The Ministry of Finance intends to create a mechanism for monitoring corporate debts The Ministry of Finance is preparing an administrative framework for monitoring the situation in the field of corporate debts. Alexei Kudrin’s department (as well as the Central Bank) has long been concerned about their uncontrollable growth.

Over most of European Russia, the weather in the coming days will be cloudy and damp, with temperatures above normal for early December. In the surface layer of the atmosphere and in higher layers, southern and southwestern flows predominate. This is due to the Atlantic cyclones, which attack the European northwest one after another and promise an uninterrupted supply of damp and relatively warm sea air.

The exhibition “Leningrad Photo Underground” opened at the Stroganov Palace of the State Russian Museum The exhibition presents the works of 14 Leningrad photographers of the 1960s-1980s. It is difficult for young photographers today to explain that harmless photographs of garbage dumps or photos of a drunkard asleep on the lawn were regarded as crimes just over 20 years ago.

Disagreements between Moscow and Washington on the issue of deploying the US missile defense system in Europe did not prevent the Chief of the General Staff - First Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Army General Yuri Baluevsky, from signing yesterday in Washington a memorandum on military cooperation and compatibility between the armed forces of Russia and the United States for 2008 year. Moscow and Washington will thus continue military cooperation .

Russians don’t know what a “national leader” is, but they agree that Putin should become one Russians do not understand what a “national leader” is, which part of the political establishment wants to make outgoing President Vladimir Putin. But in principle, the majority agrees that Putin should become a national leader.

BYuT leader criticized agreements with Gazprom Today the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is scheduled to vote on the candidacy of a new prime minister . The leader of the BYuT faction, Yulia Tymoshenko, who is the same candidate, said yesterday that after the formation of a new cabinet of ministers, she hopes to resume negotiations with Russia on the price of gas.

The government will create a forest council With unprecedented activity, the government has taken on the forestry industry, which brings Russia both gigantic profits (in terms of foreign exchange earnings, income from timber exports is second only to trade in energy resources and weapons), and gigantic losses (the country exports cheap unprocessed timber with extreme opacity of the entire system of relations in the forestry complex ).

The head of Deutsche Bank does not want to be the CEO of Citigroup The largest American financial company, Citigroup, has been unable to find a CEO for more than a month. Yesterday it became known that another candidate, the head of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann, refused to move to the United States. Top managers of third-party companies are not confident that they will be able to cope with Citigroup's financial problems, which befell it amid the mortgage crisis.

Bolivia's President hands over "power to the people" Leftist leaders in Latin America are gripped by constitutional fever. The passions for Hugo Chavez's constitutional reform (which was rejected by the majority of Venezuelans on December 2) had hardly subsided when a similar scenario emerged in Bolivia. The country's Constitutional Assembly is due on December 14 to complete work on introducing 408 changes to more than 100 articles of the constitution adopted in 1967.

Vladimir Bryntsalov's sister appeared in court In the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow yesterday, hearings began on a criminal case against top managers of one of the largest Russian pharmaceutical companies, ZAO Bryntsalov-A .

E.ON CEO Wulf Bernotat will conduct an energy dialogue with the European Commission The head of the largest German energy concern E.ON, Wulf Bernotat, presented a plan for reorganizing the board structure, which is proposed to be implemented during the first quarter of 2008. One of its main features is the transfer of the center of activity of the chairman of the board (i.e. Mr. Bernotat himself) to the sphere of dialogue with political and economic structures.

Russia has been supplying oil and gas to Western European countries for many decades. Energy issues, now highly politicized, occupy an increasing place in all kinds of geopolitical studies and attract an increasing number of analysts of all stripes. Energy trade with Russia is becoming a matter of growing concern in European political circles. Disputes surrounding the import of hydrocarbons from Russia are far from new.

An election photo scandal broke out in Kyrgyzstan On the eve of the parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, scheduled for December 16, a huge scandal broke out in the republic.

“Our people” are gathering rallies and traffic jams for the second time in a week Muscovites are having to pay the price for the crushing victory of United Russia in the State Duma elections under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Since the beginning of the week, pro-Kremlin youth movements have been celebrating the victory of the national leader almost non-stop.

Minsk creates a party of power and discusses an alliance with Moscow Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko yesterday congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the victory of the United Russia party in the parliamentary elections . This gesture on the part of the ally seemed especially friendly against the backdrop of numerous criticisms of the Russian elections from Western leaders.