The Kazakh government threatens to revoke Eni's license to develop the Kashagan field Kazakhstan seems ready to apply the Russian Sakhalin-2 scenario to the Kashagan oil field. Yesterday Astana held a government meeting on the development of this project, at which it harshly criticized the activities of the project operator, the Italian company Eni.

There is a personnel storm in the management of German energy concerns In the German energy industry, a situation called power paralysis is increasingly brewing. Today, three of the country's four leading concerns are affected by the disease - RWE, EnBW (Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg), as well as the Swedish Vattenfall, which is actively operating in the German market. And only E.ON, the largest diversified energy concern in Germany, demonstrates stability and continuity of leadership.

The Ryazan and Vladimir fires blew onto Moscow Moscow woke up yesterday morning in a light gray haze, through which the sun shone palely. Rumors immediately spread that, due to the intense heat that had settled in, the peat bogs in Shatura near Moscow caught fire again, like five years ago.

Saddam Hussein's associates are on trial in Baghdad Iraq's High Criminal Court held its first hearing in Baghdad yesterday in the case of the Iraqi army and security forces' suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south of the country in 1991. The meeting was chaired by Shiite Muhammad al-Uraybi al-Khalifa. 15 associates of the executed Saddam Hussein were put on trial, among whom the most odious figure is his cousin, 66-year-old Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali .

United Russia wants to unscheduled increase the minimum wage right before the Duma elections Exactly on the eve of the State Duma elections, the most “non-populist,” according to its leader and speaker of the lower house of parliament Boris Gryzlov, the United Russia party, intends to try to legitimize the increase in the minimum wage (minimum wage) that is not planned by the government.

The Constitutional Court returned VIP pensions to retired government officials The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation declared illegal the deprivation of additional pension payments to former civil servants of the Kaliningrad region . The corresponding definition was published yesterday in the Kaliningradskaya Pravda newspaper. It comes into force in six months. It is curious that although the definition was adopted on April 3, it was made public only now.

Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have a competitor in the fight for the position of managing director of the International Monetary Fund. According to Vremya Novostey, the new contender is the Czech Josef Toshovsky, and the initiative to nominate him belongs to Moscow. Tosovski headed the State Bank of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and after the collapse of the country he became the head of the Czech Central Bank.

Vladimir Putin opened MAKS-2007 Yesterday the eighth International Aerospace Salon MAKS-2007 opened in Zhukovsky near Moscow. What the current salon has in common with the previous one, two years ago, is the endless lines of cars in the city of aviators, traffic jams, the futile search for a place to park the car, sweaty and angry policemen who immediately turn to “you” people.

The state is ousting private companies from the market for preferential medicines In the Russian corridors of power, more and more new projects are brewing to create state holdings and corporations in more and more new industries and market sectors. After oil production, aircraft, helicopter, machine tool, ship, automobile, engine construction, housing and communal services and special metallurgy, it seems that it is the turn of the pharmaceutical market.

From the history of the ballet tutu During the Bolshoi Theater's recent tour in London, the British press attracted close attention to the ballet novelty "The Corsair".

The first deals were concluded at the air show As part of the MAKS-2007 air show that opened yesterday, the Sukhoi company signed a contract to supply Indonesia with three Su-30MK2 and three Su-27SKS, as well as some aviation equipment. Delivery dates are 2008-2010, the estimated amount of the agreement is $330-350 million. However, the Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces, Marshal Joko Suyanto, says that his country ideally needs one squadron of Su aircraft.

Doctors often mistake a common bad mood for depression. Depression, as you know, is a very fashionable disease. So fashionable that the number of medications for this disease increases by several percent every year.

US financial authorities are puzzling over the problem of the credit crisis The problems of American mortgages and the liquidity crisis they provoked in global financial markets are increasingly attracting the attention of politicians. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on this topic for the first time. In his opinion, these events will not become critical for Russia. For the United States, the crisis has become a serious threat to the economy.

Rosstat calculated the difference between rich and poor by profession and region Highly paid Russians earn 22 times more than their less fortunate compatriots, and the country's total workforce is 33.4 million people, including temporary and seasonal workers. Such data was released on Monday by Rosstat, publishing the results of a study on the distribution of the number of employees and the amount of accrued wages.

Polish state oil companies are trying to unite Poland has decided to merge two state-controlled oil companies. Yesterday, the head of PKN Orlen, Piotr Kownacki, said that he supports the proposal of the Polish Ministry of Finance to merge his company with another oil refining state-owned enterprise in Poland - the Lotos Group company. “I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened yet,” he was quoted as saying by the Polish newspaper Puls Biznesu.