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MOSCOW — A record number of Russian delegates will attend the World Economic Forum next week, but in sharp contrast to last year their dealings will be largely behind the scenes. Fifty-one government officials, executives, analysts and journalists will represent Russia at the annual gathering of the world’s most influential business leaders and politicians in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which opens next Wednesday. The Russians, however, are not looking for a place in the spotlight after last year, when their 47-member delegation was led by Dmitry Medvedev, the first deputy prime minister who is expected to win the presidential election in March. |
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 The British Council suspended its activities in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, and expressed the hope that its Moscow office would be able to continue the work. |
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MOSCOW — Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday amid a global flight from risk, and the RTS index saw its worst daily losses since May 2006, dropping 4.52 percent. Analysts blamed the turmoil on U.S. markets, which are reeling this week from Citigroup’s write-down of subprime debt and from poor U.S. retail data. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The level of freedom in Russia went “from bad to worse” in 2007, a U.S. democracy watchdog said in a report released Wednesday. Russians enjoy the same level of freedom as citizens of Angola, Egypt and Tajikistan, according to the latest annual report card from Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization based in New York and Washington. |
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MOSCOW — Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov submitted to the Central Elections Commission on Wednesday the 2 million signatures required to run for president in the March election. |
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MOSCOW — Senator Mikhail Margelov will not be the next president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly due to a reform that has been described as aimed at preventing a Russian from chairing Europe’s prominent human rights watchdog. At a meeting in Paris on Jan. 10, the leaders of the assembly’s five political groups agreed on reforms to the nominating procedures for the rotating presidency that would give the chamber’s largest group, the Socialists, the right to nominate a candidate for the election, scheduled for Monday. |
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Arsenal, one of the oldest industrial enterprises in St. Petersburg, is planning to turn its former factory into a multifunctional business center in a project that will cost between $100 million and $150 million, the company said in a statement. The four-hectare complex will include a business center, shopping area, mini-hotel and restaurant. |
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MOSCOW — Rosneft’s profits jumped by 80 percent following its purchase of assets of the bankrupt Yukos oil firm, the state-owned company said Wednesday in its first statement concerning the effect of the acquisitions. |
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X5 To Buy Out Karusel ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — X5 Retail Group will realize its option to buy-out Karusel retail chain, Interfax reported Wednesday. Goldman Sachs has begun due diligence of Karusel, which is currently owned by Formata, at the request of X5. The deal could be closed by July 1, 2008. |
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 It’s midnight in the mirrored changing room of a nightclub on Novy Arbat. A posse of dancers and backing singers waits patiently for Russia’s best-known rapper, Timati, who is due to perform at a corporate Christmas party. Boys in baggy pants and hoodies practice dance moves, while a girl pouts in front of the mirror in a tiny skirt and patent high heels. |
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Tequilajazzz is in the studio working on a new album, its first in five years. Frontman Yevgeny Fyodorov, who has recently returned from a holiday in India, revealed some details this week. |
 Coining a new word can carry a heavy price these days. A Vladimir television journalist faces a hefty fine or even prison time after referring to a local meeting of supporters of President Vladimir Putin as a “puting” and the supporters as “Putinists.” Local prosecutors questioned the journalist, Sergei Golovinov, on Monday as part of an investigation into whether his use of the two words on his program on TV-6 Vladimir television had insulted a public official — a crime punishable by a fine of up to 40,000 rubles ($1,600) or a year of forced labor. |
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 NICE, France — On a February morning in 2006, a group of experts in Russian art approached the onion-domed Russian church here and demanded to be admitted to take an inventory of the building and its contents — icons, liturgical vestments, incense burners, everything. |
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Marmaris // 38 Kazanskaya Ulitsa. Tel: 315 7282 // Open 10 a.m. through 11 p.m. // Menu in Russian // Lunch for two 965 rubles ($40) Named after a port city in western Turkey, Marmaris promises a drop of Mediterranean sunshine in St. Petersburg’s Baltic gloom. What could be more tempting than a feast of köfte, döner, börek and gözleme to bring back memories of Aegean beaches and hot summer nights? With the sophistication of ethnic eateries in contemporary St. Petersburg and Russia’s familiarity with Turkey (it remains a well-loved vacation destination), a certain level of quality was anticipated at Marmaris — a level, sadly, the café does not reach. |
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 This week, Rossia television aired a new drama series about a provincial journalist called “Hold the Front Page.” I was quite interested to see this, since I once worked at a provincial newspaper — a strange place with its own sauna and a permanent lack of toilet paper, which was often lovingly replaced by the newspaper itself. |
 Joe Wright’s “Atonement” begins in the endlessly photogenic, thematically pregnant interwar period. The setting is a rambling old British country estate where trim dinner jackets and shimmering silk dresses are worn; cigarettes are smoked with sharp inhalations that create perfect concavities of cheekbone; and the air is thick with class tension and sexual anxiety. |
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 MELBOURNE — A frustrated Marat Safin exited the Australian Open on Thursday, beaten 6-4 6-4 2-6 3-6 6-2 by Cypriot 15th seed Marcos Baghdatis in an enthralling second-round battle in Melbourne. In a high quality match, 2006 runner-up Baghdatis dominated the early stages but Safin roared back to level before the Cypriot came out on top in the decider after three hours, 13 minutes “It was great tennis,” Baghdatis said in a courtside interview. |
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NEWCASTLE — Kevin Keegan on Thursday insisted he could play the Messiah one more time at Newcastle after making a shock return to the manager’s chair at St. |
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