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The new Ambassador Hotel, opened on Tuesday and built with a total investment of $30 million, is the fourth four-star hotel to open in St. Petersburg this year, and heralds a new era of expansion and competition in the city’s hotel sector. The nine-story building, located on Ul. Rimskogo-Korsakova next to the Yusupovsky Gardens and a 15-minute walk from St. Isaac’s Cathedral, comprises 255 rooms. “The opening of Ambassador hotel is a big event for the city, especially at a time when St. Petersburg is concentrated on developing its tourist sphere,” said Alexander Prokhorenko, head of the city’s Tourism and Foreign Affairs Committee. Andrei Sharapov, general director of the Ambassador hotel, said he was especially proud that the hotel was constructed with Russian financing alone, a rare case in the modern Russian hotel sector. |
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Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The atrium of the new Ambassador Hotel, built at a cost of $30 million, with all the investment capital raised in Russia. |
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MOSCOW — The country’s chief epidemiologist is tight-lipped about preparations for a possible flu pandemic that could kill hundreds of thousands of people, and he has offered little more than assurances that adequate measures are being taken. Heath officials contacted by The St. Petersburg Times over the course of 10 days also were not forthcoming, and the World Health Organization expressed concern about Russia’s state of readiness, saying it too had been left in the dark.
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Social attitudes, phobias, prejudice against those infected with the HIV virus and access to treatment for all, regardless of age, race, social status and place of residence, are all on the agenda of the international conference “HIV/AIDS and Human Rights” currently being held at the Tavrichesky Palace. |
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MOSCOW — World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Wednesday urged Russia to push ahead with institutional reforms and to fight corruption as he began an official two-day visit. |
All photos from issue.
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A wave of hate crimes has rocked St Petersburg in the last forty days, with a series of racial assaults on individuals and businesses, and vandalism of a cemetery, in what human rights advocates are describing as an alarming trend. “I’d call it the month of terror, were it not for fears that I’d be publicizing the extremist values these people are proud of,” said Aliou Tunkara, head of the St Petersburg African Union, referring to a month that saw two Africans killed, a number of foreigners put into intensive care, the destruction of over 100 gravestones in the city’s Jewish cemetery and repeated attacks on a Jewish restaurant. |
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MOSCOW — Prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a senior Federal Tax Service official and a Central Bank official who are suspected of demanding a $5. |
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Flu Vaccination ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Over the last two weeks at least 28,500 St. Petersburg inhabitants have been vaccinated against flu, Interfax reported. Those receiving the vaccine were all in the high risk group, which includes medical workers, schoolchildren, and the elderly. All of them received the vaccination free of charge. |
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Moscow-based TUI Mostravel Russia acquired the option to buy a 51 percent share of Riviera, one of the leading tour operators in the Northwest region, the Moscow firm said Thursday. Some market insiders saw the move as the first step in the consolidation of Russia’s tourist market, necessary for the domestic industry to compete on the global arena. |
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Russia’s third-largest oil and gas company, Rosneft, said Wednesday it will double its budget spending in 2006. St. Petersburg authorities hope major portions of the extra cash will come to local producers. |
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MOSCOW — A controversial bill intended to relieve courts of the burden of settling minor tax claims sailed through the State Duma on Wednesday in its second reading. Duma deputies approved the bill by a vote of 341 to 42. President Vladimir Putin proposed the bill — to go into effect on Jan. |
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MOSCOW — Russia’s financial transactions watchdog said Wednesday that it had uncovered hundreds of domestic and foreign organizations linked to terrorism. |
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Toshiba Secrets Leaked TOKYO (Bloomberg) — An employee at Toshiba Corp.’s subsidiary in Japan may have sold company secrets to a Russian trade official, the Nikkei English News reported Thursday, citing an unidentified police official. The Japanese man, who wasn’t named in the report, worked at the Toshiba Discrete Semiconductor Technology Corp. |
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The attack on Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, was a carefully planned guerrilla operation carried out in broad daylight in a big city. The estimates of the fighters’ numbers have varied from 50 to 600, but the important fact is that they were able to penetrate the city unnoticed and unhampered, thus demonstrating a clear advantage over numerically far superior federal forces in planning, intelligence and organization. |
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In case you missed it, the government just wrapped up a month-long nationwide anti-terrorism program with the slogan: “We won’t allow the Beslan tragedy to be repeated!” Trees were planted and meetings were held in cities and towns across the country. |
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Speaking at the “Russia: Going Global?” conference last week, Oleg Vyugin, head of the Federal Service for Financial Markets, advanced a very sound idea. It’s well known that high oil prices have allowed the Russian government to increase spending while also squirreling away sizeable sums in the stabilization fund. |
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 BRUSSELS, Belgium — Europalia, a biannual arts event in Belgium that showcases a chosen nation, this year focuses on Russia to follow a growing Western fascination with its undiscovered cultural heritage. The cultural charm offensive, which began in Brussels on Oct. |
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Moloko, a leading local underground club that is closing at its current location, will say goodbye with concerts by popular bands Tequilajazzz (Friday) and Markscheider Kunst (Saturday). |
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A new exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum sheds light on the work of Henri Matisse and is drawn from one of the two great acquisitions that make the Hermitage collection of works by the French artist one of most important in the world. The first considerable acquisition was made in the 1930s and included many great paintings of the “fauvist” period of the master, which originally were a part of the collection of Western European art belonging to Moscow merchant and patron Sergei Shchukin. |
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Giant oil derricks replace Egyptian pyramids in Moscow director Dmitry Bertman’s updated rendition of Verdi’s biblical opera “Nabucco,” which premieres at the Mariinsky Theater on Saturday. |
 Van der Graaf Generator, a seminal British “progressive rock” band that came to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s has returned with its classic lineup, a new album and a tour. Founding member, vocalist and guitarist Peter Hammill describes it as a “genuine musical effort.” Reunions are no longer the sensation they once were now that so many bands have found that it’s a good way to capitalize on their past success. |
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BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein’s trial lasted only a few hours before being adjourned, but it was long enough for international observers to get a taste — and overall they were left unconvinced about the credibility of Iraq’s tribunal. While praising the efforts of the chief judge, a Kurd with a wry smile and a pleasant manner, legal experts said they were uneasy about how parts of the process unfolded and uncertain whether it would ultimately be seen to be fair and efficient. |
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BANGKOK (AP) — A 48-year-old man who died after handling his neighbor’s sick chickens became the 13th person confirmed dead from the disease in Thailand, the prime minister said Thursday. |
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ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Roy Oswalt tossed seven brilliant innings to lead the Astros to a 5-1 Game Six victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, handing Houston the National League title and a first World Series appearance. The Astros, who were one strike away from clinching the pennant at home Monday, rebounded from the crushing loss with a dominating performance to take the best-of-seven championship series 4-2 and become the first Texan team to host a World Series game. |
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TORONTO — Gary Bettman is beaming, and for good reason. Sweeping changes have reinvigorated the NHL, the commissioner said in a speech during the annual Sports Media Canada luncheon Wednesday. |
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LONDON — Holders Liverpool, Chelsea and Olympique Lyon set a course for the Champions League knockout stage but there was a scare for Real Madrid on Wednesday. Lyon, who opened their Group F campaign with a 3-0 drubbing of Real, look certain to qualify after reaching nine points from three games with a 2-1 win over Olympiakos Piraeus. |
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Issues Archive