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An additional 6 billion rubles ($2.4 million) has been allocated by the government to fund the construction of St. Petersburg’s Flood Protection Barrier in order to meet a 2008 deadline set by President Vladimir Putin. The funding will come through Rosstroi, which comprises the Federal Construction Agency and the Communal and Housing Services, its head Sergei Kruglik told reporters Thursday. Vladimir Kogan, Deputy Head of Rosstroi, said work on the dam will be finished as early as April 7 2008. That date is also the birthday of Governor Valentina Matviyenko. “Work on the project is going ahead at full steam, and looks set to meet the deadline set by the president,” Kogan said. |
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PUTIN ON PARADE
/ Reuters
A young man has his picture taken embracing a cardboard cut-out of President Vladimir Putin during a rally by pro-Kremlin youth organizations near the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday. Some 2,000 youth activists took part in the demonstration. |
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Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told the State Duma on Wednesday that the armed forces were prepared for the switch from compulsory service terms of 18 months to 12 months next year. “I think we are ready for this transition,” Serdyukov said, Interfax reported. The address was Serdyukov’s first before the Duma since President Vladimir Putin appointed the former furniture store manager turned taxman to head the Defense Ministry in February.
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All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Human rights are likely to suffer if President Vladimir Putin cements his grip on power by becoming prime minister next year, activists told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. If Putin takes the position, it would represent a shift back to a single-party Soviet system, the activists said at the news conference, commemorating the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya on Oct. 7 last year. “With Putin’s announcement ... the presidential elections lost whatever meaning they could have possibly had,” said Tanya Lokshina, of the rights group Demos, referring to the March vote. |
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SNAP HAPPY!
Sergei Almazov / For The St. Petersburg Times
‘Carousel’ by Sergei Almazov, one of the winners in the Canon 2007 photography prize held annually in St. Petersburg and adjudicated by a panel of top professional photographers. |
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The headquarters of the Russian navy could return to its historic home of St. Petersburg if an idea from the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, Boris Gryzlov, comes to fruition. “St. Petersburg is the cradle of Russia’s navy glory, and today as the might of our navy is being revived, such a move would be symbolic and correct,” Gryzlov said during a meeting of Duma deputies with defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Interfax reported.
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Coca-Cola HBC Eurasia launched the third production line at its St. Petersburg plant Wednesday. It will produce soft drinks, the press service for the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade (CEDIPT) at City Hall said Wednesday in a statement. “Investment into the project, including construction of the third production line and new warehouse and office areas accounted for about $28.2 million,” Sergei Fiveisky, deputy chairman of CEDIPT, was cited as saying. “As a result of the increase in production, by 2010 the plant will offer over 300 new jobs for qualified specialists, increasing the total number of employees in the Northwest branch of the company to 1,800 people,” Fiveisky said. |
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VIVE L’ESPAGNE!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A representative in national costume at the Spanish stand of the CIS Travel Trade Fair held at Lenexpo from Oct. 3-5. Representatives from over 35 countries came to promote tourism. |
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The Northwest Timber Company has invested $150 million into the modernization of its production facilities, and another $300 million is to be invested in the near future. Managers believe that by making the production process more efficient, they will compensate for the unfavorable market environment. The modernization program was started in 2004 and is planned for completion in 12 years time.
