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MOSCOW — Police have detained a French psychotherapist who is wanted in France after being convicted in absentia last year of sexually abusing several female patients. He has lived and worked in Moscow for seven years. The psychotherapist, Jeannot Hoareau, believes the case is politically motivated and is hoping to be granted asylum in Russia, his lawyer, Igor Trunov, said Monday. Hoareau, a specialist in forensic psychiatry and sexual disorders, had been treating people at the European Center for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, which he opened in Moscow last year. He had previously worked at the European Medical Center for six years. A French court convicted Hoareau last May of sexually abusing five patients and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. |
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Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Mourners gathered at a meeting on 5th Krasnoarmeiskaya Street on Saturday at the site where Lamzer Samba was killed. |
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An African student was fatally shot on Friday with a weapon bearing a swastika symbol, raising the hate crime murder toll in St. Petersburg to six in seven months. The fifth year student of the St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications, Lamzer Samba, 28, from Senegal died instantly of two bullet wounds when he was shot from behind by an unidentified man in the early morning on his way home from the Apollo nightclub where he and his friends had been celebrating the university’s anniversary.
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All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Saturday launched a liberal movement called the People’s Democratic Union — ratcheting up his long-shot bid to be elected Russia’s next president in 2008. “We are witnessing a clear trend of the rolling back of political freedom and the destruction of the foundations of a free-market economy,” Kasyanov warned Saturday at an inaugural meeting of People’s Democratic Union delegates from 31 regions across the country. |
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused regional leaders and the education and science minister of lacking initiative and dragging their feet on implementing at least two of his pet projects, housing and education. |
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MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied across the country on Saturday to protest hikes in rent, utilities and housing maintenance fees, which are a result of the Cabinet’s efforts to reduce subsidies. The Interior Ministry said 74,000 people participated in the demonstrations in about 250 cities and towns. |
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MOSCOW — Russian biologist Andrei Zamyatnin was released from a Swedish prison Friday after authorities concluded he was not a spy who posed a national security threat. |
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You’ve probably never met Sergey Kozerev, a former student at the State University of Technology and Design in St. Petersburg, but it’s possible that he’s mugged you. In the online world, he operates under the pseudonym Zo0mer, according to American investigators, and he smugly hawks all manner of stolen consumer information alongside dozens of other peddlers at a web site he helps manage. |
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MOSCOW — The khachapuri keeps on coming as Guriya fills up on Saturday afternoon. But the people who flock to the popular Moscow restaurant for a taste of Georgia may soon discover that the only Georgian drink being served is Borzhomi mineral water. |
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As continuing media coverage testifies, more and more foreign car companies are considering increasing their presence in Russia, either through the location of production facilities, or through cooperation with local firms. Last week federal authorities officially confirmed the latest interest, with Japanese car manufacturer Nissan deciding to construct an assembly plant in Russia. |
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One of the country’s largest national insurance companies, ROSNO, announced Friday its acquisition of St. Petersburg-based insurer Rusmed, as another step towards its goal of controlling 15 percent of the compulsory health insurance market. |
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PRIMORSK, Leningrad Oblast — The Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) has been launched to its full design capacity of 1.3 million barrels a day, RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s industry and energy minister as saying Friday. “The facility is brilliant for Russian infrastructure in terms of all parameters,” Viktor Khristenko told journalists. |
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MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Friday sanctioned the arrest of Yukos’ executive vice president, a day after he was charged with embezzlement and money laundering. |
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IRKUTSK — Gazprom on Friday again dashed the hopes of BP’s Russian unit of exporting gas to China from the giant Kovykta field, saying its reserves would not be needed before 2015. Gazprom, which has a monopoly over gas exports, said the east Siberian field contained large volumes of helium, a strategic product for military needs, and Russia should first pass a law on helium before approving Kovykta’s development. |
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TBILISI — Dry young Saperavi, a wine so tannic that Georgian winemakers often call it not red but black, can be one of the great pleasures of the former Soviet world. |
