|
|
|
|
Anti-Kremlin political coalition The Other Russia held a protest demonstration and a subsequent meeting Monday in reaction to Sunday’s presidential election, which its members perceive as a “coronation” of the Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev. |
|
President-elect Dmitry Medvedev fared better in St. Petersburg than in the national vote, according to figures released Monday, receiving 72.27 percent against a national vote of 70. |
|
MOSCOW — An investigative reporter denied entry into Moscow last week as a threat to national security returned to her native Moldova on Saturday after her health deteriorated in the Domodedeovo Airport transit area. Natalya Morar had refused to leave the transit area since Wednesday, when she was turned away despite what she said was her legal right to entry as the newly wed wife of a Russian citizen. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — Voters and opposition parties complained of ballot stuffing, bribery and intimidation in Sunday’s presidential election, in which Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev appeared set for a landslide victory. Golos, the only independent Russian monitoring group, said that a majority of the violations occurred not at the ballot box, but rather in the run-up to the election and during the tallying of votes. Authorities, meanwhile, either denied any voting irregularities or dismissed them as negligible. “These are free and democratic elections, and they were preceded by a free and democratic campaign,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone Sunday evening. |
|
PETER POWER
Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters
A man dressed as Romanov Tsar Peter the Great, the founder of St. Petersburg, receives his ballot papers at a polling station in the center of the city on Sunday. |
|
Students, graduates and teachers of the European University in St. Petersburg staged a theatrical event in the city on Friday to protest against the closure of the university last month. They laid a 50-meter long fire hose, coiled to resemble the university’s snail logo, at the foot of a monument to Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, often seen as the father of Russian higher education, which stands near St.
|
 KHABEZ, Karachayevo-Cherkessia — The tiny district of Khabez in the North Caucasus would barely merit a mention were it not for one rather interesting fact. In the recent State Duma elections, every one of its 18,282 registered voters turned out to cast a ballot, and every single one of them checked the box for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, according to official results. |
|
MOSCOW — With his protege widely expected to be elected president in a landslide victory, not even the miserable Moscow weather could dampen President Vladimir Putin’s mood as he cast his ballot Sunday in southwest Moscow. |
|
NARYAN-MAR, Nenets Autonomous District — Galina Vladimirovna put on her nicest dress and best fur coat Sunday morning, and told her 70-year-old mother to do the same. There was no wedding or holiday to celebrate — they were going to vote. “We simply ran to the voting booth,” said Galina, 35, a mother of two. She spent the entire morning at the House of Culture in Iskatelei, a village in the heart of the Nenets Autonomous District, inside the Arctic Circle. Even in one of Russia’s most isolated regions — no trains or roads connect Nenets with what locals call “the mainland” — Dmitry Medvedev emerged as the clear favorite following a sustained campaign that focused on his endorsement by President Vladimir Putin. |
|
 Gennady Zyuganov arrived at the press center of his Communist Party’s headquarters a few minutes after national television started broadcasting initial results at 9 p. |
|
|
|
|
Goodyear, one of the world’s largest producers of tires, opened its first store and service center in St. Petersburg on Friday. The store, located at Prospekt Morisa Toreza, will operate under the Premio brand. The store will sell a wide range of Russian and foreign brand tires, car accessories and cleaning equipment. |
|
Power Charges Increase MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Power prices in the European part of Russia, the more populated of the country’s two pricing zones, jumped 34 percent last month, the ATS electricity exchange said. |
|
London Consulting & Management Company (LCMC) has added a new service to those offered by the firm — auditing concepts for the development of commercial premises. Managers expect the new service to become popular in Russia’s regions. Competition on the commercial real estate market is growing, which has created a demand for more professional services and more highly qualified consultants. According to LCMC, clients often ask for an examination of concepts that have been developed by regional consulting firms. “Not so long ago, many developers rejected the very idea of turning to Moscow based consultants for market research and the development of an optimal concept,” said Dmitriy Zolin, managing partner of LCMC. |
|
 MOSCOW — French auto giant Renault completed a deal Friday that could see the company pay up to $1.17 billion for a 25 percent stake in the country’s biggest carmaker, AvtoVAZ. |
 LONDON — European and Asian stock markets tumbled Monday as investors reacted nervously to a steep decline on Wall Street Friday after disappointing economic and corporate news rekindled worries about a U.S. recession. The U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 fell 1. |
|
FRANKFURT — Europe’s biggest auto firm Volkswagen said Monday it has won control of Scania, a step that could dramatically reshape the heavy vehicle industry via an eventual merger of the Swedish truck maker with German rival MAN. |
|
LONDON — HSBC’s profits rose 10 percent last year as buoyant growth in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia helped Europe’s biggest bank absorb $17.2 billion in bad debts as the U.S. housing crisis deepened. Profits in Hong Kong rose 42 percent and earnings jumped 70 percent in the rest of Asia, but the bank’s North American arm barely scraped a profit as past risky loans to U. |
|
|
|
 At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, the buzz was about Asia’s growing power. One Asian analyst argued that by 2050, there will be three world powers: the United States, China and India. He did not mention Europe, but underestimating Europe’s power is a mistake. |
|
The stock exchange is transforming companies by modifying their attitude to the external world. Just six months ago, a company would not respond to any questions, but now its executives are available for comment almost around the clock, and the company’s financial results for the last quarter and much other information is also freely available to any interested party. |
|
|
|
 Every so often in life we come up against situations where we have to do something unpleasant and boring but necessary. Men’s daily ritual of shaving is a good example. For many authoritarian regimes, an equally burdensome but unavoidable chore is holding elections. |
|
Soon after immigrating to the United States in the mid-1970s, I got a job in a small suburban town outside New York and moved into a rented room. It was an exhilarating experience for a 19-year-old. |
|
Russia’s official economic policy rhetoric has suddenly turned liberal again. On Feb. 8, President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech to the State Council that resembled an annual address to the nation. Curiously, he had titled it “On Russia’s Development Strategy Through 2020,” as if he had no intention of leaving office. |
|
|
|
 GAZA — Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday after a U.S. appeal to end days of fighting that killed more than 100 Palestinians and rescue peace talks. The Hamas Islamists who control the coastal enclave declared “victory” and vowed to continue firing rockets into Israel, launching one into the main southern city of Ashkelon shortly after the troops withdrew, wounding one person. |
|
LONDON — Campaigners calling for a referendum on a disputed new EU treaty staged a protest Monday after climbing a crane next to parliament in central London. |
|
|
|
 LONDON — Chelsea captain John Terry said Chelsea’s hopes of a trophy treble were very much alive after a 4-0 Premier League win at West Ham set the side up for their Champions League clash with Greece’s Olympiakos. Terry revealed that after Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat against Tottenham in the League Cup final the previous weekend he’d shared some home truths with both players and management. |
|
DUBAI — Yelena Dementyeva defeated second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6 6-3 6-2 in an all-Russian final at the Dubai Championship on Saturday to win her ninth career title. |
|
LONDON — Heikki Kovalainen smiles when people suggest he will be second among equals as Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren teammate. The 26-year-old Finn has faced the same questions over and over since he was signed up as double world champion Fernando Alonso’s replacement at Woking and his self-belief remains undiminished. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive