LOCAL NEWS

EXPERT CALLS FABERGE EGG A FORGERY

One of the 15 Faberge eggs bought from the estate of U.S. billionaire Malcolm Forbes last year by Russian magnate Viktor Vekselberg is a fake, St. Petersburg jewelry expert Valentin Skurlov says.

Vekselberg scooped up the treasures in a surprise last-minute intervention before they were due to be sold by auctioneer Sotheby's.

APPLY EARLY FOR U.S. VISAS, CONSULATE SAYS

The U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg is warning businesspeople planning to travel to the United States this summer to file their visa applications early to avoid delays.

NATIONAL NEWS

VISA REQUIREMENT FOR SEA VISITORS DROPPED

The national tourism industry has succeeded in convincing the State Duma to drop an amendment that would have forced cruise-ship passengers to obtain a visa or stay onboard during visits to Russia, the Russian Union of Tourism Industry, or RST, said Thursday.

CALL FOR PUTIN TO TESTIFY AT STAROVOITOVA ASSASSINATION TRIAL

Defense lawyers in the Galina Starovoitova murder trial have called for President Vladimir Putin to testify about a 1998 conversation he had with her assistant Ruslan Linkov after the killing.

IN BRIEF

Matviyenko's Address

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Valentina Matviyenko's annual address will be delivered to the Legislative Assembly on March 30, Interfax reported Tuesday.

The address will include a list of goals for the city's social and economic development that was approved by the city parliament in the first reading, Interfax cited Andrei Chernykh, a Legislative Assembly lawmaker, as saying.

LOCAL BUSINESS

REPORT: INDIA OFFERS $25BLN IN INVESTMENT

MOSCOW - India has offered the government the prospect of $25 billion in investments into Russia's oil and gas industry as New Delhi seeks to secure supplies and a stake in Yuganskneftegaz, Russia's two leading business dailies reported Tuesday.

If the mammoth investment eventuates, it will be the single largest foreign investment in the Russian economy.

IN BRIEF

Aeroflot Boosts Freight

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Aeroflot, the country's largest airline, said 2004 revenue from cargo shipments rose 48 percent to $198 million as it carried more goods farther.

ORIENT TO INSTILL RUSSIAN VISION

British hospitality chain Orient-Express Hotels, which has recently acquired a 93.5 percent stake in St. Petersburg's historic Grand Hotel Europe in a $100 million deal, has announced its first steps as the property's owners and managers.

Orient-Express has earmarked $30 million to be spent on the hotel in the next few years, said Pippa Isbell, the company's vice president for public relations. This year, the company will spend about $5 million.

STROIMONTAGE LOOKS TO MORE FOREIGN PROJECTS

Claiming a lack of potential on the domestic real estate market, St. Petersburg-based Stroimontage will continue to invest in foreign construction projects and diversify its business activities to aerospace technology and medicine, the firm's management said Tuesday.

SVYAZINVEST SALE ON HOLD

The privatization of Russian telecom holding company Svyazinvest may not happen until 2006, Telecoms Minister Leonid Reiman said on Tuesday, pushing shares in regional operators lower.

"Maybe this year, maybe next year. You can see, it is already February and there aren't any documents yet.

IN BRIEF

Lithuania Transit Rise

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Lithuania postponed a plan to raise fees for transporting rail cargoes across its territory that would have hit Lukoil and other Russian companies shipping goods to Kaliningrad.

OPINION

DON'T BELIEVE WHAT KREMLIN SAYS ABOUT CONSTITUTION

Despite the word's newfangled interpretation, oligarchy in Greek means "the rule of the few," the well off few who wield not only economic power, but also political power. Oligarchs are not millionaires sitting behind bars or pining away in emigre exile.

KREMLIN-FREE NEWS A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES

Information has become a rather rare commodity these days, especially if one looks for objective coverage of events in Russia. The state-owned television channels Channel One and Rossia and even NTV, independent in name only ever since it was taken over by state-controlled monopoly Gazprom, are unable to present a balanced picture for their viewers.

CULTURE

CHERNOV'S CHOICE

Tequilajazzz will perform its traditional winter concert at Moloko club this week, but the popular alt-rock band, which appears at the basement underground club twice a year, is afraid that the tradition might end.

"I'm afraid it will be our last concert at Moloko," said frontman Zhenya Fyodorov.

IN A RESTAURANT FAR, FAR AWAY...

If you are in the center of town and are looking for a quick bite to eat, don't read any further.

Trans Force is located in a shopping mall far, far away, on Prospekt Prosvesheniya, in the north of St.

MONKEY BUSINESS

The advertizing campaign for Gorillaz concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg on March 4 and 5 proved to be another in a series of misleading announcements, as the band in question turned out to be the less-known British act Phi-Life Cypher.

The situation already caused controversy when Gala Records, a Moscow-based record company, issued a statement last week claiming that Damon Albarn's Gorillaz has nothing to do with the concerts.

IN VINO VERITAS

Since 1945, the wines of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild have featured distinctive labels created by the most sought after of contemporary artists, including Marc Chagall, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Vassily Kandinsky.

Bohemian rhapsody

At the mention of Prague, everyone's faces clouded over. One of us exhaled resignedly, another's mouth crumpled in distaste. The Czech capital seemed vulgar and unwelcoming to us from here, 200 kilometers south, in the small, absurdly picturesque town of Cesky Krumlov, barely 30 kilometers from the Austrian border.