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MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev lent credence to his image as a cautious liberal on Wednesday when a publication critical of the Kremlin ran his first Russian newspaper interview. Although Medvedev’s interview with Novaya Gazeta did not break new ground, it was symbolic. The newspaper has consistently challenged the Kremlin on matters including human rights, freedom of speech and Russia’s alleged backsliding on democracy. Medvedev also acknowledged separately Wednesday that officials unfairly hinder rights activists’ work. Medvedev, who took office in May, has not diverged significantly from the policies of his predecessor and mentor Vladimir Putin. Putin oversaw the consolidation of political power under the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, the growing state control of major industries and the state takeover of formerly independent television networks. |
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BALL BOY
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Children play footballl in a playground on the Petrograd Side on a sunny day earlier in the week. Forecasters are predicting that temperatures will hover around zero degrees Centigrade over the weekend and that the weather will remain predominantly cloudy into next week. |
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MOSCOW — A bill submitted to the State Duma on Wednesday would cap annual executive compensation at 4 million rubles ($120,000) for all state companies and at private companies that receive government aid. The bill takes a tougher line than the one promoted by President Dmitry Medvedev and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin in recent weeks and raises questions about how the companies would be able to attract and keep top talent.
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All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday that the government would hold an international investment road show this year and consider issuing debt abroad in 2010, tapping foreign markets for the first time in a decade. Kudrin outlined the proposals at a Finance Ministry meeting attended by Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, marking his first appearance in an official capacity since being released from jail last October. “In this crisis period, conditions will persist that are not as favorable as they were in preceding years,” Kudrin said. “We should look into the possibility of going to the external markets next year and holding a road show this year. |
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 MOSCOW — A Hungarian court on Wednesday ordered a Russian woman to be extradited to France, where she faces charges of kidnapping her young daughter from her ex-husband — the latest turn in a high-profile parental battle that has stretched across the continent. |
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As a court dismissed charges issued by the police to oppositionists, arrests of peaceful demonstrators continued this week, while the opposition launched a campaign calling for the head of the St. Petersburg police to be fired, and held two protests against police beatings. On Monday, a St. Petersburg court dismissed charges against three activists of the United Civil Front (OGF) and the National-Bolshevik Party (NBP) who had been detained and charged with violating the rules of holding a rally when they went to City Hall to deliver the opposition’s anti-crisis demands to Governor Valentina Matviyenko as part of the March 12 Dissenters’ Day protests. |
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 The St. Petersburg authorities plan to build almost 500 kilometers of new roads in the city by 2015, increasing the total length of local roads from 3,150 kilometers to 3,630 kilometers. The new roads will include 138 kilometers of highways and 68 kilometers of freeways, the government said at a meeting on Tuesday during which the plan for the city’s road traffic development was approved. |
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 Having taken up his new position as German Consul General to St. Petersburg at the end of August, 2008, Peter Schaller found himself busy preparing for one of the major events in the city’s cultural calendar – the German Week in St. Petersburg, which runs from April 18 to 26 (www.deutsche-woche.ru). The St. Petersburg Times spoke to Schaller about this year’s event and his input into its packed program. |
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 The ubiquitous pre-fabricated panel buildings that sprang up around the Soviet Union have become one of the calling cards of the former Eastern Bloc. Considered unattractive and outdated at best, and at worst in a poor state of repair and barely conforming to modern standards of living, the question of what to do with the buildings is a burning one, not least for their inhabitants. |
 While France may be the first country that people associate with cutting-edge fashion trends, the German Week in St. Petersburg is out to prove that it is no less a la mode. This year is only the second time that fashion has featured on the cultural program of the annual event. Fashion today is perceived as a powerful communication tool, and can reveal a lot about the culture of a country. A common misconception is to believe that fashion is only about images of brand new clothes, shoes and accessories. |
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 The opening ceremony of this year’s German Week in St. Petersburg will feature a concert performance by Hamburg’s Salut Salon quartet on the stage of the city’s Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater at 7 pm on Saturday. |
 Best-known as a founding drummer of the Krautrock band Can, Jaki Liebezeit has been described as “half man, half machine” by his former fellow musicians for the very precise style of his playing. But while Can’s bassist Holger Czukay and vocalist Damo Suzuki have played in St. Petersburg over the past few years, Liebezeit’s performance at the Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) later this month, will be his local debut. |
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 While it appears that the worst of the financial crisis has already hit the international financial markets, the full effect of the crisis on Russia lags behind developed markets and will likely only be felt here in the second half of 2009, manifesting itself in the form of bad corporate debt. |
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Two stories came out in the media at the same time in late March. The first reported that First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin had initiated a review of Norilsk Nickel deals. |
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Jane Birkin will not perform at Music Hall as scheduled, promoter Light Music announced. Instead, the concert was moved to Leningrad restaurant, a posh, Soviet retro-style enterprise, where it will be held on Sunday. This is a bit of a shame, really, because when Birkin performed in the city in 2005, it seemed she packed the Music Hall — arguably a more appropriate venue for her kind of performance — easily. More people could have attended the show, and the entrance would have been cheaper, too. When called on Thursday, Leningrad restaurant said that 3,000 rubles ($90) would buy entrance to Birkin’s concert, as the deposit for a seat. This sum can be used to pay for foods or drinks. |
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 The Golden Mask Festival would not be the Golden Mask without St. Petersburg’s Lev Dodin and his Maly Drama Theater. This playhouse is a perennial nominee for awards, and this year is no exception. |
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NEW DELHI — Indians voted in their tens of millions Thursday as the world’s largest democracy kicked off month-long, five-stage elections, with little hope of a clear winner emerging at the end of it all. From the southern tropical state of Kerala to the Himalayan foothills of Kashmir in the north, they cast their ballots at the start of a process so complex and spread out that six million civil and security personnel are needed to keep it on track. |
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