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Producer Mark Rudinshtein has lost the battle.
The first St. Petersburg International Film Festival was set to take place on Palace Square during the last ten days of July, but the controversial event has been postponed until next year because of a lack of sponsorship.
The ambitious initiative has faced fierce opposition from Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum located on Palace Square, ever since the idea was first proposed in August 2005.
Piotrovsky claims that such large-scale, popular entertainment projects arent suitable for the historic square.
The events organizers invested much time and effort in international promotion, including a grand presentation at the International Film Festival in Cannes last May. |
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SCHOOL’S OUT!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Students of School No. 166 in central St. Petersburg attending their graduation ceremony and ball on Wednesday. On Friday, graduates will be taking part in the traditional “Crimson Sails” graduation event with firework displays and walks on the city’s embankments. |
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MOSCOW Missiles to Syria and Iran, warplanes to Venezuela and Myanmar, helicopters to Sudan Russia goes its own way when it comes to selling arms, seemingly immune to ethical debates that affect the industry elsewhere.
While European Union members argue over whether to lift a weapons ban against China, almost half of Russias $6 billion arms sales last year went to Beijing.
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VIENNA The United States and the European Union have voiced concern over recent developments in Russia, in their final declaration published after a summit in Vienna.
The U.S. and EU administrations, meeting less than a month before a G8 meeting of global powers which Russia will host in St. |
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Moscow is one of the least polite cities in the world, according to a survey of 36 cities released Wednesday.
The Russian capital ranked 31st, ahead of only Seoul, South Korea; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bucharest, Romania; and last-place Mumbai, India, according to the survey by Readers Digest magazine. |
All photos from issue.
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Despite St. Petersburgs image as Russias cultural capital, the majority of Russians said they had not paid the city a single visit over the past decade, according to a recent poll.
At least 56 percent of Russians taking part in the poll, conducted earlier this month by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center, have not traveled to St. |
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MOSCOW Reform of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe topped the agenda at Wednesdays meeting between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. |
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MOSCOW Ukraine is scurrying to form a government coalition and head off a gas crisis that could hit July 1, when its controversial supply deal with Russia expires.
Leaders of Orange Revolution factions announced Wednesday they had reached a last-minute coalition deal. |
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MOSCOW New customs rules may cost Ford about $25 million in tariffs on imported car parts over the next three months, a senior executive at the carmaker said Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW Severstals Alexei Mordashov said Wednesday that he would accept only 25 percent of steel giant Arcelor, not the 32.2 percent he earlier proposed, if the merger between the two companies went through.
Mordashovs proposal, posted on Severstals web site, is the latest attempt to placate Arcelors shareholders, many of whom have voiced opposition to a deal they call rushed and opaque. |
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MOSCOW He identifies himself as a democrat. He wants his subordinates to earn at least $1,000 per month. He holds a doctorate in economics and worked for the KGB in East Germany at the same time as Vladimir Putin. |
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Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin recently said that when inflation exceeds 3 percent there is no point even discussing investment policy. His remark served as a reminder that the governments main priority was, is and always will be to bring inflation under control. |
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Sitting in a movie theater the other night, I found myself fuming. No, it was not the cell phones going off all around me, showcasing their polyphonic rings for half a minute or so before someone deigned to theater-whisper, Sasha, I am at the movies. |
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 The sensational Renee Fleming, Americas favorite soprano. Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Theater company are spearheading a revival of Russian opera in the West, according to one of the worlds greatest singers, the U.S. soprano Renee Fleming. There used to be just [Tchaikovskys] Eugene Onegin but Valery Gergiev and the Kirov [the former name of the Mariinsky] have done enormous work changing that, Fleming said by telephone from New York in an interview with The St. |
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The second International A White Night of Romantic Music Festival begins Saturday aiming to attract a young audience and show them the romantic side of classical St. |
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Tracy Chapman, the Grammy Award-winning U.S. singer/songwriter, will perform at Oktyabrsky Concert Hall on Friday, with a small band including guitar player Joe Gore and drummer Quinn, who both played on her most recent album, Where You Live.
In St. Petersburg, Chapman will draw on songs from all her records, starting from her 1988 eponymously named debut album with such hits as Fast Car, Talkin Bout a Revolution and Baby Can I Hold You.
With a new album under its belt, Barcelona-based Brazzaville will play at Platforma on the very same night.
The band, which had a song called Night Train to Moscow on its 2004 album Hastings Street, has continued its interest in Russia by covering Zvezda Po Imeni Solntse (Star Called Sun), the 1980s anthem by Kino still a favorite with street musicians and school students. |
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 Jethro Tull was among the first Western acts to make it big in the Soviet Union, and the idiosyncratic band has stayed on top.
Jethro Tull, the British classic rock band that returns to St. |
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Anna Akhmatova is presented as a symbol of Russias tragic history in a new biography of the poet by Elaine Feinstein.
Anna Akhmatova was indisputably one of the most important poets of the last century, a literary artist whose work remains beloved of even casual poetry readers the world over. It also happens that she survived the most turbulent years of Russias modern history, and that the facts of her social and sexual adventures read like a British gossip column. |
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SEOUL, South Korea China issued its strongest statement of concern yet Thursday over a possible North Korean long-range missile launch, while Pyongyang warned of possible clashes in the skies as it accused U.S. spy planes of repeated illegal intrusions. |
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DUBAI Al Qaedas second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Afghans in an Internet video to fight foreign troops in their country whom he said had a history of denigrating Islam. |
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Iran Prepared to Talk
GENEVA (Reuters) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said after talks on Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Iran was seriously considering an offer of incentives aimed at halting nuclear work.
After a nearly hour-long meeting, Annan said that Iran was prepared for talks without preconditions which he presumed included the issue of its nuclear enrichment programme. |
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LONDON After failing in his bid to snatch Rafael Nadals claycourt crown, Roger Federer will try to mimic the Spaniard by breaking a record and then retaining one of his own Grand Slams this coming fortnight at Wimbledon.
Last month Nadal opened his successful defence of the French Open by beating Guillermo Vilass record of 53 consecutive wins on clay and Federer will surpass Bjorn Borgs grasscourt streak of 41 wins in a row if he wins his first round match on Monday. |
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LONDON An air of wild unpredictability hangs over this years battle for the womens singles title at Wimbledon.
The fact was summed up when world number one Amelie Mauresmo slumped to a shock defeat by French compatriot Nathalie Dechy in her first match at the Eastbourne warm-up event on Wednesday. |
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NUREMBERG, Germany Ghana won a place in the last 16 of the World Cup with a 2-1 victory over the United States in a Group E decider on Thursday they largely controlled.
A stoppage time penalty just before the break converted by captain Stephen Appiah secured the required three points after the United States Clint Dempsey had cancelled out Ghanas initial goal by Haminu Dramani. |
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BUHLERTAL, Germany England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said on Thursday he had no regrets about his squad selection after Michael Owens injury left him with only three World Cup strikers. |
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Annan Misses Match
GENEVA (Reuters) United Nations chief Kofi Annan missed out on watching his native Ghana as they played a decisive World Cup match against the United States on Thursday.
I think it is going to be a fun game, Annan told a news briefing in Geneva before leaving for New York, where he lives. |
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