The Americans will slow down the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Fierce discussions on the Georgian issue will unfold this week at the UN General Assembly session in New York and on its sidelines. Today Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will speak at it, and tomorrow his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili will speak. Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini has already arrived in the United States.

Lawyers in the Khodorkovsky case summed up the work of prosecutors At the trial of the second criminal case of ex-head of YUKOS Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev in the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow, in which they are accused of theft and laundering of almost 900 billion rubles, last week the prosecution completed the presentation of written evidence.

What are the G20 leaders going to Pittsburgh with? Tomorrow, the leaders of the twenty largest economies will gather in Pittsburgh, America, to assess the results of the anti-crisis measures taken and discuss further actions. A year ago, when the first G20 summit was just getting ready, great hopes were placed on the new US administration. It seemed that after George Bush, US policy in absolutely all areas, including the economy, was simply doomed to be prudent.

Over the course of two days, skaters from the Russian national team, candidates for the Olympic team, took part in skates at skating rinks near Moscow. Despite the abundance of big names, the main attention was focused on the 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko, who returned to big-time sports after a three-year break. After the free skate at the Odintsov Ice Palace, Vremya Novostey correspondent Olga ERMOLINA talked with Evgeni PLYUSHCHENKO.

The Atlantic cyclone on Wednesday will bring rains north and north-west of European Russia, and tomorrow its fronts will reach the central regions of Russia. In the northwestern regions, wind gusts up to 15-17 m/s, temperature during the day +12 ... +17os, at night +5 ... +10 ° C. In the Central District, the weather will begin to deteriorate on Wednesday afternoon, short-term rain will take place in places, the wind will intensify to 12--15 m/s, the temperature in the afternoon is +12 ...

"Solidarity" gathered those who want to rid Moscow of Luzhkov The opposition movement Solidarity held a conference “Moscow without Luzhkov” on Monday evening, which brought together opponents of the capital’s mayor.

At the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), for the first time in its history, the procedure for electing a new director-general by lot was worked out yesterday. This was done in the unique case if, following the results of the final fifth round of voting, which lasted until late in the evening, the remaining two candidates received the same number of votes, as in the previous round.

Tennis players perform successfully in Seoul This week there are four ATP and WTA tournaments. In the Romanian capital Bucharest, men play on clay, and the bonus fund here is 450 thousand euros. In the opening round, Russian Igor Andreev, seeded fourth, lost to Spaniard Santiago Ventura, who made it into the main draw through qualification - 4:6, 1:6. Yesterday in the afternoon in Metz, France, Evgeniy Korolev entered the fight on synthetics.

Angela Merkel looking for a partner This coming Sunday, the next elections to the Bundestag will end the current, according to the unanimous assessment of experts, the most sluggish election campaign in the post-war history of Germany. The Christian Democrats from the bipartisan bloc CDU/CSU, who maintain a significant lead, and their candidate for chancellor, 55-year-old Angela Merkel, who currently holds this post, prefer not to react to attacks from the Social Democrats.

Watch from September 24 on Moscow screens “Surrogates” (USA, 2009, Jonathan Mostow). In an alternative reality, where people have been replaced by cyborg doubles in almost all areas of human activity, a criminal appears who has found the opportunity to destroy by influencing the surrogates of their masters. With incredible consequences for the whole world, Detective Greer (Bruce Willis) takes on the investigation.

The G20 summit in Pittsburgh, America, may lose one of its participants along the way. Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to leave the event if he does not find support on the issue of “bank bonuses,” the head of his office, Claude Gehan, said a week ago. The French president is haunted by the high bonuses paid to the heads of credit institutions, which, in his opinion, have become one of the main reasons for the current financial crisis.

The crisis has changed retail trade in Russia According to Rosstat data published on Monday, the volume of retail trade turnover in August 2009 compared to the pre-crisis August of last year amounted to 90.2%. Over the eight months of this year, trade turnover fell by 4.7% compared to the same period last year.

The IMF changed its forecast for the Russian economy for the third time this year The global economic crisis has more than once proven the complete hopelessness of such an activity as drawing up short-term, medium-term and especially long-term forecasts. Nevertheless, governments and international financial organizations cannot do without plans for the coming months and years. Another interpretation of the future was proposed yesterday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Bank of America will be tried for "deceiving investors" The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, accusing it of deceiving investors regarding the payment of bonuses to top managers of the investment bank Merrill Lynch, which BofA acquired a year ago. The SEC decided to go to court because Bank of America did not provide detailed information about the purchase of Merrill Lynch on time, that is, on Monday.

The Ukrainian government is ready to answer Naftogaz’s debts in the future The government of Yulia Tymoshenko yesterday made an attempt to increase the attractiveness of Naftogaz Ukraine for creditors with whom the company is conducting difficult negotiations on debt restructuring.