LOCAL NEWS

GAY FILM FESTIVAL HELD IN SECRECY

The Side by Side Film Festival, Russia’s first international gay and lesbian film event, which was apparently stopped by the authorities on Thursday when two venues that were to hold the screenings were raided by the fire inspectorate and ordered to close, went on in secrecy over the weekend.

ISRAEL TO PRESS RUSSIA ON ARMS SALES TO IRAN

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will press Russia during a visit that began on Monday not to sell advanced missiles and weapons technology to Iran and Syria.

Rice Denies Trying to Undermine Moscow in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday rejected any suggestion that U.S. efforts to build closer ties to Kazakhstan are meant to undermine Russian influence in Central Asia.

“This is not a zero-sum game,” she told reporters flying with her to the Kazakh capital. U.S. gains need not mean Russian losses, she said.

NATIONAL NEWS

BILL PROPOSES RETURN OF POWERS TO PROSECUTORS

MOSCOW — The State Duma is considering a bill that would restore to the Prosecutor General’s Office the right to open criminal cases against certain categories of senior government officials, a deputy said Friday.

According to the bill — drawn up by the Supreme Court and sent to the Duma on Thursday — the Prosecutor General’s Office should regain the right to open criminal cases against investigators, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, said Viktor Ilyukhin, deputy chairman of the Constitution and State Affairs Committee, which is considering the bill.

“It would be a positive improvement, even if the prosecutors do not get back the right to open criminal cases against Duma deputies, senators and judges from the Constitutional Court,” Ilyukhin said.

IN BRIEF

Chinese Milk Seized

MOSCOW (AP) — Food inspectors have found nearly 2 tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk.

The country’s chief epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, said that the dry milk was seized, Itar-Tass reported Friday.

Interfax, meanwhile, reported that inspectors have found more than 1,000 items containing Chinese dairy products around the country.

LOCAL BUSINESS

CORPORATE EVENTS MARKET IN CITY TAKING ON NEW LEVELS

Dance shows, singing violinists, dancers in traditional Russian costumes adapted to mini skirts and non-run stockings and a host of other offers from numerous local event management companies were presented Friday at the Radisson SAS Hotel, marking the start of the 2009 New Year corporate party season.

IN BRIEF

Store Profits Fall 19%

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Seventh Continent, Russia’s fourth-largest publicly traded food retailer, said first-half profit fell 19 percent on higher expenses at its banking unit.

DERIPASKA GIVES UP 1.5 BLN MAGNA STAKE

In the latest signal that no one is immune from the current financial crisis, billionaire Oleg Deripaska has handed over one of his biggest overseas investments — a one-fifth stake in Canadian auto parts maker Magna, worth $912 million — to creditors.

Deripaska, ranked Russia’s richest person by Forbes magazine, ceded his 20 million shares in Magna to an unidentified bank that financed the original deal, Magna said in a statement Friday.

In May 2007, Deripaska agreed to pay more than $1.5 billion for the Magna stake, held through his Russian Machines auto subsidiary. Since then, shares in Magna have tanked, losing nearly half their value.

Reports at the time said French bank BNP Paribas was helping finance the deal.

NOKIA’S IPHONE RIVAL EXPECTED IN ’08

LONDON — Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iPhone will go on sale in Russia and six other countries — across Asia, the Middle East and Europe — this year but will miss the Christmas shopping season in most developed markets.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FINANCIAL THREAT

Not just threat, but also opportunity — that is a popular definition of a crisis. Last week, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin admitted that an era of recession is beginning. The problems are not focused on Russia, but it is clear that no country can avoid the global economic changes.

BREZHNEV COMES TO WASHINGTON

I have repeatedly drawn parallels in this column between President George W. Bush’s United States and the Soviet Union during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev.

OPINION

FIGHTING FINANCIAL FIRES WITH BLINI

From its peak on May 19 to its lowest point on Sept. 17, the Russian stock market has fallen by almost 58 percent. This is its largest decline since the crash of 1998. What is the cause of the current cataclysm?

The Kremlin has been quick to blame the West, and primarily the United States, for the country’s troubles.

PREPARE FOR A BUMPY RIDE

When some analysts began discussing an upcoming drop in real estate prices last spring, most economists reacted with open contempt. “How can you speak of a drop when prices are climbing daily?” they asked.

CULTURE

CHARITY BALL

One of the highlights of the social year takes place Saturday at the Catherine Palace with the glitter and grace of the Eighth Annual Golden Autumn Pushkin Charity Ball.

The event was initiated by the head of the Grand Hotel Europe’s charity fund, hotel manager Thomas Noll and by the president of the International Pushkin Charity Fund, Kenneth Pushkin — a descendent of Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837).

“The program of the Golden Autumn ball promises a graceful combination of performances by stars of Russian opera and ballet,” the event’s organizer said. “The design of the program reflects the special style of the Pushkin era.

DIRECTOR REFLECTS ON FESTIVAL FLAP

John Cameron Mitchell, the New York-based award-winning film director visiting St. Petersburg to attend this week’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender film festival, concluded in an interview Saturday: “This is certainly not San Francisco”

The director found himself thrust into the harsh realities of Russia when the festival was forced into hiding after the venues where it was due to be held were suddenly leaned on by the authorities.