LOCAL NEWS

POLICE RAID NIGHTCLUB, DETAIN DOZENS, NO REASONS GIVEN

A nightclub popular with gay people and their friends was raided by police on Tuesday night, witnesses said, with everybody in the club being transported to a police station for questioning until morning.

Dozens of visitors to Central Station were humiliated with homophobic threats and given no explanation for their detention, witnesses said.

According to Central Station’s founder and co-owner Ilya Abaturov, officially the raid was ordered by an investigator of the prosecutor’s office of the Moskovsky District who is investigating the death of a Ukrainian citizen whose body was allegedly found at the Moscow Station.

“[The dead man] had a map of St. Petersburg with the address of the club [written on it], and allegedly it occurred to this investigator, according to the statement, to search the club, because it’s somehow connected,” said Abaturov by phone from Moscow on Thursday.

CRIMEA PENINSULA DEFIES KIEV OVER GEORGIA

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Lawmakers in Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, defying the country’s pro-Western leaders, called on the national parliament to follow Russia’s example and recognize Georgia’s two separatist regions.

Crimea, a Ukrainian region with a degree of self-government, is populated mainly by ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers, and local leaders have often adopted pro-Russian positions or even sought to rejoin the Russia state.

NATIONAL NEWS

Police Bust Estonian Vodka Pipeline Gang

Eleven suspects in the Estonian town of Narva are facing charges of laying an illegal two-kilometer-long vodka pipeline along the bottom of a firewater reservoir on the Russian-Estonian border.

“It might sound weird and unbelievable but it is a very real criminal case,” Mari Luuk, a spokesman for the Estonian prosecutor’s office, told reporters.

LOCAL BUSINESS

FINANCIAL CRISIS THREATENS LOAN MARKET

LONDON — Russia’s slumping stock market and the financial crisis will make it more difficult for some of the country’s largest companies to raise international syndicated loans before the end of 2008, banking sources said Wednesday.

The Russian stock market suffered its biggest decline in at least a decade Wednesday, and trading on the MICEX and RTS was suspended.

FAMILIES REHOUSED AS METRO EXPANDED

The foundations of the new Obvodny Canal metro station are planned to be dug from October this year through April 2009.  The seven-story apartment building at the intersection of the Obvodny Canal and Ligovsky Prospekt will be demolished by the end of September to share the fate of the Sever (North) cinema, which was taken off the list of the city’s buildings of historic importance before being demolished.

In Brief

IMF Positive on Russia

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — Russia has “buffers” that should help it weather the country’s worst financial crisis in a decade, the International Monetary Fund said.

Russia should seek “market-friendly” solutions for the financial turmoil, IMF spokesman David Hawley said Thursday at a press conference in Washington.

OPINION

RUSSIA WILL RECOVER

The global financial crisis that has ravaged stock markets globally now threatens Russia’s financial sector and its broader economy. If the Russian economy demonstrates resilience in its biggest test since 1998 and if the government offers a proper policy response, which I think it will, it would go a long way toward securing the country’s long-term economic development and investment appeal.

WHY THE CASUALTY NUMBERS DON’T JIBE

Russia and South Ossetia can’t seem to agree on their casualty numbers. South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity claims that 1,600 people died in the five-day war, but Alexander Bastrykin, head of the prosecutor general’s Investigative Committee, puts the figure at 134.

CULTURE

RAW POWER

The Stooges, the forefathers of punk from Detroit, is one of the most influential rock bands ever, and they are coming to St. Petersburg. Formed in 1967 by Iggy Pop, the band did not look or sound like any other 1960s band, with its raw, loud, unstructured songs such as “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “No Fun,” and Pop’s wild live performances.

ITALIAN LESSONS

Polenta // 7 Bolshoi Prospekt, Petrograd Side. // Tel: 325 1356. www.concorde-catering.ru // Open daily from noon through 11 p.m. // Menu in Italian and Russian.

SPORT

ZENIT DEFEATED BY JUVENTUS IN TURIN

TURIN, Italy — Juventus marked their return to the Champions League after a two-year absence with a hard-fought 1-0 Group H victory over UEFA Cup holders Zenit St. Petersburg in Turin on Wednesday.

There was little to choose between the two sides until veteran Italy forward Alessandro Del Piero’s swerving 30-yard freekick deceived goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev.

INDIAN TEAM HOPES FOR NEW START DURING AUSTRALIAN TOUR

MUMBAI — Sachin Tendulkar is confident that the racism row that marred India’s tour of Australia in January will not cast a shadow on next month’s test series against the world’s top-ranked team.