|
|
|
|
|
Sixty-year-old Valentina is gradually dying. She has Hepatitis C. But this St. Petersburg pensioner is not receiving treatment for her condition. Doctors have told her that the available medications would in fact serve to hasten her end. Valentina shrugs her shoulders?at the news that Russia’s Federation Council has come up with a draft bill that, if passed, would legalize euthanasia in ‘exceptional cases. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — The Interior Ministry on Saturday came out in defense of the riot police who broke up the Dissenters’ Marches in Moscow and St. Petersburg on April 14 and 15. “The police did everything possible not to give in to provocations and acted according to the situation,” ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin told reporters. Gribakin said protesters had faked injuries to attract the attention of foreign journalists and deliberately provoked the police. “We truly regret if any innocent civilians or journalists became the victims of provocateurs,” Gribakin said. Riot police violently dispersed the unsanctioned marches, which were organized by The Other Russia, a coalition of opposition groups. Hundreds were arrested and many beaten in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. More than 9,000 officers policed the Moscow march, which attracted 2,000 to 3,000 people. |
|
ET VOILA!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Chef Pascal Nebout presenting Camus Cognac at the Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel on Thursday. A French Cuisine Festival will run until May 6 at the Landskrona Restaurant. |
|
The 396-meter tower the state energy giant Gazprom is planning to erect opposite Smolny Cathedral on the Neva will not ruin the St. Petersburg historic skyline according to new landscape studies. The designs for the building have led to widespread concerns that the city’s historic landscape will be ruined. In a telephone interview with The St. Petersburg Times on Monday, following a presentation of the results of the studies on Friday, Philipp Nikandrov, head of the architectural bureau RMJM’s St.
|
|
MOSCOW — A U.S.-based nongovernmental organization will halt operations after a police raid on its Moscow office last week. The Educated Media Foundation — the legal successor of Internews, which trains journalists and works with many media outlets — will temporarily halt its activities after Interior Ministry officers confiscated documents and computers from its office, Manana Aslamazian, executive director of the organization, said Friday. |
|
ST. PETERSBURG — Local human rights groups are organizing a Meeting Against Police Arbitrariness at 5 p.m. next to the Griboyedov monument on Pionerskaya Ploshchad on Friday. |
 It should have been Pamela Anderson’s night, but veteran film director Vladimir Menshov stole the limelight at the MTV Russia Film Awards ceremony, dramatically refusing to hand over the Best Film prize to the controversial war drama “Scum,” which he said “disgraced” Russia. |
|
KOROLYOV, Moscow Oblast — The Federal Space Agency is prepared to send Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich on a trip into space for $300 million, Itar-Tass reported Saturday. |
|
|
|
|
One of Europe’s leading leasers of construction equipment and module premises, CRAMO, is looking for development opportunities in Russia. A new representative office in St. Petersburg is the beginning of the Scandinavian concern’s expansion into the Russian regions, the company said Friday in a statement. CRAMO operates in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Last year CRAMO received an impetus for development when it merged with leasing company Rakentajain Konevuokraamo. As a result of the merger turnover increased to 402.4 million euros ($543 million) last year, compared to 77 million euros in 2005. |
|
COKE PICKET
/ Itar-Tass
Coca-Cola factory workers in St. Petersburg holding a picket Friday in front of the firm’s building in protest against low salaries. The protesters will strike if salaries are not increased by 30 percent. |
|
A roadshow giving students and young professionals information about internships and careers in the hotel and tourism industry is set to take place at the Hotel St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Exhibitors at the roadshow include any of the city’s hotels as well as organizers the Astoria hotel and tourism recruitment company Gold Service. Last summer, the hotel occupancy rate in St.
