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The St. Petersburg City Court last Friday sentenced Yury Shutov, a former Legislative Assembly lawmaker, aide to the late St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak and later a close ally to the former city governor Vladimir Yakovlev, to life imprisonment for forming a criminal gang responsible for a series of contract murders. The court declared Shutov, 53, and four accomplices guilty of performing a series of contract killings of prominent local politicians and business people. All five received life sentences. A further eleven members of the gang were found guilty of kidnapping, robbery, and illegal possession of arms. They were sentenced to long terms in jail, ranging from seven to 18 years. Prosecutors convicted Shutov’s 16-member gang of participating in over a dozen high-profile contract murders between 1997 and 1999. The list includes the blowing up of Dmitry Filippov, chairman of the board of directors of Bank Menatep St. |
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COME DANCING
Grigory Dukor / Reuters
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov from Russia winning their free dance in the ice dancing competition during the Figure Skating at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games on Monday. As of Tuesday evening, Russia had a total of fifteen medals, including seven golds. |
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MOSCOW — Boris Berezovsky said Friday that he was selling the remnants of his business empire, including the Kommersant newspaper, to his longtime partner Badri Patarkatsishvili in an effort to shield it from Kremlin pressure. Berezovsky, a kingmaker turned fierce Kremlin critic, said he was selling out because his Georgian partner, who has been a joint owner in many of Berezovsky’s businesses, was unnerved by his recent claim that he has spent the last year and a half working to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
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The American Corner library, which introduces the inhabitants of St. Petersburg to “American ideals and values” through its services, celebrates its fourth anniversary on Wednesday. “In addition to ever-present resources such as books, magazines, and instructional tapes, we offer a wide range of activities such as art exhibitions, film showings, English-Russian discussion clubs and lectures,” said Anna Nadezhina, director of the American Corner library. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — A Chelyabinsk military court on Monday held the first in a series of trials of servicemen charged with hazing soldiers at the tank academy where Private Andrei Sychyov lost his legs and genitals after being tortured. The treatment of Sychyov, who had to undergo several operations after being tied up and badly beaten by drunk fellow soldiers, has shocked Russia and sparked a public outcry at the state of the armed forces. |
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MOSCOW — The Dagestani parliament voted 101-1 on Monday to confirm its former speaker, Mukhu Aliyev, as the new leader — and first president — of the volatile republic. |
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Ian Pearson, U.K. foreign trade and investment minister, was in St. Petersburg on Sunday and Monday on an official visit to learn about further investment opportunities for British business in the region. After St. Petersburg the minister is due to visit Moscow, where he’s scheduled to meet top officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Atomic Energy, as well as representatives from British businesses there. |
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St. Petersburg welcomed yet another luxury brand Wednesday as international operator Kempinski officially opened its new 5-star hotel. The centrally located hotel, situated on Moika 22, offers 23 suites and 174 rooms. |
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Foreign companies wanting to register legal entities in St. Petersburg are facing even stricter bureaucratic control. In order to stop the registration of false firms local tax authorities now demand the applicant to appear in person to file registration documents. |
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Monopoly Case BRUSSELS (Bloomberg) — De Beers and Alrosa have settled their monopoly abuse case with the European Commission, Reuters said Tuesday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the situation The settlement will be approved under the EU executive Commission’s Article 9 procedure, in which the companies will admit no wrongdoing but sign commitments to avoid abusive practices, the newswire said. |
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Fifty years ago this month, the Soviet Communist Party held its 20th Congress. The decisions reached at most Party congresses are long forgotten, but the events of February 1956 continue to inspire interest and debate. For young people who have grown up in the post-Soviet consumer society, Feb. |
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It is good news that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is planning to spend $75 million on aid to Iranian democrats and Farsi-language broadcasters. |
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I don’t know about you, but the ongoing cartoon scandal has made me a better person. I’ve started to spare the feelings of others, even people I find extremely unpleasant. In part, this change has been forced upon me. When every press outlet in Russia and most foreign media were marking Boris Yeltsin’s 75th birthday earlier this month, my wife forbade me to write anything on the subject. |
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Non-Russian authors do not have the mass appeal they once had, but St. Petersburg publishers are seeing an increasingly sophisticated market for foreign literature. With the fall of the Iron Curtain 15 years ago came a flood of formerly proscribed literature — both foreign and Russian — and the sight of each straphanger on the metro avidly reading new books of all kinds. |
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Last year saw the closing of several underground rock clubs, but now new live music-oriented places are opening and some old ones are coming back. Although it has been open since January, Zorro Club will stage its official opening with a concert by local favorites Markscheider Kunst and the reformed band Wine, featuring its old drummer Katya Sidorova. |
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Director Kirill Serebrennikov’s opera debut at the Mariinsky Theater takes on Verdi’s ribald comedy and sides with its eponymous hero. Showing sympathy for the eponymous rascal of “Falstaff,” first-time opera director Kirill Serebrennikov, the enfant terrible of Moscow’s theater scene, has turned Shakepeare’s merry wives into a gang of stylish and heartless battle-axes. |
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The National Center for Contemporary Art has put on an exhibition by Vitaly Pushnitsky that shows he is one of the few St. Petersburg artists who is establishing a new face for the local contemporary art scene by making it visible and specific. |
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The Ugly Duckling Tel: 323 8222 22 Ulitsa Gavanskaya Dinner for two with alcohol, 1,650 rubles ($58) As far out as the idea of dining out on Danish cuisine in St. Petersburg might seem, that is not as far as the location of the city’s only Danish-owned restaurant. “The Ugly Duckling” was established near the coastal end of Vasilyevsky Island six years ago to provide the city with genuine Danish smœrrebrœd (open sandwiches) and other specialties. |
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Soldier Death Toll BAGHDAD (AP) — As of last Sunday, at least 2,273 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes six military civilians. At least 1,781 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers. |
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Rosenborg BK coach Per-Mathias Hœgmo remains optimistic about his team’s chances for advancement in the UEFA Cup after a bruising clash with FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the first leg in Trondheim last week. Although he admits the Norwegian team’s performance was poor, he is confident Rosenborg will prevail and win by at least two goals in Thursday’s second-leg at St. |
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TURIN, Italy — Italian police carried out an anti-doping search on quarters near the Austrian cross-country coaches’ base at the Winter Olympics on Monday night, an Italian police source said on Tuesday. |
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