Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev buys two London newspapers.

LONDON, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev
has acquired two key British periodicals - the London-published
left-of-center Independent - which is one of the five key dailies in
Britain - and the weekly Independent on Sunday, the Times said on Friday.

According to the report the deal was concluded on Thursday.
It is known that Lebedev will pay for the newspapers a token sum of
one pound sterling. The latest major details of the deal were finalized
between the Russian businessman and the current owner of the Independent -
INM (Independent News and Media) last weekend.
Lately, Lebedev was received by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing
Street 10. Brown decided to see for himself the future owner of an
influential national daily. According to some comments, the meeting was a
success.
The Independent, established in 1986, is considered as one of the most
"intellectual" periodicals in the UK media market. However, the newspaper
has experienced a string of financial setbacks. At present its circulation
stands at 92,000, in contrast to 400,000 in 1989.
According to business sources, the Independent's annual losses have
reached ten million pounds. On no occasion in its history the newspaper
managed to show a stable profit-making operation, and precisely this
reason forced its current owners to look for a buyer.
Lebedev has said he would be prepared to invest a million pounds.
The Times has speculated that Lebedev will most probably lower the
price of both newspapers in a bid to push up sales.
Alexander Lebedev took a prominent niche on the British mass media
market after he acquired a very popular but at the same time loss-making
newspaper Evening Standard, founded in 1827, from the Daily Mail and
General Trust, which agreed to write off the newspaper's
eight-million-pound debts.
Since October 12 Evening Standard has been distributed free of charge.
The aim of the measure was to build up subscription. By now its
circulation has been up from 250,000 to 600,000.

.US, UK, French military to take part in May 9 marchpast in Moscow.

MOSCOW, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Military from the United States,
Britain and France will participate in the May 9 victory day march-past in
Moscow's Red Square, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told the
media after President Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with top Defense Ministry
officials and commanders of military districts and fleets behind closed
doors in Moscow on Friday.
"We told the president who will be taking part in the march-past on
behalf of the anti-Hitler coalition. There are applications and there are
confirmations," he said. "We have described the event in great detail -
what types of hardware, in which amounts, by what time and in which order
will be joining the parade."
Serdyukov said that in order to ensure successful preparations by the
forces of military districts and fleets for the forthcoming festivities
the Defense Ministry had asked the president to ensure the constituent
territories of the Russian Federation should submit proper applications no
later than March 20.
According to the Defense Ministry the United States, Britain and
France have applied for and confirmed their participation in the May 9
parade in Moscow.
The May 9 military parade in Moscow's Red Square on the occasion of
the 65th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany will be the greatest
ever in the history of modern Russia as to the number of participants and
its grandeur. Taking part in the event, as Itar-Tass has been told at the
Defense Ministry, will be selected units from all arms and services and
also units delegated by other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. The
march-past on foot will be followed by a demonstration of wheeled and
tracked vehicles and an air show.
The parade is scheduled to begin at 10:00. The sequence in which the
participants will be appearing in Red Square will look as follows. The
company of drummers from the Moscow Military Musical Academy. Groups of
banner carriers with the State Flag of the USSR, the Victory Banner, the
Banner of the Armed Forces, and the banners of World War II fronts. Then
there will follow the banner-carrying company and the guard of honor of
the three main arms. Teachers and students of military academies,
universities, institutes and schools, paratroops, marines and Interior
Ministry troops will end the foot march.
Then, onto the gray cobble-stoned expanse at the foot of the Kremlin
Wall there will roll military vehicles, both wheeled and tracked - trucks,
tanks, armored personnel carriers, tug vehicles, and rocket launchers on
self-propelled mounts. Among them there will be pieces of hardware already
in service and the latest products of the national defense-industrial
complex. Involved in the military parade will be personnel and vehicles
from the Teikovo missile force unit, stationed in the Ivanovo Region. For
the first time ever in the history of military parades the general public
will be able see three launchers of the newest ground missile complex
Topol-M and several vehicles of the self-propelled air defense
missile-and-gun complex Pantsyr.
The air show part of the event will feature 140 aircraft. As the
organizers have said, before, there were just casual flights and elements
of the air show. This time there is going to be a full-scale parade.
The chief of the presidential property department, Vladimir Kozhin,
has said the essence of this grand nation-wide celebration will be to
invite all veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
"There are several hundred thousand of them across the nation. All
those whose health will permit will be able to attend the parade in Moscow
or those in other cities of Russia," he said.
In Moscow, 950 veterans will be present in Red Square as honorary
guests.

-0-str