|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov promised better apartments for half the population and free health care for all if he is elected president next year. Kasyanov, speaking at a weekend conference that nominated him as a presidential candidate, also reiterated an earlier warning that the country was headed for an economic crisis if it remained on the current course. A veritable who’s who of liberal politicians stood up to give speeches supporting Kasyanov’s bid during the two-day conference, which ended Saturday. Pro-Kremlin youth activists tried to disrupt the proceedings at the Kosmos hotel several times, dressing up as doctors to detain the “mentally ill” Kasyanov, lighting flares, and throwing leaflets from a top floor. |
|
ALL DRESSED UP
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Guests attending a charity ball held at the State Hermitage on Saturday walk through the grounds prior to the event. The charity ball was the first of its kind to be held at the museum, attracting children aged 13 to 18 and military cadets dressed in period costume. |
|
Plans for a new airport, bridges, roads, river terminal and new port in St. Petersburg are set to become a reality if the projects receive backing by the federal government, City Hall has said. Proposals for a raft of infrastructure improvements were put forward at the First International Transport Forum and Transport in Russia 2007 exhibition last weekend in Sochi, the Russian candidate city for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
|
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
 MOSCOW — The FSB, which received a direct order from President Vladimir Putin to kill Alexander Litvinenko, also had a hand in the 1999 apartment bombings, the Dubrovka theater siege and the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, according to a book being released Monday. |
|
Russia and 24 other European countries took a step toward a visa-free regime Friday by simplifying the process for businesspeople and waiving fees altogether for some travelers. |
|
Moscow — Russia is one of the least peaceful countries in the world, according to a new study that uses levels of violence, organized crime and military expenditure to measure unrest. The Global Peace Index listed Russia at 118th place out of 121 countries surveyed by researchers of the Intelligence Unit of British magazine The Economist. |
|
MOSCOW — With the presidential election less than a year away and two pro-Kremlin candidates’ unofficial campaigns in full swing, the liberal opposition remains as divided as ever over whom to support. |
|
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Britain’s request for the extradition of former agent Andrei Lugovoi was politically motivated and was not backed up by enough evidence. British prosecutors have said they want to bring Lugovoi before a British court for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Federal Security Service officer, in London last November. |
|
|
|
 Russia’s first chidren’s television channel Telenyanya was launched on Friday in 66 Russian cities. In St. Petersburg, programs are broadcast across 14 districts by local cable operator TKT. The project is funded by state-owned Channel One — one of the largest free to air television channels in Russia. |
|
The Energy Consulting group of companies and Roedl&Partner international audit company have set up a joint venture they believe will rival the “Big Four” audit companies and offer Russian clients a more personal and “complex” approach. |
|
Lenta Opening ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — St. Petersburg-based retailer Lenta opened two more hypermarkets in the city Saturday, the company said in a press release Monday. The hypermarkets are located in the Northern part of the city, in Pargolovo on Vyborg Highway and on Ul. |
|
MOSCOW — The Natural Resources Ministry’s subsoil agency put off a decision Friday on stripping TNK-BP of its Kovykta gas field license by two weeks, allowing the government to sail peacefully through the Group of Eight summit and avoid upsets at next weekend’s economic forum in St. |
 MOSCOW — Shares in Norilsk Nickel surged 8.5 percent Friday on unconfirmed reports that United Company RusAl was seeking to buy into it. “RusAl has approached the authorities for clearance for a potential acquisition of assets on the traded base metals market. |
|
WASHINGTON — U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab is heading to Russia this week for talks on Moscow’s bid to join the World Trade Organization and other issues, a U. |
|
NEW YORK — Hilton Hotels Corp. has signed deals with three real-estate groups to develop more than 55 properties in Russia, Britain and parts of Central America, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The report said the partners were projected to cover the full construction costs estimated at $1.7 billion, as part of Hilton’s plan to accelerate its drive to franchise new hotels and expand its brands outside the United States. The newspaper cited President and Chief Operating Officer Matthew Hart, who will become the hotel group’s chief executive on January 1, when current CEO Stephen Bollenbach retires. Hart was quoted as saying the latest ventures underscore Hilton’s determination to pick partners with deep pockets and a strong track record of local development. |
|
 MOSCOW — Property developer PIK Group said Friday that it had raised $1.8 billion in an initial public offering, pricing the placement at the bottom of the range. |
 LONGYEARBYEN, Norway — Working down a coal mine on an Arctic island does not sound like a dream job for anyone, let alone a 21-year-old woman. But Norwegian Guro Oydgard says she enjoys the life despite long shifts, choking dust and bone-numbing cold on the archipelago of Svalbard, where Norway and Russia have mines in a former Cold War outpost that has outlived the Soviet Union. |
|
|
|
|
Officials from the world’s anti-monopoly agencies shared their experience in Moscow last week at the Sixth International Competition Network conference. Russian participants would have done well to listen to their colleagues. Burdened by giant monopolies, heavy regulation and endless bureaucracy, the level of competition in the economy remains underdeveloped. Prime Minister Fradkov told the conference that the last seven years of growth in the economy are the result of increased competition and that new anti-monopoly measures that came into effect May 13 would help continue this trend. Perhaps the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service will be stronger, but the barrier to competition is based not on the laws on the books, but on the rules of the game as it is really played. |
|
 The federal budget for 2008 to 2010, the first to cover a three-year period, was recently passed in first reading by the State Duma, thus setting in motion a reform that the Finance Ministry has long described as necessary. |
|
President Vladimir Putin likes the idea of domestic initial public offerings for state-owned companies, and for good reason. On Thursday, VTB-24 president Mikhail Zadornov announced that 130,000 Russians had purchased shares in VTB in May, spending 40 billion rubles ($1.45 billion). This was higher than the 115,000 who bought shares in Rosneft’s domestic offering to the tune of 20. |
|
|
|
|
The consensus among Berlin’s foreign policy pundits is that Angela Merkel has finally met her nemesis. This week, U.S. President George W. Bush, the man she tried to make into a friend, will topple the German chancellor from her pedestal. She will be queen of Europe no more. |
|
President Vladimir Putin likes the idea of domestic initial public offerings for state-owned companies, and for good reason. On Thursday, VTB-24 president Mikhail Zadornov announced that 130,000 Russians had purchased shares in VTB in May, spending 40 billion rubles ($1. |
|
The Georgian soldiers on the de facto border of the South Ossetian conflict zone seemed concerned for my welfare. “Don’t go in,” they advised, “it’s dangerous there.” Inside separatist territory, spring blooms brightened up the Soviet drabness of the capital, Tskhinvali, but the mood was edgy and paranoid. |
|
Quick-marching my way through a metro underpass rife with medal-bedecked veterans on Victory Day last month, I suddenly found my undefended left eardrum under attack from a spirited chorus of “Katyusha,” an up-tempo ballad from World War II. |
|
|
|
|
LONDON — Virgin Group founder Richard Branson plans business class-only flights with a fleet of up to 15 new planes, in a move which could spell trouble for upstart rivals in the competitive transatlantic market. “In the next 12 to 18 months we will start a business-only airline,” a Virgin spokesman said on Monday. |
|
|
|
|
WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush left for Europe on Monday with his popularity at home at a low point over the Iraq war and tensions abroad over global warming and missile defense. Built around the Group of Eight summit in Germany where his host, Chancellor Angela Merkel, had hoped to forge an agreement on climate change, Bush’s trip includes stops in Eastern Europe to bolster developing democracies. |
|
Dog-Eating Artist LONDON (Reuters) — An artist who last week ate a meal of meatballs made from a dead corgi dog in a protest against animal cruelty said on Sunday his next project involved being buried in a box under a mountain of mashed potato. |
|
|
 PARIS — A competitive streak as hard as a diamond gave Maria Sharapova the strength to stage a great escape at the French Open on Sunday. The Russian second seed looked to be dead and buried when she faced two match points — 20 minutes apart — but each time her survival instincts kicked in. After two hours 37 minutes of high drama she squeezed past Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder 3-6 6-4 9-7 and greeted her triumph by blowing a kiss skywards. “Today is what I play for. I’m a huge competitor. Don’t count on me giving up. If I lose the match, I want to be able to lose it on my terms,” said Sharapova. Justine Henin and Serena Williams lined up a grudge re-match when they hurtled into the last eight. |
|
/ Reuters
Sultan Ibragimov from Rostov-on-Don, Russia (l) delivers a blow to the head of Shannon Briggs from New York during their WBO heavyweight Championship Bout in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday. Ibragimov defeated Briggs to gain the title. |
|
BRUSSELS — UEFA should stop “playing the blame game” and take responsibility themselves, British sports minister Richard Caborn said as he waited to receive a report on trouble involving Liverpool fans. UEFA president Michel Platini will submit a report to Caborn which names Liverpool as Europe’s most troublesome club based on statistics compiled from international police undercover agents for the past four years.
|
|
LONDON — Russia maintained its unbeaten record in Group E as expected when it defeated Andorra 4-0 in a one-sided Euro 2008 qualifying match on a busy day of action around the continent on Saturday. Alexander Kerzhakov notched a hat trick at St. Petersburg’s Petrovsky Stadium while substitute Dmitry Sychev added the fourth to steer Russia to the top of the group, at least until Saturday’s later matches between Estonia and Croatia and Macedonia and Israel were completed. |
|
PARIS —Thinking people were making it up, St. Petersburg tennis ace Svetlana Kuznetsova logged on to the Internet to read the evidence herself. When she saw it written in plain English, she had to pinch herself — Roger Federer had picked out the Russian as his favorite player on the women’s tour. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive