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MOSCOW — Travelers may soon be unable to book flights out of Russia because of a bureaucratic provision holding up blank airline tickets at the border. Some airlines have enough tickets to last them only two weeks, as customs holds up new stocks under a regulation, that requires airlines to receive government certification before importing tickets. The new regulation — which is intended to help monitor the import of valuable documents with security features such as water marks — includes airline tickets. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed off on the decree in July, and it went into force on Oct. 1. “Airlines are running dry on tickets, and without them they cannot provide their service,” said Marek Pedersen, Russia and CIS manager for SAS Scandinavian airlines. |
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ROAD SHOW
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The 13th International Auto + Automechanics exhibition opened at LenExpo on Wednesday. The event has attracted 380 firms from 26 countries, and will feature the Russian premieres of various models from major western manufacturers. The exhibition will run until Oct. 30. |
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As government officials announced a funding, a confirmed deadline and a comprehensive schedule for the completion of the St. Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier Thursday, city’s environmentalists said the construction is an illegal and risky experiment with uncertain consequences. Boris Paikin, head of the Directorate of the Flood Protection Barrier Construction said work on the project, which received 1 billion rubles ($35 million) in funding from the federal budget this year, is going ahead at full steam, and looks set to meet the 2008 deadline set by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year.
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MOSCOW — The Russian-only migration cards that have caused chaos on incoming flights in recent weeks will be replaced with the old dual-language version, the Federal Migration Service said Wednesday. “It has been decided to use the old dual-language cards until the end of the year,” migration service assistant director Konstantin Poltoranin said by telephone Wednesday. |
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The state of affairs at police stations across Russia is “catastrophic” with rank-and-file officers widely corrupted and detectives whitewashing statistics, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Wednesday. |
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The average number of road accidents doubled and traffic jams blocked up all the bridges in town on Wednesday as winter arrived in St. Petersburg catching the local authorities unawares. Heavy snowfall began shortly after 8 a.m., and by noon 373 accidents had been registered. The number of accidents was further increased by the unexpectedly low temperatures on the preceding night which brought black ice to the city’s roads. |
All photos from issue.
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The St. Petersburg Veterinary Academy this week committed itself to bringing an end to vivisection for educational purposes, becoming the first university in Russia to do so. Yelena Maruyeva, head of the Moscow-based Vita center which works to protect animal rights, said thousands of animals are killed annually by every veterinary institute in Russia for teaching purposes, despite alternative methods being used widely in developed countries. |
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ZURICH — A Swiss court jailed a North Ossetian man for eight years on Wednesday for the premeditated killing of an air traffic controller he held responsible for a crash that killed his family. |
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The car company Toyota Motor will dramatically increase the number of its Lexus luxury brand dealerships in Russia, expecting stable growth in sales over the coming years, the company president said Wednesday. Next year the company plans to introduce six new showrooms, said Tomoaki Nisitani, president of Toyota Motor, the company that represents Toyota Motor Corp. |
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By 2010 General Motors, the world’s largest car manufacturer, has promised to develop economically viable models of a hydrogen-powered car, the company announced Wednesday at an exhibition in St. |
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Despite conflict and the continuing threat of strike, company managers at Russia’s only Ford plant said they will nevertheless keep to next year’s predicted rates of production and sales. “We do not see the threat of a strike,” said Teo Shright, general director of Ford Motor Co. |
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Foreign investors building factories in the Moscow region have become the latest target for Oleg Mitvol, a former businessman turned environmental crusader. |
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Inflows of foreign capital could drive up the ruble and even trigger a market crash after currency controls are lifted in 2007 unless inflation is tamed, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday. “With current high inflation rates, we are going to suck in speculative capital like a vacuum cleaner. |
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GDP Rises 6.6 percent MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia’s gross domestic product grew by 6.6 percent in September compared to the same month in 2004, and was up 5. |
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In the past two weeks, U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration has launched a concerted attempt to translate its pro-democracy rhetoric into action in two little-known Eurasian countries whose importance is about to soar. Within six weeks, it could pull off a political feat that would electrify a region and energize the president’s freedom doctrine. |
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Alexander Yakovlev, the Politburo member in charge of ideology who has been called the architect of perestroika, died last week. One month earlier to the day, the former editor of the newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti, Yegor Yakovlev, passed away. |
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 What would you do with Ksenia Sobchak’s organs? The new satirical magazine Krokodil has a suggestion for the bits of the It Girl of today. First comes praise: Sobchak fulfills an important state function, one of the first articles in the magazine asserts, calling her “the bearer of the nation’s genetic code, the symbol of its dreams, the real image of the flowering and brains of the riches of Russia. |
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Moloko went out with a bang on Sunday. The notorious underground club had to shut its doors early in the day because it was besieged by hundreds of fans arriving for a free farewell party. |
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What would a figure of speech look like? How would you personify odd Russian expressions? An exhibition at The St. Petersburg Doll Gallery at 53 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa, provides the answers. The shop’s new display is a playful take on well-known Russian proverbs, common expressions and slang. It is an an easy and entertaining way to learn some new expressions, particularly Russian euphemisms for somewhat indecent original ideas. Ask a Russian, for example, about the exact meaning of the expression “Yapona mama” (“Japanese mother”). Some might direct you to the trendy, upscale Moscow restaurant. Others are likely to simply wave you off or deliver such a long and confused explanation that you will regret having asked the question. |
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 For Finnish television viewers Niko Nurminen might be a familiar face. But the long-time foreign correspondent with Channel Four News in Finland is this week coming to St. |
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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE WASHINGTON — Anticipation was high ahead of an announcement by a special prosecutor probing a CIA leak scandal, as the White House waited to see if top aides would be indicted in a crisis threatening to taint President George W. Bush’s presidency. Ignoring frenzied speculation over his intentions, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald on Wednesday met the grand jury he is using to decide whether White House heavy hitters broke the law by blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame. |
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Issues Archive