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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush met Wednesday at Vnukovo-2 Airport, outside Moscow, where they confirmed the two countries had reached a critical trade deal and discussed Iran's nuclear program.The brief layover — Bush was en route to Singapore for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum — featured few surprises and plenty of chitchat as the presidents and their wives feasted on crab salad, fish, blini with caviar and sundry desserts.
Putin and his wife, Lyudmila Putina, welcomed the president and first lady Laura Bush on a red carpet that had been rolled out for Air Force One.
The Russian leader presented Laura Bush with a bouquet of flowers and the couples exchanged kisses. Bush clapped Putin on the back.
Inside the marble-floored Vnukovo Airport terminal, the two couples were seated in ornate armchairs while photographers clicked away.
The Bushes then presented their hosts with a giant-sized photograph of all four of them in a golf cart during the Group of Eight summit in June in St. |
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HIGH HORSE
Alexander Natruskin / Reuters
British explorer Alexandra Tolstoy, a descendant of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, sits on horseback in Moscow's Red Square on Thursday. Tolstoy arrived from a two-year expedition in Moscow in the last leg of a horseback expedition from Ashgabat that re-enacted a 1935 trip by Turkmen, who covered the 4,300 kilometer journey in 84 days, according to her website. |
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RIGA, Latvia — The last Russian tank rolled out of Latvia more than a decade ago. But Inesa Kuznetsova, 75, a resident here for more than 50 years, has little doubt where she calls home."My address isn't a city. My address isn't a town. My address isn't a street," says the dressmaker, who arrived from Leningrad during World War II. "My address is the Soviet Union.
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All photos from issue.
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Having waited for the city police or street cleaners to do it for long enough, a group of local activists is now buying paint to blot out extremist graffiti on the walls of St. Petersburg's buildings.To mark the International Day of Tolerance on Thursday, the St. |
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MOSCOW — A bill eliminating voter turnout thresholds in elections cleared a crucial hurdle Wednesday, making it almost certain the measure will become law. |
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Prosecutors in have dropped all charges against Ivan Sobolev, who had been detained in the theft of nearly $5 million in artifacts from the State Hermitage Museum, Interfax reported Monday.Sobolev, a lecturer in the history department at St. Petersburg State University, was released from the pre-trial detention facility where he had been held since early August. |
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MOSCOW — State Duma deputies unanimously gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill that would tighten the screws on gamblers and ultimately ban gambling except in four special zones from 2009. |
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A subsidiary of Swedwood international, part of Swedish DIY retailer IKEA, opened a new furniture assembly plant Wednesday, investing 13 million euros ($17 million) into its construction.Swedwood Tikhvin was founded in 2001 as a subsidiary of the Swedwood international industrial group, which operates 36 furniture plants in 12 countries. |
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MOSCOW —Gazprom on Wednesday fired deputy CEO Alexander Ryazanov, who spearheaded the gas monopoly's expansion into the oil sector after its acquisition of Roman Abramovich's Sibneft last year. |
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MOSCOW —Gazprom signed a landmark deal with Italy's Eni late Tuesday which gave the Russian giant a coveted foothold in southern Europe's lucrative retail gas sales and Eni the promise of upstream assets.The accord — signed in Moscow after months of talks between the two companies — lets Gazprom sell gas directly onto the Italian market from next year with volume that could reach 3 billion cubic meters by 2010. |
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EBRDInvestmentnST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will double its investment into Russia in 2006, Interfax reported Tuesday. |
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VLADIVOSTOK —The country's No. 1 container shipping firm, the Far East Shipping Company, or FESCO, plans to invest more than $1 billion to control half of the nation's fast-growing container shipments, company head Yevgeny Ambrosov said.Vladivostok-based FESCO aims to merge its sea and railway assets to become the nation's first "door-to-door" shipper, Ambrosov said. |
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"I did of course know of many of the terrible
crimes of the Stalin era
even while they were under way;
anyone who says he knew nothing is a liar."
