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Flashmobs, demonstrations, tram excursions and not more than 2,000 participants comprise the bulk of what Russia’s antiglobalists are planning for the Second Russian Social Forum, a protest event timed to coincide with the forthcoming G8 meeting in St. Petersburg in July.
The forum’s organizers say they expect not more than 2,000 activists to take part in the “counter-summit,” a far cry from antiglobalist campaigns in North America or Western Europe, where thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the past to show their discontent with what they describe as a “world where the rich are getting even richer, while the poor are dying in starvation. |
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SAVORING THE SEA BREEZE
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
With temperatures set to stay high until the end of the week and sunny weather predicted by weather forecasters, visitors to the city have taken to the water in order to get a refreshing view of the city. |
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says his successor could be a little-known figure, suggesting insiders like First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov might not get the president’s support.
Speaking to reporters Friday in Shanghai, where he was attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, Putin for the first time suggested that a dark horse could wind up in the Kremlin after he leaves.
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MOSCOW — Former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov will soon rejoin the government, ending speculation that he was forced to resign over corruption in his office.
“There are no complaints about him,” President Vladimir Putin said of Ustinov, 52, who spent six years as the country’s top prosecutor. |
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Oil Slicks On Neva
ST.PETERSBURG (Interfax) — Oil slicks were detected on Neva River on Monday in the area surrounding the Sverdlovskaya Embankment, the city’s branch of Emergency Situations Ministry reported. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was killed by special forces over the weekend in an operation that Chechnya’s prime minister trumpeted as a fatal blow to the insurgency.
Sadulayev, however, is credited with persuading warlord Shamil Basayev not to carry out any major terrorist attacks since Beslan. |
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While moderate levels of economic expansion lie ahead for Euro area countries and Japan, the outlook for Russia is much weaker according to a report released June 8 by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.
Although the Composite Leading Indicator, or CLI, a tool to provide early signals of turning points (peaks and troughs) in economic activity, increased by 1. |
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MOSCOW — A new Russian law could classify 70 oil, gas and minerals deposits as “strategic”, putting them out of reach of foreign ownership, Interfax news agency quoted Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev as saying on Monday. |
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Airport Express
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Swedish company “People travel group” announced details of its first Russian project on Wednesday, a new shuttle service to and from Pulkovo airport.
The new service “Airport Express” will depart from the metro stations Pushkinskaya and Technologichesky Institute and run nonstop to both Pulkovo terminals. |
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MOSCOW — The European Union has no reliable alternative to Russia for energy imports, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a speech that emphasized Russia’s role as a stable energy supplier. |
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MOSCOW — The State Duma gave a first reading Friday to a bill granting gas monopoly Gazprom the exclusive right to export gas, despite Moscow’s pledge to the European Union to gradually liberalize markets.
The bill, which passed by a vote of 386-6 with eight abstentions, stipulates that gas must be considered a strategic material and therefore should be exported only by Gazprom or its export arm, Gazexport, to protect national interests. |
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MOSCOW — The derivatives market received a boost Friday as a bill that will provide legal protection for trading in the financial instruments cleared its first hurdle in the State Duma. |
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CHERKESSK — Scores of people blocked the main road out of Cherkessk to protest the construction of three hydroelectric dams that environmentalists consider a grave threat to the area’s fragile ecosystem.
The protest on the Cherkessk-Arkhiz highway began Thursday, and the road was still blocked Friday afternoon by people who say they are already feeling the effects of the first dam, which was opened in 1999 amid the sprawling valleys and snowcapped peaks of the northwest Caucasus. |
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AMSTERDAM — State brands manager Soyuzplodoimport won back the rights to the Stolichnaya vodka brand from a Netherlands-based spirits company in a Dutch court this week, according to documents released Friday. |
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St. Petersburg’s standing as one of the regions with the lowest investment risk in Russia was reemphasized by top city officials at the 10th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which ran June 13 through 15.
