LOCAL NEWS

ABBAS TO MEET PUTIN AMID FEUD WITH RIVALS

MOSCOW — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought Russia’s backing on Monday in his feud with rival faction Hamas for control over the Palestinian territories.

Abbas fired his Hamas-led government after the faction forcibly took control of the Gaza strip on June 14 but Russia — alone among members of the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace brokers — is still in contact with Hamas leaders.

Abbas met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and will hold talks with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, their first meeting since Hamas, a militant group that does not recognize Israel, seized control of Gaza.

“We strongly support you as the legitimate leader of all Palestinians.

GAS AND GLORY FUEL RACE FOR THE NORTH POLE

MOSCOW — The race for the North Pole is on again, and this time there’s more at stake than pride at seeing a national flag fluttering on the icecap: There’s oil and gas too.

Russia is one of a handful of nations vying to lay claim to the vast untapped resources of the Arctic, and the competition — like the region itself — is likely to heat up as global warming and new technology make previously undreamed-of exploration feasible.

Environmentalists Get on Their Bikes to Map Black Spots

Members of local environmental groups have ridden bikes across the southern coast of the Finnish Gulf to help create a map of pollution black spots and campaign against environmental pollution resulting from industrial projects.

“The south coast has become a site of gigantic construction works including the Baltic Aluminium Plant, the Baltic Silicon Valley project and a center for the treatment of spent nuclear fuel from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES),” said Oleg Bodrov, chairman of environmental group Green World, the rally’s organizer.

NATIONAL NEWS

ROLLING STONE RONNIE SHOWS PAINTINGS

Ronnie Wood, the legendary guitarist with The Rolling Stones, is a true Renaissance man.

Despite a grueling tour schedule, numerous recording sessions, and ongoing work on his memoirs, due out next year, Wood still finds time to draw and paint. In conjunction with the first-ever Rolling Stones’ concert in St.

COSMONAUTS SHOCKED BY DRUNK SPACE FLIGHT CLAIMS

Russian cosmonauts have reacted with shock and disbelief to allegations by an independent medical panel that a U.S. astronaut was drunk aboard a Russian spacecraft.

Paratroopers Defend ‘Disorderly’ Holiday

The Leningrad Military District Airborne Unit will for the first time in the post-Soviet era celebrate its holiday with legally-sanctioned events on Thursday, following the passage of a law by the St. Petersburg parliament earlier this month that recognizes the 77-year-old Paratroopers’ Day in line with the Army and Navy Days.

LOCAL BUSINESS

GAZPROM SNAPS UP 2 GENERATING COMPANIES

At Friday’s UES board meeting, it began to seem almost axiomatic: What Gazprom wants, Gazprom gets.

The prize Gazprom had set its eyes on this time was control of two of the country’s largest electricity generating companies, and after putting up a dogged fight, Unified Energy System could not resist the pressure.

NEW LOTTERY JUST THE TICKET FOR CITY HALL

City Hall has found a new way of taxing the credulity of the poor. Instead of gaming halls, which are to be banned from Jan. 1, 2008, gamblers are being offered a state lottery alternative.

IN BRIEF

Authorized Doubling

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — International Bank St. Petersburg has doubled its authorized capital stock, Interfax reported Friday.

The bank issued about 288.6 million new shares distributing them through a closed subscription. As a result, the bank increased authorized capital stock up to 578.

TNK-BP CONCERN OVER TAX BURDEN

MOSCOW — Russia’s No.3 oil firm TNK-BP, half owned by BP, wants to gain footholds in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan amid concerns over a heavy Russian tax burden.

PLANTING THE SEED OF SUPER GRADE ZINC

MOSCOW — Russia’s biggest zinc producer, Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant, said on Monday it produced 80,385 tonnes of super high grade metal and its alloys in the first half of 2007, a 14.6 percent increase year-on-year.

“Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant is on course to meeting its year-end production expectations of 165,000 tonnes of SHG zinc and zinc-based alloys,” a Chelyabinsk statement quoted board chairman Sergei Moiseyev as saying.

London-listed Chelyabinsk is responsible for approximately 60 percent of Russian zinc production.

In 2006, it produced 148,384 tonnes of SHG zinc.

Chelyabinsk said it supplied 49 percent of its January-June output to the domestic market.

HANDLING RUSSIA WITH CARE - MADE FOR THE TOP POST

It is not difficult to see in Daniel Kearvell someone for whom success comes easily. Only 26, yet Kearvell has already established himself as one of St.

OPINION

SELF-INTEREST AND BRITISH-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

In early 2000, the British Embassy in Moscow took a bit of a gamble. They persuaded then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet with the new face in the Kremlin and heir apparent — then-acting President Vladimir Putin. This was one of Blair’s first major foreign policy initiatives.

THE SMERDYAKOV EFFECT

Even by Russian standards, the Litvinenko affair has been exceptionally murky. But, paradoxically, it has also been marked by a heightened sense of mirror-image symmetry.

WORLD

NEW BRITISH PM MEETS BUSH IN U.S.

CAMP DAVID — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was expected to walk a fine line in talks that took place on Monday with U.S. President George W. Bush, keeping some distance on issues like Iraq while preserving the “special relationship” with the United States.

JAPANESE LEADER STAYS DESPITE POLL DISASTER

TOKYO — Hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to stay in his post despite a crushing defeat for his ruling camp in an upper house election, but policy gridlock loomed and Abe’s grip on his job was uncertain.