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A United Russia politician and former lawmaker in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly who had failed to win a seat in March elections to the parliament, was elected as city ombudsman Wednesday amid indignant protests from local human rights groups. |
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MOSCOW — Authorities have arrested the leader of an ultranationalist group on suspicion of inciting hatred by shouting “Sieg heil” and “Kill the liberals” during a political debate, prosecutors said Wednesday. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Analysts beware: If your outlook on a company is less than rosy, you could get slapped with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Russky Standart, the country’s third-biggest bank and No. 1 consumer lender, is suing a Western-owned rating agency for a potentially crippling $20 million after it issued a recent downgrade. The case is prompting worries that financial analysts might pull their punches when commenting about Russian companies, thus impairing the quality of investment advice on the country. In the lawsuit, Russky Standart, owned by vodka billionaire Rustam Tariko, is seeking $10 million in damages from RusRating and $10 million from one of its analysts, Yulia Arkhipova. |
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ALL HEART
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Doctors from the Robert Wood Johnson University in New Jersey taking part in a heart operation with the personnel of the No. 122 Hospital on Prospekt Kulturi on Thursday as part of an exchange program. |
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The first official gay pride parade in St. Petersburg could go ahead in September, its organizer said Thursday. Although City Hall refused to give permission for a similar parade in May this year, gay rights activists say they are not giving up on the idea. “Our first application for a gay parade in Petersburg was rejected due to the celebration of City Day at the same time [on May 27], and we fully understood this,” one of the parade’s organizers, Alexei Khinshtein told The St.
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Lucky Sevens ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) —The St. Petersburg Wedding Palace is due to register a record 77 marriages on Saturday because 07/07/07 is a date many consider to be lucky. Nina Kalenichenko of the Wedding Palace said that the record turnout of 77 is “pure coincidence,” Fontanka.ru reported. |
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MOSCOW — Rexam, the world’s biggest maker of beverage cans, said Wednesday that it was buying Russian beverage can maker Rostar for $297 million in cash as part of an expansion drive in emerging markets. The British packaging firm will acquire the business, including debt, from En+ Group Limited, part of aluminum giant Basic Element. |
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The banking sector in the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey will grow significantly faster than GDP, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report released Tuesday. |
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MOSCOW — Unilever is shifting its entire European stick deodorant production from Britain to its St. Petersburg factory to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, the company announced. The British-Dutch home and personal care giant will invest 7 million euros ($9. |
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TBILISI, Georgia — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Wednesday that Russia was willing to start lifting some of the economic sanctions it imposed on Georgia last year, recognizing they were counter-productive. |
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Seeing Double ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Last year CIT Finance investment bank doubled estimated net assets according to IFRS, Interfax reported Thursday. By the end of 2006, net assets accounted for 74.9 billion rubles ($2.9 billion). The bank’s own capital increased 2.3 times up to 13.285 billion rubles ($518 million). |
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 At last! Two years after introducing a system for appointing rather than electing governors, the Kremlin has come up with a system for publicly evaluating the effectiveness of their work. As a modern version of the old Soviet planning department, the evaluations signal the start of a battle for higher “returns” from each region, thus motivating governors to compete among themselves and with their predecessors. |
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I continue to be fascinated by Russia’s foray into the nanotechnology business. The government has allocated 130 billion rubles ($6.9 billion) for the project and installed Mikhail Kovalchuk, who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin that stretch way back, to head up the project. |
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 With the reburial this week of eight Soviet World War II-era soldiers in a military cemetery in Tallinn, after they were identified and given an honorable funeral, the diplomatic conflict between Russia and Estonia over the monument to the unknown Soviet soldier (which served as the original grave and was moved to the cemetery from a spot downtown in a move widely seen as insulting by Russians) could have been resolved — yet the Russian ambassador in Estonia continued the spat by refusing to attend the ceremony. |
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Elton John, who is on an European tour, will perform on Palace Square on Friday. The British singer and pianist’s open-air concert is being promoted by PMI, the company behind the Rolling Stones’ local concert, scheduled to be held in the same location on July 28. |
 Surprises, discoveries and many debuts are expected to take place in the historical setting of the Yusupov Garden this Saturday as the Fifth International Neva Delta Blues Festival comes to town to try and show that Russians can not only appreciate this musical genre, but also create it. In Russia, although the country is far away from the United States, the birthplace of blues, the music is nevertheless popular. |
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 An up-and-coming 28-year-old Canadian choreographer, whose professional ambition is to reform the classical heroine from a perfect but brainless princess into an intelligent, sophisticated, yet still beautiful character, makes his debut at the Mariinsky Theater on Saturday with “Aria Suspended,” an unorthodox take on Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in C. |
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“Oh, I love writing! Now I’ve written this, I feel calmer, as though some invisible hand has tidied up everything in my heart so that there’s not a single little thing left to worry me.” Thirteen-year-old Muscovite Nina Lugovskaya wrote this passage early in the diary that she began in 1932. For the next five years, many more worries, both little and big, sent Nina to her diary, her one confidante. Only intermittently did writing seem to alleviate her frustrations and loneliness. And, as it turned out, the turmoil of adolescence was only a prelude to greater troubles. Historian Irina Osipova discovered Nina’s diary, which spanned three thick notebooks, within the KGB archives — a remarkable find, given Nina’s flair as a writer and the fact that the authorities destroyed most confiscated diaries and letters. |
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 Last week, the tabloid Tvoi Den printed exclusive photographs supposedly taken from a sex tape featuring It Girl Ksenia Sobchak and hip-hop artist Timati. |
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Testo // 5/29 Pereulok Grivtsova. Tel: 310 8270 // Open 11 a.m. through 11 p.m. // Menu in Russian only // Lunch for two without alcohol 510 rubles ($19.60) The popular corner of Grivtsova and Kazanskaya streets, which has seen a rash of eateries opening this year to cater for ravenous office workers and passersby, now welcomes Testo, an Italian bistro with high ambitions and low prices. This corner used to house a Soviet-style bakery known for its multihued loaves and stomach-busting pies and perhaps Testo — which means dough in Russian — honors that legacy. The place has been thoughtfully renovated in a red and grey scheme with wooden details, and has two rooms seating about thirty guests. |
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 “Evan Almighty,” in which Steve Carell, playing a newly elected congressman from Buffalo, is commanded by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark, is a movie far less interesting than its premise. |
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NEW YORK — The San Francisco Giants snapped a seven-game road losing streak with a 9-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, claiming victory despite giving home-run record chaser Barry Bonds the day off. Fred Lewis started in left field instead of Bonds and belted his second grand slam home run of the season — becoming the first Giants rookie to hit two slams in one campaign — and had three hits to pace San Francisco. Bonds was given the day off following a night game after hitting his 751st homer in the series opener on Tuesday. The 42-year-old veteran is expected to play on Thursday and then heads to St. Louis for a three-game series before the All-Star break to continue his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record of 755. |
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 LONDON (Reuters) — Never mind who wins, Tour de France organizers just want their sport to emerge scandal-free from the three-week race which starts from London on Saturday. |
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NEW YORK — It was a script that could have been out of a “Rocky” movie, with an upstart trying to fell the champion. And just as in those movies, the upstart and the champion embraced in the end, knowing that a sequel would be inevitable. The goal was rapid-fire hot dog consumption, not pummeling an opponent in the ring, but like a particularly bloody boxing match, it was disturbing to watch. |
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VALENCIA, Spain — Bigger, faster yachts will contest the next America’s Cup. America’s Cup organisers ACM said on Thursday that the new yachts would be 90 foot long or 27. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive