|
|
|
|
Despite massive violations during the municipal election campaign and during Sunday’s elections, the authorities “falsified” the election results after votes were counted, Maxim Reznik, chairman of the local branch of the Yabloko Democratic Party, said in a statement on Tuesday. He described the subsequent change in the total number of votes awarded to Yabloko candidate Boris Vishnevsky in the Morskoy municipal district as a “criminal act” and said his party would be pressing for “those who falsified the election results to be punished.” Vishnevsky, a journalist and member of the St. Petersburg office of Yabloko, said that the number of votes he was initially awarded — enough to be elected as a deputy — then decreased in a table of totals to a number that was not sufficient to win him a seat. |
|
PICTURE PERFECT
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Musician Sergei Markov paints his wife Yelena on Wednesday in the "I Paint My Beloved" competition for celebrities. The competition is part of the Petersburg Woman of the Year forum which ends on Saturday and is immediately followed on Sunday by International Women's Day. |
|
MADRID — A video of Spain’s prime minister became one of the world’s most talked-about Internet clips Wednesday after he accidentally uttered the F-word in a news conference with President Dmitry Medvedev. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was outlining a Spanish-Russian plan to promote tourism between the two countries when the verbal faux pas slipped out.
|
|
MOSCOW — Registering for jobless benefits should take no longer than half an hour, and the government is ready to spend additional funds to improve service at unemployment offices, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. The government has made fighting unemployment a priority, setting aside 43. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — The judge in the second trial of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday rejected a request by the businessman’s lawyers to recuse himself. Lawyers for Khodorkovsky on Wednesday demanded the removal of Judge Viktor Danilkin, who is presiding over Khodorkovsky’s trial on new charges of embezzling more than $25 billion at Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court. “The judge noted in his ruling that there are no grounds,” for removing himself, said Yelena Liptser, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky’s co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, Interfax reported. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers said the move was a “last resort” after the judge had dismissed several of their motions on Tuesday, including demands to change the state prosecutor and remove Khodorkovsky from a glass-walled cage in the courtroom. |
|
COFFEE'S UP
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A competitor takes part in a contest to find the city's finest barista at the Hotel-Restaurant-Catering Exhibition at the Peterburgsky Sports and Concert Complex which ended on Thursday. |
|
Tikhvin Virgin Restored ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Icons dating from the 18th century have been returned to the city’s St. Sampson’s Cathedral after undergoing comprehensive restoration, Interfax reported. The cathedral’s rich collection now includes an exact copy of the celebrated Tikhvin Virgin icon. Having undergone thorough restoration, the icons were returned to St.
|
 St. Petersburg authorities said on Tuesday that there would be no layoffs among employees paid from the city budget as a result of the current economic crisis. They said city budget cuts would be limited to reductions in wages and that current vacancies would not be filled. |
|
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev is backing two bills that would benefit smaller political parties, a move some analysts say could signal his desire to inch away from the policies of his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and position himself as a liberal. |
|
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that there would be no trade-off on Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. plans to set up a missile defense shield in Central Europe. “No one sets conditions on these issues with trade-offs, especially on the Iranian problem,” Medvedev said at a news conference in Madrid, where he was on a state visit. |
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that spending will be increased by 650 billion rubles ($18 billion) this year under a revised budget as the government bolsters social programs and invests in local industry in a bid to spur growth. “The most important thing now is for the state to fulfill its social obligations even as budget revenue declines,” Medvedev said at a meeting with ministers on the economy. The government will “activate” home construction, encourage the purchase of more Russian-made equipment and stimulate small and medium-sized businesses while bailing out floundering defense companies, Medvedev said. |
|
EUROPA, EUROPA
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
One of numerous designs for the European Embankment on the Petrograd Side. The city’s Investment Committee is currently holding a competition to create a design for the project. |
|
MOSCOW — An oil leak and a fire on a pipeline in central Russia have halted one-fifth of supplies of the world’s second-largest oil exporter to global markets on Wednesday for at least a few days. Officials at Novorossiisk said oil flows had been halted on Wednesday morning and exports were unlikely to resume in the next three to four days. “We had a phone call from Transneft, and we were told that repairs would take three to four days,” an operator at the Black Sea port said.