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It took only eight years for 26 year-old Alexandra Kashleva to build a career and start her own business. Having gained work experience at different companies in Russia and abroad, just over a year ago she set up Language Studio. Born in 1979 in Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan into the family of a professional military officer, at the age of three Kashleva moved with her family to Leningrad, as it was then called, the place that has become a real “home city” for her. |
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Three months ago, the Russian energy giant Gazprom forced Ukraine to pay dramatically higher prices for natural gas. At the time, the story was portrayed as a political struggle for control in Kiev. |
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Russian stocks, buoyed by high oil prices and a surge of foreign investment, have been soaring. After an 83 percent gain in the RTS stock index last year — the best stock market performance outside the Middle East in 2005 — the index is up nearly 33 percent so far this year. That market boom has multiplied the already apparent signs of wealth in the Russian capital. |
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By James Goldgeier and Michael McFaul The debate is over: Russia is not a democracy. President Vladimir Putin has weakened checks and balances within the state, diminished political and legal transparency, and made it impossible for independent media, political parties or nongovernmental groups to flourish. |
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The current federal government is trying to nip the bud of any movement in the general direction of a democratic revolution. Governors will be appointed, not elected. |
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Muscovites, with their taste for “golden button” collections, are not ready to appreciate the “new European” fashion being offered in St. Petersburg, according to young designers from the city returning from the Russian Fashion Week which concluded last Thursday. For the first time in its history, the Moscow-based Russian Fashion Week, or RFW, dedicated an entire day to St. |
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ROME — Center-left leader Romano Prodi looks set to beat Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Italy’s general election, winning a majority in both houses of parliament, according to exit polls released on Monday. A poll by the Nexus research institute predicted that Prodi’s alliance would win between 50 and 54 percent of the vote in both the lower and upper houses of parliament. |
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PARIS — France will scrap a planned youth job contract that has provoked weeks of protests and a political crisis, President Jacques Chirac said on Monday. |
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TORONTO, Canada — Eight men found murdered in a rural Ontario town were from the Toronto area, but police refused to say on Sunday if an organized gang was responsible for the mass killings, among the worst in Canada’s recent history. Police believe the victims found on Saturday were acquainted. |
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LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II sent her first e-mail as long as 30 years ago, according to a list of 80 facts about the monarch released by Buckingham Palace to mark her 80th birthday on April 21. |
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120 Feared Drowned ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters) — Some 120 people were feared drowned after a boat packed with passengers and goods capsized on Ghana’s Lake Volta, police in the West African country said on Monday. “There were 150 passengers on board but only 30 have been rescued. The rest are feared dead,” police spokesman Kwesi Ofori said. |
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AUGUSTA, Georgia — Left-hander Phil Mickelson sealed his third major title and second green jacket with a two-shot victory in the U.S. Masters on Sunday. One shot clear after the weather-hit third round was completed earlier in the day, the 35-year-old American fired a closing three-under-par 69 to finish on seven-under 281 in late afternoon sunshine at Augusta National. |
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Sweden won the gold medal at the Bolshoi Priz junior ice hockey tournament with a 4-3 win over Russia at the Yubileiny Sports Palace on Sunday. Anchored by goaltender Johan Thalberg, Sweden held on through fierce pressure from the Russians during the final five minutes. |
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Dinamo St. Petersburg came fourth and last in the FIBA Eurocup Final Four on Sunday in Kiev, Ukraine, failing to repeat last year’s success when the club won the tournament just a year after it was formed. The St. Petersburg club lost in a semifinal to Russian side BC Khimki on Friday in a reversal of a semifinal last year in which it had been victorious. |
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ROUBAIX, France — CSC rider Fabian Cancellara handed the Swiss only their second win in 104 editions of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic Sunday in a day of drama and disqualification. |
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LONDON — Ten-man Chelsea roared back from a goal down to trounce West Ham United 4-1 and move closer to a second consecutive Premier League title on Sunday, despite a 2-0 win for Manchester United over Arsenal. With five games left, champions Chelsea have 82 points — seven more than second-placed United after England striker Wayne Rooney scored one and made the other for South Korean Park Ji-sung in a pulsating clash at Old Trafford. |
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