France closed the Courchevel case of Mikhail Prokhorov The French Themis has withdrawn its claims against Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. As the businessman’s lawyer, Alexander Genko, said on Monday, the criminal case opened against Mr. Prokhorov two years ago in the wake of the “Courchevel scandal” was closed due to the corpus delicti.

City Hall is squeezing wholesale trade out of Moscow The Moscow authorities, having lost control over the movement of traders from the closed Cherkizovsky market, decided to take another bold step in relation to its former workers. By order of the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov, from September 28, the Moscow shopping center in Lublin, where a large number of market traders from Cherkizovsky (mainly Chinese) moved, is closed for wholesale trade.

OECD removes Switzerland from gray list of offshore companies The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has removed Switzerland from its gray list of countries that create tax havens for foreign clients. Having resolved the issue with the American tax service, which had claims against the UBS bank, Switzerland improved its position on the world stage.

G20 decisions leave "wide scope for discussion" The decisions of the G20 summit did not significantly change investor sentiment. Trading on the stock market yesterday followed fundamental and corporate news.

Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky talks about some of the features of the museum economy in an interview with Vremya Novostei. -- What share of the total funding of the State Hermitage is made up of extra-budgetary income? What, in your opinion, should be the optimal ratio between budget funding and the federal museum’s own earnings?

Three “Jones” played together and Vladimir Tarasov separately in Moscow It’s not so much a happy coincidence as a well-coordinated work of artists and producers: the Moscow audio company SoLyd Records and the School of Dramatic Art agreed to coincide with the presentation (in fact, just a full-length concert in two parts) of the disc We All Feel the Same Way by the musical ensemble Jones, Jones III Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, at which Vilnius drummer Vladimir Tarasov showed four of his

Iran tested missiles that can reach Russia Yesterday, Iran demonstrated to the world community its increased military capabilities by carrying out a series of training launches of medium-range ballistic missiles. The first to take off was the Shahab-3M (Meteor) missile, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 2 thousand km, then the Sajil-2 (Burnt Clay) with the same range. According to experts, these missiles can reach American military bases in the Middle East and facilities in Israel.

Jose Mourinho worries Inter and irritates colleagues Inter Milan arrived in Kazan on Sunday for the Champions League match not in the best mood. Jose Mourinho's team lost the previous day in Serie A to Sampdoria. Before this, at the start of the championship there was a draw with Bari, and even earlier the country’s Super Cup was lost. In Italy, they started talking about the imminent decline of the era of Inter, the permanent winner of the Scudetto for the last five years.

The federal authorities are speeding up the reform of the system of state (municipal) institutions. The bill, prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development as part of the transformation of the budgetary sector, was submitted to the government of the Russian Federation for consideration and, as officials expect, after adoption by the State Duma and the Federation Council, it will come into force on January 1, 2010.

Russian volleyball players won a strong-willed victory over Belgium At the European Women's Volleyball Championship taking place in Poland today, matches of the second group stage in two sixes will begin. The Russian national team, having defeated Belgium (3:2) in the third round of the initial stage, yesterday early in the morning made a three-hour bus journey from Bydgoszcz to Lodz.

Angela Merkel will form a new governing coalition The German Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU bloc) and liberals from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), inspired by their success in Sunday's Bundestag elections, began negotiations yesterday to create a new coalition government. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who retained her top government position, said a new cabinet would be formed no later than November 9.

Partial quarantine has already been introduced in three schools in the country Quarantine, isolation ward, masks, orderlies in biological protection suits, sanitary doctors treating corridors with a disinfecting solution, noticing even minor fluctuations in body temperature - all this has already become a reality for many Russian schoolchildren. Almost simultaneously, in three cities equidistant from each other, the threat of an outbreak of swine flu A/H1N1 appeared.

Regional authorities, even during a crisis, are increasingly transferring transport taxes to municipalities By October 1, amendments to Chapter 28 “Transport Tax” of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation approved by the government of the Russian Federation will be submitted to the State Duma, along with the draft budget 2010. Regions were given the right to double the fees charged to car owners and were asked to independently solve the problems of financing road infrastructure.

Russia and Belarus are rehearsing a defensive war against the West Military formations participating in the operational-strategic exercises "Zapad-2009" have entered the active phase of this grandiose battle. The final of the exercise will take place in Belarus today, September 29, in the presence of the presidents of the two countries - Dmitry Medvedev and Alexander Lukashenko.

“Poplars and the Wind” at the Satyricon Theater Konstantin Raikin staged Gerald Sibleiras's play “Polars and the Wind” in his native theater. The genre is designated as “heroic comedy” - and the audience laughs for two hours on end. And - without any jokes - there have been few events in my life more unpleasant than this simple-minded laughter. A former journalist, our contemporary (he is nearly fifty), Sibleiras belongs to the tradition of the undying French boulevard.