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MOSCOW — Days after the fighting ended in South Ossetia, a huge question mark is hanging over the number of civilians who actually died. South Ossetian and Moscow officials estimated the number of Ossetian civilian casualties as being between 1,600 and over 2,100. Some human rights activists on the ground said, however, that they were struggling to find even 100 slain Ossetians, while other experts said it was still too early to compile an accurate count. In any case, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the death toll will be anywhere close to the numbers needed to support Moscow’s claim that Tbilisi had committed genocide. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin both accused the Georgian military of committing “genocide” when it invaded South Ossetia on Aug. |
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POLE POSITION
/ Reuters
Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia breaks the world record during the women’s pole vault final of the athletics competition in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on Monday. Isinbayeva cleared 5.05 meters, beating the previous mark of 5.04 meters she had set last month. |
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A group of drafted recruits serving at the military detachment No. 67661 at the Sapyorny settlement of the Priozersky district in the outskirts of St. Petersburg are gearing up for a court battle with their commanders after allegedly being forced to sign contracts to keep them in the army. Vladimir, one of the recruits serving in the detachment, said he and dozens of others have been getting such repeated requests over the past two weeks from senior officers.
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KIEV — Ukraine said Saturday that it was ready to make its missile-warning systems available for Western countries after Russia announced that it was pulling out of a long-term cooperation agreement involving them. A ministry statement said Russia’s abrogation earlier this year of an agreement involving two tracking stations allowed Ukraine to cooperate with other countries on missile-warning systems and satellite tracking. |
All photos from issue.
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A Zenit St. Petersburg fan who has attended a record 300 matches played by the soccer team has been rewarded for his loyalty with a life-long free ticket to Zenit’s home games. Denis Chiglyayev notched up his 300th Zenit match when the Premier League champions played Kazan on Aug. 10, Interfax reported. Before Zenit’s home tie with Shinnik on Sunday, Chiglyayev’s favorite player, Coatian defender Ivica Krizanac, congratulated the fan and presented him with the life-long free ticket. Zenit coach Dick Advokaat greeted Chiglyayev and hugged him. When the referee blew the whistle to start the game, fans in the stands at Petrovsky Stadium, formed the letter E and the numeral 2 sign with green flares, as well as the number 300. |
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FIRESTARTERS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Participants in the Savior of the Honey Feast Day celebrations held in Tsarskoye Selo on Saturday walk past statues formed from brushwood and kindling which were later burnt to mark the event. |
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Stallone Pushes Vodka MOSCOW (Reuters) — Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone, mighty destroyer of Soviet opponents in the “Rambo” and “Rocky” movies, now plans to advertise Russian vodka. Russian vodka producer Synergy said on Friday it had signed a one-year contract with Stallone, who will appear in television and newspaper advertisements for the vodka brand Russian Ice, starting Sept.
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 MOSCOW — The brief but intensive armed conflict in South Ossetia has signaled Russia’s willingness and ability to fight and win conflicts beyond its borders after years of focusing its war machine on nuclear deterrence and the suppression of internal security threats. But while the conflict has demonstrated that Russia can and will coerce its post-Soviet neighbors with force if the West doesn’t intervene, it has exposed the technical backwardness of its military. |
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 The official groundbreaking ceremony of the Petrovsky Arsenal development project took place on Friday in the suburb of Sestroretsk, 25 kilometers northwest of St. Petersburg. The project — the only one of its kind in Russia — plans to transform the former Sestroretsk Instrument Works factory into a multifunctional residential and commercial complex at an estimated cost of $467 million. |
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MOSCOW — Russian markets endured a turbulent week, as stocks of major companies faced a triple assault amid worries over fighting in Georgia, anti-monopoly measures against Mechel and the seemingly never-ending TNK-BP saga. |
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Apple Deal Rumors MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — VimpelCom, Russia’s second-largest mobile-phone company, and MegaFon, the third-biggest, may sign a deal with Apple to start selling iPhones in the country this week, Vedomosti reported Monday. As part of the agreement, Apple wants each operator to buy one million to 1.5 million iPhones, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people at the two companies. Lebedev Loses Out VIENNA (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev said his country’s conflict with Georgia is scaring investors and has caused him to lose money, Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported, citing an interview. “Investors react to higher risk very simply: they withdraw their money,” Lebedev said, according to the paper. |
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 TBILISI, Georgia — Azerbaijan suspended oil exports through ports in western Georgia on Sunday after an explosion damaged a key rail bridge there. Georgia accused Russian troops of blowing up a railway bridge west of the capital Tbilisi on Saturday, saying its main east-west train link had been severed. |
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MOSCOW — The Finance Ministry on Sunday unveiled a draft fiscal strategy to 2023, proposing to raise social security taxes from 2010 and reform the $162 billion oil wealth funds to back up the pension system. Under the proposal, the government’s oil revenues will be redistributed between the liquid Reserve Fund, designed to support the budget in case the oil price falls, and the National Welfare Fund, earmarked for riskier investment. |
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MOSCOW — A Siberian court in the wee hours of Saturday morning ordered Norway’s telecoms company Telenor to pay $2.8 billion to VimpelCom in a ruling that highlighted the unusual judicial practices that may beset foreign investors. |
 MOSCOW — An official at Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group denied Sunday that the billionaire was close to buying the legendary Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. French newspaper Nice-Matin reported Saturday that Prokhorov would soon pay 496 million euros ($729 million) for the villa, which is owned by the widow of banker Edmond Safra. |
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MOSCOW — Russian Technologies is considering Norilsk Nickel as a new partner in its consortium with Metalloinvest, which is bidding to develop the giant Udokan copper deposit, Sergei Chemezov, head of the state corporation, said Friday. |
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MOSCOW — Russia had capital outflows of $7 billion during the short conflict between it and Georgia, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Sunday. The conflict spooked investors and sent Russian stocks tumbling to their lowest levels in nearly two years. “Outflows of [foreign] currency from Russia were $6 billion on Friday [Aug. |
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 The bloody conflict over South Ossetia will at least have been good for something if it teaches two lessons. The first is that now Georgia will never get South Ossetia and Abkhazia back. The second is that the West must not make promises that it neither can nor will fulfill when push comes to shove. |
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To Our Readers Late Thursday night, after destroying as much of Tskhinvali as it could with truck-mounted missiles, the Georgian military took control of the city. |
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 ISLAMABAD — Faced with the humiliation of impeachment, former army chief Pervez Musharraf quit as Pakistan president on Monday, having lost political, popular and increasingly even U.S. support. His resignation climaxed nearly two weeks of political machinations in Islamabad after the fractious coalition finally agreed that Musharraf had to go. |
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WASHINGTON — A string of potential vice presidential candidates were queried on Sunday about the possibility of being picked for the No. 2 spot but all remained mum on their chances. |
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LONDON — Zenit St Petersburg striker Andrei Arshavin’s move to Premier League side Tottenham has stalled, the player’s agent claimed on Sunday. Spurs were expected to use the funds from Dimitar Berbatov’s move to Manchester United to land the Russian international. But his agent Dennis Lachter believes Zenit’s valuation of the player means the deal is unlikely to reach a conclusion. |
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Issues Archive