|
|
|
|
The Federal Registration Service on Tuesday denied registration to Great Russia, the party co-founded earlier this year by former Rodina head Dmitry Rogozin. The decision removes one option for nationalist voters ahead of December’s State Duma elections in a move analysts said was calculated to help parties closer to the Kremlin keep these votes for themselves. The party’s chairman, State Duma Deputy Andrei Savelyev, labeled the decision a “direct order from the Kremlin.” The Kremlin dismissed the allegations as groundless. An employee at the Federal Registration Service, who did not give her name, said the party’s application had been rejected for a variety of reasons. |
|
 A gas pipeline exploded north of St. Petersburg in the early hours of Thursday morning, shaking buildings up to five kilometers away and causing a huge fire that lit the night sky. |
|
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin vowed Wednesday to strengthen Russia’s military capability and step up spying abroad in response to U.S. plans to build missile defense sites and deploy troops in Eastern Europe. “The situation in the world and internal political interests require the Foreign Intelligence Service to permanently increase its capabilities, primarily in the field of information and analytical support for the country’s leadership,” Putin said at a meeting with senior military and security officers in remarks that were posted on the Kremlin’s web site. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
 MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Britain during a meeting with members of pro-Kremlin youth groups Tuesday, calling its demands that Russia extradite murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi a relic of “colonial thinking.” At a meeting with activists at his Zavidovo residence, the casually dressed Putin spoke in a reserved tone about the extradition demand of Russia’s “British partners” before shifting suddenly to an aggressive tone. |
|
MOSCOW — Russia has no chance of finishing Iran’s first nuclear power station before fall 2008, a year behind schedule, a Russian subcontractor helping to build the plant said Wednesday. |
|
MOSCOW — Police in Belarus have charged a Novosibirsk football coach, the former goalkeeper for the Belarussian national football team, with bribing teammates to throw games during the Euro 2004 qualifying tournament, Belarus’ Interior Ministry said Wednesday. Former Belarus goalkeeper Valery Shantalosov, currently a coach for the second division Novosibirsk club FK Sibir, is suspected of offering cash to his Belarus teammates to throw at least two games in the qualifying tournament, a spokesman for the Belarussian Interior Ministry said by telephone. |
|
|
|
 MOSCOW — Closely-held telecommunications firm Summa Telecom said Wednesday that it would invest $1 billion out of the personal funds of its primary shareholder to create broadband wireless Internet networks across the country. The company plans to extend wireless Internet, or WiMax, coverage to 330 cities by 2010, CEO Sergei Koshkin told journalists Wednesday. |
|
With fees for housing and communal services in St. Petersburg set to rise almost 14 percent, city officials have warned that sharper rises are needed to accomplish the necessary renovation of the city’s housing stock. |
|
Despite recording net losses for the second year in a row, industrial holding Power Machines could raise over $270 million from its additional share issue this August. The company closed its order book on Wednesday. Power Machines will issue 1.492 billion new shares, increasing its authorized capital stock by 20. |
|
Carried Away ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Vagonmash, a St. Petersburg-based industrial enterprise, will supply 23 railway carriages worth a total of 510 million rubles ($20 million) to state transport giant Russian Railways, Interfax reported Tuesday. |
|
|
|
 It is often very difficult to watch Russia Today, the government-owned English-language global satellite television channel that was tasked with creating a positive image of Russia abroad. It has consistently presented the Kremlin version of Alexander Litvinenko’s murder: that he was poisoned by Boris Berezovsky or the British secret services. |
|
In the mid-20th century, British-American anthropologist Colin Turnbull observed the Bambuti pygmies living in the Congo. As a result of the unusually thick African jungle, the Bambuti never saw anything from a great distance. |
|
|
|
|
One of the interesting effects of dacha life is that you begin to lose track of the days of the week. You stop marking the days as Monday or Saturday, and instead think in terms of “the day it rained” or “the scorcher.” Lost in the haze of days out at my dacha, I started wondering about Russian calendars, and I discovered that I’ve simply reverted to the old Russian way of experiencing days and months. From recorded time, ancient Russians had 12 months, but until the 12th century — and until much later in many places — the names of the months were very different from what we know now. They also varied by region and described either the weather, what was happening in nature or the work that was traditionally done. |
