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Two members of the National Bolshevik Party are facing up to five years in prison for rushing into the debating chamber of the St. Petersburg parliament and throwing leaflets protesting against low pensions and poor welfare programs. In the leaflets the activists called local deputies “fat, useless lawmakers, who sit through the sessions doing nothing” and declared speaker Vadim Tyulpanov an “enemy of St. Petersburg.” The charges relate to an incident in November 2006 when five National Bolshevik activists stormed into the city’s Legislative Assembly during a session, tossing leaflets and shouting provocative slogans denouncing the deputies. Four activists were arrested on the spot and given 15 days in custody for hooliganism but their targets felt the punishment was not strong enough, and filed a criminal suit against the intruders. |
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 MOSCOW — Andrei Lugovoi, the former Federal Guard Service officer wanted in Britain for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, could soon have immunity from prosecution, all thanks to Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. |
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At least five elephants, a herd of zebras and thousands more animals from St. Petersburg’s zoo will find a new spacious home near the Yuntolovsky reserve by 2011. A decision on the construction of the new zoo in the Primorsky district was announced by Governor Valentina Matviyenko last week at a meeting of City Hall. |
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MOSCOW — U.S. military experts will visit the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan on Tuesday to study the feasibility of incorporating the Russian-run facility into a shield, an army official said over the weekend. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said five people stood a real chance of succeeding him and identified three of them as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, said a U.S. professor who spoke with Putin. Putin, however, did not mention acting First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergei Ivanov or Dmitry Medvedev until he was prodded on the sidelines of a meeting with foreign experts, said the professor, Marshall Goldman of Harvard. Putin spoke during a visit Friday with about 40 academics and journalists at the presidential retreat in Sochi. During the three-hour meeting, the president also reiterated that he would remain in politics after his term ends next year, and he said he had not decided whether he would run for president in 2012, attendees said. |
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 Glass bridges and a wave-like roof to integrate the domestic and international flight terminals at Pulkovo airport are the hallmarks of a new design by British architectural firm Nicolas Grimshaw and Partners Limited that was revealed by the airport on Thursday. |
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MOSKOVSKY, Moscow Region — Yabloko announced Sunday that leader Grigory Yavlinsky would top its federal list for December State Duma elections, and Yavlinsky told party faithful that a spot in the next Duma was within the party’s reach. Polls suggest that the party will struggle to reach the 7 percent barrier necessary to win seats. But Yavlinsky, who said earlier this year that he would also run in the March presidential election, spoke confidently about Yabloko’s chances at a party conference held Saturday and Sunday. Analysts, however, said Yabloko would have to ensure that all of its core voters went to the polls to have a chance. “People always ask me, ‘Do we have a real chance?’” Yavlinsky said in concluding his address to around 150 party delegates Sunday, when the results of Saturday’s votes were announced. |
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 KEMEROVO — They must be Russia’s busiest men these days. Acting First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has been meeting workers, inspecting mines and opening sports complexes across the country. |
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Despite the political uncertainty that makes investors concerned about risks, Russia still attracts foreign investment. The country could even be seen as “a safe haven of stability” compared to other economies, experts said Monday at the Fourth Annual Baltic Investor Conference: Rebuilding Russia – Russia’s Infrastructure Boom. |
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MOSCOW — A senior official in the government’s financial markets watchdog has called for investigators to be allowed to wiretap phones in an effort to crack down on illegal insider trading, but analysts said the measure would lack teeth due to weak legislation. |
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Porsche Enters Russia MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Porsche AG, the maker of the 911 Carrera and Boxster sports cars, opened a 17 million-euro ($24 million) service center in Moscow as Russian purchases surge. Porsche’s Russian sales for the 12 months ended July 31 nearly doubled to 1,900 cars and sport-utility vehicles, the Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker said in a statement Sunday. |
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MOSCOW — German police have arrested 10 people, including Russian and Ukrainian citizens, on suspicions of defrauding victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in an Internet scam, the country’s Federal Police Office said in a statement Thursday. |
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov, said fighting corruption and raising living standards will be the top priorities for his government. Zubkov, nominated by Putin on Wednesday and confirmed by parliament Friday, criticized as “useless” the outgoing government’s implementation of social policies, and said he would shuffle the Cabinet. |
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During the last year about 60 people were detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of organizing raiders’ attacks on local enterprises, according to police officials, who believe that the latest arrests and criminal cases have made business activity in the city more transparent and safe. |
 MOSCOW — Kira Plastinina wants to be taken seriously. By many measures, she already has a highly successful career. She is the chief designer for a rapidly growing chain of clothing stores aimed at teenage girls. The first Kira Plastinina shop opened at Moscow’s Yevropeisky mall in February, and the chain now has 28 locations throughout Russia, with a dozen more slated to open by the end of the year. |
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NAKHABINO, Moscow Region — Representatives from leading bourses sounded a note of caution Friday, predicting that the bull rush of Russian initial public offerings might be hit in the near term by the turmoil that has rocked global markets this summer. |
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The local business community is worried about the American mortgage crisis. The rumors that some Russian banks have banned new mortgage loans are troubling bankers as well as construction companies, which sell an increasing proportion of new apartments through mortgage deals. Interest rates are going up, especially at banks that borrow money abroad. They have stopped the securing of mortgage loans abroad and prefer other sources of money. Those who have enough sources of money within the country will probably not keep the rates at their lowest level. Indeed, why should they? Despite the claims of state-owned retail bank VTB-24 and the subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, Gorodskoi Ipotechny Bank, that they have lowered rates by several percentage points, their colleagues are not in a hurry to follow them. |
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 The Baikonur Cosmodrome, gas from Turkmenistan and the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine are all issues of national interest located outside the country’s borders that have of late become the subject of negotiations with other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
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The post-Soviet era in Russia began in August 1991 with a failed coup against perestroika. Since then, important events — mostly disasters — have tended to take place in August, such as the debt default in 1998, the sinking of the Kursk in 2000 and the bombing of two passenger airliners in 2004. These events have a certain logical progression, but the emblematic tragedy of Putin’s Russia actually took place in September. |
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 For six months, Americans assumed the testimony of General David Petraeus about the effectiveness of the U.S. troop surge in Iraq would be a cathartic moment — either showing that new tactics for policing an insurgency were possible or setting the stage for a painful retreat. |
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President Vladimir Putin’s “democracy” put on quite a show last week. On Wednesday, Putin accepted the abrupt resignation of the prime minister and announced the nomination of an obscure bureaucrat and personal pal, Viktor Zubkov, whom most people had never heard of. |
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The parties are all ready for the upcoming campaign season. I’m not talking about those running in the elections made official by President Vladimir Putin’s decree in Rossiiskaya Gazeta. I mean the more important parties in the endless campaigns to win money and influence. |
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Testifying before Congress last week, U.S. General David Petraeus appeared commanding, smart and alive to the challenges that his soldiers face in Iraq. |
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 It was a memorable weekend for Russian sports, with national teams taking two out of three major titles Sunday against southern European rivals. The Russian women’s tennis team won the WTA Federation Cup tournament against Italy in Moscow, the men’s volleyball team fell to Spain in the European Championship final in Moscow and the men’s basketball team not only made the European Championship final game Sunday for the first time in more than 10 years, it won the tournament. |
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf plans to quit as army chief to become a civilian leader, removing a main objection to his proposed re-election in October, a senior ruling party official said on Monday. “We expect that after his re-election process next month, God willing, General Musharraf would take his oath of office as a civilian president before Nov. |
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WASHINGTON — Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was “essential” to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday. |
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 BERLIN — Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and American 400 meters runner Sanya Richards secured half shares in a $1 million jackpot when they completed perfect Golden League seasons on Sunday. Cheered on by a crowd of over 70,000 at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, Isinbayeva, the Olympic and double world champion, cleared 4. |
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TOULOUSE — With two contrasting World Cup outings, France has enhanced its reputation as a side capable of thrilling performances as well as dismal shows. |
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