France's Total, which three years ago failed in its attempt to acquire a blocking stake in NOVATEK, is again trying to cooperate with Russia's largest independent gas producer. Last Friday , NOVATEK and the production company of the French group Total E&P Activities Petrolieres signed a cooperation protocol.

Russia took advantage of the crisis in the IMF and World Bank The annual meeting of the governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which closes today in Washington, did not bring any clarity to the difficult situation in global financial markets and the prospects for its resolution. Both the IMF shareholders and the finance ministers and heads of central banks of the G7 countries who met on Friday spoke extremely cautiously on this matter.

The head of drug control received additional powers On Saturday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On additional measures to combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors,” which provides for the creation of a new structure - the State Anti-Drug Committee (SAK). The new structure will be headed by the director of the Federal Service for Drug Control (FSKN), Viktor Cherkesov.

The team from Surgut lost in five games to Belgorod In the men's super league championship, the matches of the third round were completed, after which the sole leader of the championship was determined - the capital's Dynamo.

The problems of the army and the modernization of China's military-industrial complex occupied an important place in the report of the Secretary General of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao at the 17th Party Congress. He called for strengthening the Chinese military through science and technology, turning it into an “informatized” fighting force capable of winning modern warfare.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen became the world champion in Formula 1 auto racing. The Ferrari driver won the last Grand Prix of the season in Brazil and was ahead in the overall standings of competitors from McLaren, who had better chances for the title before the last race of the season. As a result, Fernando Alonso, having finished third at the Brazilian Grand Prix, took second place in the championship race.

FOOTBALL. UEFA Champions League . 3rd round . October 23 . Group E - Stuttgart - Lyon, Rangers - Barcelona. Group "F" - "Dynamo" (Kiev) - "Manchester United", "Roma" - "Sporting". Group G --- CSKA -- Inter, PSV -- Fenerbahce. Group H - Sevilla - Steaua, Arsenal - Slavia. October 24 . Group A - Besiktas - Liverpool, Olympic - Porto. Group B - Rosenborg - Valencia, Chelsea - Schalke. Group C - Werder Bremen - Lazio, Real Madrid - Olympiacos. Group D - Benfica - Celtic, Milan - Shakhtar. UEFA Cup.

Khrushchev's closed report at the 20th Congress reached the West by accident In Israel, according to the Haaretz newspaper, Viktor Graevsky recently died - the man because of whom the content of the report of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev on Stalin’s personality cult became known in the West. The report was made on February 25, 1956, on the last day of the 20th Party Congress at the morning meeting. There were more than 1,300 delegates.

MOVIE “Shadowboxing 2: Revenge” (Russia, 2007). Directed by Anton Megerdichev. Starring Denis Nikiforov, Andrey Panin, Elena Panova, Ivan Makarevich, Dmitry Shevchenko, Pavel Derevyanko and others. Artem Kolchin is back in the ring. He will fight the final fight for the championship title in America. But before the final he will have to fight with a Mexican boxer who is also striving for the top. After a difficult fight, the Mexican dies in the hospital.

“Thuya’s Wedding” on Moscow screens Contrary to the authoritative statement of Hans Christian Andersen, not all residents of China are Chinese. Among others, Mongols also live there, and among them is the peasant woman Tuya (Yu Nian) - a mother of two children, the owner of a small, quiet household and a faithful wife to her husband Bater (Bater).

State Duma Vice Speaker Sergei Baburin proposes introducing a partial ban on abortion Very popular in some countries where religious traditions are closely connected with politics, the topic of banning abortion has also emerged on the Russian political horizon .

Under pressure from the authorities, the top three of A Just Russia became two The leader of the youth movement “Hurray!”, writer Sergei Shargunov, is still excluded from the top three in the federal electoral list of the A Just Russia party for the State Duma elections. Rumors about the impending expulsion have been circulating for two weeks; the party leadership has discussed this issue more than once at its meetings, but made a final decision only last Friday.

Ekaterinburg motorists demonstrated their unity to traffic inspectors A private conflict between a driver and traffic police officers became the cause of the largest protest action in the Urals, organized by motorists, without the slightest interference from any political forces. On Saturday, from 10 am in Yekaterinburg, more than a hundred cars drove a “protest march” along the main streets of the city.

The Russian Central Bank found 250 billion rubles to refinance credit institutions The Bank of Russia continues to look for ways to help Russian financial institutions in the face of liquidity shortages. Last Friday, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Alexey Ulyukaev said that the regulator plans to begin lending to banks secured by corporate Eurobonds from mid-November.

Anatoly Chubais commissioned the last power unit of the Bureyskaya HPP RAO UES of Russia completed the construction of the Bureyskaya HPP , which had been underway since the early 1980s. Last Saturday, Anatoly Chubais launched the last, sixth power unit with a capacity of 335 MW. As usual, at the launch of the power units of this power plant, the head of RAO, according to news agencies, spoke pathetically: “Bureya is a bridge between the past and future of Russian hydropower.