The day after tomorrow, December 14, is a big holiday in Turkmenistan: the country elects deputies to the Majlis (parliament) of the 4th convocation. These are the first parliamentary elections in the era of the “New Revival,” as the reign of the second president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, is officially called. Just a week after the election, on December 21, this era will turn two years old.

The winning streak of Russian clubs in the men's Champions League was interrupted. In the third round, the capital's Dynamo team at home beat the Czech Zhikhostroy (Ceske Budejovice) - 3:0 (25:13, 25:17, 25:21), and after that the score of the relationship between our teams and foreign teams in the main tournament of the continent became 7:0.

The crisis will not help domestic producers overcome imports “We are not closing down, we are not engaged in stupid protectionism, but we must support the national producer,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday in Kurgan at a meeting on the development of the Ural Federal District. “We must fill our market and diversify production,” the president believes. “Support mechanisms are certainly necessary, these must be reasonable measures.

The Basic Law of Russia is ruled for the first time in 15 years Today Russia celebrates the 15th anniversary of its Constitution. The public debate on the topic of the Basic Law does not stop. There is debate about whether amendments can be made to it. Another subject of discussion is the place and role of the Constitution in the life of the country.

The global crisis has brought 155 million people back below the poverty line The global economic outlook for 2009, as the new World Bank report is titled, looks rather gloomy. The bank's experts dealt a crushing blow to the hopes of those who believed that the global financial crisis would not be so devastating. Economic growth, World Bank experts predict, next year will be the lowest since 1970. And global trade volumes will decline for the first time since 1982.

On the day of the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the “OUR” movement proposed choosing a girl who would embody the image of the main law of the country. On December 12, an unprecedented event took place on Vasilievsky Spusk - the All-Russian competition “Miss Constitution 2008”. “Everyone knows the world's big brands. ...Each brand has its own face. But there is a brand in which, like in a mirror, the state is reflected.

Sochi residents, whose plots and houses are being confiscated for the needs of the Olympics, are demanding an exchange in kind The results of a survey of the population of the Lower Imeretinsk Lowland conducted by activists of the public movement “Union of Imeretinsk Residents” have been published in Sochi.

St. Petersburg Memorial did not wait for the return of the storage media seized by investigators The leaders of the St. Petersburg scientific, information and educational center "Memorial", which survived a search exactly a week ago , intend to sue the investigation. This was announced by the chairman of the board of St. Petersburg Memorial, Vladimir Schnittke.

CONCERTS The choir and orchestra of the New Opera Theater , conductor Otto Tausk (Holland), soloists Tatyana Smirnova (soprano), Margarita Nekrasova (mezzo-soprano), Alexander Bogdanov (tenor), Vitaly Efanov (bass) perform a requiem for soloists, choir and orchestra Verdi. "New Opera" , 19.00. National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia , conductor Alexander Lazarev . The program includes Respighi’s symphonic poem “The Festivals of Rome”, as well as Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Barack Obama's team reported that the new US president, who takes office on January 20, will nominate 60-year-old Steven Chu, who received the Nobel Prize in 1997 for research in the field of nuclear energy and now works at the University of California at Berkeley, as Secretary of Energy. Mr Chu, who in 2007 entered into an unprecedented environmental cooperation agreement with oil giants US and UK, has a long history of working on alternative and renewable energy sources.

The US Congress gave the "big Detroit three" $14 billion The largest American automakers finally received the first positive decision from the authorities on financial assistance during the crisis. The US Congress on Wednesday approved a bill on short-term loans for the auto industry in the amount of $14 billion. The Big Three of Detroit - General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC. and Ford.

The TNK-BP Board of Directors did not appoint a company president until the completion of corporate reforms The board of directors of TNK-BP, which met yesterday in Paris, contrary to expectations, did not consider the issue of appointing a president of the company. Her press service reported that this issue was never on the agenda. The former head of TNK-BP, Robert Dudley, as agreed by the shareholders, left his post on December 1.

France is trying to save face and the European treaty The two-day EU summit will continue today in Brussels. It is dedicated to the results of the French presidency, as well as the challenges facing the “United Europe”. Among them is the failure of the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum in Ireland: in June, 53% of its participants said “no” to the basic law of the future European superpower. Dublin yesterday indicated that a second referendum could take place "by the end of October 2009".

Issuing Schengen visas to residents of the Kaliningrad region could make it an appendage of the EU The European Union has not yet publicly rejected the recent initiative of the Russian Foreign Ministry aimed at resolving the Kaliningrad visa issue.

Minsk offers CIS regional currency The Russian ruble may become a regional currency in the CIS. This opinion was expressed yesterday by Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky at a meeting with Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev.