SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1716 (27), Wednesday, July 4, 2012
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TITLE: Gay Pride Banned, Organizers Charged Under Notorious Anti-Gay Law
AUTHOR: Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: City Hall performed an abrupt about-face on Thursday evening when it retracted the official approval it had issued Tuesday for the St. Petersburg Gay Pride event due to be held this weekend, and had the organizers charged with violating the city’s infamous anti-gay law. But the organizers say they will go ahead with the rally despite the ban.

City Hall said that the ban was imposed on the grounds that local media had reported it as a “gay pride event (parade),” rather than a “march and stationary rally against the violations of LGBT people’s rights,” as it was described in the application submitted to City Hall last week, the organizers said. 

The organizers were summoned to City Hall on Thursday to be informed that holding the event was “not possible” and that they would be held responsible if they went ahead with it.

According to St. Petersburg Gay Pride’s chair Yury Gavrikov, who is also the chair of Ravnopraviye (Equality) LGBT rights organization, after handing them the official rejection letter, Leonid Bogdanov, head of City Hall’s Law and Order Committee, told Gavrikov and fellow organizer Sergei Volkov that a law enforcement representative wanted to talk to them. 

A police officer then entered the room and charged the two activists with violating the law forbidding the “promotion of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism to minors,” Gavrikov said.

Gavrikov and Volkov were told that they had passed information about the authorized event to the website GayRussia.ru and local newspapers Nevskoye Vremya and Metro, and by doing so had distributed information “promoting the social equality of same-sex relationships with traditional marriage” among minors.

“What this means is that first they authorized the event, and then charged us for giving information about it to the media,” Gavrikov said late Thursday, adding that he and Volkov were held for more than two hours at City Hall.

He also said that City Hall had insisted that all six people who signed the original application for authorization would come to the meeting, but that the authorities at no time stated that the meeting would be about a ban on the rally or that the organizers would face charges.

The organizers of the St. Petersburg Gay Pride — who already face substantial fines — said that the initial authorization had the force of law, but that the document presented to them Thursday revoking the authorization was not legal, and that they would go ahead with the rally on Saturday, July 7 at 2 p.m. in the Polyustrovsky park — the site and time initially approved by City Hall.

For the past two years, gay pride events in St. Petersburg have been banned by City Hall on questionable grounds, but were attempted to be held anyway in 2010 (on Palace Square) and 2011 (on Senate Square next to the Bronze Horseman), resulting in arrests.

Last year the event was attacked by a number of young men, some hiding their faces, who managed to punch at least two participants before those participants were arrested.

“The authorization was revoked due to the fact that the format of the application did not correspond to the actual event that the LGBT activists were planning to hold,” St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko’s spokesman Andrei Kibitov told RIA Novosti.

Kibitov added that the ban was also influenced by complaints from the public. 

“A great number of calls and emails have been received, not only from St. Petersburg but from other Russian cities as well, asking us to cancel the gay parade,” he was quoted as saying.
The “anti-propaganda” law — proposed by local United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov in November 2011 and signed into law by governor Poltavchenko this March — imposes fines for offenders, set at 5,000 rubles ($154) for individuals, 50,000 rubles ($1,537) for officials and 250,000 to 500,000 rubles ($7,686-$15,373) for legal entities. 

The St. Petersburg Gay Pride was initially authorized Tuesday to be held in the remote and mostly deserted Polyustrovsky park. The site was suggested by City Hall as an alternative after it rejected all of the more central routes and sites suggested by the organizers.


TITLE: Police Search Office of Realtor Inkom 
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Police on Thursday searched the central office of real estate firm Inkom in connection with an investigation into the theft of 550 million rubles ($17 million) at formerly city-owned Bank of Moscow.

Uniformed officers armed with submachine guns arrived at the Moscow office Thursday morning in search of documents linked to an employee of the company, Konstantin Popov, formerly head of Bank of Moscow's audit committee, Inkom Real Estate spokesman Anton Gololobov told Interfax.

Popov gave evidence to police during questioning Thursday morning, Gololobov said.

A police spokesperson told the news agency that the search was not in any way related to Inkom's activities.

Moscow police interrogated Popov in connection with an investigation into the theft in 2009 and 2010 of 547 million rubles from Bank of Moscow, which was acquired by state-controlled VTB in 2011. Employees of the bank are suspected of having used more than 300 fraudulent currency transactions to steal the funds.

Police conducted more than 10 searches at the residences of suspects in the case on May 30, according to Interfax.



TITLE: Illusionist Rushed to Hospital After Botching Trick 
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Well-known Russian illusionist Ilya Safronov was rushed to a hospital Thursday after messing up a trick while recording a show for Ukrainian TV.

Safronov was performing a trick called "Hook From the Eye" with his brothers Sergei and Andrei for the "Ukraine of Wonders" show on the New Channel station, RIA-Novosti reported.

While recording in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopol, Ilya asked for the cameras to be switched off midway through the trick, in which the conjurer appears to swallow a razor-sharp hook.

His brothers initially intended to remove the hook from their brother themselves, but decided to call an ambulance instead.

"Doctors arrived on the scene within minutes. After a brief examination, they told the film crew that they would take Ilya to the regional hospital, where the illusionist would see an ear-nose-and-throat specialist," New Channel's press department told the news agency.



TITLE: Pussy Riot Suspects Go on Hunger Strike 
AUTHOR: Jonathan Earle
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Three women accused of performing an anti-Kremlin song in Christ the Savior Cathedral went on hunger strike Wednesday to protest a Moscow court ruling that they must finish preparing their defense against hooliganism charges by Monday.

Lawyers for the trio said two working days isn’t enough time to study the 2,800-page indictment stemming from the February flash-mob-style performance by the female punk band Pussy Riot.

The lawyer for defendant Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said by telephone that the court’s decision was politically motivated.

“The government is trying to avoid a scandal by closing the case and sending the girls to prison by mid-August,” Mark Feigin said, adding that a planned appeal of the deadline would likely be rejected.

Judge Natalya Konovalova ruled that the defense had been given enough time to read the seven volumes provided by the prosecution, and she accused the lawyers of deliberately delaying the trial, accusations that Feigin denied.

The judge also rejected a motion from defendant Maria Alyokhina’s lawyer that she recuse herself from the case because of bias.

No trial date has been set, and the preliminary hearings are to resume Monday, with the court considering an appeal from the defense lawyers to release the women from custody.

Their detention was extended last month until at least July 24. They face up to seven years in prison.

The trio was detained shortly after four Pussy Riot members wearing masks burst into the cathedral and sang “Mother of God, Cast Putin Out!” No fourth suspect has been detained.

The performance was strongly condemned by state and church officials, who have called on the women to repent. The suspects have denied the charges.

The case has become a cause célèbre for the opposition, which says it reveals a crooked court system and the Russian Orthodox Church’s outsized influence over the country’s politics.

On Thursday, more than 100 Pussy Riot supporters and journalists gathered outside the courthouse, whistling and shouting “shame,” RIA-Novosti reported. Seven activists were detained, including three who locked themselves up in a homemade jail cell near the Tagansky District Court.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin echoed earlier pronouncements by church officials, accusing the women of holding a coven in a holy place.

Amnesty International has declared Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich “prisoners of conscience,” and more than 100 prominent Russian cultural figures wrote an open letter to the Supreme Court last week arguing that the women had not committed a criminal offense.

“We see no legal basis or practical reason for the further isolation of these young women, who do not pose any real danger to society,” the letter said.

International musicians, including the Beastie Boys’ Adam Horowitz and Californian rock group Faith No More, have added their voices to efforts to secure the women’s release.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights registered a complaint filed on behalf of the defendants, said Nikolai Polozov, who represents Alyokhina, Interfax reported.




TITLE: Mali, UNESCO Plead for Help
AUTHOR: COMBINED REPORTS
TEXT: An emergency appeal was made in St. Petersburg on Tuesday during which ambassadors from UNESCO and the Malian Minister of Culture called for the world’s governments and international organizations “not to allow vandals to wipe out historical monuments” in the Malian city of Timbuktu.
UNESCO representatives, who read out the appeal in English, Russian, French, Arabic and Spanish in front of the city’s famed Bronze Horseman monument, described the destruction being carried out by Islamist extremists as “a crime against history.”
“This is one of the most ancient African temples which is disappearing,” UNESCO representatives, who were gathered in the city for the 40th anniversary of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, said in the appeal.
The Malian Minister of Culture, Diallo Fadimo Toure, who struggled to hold back tears, thanked the world for its solidarity and sympathy, saying that the destruction of such a “unique and sacred place as Timbuktu would be a huge loss for all of Africa and the world.”
Eleonora Mitrofanova, head of the World Heritage Committee, said Mali’s culture minister is also worried about the condition of the ancient manuscripts that are preserved in the area as the destruction could disturb the controlled conditions under which they are kept.
Ali Ould Sidi, head of the Timbuktu Cultural Mission, said the Malian people were being “attacked in their hearts and souls” by what is being done to their historical monuments.
Last week UNESCO accepted Mali’s request to put Timbuktu on the list of World Heritage sites that are in danger. In response, Islamic extremist groups destroyed three sacred tombs with pickaxes, UNESCO said.
Muslim extremists continued destroying heritage sites in the ancient city of Timbuktu on Monday, razing tombs and attacking the gate of a 600-year-old mosque, despite a growing international outcry, The Associated Press reported. 
The International Criminal Court has described the destruction of the city’s patrimony as a possible war crime, while UNESCO’s committee on world heritage was holding a special session this week to address the pillaging of the listed site. 
The Islamic faction, known as Ansar Dine, or “Protectors of the Faith,” seized control of Timbuktu last week after ousting the Tuareg rebel faction that had invaded northern Mali alongside Ansar Dine’s soldiers three months ago. During the weekend, fighters screaming “Allah Akbar” descended on the cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu’s Sufi saints, and systematically began destroying the six most famous tombs. 
Reached by telephone in an undisclosed location in northern Mali, a spokesman for the faction said they do not recognize either the United Nations or the world court. 
“The only tribunal we recognize is the divine court of Shariah,” said Ansar Dine spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha, the AP reported. 
“The destruction is a divine order,” he said. 
“It’s our Prophet who said that each time that someone builds something on top of a grave, it needs to be pulled back to the ground. We need to do this so that future generations don’t get confused, and start venerating the saints as if they are God.”

TITLE: City Hall Authorizes Gay Pride Event for First Time
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: City Hall has for the first time ever authorized St. Petersburg Pride, an annual LGBT rights event, which will take place in Polyustrovsky Park in northwest St. Petersburg, the organizers said Wednesday. A march and stationary rally are scheduled to be held there from 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, July 7.

City Hall rejected all the sites proposed by local activists for the event, but did for the first time offer them an alternative location, in the same week that St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko was awarded an Honorary Rat anti-prize in Helsinki by a Finnish LGBT organization for signing the infamous local anti-“gay propaganda” law.

The administrations of the Central, Moskovsky, Admiralteisky and Vasileostrovsky districts turned down the organizers’ requests, although City Hall — which also rejected all the suggested locations — offered them the remote Polyustrovsky Park, dubbed “exile for the opposition,” Yury Gavrikov, chair of the LGBT rights organization Ravnopraviye (Equality) said Tuesday.

The organizers, who agreed to the site and hope to draw about 1,000 protesters, said in a statement that they want to draw the attention of society and the authorities to the issue of violations of civil rights in regard to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) people, including fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and right to assembly.

They are also planning to demand a legal ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a ban on speeches inciting hatred, and an investigation into hate crimes committed against the LGBT community as a social group.

Neither City Hall nor the individual district administrations cited the recently introduced local law banning “the promotion of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism to minors” as grounds for rejection of the organizers’ proposed sites.

“Everything was within the framework of traditional reasons for rejection,” Gavrikov said.

“They were turned down either on the basis that the rights would be violated of people not taking part in the event, such as pedestrians who would have difficulty passing through the suggested location, or by heavy traffic in the suggested streets — even if it’s not so heavy on Saturday — so the rights of citizens, i.e. drivers not participating in the event, would be violated. These were the two main reasons given.”

City Hall refused to authorize the event on Palace Square, citing “maintenance work on access roads and the eastern wing of the Western Military District HQ.”

“All the rejections were put down to technical reasons; there were no refusals like last year, when for almost every suggested location, a children’s playground, children’s bike rental or children’s excursion were given as grounds for refusal,” Gavrikov said.

“There was nothing like that this year.”

St. Petersburg gay pride events have been held annually since 2010. None have been authorized so far, and as a result, activists have been detained and charged with violating the rules on holding public events and failure to obey a police officer’s orders.

According to the Moscow gay pride movement’s founder Nikolai Alexeyev, a number of Moscow gay activists are planning to take part in the St. Petersburg event.

“It is in the interest of the authorities to provide security for us and avoid tension on the streets,” Alexeyev said in a statement Monday.

On Monday, Gavrikov was officially declared a victim in legal proceedings over an attack on gay rights activists by eight men after the Day of Russia Without Putin opposition rally on June 12.

Meanwhile, the Finnish LGBT rights organization SETA awarded City Governor Poltavchenko with its anti-prize during the Helsinki Pride, Finland’s largest LGBT rights event, on Saturday.

The Honorary Rat went to Poltavchenko for signing the city’s notorious anti-gay law in March.

According to SETA, the organization wanted to draw attention to the human rights of LGBT people in the region neighboring Finland.

“If he had wished, Poltavchenko could have refused to sign this law, which contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and international agreements signed by Russia,” SETA chair Outi Hannula said.

“We are concerned about the situation in St. Petersburg, especially seeing that St. Petersburg’s example was followed by other regions of Russia.”

TITLE: City Hall Authorizes Gay Pride Event for First Time
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: City Hall has for the first time ever authorized St. Petersburg Pride, an annual LGBT rights event, which will take place in Polyustrovsky Park in northwest St. Petersburg, the organizers said Wednesday. A march and stationary rally are scheduled to be held there from 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, July 7.

City Hall rejected all the sites proposed by local activists for the event, but did for the first time offer them an alternative location, in the same week that St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko was awarded an Honorary Rat anti-prize in Helsinki by a Finnish LGBT organization for signing the infamous local anti-“gay propaganda” law.

The administrations of the Central, Moskovsky, Admiralteisky and Vasileostrovsky districts turned down the organizers’ requests, although City Hall — which also rejected all the suggested locations — offered them the remote Polyustrovsky Park, dubbed “exile for the opposition,” Yury Gavrikov, chair of the LGBT rights organization Ravnopraviye (Equality) said Tuesday.

The organizers, who agreed to the site and hope to draw about 1,000 protesters, said in a statement that they want to draw the attention of society and the authorities to the issue of violations of civil rights in regard to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) people, including fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and right to assembly.

They are also planning to demand a legal ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a ban on speeches inciting hatred, and an investigation into hate crimes committed against the LGBT community as a social group.

Neither City Hall nor the individual district administrations cited the recently introduced local law banning “the promotion of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism to minors” as grounds for rejection of the organizers’ proposed sites.

“Everything was within the framework of traditional reasons for rejection,” Gavrikov said.

“They were turned down either on the basis that the rights would be violated of people not taking part in the event, such as pedestrians who would have difficulty passing through the suggested location, or by heavy traffic in the suggested streets — even if it’s not so heavy on Saturday — so the rights of citizens, i.e. drivers not participating in the event, would be violated. These were the two main reasons given.”

City Hall refused to authorize the event on Palace Square, citing “maintenance work on access roads and the eastern wing of the Western Military District HQ.”

“All the rejections were put down to technical reasons; there were no refusals like last year, when for almost every suggested location, a children’s playground, children’s bike rental or children’s excursion were given as grounds for refusal,” Gavrikov said.

“There was nothing like that this year.”

St. Petersburg gay pride events have been held annually since 2010. None have been authorized so far, and as a result, activists have been detained and charged with violating the rules on holding public events and failure to obey a police officer’s orders.

According to the Moscow gay pride movement’s founder Nikolai Alexeyev, a number of Moscow gay activists are planning to take part in the St. Petersburg event.

“It is in the interest of the authorities to provide security for us and avoid tension on the streets,” Alexeyev said in a statement Monday.

On Monday, Gavrikov was officially declared a victim in legal proceedings over an attack on gay rights activists by eight men after the Day of Russia Without Putin opposition rally on June 12.

Meanwhile, the Finnish LGBT rights organization SETA awarded City Governor Poltavchenko with its anti-prize during the Helsinki Pride, Finland’s largest LGBT rights event, on Saturday.

The Honorary Rat went to Poltavchenko for signing the city’s notorious anti-gay law in March.

According to SETA, the organization wanted to draw attention to the human rights of LGBT people in the region neighboring Finland.

“If he had wished, Poltavchenko could have refused to sign this law, which contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and international agreements signed by Russia,” SETA chair Outi Hannula said.

“We are concerned about the situation in St. Petersburg, especially seeing that St. Petersburg’s example was followed by other regions of Russia.”

TITLE: Activists Label Investigative Committee a ‘Tool of Political Oppression’
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Activists from The Other Russia opposition party protested the trial of 12 local party members and the arrests of Moscow protesters near the Investigative Committee building on the Moika River embankment Thursday. 
The activists chained themselves to the building and unfurled a banner reading “You can’t put everyone in prison.” The leaflets that they threw in the air accused the Investigative Committee of having been transformed into a tool for political oppression.
The trial of the 12 Other Russia activists, who are accused of being members of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP), has been adjourned due to the judge going on vacation. Lawyers and rights activists have condemned the proceedings as political persecution of the opposition. The defendants say they acted peacefully and legally as activists of The Other Russia party, launched by former NBP leader Eduard Limonov in 2010.
But despite doubts over the quality of the evidence and clearly false statements in the indictment, the court listened to prosecution witnesses from April 24 through June 22 and watched surveillance videos recorded by a hidden camera in an apartment where the activists held their meetings.
Lawyer Yury Shmidt, best known for representing jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, dismissed the charges as “groundless.”
“This is undoubtedly a political trial, and this is undoubtedly a trial set up against the opposition group that is the most energetic and the most dangerous to the authorities. I don’t think the charges would stand up to any scrutiny.”
From the court materials it became clear that the surveillance-equipped apartment used for the activists’ meetings was provided by an undercover agent for the counter-extremism Center E, which initiated the criminal proceedings against the 12 Other Russia members. 
Expert analysis of the surveillance tapes was provided by specialists from the Moscow Institute of Cultural Studies, infamous for previously declaring the slogan “Kill the Slave in You” — written on a Moscow activist’s T-shirt — “extremist” on the grounds that since the first word in the phrase is “kill,” it is therefore stressed and, consequently, encourages violence. 
The experts, psychology professor Vitaly Batov and math lecturer Natalya Kryukova, produced a statement reporting that the tapes showed the meetings of the NBP, saying that among other things, the banned red flag with a hammer and sickle depicted inside a circle could be seen on the video. 
What was later shown on the video in the courtroom was black and white surveillance footage showing a piece of cloth of an indiscernible color. No symbols could be seen. The defense asked the court to bring Batov and Kryukova to St. Petersburg for questioning.
The investigators claimed that all of the non-partisan Stategy 31 events in defense of the right of assembly were organized by the NBP and used the banned organization flags and paraphernalia. Applications were, however, submitted to City Hall from a group of representatives of several different organizations, ranging from the liberal Russian People’s Democratic Union (RNDS) to the left-wing ROT Front. 
Andrei Dmitriyev, the local leader of The Other Russia party, has been charged with organizing activities of a banned organization alongside Andrei Pesotsky and Alexei Marochkin. The rest of the defendants have been charged with participating in such activities and face up to two years in prison.
Lawyer Shmidt is not optimistic about the outcome of the trial. 
“The prospects are pretty sad because such cases are under the special control [of the authorities], they don’t just come up for no particular reason,” he said.
“[The criminal proceedings] were obviously preceded by a discussion of the issue at a much higher level than the one of the investigation. Unfortunately we have a large number of examples showing that the authorities took decisive action against the opposition. Because these authorities are authoritarian and deprived of the features that characterize a democracy, the courts are not independent but built in a power vertical instead,” Shmidt said.
“I am not expecting anything good. There might be a minor compromise at best, maybe to do with the length of the sentences, but I am not expecting a ruling guided by principle.”
The court hearings will resume on Aug. 1.

TITLE: Complaints Fail To Deter Ombudsman
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Kravtsova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: City ombudsman Alexander Shishlov said the number of complaints the ombudsman’s office has received since he was elected in April has increased by 150 percent and is continuing to grow, but refuses to let this dishearten him. 
“For me it is a sign that the ombudsman as a government body is becoming more popular in St. Petersburg,” Shishlov said at a press conference last week at which he outlined his plans for the future and shared his opinion on the most high-profile issues of human rights violations in the city. “My goal in this respect is to make it more responsive.”
The new ombudsman hopes to make closer cooperation with both government bodies and non-governmental human rights organizations a priority.
“Experience has shown that it is much faster and more effective to restore violated human rights when government bodies work together, provided that those in St. Petersburg cooperate with federal bodies as well. That is why one of my most pressing tasks is to establish collaboration with federal bodies,” Shishlov said.
He noted that new agreements with the city’s Public Prosecutor’s Office, Directorate of Internal Affairs, Federal Migration Service and Federal Penitentiary Service have already been reached.
“Our activity is not confined to working with complaints — we organize hotlines and conduct field checks with other bodies as well,” Shishlov said.
Shishlov has begun collaborating with non-governmental organizations by cooperating with the city’s Human Rights Council, which was established in 2007 after St. Petersburg’s first ombudsman, Igor Mikhailov, was elected.
“Relations between the Human Rights Council with the two previous ombudsmen were fairly complicated,” said Natalya Yevdokimova, secretary general of the Human Rights Council, who was also a potential candidate for the ombudsman post. 
“As for the third ombudsman, Alexander Shishlov, he came to the council ready to cooperate from the very beginning. Despite some disputes within the council, we decided to cooperate as well,” she added.
One of Shishlov’s first initiatives was to work with Yevdokimova to organize meetings with those who had complained to the ombudsman. “We will conduct such meetings on a regular basis,” Shishlov said.
The ombudsman also had his say on what are seen as the most pressing issues, such as the draft bill that could ban organized rallies and marches from taking place on certain streets and squares in the city center.
“I don’t want to make strong judgements about this draft bill, but I consider it to be a forced action similar to the passing of the federal law on public demonstrations, which I don’t approve of. It contradicts the spirit of the constitution, which guarantees people the right to hold peaceful rallies,” said Shishlov.
In regard to the rights of the LGBT community, Shishlov said he had not received any complaints besides those associated with the issue of public demonstrations. One complaint he gave as an example was about the notorious incident in Petrovsky Park on May 17, when a group of people participating in a sanctioned LGBT-organized protest event were attacked and two protesters were assaulted by a man with a gun firing irritant fluid. 
“There were complaints regarding this case, and they will continue to be received, but before we even received them I had expected they would come — I consider such extremist behavior to be unacceptable and those who think they can practice vigilante justice should be severely punished themselves,” Shishlov said. 
“I was disappointed by the lack of a reaction from the police, and later discussed the question with the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs,” he added.
Discussion about the recently elected head of City Hall’s Culture Committee, Dmitry Meskhiyev, also appeared on the agenda, as many of those working in the cultural sphere have expressed their disagreement with his culture policies. Some have even accused him of violating people’s rights to have access to their country’s cultural heritage. 
“I have no right to interfere in the activity of the executive bodies, but I will examine all of the emerging collisions that fall within the framework of my power,” said Shishlov. “If rights are being violated, I will appeal to the head of the Culture Committee.”
Regarding the reconstruction of the historical center — a topic that concerns many St. Petersburg residents — Shishlov believes there should be a more open discussion between residents and non-governmental organizations and City Hall in order to find new solutions to the dispute. “We need partners to resolve the issue — not only those interested in bringing up the issue, but those prepared to find a better solution,” he said.
Boris Pustyntsev, head of the non-governmental human rights organization Citizens’ Watch, said it was too early to appraise Shishlov’s work, but that there is a lot of potential for future cooperation. 
“Up to this point we haven’t seen much noticeable activity from Shishlov, but for a long time we have known him to be an adherent of universal human values, and we hope for fruitful collaboration,” Pustyntsev said. 
“We have already discussed possible ways to establish such cooperation, and now we all need to turn it into real practice.” 
Pustyntsev said the new ombudsman should focus on areas including freedom of choice, freedom of speech and the correspondence of local laws to international standards. 
“Specific activities that involve us collaborating with Shishlov should be decided according to what the challenges concerning human rights violations in our society are,” Pustyntsev said.

TITLE: Cyclists Ride to Demand Rights in City
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Portnova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A community bike ride held Sunday attracted a record number of participants for the city and resulted in the writing of 662 letters to the city governor demanding the improvement of cycling infrastructure and rules in St. Petersburg.
The aim of the event, titled “Za Velogorod” (For a Bike-City), was to show the government and other citizens that bikes can be a safe and convenient way of traveling around the city. 
Daria Tabachnikova, one of the co-organizers of the bike ride, said one of the key goals of the event was to make cyclists realize that they are part of a large group and that they want serious change. 
“We want to show that the demand for the popularization of bikes truly exists in our society,” she said.
The route went from Tavrichesky garden to New Holland island, via Nevsky Prospekt for some of the distance. Faced with such large groups of cyclists, car drivers had little choice but to avoid them with care, and the event took place mostly without incident — although one girl couldn’t reach the start and broke her arm after riding into an unmarked manhole.
According to the organizers, more than 1,200 cyclists gathered in Tavrichesky garden for the start of the ride, and many more joined them en route. Participants included people of all ages, from infants strapped to their parents’ bikes to elegant elderly ladies, who had their own team called “Dreams on Wheels.”
“For one day, New Holland in the center of St. Petersburg was transformed into a real Holland with hundreds of bicycles parked near the railings along the canals,” said Tabachnikova. 
“In fact, we faced some difficulties in connection with the new Russian law on protests, because now any mass gathering can be qualified as an unauthorized rally. We were afraid that at any moment, our event could be broken up, but in the end everything went well. ”
Upon arrival at New Holland, participants had the opportunity to sign postcards addressed to St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, asking him to improve the infrastructure for cyclists in the city. A total of 662 postcards were written and will be delivered to City Hall in the near future, organizers say.
“We want the official establishment to see that society isn’t indifferent to this issue,” said Tabachnikova.
“We truly need these cycle lanes and we truly believe that St. Petersburg could be a bike-friendly place.”
The city will see another large-scale bike ride take place later this month, organized by a different team of cycling enthusiasts. The Velonotte Pietrogrado, in which participants cycle around the Petrograd Side of the city, listening through headphones to lectures on architecture and history delivered by historians and other experts, was held in the city for the first time last summer and attracted thousands of cyclists. This year’s Velenotte, covering a 35-kilometer route from Palace Square to the former imperial estate of Peterhof, will be held on the night of July 14-15. Those who wish to take part can register at www.velonoch.org.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Online Border Booking</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — People traveling from Russia to Estonia will now be able to make a preliminary booking online to cross the border, Interfax reported.
Russia will launch the GoSwift electronic system in July with the aim of reducing the time spent waiting in line by travelers.
Bookings can be made for Russia’s border points with Estonia such as Shumilkino-Lukhamaa, Kunichnaya Gora–Koidula and Ivangorod-Narva.
The GoSwift system has been used to allow travelers to book a time to cross the border from Estonia into Russia since August 2011.
The system makes it possible to book a time to cross the border. Travelers will still be able to cross the border without having made an online booking, in the same way that they do now — on a first come, first served basis, Interfax reported.
Estonia’s Interior Affairs Ministry said Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland have also expressed interest in using a similar system.


TITLE: City Drivers Face Increased Fines for Illegal Parking
AUTHOR: By Yelena Minenko
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Drivers of illegally parked cars will now be obligated to pay not only a fine for violating the law, but also the cost of towing their vehicle under new federal and local laws that came into force Sunday. 
Under the previous law, towing costs were included in the city’s budget. Drivers who left their cars parked illegally had to pay a fine of 300 rubles ($9.30) for improper parking. From July 1, the fine has increased to 3,000 rubles ($93) for St. Petersburg and Moscow, and does not include towing expenses, which were set at 2,700 rubles per car by the Tariff Committee of St. Petersburg and are to be paid by the lawbreaker. 
If the driver of a towed vehicle doesn’t consider themselves guilty, they will have to pay the fines anyway in order to get the car back, and later will have to go through a series of court sessions to prove their innocence and get a refund.
 “There’s going to be a real witch-hunt for drivers,” said Alexander Kholodov, a representative of the Freedom of Choice motorists’ organization, during a roundtable discussion of the new law on Thursday. 
“By passing this law, officials aren’t solving the problem — the parking space won’t be vacated because in the place of the towed car another will appear right away, the city’s budget won’t get much from fines, and only the commercial companies who tow the vehicles will make a profit.” 
Vehicles will be towed by five commercial organizations that were selected from other candidates, according to Denis Ganenkov, a representative of the city’s Tariffs Committee.
“They handed in applications with their expenses and the Tariff Committee of St. Petersburg considered them when proposing the new towing tariff,” said Ganenkov.
In addition to the increased prices, the parking rules have become stricter. Previously, an illegally parked car could be towed only if it was in the way of other vehicles and was hindering traffic. Under the new law, cars can be towed away even when they are not blocking traffic, but are left on sidewalks, near pedestrian crossings and at bus stops, for example. 
In other countries, car towing is often a last resort. In the U.S., towing is an exceptional measure undertaken only if the car is really blocking the way. In other cases, wardens simply write out a fine and leave notice of this on the windshield, or use wheel clamps. In the Netherlands, the course of action taken depends on how long the car is left in an improper place. The driver has the opportunity to pay the fine before the car is towed away. 
“The situation won’t be changed by these new rules; it is just a deterrent measure, and wardens will fine chance victims instead of those who hinder the traffic flow to a greater extent,” said Igor Golubev, president of Lat, a company offering automobile- and insurance-related assistance, including a towing service.
Critics say the new rules contradict Russian law, of which a main principle is the presumption of innocence. In order for the vehicle to be released, payment must be made, but according to the law, the payment is to be paid by the lawbreaker. 
“The inspector has to prove that the person who came to pick up the car is the same person who violated the law, and if they do so, it is a one-in-a-million case,” said Alexei Novikov, a St. Petersburg representative of StopKham, an organization that combats badly behaved drivers. 
Novikov doesn’t believe that the new rules will ameliorate the problem of illegal parking. He believes in other methods.
“We go out on the streets, mainly in the city center, and try to talk to drivers who park illegally and make them move their cars. If they don’t listen to us, we put a sticker on their windshield,” said Novikov. 
“In most cases, people do move their cars, and at least for some time — during the period when we are patrolling the streets — nobody parks there illegally. That’s already something; people start to think.” 
Analysts say the best way to solve the problem of identifying lawbreakers is to have video cameras in the streets that would show who violated the law, when and where. They could also help to identify any damage caused by tow trucks to vehicles, since this is not covered by regular car insurance. 
“When a car is towed away, the lawbreaker is usually absent, and without them it is impossible to draw up a damage claim,” said Sergei Krasnov, senior lecturer in law at the insurance department of St. Petersburg Institute of Governance and Law. 
“Insurance companies won’t want to get involved because the situation is rather vague. There is only one solution: Go on foot or park in paid car parks.”

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Drowned Baby Found</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The body of a two-month-old baby was found in the waters of the Malaya Neva River on Sunday. His mother’s body was found in the same area the next day. The bodies were identified by the baby’s father, Interfax reported.
The 41-year-old woman and her baby disappeared on June 23. The woman reportedly left a baby carriage on the sidewalk and walked down to the edge of the Smolninskaya embankment with her son in her arms, from where she is believed to have jumped into the water in an apparent suicide.

<b>Square for Tsoi</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Dmitry Meskhiyev, chairman of City Hall’s Culture Committee, said he doubted that the late Russian rock star Viktor Tsoi would have been pleased to have a small square near the city’s Kamchatka boiler room where the Kino frontman worked named after him.
“I’ve known many representatives of St. Petersburg rock culture, including Viktor Tsoi personally, and I agree that we must preserve his memory in the city. However, I think that Viktor himself would not have been happy if a small square near Kamchatka was named in his honor. I think the best decision would be to have a monument to Tsoi in the city,” Meskhiyev was quoted by Izvestiya newspaper as saying.
The city’s toponymic commission voted last Friday to name the small square near the Kamchatka boiler room where Tsoi worked in honor of the iconic rock musician. The commission has sent its recommendation to the city governor and City Hall, Rosbalt news agency reported.
The square is located on the corner of Zverinskaya Ulitsa and Lyubansky Pereulok.
Meanwhile, Tsoi fans have expressed disappointment that the commission decided to name only a square in honor of Tsoi instead of a street, and have sent an appeal to the city authorities concerning the matter.
“We want St. Petersburg residents to be able to say that they live on Ulitsa Tsoya or that Ulitsa Tsoya is in their city,” the activists wrote, Rosbalt reported.

<b>Pregnant Runaway</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A 14-year-old girl from a local children’s home who is nine months pregnant ran away from the institution last week, Interfax reported.
The girl has run away from the orphanage several times before, the news agency reported.

<b>Arshavin Named Best</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The organizers of the Euro 2012 football tournament have named Andrei Arshavin, a forward for the Russian national soccer team, as the best player in goal assists in the championship, Interfax reported.
Arshavin, who returned to his native St. Petersburg FC Zenit for the past six months but will now go back to his current team, England’s Arsenal, made three goal assists during the championship. England halfback Steven Gerrard, Spain’s David Silva and Germany’s Mesut Ozil had as many assists, but played in more matches than Arshavin.
The Euro 2012 championship took place in eight cities in Ukraine and Poland from June 8 through July 1. The Spanish national team won the tournament.

<b>More Hermitage Time</b> 
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum extended its weekend working hours beginning July 1.
The museum will stay open until 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 6 p.m. on Sundays during the summer season. Throughout the rest of the year, the museum works from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Tuesday through Saturday and from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and days before a public holiday.

<b>Bosch Plant Opens</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — German company Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances (BSH) opened a new plant in the St. Petersburg suburb of Strelna last week that will produce washing machines. 
The plant cost 30 million euro ($3.8 million) to build, Interfax reported, and its production capacity is 350,000 washing machines a year. 
The price of one washing machine will range from 14,000 to 22,000 rubles ($435-$680).
The new plant is located on the same territory as a Bosch refrigerator plant that opened in 2007.
The local plant supplies appliances to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Romania.

<b>Salads Poison Campers</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Twenty-six children suffered acute enteric infections after eating fruit and vegetable salads at the Fakel+ children’s summer camp on June 28 and 29, Interfax reported.

TITLE: City Sets Up Night Buses To Follow Metro Routes
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Five night bus routes were launched in St. Petersburg on July 1. The routes follow those of the metro system, which closes shortly after midnight, and are designed to fill the gap in public transport during the night.
The night buses will be marked with the letter M, and their numbers correspond to the number of the underground line along which they run: 1 M for the Red Line, 2 M for the Blue Line, 3 M for the Green Line, 4 M for the Yellow Line and 5 M for the Purple Line.
The buses are currently working in an experimental model, but are due to be launched properly on Saturday, July 7. For this purpose, 67 buses have been allocated by City Hall’s Transport Committee and the state enterprise Passazhiravtotrans, according to the Transport Committee. 
The buses will run from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. at 15-minute intervals on weekends and public holidays at first, and according to the press service of the Transport Committee, the routes may start operating every night if they prove popular.
The cost of travel is the same as daytime public buses: 23 rubles ($0.71) per ticket; travel passes are also valid on them. The night buses will stop at the regular bus stops used by daytime transport. 
During the summer months when the bridges over the Neva River are raised and therefore closed to traffic, the night buses will take alternative routes without crossing the river, but when the bridges are closed, transportation across the Neva will be resumed.
A timetable for the night buses can be found at bus stop signs and on the Transport Committee website, and can also be seen online at the St. Petersburg Public Transport website: http://gov.spb.ru.

TITLE: Army Won’t Spare Passengers
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Russian military is ready to shoot down passenger planes if they are hijacked by terrorists and flown toward a site of strategic importance, Andrei Dyomin, head of Russia’s Air Defense Headquarters said, Interfax reported.
“If such a plane is directed toward some particularly important place such as a nuclear power station, a military base or a state administrative building whose destruction could result in a catastrophic situation for residents of a city, the decision for a fighter jet to shoot down the plane could be made,” Dyomin said.
Dyomin said that before a plane is shot down, all possible measures to land the plane and confirm that a terrorist is on board will be taken.

TITLE: Poll Finds Stark Public Divide Over Putin
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — The success and possible future undoing of President Vladimir Putin lies in the contrast between people like provincial housewife Yekaterina Arsentyeva and Moscow student Kirill Guskov.
In the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Arsentyeva sees Putin as the only man who can ensure her children have a decent future. In the capital, Guskov can’t hide his contempt for Russia’s leader and the culture of corruption he has overseen: “A fish rots from its head,” he fumes.
An Associated Press-GfK poll released Monday reveals a stark divide between Moscow and the rest of Russia over the man who has ruled the country for the past 12 years. A total of 60 percent of Russians maintain a favorable opinion of the president as he begins his third term. In contrast, only 38 percent in the capital — where tens of thousands have joined anti-Putin protests — have a favorable view of him.
The division extends to views on the fairness of elections and the state of the economy, while almost all agree that corruption is among the most serious problems facing Russia today.
The split promises to have profound, albeit still unknown, consequences for the future of the protest movement and of Putin himself. The outcome depends in large part on the economy, which the poll shows is the primary concern of most Russians. While anger over the trampling of democratic rights has brought Muscovites out to protest in droves, any deterioration in living standards could prove the catalyst for protests in the provinces. Hikes in utilities prices have the potential to cause broad discontent.
The mood in the hinterlands may also change as more people gain access to the Internet and the social networks that have been crucial to the rise of the protest movement in Moscow and other large cities.
For now, people like the 39-year-old Arsentyeva have no sympathy for the protest movement and the educated, urban professionals who have been its driving force.
“If they don’t like our country, why do they live here? Let them go to Europe or America and express their dissatisfaction there,” she said. Her hopes are pinned firmly on Putin.
“My husband works in a good company that is growing, we have a stable income, I can easily buy diapers, soap, anything my children need and I don’t have to stand in line or run around in search of goods in short supply,” said Arsentyeva, who is expecting her second child.
Her views reflect a deep-seated fear of social upheaval and of a return to the turmoil of the 1990s, the decade following the Soviet collapse, when salaries often went unpaid for months and store shelves were thinly stocked.
Nikolai Petrov, who studies Russian regional politics at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that Putin’s popularity should be considered support for the existing order and not for Putin himself. “The majority of Russians are still not ready to change the whole system,” Petrov said.
Putin’s rating on his job performance hit a high of 81 percent as he wrapped up his second term in 2008, according to the Levada Center, which measures his current approval rating at 60 percent, about the same as the 58 percent registered in the AP-GfK poll. This differs from favorability rating, which seeks to measure overall impressions of a person.
Putin handed over the presidency to Dmitry Medvedev, but as prime minister he remained the dominant player in Russian politics. Putin’s decision in September to reclaim the presidency, followed by his party’s victory in a December parliamentary election through what observers said was widespread fraud, set off protests across Russia.
After Putin won the March presidential election with 64 percent of the vote, the protests died away in much of the country except for Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The AP-GfK poll indicates that Putin retains broad support, although only 18 percent expressed a strongly favorable view of him. The poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications from May 25 to June 10 and was based on in-person interviews with 1,675 randomly selected adults nationwide. The results have a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
At the other end of the spectrum, 14 percent expressed a somewhat or strongly unfavorable view. The majority falls in between, passively supportive but some increasingly cynical.
Magomed Abakarov, who works for the government in the North Caucasus city of Makhachkala, voted for Putin, but his support is tepid at best.
“I consider him a liar and a fake,” Abakarov said. “Someday we’ll know who the real Mr. Putin is, but under the current circumstances he is the best candidate for president. He can talk tough with the leader of any country.”
The majority of Russians see their country as a stronger international power than it was before Putin became president in 2000, according to the poll.
Like many Russians, Abakarov said he voted for Putin because there was no viable alternative in a country where only Kremlin-approved candidates are allowed to run for president. Putin has centralized control over the political system, preventing the emergence of independent political leaders and reducing parliament to a rubber stamp.
The presidency is now the only institution that at least half of Russians feel can be trusted to do what is right, according to the AP-GfK poll. The military, still manned by conscripts, comes next with the trust of 41 percent.
The parliament only has the trust of about a quarter of the people and the same goes for the courts, which have been compromised by corrupt judges. Just 18 percent say they trust the police, who are notorious for shaking down motorists.
Corruption is among Russians’ biggest concerns, with 91 percent of those surveyed in Moscow calling it a serious problem and almost as many, 85 percent, of those outside the capital saying the same. Even though Putin has failed to deliver on repeated pledges to crack down on corrupt officials, most Russians don’t hold him responsible.
Grigory Mikheyev, a 28-year-old systems administrator in the far eastern town of Dalnegorsk, complained of a system of double standards.
“The laws seem fine, but they only apply to the selected few,” he said. “The simple people get punished, while the bureaucrats get rich.”
Still, Mikheyev said he generally approves of Putin.
In keeping with the disparity between the capital and the rest of the country, Muscovites are far more likely to see election fraud as a serious problem: Fifty-six percent compared with 37 percent elsewhere.
Guskov, the 21-year-old Moscow student, expressed frustration over what he sees as one-man rule.
“He is still a tsar and Russia is the kind of country where a lot depends on a single person,” Guskov said. “But we as a people are trying to do something, so we go to protests and demonstrate our discontent.”
A major factor behind the divergence between Moscow and the rest of Russia is that about half of those surveyed live in small towns and rural areas, where most people still get their news from the Kremlin-controlled national television networks.
Half of the respondents outside the capital said they do not use the Internet, compared with only 10 percent in Moscow. Without access to the Internet, they have not seen the flood of videos purporting to show blatant vote rigging or read about alleged corruption in political and business circles close to Putin.
Without the Internet, many Russians are unlikely to know much about Alexei Navalny, a charismatic corruption fighter and blogger who is a leader of the anti-Putin protest movement. In Moscow, only 15 percent said they had no opinion of Navalny, compared with 46 percent in the rest of the country.
This may change, however, as the number of Internet users rises steadily. The Public Opinion Foundation said 38 percent of Russians now use the Internet daily, up from 22 percent just two years ago.
Moscow residents also differ from the rest of their countrymen with their far more pessimistic view of Russia’s oil-based economy, perhaps because they are more aware of the challenges ahead.
To consolidate his base ahead of the election, Putin promised higher wages and benefits to soldiers, police, doctors and teachers. He pledged to pump billions of dollars into ailing industrial plants and the military.
But economists warn that the additional spending is unsustainable if oil prices remain low. Russia is able to balance its budget if the Urals blend of oil stays above $115, but it is currently trading at closer to $90.
Sergei Mikheyev, an analyst with the Center for Political Technologies, said the economic troubles would have to be lasting and deep to drive people in the regions out onto the streets.
“To make the regions rise up in a revolt, the oil price will need to take a dramatic toll on living standards, for example by making millions of people jobless,” he said.
Petrov, the Carnegie scholar, is more pessimistic. He points to substantial hikes in the cost of heating and electricity that went into effect in July and will begin to bite once the weather turns cold, coupled with unpopular new taxes and education reforms going into effect in September.
“We’ve witnessed a big wave of political protests, with Moscow as the leader, in big cities,” Petrov said. “I don’t think this political protest will go down to small towns, but in the fall there will be socio-economic protests, and socio-economic protests across the country combined with political protests in the big cities will create a deadly mix.”

TITLE: July 26 To See Rally
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The opposition will hold anti-Kremlin demonstrations on July 26 and hopes for a large turnout not only in Moscow but also nationwide and in other countries, an organizer said Monday.
“A huge event is planned for July 26: A rally and a march in Moscow, as well as events in other cities,” said Sergei Davidis, an organizer and member of the opposition Solidarity movement, Interfax reported. “If we can manage it, the event will happen all over the world.”
He said opposition supporters in several European countries have already expressed interest in staging demonstrations of their own.
“This won’t only be a Russian event,” he said.
But Moscow participants may have to settle for a simple rally, rather than a combined march and rally, because of tough protest rules passed last month, he said.
The planned protests would be the first since tens of thousands of people marched peacefully in Moscow on the Russia Day holiday on June 12. The main organizer is the May 6 Committee, of which Davidis is a member. The committee, named after the day that opposition activists and riot police officers clashed violently during a rally in Moscow, is comprised of members of the unregistered Other Russia party and representatives of the Solidarity, Occupy Moscow, Autonomous Action, Left Front and White Ribbon movements.
Davidis said that in addition to decrying President Vladimir Putin’s rule, the July 26 protest in Moscow would show support for activists who face criminal prosecution in connection with the May 6 violence on Bolotnaya Ploshchad.

TITLE: Bill Targets 1,000 NGOs
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — About 1,000 organizations, including anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, independent election monitor Golos and even the Russian Orthodox Church, could fall under proposed tighter regulations for foreign-funded NGOs that conduct “political” activity.
Under legislation submitted to the State Duma late last week by the ruling United Russia party, such NGOs must register as “foreign agents” within 90 days of the rules coming into force or risk 300,000-ruble ($9,250) fines and four-year prison terms.
Of about 230,000 non-governmental organizations operating in the country, tens of thousands receive money from abroad, and about 1,000 of those are involved in “political” activity and will need to register under the new legislation, RIA-Novosti reported Monday, citing a Kremlin source.
The source said a court would decide whether a group’s undertakings qualify as “political.” He said Golos, Transparency International, and environmental groups would probably fall under the new rules.
Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Kremlin’s human rights council, said the bill needed to be amended because it was too far-reaching.
The bill could be considered in a first reading as early as Friday.

TITLE: Russia Second in Fatal Crashes
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian civil aviation’s reputation for safety took a hit in the post-Soviet period, reaching a low in 2011 after a number of fatal crashes. But there were also years without any fatal crashes at all.
So how safe is it to fly in Russia?
Determining the comparative safety of civil aviation in Russia, or in any country, is a difficult task. There isn’t a single world organization that regulates all airlines, sets standards, tracks compliance and rates performance.
Looking at the number of fatal air crashes since 1945, Russia is in second place with 273 accidents. The United States is in first place with 653 fatal crashes. That statistic, however, conceals the huge number of flights and the preponderance of small-craft accidents in the United States.
A glance at statistics on hull-loss crashes — accidents in which the airplane is destroyed or must otherwise be written off — per million flights is slightly more revealing. But the agency that provides those figures only counts Western-made aircraft, so the Russian rating is often misleading.
People can look at country statistics, but each country has its own definitions of such key indicators as “incidents,” which makes cross-country comparisons problematic.
The head of the Federal Air Transportation Agency, Alexander Neradko, recently said that the accident level in civil aviation had dropped by a factor of 10 in the last 20 years, from 111 accidents in 1991 to 13 or less today. While that is good news for frequent flyers, it still puts Russia about midway between the safest and the most dangerous countries for flying.
The biggest problem is the “human factor,” with about 90 percent of the accidents in Russia caused by pilot error.
“In the Soviet Union, there was comprehensive, multi-level training of pilots. A pilot only started flying long-distance flights at the age of 35 or 40, when he had a lot of experience,” said Avia.ru editor Roman Gusarov. “Today, someone graduates from flight school, and if he passes test flights and exams, he immediately starts flying a major aircraft.”
Anatoly Guzy, a specialist in aviation safety and a consultant for Transaero, placed the ultimate blame on the oversight agencies, saying the country lacks a coherent, comprehensive safety system.
So how can passengers improve their odds for a safe flight?
Guzy has this advice for nervous flyers:
 Choose your airline. Fly one of the airlines listed in the annual Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Center Index of the 60 safest airlines (Transaero and Aeroflot made the grade in 2011) or an airline that is a member of the International Air Transport Association. The four leading Russian airlines — Aeroflot, Transaero, S7 and UTAir — are all members.
  Choose your airport. Check aviation-safety.net or airport.airlines-inform.ru to see the number of accidents and incidents at an airport, read traveler reviews, or ask your travel agent.
A Class 1 Russian airport, which has more than 7 million passengers per year, is much more likely to be safe to fly in and out of than a Class 5 airport, which serves less than 100,000 passengers a year.
  Fly an airline with regularly scheduled flights, not a charter. The accident rate for charter flights is about three times higher than for regular flights.
  Fly off-season. The peak of accidents in Russia coincides with the peak in the travel season, when pilots and ground crews are more likely to be overworked and excessively tired.
And remember, Guzy said, that flying in Russia is still statistically safer than walking around Moscow.

TITLE: Govt Hikes Up Utilities, Tobacco, Booze Prices
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Utilities bills, alcohol and tobacco prices and parking fines shot up Sunday under government initiatives that few doubt are unnecessary but hold the potential of fueling discontent against the Kremlin.
The government is keeping an especially close eye on public reaction to the 15-percent increase in the cost of utilities, electricity, gas and water.
The measure, meant to pass on some actual costs in the long-subsidized communal services sector to households, was initially supposed to have come into force on Jan. 1 but was delayed until July 1, well after the March presidential election.
Some pundits warned that the increase might lead to protests in poorer provinces.
“While fighting against the new tariffs, people will call for the resignation of the government,” said Mark Feigin, a senior member of the Solidarity opposition movement.
The authorities say the price hike will share fair costs with consumers and allow them to improve the country’s aging utilities infrastructure.
But opponents have maintained that past increases did not contribute to the well-being of the sector, seen as one of the most corrupt in Russia.
According to the presidential administration, 25 billion rubles ($800 million) was siphoned out of the sector in the Central Federal District alone from 2009 to 2010.
“The sector’s poor condition is a direct result of the absence of reform,” said Feigin, who served as a deputy governor in the Samara region during the 1990s.
In the Altai region, one of Russia’s poorest provinces, news of the increase angered locals — who blamed Putin.
“Glory to the Russian people who advocate stability and oppose the unjustified rise of prices,” read a comment on an article about the increase on a local news site, Atmosphere. The comment referred to Putin’s election campaign, which touted stability as an achievement of his rule.
Among other price increases, alcohol and tobacco goods have also gone up as new excise stamps and other requirements meant to curb demand came into force. The cheapest half-liter bottle of vodka now costs 125 rubles ($4.50), not 98 rubles. Supermarkets, meanwhile, can no longer sell beer after 11 p.m., and kiosks cannot sell it at all.
The anti-alcohol campaign narrowly avoided ensnaring a range of national drinks, including kefir, ryazhenka and kvas, all of which contain small amounts of alcohol.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on Friday exempting about a dozen products from the new regulations requiring producers of food and beverages with more than 0.5 percent alcohol content to get the special excise stamps and meet the other requirements.
The exempted products are “sour dairy beverages,” fermented beverages including kvas, cider and honey-based wines that contain between 0.5 and 1.2 percent alcohol, ice cream, chocolate, sherbet, “sweet edible ice,” pastries, and cold-smoked sausage, according to a copy of the document posted on the government’s website.
Licensing requirements for drinks such as cider and the mead-like sbiten would have been too costly for the small businesses that produce many of them, meaning they would have been forced to close down, Vedomosti reported.
Drivers also face up to a tenfold increase in fines.
Cars with windows tinted darker than legally permitted will have their license plates temporarily removed, and the owner will get a 500-ruble ($15.50) fine, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
Unauthorized crossing into a bus lane will mean a 1,500-ruble ($46) fine. If you park in a bus lane or on tram rails in Moscow, you’ll get a 3,000-ruble ($100) fine and your car will be towed.
If you stop in a tunnel, thereby disrupting the flow of traffic, you’ll also get fined 3,000 rubles.

TITLE: Britain Won’t Cooperate in Browder Case
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Investigators are ready to take their case against Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder to court — but the U.K. refuses to notify the British citizen, let alone extradite him.
Browder, a co-founder of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, is a suspect in the $230 million tax embezzlement case that landed lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in jail in 2008.
Magnitsky was jailed on tax evasion charges soon after he accused tax and police officials of stealing the $230 million. He died of heart failure after about a year in custody.
Last year, prosecutors reopened the Magnitsky case under an order by then-Prosecutor General Viktor Grin.
Hermitage has said the case was reopened three days after the U.S. State Department announced that Grin, an official associated with Magnitsky’s death, would be denied entry to the U.S.
For refusing to notify Browder, Britain has cited the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance, which allows a sovereign nation to deny assistance that could jeopardize national security.
The Russian Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the case would go to court, regardless of what Britain thinks.
The British denial, however, “allows the defense to say its rights are violated,” the ministry said in a statement. “It allows Browder … to tell the whole world about the injustice being committed in the Russian law enforcement system.”

