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 The streets of Russian towns have been plastered with political posters and the TV channels are clogged up with election commercials. But critics say that political advertising in Russia, despite its lavish style and the vast sums of money spent on it, is disappointing in content, and may turn voters off. |
All photos from issue.
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An African-Russian man was hospitalized following a violent street assault by a group of suspected neo-Nazis on Sunday near his home on Ulitsa Aviakonstruktor in northwest St. Petersburg. Maira Mkama, 24, a second-year Ph D. student at the St. Petersburg Academy of Economics and Administration was stabbed six times in the chest and stomach, badly damaging one kidney and his liver, on his way home from the nearby Kommandantsky Prospekt metro station, at around 8 p.m. Although the incident occurred a few hours after FC Zenit St. Petersburg had won the Premier League soccer championship and some fans were going on the rampage, it was not immediately clear if the attack was connected to the evening’s soccer-related hijinks. |
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 MOSCOW — An architect convicted of killing an air traffic controller over a 2002 midair collision was given a hero’s welcome by Nashi activists as he arrived in Moscow from a Swiss jail Tuesday. |
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LONDON — A Russian woman has given birth to five healthy quintuplet girls at a British hospital after defying Russian doctors who suggested she abort some of the foetuses. “They’re very well. All five,” Lawrence Impey, a doctor at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, told BBC radio on Thursday. Giving birth to quintuplets can be dangerous and historically it has been rare that all five children survive. |
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The St. Petersburg government approved land planning for three strategic projects to be implemented in the city — the Krasnoselskaya industrial zone, the Sea Passenger Terminal and a land reclamation project to the west of Vasilievsky Island, the local government press service said Tuesday in a statement. A total of 414.6 hectares of new land will be created near Vasilievsky Island. Residential buildings will occupy 85.4 hectares, business centers and public facilities — 65.7 hectares, parks and recreational areas — 18.5 hectares. Roads will occupy 204.4 hectares, including 58. |
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STRIKING OUT
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The continuing strike by dockers at the St. Petersburg Sea Port which began on Tuesday morning is estimated by the port’s management to be costing $1.5 million per month. |
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MOSCOW — Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said Wednesday that the government might extend restrictions on grain exports from January as the authorities struggle to rein in inflation. But the government’s policy of limiting wheat and barley exports drew criticism from a European Commission trade official, who said it could harm firms relying on raw material supplies from Russia.
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WestCall To Invest ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — WestCall telecom operator will invest between $50 million and $55 million in the development of its network in St. Petersburg by 2012, Interfax reported Tuesday. By 2011 WestCall plans to cover all city districts with its broadband network, spending $25 million to $30 million on the project. |
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MOSCOW — The country’s transportation fuels market is facing its biggest crisis in almost 20 years as severe shortages force some retailers to close their filling stations. |
 The new oil exchange will start operating in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 2008. The Russian ministry for economic development and trade announced Wednesday that St. Petersburg Exchange won the tender to operate the crude oil and oil products exchange. |
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MINSK — Belarus said Wednesday it was considering retaliatory moves against the United States in response to financial sanctions on oil processor Belneftekhim. |
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 The French Revolution had its Jacobins and the Russian Revolution erupted in Red Terror. The peaceful revolutions of more recent years weren’t supposed to produce violent counterrevolutions. But now one of them has. Indeed, in a single week, the president of Georgia — Mikheil Saakashvili, or Misha to his friends — probably did more damage to U. |
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The anti-utopian literary genre of the 20th century was led by Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984.” And now, at the start of the 21st century, it turns out that dystopias really exist. |
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 When Rudi Eastwood came to St. Petersburg in 2005 to continue his studies in conducting under the direction of Russian conductor Peter Gribanov, he practiced his art before an orchestra of imaginary musicians. Over the orchestral sounds of two pianos, playing the part of each invisible instrument, Gribanov would exclaim, “you forgot to bring in the bassoon!” “It’s difficult being a young conductor,” said 25-year-old Eastwood, discussing the formidable task of gaining access to orchestra time with real musicians. |
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“I have to admit it’s getting better,” sang Paul McCartney as a member of The Beatles in 1967. Or, on a murkier note, “Life has become better, life has become more cheerful,” as Joseph Stalin said in 1936, months before unleashing the mass repressions of 1937. |
 Jon Anderson, the musician and high-voiced singer from progressive rock band Yes, also known for his own diverse projects, began a European tour in Belgium earlier this month and on Tuesday performs in St. Petersburg at the State Academic Capella. This is Anderson’s second visit to Russia who said he enjoys being here. “Everywhere I can, I listen to music and I was pleased to see that Russians like music, dancing and sport very much,” Anderson said by telephone from Belgium. |
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 Asked to name the flagship orchestra of Russia, many people would answer the Kirov, helmed by the indefatigable Valery Gergiev. He and his players, after all, have received considerable media attention for, among other things, presenting Wagner’s “Ring” cycle in the U. |
 “The future is bright and unpredictable. Nothing scares us now.” That was the last sentence in Artyom Troitsky’s “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” the celebrity journalist’s personal account of rock music in the Soviet Union, published in the U.K. in 1987. Written at the height of optimism caused by Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost, the book celebrated a phenomena that Troitsky helped form as a music journalist and underground concert promoter. |
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 This week, Britain’s Mail on Sunday called 15-year-old fashion designer Kira Plastinina a “spoilt bratski,” as the paper put it in fluent tabloidski, after she invited Paris Hilton to attend her show at Moscow Fashion Week. |
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Don Khuan // 41 Kazanskaya Ulitisa. Tel: 314 9629 // Open 11 a.m. through 11 p.m. // Menu in Russian only // Dinner for two with beer 1118 rubles ($45). Not to be confused with Saigon, another Chinese restaurant nearby at the Voznesensky end of Kazanskaya Ulitsa, Don Khuan announces itself at street level with an entirely predictable display of red lanterns and a red sandwich board painted in gold letters in an “oriental” font. |
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A brief word of apology to our friends at Mari Vanna, reviewed last week in the Dish — the phone number for this Petrograd Side eatery contained a misprint and should have read 230 5359. |
 Career Politicians, the Fourth Estate and Disaffected Youth all earn a stern knuckle rapping in “Lions for Lambs,” Robert Redford’s big-screen lecture about civic responsibility and its absence in the Age of Iraq. Those who remain shocked, shocked that elected officials, certain journalists and cosseted college students sat idly by, huffing Hummer fumes and nodding out on 24/7 infotainment (all Britney, all the time), while the administration led the charge, first into Afghanistan and then into Iraq, may find much to embrace here. |
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 SHANGHAI — World number two Rafael Nadal blasted past Serb Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup on Thursday. The French Open champion sank to his knees in celebration after his Gold Group match in Shanghai but still faced a nervous wait before his place in the last four was assured. |
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Croatia need only a point against Macedonia in their penultimate group game on Saturday to qualify for Euro 2008 but the Group E leaders are well aware of the dangers of playing for the draw. |
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The current State Duma is set to squeeze through a controversial bill in its final session Friday intended to speed up preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. With the eyes of the world on Russia ahead of the games, proponents of the legislation say it is vital if the country is to get the site ready on time. |
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