|
|
MOSCOW — Carmaker AvtoVAZ stopped its main assembly line for an indefinite period Wednesday morning but denied a minister’s warning that the firm was planning large-scale layoffs. Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said Wednesday morning that AvtoVAZ, the country’s largest carmaker, was planning to lay off 3,200 people, Itar-Tass reported. |
|
|
|
 The regional elections on Sunday were the first vote Russia has held during the crisis. As the “war of interpretation” of the election results is in full swing, almost every political party is claiming victory. United Russia leaders tout the fact that the party won in all nine regional parliaments, even under difficult economic conditions. |
|
Of all the official statements coming from the government and big business over the past few weeks, three stand out as most important. First, multibillionaire Oleg Deripaska announced that he would not request any more government assistance for his ailing business empire. |
|
|
|
 This month marks the first anniversary of Igels Live Club, where thrill seekers from around the world gather to climb the largest indoor rock-wall facility in St. Petersburg, and one of the largest in all of Russia. Covering over 700 square meters, and featuring a slack-line harness for climbers, parkour arena, tumble-track spring-loaded floor and two trampolines, Igels Live Club is staged for impressive displays of strength and acrobatics. |
|
Grigory Sologub, a local punk and new wave legend who died at the age of 47 last Friday, was buried on Wednesday. Over 200 friends, musicians and fans traveled by car and bus to the funeral ceremony held at the Kuzmolovskoye Cemetary in the Vsevolozhsky District, a 30-minute ride from Devyatkino metro station, the last stop on the northern metro line. |
 The idea that writers immortalize themselves through their work as their books continue to be read and reincarnated into numerous films and productions is especially true of the 19th-century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, whose drama has been inspiring film directors for many decades. |
|
In times of turmoil it is comforting to know that there are some things that never change. Jurassic Park, a quirky cafe on Izmailovsky Propekt, is one of them — for at least a decade its decor, menu and service have remained reassuringly unchanged, as if trapped in amber. |
|
It’s fitting that a week after Maslenitsa, which marks the official beginning of spring, St. Petersburg should see an appearance by Air France, a duo from Gothenburg, Sweden. On Saturday the pair, who rarely play their own music live, will play a DJ set at Sochi that should herald the arrival of longer, warmer days. |
|
|
|
|
KHARTOUM — Sudan’s president told thousands of cheering supporters on Thursday an international call for his arrest on war crimes charges was a ploy by western nations set on grabbing the country’s oil. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the first sitting president to be charged by the International Criminal Court, responded to his indictment over the conflict in the western Darfur region by ordering 10 foreign aid agencies to leave Sudan. Authorities accused the aid groups of passing information to the ICC on alleged atrocities in Darfur, center of the world’s largest humanitarian operation, and one aid official said at least three more agencies may be sent home. |
|
 ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police hunted on Wednesday for gunmen who mounted the bold attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore and officials scrambled to figure out who was behind it. |
|
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama takes on healthcare reform at a White House forum on Thursday, seeking to design an overhaul of a costly and inefficient system he believes is threatening the U.S. economy. Obama, who has nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as his health secretary, will gather about 120 people representing everyone from doctors and patients to health insurers and lawmakers to discuss how to fix U. |
|
|
|
|
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe is confident that a revitalized Andy Roddick will be ready to reverse a two-match Davis Cup loss streak in a World Group tie against Switzerland starting Friday. McEnroe’s side will be in the driver’s seat against a Switzerland minus Roger Federer as the world number two remains at his base in Dubai working out the final kinks in a lingering back problem. Federer withdrew from the Davis Cup to try and prepare for the run of back-to-back ATP events in the US starting next week in Indian Wells, California, and continuing in Miami. The nations stand 1-1 in their rivalry, the Americans having won the 1992 final in Fort Worth, Texas and the Swiss earning revenge in the first round in 2001. |
|
 NEWCASTLE — Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in an angry confrontation in the tunnel after helping Manchester United restore their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive