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MOSCOW — The government will spend 1 trillion rubles next year from its financial safety cushion, the Reserve Fund, as a result of the global economic crisis, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday. The figure, equal to about $36 billion, would account for about one-third of the fund’s contents, which the country has been putting aside out of windfall oil and gas revenues since 2003. Kudrin also indicated that spending would continue at about the same pace in 2010-2011. “We have created a serious cushion of stability and security for the budget,” Kudrin told members of the Federation Council. “It will work for more than three years.” Kudrin first announced just last week that the government might dip into the Reserve Fund to cover federal and regional budget shortfalls. At the time, he said the cost would be more than 500 billion rubles. |
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TWO TO TANGO
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Couples dancing a tango at the Grand Hotel Emerald on Wednesday as part of a Latin-American Culture Week in St. Petersburg. The event was organized by the city’s Tangomania dance club. |
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As police continue to investigate a car explosion that killed three people including a three-year-old child on Tuesday morning, new details are emerging, giving rise to a range of new and intriguing plausible scenarios. A bomb went off in a Lada-Priora car at around 8.45 on Tuesday morning outside 15, Yeletskaya Ulitsa near Udelnaya metro station in the north of the city, killing a couple and their child, and leaving the driver in critical condition.
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All photos from issue.
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 LONDON — Wealthy Russian collectors, one of the main factors behind the recent boom in art prices, appear to be feeling the pinch like everyone else, with a series of Russian sales in London falling well short of expectations. Gone are the days of 2005 to 2007, when salerooms buzzed with anticipation as Russian buyers fought for precious pieces of their heritage. |
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MOSCOW — Islamist militants claimed responsibility on Thursday for killing a mayor in Russia’s North Caucasus, an attack that prompted security services to warn that violence in the region could destabilize the entire country. |
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MOSCOW — The judge presiding over the trial of three men charged in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya refused to recuse himself from the case on Wednesday after prosecutors accused him of bias for reversing his decision to close the proceedings to the public. |
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WARSAW — Poland must stand firm with Georgia in its conflict with Russia because the two countries’ fates are intertwined, the leader of Poland’s main opposition party and twin brother of its president said Wednesday. |
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VEB Lends to AvtoVAZ MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian state bank Vnesheconombank will provide the country’s largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, with an emergency loan of up to $1 billion, the Interfax news service reported. The loan will be granted under Vnesheconombank’s mandate to support key sectors of the economy, the Moscow-based service said, citing an unidentified banking official. |
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 In the two first weeks of December, the Polish city of Poznan will host one of the most important international conferences of the year. With thousands of government officials and nongovernmental organizations attending, Poznan will lay the groundwork for a successor to the Kyoto treaty, which aims at reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. |
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The events in the Gulf of Aden seem to be a microcosm of the contemporary world. Located between Yemen and Somalia, the Gulf of Aden is a vital artery of global shipping that feeds the Suez Canal. |
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 Social and professional networking, cultural interaction, and an appreciation of Russian and English literature, combined with good food, delightful music and a soothing atmosphere are just some of the features of the Translators’ Tea Party, a fluid group of experienced and novice linguists who meet at St. |
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A band called The Orchestra, some members of which once played with the Electric Light Orchestra, but which does not include the band’s main songwriter and singer Jeff Lynne, will perform at the Ice Palace on Thursday. |
 George Balanchine’s ballets are an integral part of the Mariinsky Ballet’s repertory. Yury Fateyev, the new director of the Mariinsky Ballet, is also the chief Balanchine repetiteur (instructor) for the company. Last week there were two different Balanchine programs on view with interesting debuts in several roles, before the Mariinsky Ballet left for a short tour to Baku in Azerbaijan. The highlight was Balanchine’s sunny 1947 masterpiece “Symphony in C” which closed both programs. |
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 Although both members of indie-pop duo Rubies hail from California, singer-keyboardist Simone Rubi and bassist Terri Loewenthal have gained more fame in Europe than in their home country. |
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In Chapter 12 (Interjections) of “Essentials of Russian Grammar” (Nicolas Maltzoff, 1984), the expression “Au!” is translated as “O-eh!” to “express prompting or inciting.” Pronounced “Ow!” but intoned more positively than the English-language response to sudden pain, “Au!” is what you would call out if you had lost your friends in the woods, perhaps on a hunting trip. |
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 OSLO — Deafening sounds of munching apples and slurping drinks are coming from all directions from the loudspeakers across the auditorium; on stage, a dozen robust, rough, worn-looking men are shouting out orders for meals — enormous quantities of greasy sausages, fried potatoes and hot chocolate. The scene — both visually and aurally unsettling, is part of Cecilie Ore’s new chamber opera, “Dead Beat Escapement” (sponsored by Norske Opera), that saw its premiere at the 18th International Ultima Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo in October. |
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BANGKOK — Thailand’s premier on Thursday declared a state of emergency at two Bangkok airports occupied by protesters who are trying to topple him, as an escalating political crisis set off rumors of a coup. Premier Somchai Wongsawat issued the order after an urgent cabinet meeting to discuss how to tackle the anti-government demonstrators who have paralyzed the kingdom and left thousands of tourists stranded. |
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Issues Archive