TITLE: PM Medvedev Angers Japan With Visit to Disputed Island
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — During a visit to the Far East, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev traveled Tuesday to Kunashir Island, inflaming a long-standing territorial dispute with Japan over the Kuril Islands.
Medvedev took an unflinching tone before the visit, saying that “the practice of visiting the islands by the Russian leadership will continue,” RIA-Novosti reported.
The islands, surrounded by rich fishing grounds believed to have oil, natural gas and mineral deposits, were seized by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II, but Japan says they are part of its territory.
“I would like to emphasize that I consider it very important that members of the government visit the Kurils. … This is an important part of the Sakhalin region and simply an important part of our Russian lands,” Medvedev said.
It has been earlier reported that the prime minister’s planned trip to the Kuril Islands would be postponed due to weather conditions, but conditions improved enough to allow the government delegation to fly to the island.
“Life in Sakhalin is such that it changes very quickly. And it’s a lesson for a lot of people who are here with me today because I just said that we would not go, but now we have the opportunity to visit the Kurils. I think this is a very important part of our program,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev’s visit to far eastern regions will last until Thursday, July 5.
In November 2010 Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit the islands, causing a strong outcry from the Japanese government.
Japan has claimed four disputed islands since 1945, citing a bilateral agreement on trade and borders from 1855. Tokyo has made the return of the islands a condition of concluding a peace treaty with Russia, which was not signed at the end of World War II, meaning the two countries are technically still at war.
Moscow has argued that the southern Kuril Islands were a part of the Soviet Union following World War II and that having the appropriate international legal registration, Russian sovereignty over them is undoubted.

TITLE: Bashkortostan Cop Sent to Hospital After FSB Beating
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A police officer investigating organized crime in Bashkortostan was rushed to hospital after being beaten by Federal Security Service officials, police said Tuesday.
According to police, FSB officers were questioning colleague Azer Mamedov as a witness in a criminal case at the time that he sustained injuries.
His injuries included a brain contusion, cranial and nasal fractures, a broken pelvis and various injuries to his arms, groin and buttocks, police said in a statement on their website.
“Going by preliminary evidence, the given bodily injuries were caused by unidentified employees of the Bashkortostan branch of the FSB while he was detained on the premises of the local FSB administration,” the statement read.
Police added that they had no evidence that Mamedov was complicit in any criminal activities.
The Investigative Committee said it was looking into the matter, while police and security service officials are conducting internal checks, the police statement said.

TITLE: Why I Trust Foreign Agents More Than the State
AUTHOR: By Georgy Bovt
TEXT: I have often had conversations with Russian officials who sincerely believe that the opposition movement is funded by the United States as part of a conspiracy against Russia. Belief in a sinister U.S. plot plays a central role in their entire world view.
President Vladimir Putin also believes in this conspiracy. All of his past experience as a KGB agent supports the belief that nothing happens purely by chance. If demonstrators take to the streets in protest against the government, the first question Russians must ask is “Who benefits from this?” Using this distorted KGB logic, if tens of thousands of people protest election fraud and government corruption, it naturally means that foreign agents must have paid them to rally.
The authorities have long suspected nongovernmental organizations of being subversive, especially those that receive grants from abroad. For the Kremlin, it is inconceivable that a foreign sponsor would spend money on an organization in Russia out of purely philanthropic motives. There must be a hidden, political agenda, they believe. They want to “contaminate” Russian society from the inside by either imposing their hostile beliefs or by supporting “subversive elements” in Russia that challenge the Kremlin’s monopoly control.
This is not the first time that government forces were mobilized to crack down on NGOs. In 2005, after overly burdensome requirements were imposed on foreign NGOs, the Kremlin had largely achieved its goal. Many NGOs were forced to close down operations in Russia because it was impossible to comply with the excessive financial and accounting requirements.
True, legislation regulating NGOs was liberalized somewhat under President Dmitry Medvedev. Financial accounting rules were simplified, it became simpler for new NGOs to register, and a number of NGOs were given tax breaks.
But now, United Russia, the sponsor of the bill, is trying to turn the clock back to 2005. The focus of the bill is to once again make life unbearable for NGOs. If it becomes law, NGOs must report every penny they receive to the authorities, and the number of inspections for NGOs receiving foreign funding will increase threefold. What’s more, they will be forced to include the words “foreign agent” on all of their printed materials.
If any violations are found, NGOs will be heavily fined, and their top officials could be charged with a criminal offense.
Furthermore, those deemed to be engaged in “political activities” will be given three months to place themselves on a special list with the Justice Ministry and will be branded as “foreign agents.”
The bill defines “political activity” as any attempt to “influence state policy or public opinion.” By this overly broad definition, even environmental organizations could be labeled as engaging in “political activity” because they try to influence public opinion. That is the entire reason they exist.
In typical fashion, United Russia is distorting the facts by suggesting that Russia is merely following the example set by the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938. The original intent of this act was to control aggressive propaganda of foreign states amid the global rise of fascism (and, to a lesser extent, communism). Although the U.S. act remains on the books with the same name, it is now largely focused on U.S. and foreign lobbying and PR firms that represent foreign governments and high-profile individuals.
Unlike the Russian bill against foreign NGOs, the U.S. law is not concerned at all with foreign NGOs operating in the United States. It would be hard to imagine U.S. congressmen proposing a bill to hound foreign NGOs operating in the United States that focus on protecting U.S. human rights, such as defending prisoners and women against abuse, or helping the homeless, troubled teens or drug addicts in the United States.
By contrast, few Russians would even think about contributing to one of their own human rights organizations. It is not a matter of greed. Rather, it is a concern that Russian authorities — ever since Soviet times — consider such activity highly suspicious. In addition, Russian society does not yet recognize the importance of human rights advocacy to protect civil rights and liberties. As a result, most human rights NGOs operating in Russia must rely almost entirely on foreign assistance.
But things may be changing. During the protest rallies that started in December, citizens sent in private contributions to help pay for sound and stage equipment and other expenses associated with organizing a mass rally. That idea was the brainchild of leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Notably, the authorities have arrested dozens of people suspected of organizing “mass riots,” and they are closely examining these donations to determine who gave how much and to whom. Donors may soon face legal troubles from the authorities.
If the Kremlin thinks that it can stigmatize NGOs by arbitrarily labeling them “foreign agents,” it is dead wrong. During Soviet times, the people turned to Voice of America and Radio Liberty broadcasts to get truthful information. They were the only alternative to the blatantly false Soviet propaganda.
Just like during the Soviet period, Russians are sick and tired of government lies. If NGOs help to disseminate the truth about election fraud, corruption and other abuses, Russians will always have more faith and trust in these “foreign agents” than they will in the government.

<i>Georgy Bovt is a political analyst.</i>

TITLE: inside russia: Elections in the Arab World Are a Bad Idea
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: The Nazis won the elections in 1932. Salvodor Allende, a Marxist, won the elections in Chile in 1970. And now Islamist Mohammad Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, has won the presidential election in Egypt.
These events reveal two facts. First, devoted missionaries of liberal democracy were wrong in their naive belief that the overthrow of bloody Arab dictators would bring freedom and liberty to oppressed people. The problem is that the people themselves don’t share these values. Take, for example, a survey by the polling agency Free Egyptians in which an overwhelming majority of Egyptians supported the terrorist attacks against the United States on 9/11.
While free elections brought Hamas, a terrorist organization, to power in the Palestinian Authority, elections in countless African and South American countries have been won by cannibals and terrorists alike.
How can I respect the people’s choice if the people choose Hitler or Morsi? How can I respect the choice of the Palestinian people if they choose Hamas? The organization wants Israel to be wiped off the map. Meanwhile, an 8-year-old Arab girl recently wrote in a United Nations-sponsored journal that her dream is to embrace her hero, Hitler, because he killed more than 6 million Jews. Should I respect these “voices of the people”?
If elections had been held in the Soviet Union in 1952, do you think anyone but Josef Stalin would have won?
Free elections are great tools in the West, when the people choose, for example, between Republicans and Democrats in the United States or Liberals and Conservatives in Britain. But in the Arab Middle East, elections aren’t such a good idea. There, the people’s will is solely responsible for bringing to power the third form of totalitarianism to appear after the Nazis and Communists: Religious totalitarianism.
Hoping that Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi will not universally introduce Sharia law is like hoping that Allende would not build socialism. How could it be otherwise if that is exactly what he promised to do, he was elected for that purpose, and the influential groups supporting him are intent on that goal?
Of course, the Egyptian military can overthrow Morsi in the same way that General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende.
Or else Morsi will get rid of his military by sending it on a hopeless and deadly war against Israel and paving the way for a loyal military to be formed in its place.
Or perhaps Morsi will imprison his top adversaries in the military as the Turkish Islamists imprisoned theirs.
Or else the Egyptian military will stage a junta and overthrow Morsi. If this happens, hopefully the West will regard the military not as servants of the former tyrant, but as the better of two evils — the only force in Egypt that is capable of resisting violent Islamic radicalism.
As for me, I hope that Arab people everywhere will start building the Kingdom of Allah on Earth as soon as possible. The sooner it is erected, the sooner it will collapse. It was the same with communism. It was only when Soviet leaders actually tried to build communism that all of its myths were completely dispelled.
Sometimes you have to build a system to kill it.

<i>Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.</i>

TITLE: Going solo: Leonid Fyodorov
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Leonid Fyodorov, the frontman of avant-rock band Auctyon, will premiere his new solo album in the city, performing songs set to the poems of the Soviet-era poet 
Alexander Vvedensky at Dada club this week.
Called “Vesna” (Spring), the album was released on the Moscow-based Ulitka label on May 18 and showcased in Moscow on the same day. St. Petersburg’s premiere, scheduled for later that month, was however postponed due to illness, Fyodorov said speaking to The St. Petersburg Times this week.
“I got sick, something terrible happened to my voice,” he said.
Fyodorov himself provided all of the instrumentals and vocals for the album, except for one track to which his wife contributed some vocals. The album follows “Yula” (Whirligig), his seven-piece band’s full-fledged album released in October 2011.
With Auctyon, Fyodorov composes the music, while keyboard player Dmitry Ozersky writes the lyrics. In his solo output, however, he frequently uses work by avant-garde poets, such as Futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922) and absurdist Vvedensky (1904–1941).
 “It occurred to me to try doing it in a childlike way — pretty simply,” he said. “That’s how I did it.”
Fyodorov, who is now based in Moscow while the rest of the band still lives in St. Petersburg, said he wrote and recorded “Vesna” quickly, in about two months during the winter. “Everything was composed and recorded simultaneously,” he said.
Despite the title’s faux optimism, the album’s material is fairly dark. “Vvedensky is not a fun guy at all,” Fyodorov said. “Or rather he’s fun, but in his own way.”
Alongside Daniil Kharms, with whom he launched OBERIU (an acronym for The Union of Real Art), Vvedensky formed the bulk of Soviet absurd literature, although they were officially children’s writers, since only their poems for children were published in their lifetimes.
OBERIU made its public debut by holding a public reading at the Leningrad House of the Press in 1928, with Vvedensky introducing the poets. 
Fyodorov first came across works by Vvedensky, who died in custody in 1941, in the late 1980s when his poems started to appear in Soviet periodicals.
“I wasn’t very interested at first, I thought he was just some guy who was still around,” Fyodorov said.
“I first read him when [author] Vladimir Erl published him maybe in 1987 or 1988. Or 1986. He published him in [Leningrad Communist youth newspaper] Smena at his own risk, on its poetry page. I read it and thought, ‘How interesting that he is like us.’ I cut it out and deliberately took it to show it to Ozersky. We were happy for a while. ‘What a guy.’”
Fyodorov wrote his first song set to a Vvedensky poem in 2000, when Moscow author Sergei Solovyov offered him the opportunity to contribute to a music disc that accompanied a literary almanac that Solovyov had published.
For the CD, Fyodorov wrote a music track to a poem called “Syn” (Son) and recited a poem called “Vozdukh” (Air).
He returned to Vvedensky’s legacy in 2005, when he recorded a full album entitled “Besonders” (German for “particularly” or “specially”) with avant-garde double bass jazz player Vladimir Volkov in 2005.
Being officially labeled as children’s writers did not help Kharms and Vvedensky much during the Stalin era. They were arrested in the mid-1930s and exiled as a result of the “Children’s Writers’ Case” in which investigators tried to prove that the authors put “encoded anti-Soviet messages” into children’s poetry.
Just as with Kharms, who was arrested and starved to death in a Leningrad mental hospital in January 1942, Vvedensky’s fate was tragic.  
“He was arrested in Kharkiv [for ‘counterrevolutionary propaganda’],” Fyodorov said.
What happened to Kharms and Vvedensky was not known until the 1980s.
“One version has it that he [Vvedensky] was simply pushed off of a train, and the other has it that he caught typhus and died on his way, though it’s unclear where he was being taken.”
Most of Vvedensky’s work is believed to have been lost, but some was saved by philosopher and friend Yakov Druskin. Druskin entered Kharms’ apartment, which had been sealed off after his arrest, and removed manuscripts, which included some by Vvedensky, during the Siege of Leningrad.
“I got Vvedensky’s two-volume collection when it came out in 1993,” Fyodorov said.
“It included an essay by Druskin called ‘The Star of Nonsense,’ which I think is the most accurate work about Vvedensky. 
“Everybody died and he [Druskin] was the only one who survived. He didn’t touch the manuscripts for 15 years because he was hoping that they would come back.”
Years later, Fyodorov met Vvedensky’s stepson, Boris Viktorov, who still lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine. 
“He is the son of [Vvedensky’s] wife, Galina Viktorova. I keep in touch with him, he’s a very interesting man,” he said.
“He’s an engineer, now retired because he’s about 77. He wrote a thin book of memoirs published in Kharkiv that is remarkable in its own way.
“They [Vvedensky and Viktorova] were amazing people — there is no one like that now. Viktorova was of German origin, all her relatives were thrown into prison, but they were both Orthodox Christian and both vehemently hated anti-Semites. She took any manifestation of anti-Semitism as a personal offense, even if she was more German than Russian.
“Naturally, she hated Stalin and the others — that’s why she changed jobs very frequently; she was kicked out of every job because if anybody asked her, God forbid, she said what she thought directly, without any hesitation. She did so before Stalin died in 1953. When her grandchildren were brought to her and asked about Stalin, she replied, ‘My little ones, I must say Stalin is a villain.’ Everyone was horrified.”
The other reason that Druskin preserved the archives without trying to distribute them, Fyodorov suggested, was due to the sheer innovation of Vvedensky’s poetry that few contemporaries could understand.
“They say that somebody read out a Vvedensky poem, it was either ‘Elegy’ or ‘Air,’ to Anna Akhmatova after the war and she brushed it aside,” he said.
“She didn’t even realize that this poem was greater than everything she wrote during her whole life.”
In a way, Vvedensky and OBERIU poetry were originally influenced by Futurist poets such as Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchyonykh.
“But there are big differences,” Fyodorov said.
“First of all, he [Vvedensky] was Orthodox Christian, and all his poetry is very Orthodox Christian. This might be his fundamental difference from Khlebnikov. But of course they [OBERIU] mixed with Khlebnikov and visited Kruchyonykh and felt that they were the most left-wing. They mixed with [poet] Alexander Tufanov and [artist] Kazimir Malevich as well.
“But the difference was probably that they called themselves OBERIU — The Union of Real Art, so they did real art. They were not formalists, they were into different things.”
Fyodorov said there was some truth in composer and philosopher Vladimir Martynov’s view that Russian literature ended with Vvedensky.
“There is no literature,” Fyodorov said. “It’s pointless to bother with literature when there isn’t any.”
Fyodorov’s album, however, opens with a song whose author is unknown. Called “Topl” (a distorted version of the word “topol,” which means “poplar”), its text came from 76-year-old Leningrad-born, Tubingen, Germany-based poet Henri Volokhonsky, who included it in his book “Memories of the Long Forgotten”  as a folk song.
“He told me it was a folk song, so I credited it as ‘traditional,’ but maybe he wrote it himself and then forgot that he had, I don’t know,” said Fyodorov, who has collaborated with Volokhonsky on several albums. 
Fyodorov admitted he had never heard the original song. “Henri sent me a track that he had recorded about ten years earlier, so I kept it,” he said. “He read it out or sang it, I don’t know how to describe his manner. Declaimed it. Then I added some [music] to it.”
The other non-Vvedensky song on “Vesna” is “Dusha” (Soul), written to Ozersky’s lyrics. “I thought [the song] fit [the album] OK,” Fyodorov said.
The album’s themes and the era it refers to sound relevant in the context of City Hall’s official newspaper publishing a collection of quotes by people condemning feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose members have been in prison for about four months for singing an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in a church, a throwback to the massive condemnations of “enemies of the people” during the Stalin era.
“If you think about it, nothing has changed at all since then,” Fyodorov said.
“People can be sent to prison for nothing, just the same as they could then. Just like power was usurped then, it is still being usurped. The system has not changed; whatever you call it, it has remained the same. One thing is allowed, and another thing is not allowed. At some point they will make it so that nothing will be allowed at all. Power was usurped by the Bolsheviks in 1917 and it remained the same; nobody apologized, nobody was punished. [The current authorities] are their successors.”
Although his band Auctyon was known for some rebellious songs and their independent stance during the 1980s, Fyodorov dismissed the current Russian protest movement, calling it “meaningless.”
“They should have protested when something depended on it,” he said.
“Putin was being groomed for the presidency in 1999. They [the people] could have changed things then, but everybody — many of those who are against him now — was happy and praised him. Protests help the authorities themselves; they can say, ‘See, we have protests here.’ 
“There were absurdities then and there are absurdities now, I can’t see any difference. Everybody thought that something drastic had taken place in Russia, but there’s been no drastic change; power was passed from some people to other people who are exactly the same — dull-witted and evil. They are the same, only a little younger.”

