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MOSCOW — Rostelecom and MegaFon signed a record $460 million sponsorship deal for the 2014 Sochi Olympics as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reassured visiting Olympic officials that preparations remained on track for the games. The Olympic Organizing Committee said Saturday that the telecommunication companies would provide $260 million in cash and services and invest another $200 million into local infrastructure under the agreement, which it called the largest of its kind in Olympic history. The announcement did not say how state-controlled Rostelecom, the country’s main long-distance phone provider, and MegaFon, the third-largest mobile phone provider, would divide the spending between themselves as the games’ first “Tier One” partners. The much-needed cash inflow comes as the government is considering revising the games’ budget in view of the global economic crisis, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said Saturday. |
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VIVA EUROPA!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A skier takes part in an FIS Freestyle 2009 Europa Cup stage hosted at the Krasnoye Ozero ski resort in the village of Korobitsyno in the Leningrad Oblast on Saturday. The event ended Sunday. |
 MOSCOW — Angered over mounting economic problems, thousands of people took to the streets in Moscow and other cities around Russia over the weekend to denounce President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the largest display of public discontentment in years. United Russia, the party that dominates Russian politics and is led by Putin, brought thousands of people to Manezh Square near the Kremlin to rally in support of Putin and Medvedev.
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An anti-government protest staged in St. Petersburg by the local branch of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front (OGF) passed off peacefully on Saturday with no arrests, although on Monday the group’s leader was found guilty on two public order offences relating to an earlier rally. |
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Dolphins Held Hostage ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Three dolphins given on loan by the St. Petersburg dolphinarium to a dolphinarium in Sharm Al-Sheikh have not been returned as agreed, Interfax reported Monday, and the Russian Embassy in Egypt is stepping in to resolve the conflict. |
All photos from issue.
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 A nursing home fire in the Komi region in northwestern Russia has killed at least 23 people, and officials said local authorities were slow to report the blaze. President Dmitry Medvedev dispatched the Kremlin’s envoy in northwest Russia to investigate the blaze in the village of Podyelsk, 120 kilometers from the regional capital, Syktyvkar, which was brought under control by firefighters early Sunday. |
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MOSCOW — Patriarch Kirill, the new leader of the world’s 160 million Russian Orthodox, pledged at his enthronement on Sunday to keep his church united, recruit the young and open up dialogue with “sister churches. |
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TBILISI, Georgia — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili named the fifth prime minister of his five-year rule on Friday after Grigol Mgaloblishvili resigned, citing ill health after just three months in the job. Saakashvili named 33-year-old Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Nika Gilauri to the post, which Mgaloblishvili had held since Nov 1. |
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Nashi Observes Vote MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — The pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group sent a delegation to Iraq to monitor weekend provincial elections, citing concerns that the United States had failed to impose democracy in the run-up to the contest. |
 BOLSHOI UTRISH, Krasnodar Region — Construction in a pristine reserve on the Black Sea has come to an uneasy halt after picketing environmentalists forced police to intervene, but the firm doing the work says it can restart any time, even after federal authorities ordered a criminal investigation. The logging in the Bolshoi Utrish nature reserve came to light last month, sparking protests and a petition drive to halt work on an access road that environmentalists say will open the coast for development of an elite resort. |
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 In an arcane ceremony, leggy models fished rosy-cheeked matryoshka dolls out of plastic bowls to decide the crucial question of which countries will perform —?and be able to vote for each other — in each of the semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest in May. |
 With champagne flowing, a fleet of 25 disco balls and flesh-colored pantsuits, the scene at Denis Simachyov’s Fall/Winter 2009-10 collection Moscow opening almost threatened to overshadow the clothing itself on Saturday night. Almost. With his outlandish style of men’s and women’s clothing, as well as his love for long-mustachioed models, Simachyov has made his brand one of the hippest in Russia, with expensive T-shirts featuring the visage of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, baggy Cossack pants and eclectic combinations of leather and fur. |
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 St. Petersburg’s leading bookstore chains may reduce the number of their stores in the city, since stagnating sales are making it difficult for companies to pay the full lease. The city’s biggest book chains — Snark, Bukva and Bukvoyed — are trying to negotiate a rent cut of 20-30 percent, Kommersant daily reported last week. |
