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MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday brushed off sharp international criticism of a draft law aimed at tightening state control over non-governmental organizations, saying what it did at home was its own affair. Last month parliament backed a bill that would bar foreign human rights groups, green organisations and medical charities from working in Russia. It would force local non-profit groups to re-register and make it harder for them to take foreign cash. U.S. officials said Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns would use a trip to Moscow this week to discuss the legislation. “This is our internal right,” Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Kamynin, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, as saying. “Passing laws is the sovereign right of every state. |
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Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A baby at Special Orphanage No. 9, home to many of the city’s HIV-positive children. World AIDS Day was marked Thursday. |
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As the city marked World AIDS Day with a large public awareness meeting on Thursday, health authorities said that the number of HIV cases in the country has rocketed over the last five years, with 100 Russians contracting the virus every day. At the meeting at the Moskovsky Cultural Center close to the Elektrosila metro station on Moskovsky Prospekt, demonstrators handed out leaflets in an attempt to raise awareness.
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Over two months after City Hall adopted a new strategy for the humane treatment of stray animals, and despite Governor Valentina Matviyenko having announced that “the city authorities will strictly follow European regulations on the treatment of homeless animals,” stray cats and dogs continue to be exterminated every day. |
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From Thursday, Moscow telephone numbers beginning with 095 changed to 495 as part of changes in area codes across the country, and numbers starting with 0 in another 18 regions, including the Moscow region, also now start with 4. |
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A new “White Days” program aimed at luring tourists to St. Petersburg during its long winter months was announced Thursday at the Hermitage Theater. The 2005-2006 program was presented by the city’s leading hotels and cultural institutions with the support of City Hall. This year, besides the traditional international Arts Square Winter Festival this month and the Mariinsky Ballet Festival in March, a new Gogol festival in December and Shrovetide Week in February, will both take place at the Mariinsky Theater. |
All photos from issue.
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Chris Smith, a member of the British House of Lords, visited St. Petersburg to take part in a series of discussions organized by the British Council on HIV and AIDS. The St. Petersburg Times spoke to Lord Smith, a former British Camber Minister who was diagnosed as being HIV positive 18 years ago, about the threat that the disease poses to Russia and the U. |
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MOSCOW — A leaked version of the North Ossetian parliamentary report on Beslan has revealed that it was much more critical of federal authorities than the inquiry chairman’s summary of its findings. |
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The total value of microloans offered by financial institutions doubled last year, Mikhail Mamuta, director of the Russian Microfinance Center, said Thursday at a conference in St. Petersburg. The total volume of microloans taken by individual entrepreneurs is close to $1 billion, though just five years ago it did not exceed $100 million a year, he said. |
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Entrepreneurs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) exist in a permanent state of alert, the head of the city’s Russian Association of Small Business (OPORA) said on Tuesday. |
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In a bid to revitalize stagnant pension reforms, the government is drafting new legislation to give private funds a greater role in managing billions of dollars in pension contributions, a government official said Wednesday. “We are preparing amendments to the law on investing pension savings as the volume of pension money is set to soon exceed the investment capacity in state bonds,” Yekaterina Tyurina, head of the pension reform division at the Finance Ministry, said by telephone. |
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When Peter, from New Zealand, arrived in Moscow several years ago, he was “brimming with excitement” at the idea of starting his stint as an English teacher. |
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Relations between Finnish and Russian managers have been targeted for improvement by one of Finland’s leading management training companies, which announced its intention to open a St. Petersburg branch on Tuesday. Funded by the Finnish government, the Finnish International Trade Institute, or FINTRA, wants to bring its tailor-made management programs to Russia in an attempt to improve mutual understanding and overcome prejudice in relationships between Russian and Finnish mangers, the company said. |
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Sajida Rishawi shocked the world when she appeared on Jordanian television and admitted her role in the plot to blow up a wedding at a hotel in Amman on Nov. 9. Her monotone speech and lack of emotion sparked an instant debate regarding the growing role of female terrorists and suicide bombers. |
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In 1937, the Soviet Union celebrated test pilot Valery Chkalov’s record-setting, nonstop flight from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, via the North Pole. |
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 Not far from Beslan, the city of Vladikavkaz is struggling to maintain its opera and ballet company — with the help of friends from St. Petersburg. Shows start at 5 p.m. at the Vladikavkaz Opera and Ballet Theater in southern Russia. They take place only on the weekend. |
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A motley group of personalities from Mexico City, called Los de Abajo, will bring so-called “Tropipunk” music, a blend of punk and Latin, to the city this week. |
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Auction houses in London mount more and more sales of Russian art and artefacts each autumn, with at least six held this week alone. It has now become something of a tradition during the end of November and beginning of December that London’s auction houses open their arms to embrace to the entire spectrum of Russian art. |
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A new exhibition recounts a competition held to give the Russian ruble a sense of identity. If you leave aside economics and address only its design, Russia’s national currency — the ruble — hasn’t got an international visual identity like its U. |
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From his correspondence it is clear that the outstanding Russian artist Valentin Serov (1865-1911) preferred Moscow to St. Petersburg and this prejudice is reflected today in the fact that the best of his oeuvre resides in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery. The State Russian Museum has however mounted an exhibition in its Benois wing to celebrate 140 years since Serov’s birth from its collection of his work. |
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Born in Odessa in 1894 and vanishing in 1939 at the end of the Great Terror, Isaac Babel, inarguably the greatest Russian short-story writer of the 20th century, was famed for his endless revisions. |
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FRANKFURT — Kaiserslautern has appointed a World Cup granny to boost the city’s image at next year’s tournament. Elsa, who admits to being just shy of 70 years old, appears on a new poster for Kaiserslautern, lipstick in hand and with her hair in curlers, amid the slogan: “When the world comes, I’ll be there. |
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MANCHESTER, England — George Best bewitched Old Trafford once again on Wednesday when thousands of fans, together with former team mates and opponents, gathered for an emotional goodbye to soccer’s first superstar. |
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