Ten things that did not happen in 2002 - RIA Novosti's view

These ten events could have happened in 2002, but did not, according to RIA Novosti's observers:

1. Moscow could have obtained the right to host EXPO-2010, but eventually gave way to Shanghai, a stronger and more successful rival.

2. Akhmed Zakayev, an emissary of Chechen terrorists, could have faced trial in Russia, but Denmark refused to extradite him. Currently, he is London, where the issue of his extradition is being debated.

3. The energy reform was not launched. The State Duma postponed examining the package of documents on the branch's reform to the early 2003.

4. Russia will not host the football championship of Europe in 2008. Euro-2008 will be held in Austria and Switzerland.

5. State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev could have remained communist if he had left the speaker's post. Despite the pressure by his party comrades, the speaker preferred to retain his position and was expelled from the communist party.

6. So far, Russians will not pay 100% of the communal and housing services. Under public pressure, the authorities gave up the idea of implementing the reform nation-wide and decided to continue the experiment in single regions.

7. Homosexuality was not proclaimed crime in Russia, as People's Deputy faction suggested. The deputies' bill envisaged that "unnatural satisfaction of sexual needs by male persons" should by punished by 3 to 5 years of imprisonment.

8. State Duma deputies did not begin to wear Russian clothes. The proposal of Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Right Forces' Union, was met without enthusiasm.

9. The Dzerzhinsky monument did not return to the Lubyanskaya square. Despite the ardent desire of Duma's lefts to re-erect the monument, the final decision was not taken.

10. The Russian legislators were not made to learn the anthem of Russia. During Duma's last plenary session in 2002, deputy speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky demanded that his colleagues learn the words by heart till the end of the day. The colleagues did not support the idea.