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During the past five years, the St. Petersburg advertizing market grew by 30-40 percent per year, outpacing the Russian market as a whole, which grew by 20-25 percent per year, according to Mikhail Poponov, deputy director of the media research company TNS St. |
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DAVOS, Switzerland — Vneshekonombank has received requests from 60 banks for about 100 billion rubles ($3 billion) in subordinated loans, VEB chief Vladimir Dmitriyev said. The state corporation has been entrusted with distributing 450 billion rubles of subordinated loans to banks. |
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New Editor for Standard LONDON (Bloomberg) — London’s Evening Standard newspaper, which Daily Mail and General Trust agreed to sell to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, said Geordie Greig will become the new editor once the deal is completed. |
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MOSCOW — A significant portion of the government’s $215 billion stabilization fund will be spent to cover a budget deficit this year, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told the State Duma on Friday. “This year is the peak of the crisis, and we’re starting from the idea that a significant part of the Reserve Fund will be spent, but not all,” he said during a meeting with deputies. |
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MOSCOW — Capital outflows look likely to continue in 2009, particularly in the first quarter, as Russian companies make payments on their hefty foreign debt and people convert their ruble savings into foreign currencies. |
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MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow would speed up delivery of the second half of a $2 billion loan to Belarus after denying a request for additional funds. The countries agreed on the $2 billion stabilization loan last year, and Friday’s announcement on the second tranche came after Putin and Belarussian Prime Minster Sergei Sidorsky signed a joint strategy for dealing with the economic crisis. “The plan sets out measures that will support our economies and will not let them fall below 2008 levels,” Putin said, adding that the second tranche of the 15-year loan, originally planned for Feb. 28, would be issued sooner, according to a transcript of the comments on the Russian government web site. |
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 MOSCOW — A maverick Russian businessman who blew his fortune on a failed presidential bid is convinced barter is back in vogue. German Sterligov says his scheme to trade products online, unveiled as Russia faces its first recession in a decade, has already grabbed the interest of Uzbek cotton merchants, St. |
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 The relationship between Russia and the West has been rocky in 2008 in terms of diplomatic relations and foreign investment. The Russia-Georgia war, disagreement over deploying elements of an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, the TNK-BP oil company dispute and the freefall of Russia’s stock market have all created mutual resentment and frayed relations. |
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With the rest of the world worried about the economic crisis, the news of yet another politically tinged crime in Moscow gets little more than a shrug. |
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 LONDON — Heavy snow disrupted air and rail travel in Europe on Monday, halting flights at Heathrow airport entirely and bringing traffic in London almost to a standstill. Tens of thousands of commuters were advised not to attempt the journey into work in London, experiencing some of its worst snow in almost 20 years. |
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REYKJAVIK — Iceland named its prime minister and finance minister on Sunday in a new centre-left coalition that vowed to overhaul the central bank and look at membership of the European Union to ease a financial crisis. |
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LONDON — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday there was “light at the end of the tunnel” but called for strong and effective stimulus plans to boost economies hit by the global financial crisis. “In some places people are disappointed, people are frustrated and people are pessimistic. |
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TOKYO – A volcano near Tokyo erupted Monday, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow. |
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TAMPA, Florida — The Pittsburgh Steelers captured their record sixth Super Bowl by defeating the upset-minded Arizona Cardinals 27-23 on Sunday on a dramatic touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger drove the Steelers 78 yards in eight plays and found Holmes on a six-yard scoring strike in the far corner of the end zone to provide the winning margin. Holmes, the game’s most valuable player, caught nine passes, including four in the final drive. “I want the ball in my hands no matter what, no matter where it is,” Holmes said he told Roethlisberger before the final drive. “I wanted to be the one to make the play. |
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 MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal feared his hopes of winning his first Australian Open title were slipping when he felt a sudden pain in his hamstring during Sunday’s final with Roger Federer. |
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