<i>Leonid Fyodorov will premiere his solo album “Vesna” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 5 at Dada, 47 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa. Metro Sennaya Ploshchad / Sadovaya. Tel. 983 7050</i>

TITLE: Gifts from the promised land
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Pavlova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Culture from the promised land will abound in the city for much of this month as the Days of Israeli Art and Culture in Russia festival gets under way, offering the chance to experience Jewish culture with the aim of promoting understanding between the two nations. Exhibitions, lectures, workshops and the presentation of new art projects will take place around the city through July 22. 
The project kicked off on July 1 with an exhibit of student paintings created by schoolchildren from the southern Israeli city of Sderot, located about a kilometer from Gaza. Their artwork, shown in the Tsiferblat free space caf&#233; at 81 Nevsky Prospekt, reflects everyday life in the city, which is on the border of war and peace. 
This is the first large festival devoted to Israeli art to be held in St. Petersburg. According to Maria Vulfova, the project’s main organizer, the project “started from one small idea to organize an exhibit in St. Petersburg,” but gained momentum and grew into a larger project when various Jewish organizations and the city’s Israeli Cultural Center heard about it. 
More exhibits are on display at the other Tsiferblat branch at 32 Nevsky Prospekt, where colorful, upbeat canvases from artists Malka Tsentsiper and Viktor Brindatch that play with the Hebrew alphabet are on show.
The Molbert Art Gallery is hosting a 29-piece exhibition that opens July 7, dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Jewish artist Marc Chagall. The exhibit, titled “Following in Chagall’s Footsteps in Israel,” runs through July 22.
One of the project’s main organizers is Omanoot, an independent international project that focuses on bringing creative people together and presenting modern Israeli art in different countries. The organization, whose name means “art” in Hebrew, works in France, Germany, the U.S., Turkey, Ukraine and other countries. Omanoot’s project in Russia consists of cultural and educational events made possible through the participation of popular Israeli and Russian artists and helps those interested establish contacts in the sphere of arts and culture.
“There are some stereotypes about Israel in Russia and the same about Russia in Israel that prevail in the minds of young people,” said Vulfova. 
“Older generations [of Russians and Israelis] still keep in touch with each other, while there are gaps in understanding each other’s lifestyles and everyday realities among the younger generations in both countries. The aim of this project is to provide a cultural exchange between nations and help people make new contacts.” 
The organizers of the Days of Israeli Art and Culture in Russia hope the festival will become an annual event, and that it will take place again next year — the 65th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel.

<i>The Days of Israeli Art and Culture in St. Petersburg festival runs through July 22.</i>

TITLE: the word’s worth: How to make Russian easier by saying less
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Ñàìî ñîáîé: short for ñàìî ñîáîé ðàçóìååòñÿ — it goes without saying

So you open up the morning newspaper, armed with four years of Russian grammar and conversation classes, three years of studying Russian literature in the original, and two years of watching Russian videos on YouTube. You’re prepared.
And then you read: Ñïàñèáî çà ìèòèíã íà Ñàõàðîâà. Thank you for the rally on… Well, that can’t be right. If the rally is on something, you need the prepositional case: íà Ñàõàðîâå. Sheesh. Editorial standards are going down the drain … unless I’ve got it wrong. Maybe it’s the accusative case and the author is thankful that the rally moved toward …? That doesn’t make sense. What’s going on here?
What’s going on is simple: a word was left out — ïðîñïåêò (avenue). Ñïàñèáî çà ìèòèíã íà ïðîñïåêòå Ñàõàðîâà (Thank you for the rally on Sakharov Prospekt.)
When stating an address or place, in colloquial speech — and apparently now in the written language — Russians often leave out the place marker words, like óëèöà (street), ïëîùàäü (square), ïåðåóëîê (lane), or ñòàíöèÿ ìåòðî (metro station). But they keep the name of the street, square, or metro station in the grammatical case it would be in if the word was there. So instead of saying: Ïîâåðíèñü íà óëèöó Êîìñîìîëà (Turn on Komsomol Street), they say: Ïîâåðíèñü íà Êîìñîìîëà (Turn on Komsomol).
Sometimes they leave out more than one place marker. In St. Petersburg, you might be told: Âûõîäè íà Ëåíèíà (Get off at Lenin), which is super-short for Âûõîäè íà ñòàíöèè “Ïëîùàäü Ëåíèíà” (Get out at the Lenin Square station).
This might be a snap for native speakers, but it’s hard for us non-natives to maintain grammatical cases determined by omitted words. It’s slightly easier to get right when the street or station name is an adjective, although you have to remember what gender noun it modifies. Åçæàéòå äî êîíöà Êóòóçîâñêîãî (Drive to the end of Kutuzovksy [Prospekt].) Èä¸øü íàëåâî íà Ôðóíçåíñêóþ (You turn left on Frunzenskaya [Embankment].)
In general, as Russians chat away, they leave out a lot of words. They chop off the longer bits of set expressions, so that ñàìî ñîáîé ðàçóìååòñÿ (it goes without saying) is ñàìî ñîáîé. Sometimes they only quote half of a saying or proverb: Íó, âåê æèâè … (Well, live and … ) You can complete the phrase: Âåê ó÷èñü (Learn). Or you can just nod sagely.
Nodding sagely is a good technique when you have no idea what proverb is being quoted.
Most of all, it seems, Russians eschew verbs. This is good news for those of us who haven’t mastered all those conjugations or the finer points of aspect. Instead of saying, Òû ÷òî ãîâîðèøü? (What are you talking about?), you can say: Òû ÷òî? Instead of asking, Êîìó ïîëîæèòü äîáàâêè? (Who can I serve seconds to?), you can say: Êîìó äîáàâêè?
Conversations are often retold in verbless shorthand. Îí ìíå — Äóðà! À ÿ åìó — Ñàì äóðàê! (He told me, “You’re an idiot,” and I said, “No, you’re the idiot.”)
Once you get the hang of this, you can have an entire conversation without a single verb being uttered.
Òû êóäà? (Òû êóäà èä¸øü? Where are you going?)
Ê ñîñåäÿì. (Ïîéäó ê ñîñåäÿì. I’m going to the neighbors.)
ß – â ìàãàçèí. (ß èäó â ìàãàçèí. I’m going to the store.)
À òâîÿ ìàìà? (À ÷òî áóäåò äåëàòü òâîÿ ìàìà? What about your mother?)
Ñî ìíîé. (Îíà èä¸ò ñî ìíîé. She’s coming with me.)
Sure beats conjugation.

<i>Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), 
a collection of her columns.</i>

TITLE: Bear hugs from Berlin
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The world-touring United Buddy Bears are celebrating their 25th exhibition and 10th anniversary in St. Petersburg. One hundred and forty-three brightly painted two-meter tall bear figures from all over the world stand hand in hand in the Alexandrovsky Garden, promoting living together in peace and harmony.
The free outdoor exhibit is open in the city 24 hours a day through Aug. 5.
Buddy Bears first hit the streets in 2001. Project initiators Eva and Dr. Klaus Herlitz wanted art to be on display in city streets and decided to start a unique art project in Berlin.
“The positive reaction we got from visitors gave us the idea to use Buddy Bears’ popularity to provide more targeted food for thought to promote mutual understanding between different people. In 2002 this thought developed into the idea of the United Buddy Bears,” said Michael Stefanescu, managing director of Buddy Bear Berlin.
Each fibreglass bear represents a member state of the United Nations. All of the bears are standing together hand in hand, forming a large circle of equals. 
Artists from all over the world were invited to realize the project. Each bear was created in a different style to express the unique character of the artists’ native countries, allowing visitors to take a journey around the world while visiting the exhibition. 
“Together Buddy Bears represent a complete work of art, spreading an enormous zest for life,” said Stefanescu.
“The bears promote tolerance and mutual understanding between different nations and cultures. None of the bears represent a government or current political system. They represent people and their cultures. The arrangement of the different countries symbolizes the vision of a world that will be peaceful in the future,” he said.
There are also four special bears that present ideas necessary for people to co-exist peacefully. Two golden bears holding hands show that nobody can live on their own and that how people behave toward one another has consequences. The first Golden Rule bear conveys the message that the more friendly a person is to other people, the more friendliness they are likely to receive in return. The words “Try to treat everyone the way you want to be treated” are written on it. 
The second Global Ethic bear illustrates that there can be no peace among nations without peace among religions. The bear represents the basic commandments from the “Declaration toward a Global Ethic” and is covered in quotes from different religions that all mean the same thing — “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.”
There is also an Einstein Bear with the scientist’s words: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” The Respect For All Life Bear appeals for people to have a kind attitude towards all living creatures.
The bear was chosen from other animals to be the ambassador for this mission because it is the symbol of Berlin, the city where the sculptures and idea originated. 
“People perceive bears to be simpatico and likable — maybe just because most of us grew up with teddy bears. And the raised arms of the bears symbolize that they are not dangerous and do not want to harm anybody,” said Stefanescu.
Since 2002, over 30 million people have viewed the globe-trotting bears. 
“Wherever the exhibition has been displayed, including in St. Petersburg, all visitors are excited, thrilled and enthusiastic … We are also glad to see that the message of tolerance and understanding is well understood,” said Stefanescu.
The project aims not only to help with the way people view other countries and the world, but also to raise financial aid for those who need it.
“We also want to highlight that many countries are in urgent need of our support. Children from all over the world can benefit from the proceeds generated by auctioning off sculptures from the circle of United Buddy Bears,” he said.
Charity has become a key part of the Buddy Bear exhibits. During the ten years of its activities the project has raised more than $2.4 million to help children in need. In St. Petersburg one Buddy Bear that represented Russia during a past exhibition (and can still be seen on display at the exhibit as a second figure representing Russia) will be auctioned off to benefit a local children’s charity organization. The starting price is 160,000 rubles ($4,915). 
The Buddy Bears’ next destination is Paris: In October this year, they will make their famous circle next to the Eiffel Tower. In 2013 the bears will travel to Brazil.
“Due to the fact that more cities and countries are requesting to host the exhibition, it seems that the world tour of the United Buddy Bears is a neverending story,” said Stefanescu.

<i>The United Buddy Bears exhibit runs through Aug. 5 at the Alexandrovsky Garden in front of the Admiralty. M. Admiralteiskaya. www.buddy-baer.com.</i>

TITLE: in the spotlight: Pussy Riot: Support from unexpected quarters
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: Last week, the campaign to free the punk group Pussy Riot hit the big time with some glossy, powerful and unexpected people signing a petition saying they should either face a minor administrative punishment or be released.
It’s a fascinating situation when establishment figures like actor and director Fyodor Bondarchuk — whose films are dependent on state funding — or middle-of-the-road pop star Valery Meladze stick their necks out for a band of underground feminists who want to overthrow Vladimir Putin. And what’s more, implicitly criticize the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been instrumental in pressing charges against the women and gathered thousands for a prayer meeting to cleanse the Christ the Savior Cathedral of their offending presence. At that ceremony, a host of celebrities including Channel One newsreader Pyotr Tolstoi, film mogul Nikita Mikhalkov and hairsprayed children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov vented their horror in video messages.
I wonder if it was actress Chulpan Khamatova who turned the tide, turning up at the women’s latest hearing when they were detained for another month. She’s such a crystal-clean figure, with her children’s charity and theater acclaim — even if she did record that pro-Putin video for his election campaign — that she makes any cause she supports more palatable.
The letter was definitely preferable to many celebrity missives, because it was short and to the point. It argued that the women didn’t commit any crime but merely broke Church rules, which I think must be correct. The women even wore headscarves until they climbed into a part of the Church reserved for priests and tried to sing a song telling the Church to stop sucking up to Putin. And the swift actions of security guards and other men in the church meant that worshippers got an extremely brief earful.
Television host and opposition poster girl Ksenia Sobchak is noticeably missing despite her public messages of support for the women. Did she not get asked, I wonder, because her lowbrow Dom-2 reality show is a red rag to the intelligentsia? The signatories call themselves “figures of arts and culture,” somewhat obnoxiously.
Bondarchuk is probably the best bag for the cause. He was one of Putin’s “representatives” in his presidential campaign (admittedly, there were 400 of them). His smooth, not to say smug, demeanor irritates many but he is a bona fide star and his “The 9th Company” film was a massive hit. That’s not to say he hasn’t flirted with opposition causes. He once promised in an interview to ask Putin about Mikhail Khodorkovsky. And his wife, Hello! editor Svetlana Bondarchuk, appeared at an opposition rally when they were just coming into fashion.
He’s also hugely reliant on the state, with a government fund reportedly giving $10 million to his latest project, “Stalingrad” in 3D — yes, really.
Another signatory, actor Yevgeny Mironov, is so cozy with Putin that the leader sends him birthday messages and tickled the ivories at his theatre.
I’m not sure that actors’ political opinions should carry much weight and it is a bit unclear how the letter’s demand could be carried out — given that the women have just had their detentions extended. But the list shows that there is mainstream support for releasing the women. It’s a weighty list full of worthy names — you practically have to be a People’s Artist to be on it. “If you put together all the active audience of the 100 signatories, you would get an absolute majority of the adult population,” Kommersant FM’s Stanislav Kucher said, arguing that, for once, this is an open letter that actually matters.

TITLE: THE DISH: Mamma Mia
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Rattey
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: <b>Culinary crossroads</b>
Can’t decide on where to go for dinner? Does everybody feel like eating something different? If so, then Mamma Mia may be the place for you. This family-friendly restaurant offers a wide variety of dishes and specializes in Italian, Russian and Japanese (in particular sushi and stir fry) cuisine.
The restaurant itself, like its double-sided placemat menu, has a lot going on and this is reflected in its decoration. The large dining area is fairly open, with one dividing wall that helps to separate a simpler, classic black and white “Asian-style” area from a more brightly-colored Italian terrace dominated by reds, yellows and blues. The idea of wanting to translate a sunny Italian atmosphere to the restaurant was clear, but made a jarring contrast with the restaurant’s clean-cut Asian section. The flower boxes positioned along the divider that separated the tables were, however, a nice touch, along with the festive ceramic dishes perched above the bar.
The restaurant’s efforts toward being a family venue are clear, with shelves of various stuffed animals lining part of the back wall. There are also bookcases with reading material for decoration, and free newspapers and magazines for diners to take with them if so desired.
More media was available on the walls, with several flat screen TVs showing bad pop music videos that you might expect to see somewhere in a club, but definitely not while dining on a terrace in Italy.
Despite the extensive and varied menu, the kitchen had bizarrely run out of the fairly basic ingredient of chicken. Therefore the Caesar salad with chicken had to be traded out for the Mamma Mia salad (360 rubles, $11). The healthy mix of greens and chunks of roasted Camembert cheese rolled in almond flakes with juicy red raspberries on top and drizzled in a balsamic cream dressing was more than satisfying. The tartness of the berries worked wonders with the bitterness of the greens and saltiness of the cheese. The dish should not, however, have been labeled a “starter,” as the mix of lettuces somehow took longer to prepare and deliver than the baked entr&#233;e. As long as there was something to snack on, our party had no complaints however, as the waitress had asked beforehand if it would be OK to bring out the dishes as they were ready.
The other appetizer, meat solyanka (260 rubles, $8) likewise received a good review. Looking past the large chip in the mug in which it was served, the cup held a hearty, salty portion of various meats and sausages, pickles and olives and was quickly gobbled up. 
The main courses were undoubtedly overshadowed by their predecessors. The thin-crust four seasons pizza (320 rubles, $9.80) with ham, Mozzarella, mushrooms, red peppers, eggplant and oregano was soggy more than anything else. Although the flavors were good, being forced to eat the droopy pizza with a knife and fork proved a travesty for this American diner.
The Japanese menu was also a bit of a flop, with the Alaska roll (salmon, avocado, cucumber and tobiko) for 250 rubles ($7.70) not holding up to standards. The tobiko (fish roe) was clumped unevenly around the roll and was overpowering. The roll itself fell apart promptly when picked up and dipped in the soy sauce, making eating with chopsticks a larger challenge than usual. The baked crab sushi (110 rubles, $3.40) won more favor, but the restaurant’s sushi menu overall didn’t stand up well to rolls served at well-known sushi chains around the city.
While its food may be hit or miss, Mamma Mia does its best to attract customers with its varied menu and offers. Unlike most local eateries, it opens early to serve breakfast from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends. It also has a business lunch during the workweek from noon to 3 p.m. for 250 rubles ($7.70).

TITLE: The Jewel of the Golden Ring
AUTHOR: By Matthew Luxmore
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: SUZDAL, Vladimir Region — Dating back more than 1,000 years, Suzdal is one of Russia’s oldest settlements and a place almost completely untouched by the pace of change that has transformed the architecture of the country’s major cities into one of aesthetic extremes.
Regarded by many Russians as the “jewel” of Moscow’s Golden Ring, the town is located a mere 200 kilometers northeast of the capital. Despite its proximity to the rapidly expanding Moscow region, it remains largely unaffected by modernization programs, something that has enabled it to preserve a traditional way of life and a timeless feel.
The system of mostly unpaved country lanes around which the local infrastructure is organized fulfills the commuting needs of the locals as well as their livestock, which graze freely in the shadow of ancient churches. The tranquil atmosphere and picturesque views serve as inspiration for amateur artists, who can be seen, bent over easels in wooded clearings, all year round. On summer evenings, the central square becomes a hub of activity, where the town’s younger inhabitants gather, beer in hand, to update all present on what little can be said of the latest developments.
Political and religious life in Suzdal — historically the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality (which also encompassed Moscow and Smolensk) and later one of the most important religious centers in Russia — has traditionally revolved around its kremlin, which is now included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, along with several monasteries in the area.
But in the 1960s the Soviet government decided to replace Suzdal’s political and religious roles and, recognizing its tourist potential, turn it into a “museum town.”
Today, the local economy is centered on the tourist industry, which is beginning to revitalize itself after coming to a near standstill with the Soviet collapse, and laws restricting the construction of buildings above two stories that date back to the Khrushchev era.
The many hotels recently springing up in the outskirts provide perhaps the first evidence of a changing landscape, while many locals have seized the opportunity for some extra income by turning their homes into bed and breakfast inns.
Although hospitality, catering and small-time souvenir production are the predominant driving forces for the economy, Suzdal is also one of the only places in Russia where medovukha, a mildly alcoholic honey drink similar to mead, is still made. The practice seems to be imprinted into the very fabric of Suzdalian life: Not only is there a local factory that exports across Russia, but many inhabitants run stalls in the market square where they sell their own homemade version to tourists. A bottle here can be bought for as little as 100 rubles ($3), and most stalls let you taste the drink first, but you may have to chase a swarm of bees away before you get to it.
Suzdal is the setting for a number of annual festivals. Among them is the Open Russian Festival of Animated Film held in early spring and the equally prestigious (well, almost) Day of the Cucumber, a yearly celebration of all things cucumber-related and the highlight of the year for fans of the green vegetable across Russia, to which the town plays host on the second Saturday in July. Not to be outdone by rival events (of which, presumably, there are few), the festival includes a unique children’s performance titled “Tales of Prince Cucumber and Princess Liana,” which takes place in Suzdal’s Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life and is thoroughly recommended by locals.
The museum itself is worth a separate visit; it comprises some of the most beautiful wooden churches built in Russia since the 16th century and a number of typical peasant cottages from the 18th, all moved to Suzdal during the Soviet campaign to promote the town as a tourist resort. The most visually impressive of the buildings is Preobrazhenskaya Church, a three-tier village church with a central structure composed of three octagons crowned by a spectacular onion dome.

<b>What to do if you have two hours</b>
The best way to get a true sense of the Suzdalian atmosphere, regardless of the amount of time you have available, is to take a walk through the town and visit its churches and monasteries. The priority for a short tour should be a trip to the kremlin (+7 49231-2-16-24; museum.vladimir.ru), which can be reached within minutes from the trading arcades via Kremlyovskaya Ulitsa. Specially preserved parts of the structure date back to the 10th century, and the Cathedral of the Nativity is one of the eight White Monuments of Suzdal and Vladimir, as well as a World Heritage site.
When you leave the kremlin, cross the small bridge over the Kamenka River. At this point you should be facing the walls that form part of the outer perimeter of the Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life, above which the onion domes of its two beautiful churches, Voskresenskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, are visible.
Head to the right and follow the course of the river. On your way, visit the Convent of the Intercession, a female monastery with a beautiful 16th-century cathedral within its walls and a restaurant where you can take a well-deserved break before you continue your tour.
Once you have refueled, continue along the riverbank until you see the huge red walls of the St. Euthymius Monastery, standing beside which you get a marvelous aerial view of the town. Cross the connecting bridge and follow the fortress perimeter to the right until you are on the main Ulitsa Lenina, from where you can take in the churches and cottages that line the roadside on your way back to the trading arcades in the center of town.

<b>What to do if you have two days</b>
A two-day trip to Suzdal can serve as a welcome escape from reality. Aside from the opportunity for long therapeutic walks in the surrounding countryside, it also provides a chance to explore in more depth the town’s beautiful architecture and become acquainted with its cultural heritage.
A trip to the Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life (Pushkarskaya Ulitsa; +7 49231-2-07-84; suzdal.org.ru/en/museums) can certainly help fulfill the aspiration for beautiful architecture. It’s open daily between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., except Wednesdays.
Experiencing the local cultural heritage can be accomplished by visiting the Kremlin Museum, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Tuesdays. Of particular interest is the Cross Chamber, a 300-square-meter hall with a vaulted ceiling without, amazingly, a single pillar to support it. It was here that the tsar read out his decrees and high priests were ordained.
Allocate a separate day for a trip to the St. Euthymius Monastery (Ulitsa Lenina; +7 49231-2-07-46; museum.vladimir.ru), open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Mondays.
Within its mighty six-meter-thick walls is housed an 18th-century prison whose most famous inmate was Friedrich Paulus, the field marshal of Nazi Germany’s Sixth Army, who was sent to serve his sentence in Suzdal after the failed siege of Stalingrad. During the Stalinist period, political prisoners were kept here, many of whom were later sent to their deaths in Siberian death camps. Today the prison has been turned into a museum of Suzdal’s military history, although it also has on display a number of letters sent by prisoners and other memorabilia. The monastery complex contains several museums and churches, and money can be saved by buying one ticket for all the exhibitions, which costs 400 rubles ($12.25).

<b>Where to eat</b>
If you want to eat in style, stop in the Trapezhnaya restaurant located in the Bishop’s Chambers of the Suzdal kremlin (20 Kremlyovskaya Ulitsa; +7 49231-2-17-63; trapeznaya.ru), whose visitors have included Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and retired cosmonaut Georgy Grechko. The menu offers traditional Russian food with a wide range of fruit desserts. It is also a great place to try quality locally produced medovukha. Expect to pay 700-800 rubles ($21.50-24.50) for a two-course meal without alcohol. The restaurant is open from noon to midnight.
For a cheap and cheerful meal in a great local atmosphere, try Servand (63 Lenina), a centrally located restaurant just opposite the Kazansky Church in the old trading arcades of the market square. The place is very popular with Suzdal’s inhabitants and tourists alike, and a perfectly decent soup and main course will set you back only 300 rubles ($9.20).

<b>Where to stay</b>
Hotels in Suzdal are being built at a remarkable pace, leaving visitors spoiled for choice. A popular option among Russian and foreign tourists is the four-star Pushkinskaya Sloboda (53 Ulitsa Lenina; +7 49231-2-33-03; pushkarka.ru), owing to its central location within walking distance from the town center and the beautiful grounds that surround it, complete with a children’s playground and conference hall rented by Moscow companies for weekend management outings. Prices range from 3,200 rubles for a standard double to 10,900 ($100-330) for a luxury two-room apartment.
Another highly rated and affordable option is Sokol Hotel (2A Torgovaya Ploshchad; +7 49231-2-09-87; hotel-sokol.ru), located just opposite the trading arcades in the very center of town. Rooms start at 2,500 rubles ($75) for both singles and doubles.
An increasing trend among Suzdal’s citizens is to rent rooms in their cottages out to tourists. Look out for signs on your way into town reading “ãîñòåâîé äîì” (guest house) and expect to pay around 1,000 rubles ($30) per night for a double room.
Since 2009, a complex of 114 vacation cottages along the Kamenka River (main office: 11 Devicheskaya Ulitsa, Vladimir; +7 49223-7-38-30; domavsuzdale.ru) has been under construction on the outskirts of town. Although the project is not expected to be completed until at least 2015, homes are already available for sale and short-term rent.

<b>How to get there</b>
Perhaps life in Suzdal, which is 210 kilometers from the capital, would have been closer to entering the 21st century if the town were easier to reach. With no train station or airport in the town, the quickest way to make the journey and the only viable option is by train via Vladimir. 
Catch a train from St. Petersburg’s Moscow Railway Station to Vladimir. The trip will take about 11 hours and cost 2,000 rubles ($60) for a 3rd-class ticket. Once in Vladimir you can spend a few hours sight-seeing before jumping on a bus to Suzdal, which leaves Vladimir’s train station every half hour.
From Moscow, a commuter train costs 340 rubles ($10.40) and runs twice daily, reaching Vladimir in just over three hours. Alternatively, the standard train company operates a regular service until late in the evening — prices start from around 900 rubles ($27.50) for economy class and the journey takes an average of two and a half hours. If you’re in a real hurry, you can get the express Sapsan service, but be warned: Tickets can easily be in excess of 3,000 rubles ($100), and you’ll only be cutting your traveling time by one hour.
The bus station is located 2 kilometers outside Suzdal. For an extra 10 rubles, the driver will take you all the way, but if you have any energy left after the ride, take the 30-minute walk to the center and admire the traditional dachas on either side of the quiet street that leads to it.

<hr />
<b>Suzdal</b>
Population: 10,535
Main industries: Tourism, Medovukha production
Mayor: Olga Guseva
Founded in 999

Interesting fact No. 1: Suzdal is the birthplace of Peter the Great’s first wife and last Russian tsaritsa, 
Eudoxia Lopukhina, and the prominent Bolshevik revolutionary Alexei Gastev. &#8232;

Interesting fact No. 2: Suzdal has almost 300 landmarks and at one point boasted a ratio of one church to every 10 families.

Sister cities: Klec, Czech Republic; Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany; &#201;vora, Portugal; Windham, 
New Hampshire, U.S.

Helpful contacts: &#8232;
• Mayor Olga Guseva 
(+7 49231-2-11-14; gorodsuzdal.ru); &#8232;
• Lidia Yevseyeva, head of tourism and culture department 
(+7 49231-2-12-78; 
gorodsuzdal.ru); &#8232;
• Suzdal tourist bureau 
(12/1 Torgovaya Ploshchad Ulitsa; 
+7 49231-2-00-29; 
suzdaltur.narod.ru)
<b>Major Business</b>
• Suzdal Mead Plant 
(13 Promyshlennaya Ulitsa; 
+7 49231-2-15-72; medovuha.ru) is one of the biggest producers of honey-based alcoholic beverages in Russia, with factories in Moscow and Suzdal. Production is based on traditional centuries-old Russian recipes and 17 types of medovukha are made, ranging from 5 to 
8.5 percent in strength. 
The company employs more than 100 workers in the town and exports to over 400 outlets in Moscow, including major supermarket chains such as Dixy and Perekryostok, and across Russia.

<hr />

Q: How has Suzdal, known for its history and traditions, changed in recent years? &#8232;
A: Modern, urban change in Suzdal, like any evolutionary process, has altered how the city looks in positive and negative ways. The city’s alienation from major transportation arteries has saved it from the arrival of large, industrial investors in the past, but this is not the case today.
Q: How does the city administration help investors? &#8232;
A: Investment is a good and an evil for a historic city. Small investors try to profit by any means, ruthlessly exploiting and often destroying the natural and historical heritage of the city. For large investors, the number of tourists seems too small and the city too remote from the epicenters of intense urban growth — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Tver. But investments are vital to Suzdal’s development. The Suzdal administration has formed a number of investment areas that are laid out in the city’s master plan. The administration signed an agreement with the Skolkovo innovation center in June 2012 for mutual cooperation in the development and installation of new information and energy-saving technologies in the existing city infrastructure.
Q: Which sectors of the city’s economy have the most investment potential? 
A: Traditional sectors, the processing of agricultural products and arts and crafts, have the most potential for investment today. The niche for tourism services is still unfilled. Despite an abundance of hotels and food facilities, it is difficult to eat well in Suzdal. There is no gourmet cuisine, nor are there any culinary schools. There is little event-oriented tourism or ecotourism. The creation of a system of parking lots for tourist transportation is both a municipal problem and a potential area for investment.

TITLE: Russia Struggles with Mountains of Garbage
AUTHOR: By Jennifer Rankin
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Yelena Stepanova’s family never had a dacha, but as a child she gathered nuts, berries and mushrooms in the woods of her hometown in the Moscow suburb of Khimki. “It was a little corner of paradise,” she recalled.
Today the “fairy-tale” woodland of Stepanova’s memory is dominated by a 10-story high muddy mountain of garbage, which she can see and smell from her first-floor apartment less than a ten-minute walk away.
Now a 35-year-old mother, Stepanova does not open the windows and only drinks bottled water. “We don’t know what kind of waste is there,” she said. “It is awful to think of what we are breathing in,” especially, she added, when the garbage is set on fire, sending plumes of smoke over the area.
“In the future I hope we move away from here, but at the moment we can’t,” she said anxiously.
At least 95 percent of Russia’s domestic garbage ends up in such landfill sites — giant open-air dumps mostly dating back to the Soviet Union.
As the nation becomes richer, people are throwing away more. Landfills are mushrooming and illegal dumps have sprung up across the country, spoiling forests and farmland.
Now Russia faces a warning that it will need to double landfill capacity by 2025 if current trends continue. A report by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation published Monday urges the authorities to stop dumping waste in “insanitary” landfills and reduce trash sent there from landfills by 45 percent through a combination of recycling and “energy recovery” — using waste for fuel.
“[Russia] is generating too much waste,” Alexander Larionov, lead author of the report and operations officer on the IFC’s Russia Cleaner Production Program, said in an interview.
“These huge volumes of waste end up in open dumps, which pollute soil, destroy habitats, sometimes pollute groundwater and bring infectious diseases. More and more regions are beginning to experience these particular issues.”
The detritus of a decade-long consumer boom can be seen and smelled in Russian landfills.
The average citizen threw away 330 kilograms of garbage in 2010, up from 200 kilograms per head in 2000, according to the IFC, which expects this figure to jump to 500 kilograms by 2025 — bringing Russia in line with today’s European average.
The Khimki dump, originally set up by Soviet planners in the mid-1970s, has grown significantly in the last few years, said local environmental activist Sergei Ageyev in an interview near the base of the garbage mountain, where the sickly sweet smell of decay wafts on the breeze.
Seen from its southern side, the dump is a muddy hill with birds swooping over the recent piles of trash at the summit. At the base, stray dogs prowl through the debris and mounds of plastic bottles that lie under scraggly bushes.
Trucks kick up dust as they leave Khimki, an industrial town not far from where the Soviets halted the Nazi assault on Moscow in 1941, but which has more recently become known for vigorous protests against a planned highway that will slice through centuries-old oak forests.
“If [the authorities] really wanted to update the technology [of this landfill], they would have done it 10 or 15 years ago,” Ageyev said. “Now this is big business and no one is interested in changing it.”
Estimating the size of Russia’s current waste-management business is difficult because of the vast differences in tariffs for collection across Russia’s regions, the IFC says.
However, the market could be worth 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) if the government increased recycling and energy recovery, the IFC analysts estimate, although this comes with an up-front price tag of 40 billion euros’ worth of investment to modernize the crumbling infrastructure.
According to the IFC, three in 10 Russian landfills fail to meet official sanitary standards, while up to 70 percent of the “waste-management infrastructure” — garbage cans, containers, trucks, sorting stations and landfills — is obsolete and needs to be replaced.
Environmental groups say this understates the problem.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Alexei Kiselyov of Greenpeace. “I cannot agree that [only] 30 percent of landfills are unsanitary. I would say that 99 percent of landfills are unsanitary.”
“I cannot think of more than three landfills in Russia that you could say meet national sanitary legal standards,” he added. “We urgently need legislation and regulation that strictly controls all stages of the waste cycle. The government does these things very badly at the moment.”
Campaigners also worry about the thousands of illegal dumps that have sprung up across the country.
Russian authorities announced in April that since August 2011, they had found 22,243 illegal dumps covering 8,728 hectares; 58 percent were in water conservation areas, 15 percent on farmland, and 15 percent in forests.
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said it had eliminated 61 percent of these dumps and levied 25 million rubles ($765,000) in fines, almost half of which has been collected.

<b>A Room With A View</b>
Not everyone is deterred by the Khimki landfill, according to one local estate agent. Roman Kulikov, who manages sales at Khimki Skver, a development of multistory apartment blocks in clear view of the dump, said that 80 percent of the apartments have been sold.
“I think [the landfill] is not a problem,” he says. “Local people say there are times in the summer when it is very hot, when the wind is blowing in this direction, that they feel it. But not in winter, not in autumn.”
“For me, it is not really a problem,” said Yulia Petrova, a 26-year old lawyer on maternity leave, who moved to Khimki a year ago to an apartment without a view of the dump. “We don’t notice the smell, but the people who live down [the road] say in the summer they can smell it,” she said.
“Probably, with all the crows and the seagulls that are there, it is not very sanitary. But they say that it will be closed,” she said, although she expressed doubt that this would really happen.

<b>Recycled Politics</b>
Waste management has not traditionally been seen as a problem, as planners were confident that Russia’s vast lands meant they would never run out of places to put trash.
Most landfills, however, are on the edges of towns and cities and are starting to run out of room.
Around 95 percent of waste ends up in landfills, according to the IFC report. The rest is incinerated or reprocessed by a small cottage industry in recycling, outside the remit of local authorities.
As Russia catches up with Western Europe’s consumption habits, the IFC wants to see it emulate European standards on recycling.
In the 27-country European Union, 38 percent of waste ends up in landfills, although this varies widely. Eco-conscious Austria puts practically none of its garbage in the ground, while former Soviet countries Latvia and Lithuania send 91 and 94 percent of waste to landfill, according to statistics published by Eurostat in March.
The IFC is urging Russia to “recover” 45 percent of its municipal waste by 2020, mostly by recycling and partly through incineration to generate energy, although it does not make a recommendation on the precise breakdown.
Large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg should be aiming to recover 70 percent of their waste by weight, the IFC says, while sparsely populated regions in Siberia or the Arctic Circle could get away with recycling as little as 10 to 20 percent.
Hitting this goal would save 200 million metric tons of waste by 2025, the IFC estimates, generating fuel and preventing valuable raw materials from being lost in the ground.
Nikolai Mefedev, an environmental protection expert at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, said the IFC report did not take into consideration measures the government is currently taking to improve the situation, including the closure of illegal dumps and the revision of a production and consumption law intended to improve waste management by creating new self-governing waste-management organizations.
A new version of the law passed its first reading last week and could come into force by Aug. 1.
Everyone agrees that waste is a problem, Mefedev said, but the country currently lacks the infrastructure to increase recycling. In December, then-Natural Resource and Environment Minister Yury Trutnev said landfills would remain the main way of dealing with garbage for the near future.
Recycling is not profitable, and Russia is not ready to sort its garbage, he said, as reported by Rossiiskaya Gazeta after an official briefing to journalists.
“People are ready. For the most part it is the government that is not ready,” countered Maxim Shulga, a 28-year-old freelance programmer who volunteered for a one-off recycling collection day organized by green campaigners in northern Moscow in April.
“I want to keep our planet green. I worry, especially in Russia, where we have lots of territory, we simply allow garbage to pile up on the land,” Shulga said.
Over a two-hour period, a trickle of Muscovites came laden with old magazines, glass bottles and tin cans, but they were heavily outnumbered by activists and journalists.
“It is a great shame that in Moscow there are so few possibilities for recycling,” said Anya Sarang, who came bearing cardboard boxes filled with old newspapers. “I would hope [this situation improves], but for the last 15 years I have hoped it would get better and it hasn’t.”