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St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko may become Russia’s next president, according to a report in the Friday edition of daily newspaper Novye Izvestiya.
The project to nominate Matviyenko for the presidential elections of 2008, dubbed “Valentina the Great”, is already underway and is supported on “a very high level”, the daily reported.
“According to our sources, the Governor put the idea to the president, promising not to occupy the seat in the Kremlin for more than one presidential term, which is to say only until 2012,” the daily reported.
Despite a widespread reaction in the Russian media, Matviyenko’s press-office rejected the claims. |
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/ Itar-Tass
Police officers in Kondopoga encircling demonstrastors on Sunday in an effort to stave off more of the ethnic violence that has swept through the industrial city. |
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The northwestern industrial town of Kondopoga was consumed by ethnic violence over the weekend, with angry and often drunken bands of Slavs waging an uncoordinated series of attacks on natives of the Caucasus.
The violence included mobs with Molotov cocktails burning down Caucasian-owned businesses and natives of the Caucasus being forced out of town.
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ATHENS — Russia, Greece and Bulgaria agreed to end years of disputes on Monday and launch a long delayed trans-Balkan oil pipeline linking the Black Sea to the Aegean.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told reporters the 700 million euro ($897. |
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MOSCOW — Alexander Sivyakov, the army sergeant standing trial in the hazing case of Private Andrei Sychyov, denied the charges Monday and accused authorities of beating him until he confessed. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Kommersant’s editor said Sunday that the sale of his newspaper to metals magnate Alisher Usmanov had been completed but the new owner had yet to send any representatives to the newspaper’s offices.
The sale nevertheless threatens to alter irrevocably the country’s media landscape by putting the country’s last independent-minded nationally-owned daily into the hands of a billionaire who is thought to be close to First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and has a reputation of being a tough-talking negotiator. |
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The Fifth International Piano Festival beginning in St. Petersburg on Tuesday will present the first performance of the first piano concerto written by Alex Prior, a 13-year old singer and composer from the U. |
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Man Dies in Explosion
MOSCOW (AP) — A gunman fleeing a police traffic stop in Ingushetia died after an explosive device he was carrying — possibly a suicide bomber’s belt — detonated, a regional police official said Saturday.
Another man was shot and wounded during the Friday evening incident — the latest in a series of violent events and attacks on police in Ingushetia. |
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MOSCOW — When President Vladimir Putin vowed to inject billions of rubles into education this school year, teachers across the country held their breath. |
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Vladimir Putin arrives in South Africa this week on a visit many veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle believe is long overdue.
Putin will be the first Kremlin leader to visit South Africa when he arrives in Cape Town on Tuesday, despite Moscow’s active support of the country’s long battle to end white rule. |
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BESLAN, North Ossetia — School No. 1 stands in ruins. People still come from around the world to place fresh flowers and bottles and jars full of water on the school grounds. |
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LAPPEENRANTA, Finland — The European Union expects to be able to launch negotiations with Russia on a new cooperation agreement covering energy, trade and human rights after a summit with Russia in November, the Finnish EU presidency said on Saturday. |
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A new scheme from City Hall, aimed at helping the city’s small enterprises, has been slammed by a local expert.
The Committee for Economic Investment, Industrial Policy and Trade (CEDIPT) signed ten programs to support small business, last Thursday. |
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Drop in Deals
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The volume of short-term deals closed on the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange in August is estimated at 490 million rubles ($18.3 million) compared to the 1.13 billion rubles ($42.2 million) in July, news agency Prime-TASS reported Friday. |
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MOSCOW — Electricity chief Anatoly Chubais on Friday hailed the lifting of restrictions on some wholesale prices as a “new era” for the power industry, but warned that severe shortages were likely to cause restrictions on electricity usage this winter and for some years to come. |
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Vladimir Khristenko, son of Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, has been named chairman of the supervisory board of Czech industrial valve manufacturer MSA, Kommersant reported Saturday.
The metals group Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant, or ChTPZ, announced Friday that Khristenko had been appointed head of the supervisory board of MSA, its first foreign asset. |
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At 21, having only just graduated from university, Maksim Aronov fulfilled his dream — he started his own business. Five years on and he is the director of the Delovaya Konsultatsia group, a thriving legal consultancy. |
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As the world’s car giants lined up to show their wares to the country’s driving public at the Moscow Auto Show last week, it is St. Petersburg that has been making the running — attracting General Motors, Nissan and Toyota to set up shop in the city.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko’s administration has been eagerly touting the city as a Russian Detroit in the making, and foreign car executives have returned the compliment, singing the praises of the city and its leadership. |
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Civil aviation in Russia has to start replenishing its aircraft fleets as soon as possible. If this isn’t done, within five years the industry will face a severe shortage of modern aircraft able to meet requirements for safety and dependability. |
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On October 26 of this year, a new law “On the protection of competition” will come into force. This law replaces the long-outdated law “On competition and the limiting of monopolistic activities in goods markets” and overrides the Federal Law of 1999 “On the protection of competition in the financial services market. |
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Whenever you talk about news coverage and ethics, the word “objectivity” is bound to come up. While true objectivity is nearly impossible, trying to be as objective as possible is at least part of the job.
And trying to be as objective as possible makes writing about metals magnate Alisher Usmanov’s purchase of Kommersant a little bit tricky. |
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Over the past four decades, global population has doubled, but food output, driven by increases in productivity, has outpaced it. Poverty, infant mortality and hunger are receding. |
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Fall has arrived, so sitting in traffic jams for hours will once again become the norm. Every car brought to a standstill represents a hit to the wallet of its driver and the finances of his or her employer, and Moscow traffic jams as a whole are a drag on the country’s economy. |
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Recently, I’ve been reading a series of very dull interviews in glossy magazines. The only interesting thing about them is that the subjects are all famous Russians, and somewhere in the second-to-last paragraph they all drop in a mention of the mobile phone operator Beeline. |
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ANADYR, Chukotka Region — If any place qualifies as being at the end of the world, it is certainly Chukotka.
Almost everything is extreme in Russia’s northeasternmost region, including its location, harsh weather and even the unusually large and aggressive mosquitoes that make a shockingly loud crunching sound when squashed. |
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SYDNEY — Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian naturalist who won worldwide acclaim, was killed by a stingray barb through the chest on Monday while diving off Australia’s northeast coast, emergency officials and witnesses said.
“Steve was hit by a stingray in the chest,” said local diving operator Steve Edmondson, whose Poseidon boats were out on the Great Barrier Reef when the accident occurred. |
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Castro ‘Recovering’
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday Cuban leader Fidel Castro was recovering quickly after intestinal surgery that forced him to turn power over to his brother a month ago. |
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LONDON — The wife of a British aristocrat was detained as a suspected spy during World War II amid claims she flirted with diplomats to find out secrets to pass to her gun-running lover, official papers said on Monday.
Lady Howard of Effingham, who married a descendant of the admiral who led the British navy against the Spanish Armada in 1588, was at the center of a secret service investigation which reached the top of government. |
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VENICE — “The Queen”, a superbly acted reconstruction of the crisis within the British monarchy caused by Princess Diana’s death in 1997, is the early favourite to land the big prizes at the Venice Film Festival this year. |
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AMMAN — A lone gunman opened fire on a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday, killing a British man and wounding six, an official and a witness said.
Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Joudeh denied earlier reports that the attack was carried out by two men, one of them an Iraqi. |
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NEW YORK — Andre Agassi’s glittering career came to a tearful conclusion when he lost in four sets to German qualifier Benjamin Becker in the U.S. Open third round on Sunday.
Becker, the world No.112 who is playing just his second grand slam event, sent the 36-year-old Agassi into retirement with a 7-5 6-7 6-4 7-5 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium. |
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NEW YORK — Russian Davis Cup player Dmitry Tursunov says he is dismayed that politics still seem to have a role when his country faces the United States. |
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MOSCOW — A business associate of exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky wants to buy the English Premiership club West Ham United, business daily Vedomosti reported on Monday.
Berezovsky’s long-time business partner, Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, is planning to start negotiations to purchase the club, Vedomosti quoted two sources close to the businessman as saying. |
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ZAGREB — Croatia manager Slaven Bilic has dropped three key players after finding out they partied in a nightclub ahead of the Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia. |
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LONDON — Brazil’s match against their rivals Argentina in London on Sunday gave new coach Dunga the true feeling of being back in big-time soccer. “Against Norway I felt very apprehensive but today I felt the adrenaline, I really felt I was the Brazil national team coach,” he said after his side beat Argentina 3-0 in a first friendly international between the sides in London. |
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