|
|
|
|
The local branch of the liberal party Yabloko has announced it is being evicted from its headquarters in central St. Petersburg and must move out by June 1. The building is to be handed over to the city government and turned into a Museum of Entrepreneurship. |
|
MOSCOW — Despite booming investment, lawmakers both in Russia and Europe are preparing to raise barriers for foreign investors. Germany, Russia’s biggest trade partner, wants to expand the government’s right to veto foreign investments in strategic sectors. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
A car is stolen every 53 minutes in St. Petersburg, according to figures released by the city’s traffic police on Wednesday. A total of 8, 514 cars were stolen in the city in 2007, although this was 187 fewer than in 2006, the figures indicate. The most attractive mid-priced cars for thieves are the Toyota Corolla, Mitsubishi Lancer, Ford Focus, Mercedes, Mazda 6 and VAZ models, Andrei Marunich, head of the security department at the Northwestern regional office of RESO Guarantee insurance company, said at a news conference on car theft held to coincide with the release of the new figures. |
|
TOP TECH
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Visitors examining an exhibit at the St. Petersburg Technical Fair at the Lenexpo exhibition center on Thursday. The event, featuring over 300 companies from 13 countries, ends on Friday. |
|
MOSCOW — Protestant groups on Wednesday urged Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to shut down the cartoon channel 2x2 for broadcasting shows they claim promote homosexuality and religious intolerance. It is the second time in a week that the network, owned by Vladimir Potanin’s Prof-Media Group, has come under fire for its content. The Consultative Council of the Heads of Protestant Churches in Russia sent a letter to Chaika on Wednesday, accusing 2x2 of promoting “cruelty, violence, homosexual propaganda, religious hatred and intolerance” by airing cartoons such as “South Park,” said Vitaly Vlasenko, a spokesman for the group, which unites several Protestant denominations.
|
|
|
|
 Baltika Brewery has signed a license agreement with Asahi, the largest Japanese brewery, by which Baltika will be the exclusive producer and distributor of Asahi Super Dry beer in European Russia and the CIS until 2012, the company said Thursday in a statement. |
|
MOSCOW — Russia and Ukraine will remove all middlemen in their gas trade, Russia’s gas export monopoly said on Thursday, ending years of opaque schemes which caused tensions between the two neighbors and alarmed investors. |
|
Tekhnosila to Expand ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Tekhno-sila retail chain will open 12 new electronics supermarkets in St. Petersburg by 2011, investing $25 million into expansion, Interfax reported Tuesday. Tekhnosila currently operates five supermarkets in St. |
|
MOSCOW — A close ally of Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev has been nominated for the board of state oil giant Rosneft, a first signal that Medvedev is seeking to install his people in key posts. |
|
MOSCOW — Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, is looking to ratchet up its Russia presence by pumping $200 million into its operation in the country and appointing a new Russia CEO, the bank announced Wednesday. The plans at HSBC, which calls itself “the world’s local bank,” will see the global brand plunge into retail banking and open up branches in Russia as early as this year. |
|
|
|
 Having listened to all the speculation about what kind of president Dmitry Medvedev will become, we should look more closely at a much more contested question: Are the Russians even capable of democracy? Many people — both in Russia and abroad — argue that Russians have no democratic tradition, that they prefer the iron hand of the autocrat and that the country is too big, too heterogenous and too disorderly to be ruled any other way. |
|
The Russian blogosphere showed a lot of activity during the presidential election campaign. The only part of the pre-election televised debates to generate universal interest among bloggers was when Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky scuffled with a representative of rival candidate Andrei Bogdanov. |
|
|
|
 A man stands in a darkened room, shirtless, his body all muscles and ink. His left shoulder is adorned with an arc of onion domes and an icon. On his lower torso is a Russian Orthodox priest. His tattoos mark him as a former zek, or prisoner, and an “honest thief. |
|
Bob Dylan will perform a one-off concert in Russia, and it will be in St. Petersburg, the local promoter Planeta Plus revealed this week. The legend, who is now on tour in South America, is due to play the Ice Palace on June 3. |
 Pop star Dima Bilan will represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade in May after capturing the nomination for a second time. Viewers and a professional jury chose Bilan’s English-language ballad “Believe” over 26 other entries in the competition, which was broadcast live Sunday evening on Rossia television. Bilan’s fellow competitors included participants from TV shows such as “People’s Artist” and “Become A Star. |
|
 The International Day of Francophonie will be celebrated around the globe on Thursday, and there seems to be no better choice for a soundtrack to a day celebrating the French language than The Krolls, the French-language indie pop band from St. |
 With racist violence on the rise in St. Petersburg, a city with a tragic record of hate crimes — a student from Ghana was hospitalized after being attacked and stabbed on Wednesday night — an African Charity Concert celebrating African music, dance and cuisine planned for this weekend, is both first-class entertainment and an important statement about tolerance. Promoted by Icumbi, a non-profit organization whose goal is to help African refugees in St. |
|
 As its subtitle suggests, this engaging book, translated from its author’s mother tongue, Russian, into clear, elegant English, is sweeping in its scope. |
 Few people had heard of former KGB officer Vladimir Putin when he became prime minister in 1999. But with his taciturn, slightly intimidating face, one thing seemed certain: He didn’t look like a comedian. While “fun” is not a word widely associated with Putin, his eight-year run as Russia’s shortest president — so far — has seen its share of the absurd. |
|
Sevilla // 4 Birzhevoi Pereulok // Tel: 335 2200 // Open daily from 7 a.m. until 12 a.m. // Menu in English and Russian // Dinner for two without alcohol 2,635 rubles ($110) In a narrow alley, tucked behind the old stock exchange building on the spit of Vasilievsky Island, there’s something going on. |
 Like the sibling rivals whose romantic lives it lovingly details, “The Other Boleyn Girl” has ideas above its station. Not content to be a mildly diverting royal bodice-ripper, it spirals out of control into the kind of overwrought dramaturgy that’s out of its league. Not, of course, that there was much room for choice in how the plot went. |
|
|
|
 Two goals from Zenit St. Petersburg’s Pavel Pogrebnyak earned the Russian champions a 2-0 victory over Marseille to book a quarter-final berth in the UEFA Cup on Wednesday. Marseille’s conceded away goal in the 3-1 first leg victory in France proved the deciding factor as the team went out of Europe’s second-tier club competition on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate scoreline. |
|
MOSCOW — The Russian league season kicks off on Friday with a testing fixture for the away side: they are playing in a city that just a few years ago was a war zone. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive