Snowfalls and cold paralyzed life in the Old World While Muscovites, seemingly accustomed to the cold, panic even with the slightest snowfall, in Europe an unprecedented amount of snow has truly paralyzed life. An unexpected cold snap brought heavy snowfalls to the Old World, which immediately led to transport collapse, various accidents and danger to human life. In Paris, 36 people were injured as a result of a train derailment.

Yesterday it became known that the “Trading System Administrator” is beginning to apply a price smoothing mechanism on the wholesale electricity market in the European part of the country and in the Urals. The need for emergency measures arose after the price of a megawatt hit another high after a cold snap. However, warming obviously will not lead to a rollback of prices from peak values. Next year, according to experts, growth will continue.

Argentine midfielder Lionel Messi has collected a full collection of individual awards at the end of the season. First, he was recognized as the best football player in Europe according to France Football and received the Golden Ball. Then the authoritative publication World Soccer recognized the 22-year-old football player as the best player in the world. And finally, FIFA awarded Messi the Diamond Ball as the best football player of the year.

CONCERTS Alexander F. Sklyar. Central House of Artists , 19.00. Ensemble of Ivan Farmakovsky. Igor Butman Club , 20.30. CLASSIC Conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Yeralash. N. Rimsky-Korsakov, J. Sibelius, V. Bellini - Nicolai, G. Rossini - Respighi. State Academic Symphony Chapel of Russia. Soloists V. Postnikova (piano), A. Pegova (soprano), L. Kuznetsova (mezzo-soprano), L. Kostyuk (mezzo-soprano). Conservatory , 19.00. Moscow chamber orchestra Musica Viva. R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn.

OPEC has identified the main danger to oil stability The 155th session of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), held in the Angolan capital of Luanda, did not bring any big surprises. Algerian Minister of Mines and Petroleum Chekib Khelil announced yesterday that the current level of production will remain unchanged at 24.845 million barrels per day.

Watch from December 24 on Moscow screens "The Informers" (USA, 2009, Gregor Jordan) . A film adaptation of a collection of very uniquely interconnected stories by Bret Easton Ellis (“Less than Zero,” “American Psycho,” “Glamorama”) about the life of Los Angeles residents in the mid-80s: if you believe the film and the source book, then this place and at this time, the existence of angels in the city was most similar to being in hell (or, at worst, in purgatory).

The Italian coach took over Manchester City The 18th round of the English Premier League turned out to be very eventful. Here is Manchester United's unexpected big loss to London's Fulham, the already routine defeat of Liverpool, and Chelsea's third winless match. And also Bilyaletdinov’s goal and Zhirkov’s debut in the Premier League. But everything pales in comparison to the changes at Manchester City.

The government responded to the fire in Perm and redistributed the powers of deputy prime ministers Yesterday's meeting of the government presidium was marked by the adoption of a resolution to tighten fire safety rules based on the tragedy in Perm - now pyrotechnics in Russia are prohibited from being used in almost all crowded places. In addition, a purely administrative decision was made to reformat government commissions.

The volleyball players of the capital's Dynamo became the winner of the 2009 Russian Cup and, accordingly, a ticket to the 2010/11 Champions League. In the decisive match of the Final Four that ended in Omsk, the “blue and white” prevailed over the Zarechye-Odintsovo club near Moscow - 3:2 (25:20, 25:17, 19:25, 20:25, 15:11 ).

Exporters will be able to recover VAT upon application Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently signed a law amending the Tax Code (TC), giving exporters the opportunity to reimburse value added tax (VAT) on an application basis. At the last stage of discussion of the law in the State Duma, the criteria allowing enterprises to take advantage of the simplified VAT refund procedure were significantly changed.

Lithuanian security officers criticized for “Soviet methods” Yesterday, the Committee on National Security and Defense of the Lithuanian Parliament released the results of a month and a half investigation into the scandalous case of a secret CIA prison for foreigners suspected of terrorism by the Americans. A secret prison allegedly existed on the territory of Lithuania in 2004-2005. The secret only half became reality.

A masterpiece of avant-garde architecture in St. Petersburg has been turned into an art center How many buildings do you know that Western gurus of the world avant-garde built in Russia? There are only one or two options. In Moscow, Le Corbusier (real name Charles Jeanneret) designed the Tsentrosoyuz house. Then, dissatisfied with the implementation of the project, I did not want to consider myself the author. And in St.

Military-industrial complex enterprises complain about the state’s untimely fulfillment of obligations under defense orders Before the end of the year, a meeting on the problems of the Russian military-industrial complex will be held in Nizhny Novgorod, chaired by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Nizhny Novgorod defense workers will tell the head of the military department how military-industrial complex enterprises operate in conditions of the economic crisis.

Russian-speaking journalists from the Baltic countries expect Russia to show interest in them A television school for Russian-speaking journalists from foreign countries is being created in the Kaliningrad region. Its first listeners were media workers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Experts call for the creation of a federal patent court The round table held in the Federation Council on the topic “Legal problems of protecting Russian owners of intellectual property rights in the context of globalization of the world economy” turned into a lively discussion about the fate of domestic modernization. The organizers planned to assess the existing regulatory framework for ensuring intellectual property rights, as well as identify problems and discuss ways to solve them.