|
 MOSCOW — Dmitry Prigov, a prolific and influential Russian poet and artist who at one point was incarcerated in a Soviet psychiatric hospital as punishment for his work, died on July 16. |
 TEHUMARDI, Estonia — While many think of capital city Tallinn when they think of Estonia, the country also has a less well-known asset in its hundreds of coastal islands. Often escaping the effects of Soviet military and industrial intervention, the islands have preserved much of their natural environment and are now gearing up to responsibly exploit their potential for tourism. With good transport links and modern facilities, Estonia’s islands stand poised to attract travelers from Russia and Europe looking for an undiscovered gem. |
|
 So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol of hope” for both the Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named, the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all. |
|
Congo // 57 Ulitsa Zhukovskogo. Tel: 275-9954 // Open daily, noon until midnight; Friday and Saturday, noon until 2 a.m. Menu in Russian and English. // Monday through Friday, 20 percent discount from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. // No credit cards. Dinner for two, with alcohol and dessert: 1,750 rubles ($68.60). Nestled in a quiet storefront behind Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro, Congo’s combination of excellent food, pleasant service, and relaxed atmosphere make it a consistent favorite in St. Petersburg’s otherwise chaotic restaurant scene. When you enter Congo, you are whisked away from the bustle of the street outside, into a soothing world of dark woods, faintly thumping jazz music, and comfortable benches strewn with African-styled throw cushions. |
|
 Discovering Slowness, an exhibition of Dutch video art on show at the National Center of Photography at 35 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa , offers a compendium of new discoveries. |
 David Fincher’s magnificently obsessive new film, “Zodiac,” tracks the story of the serial killer who left dead bodies up and down California in the 1960s and possibly the ’70s, and that of the men who tried to stop him. Set when the Age of Aquarius disappeared into the black hole of the Manson family murders, the film is at once sprawling and tightly constructed, opaque and meticulously detailed. |
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — Federal police announced Wednesday that they have broken up a gang peddling stolen parts from one of the country’s biggest jet engine makers to companies here and abroad. The gang — which included current and former workers at the Saturn engine plant — stole components from the factory’s stocks and used them to assemble engine parts for the Tu-154 passenger jet and Il-76 cargo plane, the police organized crime unit said in a statement. “Identification numbers were affixed and false documents were provided,” the statement said. “Via a chain of middlemen the parts were sold to airlines and repair companies in Russia and abroad.” The Tu-154 is the standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia and former Soviet republics. |
|
 MSOCOW — Gazprom Neft has sharply increased its investment outlay this year — to $2.5 billion — in an attempt to reverse declining production figures, the company said in a statement Wednesday. |
|
Norilsk Field MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — GMK Norilsk Nickel may boost its nickel reserves by 22 percent should the company win exploration and mining rights for a Siberian field, Kommersant reported Thursday. Norilsk is interested in buying rights for the Irkutsk region’s Iisko-Tagulskaya field, with a potential 7. |
|
|
|
 PAU, France — Reeling, but not yet sunk, the Tour de France was due to resume on Thursday without its leader and two teams for the 17th stage to Castelsarasin. Dane Michael Rasmussen was dramatically sacked by Rabobank on Wednesday after the Dutch team said he had lied about his training whereabouts in June. |
|
LONDON — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said he would wait for as long as it takes to sign Argentine forward Carlos Tevez. The player’s proposed move from West Ham United has been held up by a dispute between West Ham and Tevez’s agent Kia Joorabchian over who owns him. |
|
BANGKOK — Iraq’s beleaguered soccer team are pinning their hopes on a fairytale ending to their Asian Cup story after logistical blunders and slapdash preparations plunged their campaign into disarray even before a ball had been kicked. Against all odds, the unfancied Iraqis beat twice-champions South Korea 4-3 in a dramatic penalty shootout on Wednesday to reach their first Asian Cup final, bringing some rare cheer to the war-scarred Iraqi people. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive