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MINSK — More than 1,000 protesters carrying banned flags marched through Belarus’s capital on Monday to demand the release of jailed opposition leaders who had pledged to work for the removal of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Marchers were nominally marking the May Day holiday and among their slogans was a call to end short-term labor contracts they say allow employers to intimidate workers.
But the thrust of the protest, authorized by city officials, was to press for the release of Alexander Milinkevich, the opposition’s main leader, and other activists jailed for up to 15 days after a rally last week.
Milinkevich had challenged Lukashenko’s landslide re-election victory in March, denounced by the opposition and in the West as blatantly rigged. |
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MAY DAY MARCH
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Demonstrators casting shadows during a procession on Nevsky Prospekt on Monday in celebration of May Day. Thousands of Russians gathered on Monday to mark International Workers’ Solidarity Day in sunshine which is predicted to last for the rest of the week. |
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MOSCOW — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping thaw relations between Moscow and Washington. Now he is warning that the two countries could slide into a new Cold War.
After over a decade when the relationship between Moscow and Washington was nearly always upbeat, the mood in the two capitals has turned “sour”, according to one Western diplomat.
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MOSCOW — An unexpected strike of French Embassy employees is jeopardizing the plans of many Russians to spend the May holidays in France, tourism officials said Thursday.
Two-thirds of the embassy’s consular section did not show up for work Thursday to accept visa applications and issue visas to tourists, the officials added. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — It reads like a grade-school math problem: “If there’s five of you, you can jump two people. If there’s seven of you, then you can jump three.”
What follows, though, is not long division but advice on pummeling a “darky” or “slant-eyed monkey” into “porridge” in less than a minute:
“As a rule, one of them will inevitably run away. |
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Eighteen-year-old Russian dancer Sofya Arzhakovskaya won the Mrs World contest held in the city on Saturday, beating off competitors from a total of 34 countries including Thailand, China, Kenia and Finland. |
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An Italian company has promised to brighten up the lives of local shoppers by building a Roman Coliseum to house an appropriately Mediterranean setting. Costruzioni Margheri’s plan to build a shopping center replica of the famous ancient monument was greeted with interest by local experts, who were nevertheless quick to point out the competitive nature of the shopping complex market. |
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MOSCOW — General Motors has picked out a location for a new factory near St. Petersburg and is set to submit an application to the city government within the next two weeks, a local official said Thursday. |
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Finns Bank On
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A subsidiary of Finnish Sampo Bank, Sampo Plc, is acquiring the St. Petersburg-based Profibank, the company said Friday in a statement distributed by Helsinki Stock Exchange.
The agreement was signed Thursday, but the value of the deal was not revealed, Interfax reported Friday. |
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TEHRAN — Iran on Sunday said it would be willing to discuss Moscow’s proposal to move uranium enrichment to Russia if the UN Security Council were to send its case back to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). |
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MOSCOW — The Kremlin, not renowned as one of the world’s most media-savvy organisations, is signing up western public relations advisers for the first time to improve the presentation of Russia’s presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations.
Russia’s presidential administration has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Ketchum, a U. |
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BRUSSELS — The European Union urged the United States on Saturday to join it in pressing for open energy markets and more democracy in Russia when the world’s leading industrial powers meet in St. |
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MOSCOW — Walt Disney Studios and other foreign moviemakers are looking to breathe new life into Russia’s deflated cartoon industry. Their interest has been piqued by booming box-office receipts, a rise in new and renovated movie theaters and, more generally, economic growth, which has created more leisure time for the country’s nascent middle class. |
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The ethical issues are relatively straightforward. The main asset of Rosneft is the Yugansk oilfield that was acquired from Yukos when that company was assessed for back taxes and its assets were auctioned off. |
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St. Petersburg,
May, 2012.
Dear Friend,
How nice to hear from you, after six years of silence! So many things have changed since you left for the U.S. in 2006. I’m working in GM Corporate Communications; the kids are learning Japanese at school and already dream of working with Toyota or Nissan. |
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The world’s attention, and deservedly so, has been focused this April on the 20th anniversary of the accident at Chernobyl, when a nuclear power reactor exploded in flames and contaminated an enormous swath of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Since 1986, the nuclear-power establishment in this part of the world has been dealing with the consequences of this disaster, and many brave men and women have lost their lives or their health in doing so. |
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I don’t make a habit of reading transcripts of State Duma sessions, but perhaps I should check in once every few months, for a dose of reality on the ways and means by which my reality is increasingly shaped. |
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LONDON — Chelsea staged a Premier League title-winning party after a 3-0 rout of Manchester United on Saturday but it was doom and gloom for Midlands clubs Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion who were relegated.
Goals from William Gallas, Joe Cole and Ricardo Carvalho sealed a second successive title for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and United’s misery was complete when England striker Wayne Rooney was carried off on a stretcher with a foot injury. |
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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Unheralded American Chris Couch produced one of the PGA Tour’s most unlikely wins with a dramatic one-shot victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans Sunday. |
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BARCELONA — Rafael Nadal, in sight of Argentine Guillermo Vilas’s record claycourt streak of 53 successive victories, is dreaming of a successful French Open title defence later this month.
The 19-year-old Spaniard overtook Swede Bjorn Borg in the Open Era list on Sunday, claiming his 47th consecutive win on clay by beating compatriot Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-4 6-0 to capture the Barcelona Open for the second year in a row. |
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LOS ANGELES, California — Kobe Bryant’s jumper at the buzzer propelled the Los Angeles Lakers to a pulsating 99-98 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday to highlight a day of shock results in the National Basketball Association playoffs. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive