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The Dzerzhinsky federal court on Friday upheld an appeal by the European University that allows the school the right to resume its activities after it had been closed last month for fire code violations. Teaching at the university — an internationally recognized seat of learning and one of Russia’s best private universities — was suspended after the city fire inspectorate found 52 violations of fire safety rules during a routine annual check that was completed on January 18, prompting a rapid court ruling suspending the school’s activities. After correcting more than 20 of the violations, the university filed an appeal asking for permission to resume teaching while gradually correcting other violations, but the court ruled against the school. |
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SHAKE THAT ASS!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The Mariinsky Ballet has said farewell to one of its longest-serving artistes: a 21-year-old female donkey named Monika, who worked for 19 years carrying Sancho Panza around the stage during performancs of “Don Quixote.” She will be replaced by Alina (l). |
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MOSCOW — The Natural Resources Ministry said Friday that it would investigate TNK-BP’s largest oil field, putting further pressure on the Russian-British firm one day after the Federal Security Service said it had charged an employee with industrial espionage. Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the ministry’s environmental watchdog, will lead the investigation into the Samotlor field in western Siberia, the ministry said in a statement.
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Supporters of Maxim Reznik gathered Sunday two days after the leader of the local branch of the opposition democratic party Yabloko was released, having spent weeks in custody on charges he says have been fabricated. Although some celebrated Reznik’s release, many pointed out that the criminal case against him, which may lead to him being sentenced to up to five years for allegedly insulting and assaulting three policemen, is still under way. |
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MOSCOW — The head of Dagestani state television and a Dagestan-born reporter for Channel One television died in brutal killings Friday. Gunmen fired on a car carrying the head of state television company GTRK Dagestan, Gadzhi Abashilov, in a drive-by shooting Friday evening in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. |
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Monkey Business ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The last of the orangutans at the city’s Leningrad Zoo will be shipped out shortly, Fontanka.ru reported on Monday. Zira, a female orangutan that the zoo had originally procured from a German zoo in 2003, is being moved out of Russia because there is not enough space for her to move about comfortably and because this breed of ape is not accustomed to harsh winter weather. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The State Duma on Friday passed in a key second reading the government’s long-awaited bill limiting foreign investment in a swathe of strategic sectors, ranging from energy and defense to media and fishing. Deputies said the bill, which sailed through the Duma 355-3, with three abstentions, would guarantee national security by regulating foreigners’ participation in areas such as nuclear energy, space exploration and natural monopolies. |
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In a move aimed at strengthening its influence over member states, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is working out plans to establish a legal institution in St. |
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St. Petersburg-based development and construction company Etalon-LenSpetsSMU has sold a 15 percent stake to Baring Vostok investment fund, as a result of which the company expects to gain access to international financial markets and use the expertise of Baring Vostok in its forthcoming IPO. |
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MOSCOW — Russia might delay delivery of its new Superjet-100 passenger planes to Aeroflot beyond its contractual deadline of end-2008 as the plane has not yet launched, the head of state aviation major UAC said on Monday. |
 MOSCOW — The country’s state-owned mint is considering abolishing the one-kopek coin in a bid to save on production costs, a senior official said. Arkady Trachuk, the head of Goznak, the government agency that produces banknotes and coins, said in an interview with Izvestia last week that it was looking at ways to produce coins more cheaply, given the recent spike in metal prices, in response to a request from the Central Bank. |
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WASHINGTON — The United States is bracing for tough competition from Russia and China as cash-flush Asian economies look up to the trio for a new breed of fighter jets to beef up their air forces, experts say. |
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MOSCOW — Norilsk Nickel should be at the core of any potential merger with one or more privately owned Russian miners, its chief executive said in an interview with Russian daily Kommersant published on Monday. Denis Morozov said Norilsk was in the early stages of evaluating a merger proposal from Metalloinvest, the iron ore and steel firm controlled by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, but had received no concrete proposal from United Company RUSAL. |
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MOSCOW — Russia will sell gas to Belarus at $128 per 1,000 cubic meters in the second quarter of 2008, up from $119 in the first quarter, news agencies quoted an Economic Development and Trade Ministry official as saying. |
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Sberbank Lowers Rates MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, lowered interest rates for mortgages and retail loans while raising rates for car loans. The Moscow-based bank, which holds more than 50 percent of all retail deposits in Russia, lowered mortgage rates by 0. |
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MOSCOW — Severstal, the country’s largest steel maker, will expand its U.S. presence with the $810 million acquisition of the Sparrows Point mill in Maryland, which ArcelorMittal is selling for antitrust reasons. |
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MOSCOW — Gazprom and Viktor Vekselberg’s Integrated Energy Systems will jointly bid for power producer TGK-7 and have set up a vehicle to do so, a source close to TGK-7 said Friday. The partners have emerged as the most active investors in the country’s liberalized power sector, but this would be their first joint move to buy an electricity asset. |
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 Over fifty percent of candidates looking for a job doubt whether their CV shows them in a favorable light, and about the same proportion of candidates are not confident in their ability to produce a positive impression on a prospective employer during a face-to-face interview, says a report produced by Kelly Services. |
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Most private companies in St. Petersburg — 95 percent — increased staff salaries in 2007, according to the latest salary and remuneration survey issued by Avanta Personnel recruiting company, and more than 90 percent of local companies plan to raise wages this year. |
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Most employees in Russia suffer from neurosis, which decreases their work efficiency, the Institute for Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO) said Monday in a statement. Mass neurosis is a result of the aggressive psychological climate in Russian companies, lack of relaxation and constant overworking. IGSO analysts also indicated “hysterical management methods” as one of the sources of mental disorders. “People endure depressive emotional conditions without even realizing that it’s not normal. Depression is considered a natural condition,” said Boris Kagarlitsky, director of the IGSO. People in Russia are not used to going to psychoanalysts who, in their turn, are unable to help them since they are unfamiliar with office problems, the experts said. |
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 Writing or updating a resume or curiculum vitae (CV) is a task that can be approached in many different ways. Some do it with loathing, irked by the need to recall anything in their past that might help them to get the job they want, while others see it as a creative writing exercise in which menial tasks performed in their previous jobs are transformed into crucial services carrying a vast burden of responsibility. |
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Experts say that the way a candidate behaves at a job interview can often be the deciding factor for those who decide whether or not the candidate is the right person for the job. Therefore, if you are really determined to get the job you want, it’s helpful to know certain rules and tips. Svetlana Sokhatskaya, branch manager at Kelly Services recruiting company, said the very first thing needed for a successful job interview is “to prepare for it beforehand.” “Firstly, you need to carefully study the information about the company to which you are applying. Use all possible information channels to do so — the Internet, personal connections, newspapers and reference books,” Sokhatskaya said. |
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 When Peter the Great started building St. Petersburg in 1703, his vision was of a new capital that would resemble a western city in both appearance and customs. |
 On March 8, International Women’s Day, Andrei Chekanov, the director of a small design company, usually gives his deputy, Irina Alexeyeva, an extravagant bunch of roses and a bonus, essentially for being female. He accompanies this by complimenting her on how beautiful and wonderful etc. |
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Female employees in Russia have the following legal rights regarding maternity leave and compensation. Maternity leave is guaranteed by Maternity Protection Convention No. |
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The general reservation people have about taking a job in Russia is the concern: ‘Could I be making a mistake?’ It is almost impossible to forecast one’s success and happiness, or lack of, in a move to Russia for career or personal reasons. Things can be complicated further when an entire family is considering making the move. People will question if a move to Russia will be good for their career, if they will be safe, have friends, enjoy their life here, maintain good health and be happy and successful. What puts people off is bad press, fear itself and fear of the unknown, and the location. They can be convinced to change their mind via good press, PR and personal accounts, and visiting the country prior to moving to Russia. |
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 In 2007, due to a tightening up of the rules regarding migrant workers, a number of companies decided to legalize their foreign personnel, leading to a 700-percent rise in the number of work permits issued to foreigners in comparison with the same figure for 2006, according to Daria Novikova, spokesperson for the St. |
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Most employees in Russia believe that changing jobs from time to time is necessary to build a successful career. The time period considered optimum for spending in a particular company depends on individual preferences, but few employees are willing to sign up to Japanese-style lifelong loyalty. In an Internet poll conducted by Avenir recruiting company, over half of the respondents indicated that a career oriented person should not stay in the same job for more than three years. Less patient individuals believe that career-makers should change job every year (7.1 percent of respondents) or once every two years (8.1 percent). A significant proportion of employees (28. |
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 The Soviet-era box office hit “Sluzhebny Roman” (Office Romance) directed by Eldar Ryazanov portrays a comic yet touching story of the relationship between a female boss and one of her subordinates. |
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 During the OPEC oil embargo more than 30 years ago, the price of crude oil rocketed to historic highs in the world market while the controlled domestic price hovered below $4 per barrel. A few years later, the oil industry and the U.S. government reached a bipartisan deal: Domestic oil prices would be allowed to float in exchange for a windfall-profits tax, with 25 percent of the bounty earmarked to help the poorest Americans who depended on hydrocarbons to keep warm. |
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Josef Stalin, as historian Simon Montefiore wrote in a recent book, was a poet in his youth. Yury Andropov — besides heading the KGB in the 1970s, briefly leading the Soviet Union in the 1980s and acting as Vladimir Putin’s ultimate boss — also wrote poetry. |
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Bhutanese Vote THIMPU, Bhutan (Reuters) — Immaculately turned out in traditional dress, the people of Bhutan formed long queues at polling stations on Monday to vote in the first parliamentary elections in the isolated Himalayan kingdom’s history. Many said they were heartbroken to leave behind a century of absolute royal rule, but others are warming to the idea of democracy in the Land of the Thunder Dragon. |
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 INDIAN WELLS, California — Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic clinched her first WTA title of the year by hammering Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-4 6-3 in the Pacific Life Open final on Sunday. The 20-year-old top seed from Belgrade broke St. Petersburg-born Kuznetsova, the second seed, three times in the second set to wrap up victory in one hour 21 minutes at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. |
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PARIS — Wednesday’s high-profile friendly international between France and England could turn out to be a David versus David affair. While David Beckham hopes to win his 100th cap for England on the Stade de France pitch, David Trezeguet could get an opportunity to convince France coach Raymond Domenech he deserves to make the trip to the Euro 2008 finals . |
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LONDON — Formula One’s governing body faced calls to modify qualifying procedures for safety reasons after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalized in Malaysia at the weekend. Championship leader Hamilton and his teammate were demoted five places on the starting grid at Sepang for impeding rivals when they slowed to save fuel after completing their final qualifying laps. The rules have changed this season, preventing the 10 drivers who take part in the third and final session from refuelling between the end of Saturday’s qualifying and the race on Sunday. The final session has also been shortened by five minutes, allowing enough time for each driver to do only two laps with new tires. |
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 MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United beat 10-man Liverpool 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday to go five points clear in the Premier League with seven games to go. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
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