"Memoirs of a Spymaster,"
Markus Wolf, 1998He tried hard, but when he died in his sleep last week, at 83, Markus Wolf had still not attained the elder statesman status to which he had long aspired. |
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Even before Gazprom demanded that Georgia sell its gas pipelines to the Russian gas monopoly, and before President Vladimir Putin invited Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to take part in an energy blockade of Georgia, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity was already out uncovering more plots against him. |
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 Danish fashion designer Ivan Grundahl is seduced by the dark side.In a John Irving novel, a woman who launched an escort service called "Normal and Nice" failed miserably from the start. With an honest name like that she struggled to attract any clients, because many would think, what could be more boring than being nice?Premier Danish fashion designer Ivan Grundahl is not excited by nice women, either. |
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A company of U.S. actors directed by Rober Olinger in the Kama Ginkas Master/Pupil festival.The Priyut Komedianta theater maintains the traditions of the Russian national theater school with the Second International Master/Pupil Festival starting on Nov. |
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The Leningrad Rock Club, which celebrates its 25th anniversary with a stadium concert and exhibition this week, might be a legend but it belongs to the past. Hopefully.There was good music, there were good shows and good people, but it is always difficult, or maybe even impossible, to explain what the Leningrad Rock Club was like to a Westerner. |
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British composer Michael Nyman found fame through his work with film director Peter Greenaway, but in a recent interview with the St. Petersburg Times he talks about St. |
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St. Petersburg's Kinodance international dance film festival, one of the city's less-known treasures, wraps up Friday with the announcement of the winners of a dance film competition for works created by artists from Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, and the CIS. A selection of music videos featuring innovative dance from such directors as Spike Jonze, Ne-O, and Octavio Iturbe will also be shown. |
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Rights activists welcomed on Thursday amendments to Pakistan's Islamic laws that will allow rape victims to seek justice without the need for four male witnesses but said the laws should be scrapped altogether.In contrast, Islamist parties opposed the changes pushed through the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, in the latest battle of a long struggle between progressives and religious conservatives to set the course of the predominantly Muslim nation. |
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KINSHASA, Congo — UN and European peacekeepers deployed in force to deter violence in Congo's capital on Thursday after President Jospeh Kabila was declared winner of a historic election in a result disputed by his rival. |
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TOKYO — Japan's Deep Impact has been stripped of his third place at last month's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after testing positive for a banned substance, the Japan Racing Association (JRA) said on Thursday.Traces of ipratropium, an inhaled medication that aids breathing, had been found in the horse's urine samples following tests carried out after the Oct. |
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TORONTO — The Ottawa Senators shocked the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 on Wednesday, providing a badly needed boost to their stuttering start to the season.Regarded as Stanley Cup contenders before the season began, the Senators have stumbled out of gate, losing seven of their last eight contests heading into Buffalo to face the NHL's top team. |
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LONDON — France coach Bernard Laporte has demanded his team restore the pride of French rugby when they face the All Blacks in Paris on Saturday still stinging from last week's 47-3 humiliation in Lyon.The game marks the centenary celebration of the national team and the public will demand a significant improvement seven days after France suffered their heaviest home defeat. |
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SYDNEY — The departure from England's Ashes tour of depressed batsman Marcus Trescothick has evoked widespread sympathy among Australian sportsmen.Trescothick walked out on his team nine days before the start of the series after a recurrence of a stress-related illness that has touched the nerves of Australia's professional athletes. |
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SKOPJE — Two first-half goals powered Russia to a 2-0 win over Macedonia in a Euro 2008 qualifier on Wednesday and revived their hopes of reaching the finals from Group E.Vladimir Bystrov opened the scoring in the 18th minute, driving the ball into the roof of the net after a Diniyar Bilyaletdinov cross from the left. |
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BOSTON — Boston fans rejoiced on Wednesday after the Red Sox won exclusive rights to negotiate with top Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, if only because it meant their nemesis, the New York Yankees, were out of the running. |
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