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MOSCOW — German prosecutors confirmed on Tuesday that they are investigating the privatization of Telekominvest, a St. Petersburg holding company that IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman helped set up more than a decade ago. Reiman himself is not a subject of an ongoing money laundering investigation and will not face charges, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office, Doris Moeller-Scheu, said. Investigators are examining Telekominvest only to determine whether assets transferred to Germany had a criminal origin, Moller-Scheu said. German prosecutors have limited jurisdiction outside Germany, she said. The legitimacy of Telekominvest’s 1990s privatization is therefore a key point in the investigation — but only as a legal prerequisite for proving money laundering charges in Germany. |
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SHIP AHOY!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The historic Italian ship “Amerigo Vespucci” sails into port in St. Petersburg on Thursday. The ship will take part in Navy Day celebrations on Sunday along with modern naval vessels. |
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Leningrad Oblast vice-governor Grigory Dvas criticized the investment policy of St. Petersburg City Hall, saying at a briefing on Tuesday that some of the latest projects supported by the city government should be examined by law enforcement agencies because theydamage the local budget. Dvas slammed City Hall’s initiative to develop an industrial area in the satellite town of Shushary earmarked for a new Toyota automobile factory that is scheduled to begin making cars in 2007.
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Closer German-Russian ties are bringing dividends to a group of St. Petersburg teenagers who are taking part in a new school exchange scheme. In September, five St. Petersburg schoolgirls and three boys aged from 15 to 17 leave for Germany for an academic year of about 10 months. |
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Smuggler Sentenced ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Latvian sailor Pavels Dolgovs has been sentenced to five years in prison by Vasileostrovsky federal court for smuggling several kilograms of cocaine into the city from Ecuador, Interfax reported. |
All photos from issue.
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The Italian sailing ship “Amerigo Vespucci,” one of the most beautiful boats of its kind in the world, is in town until Monday to welcome visitors and take part in Sunday’s naval parade, part of Russia’s Navy Day celebrations. The elegant, stately, three-mast full rigger is moored on the English embankment, close to the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. A symbol of Italian naval traditions, the ship is named after the famous Florentine sailor, explorer and cartographer. “Amerigo Vespucci,” built in 1930 as a replica of an 18th-century vessel, is making its fourth visit to St. Petersburg. |
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ANCHORS AWEIGH
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Russian navy ships moored on the River Neva near the Bronze Horseman on Thursday in preparation for Navy Day on Sunday, when visitors will be welcomed on board to look around. |
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The St. Petersburg satellite town of Peterhof, known for its park full of fantastic fountains, could soon be known for a new kind of park now that it has been given the status of “scientific town” by the federal government. The move aims to promote investment in scientific research centers located in the town and to create a number of science parks.
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MOSCOW — Teenage tennis diva Maria Sharapova is Russia’s richest star, earning $18.2 million in the past year, according to a new ranking by Forbes Russia to be published Thursday. In its first ranking of Russian celebrities, the magazine found that the country’s top athletes, entertainers and models collectively earned $116 million over the past year. |
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MOSCOW — More Russians are worried about inflation than any other issue, including terrorism and crime, according to a poll released on Thursday. The survey of 1,500 adults conducted in June found that 51 percent of respondents were “concerned” about the country’s double-digit inflation — more than were worried about poverty and low pay (44%) or unemployment (34%). |
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MOSCOW — French banking giant Societe Generale is set to take over DeltaCredit, Russia’s largest private mortgage lender, an anonymous source familiar with the situation said Tuesday. |
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Yekaterinburg based Euro-Asian Insurance company (EACK) is considering a merger with St. Petersburg insurer Russky Mir, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing Vladimir Ostrovsky, head of the insurance industry inspection board in the Ural region. Ostrovsky said EACK’s license has been suspended because of improper financial policy and abuse of liabilities, leading the Yekaterinburg firm to seek mergers with several insurers, including Russky Mir. |
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The regional authorities will increase the gambling tax on slot machines by up to 400 percent from October, Interfax reported Wednesday. Industry players warn the move will halter a rapidly developing industry. |
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The design for the Baltic Pearl complex, a $1.5 billion residential district project that will span 180 hectares, will be chosen from a tender by the end of September, the project’s investors said this week. “We’ve already conducted considerable planning. |
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Tightening its focus on the premium class market for medical services, the American Medical Clinic has opened this week a $1 million intensive care unit. |
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COMCON Hits No. 1 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — COMCON has become the largest Russian research company in terms of capacity, the firm said Tuesday in a statement. The increase in size comes as COMCON completes the construction of the country’s largest Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation, which will double their production volumes, the statement said. |
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There was a shootout last week near a village called Maliye Vishery, not far from the city of Novgorod. News agencies reported that local police had exchanged fire with a group of thugs who had taken the entire village hostage. It all started innocently enough. |
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The Russian president Vladimir Putin is immune to everything. While others are ending up in jail charged with dubious tax violations or blamed for misappropriations of state property allegedly committed in the past, Putin and his subordinates are doing fine no matter what is said about the president’s past conduct. |
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 In medieval Russia, two forms of social organization flourished — cities, where trade and political power were concentrated, and monasteries, the era’s most important cultural centers. In Russia, one tourist trail that links such ancient religious and civic centers is near Moscow, the much-hyped “Golden Ring. |
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More than 300 works by Andy Warhol, one of the 20th century’s most controversial artists, are to be exhibited in St. Petersburg in November in the largest show of works by the American artist to be held in this country. |
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The Mike Flowers Pops will perform at Jet Set Beach, the summer-time open-air site run by the Jet Set Club on Saturday. The British novelty band made the charts in December 1995, with its unlikely, cocktail-bar version of the Oasis anthem “Wonderwall.” “Over the years I had regularly enjoyed listening to the music of others, and now thought it only fair that I should ‘do my bit’ as regards the history of popular music,” wrote the white-suited, wig-wearing Flowers on his web site. “I thought I would start by preparing a number of arrangements of universally popular songs, and then recruit the appropriate musicians for a flexible expanded pop group. |
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 Ballet master Yury Grigorovich, the venerable legend of Soviet choreography, is bringing his young and highly nurtured Krasnodar-based troupe for an exhaustive two-week stint at the Mariinsky Theater. |
 LONDON — Still known overseas as the Kirov Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet will close its two-week season at the Royal Opera House in London on Saturday with a performance of “La Bayadere” led by its top stars Ulyana Loptakina and Igor Zelensky. On Monday the Mariinsky Opera, which tours London less frequently than the Mariinsky Ballet, will open its one-week season with “Boris Godunov.” Loptakina’s superlative performance of “Swan Lake” opened the Covent Garden season on a high note, while the first week of the Marriinsky Ballet’s London engagement ended with two performances last Sunday of a program of short works by William Forsythe. |
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 Cafe Stirka 400, a combination bar and launderette, which is pretty unusual for this city, is actually an art project. It is a small, cozy place to have a coffee or a beer and/or wash your laundry in one of its three washing machines, but its Berlin-based owner Anke Nowottne presented it as her graduation project — it earned her a degree at the Zurich School of Art and Design last year. |
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Zver 5 Aleksandrovsky Park. Tel. 232 2062 Open from noon. Live music Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays from 8 p.m. and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 5 p.m. Menu in Russian and English. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two with wine 1,650 rubles ($58) Do you hunger for real Russian cuisine? If so, then a visit to Zver restaurant ( “Beast”) should satisfy your appetite. |
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Oil Platform Fire Kills BOMBAY, India (AP) — Ten people were confirmed dead with several still missing Thursday from a massive fire on an oil platform in India’s biggest oil field. Ships and helicopters rescued more than 350 survivors. The fire on the platform 100 miles off the financial hub of Bombay was brought under control late Wednesday after a dramatic midsea rescue. |
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Too Much Money? LONDON (AFP) — Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho claims figuring out what to do with Roman Abramovich’s pile of money makes his the hardest job in football. Since last summer, Mourinho has spent over $150 million pounds, but he moaned: “Buying players for Chelsea is the hardest job in the Premier League. |
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MOSCOW — Less than a month after Moscow failed in its attempt to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee on Tuesday threw its weight behind Sochi’s equally long-shot bid for the 2014 Winter Games. |
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Issues Archive