During the forum companies signed contracts amounting to around $1 billion, minister for economic development and trade German Gref said Wednesday summarizing the forum’s achievements. |
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The exceptional potential for growth in the Russian banking sector is luring more and more foreign investors to the country. According to Merrill Lynch’s Russian banking overview released on May 23, the outlook for Russian banking is compelling and, in the quest for long-term value, it is high time for foreign firms to own a Russian bank. |
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For those of us who work on Wall Street or analyze financial markets, it has been a depressing month. It’s not only that stock prices have been decimated, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling to 10,700 and the technology-dominated NASDAQ Composite index plumbing its lowest depths since October. |
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Over the last few years considerable changes have been seen in the investment climate in Russia, not least in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast. St. |
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YAROSLAV (Reuters) — Russian car producer GAZ has signed a deal to buy a French engine plant and a licence to manufacture engines of Sweden’s Volvo subsidiary Renault Trucks, the two firms said on Monday. The deal with Volvo, the world’s second biggest truck maker, will allow GAZ to manufacture up to 20,000 Renault dCi 11 engines a year for use in various GAZ Group vehicles in the Russian market and in the former Soviet Union. |
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The Russian agenda for the G8 summit next month is taking shape. From the Kremlin’s perspective, the St. Petersburg summit will be a public relations opportunity to restate known positions, propose a few new initiatives and do so looking like a great power again. |
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President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that he plans to step down after serving his constitutional limit of two terms in office. For his Kremlin entourage, this has meant that the search for a successor has been on since at least the 2004 presidential election. |
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After last week’s killing of terrorist chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (or someone just like him) in Iraq, remembrances of his most celebrated alleged victim surfaced briefly in the press: Nicholas Berg, the young American businessman whose horrific beheading was publicized in a video fortuitously released a few days after the first revelations of torture by U. |
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Using natural resources for geopolitical gain may upset the West, but for the man who was helping shape President Vladimir Putin’s energy strategy years before he took office, it’s merely common sense.
“There was a time when salt was the most important resource in the world. Then it was metal of any kind, then later it became gold,” said Vladimir Litvinenko, rector of the St. |
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LONDON — Paul McCartney was just 24 when The Beatles first recorded their hit track “When I’m 64.” Forty years on, and the former Beatle is finally finding out the answers to the long list of questions contained in the song now that he has celebrated his birthday on Sunday. |
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SHANGHAI — Piracy in China cost film makers $2.7 billion last year, with domestic firms shouldering more than half those losses, according to a study commissioned by a trade group representing the major Hollywood studios. |
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‘Screech’ Sells Out
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — More than a bell is needed to save Dustin Diamond this time around. Diamond, best known as geeky Screech Powers on the 1989-1993 teen comedy series “Saved by the Bell,” is selling T-shirts with his photo on them to try to raise $250,000 so he doesn’t lose his gray two-story house under a foreclosure order. |
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TOKYO — Japan said Monday it would take “stern measures” if North Korea launched a long-range missile, following a U.S. report that Pyongyang was close to going ahead with a new test. |
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MAMARONECK, New York — Geoff Ogilvy won the 2006 U.S. Open golf championship here in a war of attrition that ended with Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie melting down at the final hole.
The 29-year-old from Adelaide parred his final four holes to finish with a two-over 72 and a five-over total of 285, capturing his first major championship by one shot over Mickelson, Montgomerie and Jim Furyk. |
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LE MANS, France — Italian Emanuele Pirro and German duo Frank Biela and Marco Werner drove Audi to an historic victory in the Le Mans 24 hour race on Sunday. |
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BERN, Switzerland — Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich warmed up for next month’s race by winning the Tour of Switzerland for the second time.
The T-Mobile rider claimed overall victory by dominating the ninth and final stage, a 30.7 kilometer time-trial, as many riders were hampered by a storm. |
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TOKYO — Desperate fans across Japan are praying for a repeat of their miracle win over Brazil at the 1996 Olympics, with hopes of remaining in the World Cup now resting on beating the title holders. |
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Proud Arena
HAMBURG (AP) — Heart. Courage. Grit. Determination. Never has the U.S. soccer team sounded so proud of a tie.
Then again, never before had the Americans earned a World Cup point in Europe, as they did in an improbable roller-coaster of a game against world power Italy.
“They brought an attitude to the field and a confidence that allowed them to be successful yesterday,” U. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive