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MOSCOW — Sberbank CEO German Gref warned that a second wave of the crisis was about to sweep over the banking sector on Wednesday, two days after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told State Duma members that banks were out of trouble. Gref said bad debt is piling up as worsening economic conditions make it more difficult for businesses and individuals to meet loan payments, which in turn leaves banks with insufficient cash to extend new loans. “The crisis is just beginning for the banking industry ... and it will arrive from the real sector,” Gref, who runs the country’s largest bank, state-owned Sberbank, said at a conference at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. |
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STATUESQUE
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A model wears a dress by a St. Petersburg fashion designer, Ianis Chamalidy, on the catwalk at the Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa on the University Embankment as part of the Defile na Neve fashion event. Defile na Neve opened on Wednesday and ends on Sunday. |
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CHISINAU — Russia asked the European Union and Romania on Thursday to guarantee the sovereignty of its ally Moldova, where riots have swept the capital and prompted a crackdown on the pro-Western opposition. Moldova’s veteran Communist President Vladimir Voronin has blamed neighboring Romania for stoking a coup attempt after demonstrators ransacked parliament during post-election protests two days ago and waved EU and Romanian flags from his offices.
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MOSCOW — Migration authorities said Wednesday that they plan to offer monthly work permits to immigrants hired by private individuals in an attempt to reduce illegal immigration and boost government revenues. Immigrants working in the private sector will have to pay a monthly fee to authorities for the work permit, Federal Migration Service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky said at a news conference Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW — Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky challenged President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday to stand by his promise to create “independent, honest courts,” saying the alternative could be social unrest. |
All photos from issue.
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The St. Petersburg authorities and the Russian Federation have finally divided up responsibility for the city’s historic buildings and monuments. Yury Molchanov, St. Petersburg’s vice-governor, said on Thursday that in the next few days the Russian government is due to sign a decree on the approval of the list of monuments that will belong either to the state or to the city, Fontanka.ru reported. The list consists of 108 names and is fairly evenly divided. At least 58 buildings will be under the control of the Federation, and the other 50 will belong to the city. For instance, one of St. Petersburg’s pearls — Gostiny Dvor — will remain under the city’s control. |
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A BRIDGE TOO FAR
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The statue of military commander Alexander Suvorov in the guise of Mars the Roman god of war, in front of the Troitsky Bridge. Forecasters are predicting cloudy weather for the weekend. |
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MOSCOW — Investigators said Wednesday that a suspect has been detained in the September slaying of Ruslan Yamadayev, a brother of Sulim Yamadayev, who was killed in Dubai last month. The announcement, which came after Dubai police accused State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov of masterminding Sulim Yamadayev’s murder, might be an attempt to divert suspicion away from Delimkhanov and his relatives, who include Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, analysts said.
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MOSCOW — Russian cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The spies also came from China and other countries and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U. |
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MOSCOW — Federation Council Senator Andrei Vavilov said Wednesday that unidentified attackers tried to kidnap his 4-year-old daughter in Monaco. People close to Vavilov connected the incident to an escalating conflict between the senator and a former business partner, State Duma Deputy Ashot Yegiazaryan, Ekho Moskvy reported, without elaborating. |
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 Ford plans to increase prices for its cars in Russia by nine to 25 percent from May 1, the Russian office of the American car manufacturer said this week. Prices for the Focus and Mondeo produced in Russia, for the Escape and Transit models manufactured this year and the Fiesta, Fusion, Focus, C-Max and Escape models made in 2008 may increase by nine percent. |
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Cell Phone Sales Plunge MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian mobile-telephone sales halved in the first quarter to the lowest total in five years, Kommersant reported. |
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 Last week, the World Bank again lowered its expectations for Russia’s economic performance in 2009. Its prognosis is that the country’s gross domestic product will fall by 4.5 percent this year. Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects a 5. |
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Global summits raise expectations of finding global solutions. As a rule, though, that usually doesn’t happen. But last week’s meeting of the Group of 20 in London ended successfully for a change. |
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 One cloudy day in 1973, legendary local photographer Boris Smelov perched high above a dvor, or apartment yard, in Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was then known. Having framed his shot so that the stolid apartment buildings seemed to ascend into the ether like the Cathedral of Chartres, he waited for the right moment, not knowing when or what it would be. |
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“The Russians without vodka equals the Germans,” Martyn Jacques uttered in between two sets of The Tiger Lillies concert at Glavclub on Saturday. |
 The fifth LeJazz festival of French jazz will take place this weekend in St. Petersburg and Moscow, brightening up the chilly Russian spring with the romantic and euphoric melodies of the finest of French jazz acts. This year’s program includes Michel Portal, Jacky Terrasson and the Stefano di Battista Quartet. |
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This compact Italian eatery is something of a mystery. Stolyarny Pereulok and the surrounding Kolomna neighborhood in general aren’t known for their upscale, lavishly decorated restaurants, so it’s a little off the beaten track. |
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MOSCOW — In a dramatic daytime heist, robbers armed with hammers attacked a group of cash couriers and made off with more than $300,000 — in full view of a traffic cop who refused to intervene because he was clearing the road for an official’s motorcade. |
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MOSCOW — A Soyuz space capsule carrying U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and a Russian-American crew touched down safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Charred black from its re-entry into the atmosphere, the capsule — also carrying U. |
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MOSCOW — Companies that lay off foreign employees should pay for their trip back to their home countries, a senior federal prosecutor said Tuesday. The proposal by Alexei Zhafyarov, a deputy department head with the Prosecutor General’s Office, appears to be primarily aimed at companies employing manual laborers from neighboring former Soviet republics. |
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SEOUL — North Korea re-elected Kim Jong-il as its supreme military leader at its newly seated parliament on Thursday, marking his return to center stage as the country celebrates what it calls a triumphant satellite launch. The move came as the UN Security Council failed to agree on an action in response to Sunday’s launch, widely seen as a disguised missile test, prompting U. |
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MOGADISHU/WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy destroyer arrived off Somalia on Thursday to apply pressure for the release of an American ship captain taken hostage in the first seizure of U. |
 L’AQUILA, Italy — Rescuers pulled more corpses on Thursday from the rubble of Italy’s worst earthquake in three decades, braving strong aftershocks in the dimming hope of finding survivors. The death toll from Monday’s quake in the central region of Abruzzo climbed to 279 after rescuers recovered the latest bodies, including two students buried beneath a dormitory hall. |
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 LIVERPOOL — Chelsea moved within touching distance of the Champions League semi-finals thanks to a stunning 3-1 victory over Liverpool in Wednesday’s quarter-final first leg at Anfield. Guus Hiddink’s side produced a breathtaking response after falling behind to an early Fernando Torres strike as Branislav Ivanovic buried two headers before Didier Drogba added a third goal. |
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PARIS — Russia’s Dinara Safina, who will replace Serena Williams as world number one later this month despite never having won a Grand Slam title, insists she will prove she belongs on top of the rankings. |
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LONDON — AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has agreed to take over at Chelsea next season to replace interim coach Guus Hiddink, the Sun newspaper reported on Thursday. The report said Ancelotti has agreed to a contract worth 5.8 million pounds ($8.5 million) a season to move into the hotseat at Stamford Bridge. |
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