|
|
|
|
Leningrad Oblast Legislative Assembly deputies are blaming the Kyoto Protocol for putting the livelihoods of some 2,000 oblast miners at stake. The deputies say Estonia is more interested in selling emission credits it gains by not burning Russian oil shale than it is in selling the electricity generated from the shale. |
|
MOSCOW - A day after the power outage that hit Moscow and four neighboring regions, electricity chief Anatoly Chubais faced questions from prosecutors about his role in the blackout, and speculation mounted about his future. |
 The Russians have always found France irresistible, and nowhere is this Slavo-Gallic love affair more evident than in St. Petersburg. From the outset, when Peter the Great established his westernized capital here on the banks of the Neva, imitation of the French way of life became very much a la mode. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
Valery Gergiev, the indefatigable globe-trotting artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater will succeed Sir Colin Davis as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, the company announced this week. The new appoinment will not affect Gergiev's commitment to his musical alma mater. |
|
TALLINN - Estonia should abandon its territorial claims against Russia, Interfax quoted Estonian President Arnold Ruutel as saying Tuesday. In an interview with Tallinn-based newspaper Postimees, Ruutel said Estonia should abandon its claim to the Pechora area in the Pskov region and the territory to the east of the river Narva. |
|
Veterans of St. Petersburg's arts scene who are developing a strategy to stop the drain of young talent from the city, which claims to be Russia's cultural capital, say there are too few resources to stop top artists from leaving. Work is in full steam at St. Petersburg's Concept For Culture Development in 2006-2008, and youngsters are at the heart of the document, which is being written by dozens of local artists and aesthetes. |
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - Moscow fixed-line operator MGTS is bracing for an avalanche of consumer complaints this summer when it starts charging for calls from land lines to cell phones. The "calling party pays" system, customary in Europe, will go into effect on July 1, according to a government decree signed last week. |
|
The presidential property department intends to build a $50-million sport and downhill skiing complex at Toksovo in the Leningrad Oblast, Kommersant reported Tuesday. |
|
MOSCOW - DaimlerChrysler intends to build Mercedes Benz models in St. Petersburg by the end of the year, the Kremlin said late Monday, citing the chairman of the German-U.S. auto giant. "I am hoping that the first Mercedes will come off the assembly line this fall," Juergen Schrempp told President Vladimir Putin, according to a transcript on the Kremlin web site. |
|
A two-story shopping mall, a business center, 105 hotel rooms and large conference facilities are to appear next to the city's Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel in the heart of St. |
|
|
|
|
The second election reform under President Vladimir Putin is practically complete. The president has signed the new law on electing State Duma deputies. And a new set of amendments to a long list of laws related to elections has begun to move through the Duma. |
|
After Sept. 11, 2001, the Kremlin had to accept the deployment of U.S. and NATO forces in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Russian nationalists mourned the decline of Moscow's influence in Russia's backyard, but fear of an Islamic radical threat has outweighed their dislike of the West. |
|
|
|
 The Stars of the White Nights festival, established by Mariinsky Theater artistic director Valery Gergiev, is sweeping the city, again bringing a tangible Baltic note to the city. This year's event, starting Friday with Dmitry Chernyakov's rendition of Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," (see page xi) stretches to the middle of July and features an array of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian musicians. |
|
The White Stripes will play two Russian concerts next month, in Moscow on June 26 and in St. Petersburg on June 27. Unfortunately, the Detroit duo, one of the most interesting bands to come into the limelight in the past few years, will peform at Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa, which proved unequipped for a live concert by Franz Ferdinand last week. |
|
Metekhi 3 Belinskogo Tel. 272 3361 Dinner for two with wine 642 rubles ($23) Menu in Russian and English. Lagidze 3 Belinskogo. Tel. 579 1104 Dinner for two with wine 775 rubles ($27) Menu in Russian only. Ulitsa Belinskogo, connecting the Fontanka and Liteiny Prospekt, though rather short, is quite rich in cafes, bars and restaurants. One can find almost everything there - a beer bar, a nice French restaurant, a cheap shaverma place, an inexpensive wine restaurant, and two small, cosy and very simple Georgian restaurants. The eternal pair seem to have existed in the area for ages, and even now that one of them has gone through a period of extensive renovation, the spirit of the cafes could still only be removed with a wreckers ball and their replacement with a new hotel or business center. |
|
 Unlike in St. Petersburg, where there are no regular art sales at all, Moscow holds at least two large annual international contemporary art fairs. One of them, spring Moscow Art Fair, opened Tuesday at the Central House of Artists. |
 Zhmurki," a new film from Alexei Balabanov, is perhaps the first Russian trash film about those "who survived the '90s." Think Quentin Tarantino meets Guy Ritchie in Nizhny Novgorod. Unfortunately, the film lacks the jokes and little gimmicks of those directors, and that's why, even with its all-star cast, "Zhmurki" is no masterpiece. The film is unlikely to have any significant influence and is instantly forgettable. |
|
 This is the third band in the history of rock music after The Beatles and Nirvana," raves Franz Ferdinand's official site quoting Russian music critic Artyom Troitsky. |
|
With Richard Wagner's "Tristan Und Isolde" opening at the Mariinsky Theater on Friday, the company's repertoire now has its eighth opera by the composer - matching the number of Wagner works the Mariinsky performed before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Wagner was no stranger to St. Petersburg. The composer chose St. Petersburg for the first performance of the Prelude and Liebestod of "Tristan und Isolde," and the city was picked to host his "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in 1907. Before the start of World War I, when German music was forbidden in Russia, the Mariinsky's repertoire featured eight works by Wagner - a quarter of its playbill. |
|
 PUUMALA, Eastern Finland - The lake district of southeast Finland, at once so close and so far from St. Petersburg, is a land of many tales. At the center of the region is Lake Saimaa, actually a dazzling myriad of deep, clean fjords, gullies and inland seas lapping against numberless granite islands cloaked in forest. |
|
|
|
|
Fleeing Bride Indicted LAWRENCEVILLE, Georgia (AP) - The bride-to-be who skipped town just days before her lavish wedding was indicted Wednesday on charges she told police a phony story about being kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, was charged with making a false statement and making a false police report. |
Temp: -2°C overcast 
Issues Archive