Iskra showed the worst result in its history The end of the first round of the men's Super League playoffs was scheduled for April 16, the date of the theoretically possible fifth matches in the best-of-three series. However, yesterday, at the end of the third meetings, the outcome of all confrontations became known. The semifinal pairs were: Zenit - Dynamo (Moscow), Lokomotiv-Belogorye - Lokomotiv (Novosibirsk).

German politicians fight over nuclear plant expiration dates The German federal government is likely to finally reject plans to completely phase out nuclear energy, enshrined in law during the government coalition of the SPD and the Greens led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The focus of the upcoming draft national concept of energy policy of the current conservative-liberal government of Angela Merkel is the question of the timing of further operation of nuclear power plants.

The tactical plan to combat corruption will be complemented by a strategy The draft national anti-corruption strategy is almost ready, President Dmitry Medvedev said at yesterday's meeting of the anti-corruption presidential council. But still, the main thing, he is convinced, is not what is written in the papers, but what is going on in the heads of officials.

Last year, the volume of mortgage lending decreased fourfold, according to a review by the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML). This year, AHML predicts that lending will more than double, to 280-320 billion rubles. In this case, the interest rate may decrease to 12-13% per annum in rubles and up to 11% in dollars. According to experts, despite the economic recovery, the growth rate of mortgage lending will not be so rapid, and the rate may actually drop to the predicted values.

Today, near Vyborg, in the Portovaya Bay area, a ceremony will be held to mark the start of construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. This gas pipeline is fundamentally different from the existing routes for exporting Russian gas to Europe: bypassing transit intermediaries, it will directly connect gas fields in Russia and importers in Germany.

On technical regulation in the Customs Union The recipe for saving the reform of technical regulation in the Russian Federation , proposed in the article “Bombs for Industry,” may also be relevant in solving the problems of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus that has begun its work.

In Kostroma, online Jedi were suspected of extremism Law enforcement agencies have discovered a new hotbed of extremism.

An information technologist will replace the auditor as head of the Federal Tax Service Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin officially confirmed the change of head of the Federal Tax Service. Instead of Mikhail Mokretsov, who has headed it since February 2007, the candidacy of Mikhail Mishustin has been proposed for the post of head of the Federal Tax Service.

"Woe from Wit" at the "Golden Mask" Transparent and hollow letters “g, o, p, e, y, m, y” occupy the entire mirror of the scene of Yaroslavl’s “Woe from Wit.” The letters move up and down, ride and open doors like elevators. The design by St. Petersburg artist Alexander Orlov seemed to be an homage to Meyerhold's constructivist period, but it only seemed that Igor Selin's daring performance was built according to completely different laws.

American commitments do not apply to North Korea and Iran The administration of President Barack Obama yesterday announced a new nuclear doctrine, which was sent to the US Congress for consideration. If approved, it will become a fundamental document for Washington in the field of nuclear weapons and threat assessment for the next decade.

The prime ministers of Russia and Poland will remember the victims of Katyn Today, the heads of government of Russia and Poland, Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk, are going to take part in events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the tragic events in Katyn. Joint tributes to the victims of totalitarianism could mark a historic turn in the difficult relations between the two countries.

85 years ago, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Rus' passed away, with whose name significant pages in the history of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church are associated. He was elected Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church after a three-hundred-year hiatus in the fall of 1917. During the period of patriarchal rule (1917-1925), Tikhon had to defend church and popular life from injustice and destruction.

Construction of the underwater part of the most ambitious pipeline project in recent years begins today 1997-1999. Feasibility study stage. International engineering companies, Russian research institutes and the Russian-Finnish company North Transgas Oy carried out a full range of marine surveys in the Baltic Sea. Alternative routes for transporting Russian gas to Europe have been explored.

The Public Chamber presented the North Caucasus The exhibition “Russian North Caucasus on the Road of Change” opened in the building of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Miusskaya Square. The exhibition presents four dozen photographs that look like a window from Moscow into a completely different reality with vertical mountain landscapes, amazing everyday life and amazing faces, even with a real flying saucer (one of the climbing stations in Dombay was once built in this form).

CSKA dropped out of the Champions League CSKA Moscow finished its journey in the Champions League. The army team lost to Inter in the return quarterfinal match - 0:1. The minimum score should not be misleading - Leonid Slutsky's team had almost no chance to beat the Italian champions. But participation in this stage of the tournament is the best result of Russian clubs in the main continental tournament. Initially, CSKA's chances did not look the best.