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MOSCOW Only four of the Public Chambers 126 members are independent of the Kremlin, analysts from two major think tanks said as the chamber heads for its first official session on Sunday. The session will take place in the Kremlin, and President Vladimir Putin will make a speech, said Tatyana Piskaryova, the chamber spokeswoman. Putin proposed setting up the Public Chamber as a bridge between the state and civil society after the Beslan school attack in 2004. Critics say the chamber will be toothless. It can issue nonbinding advice to the government on domestic policy and legislation and request that federal authorities investigate allegations of breaches of the law. The four chamber members who are clearly not Kremlin loyalists are lawyer Genry Reznik, pediatrician Leonid Roshal, Moskva magazine editor Leonid Borodin, and the head of the World Wildlife Funds Moscow office, Igor Chestin, said Tatyana Stanovaya of the Center for Political Technologies and Vladimir Pribylovsky of Panorama. |
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Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
An activist taking part in a demonstration event on St. Petersburg’s historic ‘Road of Life’ leading to Lake Ladoga. |
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With the coldest day of the winter predicted Friday, when temperatures are expected to drop to minus 35 deg C, local charity magazine Put Domoi (The Way Home) has staged a performance aimed at drawing attention to the plight of the citys homeless on Wednesday. Second-hand shabby clothes were placed out in the snow to form almost 100 human shapes on what became known as the Road of Life during the Second World War the crucial link between the city and the outside world that kept the city fed during the Siege of Leningrad.
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All photos from issue.
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Everyone dreams about finding a long-lost cache of diamonds and antiques until they reach the age of about ten. But one such dream remains dear to a local researcher and ex-deputy of the State Duma, Konstantin Sevenard. Sevenard, a great-grandson of the legendary Russian ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, a favorite of Russias last tsar Nicholas II, has been trying to get permission to begin excavations in the courtyard of Kshesinskayas former mansion on the Petrograd Side, which is now home to the Russian Political History Museum. |
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MOSCOW The Moscow Arbitration Court on Tuesday invalidated billionaire Mikhail Fridmans purchase of a former state-owned villa near Moscow, indicating that a similar acquisition of a nearby villa by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov could likely also be reversed. |
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The International Management Institute of St. Petersburg (IMISP) is set to target students from all over Russia in its ambitious attempt to become the first MBA institution of federal importance. To accommodate such an initiative a brand new program was developed specifically to attract potential students from the Russian regions, Viktor Dorogostaysky, Marketing Director of IMISP said Thursday in an interview. |
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One of the Northwests leading IT companies Digital Design increased its annual revenue by 40 percent last year, the company said Wednesday in a statement. |
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MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin signed into law Jan.10 the bill On a Special Economic Zone in the Kaliningrad Region, which grants new but sizeable investment into the exclave with unique tax breaks. The law, which will come into effect from April 1, means new residents who invest 150 million rubles ($5. |
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Russias biggest brewer Baltika has disclosed terms of an upcoming merger with Pikra, Vena and Yarpivo breweries. As the core shareholder of the merging companies Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) had proposed simplifying its ownership structure in spring 2005. |
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MOSCOW Russias extreme cold spell forced cuts in gas supplies to Europe, hitting Gazproms exports for the second time this month. Italy, Hungary and Serbia all reported drops in natural gas supplies from Russia on Wednesday as Gazprom struggled to handle increased demand amid this weeks low temperatures. |
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MOSCOW Pharmaceutical companies and officials from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on Wednesday pledged to work together to fight counterfeit medicines and called for closer cooperation. |
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 Russian rock music makes compromises with the state while show business is mired in corruption, says outspoken music critic Artyom Troitsky. Russian pop singers lip-syncing during long concerts that are always on primetime TV are not even remotely as popular as they might seem judging from the frequency with which they appear. |
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Promoters continue to unveil plans to bring foreign acts to perform in Russia in 2006. This week, forthcoming concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg by John Cale were announced. |
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Socialist Realism, the state-mandated standard that ruled the countrys artistic life for 50 years, passed into history during the dying days of the Soviet Union. But the curious body of work produced under the totalitarian yoke is finding a new following. |
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The long-awaited sequel to Russian fantasy hit Night Watch. The mystic thriller Dnevnoi Dozor or Day Watch, the sequel to Night Watch (2004) has broken all box-office records in the history of Russian cinema, if figures from its distributor are to be believed. |
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A big new show at the Manezh. The Central Manezh Exhibition Hall runs an annual art show, Petersburg 2005, which is considered by its curator Larisa Skobkina (without irony) to be the most serious and representative review of the St Petersburg contemporary art. During the past 12 years, and despite heavy criticism, the purpose and principle of the festival remain the same: to exhibit the output of St. |
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Snow started falling just as the loudspeakers boomed the countdown for the Russian New Year. Lasers projected S Novim Godom, and as the Russian national anthem blasted forth the thousands gathered raised their plastic glasses and embraced one another. It was about as close as you could get, culturally speaking, to being in Russia. |
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LYON, France Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin captured their fifth successive European pairs title with an exhilarating display of acrobatic jumps and synchronized footwork on Wednesday. The Russian duo beat Germanys Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy by 7. |
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MELBOURNE Third seed Lleyton Hewitt became the biggest casualty of the Australian Open when he was upset 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-2 by bitter Argentine rival Juan Ignacio Chela in the second round on Thursday. |
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Man U Advance MANCHESTER, England (AP) Giuseppe Rossi scored twice and Louis Saha, Kieran Richardson and Ryan Giggs had one goal each to lead Manchester United over semipro Burton Albion 5-0 Wednesday night in their English FA Cup third-round replay. Everton also advanced to the fourth round, beating Millwall 1-0 on Tim Cahills goal in the 72nd minute. |
Temp: -2°C overcast 
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