The trade union leader called on the prime minister to raise the minimum wage, despite the crisis The Russian successors to the Soviet trade unions do not want to remain aloof from official politics.

The Central Bank will add capital to banks through government bonds Shareholders of VTB and Sberbank should receive dividends based on the results of 2008, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who is chairman of the VTB supervisory board, said yesterday.

The government's anti-crisis plan seemed to experts to be a "protocol of intentions" Initiated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Vladimir Putin, a large-scale discussion around the consolidated The government's anti-crisis plan, which should be submitted to the State Duma in the coming days, is beginning to unfold on expert platforms. The Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR) hosted the first round of public discussion of this program yesterday.

A businessman offended by the authorities killed the mayor of Kirovsk, his deputy and shot himself In the city of Kirovsk, Murmansk region, the mayor of this city, Ilya Kelmanzon, and his deputy for housing and communal services, Sergei Maksimov, were shot dead yesterday morning. The tragedy took place right in the mayor's office in the administration building almost immediately after the press briefing.

The main bad weather in the coming days will be in the north-eastern regions of the European territory of Russia, and in the rest of the territory the weather will improve. In the northwestern regions there is mostly no precipitation, only light snow is still possible in places, wet snow during the day, freezing to -7...-12°C at night, and temperatures close to 0°C during the day.

Thousands of people work every day to produce weather forecasts. This work, even with modern methods of studying the atmosphere, is not highly accurate. The reason is that many processes occurring in the atmosphere are still poorly understood. Employee of the Institute of Physics V.A. Foka at the Physics Faculty of St.

American general does not trust Russia The closer the first meeting of Russian and US Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in London, scheduled for April 1, in London, the more contradictory the statements of American representatives become.

The crisis in the Czech Republic increases the role of EU old-timers A political fog has descended on two important events in the European Union calendar, hosted by the Czech Republic, which chairs it for the current half of the year. On April 5, the EU-US summit opens in Prague, in which the new American President Barack Obama will take part for the first time. On May 7, a summit on the EU’s new Eastern Partnership program will be held there.

Ian Gillan. One Eye to Morocco (EDEl). “Stupid”, “fool” and “moron” seem to be favorite words in the vocabulary of the legendary Ian Gillan. The frontman of the legendary Deep Purple does not like: a) European Union officials, b) audio pirates and c) businessmen in the record business. And, to be honest, he’s not much of a journalist either. But he touchingly tries not to advertise it. Sometimes he even agrees to an interview. On the contrary, he loves the public very much.

Europe's youngest mayor is looking for a separate apartment The youngest European mayor promises to leave his parents' home and finally begin an independent life. Twenty-five-year-old Austrian Martin Gruber, elected mayor of his home town of Kappel am Krappfeld last week, promised soon after his landslide victory that he would live separately.

Japanese chef demonstrates how ordinary food becomes spiritual The Japanese Embassy in Moscow several times a year conducts culinary excursions of sorts to introduce Russians to the culture of Japanese cuisine and introduce traditional dishes and products from Japan into our everyday lives.

Georgian authorities denounce the opposition Yesterday, the Tbilisi City Court ruled on two-month pre-trial detention for six representatives of United Georgia, founded by ex-speaker of parliament Nino Burjanadze. Also under arrest were two members of “For the Salvation of Georgia” - this organization was little known before the current events.

The US corporate sector is counting on rapid stabilization Orders for durable goods in the US rose to 3.4% in February, the Labor Department reported yesterday. The news was unexpected - this figure was negative from July last year to January this year, when it was -7.3%. Experts surveyed by Bloomberg expected demand for durable goods to rise to -2.5% in February. Thus, the indicator turned out to be significantly better than market expectations.

Porsche has become a relatively reliable debtor In crisis conditions, the manufacturer of prestigious cars Porsche had to be patient while queuing for bank loans. Just yesterday, the headquarters of this autosmith in Stuttgart reported that the company had secured an extension of a credit line in the amount of 10 billion euros for the purchase of shares in Volkswagen AG (Porsche management plans to increase its stake in the company to 75%).

In Moscow, the United States will meet with Iran, and NATO with the CSTO Tomorrow the International Conference on Afghanistan will be held in Moscow at the President Hotel under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The idea of ​​holding it was first put forward in 2007 at the SCO summit in Bishkek by then Russian President Vladimir Putin.