczynski brothers are preparing early parliamentary elections Despite the parliamentary holidays, the Polish Sejm was buzzing like a beehive yesterday. The deputies heatedly discussed the political calendar that had been leaked to the Polish press, which the authorities were going to offer them. So, on August 22, the deputies return from official leave and decide to dissolve the Sejm. If this happens, parliamentary elections may be scheduled for September 30.

The first stage of the competition for a new symbol of Perm On International Museum Day, May 18, our newspaper has already talked about the ambitious plans of the government of the Perm Territory to transform a gloomy and faceless city into a thriving and happy one by creating a new museum center. The center is envisioned as a catalyst for new processes in the economic, social, and cultural development of the city.

Rene Klemencic at the Roots and Crown festival The arrival in Moscow of Rene Klemencic - musician, philosopher, writer and one of the founding fathers of European authenticism - became the main event of the new and already beautiful festival “Roots and Crowns”, which takes place from July to early September mainly in Arkhangelsk. two sites, one more interesting than the other.

Russia is not interested in the “parade of sovereignties” of the unrecognized republics While experts of the Contact Group on Kosovo are trying in Vienna to determine further ways to resolve this Balkan problem after the withdrawal of the relevant resolution from the UN Security Council, Yuri Levada’s analytical center published data from a survey of Russians on their attitude towards freedom-loving autonomies.

Russneft disowned Yukos Rumors that Mikhail Gutseriev is being forced to sell RussNeft, and that his problems with the authorities are caused by the “unauthorized” purchase of YUKOS assets (see Vremya Novostey, July 24), forced the head of the company to take extreme measures. Late on Tuesday evening, the Russneft press service issued an official statement that the company had never purchased any assets of YUKOS.

Yesterday, representatives of Belarus and Russia held another round of negotiations in Minsk on the prospects for cooperation in the energy sector. This time, the focus was on the Belarusian debt accumulated since the beginning of the year for Russian gas. The topic of energy supplies to Belarus in recent years has been closely intertwined with the union relations of the two countries. In the mid-90s, Minsk managed to get Moscow to write off gas debts worth more than a billion dollars.