Georgia releases Abkhaz prisoners There has been a thaw in the tense relations between Tbilisi and Sukhumi . Yesterday in Sukhumi, Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution David Bakradze, after a meeting organized by the UN mission with Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba, announced that as a sign of goodwill, seven Abkhaz prisoners of war would be released on Saturday.

Men in space are now commanded by “colonels in skirts” Visitors to the International Space Station have become frequent. Last Sunday, the Russian Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft undocked from the ISS, returning Oleg Kotov, Fyodor Yurchikhin and the first Malaysian angkasawan Sheikh Muzsafar Shukor to Earth. And already on Thursday, Peggy Whitson, Yuri Malenchenko and Clay Anderson, who remained at the station, met the American shuttle Discovery with an international team of seven people.

VTB increases the volume of loans on the external and domestic markets Despite the unstable situation in the borrowing markets, VTB doubled the volume of its program for issuing credit notes to $20 billion. As part of this program, he yesterday began placing two tranches of Eurobonds. In addition, the VTB Supervisory Board approved the attraction of three semi-annual loans from the Central Bank totaling 17.3 billion rubles.

The season of security equipment exhibitions opens in Moscow On October 30, the 11th international exhibition of state security equipment “Interpolitex-2007” begins work in pavilion No. 69 of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. It has been held since 1995, traditionally on the eve of Police Day , and every time a decree is issued by the Russian government on this occasion.

The Cabinet of Ministers will send money via a “direct line” “Putin’s Plan” should be in every minister’s portfolio, and he (the minister) must know it by heart. Obviously, Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov headed the cabinet so that the president’s words do not diverge from deeds. That's what the executive power is - they gave the order and go ahead.

The Strasbourg court sided with the Yukos co-owner The former head of the Menatep MFO and co-owner of YUKOS Platon Lebedev, who has already served half of the eight-year sentence on his first sentence, and is now in the Chita pre-trial detention center getting acquainted with the materials of the second criminal case (about the theft of 450 billion rubles and 7.5 billion dollars), will receive a small compensation from the Russian treasury for the moral suffering suffered in prison. Mr.

In two issues of Vremya Novostei (September 13 and 14 ) an article was published by the author of the book “Breakthrough into the Future. Sociology of the Internet Revolution” Igor EIDMAN “The Revolt of the Smart Crowd. Manifesto of the global social Internet revolution.” This article, dedicated to the prospects for a global Internet revolution designed to create a society of free creativity and direct democracy, caused a lively discussion in the Internet community.

Russia today is dealing with a different Europe Today's Russia-European Union summit will take place in Portugal immediately after the informal summit of the European Union , which was held in Lisbon on October 19. And this is deeply symbolic, because in Lisbon the draft EU Reform Treaty was approved, which must still be approved in each of the 27 EU member states.

Rallies near government bodies will be banned in the Kaliningrad region The government of the westernmost Russian region has developed a law that will soon be submitted to the regional Duma. According to this document, it is prohibited to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions, pickets and gatherings of citizens near buildings in which government bodies are located.

The government promises to pay off debts to disabled people and beneficiaries Amendments to this year's federal budget, approved yesterday at a government meeting, will also allow the authorities to pay off debts to beneficiaries - more than 50 billion rubles. will be aimed at solving social problems. Part of this money will be used, in particular, to eliminate the queue of people wishing to receive sanatorium vouchers and to provide prosthetics and special products for disabled people .

Dick Advocaat spared the Dutch club Zenit St. Petersburg cannot count the first match of the group stage of the UEFA Cup as an asset. Dick Advocaat's team, playing in the numerical majority during half the meeting with the Dutch Alkmaar, failed to win - 1:1. The St. Petersburg team is finishing the season against the backdrop of ongoing talk about Dick Advocaat leaving Zenit at the end of the season.

Alexander Povetkin is going to take the next step towards a championship fight In the German city of Erfurt, the future of Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin will be decided this coming weekend. The right to determine the professional prospects of the winner of the Athens Olympics belongs to former IBF and WBO world champion Chris Berda.

“I can reveal one detail of my meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place last week. Russia has not decided whether to supply nuclear fuel to Iran, despite all the declarations and rumors,” is the exact transcript of the statement by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. This clarification was released yesterday by the office of the head of government.

Germany will train its own talents so as not to let in strangers Europe is waiting for qualified immigrants - recently the European Commissioner for Justice and Security Franco Frattini announced the preparation of new rules for the entry into EU countries of certain categories of persons. Mr. Frattini noted that in 2006, about 70 thousand labor migrants entered the EU. According to Brussels' plans, their number should at least double in five years.

Major changes are taking place at VGTRK We rarely discuss the quality and consequences of cultural policy. Only in connection with the sensations - the theft in the Hermitage, the production of "Rosenthal's Children" at the Bolshoi Theater, the recent opinions of the Minister of Culture about modern fine art. But routine and invisible everyday actions do not come to the stage of public attention. It's a run-of-the-mill thing.