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President Vladimir Putin’s clear signals that he intends to hold on to the reins of power may be calming investors’ nerves and sending stocks climbing, but that strategy might not bode well for the country in the long term, economists and analysts said Tuesday. |
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MOSCOW — Alisher Usmanov, the owner of a 23 percent stake in Arsenal football club, insisted Tuesday he would not make a takeover bid for the English Premier League team in the near future but said it remained his long-term ambition to own the club. |
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 Constructing a new national identity often requires a new vision of the past. In Ukraine, this phenomenon can be seen in several of Kiev’s museums. Exhibits at the Museum of the Army of Ukraine show the Ukrainians as European people who enjoyed monolithic unity while busily liberating themselves from the “Asiatic” Russians. |
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President Vladimir Putin agreed to run as the top candidate on United Russia’s ticket and did not rule out serving as prime minister after the presidential election in March. |
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 One of St. Petersburg’s most beloved sculptors from the second half of the 20th century, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin, who died aged 80 in 1997, is being honored this month at the Russian Academy of Arts Museum. A rich exhibit dedicated to his life and work can be seen until Oct. |
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I have been told that there is one phrase that makes all economists want to scream. “I’m not an economist, but...” After that “but,” the noneconomist goes on to spout total economic nonsense with the sublime confidence that only comes from total ignorance. |
 London has long been thought of as a magnet for malign foreign influences. In 1888, some Londoners maintained that Jack the Ripper wasn’t an Englishman, but in fact a Chinese opium fiend or one of the American Indians performing in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Modern-day villains from the East, more real and more vicious, menace London in David Cronenberg’s new film “Eastern Promises.” The movie won the audience prize for best film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and has been warmly received by critics. |
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 Genghis Khan, according to one popular view, was a scourge who pillaged and raped his way to creating the second-biggest empire the world has ever seen. |
 It is hard to imagine that a metal ball about the size of a basketball could throw the United States into panic. But 50 years ago, on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit, Americans went into collective shock. To them, the Soviet Union embodied a nation of collective farms, drab cities and household appliances that rarely worked. Sputnik’s success completely altered this view, as the Soviets took the first baby steps into the final frontier of outer space. |
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 TNT’s new comedy spoof series, “Show News,” has the slogan, “For people who are sick of watching the news.” It’s a takeoff of a news broadcast with an anchor, reporters and even a weather girl, although the jokes so far don’t touch a hair on the head of Russia’s most popular anchor, Channel One’s Yekaterina Andreyeva. |
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Globus Gourmet // Varshavsky Express Shopping Center, Obvodny Canal // Tel: 333-1123 // Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. // Menu is in Russian and English // Visa and Mastercard accepted // Dinner for two, 1,900 rubles ($78) The new shopping mall on Obvodny Canal, Varshavsky Express, near the Baltiskaya metro station, is proof that fine dining establishments and gourmet grocers are now able to live under the same roof as arcades and Cineplexes. |
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How do you explain the Jane Austen bandwagon, which rolls on full steam with “Becoming Jane,” an imitation screen adaptation of an Austen-like novel that imagines the author’s romantic life at 20? Austen’s refined language, which Sarah Williams and Kevin Hood’s screenplay does a reasonably good job of capturing, is part of the charm. |
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YANGON — Despite gradually easing its iron grip on Myanmar’s main city on Thursday, the junta continued to round up scores of people and grill hundreds more arrested during and after a ruthless crackdown on pro-democracy marches. Although most are too terrified to talk, the monks and civilians slowly being freed from a makeshift interrogation center in north Yangon are giving a glimpse of the mechanics of the generals’ dreaded internal security apparatus. |
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SHANGHAI — Formula One world championship leader Lewis Hamilton is under investigation amid allegations of dangerous driving in his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, an FIA spokeswoman said Thursday. Race officials are reviewing video evidence suggesting that Hamilton's driving behind the safety car at the rain-lashed Fuji Speedway on Sunday led to a crash that ended the race for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. |
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MOSCOW — Marat Safin will make his return to tennis at next week’s Kremlin Cup, ending a self-imposed two-month layoff, tournament organisers said on Wednesday. |
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PARIS — Olympique Marseille is not getting carried away despite its stunning 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday. A second-half strike from Mathieu Valbuena saw Marseille become the first French side to win at Liverpool and gave the Ligue 1 team top spot in Group A. |
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MARSEILLE, France — England center Andy Farrell has been ruled out of the World Cup quarter-final against Australia here on Saturday, with a right calf strain, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said in a statement Thursday. |
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