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 Once St. Petersburg Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Alfyorov and his former student Alexei Kovsh played cards with German businessmen on a train to Germany. Alfyorov and Kovsh won the game. As they were leaving the train, their partners asked Alfyorov why it was that he played cards so well. |
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MOSCOW - Garry Kasparov, the world's top chess player for two decades and considered by many the greatest player in history, has announced his retirement from professional chess in an ambitious gambit and vowed to devote his energy to battling what he called the "dictatorship" of President Vladimir Putin. |
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As the disabled struggle for more equality and full integration into society in the West, the Soviet legacy of institutionalizing and marginalizing people classed as invalids holds steady in modern Russia. Although state support for people with disabilities was more consistent in Soviet times, citizens with physical and mental disabilities were often sequestered in institutions, where they received little if any individual attention. |
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Seventeen young Russian scientists who are conducting research on energy received grants valued at a total of $100,000 from the prestigious Global Energy Foundation in St. |
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Visa-Free from Exclave? KALININGRAD (SPT) - A visa-free regime could be introduced as an experiment between the Kaliningrad region and the European Union, Interfax quoted Martin Vukovic, the Austrian ambassador to Russia, as saying Monday. "The special location of the Kaliningrad region, which is in the center of Europe and surrounded by EU countries, could be used in an experimental way by letting its residents visit neighboring countries without having to get a visa," he was quoted as saying. |
All photos from issue.
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The City Prosecutor's Office has decided against opening criminal cases against ultra-nationalist newspapers that print articles identified by human rights advocates as breaking laws on inciting racial hatred. The St. Petersburg branch of Citizen's Watch and the Democratic Russia party asked the office to investigate the newspaper Nashe Otechstvo, or Our Fatherland, in July 2004. |
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The defense in the trial of suspects accused of assassinating State Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova is expected to finish presenting evidence on Tuesday, allowing the trial to enter its final, cross-examination stage. |
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IMATRA, Finland - Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis has expressed his regret that Estonia's and Lithuania's presidents declined to attend celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in Moscow on May 9, RIA-Novosti reported Thursday. Noting that Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga will attend the event, Kalvitis said he will present Latvia's position on the end of World War II. |
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MOSCOW - Gazprom must move faster with a major Arctic liquefied natural gas project if it is not to miss a narrow window of opportunity to supply the increasingly competitive U.S. market, analysts say. Gazprom plans to pick Western partners this year to develop the Shtokman deposit in the Barents Sea and build an LNG terminal to start supplying the United States by 2011. It also plans a separate LNG plant at Ust-Luga near St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea, amid what analysts say are attempts to diversify a customer base traditionally oriented towards Europe and enter the flexible and growing LNG market. "Gazprom see the U.S. market as a commercial opportunity they need to pursue urgently, especially as Europe is looking at a huge potential gas oversupply from various sources," said Jonathan Stern of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. |
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 The city's historical zone within the bounds of which no new construction is allowed could be reduced fivefold to stimulate new business development, a federal committee said Monday. |
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Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, has discounted last week's media reports of the company ditching plans to build an assembly plant in Russia. "The company is still in the process of making a decision regarding an automobile assembly plants in Russia, and nothing has changed in our position since last year," company spokesperson Anastasia Kokareva said Monday in a phone interview from Moscow. |
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Clean Cash in Russia ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) -There are no more that ten banks in Russia that are involved in criminal money-laundering deals, federal service head said Friday, RIA Novosti reports. |
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EU Seeks Clear Air BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The EU Executive Commission wants to create an open aviation market with Russia and China and is seeking a mandate from the 25-nation bloc to start negotiations, it said on Monday. "(The Commission) asks the council (of ministers) to authorize without delay ambitious airline accords with China and Russia," the European Commission said in a statement. |
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MADRID - Spanish police have arrested people suspected of siphoning funds from oil firm Yukos without the company's knowledge as part of a bigger money-laundering ring, a source close to the investigation said Sunday. |
 You get respect with this," says Gennady Lazurin, an aviation millionaire, as I drive his Kombat armored tank-ette along the roads of St. Petersburg. As frightened faces stare at me and our looming vehicle from their graying, battered Ladas, I see what he means. |
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The future of the domestic car industry hangs in the balance as Russian manufactures warned that a possible reduction of import duties on parts for foreign cars could put many of the nation's factories out of business. |
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What are the rates of tax on works of art taken out of Russia? Chapter 25-3 of the Tax Code, which came into effect on Jan. 1, imposes a state duty on cultural valuables being taken out of Russia. The duty is 5 percent of the item's value for a modern piece, and 10 percent if the piece was created 50 or more years ago. |
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At a recent industry conference, LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov was asked about the prospects for foreign investment in Russia's petroleum sector. The question came only five days after a public statement by Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev that auctions to develop certain major oil, gas and mineral fields would only be open "to those companies in which not less than 51 percent of the share capital belongs to Russian participants. |
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As the United States and Russia continue their uneasy struggle for influence across the CIS, a remote corner of the southern Caucasus is gaining prominence once again, part of a series of regional subplots that could aid or impede any grand designs for power. |
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The new Housing Code came into force on March 1. This innovation will have a strong influence on the reform of the communal housing sector in St. Petersburg. |
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In the heady months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the chickenhawks of the Bush Regime were eager to flash their tough-guy cojones to the world. Led by the former prep-school cheerleader in the Oval Office, swaggering Bushists openly bragged of "kicking ass" with macho tactics like torture and "extraordinary rendition. |
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Pope Returns ROME (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, looking fairly alert and waving to crowds of well-wishers, left hospital on Sunday and returned to the Vatican 18 days after he underwent throat surgery to relieve severe breathing problems. The 84-year-old Pope left the hospital riding in the front seat of a gray van just five hours after his departure was announced. |
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SKA St. Petersburg saved all the drama for their home finale as they defeated star-studded Ak Bars Kazan 5-4 in their final home game of the ice hockey season at the Ice Palace Thursday night. |
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FC Zenit St. Petersburg bounced back from its meltdown finish last season to open the 2005 championship campaign Saturday with a 4-1 thrashing against Dynamo Moscow at Petrovsky Stadium. The win puts Zenit at the top of the Premier League ahead of CSKA Moscow, who strolled to a 3-0 win over newcomers Terek Grozny. |
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Team Russia dominated the first-ever international women's boxing tournament held in St. Petersburg last week winning 11 gold medals in 13 weight categories at SKK Sport and Concert Complex on Saturday. |
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Issues Archive