VTB wants to place Belarusian sovereign bonds in Russia Next year, foreign government bonds will appear on the Russian stock market for the first time. As VTB President Andrei Kostin said on Friday at the opening ceremony of the head office in Minsk, which was attended by Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the placement of Belarusian bonds will take place in the first half of 2008.

The commander of British forces in the southern Iraqi province of Basra, Major General Graham Binn, yesterday handed over full security powers to the province to Governor Muhammad al-Waili. The 4.5 thousand British troops remaining there will act as instructors for 30 thousand Iraqi security forces and participate in combat operations only at the request of local authorities.

One of the largest Russian pharmaceutical distributors continues to prepare for sale Representatives of one of the largest Russian pharmaceutical distributors - Protek - do not give up hope for a successful outcome of the deal with foreign partners. Yesterday, the company's press service told a Vremya Novostey correspondent that negotiations on the sale of a majority stake to the German concern Celesio are continuing.

FOOTBALL. December 19-20. UEFA Cup. Group stage . 5th game week . The last of the Russian clubs to finish the season is the capital's Spartak. On Tuesday at 22.45 Moscow time, the red-whites will begin their away match against the French Toulouse. Also in this group “E”, the Swiss “Zurich” takes on the German “Bayer” (Leverkusen).

Miami gets to know Russian art For the second year now, the prestigious contemporary art fair Art Basel Miami Beach has hosted a non-profit exhibition of Russian artists. Its organizer is Zhanna Bullock, an American of Russian origin, collector, head of the construction company RIGroup. Bullock takes Russian art seriously, believing that the rise of its popularity is close, it is only necessary to show it in the right way. Which is what Bullock does.

The mayor of Kaliningrad Yuri Savenko decided to become a State Duma deputy so as not to share powers with his successor One of the few “locomotives” of the United Russia party in the Duma elections who did not refuse a deputy mandate was the mayor of Kaliningrad, Yuri Savenko (pictured) . He headed the "capital" of the country's westernmost region for just over nine years - first as acting mayor, and then twice elected to this post by popular vote. The “reign” of Mr.

November 24 -- December 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.

US visa recipients will fund the FBI The US State Department has decided to ease the burden of its costs for issuing visas by increasing the cost of the procedure. Starting January 1, 2008, an American nonimmigrant visa, which is needed for anyone traveling to the States on business, study or on a tourist trip, will cost $131 instead of the current $100. A significant part of the “increase” will go to the budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The “Golden Verb” competition for foreign journalists, organized by the all-Russian public organization of media workers “Media-Soyuz”, summed up the results for 2007 and awarded colleagues covering the life of Russia abroad.

The strike at FORD is over Today, the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region, is resuming normal production in three shifts, the company said in an official statement. This means that the enterprise administration managed to achieve a serious victory over the union - management forced the workers to end the strike and begin negotiations with the company. The strike committee had to abandon the action, which lost its meaning, since more than half of the workers returned to the assembly line.

Two major special operations were carried out in Chechnya and Dagestan Residents of Grozny last weekend once again witnessed the fighting that unfolded on one of the central boulevards of the Chechen capital. For more than ten hours, special forces stormed a group of militants holed up in one of the apartments of a five-story residential building. In the first minutes of the battle, the separatists managed to kill one and wound three riot police officers.

The next North Atlantic cyclone, moving across the north of the Barents Sea, will bring very warm and humid air to the north of the European territory of Russia, where, despite the middle of December, there is a thaw, but the weather is windy, with sleet almost everywhere. It is also unusually warm in the north-west of European Russia. The further south you go, the colder it gets, but significant precipitation is not expected.

Every year it will be more and more difficult for the military to collect recruits Despite the fact that from next year the period of compulsory military service is equal to a year, the number of conscripts will still decrease in arithmetic progression. The head of the organizational and mobilization department of the Leningrad Military District, Fyodor Saraev, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent about this.

Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin continue their confrontation over the division of business. Last Friday, another spat took place: Mr. Prokhorov met with journalists and described the “divorce” with the following words: “I’m really tired of being a human being. I want to do business.” After that, he voiced his proposals to Mr. Potanin on the mechanisms for dividing assets, and an hour later his representatives blocked the adoption of decisions at the meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders.

Vladimir Putin will not become president of the union state and will not give Alexander Lukashenko cheap gas The Kremlin did not deceive. There really was no talk about the future employment of Vladimir Putin as the head of the union state of Russia and Belarus at the meeting of the presidents of the two states in Minsk. However, there was no doubt about this from the moment the possibility of such a prospect was thrown into the Russian press in early December.