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 Nearly seventy percent of voters ignored Sunday elections to the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, and more than 3 percent of those who turned up at polling stations chose to deface their ballots. The St. Petersburg elections, seen as a rehearsal for State Duma elections in December, were the first to be held since the removal of the minimum turnout limit, which was lifted by the Russian parliament in December 2006. Another novelty of the local campaign was the introduction of a proportional electoral system — also known as the party lists system — that requires candidates to run on a registered party list, in contrast to a majoritarian system that allows independent candidates to stand. |
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A WET WEEK
Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters
A silhouette of a woman is reflected in a puddle against the building of the Russian Museum on Ploschad Iskusstv on Monday. Weather forecasters are predicting rain until the end of the week, with temperatures reaching highs of 4 degrees Celsius. |
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MOSCOW — Iran’s isolation over its nuclear ambitions deepened on Monday as Russia, its closest big power ally, announced indefinite delays to a joint nuclear power project and accused Tehran of abusing its goodwill. Russia has defied Western concerns to supply arms to Iran, help build the Bushehr nuclear power station and water down sanctions against Tehran in the United Nations, but is now signaling its patience with Iran’s leadership is wearing thin.
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MOSCOW — A Russian journalist is seeking asylum in the United States after being beaten and suffering kidney failure in a suspected poisoning attempt, London’s Sunday Times reported. The award-winning journalist, who has reported on events in the Caucasus, has been “promised political asylum” in the United States, the newspaper reported Sunday. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Just a few years ago, separatists and power-hungry oligarchs threatened Russia’s very existence. But thanks to the security services, law enforcement agencies and military, order has been restored and Russia has been granted a new lease on life. |
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MOSCOW — The State Duma on Friday gave initial approval to a raft of amendments to the country’s election laws, including a provision that requires parties to field multiple party lists in cities and regions with more than 3 million people. |
 MOSCOW — Time is running out on the single — and certainly the swinging — days of the man known as Russia’s most eligible bachelor. Mikhail Prokhorov, the tall, fine, feverish spender who amassed a worth of $13.5 billion running the world’s largest nickel producer, is getting hitched May 3. |
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MOSCOW — A son of the president of Bashkortostan, a passionate collector of Jewish art and two religious banking brothers were among the country’s new billionaires as Russia vied with Germany for the second spot on Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest people. |
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MOSCOW — Yekaterina Tkalenko brushes her teeth three or four times a day, especially after drinking enamel-insulting tea or coffee, has them professionally cleaned twice a year and carries floss as if it were as vital as an inhaler. She recently spent nearly $1,000 to have her teeth whitened. “When I look at a person, no matter who it is, the first thing I look at is his or her teeth and smile,” said the 34-year-old Muscovite, who works in the tourism industry. “When I see good teeth, I think this person has a better chance in life, and he’ll be more successful than a person who has bad teeth.” In a nation where, a generation ago, a trip to the dentist happened only when a tooth hurt, families shared toothbrushes, and dental floss was but a curiosity, oral hygiene is the new vogue. |
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 MILESTII MICI, Moldova — A visitor on foot would need far more than a day to tour the entire underground city housing the world’s largest collection of wines — about 2 million bottles — in Moldova. |
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MOSCOW Government officials have approved a plan to abandon the Soviet system of higher education in favor of bachelor and master’s programs. The plan, designed by the Education and Science Ministry, calls for Russian universities to make the switch this coming September, but some universities are allowed to defer the change, Minister Andrei Fursenko told RIA-Novosti. |
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 Unified Energy Systems on Saturday for the first time relinquished control of one of its wholesale power producers, selling 38 percent of OGK-3 to mining giant Norilsk Nickel for a premium price of $3.1 billion. “This is, of course, an absolutely fantastic success,” OGK-3 chairman Alexander Chikunov said at a news conference at UES headquarters in southwestern Moscow. |
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The State’s shipbuilding assets will be merged into one corporation and city governor Valentina Matviyenko is already looking to locate the headquarters of the new company in St. |
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MOSCOW — Investigators searched the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Moscow for several hours Friday on the eve of a court hearing into the firm’s audit of Yukos. The raid comes as the authorities once again step up their legal campaign against the founders of the bankrupt oil firm and the state-appointed receiver prepares to sell off its remaining assets at discount prices. |
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Local Market ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — One of Russia’s largest retail operators Sedmoi Kontinent has paid 3.95 billion rubles ($150.7 million) for a 100 percent stake in Unified Trade Real Estate company, RBC reported Friday. |
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MOSCOW — The stabilization fund, replenished by windfall oil export revenues, must be transformed into a reserve fund and a separate “fund for future generations,” President Vladimir Putin said Friday. In his budget guidelines for 2008 to 2010, published on the Kremlin web site, Putin said the reform of the stabilization fund would ensure the stability of budget spending, irrespective of fluctuations in raw material prices. |
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MOSCOW — Lehman Brothers is due to open its first Moscow office, hiring Russia hand Nicholas Jordan to lead the investment bank’s foray into a market supported by stable economic growth and awash in petrodollars. |
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 When citing Winston Churchill’s memorable but often misquoted 1939 radio speech — “[Russia] is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” — commentators discussing Russia regularly omit the adjoining insight that, when seeking to predict Russia’s response to any event, the key is “Russian national interest. |
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President Vladimir Putin’s reaction to NTV-Plus acquiring the broadcasting rights for Premier League football matches probably had as much to do with election-year populism as it did with his concern for the good of the game. |
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Soon after I arrived in Moscow as a correspondent at the start of 1993, Andrei Kozyrev, the then Russian foreign minister, made a speech warning that if the west continued to ignore Russia’s vital interests and publicly humiliate the country, there would one day be a Russian reaction that would sweep away the new partnership with the west that he and other Russian liberals were trying to build. |
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 NEW YORK — In a city of immigrants like New York, the Russian-speaking community often seems more homogenous than most. Successive waves of arrivals have traditionally headed for the hubs of the Russian-speaking Diaspora like Brighton Beach or patches of Queens. |
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MOSCOW — Widespread corruption and a lack of judicial independence, among other factors, put Russia toward the bottom of a new global property-rights index released Tuesday. |
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 The Kremlin has been sending persistent signals that autonomous political activism will not be tolerated. As a result, political action on the streets has become highly risky, and those venturing to participate in events unwelcome by the government should be prepared to get in trouble. |
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One of the basic threats to the Kremlin’s energy ambitions today is European economic consolidation: Russia could find itself alone face to face with a strong union of consumers. |
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Relations between Washington and Moscow are at a new post-Soviet low. The main reasons for the friction are ill-considered U.S. policy and Russian domestic failures. There are, however, specific steps that each side could take at relatively low political cost that would begin to turn the relationship around. |
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Ever wondered who was behind the civil wars in the Caucasus in the early 1990s? It seems that Satan was the mastermind, or at least according to the dapper-looking gent who approached me at an outdoor cafe in Abkhazia last week. |
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In a story that surely stunned many old Russia hands, Interfax recently reported that the latest poll data indicate “most Russians are more or less happy with their lives today.” Indeed, a whopping 80 percent of those surveyed by the Levada Center claimed that “things are not that bad.” Pardon my skepticism, but you may want to verify this yourself: If only two of the first 10 people on your neighborhood bus tomorrow seem irritated, indignant or just clinically glum, I will be greatly surprised — and I’ll either move to your neighborhood or admit that there has been a dramatic change in traditional Russian attitudes toward, well, attitudes. |
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 PARIS — French President Jacques Chirac announced on Sunday he would not seek re-election next month, bowing out of frontline politics after a 45-year career that consisted of symbolic gestures as much as concrete policies. Chirac has served as president since 1995 and his widely expected decision to stand aside marks the end of an era for France, clearing the way for a new generation of politicians. “I will not seek your backing for a new mandate,” the 74-year-old said in a televised address to the nation. Chirac will perhaps be best remembered outside France for his denunciation of U.S. policy in Iraq and his determination to maintain his country’s leading role in international affairs. |
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BLAST OFF
/ reuters / handout
An Ariane 5 rocket launcher takes off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on Sunday.
The Ariane-5 rocket put into orbit a British military satellite and an Indian telecommunications satellite. |
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LONDON — U.K. Finance Minister Gordon Brown was due on Monday to call for international action to tackle global warming and argue the best way to change people’s behavior is through education and incentives, not taxation. In what aides have billed as major speech on the environment just months before he is widely expected to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brown was due to propose the United Nations make dealing with climate change a core institutional “pillar.
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 MILAN — Silvio Berlusconi and David Mills go on trial on Tuesday over an alleged bribe paid to the British lawyer to keep quiet about the former Italian prime minister’s media business dealings. Berlusconi is accused of paying Mills, the estranged husband of British Culture, Media and Sports Secretary Tessa Jowell, $600,000 for withholding details of his media empire during testimony in two court cases in 1997. |
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 BAGHDAD — After months of trading accusations, U.S. and Iranian officials sat in the same room Saturday at a much-anticipated regional conference on finding ways to end Iraq's sectarian violence and prevent a wider conflict. |
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HARARE — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was severely assaulted in detention and had to be taken to hospital for treatment following his arrest on Sunday over a banned prayer rally, his lawyer said. “He was in bad shape, he was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn’t distinguish between the head and the face and he could not see properly,” Innocent Chagonda, an attorney, told Reuters after visiting a Harare police station where Tsvangirai was being held. |
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 LONDON — The Six Nations championship was thrown wide open on Sunday when new-look England ended France’s grand slam hopes with an emphatic 26-18 victory over the holders at Twickenham. England were unrecognisable from the side thumped 43-13 by Ireland two weeks ago while France were strangely subdued and both teams, along with Ireland, go into next week’s final round on six points. |
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KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two of the most inconsistent sides in international cricket open what should be an unpredictable World Cup when hosts West Indies face Pakistan on Tuesday. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
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