Government agencies continue to make absurd demands on citizens Almost any person who has had to deal with the domestic bureaucracy at least once in their life can remember stories on the verge of the funny and absurd. The tax service is no exception to this.

Latin American lessons for Russia Recently, President Vladimir Putin casually mentioned that it would be possible to increase the presidential term to five to seven years, arguing for this idea by the fact that almost half of the first term is spent getting acquainted with affairs and there is not enough time to implement the plan.

Why did the Belarusian authorities so persistently refuse to pay debts to Russia for gas supplies? The Belarusian economist, former head of the National Bank from 1991 to 1995, honorary chairman of the United Civil Party Stanislav BOGDANKEVICH told Vremya Novostei about this. - I don’t see force majeure circumstances that would prevent the repayment of the debt.

E.ON does not see political risks in Russia Russia still remains an attractive market for the German energy concern E.ON from an investment point of view, said the company's chairman of the board, Wulf Bernotat, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

Alexander Lukashenko ordered to pay off the debt to the “fat cats” from Gazprom The silence of officials in Belarus, which reigned after Gazprom's notification of its intention to halve gas supplies at 10 a.m. today due to debt arrears , was interrupted yesterday by President Alexander Lukashenko. He said that he “gave the command to take this money from reserves and pay $460 million.” “Today we will pay from reserves, and within a month we will make up for it through loans.

Before the start in Hungary, the teams are busy with a scandal The story surrounding the scandal involving the theft of data from Ferrari is beginning to resemble passions from some Latin American soap opera, the end of which is not visible even to the creators of the imperishable masterpiece.

“The Palestinian leadership is ready to sign a declaration of principles for a peace settlement with Israel,” Palestinian National Authority (PNA) head Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday after a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. According to the Israeli plan, such a declaration should define the contours of a future Palestinian state, without affecting the final borders and fate of Palestinian refugees.

Is it necessary to create different versions of history for Jews and Arabs living in the same state ? One of the developers of the new textbook, professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Moshe ZIMERMAN, told Vremya Novostei about this. - Is it possible to present history from the point of view of different nationalities? Doesn't history as a science lose its universality?

Cooperation between Russian Standard and American Express has again given rise to conflict Russian Standard's exclusive rights to work with American Express cards still haunt the retail banking giant's competitors. But if earlier the dispute was about the right to issue AmEx cards, now the scandal is flaring up over the issue of acquiring cards, their acceptance in trade and service enterprises.

Vyborg Film Festival program announced On August 11, the 60th anniversary festival in Locarno will close, at which there is not a single Russian film this year, and on August 10, “Window to Europe” will open, the fifteenth and also of its kind anniversary festival in Vyborg, which according to the original intention was supposedly going to to build a bridge between the Russian and Western festival movements, and as a result became a launching pad for Russian films released in theaters in the

A rise in vodka prices is inevitable The price of vodka in the fall may increase by about five rubles per half-liter bottle, and the increase will primarily affect varieties of inexpensive vodka. Grain prices in Russia rose by more than 10% in July . According to experts, alcohol prices will rise by 25% by the fall, and this increase will certainly affect the alcohol market.

Russia was never able to convince Georgia to fly Aeroflot planes Russian-Georgian consultations on organizing charter flights between the two countries in the summer ended without results. Ivan Volynkin, Minister-Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Georgia, told the ITAR-TASS agency about this yesterday. An agreement in principle on summer charters between Tbilisi and Moscow was reached in early July .

Chronicle of sporting events World number two Maria Sharapova played her first match on the WTA tour after the British Open ended in early July. For several weeks, the Russian woman, who had never played for the national team of our country, was treating an injured shoulder and for this reason refused to participate in the US Fed Cup match against Russia (July 14-15).

The state orders Exxon Neftegaz to sell gas in Russia The consortium for the development of the Sakhalin-1 project yesterday officially received recommendations from government representatives on gas sales. According to the press center of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, a meeting of the authorized state body (AGO) on this project was held.

"Penelope" on Moscow screens In the very first minutes after the opening credits of Mark Palansky’s feature-length debut, a girl’s voice is heard behind the scenes: “My parents knew no need...” And it’s true that the parents of young Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci), however, like many other previous generations of Wilhern, lived happily ever after .