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City Hall has refused to give permission for a gay pride parade to be held on Nevsky Prospekt in downtown St. Petersburg on May 26, citing the tight schedule of already confirmed events in the city center that day. Russian gay rights activists have previously made two attempts to organize a gay parade in Moscow but Mayor Yury Luzhkov fiercely opposed the idea, condemning the parade as “satanic” and swearing he would never allow them to take place in the Russian capital. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Anti-Kremlin protesters plan to intensify their campaign of rallies against President Vladimir Putin by holding a march in St. Petersburg next month during an international economic conference, they said on Thursday. Speaking on the eve of a similar protest planned for an EU-Russia summit, opposition leaders said they would march in Russia’s second city on June 9 during the meeting of top international political and business leaders. But leaders of the Other Russia coalition said police had arrested and searched many of the activists who are organising a “march of the dissenters” to coincide with the EU-Russia summit on Friday in the southern Russian city of Samara. |
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FISHY BUSINESS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Arkady Balushkin, chief icthyologist at the Zoological Institute, examines a shark Wednesday that was fished out of the River Neva last weekend. Experts think it is unlikely it got there unaided. |
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Dozens of St. Petersburg museums are opening their doors far later than usual on Saturday as the annual Museum Night event gets underway. Visitors to such museums as the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the Anna Akmatova Museum, the Museum of the Political History of Russia, and the Central Museum of Rail Transport will be able to enjoy concerts, talks, excursions and guided tours in some cases as late as midnight.
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2 Children Kidnapped ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Two children were kidnapped late Tuesday in central St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Wednesday. The children, aged 6 and 11, were kidnapped at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, St. Petersburg prosecutors told Interfax. Fontanka.ru identified the children as Alexandra Borodulina, 11, and her brother, Dmitry Borodulin, 6. |
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 Clover Group, a holding company registered this year, has put forward plans for a $500 million multifunctional center on Ushakovskaya embankment. The company plans to raise $3.5 billion on capital markets to replicate similar projects across Russia, managers said Tuesday at a news conference. |
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MOSCOW — Joining the World Trade Organization looks well within Russia’s reach this year, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said Wednesday, sounding an upbeat note amid concerns about new and persisting hurdles to the bid. |
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In an attempt to appease unhappy residents, the city’s construction firms have announced plans for a “unified standard communication to the population about new construction.” They believe that regular letters to local residents and feedback via complaint boxes at construction sites will help improve the situation. |
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MOSCOW — The State Duma on Wednesday passed in a first reading a bill that would allow the government to pump billions of dollars from the sale of Yukos assets into housing and high-tech research. |
 MOSCOW — Comstar CEO Eric Franke stepped down on Wednesday amid speculation that the country’s largest alternative phone operator was in for an overhaul after recently reporting a disappointing quarterly loss. Comstar is expected within a week to appoint Sergei Pridantsev, CEO at Center Telecom, one of fixed-line operator Svyazinvest’s seven regional units, as the company’s new CEO, spokeswoman Yulia Yasinovskaya said. |
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 The Great Wall is China’s most celebrated tourist attraction. As China’s impact on the world and its rulers’ desire to control the world’s impact on China grow, it appears as an enduring and disturbing metaphor. From the Great Wall, aimed at the “barbarians” of the Steppes, to today’s Great Firewall, aimed at free flows of information, China’s rulers have wished to keep their people separate. |
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When French President Jacques Chirac handed over power to Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin lost the last European ally with whom he had built a strong personal friendship. |
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Valery Gergiev’s internationally acclaimed “Stars of the White Nights” festival opens Friday with a performance of Mussorgsky’s epic opera “Khovanshchina,” with Gergiev conducting and mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina as Marfa. This year the festival’s focus moves to the newly opened Mariinsky Concert Hall, where many recitals take place, although its traditional program of operas and ballets continues to offer a feast of mouthwatering performances at the Mariinsky Theater itself. |
