At the time this text is being written, Russia has not yet played the final of EuroBasket 2007 with the current world champion Spain. However, she has already won, because she not only made it to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but also, perhaps for the first time in the last ten years, with her play she reminded that the Soviet Union was a great basketball power.

Everyone who wanted to get into industrial assembly mode managed to get into it Russia no longer provides preferential industrial assembly treatment for car manufacturers. On Friday, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Energy signed a tripartite order that they would stop concluding new agreements on the industrial assembly of foreign cars from September 15.

MEDT demands from Aeroflot guarantees for the purchase of Il-96 aircraft The Ministry of Economic Development proposed that Aeroflot conclude a new investment agreement with the state - to replace those under which in 1998-1999 the airline received the right to duty-free import of foreign aircraft. According to the draft new agreement, Aeroflot will be required to invest $401.8 million excluding VAT in the purchase of six domestically produced aircraft by 2010.

One of the regular participants in the annual meetings of the Valdai Club with Vladimir Putin is Nikolai ZLOBIN, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security. He told Vremya Novostei correspondent Pyotr ISKENDEROV about his impressions of what he saw and heard in Bocharov Ruchey. —What, in your opinion, distinguished this meeting from previous ones?

Tomorrow US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel for a visit. The guest will be preparing for a peace conference under the auspices of the United States, at which a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement is to be signed in November. Frequent meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, have raised hopes that a draft peace agreement will be agreed upon in the near future.

Demoralized McLaren lost the Belgian Grand Prix The turbulent events associated with the punishment of McLaren pushed into the background the return of the Circus Maximus to the legendary track in the Belgian town of Spa. A renovated circuit in a calmer atmosphere would undoubtedly become the main topic of discussion, but not now.

Depositors of the British bank Northern Rock demand their money back A liquidity crisis caused by problems in the US subprime mortgage sector rocked the UK late last week. Major mortgage bank Northern Rock turned to the Bank of England for financial assistance, after which its clients rushed to withdraw their deposits in a panic.

PPF Group bought a stake in Nomos Bank The Czech financial group PPF, which owns the retail bank Home Credit and Finance in Russia, acquired a 5% stake in Nomos Bank on Friday . The deal was concluded within the framework of a previously signed agreement, according to which Home Credit and Nomos will become part of the financial holding company by the end of the year.

The international documentary film festival “Flahertiana” has ended in Perm. The festival received the melodious name “Flahertiana” after the father of the filming methodology aimed at long-term observation of people’s lives - the American Robert Flaherty. There are two or three documentary film festivals held around the world every week. Russia accounts for a very small part of them.

Gaz de France joins the Nabucco project State-owned Gaz de France announced at the end of the week that it was joining the Nabucco gas pipeline project , which would bring Caspian gas to Central Europe, bypassing Russia.

Gazprom and E.ON paid well for energy assets At the end of the week, RAO UES of Russia actually sold two large energy generating companies - TGK-1 based in St. Petersburg , as well as OGK-4, some of whose power plants are located in gas production regions. The first, as expected, was bought by Gazprom practically without competition, and the second by its German partner, the E.ON concern . For the German concern, by the way, this is the first significant asset in Russia.

Guus Hiddink verbally agreed to extend his contract The head coach of the Russian national team, Guus Hiddink, will apparently remain in his post for another two years. The Dutch specialist and the President of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko reached a verbal agreement to extend the contract until the World Cup in South Africa, which will take place in the summer of 2010.

The first international festival of military bands "Kremlin Dawn" ended yesterday in Moscow. More than 47 groups took part in the festival.

CLUBS Anastasia Glazkova (vocals). BBKing , 20.00. Anna Koroleva (vocals, saxophone) and Jump . Forte , 21.00. CONCERTS Classical Japanese music hogaku . Japanese music ensemble Wa-On at the Moscow Conservatory. Soloists: Sawai Hikaru , Iwahori Keiko (koto zither, shamisen lute), Shimizu Kohei (shakuhachi flute), Okada Michiaki (shakuhachi flute), Nike Akira (shakuhachi flute) and others. Rachmaninov Hall of the Conservatory , 19.00. MOVIE “The Nanny Diaries” (USA, 2007).

August 14 -- September 14, 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.