Deputies finally clarified what “human trafficking” is At the end of last week, the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation finally introduced amendments to Art. 127 approx. 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (trafficking in persons).

The head of the Russian Church Abroad died on the day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy Metropolitan Laurus, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, who died last Sunday, will be buried in the New York suburb of Jordanville, in the Holy Trinity Monastery - the center of Russian Orthodoxy abroad, of which Bishop Laurus was rector for many years.

The Urals defeat Dynamo only in shootouts The next playoff matches in the Russian Ice Hockey Championship took place. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv defeated the St. Petersburg army team with a minimal score (2:1) and reached the semi-finals. But in the series “Dynamo” - “Metallurg” the winner will be determined by the fifth game. In the fourth match, the spectators saw goals scored only in the shootout, which the Urals performed more effectively - 3:2.

This summer the first Moscow International Biennale of Young Art “Stop! Who's coming?" The exhibitions of the generation born in the early 80s that take place in Moscow allow us to approach the new biennale with restrained optimism. Regular acquaintance with young art convinces us that the first, simplest, but no less significant step to success is a sufficient budget.

Vladimir Yakovlev will open a VIP zone in RuNet Snob.ru, a Russian-language social network for millionaires and top managers, launches in July. The ideological inspirer of the project is the founder of the Kommersant Publishing House, Vladimir Yakovlev. From the Internet resource, he plans to grow a multimedia holding, which, in addition to the website, will include a monthly tabloid magazine and a TV channel.

Bush and Saakashvili will talk about Putin Today and tomorrow, 40-year-old Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will hold meetings in the United States with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his American counterpart George Bush. On board the plane of the Georgian leader it is written in English: Sokhumi (the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi sounds like Sokhumi in Georgian). This inscription first appeared during Saakashvili’s February trip to Moscow for negotiations with President Vladimir Putin.

Severstal will increase its dividends Severstal yesterday announced the possibility of paying increased dividends based on last year's results. “With the exception of Severstal North America, all our enterprises ended the year with significant profits,” the company quotes its main beneficiary and CEO Alexey Mordashov as saying.

Development Bank will increase its loan portfolio to 850 billion rubles The Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (VEB) has prepared a development strategy until 2012. As the head of the state corporation, Vladimir Dmitriev, told reporters yesterday, VEB intends to quadruple its loan portfolio by this date - to 850 billion rubles. The bank's supervisory board has already approved 11 investment projects with a total volume of 140 billion rubles.

Jews threw stones at the house of a Palestinian who shot schoolchildren Yesterday, Israeli police reported that six people, two of whom were law enforcement officers, were injured the day before during clashes with radical Jewish activists. 22 people were arrested. On Sunday evening, about two hundred Jewish far-right activists reached the Arab village of Jabal Mukabar, which is part of East Jerusalem.

America is trying to make Uzbekistan its ally again The art of American diplomacy, with which it defends the interests of the country in Central Asia, must be given its due. A striking example of this art is the US policy towards Uzbekistan. Today, before our eyes, America is returning again to this country, which seemed to have already been lost to it after the tragic events in Andijan in May 2005.

Russian skiers had a frankly weak season The Winter World Cup season ended last weekend. Alpine skiers, snowboarders, biathletes, freestyle skiers, ski jumpers and cross-country skiing specialists made their last competitions. At the end of March and April there will be several more stages for representatives of the non-Olympic extreme discipline “downhill skiing”, but our athletes do not participate in this type of “white circus” program.

The Easter festival will be traditional in a new way On Monday, at the Moscow City Hall, Valery Gergiev presented the program of the VII Moscow Easter Festival, which will be held in the capital and regions from April 27 to May 9 and will be dedicated to as many as four anniversaries at once - the 225th anniversary of the Mariinsky Theater, the 55th anniversary of Gergiev, his 20th anniversary conductor's activity and at the same time the 100th anniversary of the death of Rimsky-Korsakov (a

Iran signs first gas export contract to Europe with Swiss EGL A historical, although not very pleasant event for Russia, took place yesterday in Tehran. Iran's National Gas Export Company (NIGEC) has entered into an agreement with Swiss energy group Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) to sell up to 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This is the first long-term contract (25 years) for the supply of Iranian gas to Europe.

Denver and Houston rewrite history Basketball. NBA. Regular season. “Detroit” – “New Orleans” – 105:84, “Houston” – “Lakers” – 104:92, “New York” – “Atlanta” – 98:109, “Miami” - - Dallas - 73:98, Cleveland - Charlotte - 98:91, Denver - Seattle - 168:116, Sacramento - Toronto - 106: 100. Another achievement of Houston, which had already won its 22nd victory in a row, was overshadowed by another record.

Massive clashes between Serbs and police and peacekeepers occurred in Kosovo The situation in Kosovo threatens to get completely out of control. Yesterday, in the northern part of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica in the region, there were violent clashes between Serbs and units of the Albanian police and international peacekeepers. The Serbs used Molotov cocktails, hand grenades and firearms.