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A local concert by the Skatalites was cancelled due to a flight delay, said Pirkko Vishnevskij, who co-organized the band’s brief Russian tour with the local band Markscheider Kunst, in an email. |
 Alexander Kugel’s mobile rang while he was in the shower. He reached for the phone with a soapy hand, and he could barely hear the heavily accented voice telling him that his short film “Imprudence” had been accepted into the Cinefondation contest at the 60th Cannes film festival. |
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This is the second article in a two-part series dedicated to the life and work of the only two Finnish architects who owned studios in St. Petersburg before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and designed buildings that can still be seen in the city today. |
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A new season of exhibitions at the city’s Edge Art Gallery began Thursday with the opening of a show by the Russian artist Dmitry Polarouche. Since graduating from the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and Design, Polarouche has participated in a number of national and international exhibitions including shows in London, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Helsinki, and Geneva. His works are represented in many collections all over the world including the contemporary art collection of the Vatican. Edge owner Edward Emdin described the show as “a very special event” for the gallery which opened at the end of 2005 to hold exhibitions dedicated to a single artist, rather than a mix of artists. |
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 Tennent H. Bagley was working for the CIA in Switzerland in May 1962 when KGB officer Yury Nosenko, in Geneva as part of a Soviet delegation to an arms-control conference, approached the Americans with an offer to share his secrets. |
 The last chord of the Eurovision Song Contest has died away, and with it any illusions that chirpy songs spread a message of peace between nations — at least in Eastern Europe. With the music out of the way, the contestants got down to the serious business of recriminations, backstabbing and allegations of foul play. |
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Looking for a place to eat next time you head to Moscow? A monthly look at a selection of restaurants in the capital. O Cleary’s 48 Ul. Narodnogo Opolcheniya, korpus 1 // Tel; (+8 495) 195-9035 // Open: 10 a. |
 The title of a new Russian-language film showing in St. Petersburg “Indi” recalls the English word “indie” which has associations with indie rock, or film festivals such as Sundance or Tribeca where indie films are shown every year. None of the above has anything to do with “Indi” but the title reveals a deep state of confusion that hides behind the pretty poster of a woman holding a sandcastle in her hands. |
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LONDON — Sure of becoming prime minister after long years of waiting, Gordon Brown smiles much more now. He’s got tailored suits and whiter teeth, and is making a huge effort to appear more personable. But Britain’s Chancellor still faces a battle to guide the increasingly unpopular Labour to a fourth successive election victory. |
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PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy named Francois Fillon as prime minister on Thursday, banking on the moderate conservative’s negotiating skills to push through sweeping reforms in the face of union resistance. |
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 GLASGOW — Goalkeeper Andres Palop emerged as Sevilla’s hero by saving three penalties in the shootout to give his side victory over Espanyol in a thrilling all-Spanish UEFA Cup final at Hampden Park on Wednesday. The Andalucians became only the second side to retain the trophy after a pulsating game, played in driving rain, ended 2-2 after 120 minutes, condemning Espanyol to more European final heartbreak — 19 years after they lost the 1988 final on penalties to Bayer Leverkusen. |
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COBHAM, England — Chelsea winger Joe Cole is looking to make up for a season wrecked by injury with an FA Cup winners’ medal in Saturday’s final against Manchester United. |
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Defense lawyers for Tour de France champion Floyd Landis on Wednesday began building their case that the French laboratory that found he tested positive for testosterone is inept and dishonest, contending that its analytical records are rife with unexplained time gaps that may conceal efforts by lab personnel to manipulate test results. The target of the attorneys’ barbs was Cynthia Mongongu, a supervisory analyst at the French government doping laboratory in Paris. Mongongu conducted the most important test on Landis’ urine sample from Stage 17 of the Tour de France and double-checked a colleague’s analysis of Landis’ backup, or B, sample from the same stage. |
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 CLEVELAND — Late-game pratfalls put the Nets on the edge of playoff elimination, and a disastrous fourth quarter should have ended their season Wednesday night. |
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Issues Archive