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St. Petersburg will be the only city in Russia and one of only three European cities to host the Olympic torch relay ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August. The torch will be carried through the city on April 5. London and Paris are the other European cities through which the Olympic torch will be carried. “It’s a great honor for St. Petersburg to host such a serious world sports event,” said Vyacheslav Chazov, head of the St. Petersburg Sports and Physical Culture Committee. “I think St. Petersburg has received the honor because it is known not only as the country’s cultural capital, but also as the home of a whole set of magnificent sporting achievements,” Chazov said. Chazov said at least 81 Olympic champions live in St. Petersburg, and 44 of the city’s sportsmen will take part in the Olympics this year. |
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LIFTOFF FOR EAGLES
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Two of the double-headed eagle statues surrounding the Alexander Column on Palace Square. An inspection on Thursday revealed that 28 of the smaller eagles have been stolen. |
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MOSCOW — Russian security services have detained an employee of BP’s Russian joint venture and a second person with links to the British government’s cultural arm on charges of industrial espionage, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. The agencies quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying the two people detained were brothers with the family name Zaslavsky.
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A new generation of activists joined veteran protesters this week near the Angleterre Hotel on St. Isaac’s Square to mark the 21st anniversary of mass protests held to save the original historical building, one of the most important such demonstrations of people power in the waning days of the Soviet Union. |
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A recent increase in the number of accidents involving the city’s marshrutki minibuses has prompted police, prosecutors and the city administration to step up safety inspections. |
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MOSCOW — Opposition coalition The Other Russia on Wednesday proposed creating an alternative parliament that would unite opposition groups across the political spectrum. The alternative parliament, tentatively titled the National Assembly, would consist of 500 to 600 members, including activists from liberal opposition parties and groups, such as Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces and Mikhail Kasyanov’s Russian People’s Democratic Union, opposition leader Garry Kasparov told a news conference. |
All photos from issue.
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Most violations of people’s rights in St. Petersburg are connected to housing, according to an annual report released by city ombudsman Igor Mikhailov. These findings are countered by local human rights advocates who are working on an alternative document. |
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MOSCOW — Russia received the United States’ compromise proposals on missile defense in written form Wednesday, and officials were studying them, Foreign Ministry officials said, Interfax reported. |
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MOSCOW — PepsiCo and its largest bottler agreed to buy a majority stake in Russia’s leading juice producer in another step by the world’s No. 2 soft drinks maker to increase its presence in healthier food and beverages. PepsiCo and the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) said in a statement on Thursday they have agreed to buy 75. |
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Fazer Group has signed an agreement to buy a land plot in the Leningrad Oblast on which it will build a new bakery to strengthen its position on the Russian market, the Finnish company said Tuesday in a statement, adding that construction will begin on the eastern part of this land plot in the near future. |
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Vegetable Profits Slump ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Sunway-Group LLC, a Leningrad Oblast-based fruit and vegetable retailer, saw its net profit decrease by 16 times last year, Interfax reported Tuesday. The company reported net profit of 2.686 million rubles ($114,000) for 2007 as opposed to 41. |
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MOSCOW — The murder trial in absentia of former Yukos executive Leonid Nevzlin began in Moscow on Wednesday, prompting complaints by defense lawyers that they were given inadequate time to prepare their case. |
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MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday that he saw the Central Bank’s deposits, bank reserve requirements and market operations, but not the ruble as key anti-inflation levers in 2008. Russia missed its 2007 inflation target by a wide margin, reversing a lower inflation trend seen in previous years. |
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 Earlier this month, the American Enterprise Institute hosted a panel discussion with leading members of the opposition in Russia — Boris Nemtsov; Vladimir Ryzhkov; Oleg Buklemishev, the deputy manager of Mikhail Kasyanov’s presidential campaign; and Vladimir Kara-Murza, the manager of Vladimir Bukovsky’s presidential bid. |
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Here is the latest scandal to hit Chechnya: A Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist, while on a visit to Grozny for a football game, took a drive down the street that was renamed just last month for the 84th Paratroopers Squadron. |
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Todd Pitman, the West Africa bureau chief for The Associated Press, was riding behind Dmitry Chebotayev’s vehicle when the Russian photographer was killed last year. He describes how the experience changed his life. In my nightmares, the helicopters still come out of a dark sky, two black spots barely visible against the backdrop of night. |
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Free Maxim Reznik, a rally against imprisonment of the leader of the local branch of Yabloko democratic party, will feature Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and satirist Viktor Shenderovich, rather than musical performances, as was previously announced in leaflets distributed earlier this week. |
 Amid a wave of hate crimes that has tarnished Russia’s cultural capital, a youth organization has taken up the challenge to retrieve St. Petersburg’s reputation by organizing a movie festival on tolerance in the week following the UN’s World Day Against Racism. The St. Petersburg Social Democratic Youth Organization (SDYO) has taken over the task of organizing the third annual five-day “Open Your Eyes” International Film Festival against Racism and Xenophobia, to be held at Dom Kino, from the St Petersburg-based Russian-German Exchange (RGE), which was the organizer last year. |
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 This year’s Mariinsky Theater Ballet Festival, running through Sunday, has proved very meager indeed compared with the rich and diverse fare offered by the seven previous festivals. |
 Atop the globe, the icy surface of the Arctic Ocean has remained relatively peaceful. But its depths have boiled with intrigue, no more so than in the cold war. Although the superpowers planned to turn those depths into an inferno of exploding torpedoes and rising missiles, the brotherhood of submariners — the silent service, both Russian and American — has worked hard over the decades to keep the particulars of those plans hush-hush. |
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 Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. |
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Simplebar // 1 Degtyarnaya Ulitsa // Tel. 941 1744 // Open daily from 1p.m. to 1a.m. // Menu in Russian and English // Dinner for two with wine 6,510 rubles ($268) SimpleBar has the subtitle “Aram and Olga’s Enoteca.” Aram is the owner of this restaurant as well as half a dozen other well-known places from Probka to Ryba, while Olga supervises this particular bar. What’s more important than this superfluous fact or the red A and O letters attached to some dishes on the menu to mark their personal favorites, is that SimpleBar is more of a drinking than an eating place and is that with a twist. The twist here is the intricate hermetic corks that can keep the wine intact for weeks on end once the bottle is opened. |
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 At the beginning of “27 Dresses,” Jane (Katherine Heigl), a serial bridesmaid with an almost pathological devotion to other people’s nuptials, spends a long night shuttling between two weddings. |
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 BEIJING — Tibet authorities said on Thursday they had arrested dozens of people involved in a wave of anti-Chinese violence that has swept the mountain region and prompted Beijing to pour in troops to crush further unrest. China’s response to last week’s violence — which it says was orchestrated by the exiled Dalai Lama — has sparked international criticism and has clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics which the hosts hope will be the country’s “coming-out party” as a world power. |
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LONDON — Two British tabloid newspapers made unprecedented front page apologies on Wednesday to the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann for suggesting they might have killed their daughter and covered up her death. |
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LONDON — David Beckham could win his 100th international cap against France next Wednesday after he was recalled to the England squad on Thursday. Coach Fabio Capello named the 32-year-old midfielder, who plays for LA Galaxy, in a 30-man squad for the friendly at the Stade de France. |
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BEIJING — Beijing organisers are refitting the toilets at three main Olympic venues after complaints from foreign athletes about having to squat, an official said on Wednesday. |
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BEIJING — The largest producer of China’s favorite tipple has promised the country’s shooting team a 10 million yuan ($1.42 million) bonus if they bag five gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, state media reported on Thursday. The Wuliangye Group, which distils the fiery alcoholic drink baijiu, has also offered a 1. |
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