|
|
LONDON — The head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development called on Monday for a closer dialogue with Russia after a cast of top speakers pulled out of a major business conference in London. “We need to engage even more — it’s not by isolation that we make progress,” Jean Lemierre, president of the EBRD, told the opening session of the 10th annual Russian Economic Forum. |
|
LONDON — Peter Hambro Mining, which mines gold in Russia’s Far East, said on Monday that 2006 operating profit nearly trebled year, boosting its shares, but warned that higher cost pressures may increase operating expenses. |
|
ST. PETERSBURG — LUKoil may further expand its Baltic Sea terminal of Vysotsk to 17 million tons per year as it hopes to sort out its current problems with railway links, a company source said Thursday. The source said the port, which last year loaded 9. |
|
Exchange Registered ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — International Stock Exchange St. Petersburg closed joint-stock company (IXSP) was officially registered on Friday, Interfax reported. |
|
LONDON — Iran’s payments to Russia for building its Bushehr nuclear power station are not sufficient to speed up work on the plant, the project contractor told the Iranian official IRNA news agency in Moscow on Saturday. Russia is Iran’s closest major-power ally, and has helped water down international sanctions over its nuclear program. |
|
MOSCOW — The country’s three major mobile operators, MegaFon, Mobile TeleSystems and VimpelCom, were granted licenses to provide third-generation mobile services Friday in a contest some participants claimed was fraught with irregularities. |
|
|
|
|
“It’s pure ‘commercial fiction’ — the writer is selling me his product,” a successful banker told me when I asked if he liked the new book by Boris Akunin, the successful author of mysteries. There is no doubt that over the last five years, publishing has become a profitable business. |
|
More often than not the state’s interaction with the energy sector has created the impression that investment risk is on the rise in Russia. Starting with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry’s plan to raise taxes in the oil sector, unveiled in February 2003, and including the Yukos affair and the Sakhalin-2 production-sharing agreement dispute last year, the news has been about nationalization and state interference. |
|
The new information letter No 117 of 13 March 2007 of the Russian Federation’s Supreme Arbitration Court resolved, for the first time, a number of fundamental issues. This will allow the introduction of greater contentiousness into arbitration proceedings in cases arising out of administrative and other public relationships and reinstates the principle of equal rights of private entities and individuals and public entities (in particular, in respect of taxpayers and tax authorities) in matters related to the payment of state duty. |
|
|
|
 As the Russian business community converged on London this weekend for the 10th Russian Economic Forum, there was cause for celebration. In the decade since the first forum, Russia has been transformed from a “transition economy” receiving support and aid from the West to an “energy superpower. |
|
Why would an administration with a 70 percent approval rating resort to rubber truncheons to quash small, marginal political demonstrations? Was the recent suppression of rallies and marches in Moscow, St. |
|
The meal at the Mingrelian restaurant on the Tbilisi riverbank wasn’t the worst I’ve ever eaten in Georgia — but I still won’t be going back there again. Mainly because the authorities knocked the place down last week as part of a campaign to smarten up the Georgian capital that is intensifying a dispute over property rights. |
|
It is both appropriate and timely to recall the late George Kennan these days. The Russian-U.S. relationship continues to grind its gears between neutral and reverse as successive denials of a new Cold War ring progressively less true in the absence of concerted efforts by the principals to prevent one. |
|
|
|
 LONDON/AMSTERDAM — Barclays has agreed to buy Dutch rival ABN AMRO for just over 67 billion euros (46 billion pounds) as it seeks to head off rivals to clinch the world’s biggest ever bank takeover. Barclays said on Monday it would pay 3.225 new shares for each ABN AMRO share, equivalent to 36.25 euros a share at Friday’s closing price, to create a banking giant with 47 million customers and the world’s biggest institutional asset manager. |
|
|
|
|
India’s space agency successfully launched an Italian satellite into orbit Monday in the country’s first commercial space mission. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), on its 11th flight since 1993, put the Agile satellite into its intended orbit about 550 kilometers (325 miles) above the earth 20 minutes after blastoff. |
|
SYDNEY — A group of murderers and rapists who converted to Islam in Australia’s Super Max prison has been broken up and its leader moved to another jail as officials feared they were using religion as a cover for a possible escape. |
|
|
|
LONDON — Chelsea missed their chance to slash Manchester United’s lead in the Premier League to a single point on Sunday when they were held to a 0-0 draw at Newcastle United. Manchester United handed the initiative to Chelsea after drawing 1-1 at home with Middlesbrough on Saturday and will breathe a huge sigh of relief at the champions’ scrappy draw at St. |
|
|
|
The SPIBA Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony 2006 took place on April 18, 2007, at the A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications. Over 90 SPIBA members and guests attended the meeting. They enjoyed a very interesting tour around the museum, discovering the history and development of communications technologies that provide businesses with effective and reliable tools for communication, which is a must for successful operations. |
|
• Globus-Leasing • InterIS (International Insurance Services) • Manpower CIS • STEP Construction • STM Pro • RUSSIA CONSULTING • Volvo Technical Service Centers Globus-Leasing Company Ltd. |
|
What happened since January 2007 24.01.07 SPIBA General Meeting: Investment Ratings of Regions of Russia’s North-West: Current Situation and Trends Guest speaker: Grigory Marchenko, Director of the Regional Projects Division, Chief of the Regional and Municipal Ratings Department of the rating agency Expert RA. |
|
Representatives of the agency of patent attorneys ARS-Patent will participate in the Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA), which will take place in Chicago (the USA) from April 28 to May 2, 2007. |
|
We are pleased to provide you with a brief up-date on the activities of the SPIBA Legislation & Lobbying Committee, and encourage you to take part in the Committee. The Committee has been operating within SPIBA since its foundation in 1995, and provides a significant input into the implementation of the SPIBA mission as the voice of business in a dialogue with the Russian authorities. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive