|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — And then there were six. With a week left before Sochi votes for a mayor, the city’s election committee on Friday removed wealthy businessman Alexander Lebedev from the ballot over alleged mistakes in his application to run. On Saturday, the committee removed A Just Russia’s candidate, Viktor Kurpitko, for the same reason. That leaves only six candidates — including United Russia’s candidate, acting Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, and Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov — out of the initial 25 contenders for the April 26 election. Nemtsov told The St. Petersburg Times on Sunday that thousands of people are being pressured to vote for Pakhomov in early voting or risk losing their jobs. |
|
MIDNIGHT MASS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A priest officiates at the first service of the Fyodorovskaya Icon of the Virgin Mary Church to be held since its reopening. During the Soviet era, the church was used as a milk-processing plant. Located not far from the Moscow railway station, the church is currently being restored. |
|
MOSCOW — At least 10 percent fewer tourists are expected to visit Russia this year, and the government is hoping to convince Russians to spend their vacations at home to make up for the shortfall, Federal Tourism Agency head Anatoly Yarochkin said. And Russians who give up their foreign vacations will have options beyond Moscow, St. Petersburg and the other usual big cities.
|
|
MOSCOW — Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday that he wanted Russia to serve as a transit route for his country to begin selling gas to Europe, a proposal that could please Western policymakers who have been looking to diversify their energy supplies. The possibility surfaced a day after Aliyev met with President Dmitry Medvedev, who said there was a good chance for the countries to reach an accord on the issue of gas. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
CHISINAU, Moldova — A recount in Moldova’s disputed election, ordered after violent protests against a Communist victory, showed no changes in the standing of parties in the parliament, a senior official said Friday. “Preliminary data from the recount show that there will be no major changes in the results,” said Iurie Ciocan, secretary of the Central Election Commission. |
|
MOSCOW — A French businessman and his family were discovered dead in their burnt-out apartment in central Moscow on Monday in an apparent case of murder and arson, investigators said. |
|
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO on Friday that planned military exercises in Georgia could hinder efforts to mend ties. “This is the wrong decision, a dangerous decision,” Medvedev told a news conference at his Barvikha residence outside Moscow. |
|
A Family Affair ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A new St. Petersburg youth government and parliament will be headed by relatives of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Speaker of the State Duma, respectively, Interfax reported Monday. |
 Four poachers glided their Cambodian-flagged schooner, the Kisuka, into Russian waters in the dark of night to haul up traps illegally laid off the coast of Kunashir, a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. But before the poachers could finish filling their crates with sea urchin, whose bright yellow and orange roe fetch high prices as a delicacy product in Japan, a Russian Coast Guard patrol boat had snuck up on them. |
|
|
|
 The owners of commercial real estate on St. Petersburg’s main thoroughfares have dropped their rental prices by 30 to 50 percent, but the volume of empty premises continues to grow. In the first quarter of this year, retail premises on Nevsky Prospekt have decreased the most dramatically in price, from 9,000 to 14,500 rubles ($266 to $428) per square meter per month in the second quarter of 2008 to 3,500 to 8,000 rubles per square meter per month, according to research conducted by Colliers International. |
|
Toyota to Close for Week ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp. said it will close its Russian car factory for five working days next month to slow production amid “unstable” market conditions. |
|
The Northern Dimension Ecological Partnership (NDEP) is to provide St. Petersburg’s state utility company Vodokanal with a grant for 24 million euros. The money has been allocated to help finance work on the extension of the main sewage collection facility and reconstruction of the northern aeration station, Vodokanal’s press service said. The agreement on the grant was signed within the framework of the Days of St. Petersburg in Helsinki last week. “The NDEP grant is one of the results that St. Petersburg Vodokanal has achieved in its quest to attract non-budget sources to the extension project of the main collection facility,” said the statement from the press service. |
|
 Germany’s flagship airliner Lufthansa launched a new daily flight to Dusseldorf from St. Petersburg on Monday. “We are glad that Lufthansa has been flying to St. |
|
MOSCOW — Wage arrears rose 8.3 percent last month to a new three-year high, affecting half a million people, the State Statistics Service data showed Friday. Arrears, an indicator of stress for companies and a cause of mass protests in 1998, stood at 8.76 billion rubles ($262 million) on April 1, compared with 8.09 billion rubles a month earlier. After the 1998 crisis, companies resorted to paying workers in goods, and wage arrears reached $3.8 billion. Unpaid wages sparked social unrest, and the payment of arrears was an issue in Vladimir Putin’s 2000 presidential campaign. This time, protests have been relatively small scale so far. The lion’s share of arrears, 94. |
|
 MOSCOW — Plunging automotive sales have brought domestic auto giants to their knees, and even foreign majors are feeling the pinch. New car sales in Russia declined 40 percent overall in the first quarter, but a few luxury brands are bucking the trend thanks to competitive prices and new models. |
|
MOSCOW — Farm equipment producers are asking the government to set a 15 percent import duty to support domestic production, an industry group said. The duty on imports of seeding machines, plows, grain separators and other equipment similar to the types produced in Russia would boost domestic output 35 percent in 2010, Soyuzagromash said in a statement. |
|
|
|
 Several weeks ago in Voronezh, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the ambitious goals for “Strategy 2020” remain in place despite the economic crisis. He also said Russia has every chance of becoming the world’s most desirable place to live by 2020. |
|
The old joke about a camel being a horse designed by committee is unfair to camels and committees. No committee could have come up with the camel’s ungainly elegance and humorous ugliness. |
|
|
|
 Despite performing at a luxury nightclub in Moscow and upscale restaurant in St. Petersburg over the weekend, Jane Birkin’s visit to Russia was to support Russian human rights organizations, the France-based British singer said in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times on Monday. Birkin used the opportunity to speak out against human rights violations and the rise of xenophobia in Russia. She dedicated songs to Anna Politkovskaya, the political journalist shot dead in Moscow in 2006, and to human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist and anti-Nazi activist Anastasia Baburova, who were both killed in Moscow in January. |
|
 It was a day that began with rain in the morning, moved on to bright sunlight in the early afternoon and ended with a few lonely snowflakes falling as the clock ticked on toward midnight. |
|
|
|
|
LONDON — Sir Alex Ferguson insists his decision to field a depleted side in the weekend FA Cup semi-final defeat to Everton will benefit Manchester United’s long-term future. Ferguson, who said his side will be back to full strength for this week’s Premier League clash with Portsmouth, revealed he took the decision to make more changes than planned when he saw the impact of the Wembley pitch on the Arsenal and Chelsea players in the previous day’s tie. |
|
SINGAPORE — The Olympic Council of Asia has angrily denied “baseless” accusations that it was involved in “vote-buying” to influence the outcome of elections for a FIFA executive committee seat. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive