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 MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev joined the other leaders of the G20 nations Saturday in pledging not to introduce new trade barriers over the next 12 months, a commitment that might complicate government plans to insulate the national economy from the global crisis. Medvedev, in Washington for a G20 summit where he signed a final declaration listing measures to deal with the crisis, also used his first trip to the United States to call for talks with President-elect Barack Obama to take place “without delays” to overcome a “crisis of trust.” The leaders of countries accounting for 90 percent of the world’s economic output said at the summit that a commitment to an open global economy is vital to countering the financial crisis. “We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism and not turning inward in times of financial uncertainty,” their declaration said. |
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R.I.P.
Konstantin Chernichkin / Reuters
People in historical costumes carry boxes containing the remains of participants in the 1708 battle in the Ukrainian village of Baturyn during a burial ceremony held on Friday. |
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A local human rights group has discovered an alarming reason behind the depressingly high statistics for suicides in the army: the Soldiers’ Mothers pressure group has learnt of at least five recent cases where young people with marked suicidal tendencies or who had made previous suicide attempts were drafted into the army. St. Petersburg recruit Alexander, 22, attempted suicide at the age of 15 after a quarrel with his father.
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NICE, France — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he won Russian backing on Friday for talks on security in Europe next year and urged a freeze on missile deployments by Moscow and the United States until then. His call was immediately questioned by the Czech Republic and Poland, which are due to host elements of a U. |
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Duma Calls For 6 Years MOSCOW (SPT) — State Duma deputies approved legislation in a first reading Friday that would extend the presidential term to six years. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — More than three months after the final shots were fired in the conflict with Georgia, the information war is still going strong, and Moscow is claiming a new victory as it says Western media are finally getting the story right. In an unusual move, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, sent a letter to the editor of The New York Times last week congratulating the paper for an article questioning Tbilisi’s claims that it had acted defensively. “It took [U.S. media] three months to start telling the truth about the August war in the Caucasus,” Churkin wrote in the letter’s full version, published on the Russian Mission’s web site. |
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MAKING WAVES
/ Reuters
Yachts Team Russia and Telefonica Black depart Cape Town in the second leg of the 2008 Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday. The race is due to finish in June, 2009, in St. Petersburg. |
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MOSCOW — In what is widely seen as a Kremlin attempt to round out the political spectrum with obedient parties, three liberal parties voted Sunday to merge into a new pro-business party called Right Cause. A Right Cause leader, Leonid Gozman, acknowledged that the party had been created with the Kremlin’s support. “In Russia, it is impossible to create a party without the backing of the powers that be.
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 Russian filmmakers are not known for their glowing portraits of American culture. From the 1948 Soviet propaganda film “The Russian Question” about a communist-bashing American newspaper editor to the immensely popular film “Brother 2,” in which a young Russian man rampages through back-stabbing hoodlums in Chicago, there is no shortage of anti-Americanism in the country’s cinema. Now in 2008, filmmaker Yury Grymov adds his film to the genre. |
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 The national projects, a state priority during Vladimir Putin’s last years as president that catapulted Dmitry Medvedev into the Kremlin, have taken a back seat since the presidential election and face being sidelined further as the financial crisis sets in. |
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 MOSCOW — In a week when all investors in Russia were holding their breath, the bluest faces had to belong to Uralkali shareholders. Catching both the market and the potash producer by surprise, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reopened a 2006 investigation into the flooding of a Uralkali mine, sending the company’s shares — darlings of the Russian market not long ago — down 75 percent in London in the three trading days after the announcement. |
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MOSCOW — The Central Bank sold around $16 billion to support the ruble last week, according to dealers’ estimates, despite allowing the currency to weaken 1 percent versus the dollar-euro basket. |
 MOSCOW — The country’s campaign to do more international trade in rubles, spurred by persistent pressure on its currency, is likely to prove a long haul with the chances slim of persuading any major players to sign up soon. Moscow spent tens of billions of its hard currency reserves in recent weeks to defend the ruble from falling oil and stock prices and a broad-based flight from emerging markets, prompting policymakers to cast around for new ideas. |
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El Al Back In Town JERUSALEM (Bloomberg) — El Al Israel Airlines, the country’s biggest carrier, is resuming flights to St. Petersburg stemming from increased demand following the elimination of visa requirements for travel between Russia and Israel. |
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The Energy Ministry said Friday that the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries will hold its Moscow summit on Dec. 23 and will agree on a draft charter on Nov. 26. The meeting was originally planned for mid-November but was delayed while the countries made preparations for the forum’s charter, the ministry said in a statement. |
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LONDON — Austria’s OMV is in talks with BP and Royal Dutch Shell to buy Azeri and Iraqi natural gas for transport through the planned Nabucco pipeline, which the European Union hopes will reduce its reliance on Russian imports. |
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A new airline being created by the Moscow city government and state-run Russian Technologies will be called Rosavia, Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Saturday, Interfax reported. Designed to serve as an alternative to Aeroflot, the airline, which earlier functioned under the working name Russian Airlines, will incorporate other regional carriers, including failed regional airlines such as AiRUnion, Krasair and Samara. |
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 In contrast with transportation companies and warehouse operators, Third Party Logistic companies offer a comprehensive range of services. Industry experts, however, note that there are both benefits and risks associated with outsourcing logistics. Third Party Logistics, or 3PL, is the outsourcing of logistics services. 3PL operators organize the management of the flow of goods and optimize financial and information resources for product shipment and distribution. |
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 The prospects for the logistics and warehouse real estate businesses are no longer as optimistic as they were six months ago when the growing Russian economy, fuelled by energy and raw materials exports, was considered to be the number one among developing countries. |
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Companies often complain that warehouses are built without any attention being paid to the client’s specific requirements. Rental rates constantly rise, but the quality of logistics operator services does not improve accordingly. All companies dream of finding the ideal warehouse. |
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At the beginning of 2008, 6.3 million square meters of logistics space was available in St. Petersburg. According to City Hall’s project to develop logistics infrastructure, by 2025 St. |
 Anyone who has ever left their home country to travel abroad and returned home knows what a customs point is — especially if their home country is Russia. Sometimes it can take hours to clear customs, even for a tourist. For vehicles carrying cargo, the process is far more complex and time-consuming. For companies that trade abroad, it is easier, more efficient and even profitable to delegate their customs problems to another firm, as the procedures involved are labor-intensive and companies cannot manage without expert help. |
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 The cargo transportation market in St. Petersburg and the Northwest region is on the threshold of change. According to industry experts, individual entrepreneurs will force out large transportation companies. |
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What do investors need to know about warehouse complexes? The past few years have seen a boom in the construction of warehouse complexes in St. Petersburg. Two main logistics centers, equipped with the last word in technology, have appeared in Shushary and Yanino. Most centers are financed and/or managed by foreign operators. What then are the most crucial areas for investors or developers to be aware of?
Can it be built or not? According to current law, only properties that by their designation comply with the established zoning and permitted use of the territory may be built on a land plot. What problems might arise in connection with this? The Land Code (art. |
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 About 80 percent of all goods in Russia are imported, mostly from Western countries. There are, however, some difficulties associated with the requirements of foreign companies and some peculiarities with working with foreign suppliers. |
 Rental rates for quality warehouse facilities in St. Petersburg remain unaffected by the global credit crunch, according to recent market research conducted by Colliers International, the international real estate consultancy. The triple net rental rates for Class A and B facilities in Russia’s second city are estimated at approximately $120–$140 per square meter per year and $110–$120 per square meter per year, respectively. |
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 What is most interesting about the term increases for State Duma deputies to five years and for the president to six years is the reaction to these changes. We heard hearty, prolonged applause by the Kremlin lackeys in the audience when President Dmitry Medvedev made his announcement in the state-of-the-nation address on Nov. |
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Two years ago I wrote a column about perverse relations between Russia’s immigrant communities and the police. At least 5 million illegal migrants, mostly from other former Soviet republics, work at construction sites, do low-paid manual labor or engage in legal businesses and commerce as well as a variety of shadowy activities. |
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KABUL — A Taliban militant leader rejected Monday an offer from Afghan President Hamid Karzai of safe passage for insurgent leaders who wanted to talk peace. Karzai, back from a trip to Britain and the United States, said Sunday he would guarantee the safety of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar if he was prepared to negotiate. |
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LONDON — “Meh,” a word which indicates a lack of interest or enthusiasm, became the latest addition to the Collins English Dictionary on Monday. The word, which beat hundreds of other suggestions from members of the public, will feature in the 30th anniversary edition of the dictionary, which is to be published next year. |
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TOKYO — A Japanese firm recalled eight million bottles of U.S. mineral water on Monday after consumers complained it smelled like insecticide and medicine. The case is the latest food scare in Japan, where consumer confidence has been shaken after several people complained of becoming ill from eating Chinese-made dumplings containing insecticide and instant noodles that had a chemical used in mothballs. Otsuka Beverage Co. Ltd, which is unlisted, said it is recalling the Crystal Geyser mineral water after receiving 75 complaints in October about its smell. Spokesman Kazuhiko Horiuchi said the firm did not find any abnormalities in the water, but the plastic bottles may have absorbed smells they were exposed to during storage. |
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 Atlanta — In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting “inappropriate” comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. |
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MADRID — The suspected military leader of Basque separatist group ETA has been arrested in France, Spanish and French authorities said on Monday. Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias “Txeroki” or “Cherokee,” was arrested along with an unnamed female ETA suspect at 3:30 a.m. in France’s mountainous Pyrenean region near the Spanish border, French police said. |
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Issues Archive