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Following a devastating lack of votes at nationwide parliamentary elections on Sunday, the local branch of liberal party Yabloko has called for party leader Grigory Yavlinsky to be replaced or for the introduction of several co-chairmen. Maxim Reznik, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko, voiced the suggestion Tuesday and stressed the need for an overhaul in the party’s management and structure. According to official statistics presented by the Central Election Commission, Yabloko received 5.1 percent of the St. Petersburg vote but nationwide the party received just 1.6 percent, way below most pre-election estimates that had given Yabloko about 4 percent of the vote. “The local results have proved we are not a marginal party,” Reznik said. “The 100,000 St. Petersburg citizens that gave us their support cannot be marginals, and their backing gives the St. |
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LETTER TO LIZ
Vladimir Filonov / The St. Petersburg Times
A Nashi activist reading a letter Wednesday that the group wrote to Queen Elizabeth II, accusing the British Ambassador of interfering in internal affairs and calling for his replacement. See page 3. |
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not, at least for now, take up the seat in parliament he won in last weekend’s election, Interfax news agency quoted an official of his party as saying on Thursday. But Putin could enter parliament at a later date, one of the options analysts say the popular 55-year-old might choose to retain influence after his presidential term ends next year.
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The height of the controversial Okhta Tower skyscraper, to be constructed for energy giant Gazprom’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, is governed by harmonious proportions and functionality, its architects said in St. Petersburg on Tuesday. At a planned 396 meters high — putting it among the tallest buildings in the world — the scale of the tower has prompted fears among city residents that it would ruin St. |
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A story headlined “Russian Art Auction Raises $81 Million” on Page 3 of The Petersburg Times published on Friday, Nov. 30 was based on Bloomberg reports, written by John Varoli, and material from The Associated Press. |
All photos from issue.
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A collection drive for New Year gifts for orphans and handicapped children is being organized by the charity Perspektivy and the Astoria Hotel, Perspektivy said in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. “We want to draw society’s attention to the problems of children with special needs,” said Anna Kagan, spokeswoman for the Astoria Hotel, at a press conference. “We find out the New Year’s wishes of such children and let business people know about them.” Maria Ostrovskaya, director of Perspektivy, said children’s New Year’s wishes range from wanting to go on a trip to other, more modest things. “Some children dream of a musical instrument, while others just want to have a bottle of bubbles,” Ostrovskaya said. |
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WALL TO WALL
Denis Sinyakov / Reuters
Supporters of the Kremlin-loyal Nashi youth movement demonstrate their readiness to fight opponents during a rally in support of President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. |
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MOSCOW — Several dozen activists from the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi picketed outside the British Embassy on Wednesday and presented diplomats with a letter to Queen Elizabeth II calling for the removal of British Ambassador Anthony Brenton. Nashi also said it was suing Brenton on the grounds that he had broken international law by meddling in Russia’s internal affairs.
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MOSCOW — A prosecutor said Wednesday that $1 million in cash had been found in the apartment of Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, who faces charges of attempting to embezzle $43 million. The lead investigator in the case also told Rossiiskaya Gazeta that Storchak, who has denied any wrongdoing, had been detained on Nov. |
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General Motors is bidding for a stake in AvtoVaz, Russia’s largest carmaker. The American automotive giant aims to expand its presence in the rapidly growing car market, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing a spokesman for GM. |
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MOSCOW — What is in a name? “An awful lot,” BlackBerry’s Russian fans and foes would tell you. In a country where handset owners love and hate gadgets with a passion, it’s little wonder that a device as innocuous as BlackBerry can still spark off large controversies. |
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BEIJING — The cost of an oil pipeline from Russia to China has risen to $12 billion, and the countries’ struggle to agree on a pricing deal for a similar gas pipe could drag on for years, a Russian energy official said Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW — McDonald’s Russian unit is disputing a bill for 160 million rubles ($6.5 million) in unpaid taxes, Kommersant reported Tuesday. Tax officials said McDonald’s in 2003 and 2004 improperly wrote off the cost of products purchased from an unregistered company, Ivers Import, whose registration documents have been misplaced. |
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Meat Ban Under Review MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia may lift a two-year ban on imports of some Polish meat products within the next few days as a gesture of good will toward Poland’s new government, daily Dziennik reported, without saying where it got the information. |
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 It is ultimately a cruel misunderstanding of youth to believe it will find its heart’s desire in freedom,” says Leo Naphta, the great character of Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain.” “Its deepest desire is to obey.” On Sunday, voters as far apart as Caracas and Vladivostok took to the polls and put Naphta’s theory to a practical test. |
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Last week I heard the most optimistic news that an inveterate pessimist like me could have possibly imagined. No, I’m not referring to the recent State Duma elections. |
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 On weekends, Father Ioann Okhlobystin can be found tending to his flock at St. Sofia’s Church of the Wisdom of God, opposite the Kremlin in Moscow. He wears a long, black priestly cassock and sometimes gives sermons about love and friendship. During the week, Ivan Okhlobystin acts in big-budget movies and writes scripts for action films. |
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The music program for this week’s Finnish-Russian Music Seminar, organized by the Sibelius Academy, the Finnish Music Information Centre (Fimic) and the Finnish Institute in St. |
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NEW YORK — Every literate Russian can quote Pushkin and hum a tune from Glinka. No Russian orchestra on the road is likely to leave either man at home. Valery Gergiev and the Kirov (Mariinsky) Orchestra of St. Petersburg, in three Carnegie Hall concerts this week, have been happy once again to leave other people’s music to other people. Patrons could be assured that Borodin or Rimsky-Korsakov or something kindred was on the way. No one seemed disappointed. Stravinsky has seemed the closest thing to non-Russian in this series, although many will argue that his has been the most Russian music of all. Russia came late to the European musical tradition, and Glinka’s “Ruslan and Ludmila,” on Saturday evening, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Snow Maiden,” on Sunday afternoon, represent both an accommodation with and a suspicion of European ideas of formalism and elegance. |
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 “Où vont les chiens?” asks a new photography exhibition at Café Zoom at 22 Ulitsa Gorokhovaya. The quote, taken from Charles Baudelaire’s The Good Dog (“Where are the dogs going?”), not only refers to our canine friends, the cohabitants of our cities, it also nonchalantly suggests a parallel to our own existence. |
 World War II — the “Great Patriotic War,” in Soviet parlance — played and continues to play a critical role in Russians’ understanding of who they are and what place their country occupies in the history of the modern world. By the end of the 1930s, the “Great October Revolution” had faded as a source of legitimacy for the Soviet regime, and promises of socialism had proven chimerical and elusive. |
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 Kremlin watchers all get up early on Wednesday mornings, so that they can catch the latest bulletin from an insider who keeps her nose to the ground and her ears pricked up for juicy titbits. |
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Dali Cafe // 11 Spassky Pereulok. Tel: 572 6203 // www.dalicafe.spb.ru // Open 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. // Dinner for two 690 rubles ($29). All the dishes at this swanky new café hidden on a scruffy side street off Sennaya Ploshchad purportedly share their names with the titles of works by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali after whom, of course, the café is named. This throws up some strange imagery, as you would expect: grilled marinated veal (380 rubles, $15.50) is called “Flesh on Stones”; fillet of flounder with pesto (420 rubles, $17) is called “The Endless Enigma”; and bouillon with quail’s eggs and herbs (90 rubles, $3.60) is called “Atavistic Vestiges After the Rain. |
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 A festival of German films, opening Friday with “Porno! Melo! Drama!” running through Dec. 16, features a wide selection of features, short and documentary films made in Germany over the last year. |
 You don’t need to wait for Angelina Jolie to rise from the vaporous depths naked and dripping liquid gold to know that this “Beowulf” isn’t your high school teacher’s Old English epic poem. You don’t even have to wait for the flying spears and airborne bodies that — if you watch the movie in one of the hundreds of theaters equipped with 3-D projection — will look as if they’re hurtling directly at your head. |
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 LIVERPOOL, England — Tim Cahill, who ensured Everton will be involved in European competition after Christmas for the first time in more than two decades when the club won its only European trophy, the now defunct Cup Winners Cup, in 1985, has hailed the club’s progress to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup as just reward for years of hard work. |
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Unbeaten rivals Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton had to be restrained Wednesday after a staredown confrontation got out of hand when the Englishman answered Mayweather’s intimidation tactics. |
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Issues Archive