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City Hall on Thursday downgraded a major oppositional protest event scheduled for Sunday to a stationary meeting at the Chernyshevsky Gardens, far from the city center, organizers said after meeting with officials. The protest is the latest in a series of actions that are known as Dissenters’ Marches, Last week, City Hall rejected three routes suggested for the march by the rally organizers, without offering an alternative as they are legally required to do, prompting the applicants to file a lawsuit against the local government on Monday. Although they have agreed to a stationary meeting at the Chernyshevsky Gardens, the majority of organizers and participants will gather at a previously announced starting point near Gostiny Dvor Metro at 2 p. |
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GLOW MAN
Alexander Èelenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A pedestrian walks past a light display on Shpalernaya Ulitsa, close to Smolny, on Wednesday evening. Weather forecasters are predicting clear, settled weather over the weekend, with temperatures at about minus 3 degrees Celsius, though temperatures will fall at the beginning of next week. |
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Economic growth fell in the third quarter to its slowest rate in three years, at 6.2 percent, the State Statistics Service reported Tuesday, and economists predict even lower growth for 2009. Actual GDP growth in the quarter missed the Economic Development Ministry’s forecast of 7.1 percent, driven by significantly slower growth in the construction, retail, transport and communications sectors.
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MOSCOW — Exactly a year ago, then-President Vladimir Putin warned that the liberal opposition was trying to return to the power it enjoyed in the 1990s by staging street protests and enriching themselves, while bringing the country to its knees. Now, former Union of Right Forces head Nikita Belykh, one of the leaders of the liberal opposition who was arrested at a Dissenters’ March this spring, will likely become governor of the Kirov region after President Dmitry Medvedev nominated him for the post Monday. What is going on? Belykh said he accepted the nomination because the position is “very interesting from a professional point of view.” “I understand how to do it, and it is interesting because it is a big challenge,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. |
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 Eight activists were detained on Wednesday in protests in the city against amendments to the Russian Constitution, already passed by federal legislators, that will prolong presidential and State Duma terms from four to six and five years respectively. |
All photos from issue.
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Ecologists from the local branch of Bellona, an international environmental pressure group Bellona protested outside the French Consulate General in St. Petersburg on Thursday afternoon as cargo containing toxic uranium derivatives arrived in the city’s port. |
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MOSCOW — Candles flickered and white-robed elders chanted prayers as the country bade farewell Tuesday to Patriarch Alexy II, who guided the country’s dominant Russian Orthodox Church through its remarkable recovery after decades of Communist-era repression. |
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Journalists Attacked ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A TV crew working for Russia’s NTV station was surrounded and attacked by about 50 young protesters armed with Molotov cocktails on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders reported on Thursday. The incident occurred outside the Athens Polytechnic Institute in the capital’s Exarchia suburb, and officials believe the youths were drunk. |
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Ferry link operators were given some good news last week when the president passed a law allowing foreign tourists who arrive by ferry to stay in Russia for three days without a visa. President Dmitry Medvedev last week signed a law introducing changes to article 25. |
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Gazprom and the city will devise a new plan before the end of the year to finance the building of the Okhta Center skyscraper, Gazprom head Alexei Miller announced on Monday. |
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Russia Top for Bribery LONDON — A survey of senior business executives from around the world rated companies based in Russia as the most likely to pay bribes to win business in other countries. Anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which published the survey on Tuesday, said the results showed that companies based in emerging markets were the most likely to engage in bribery when doing business abroad. |
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 Patriarch Alexy II’s life was one of patient endurance followed by disorienting change. In November 1991, I interviewed him for an American religious journal. At the time, he seemed overcome by the changes taking place around him and he did not know where to begin. |
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Although everyone is now saying that Russia is going through a financial crisis, this seems strange to me. Imagine a drug addict who sells everything he owns to support his addiction, loses his job and his wife, and then says his problem is that he has no money. |
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 Is St. Petersburg the place to be in winter? Internationally renowned conductor Yury Temirkanov offers a confident “yes” with his Arts Square Festival, the annual classical music event that has become St. Petersburg’s premier artistic happening during the winter months. |
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The ironic arty band NOM recently produced a hilarious video to a song called “Carefree Russian Tramp” by Boris Grebenshchikov. Portrayed by artist Viktor Puzo, who closely resembles the founder of the classic Russian band Akvarium, “Grebenshchikov” walks around with a bottle of vodka strumming the guitar and downing a glass with adherants of different religions, from Buddhists to Jews to Russian Orthodox believers, hinting at the singer’s ever-changing religious affliation. |
 LONDON — It’s better to tackle tough times with a song in your heart — especially a tune from the classical repertoire, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev says. Before embarking on a two-week tour of Japan last month leading the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Gergiev said that while classical music may be expensive, it’s not a luxury. |
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Just in time for the festive season, one of the city’s culinary institutions, the Italian restaurant Rossi’s at the Grand Hotel Europe, has a new chef and a brand new menu. |
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The vanishing people and way of life in villages in the Vologda and Arkhangelsk provinces of northern Russia are the subject of a new photography exhibition at the Nabokov Museum. Called “The Russian Village Through British Eyes,” the show features photographs taken by Elizabeth Warner between 2004 and 2007. |
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 BRUSSELS — A double from Raul helped Juande Ramos secure his first win as Real Madrid coach in the Champions League on Wednesday and extended the Spanish striker’s record as the competition’s all-time top goal scorer. Raul’s two goals and a third by Arjen Robben gave Real a 3-0 victory over UEFA Cup holders Zenit St. |
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CHENNAI, India — England opener Andrew Strauss struck his 13th test century before left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan helped India fightback on the first day of the first test on Thursday. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive