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MOSCOW — Resurgent oil prices have helped ignite a major rally in Russia’s equity markets and given the commodity-dependent economy some breathing room. Market players, however, are cautioning that while there are many factors driving the increase in oil prices, fundamentals are not one of them. World oil prices hovered around $57 per barrel on Thursday and Friday, a level not seen since Nov. 17 and a breakout from the $40 per barrel to $55 per barrel trading range that they have been in since early March. The gain represents an 8 percent rise on the week, a 27 percent increase on the year and a 70 percent gain from a low of $33.50 per barrel reached in February. But the rally does not reflect the reality in the supply-and-demand dynamic of the global oil market, said Vladimir Tikhomirov, chief economist at UralSib. |
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A DAY TO REMEMBER
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A decorated veteran and a young girl attend a Victory Day event held in the Summer Gardens in St. Petersburg on Saturday. See Photo Essay, Page 4. |
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SASOVO, Ryazan Region — With its neat rows of houses surrounded by lush greenery, the state-run Sasovo flight school is a bucolic place, graduating up to 300 pilots a year in Soviet times. Today, students occupy only two out of the six dormitory buildings, and the graduating class this spring will total about 40. A growing shortage of pilots, one of the industry’s most pressing problems before the economic crisis, has been masked partially by falling passenger numbers.
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Thousands left a soccer match to protest the police’s arbitrariness after the OMON special-task police attacked fans and seized a banner saying “Soccer Is Not for the Police” in St. Petersburg on Sunday. By raising the banner, the fans were attempting to demonstrate solidarity with fans in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, where police refused to let a large group of fans into a stadium on April 30. |
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As the financial crisis threatens the tourism industry in Russia just as everywhere else, vacation plans have become the first thing people are ready to change in order to save money. |
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MOSCOW — Irkutsk Governor Igor Yesipovsky and three other people died when their helicopter crashed over the weekend in the Siberian region, authorities said Monday. Yesipovsky and the others took off on a private helicopter from Irkutsk late Saturday afternoon but did not return as scheduled, investigators said. |
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MOSCOW — Ukrainian Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko hurled racist insults at German police during a drunken brawl at Frankfurt airport last week, German media reported. |
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Gay Parade Banned MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow City Hall said Thursday that it would not allow a gay pride parade that activists organized to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest final. “There have never been gay parades in Moscow, and there never will be,” City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi said. Gay rights activists said the May 16 parade would go ahead. |
All photos from issue.
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 MOSCOW — The Eurovision Song Contest officially opened Sunday with a flamboyant party featuring Russian pop star Filip Kirkorov encased in ostrich feathers and the greatest hits of German band Genghis Khan and Israeli transsexual Dana International. The contest was earlier given the seal of approval by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who made a surprise visit to the Olimpiisky Sports Complex on Friday and dropped in on a rehearsal by the Azeri duo, AySel and Arash. |
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MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Japan on Tuesday aimed at signing a long-delayed deal to supply more nuclear fuel to the country and cooperate in making equipment and building reactors. |
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MOSCOW — A company controlled by Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash said Thursday that it was fighting to recover control of Emfesz, a major Hungarian gas distributor, from a mysterious firm called RosGas that has been linked to Gazprom. Mabofi Holdings Limited, registered in Cyprus, said it discovered Wednesday that its 100 percent interest in Emfesz had been “fraudulently” transferred to the Swiss-registered RosGas. “There is no information available as to the beneficial ownership of RosGas,” Mabofi director David Brown said in an e-mailed statement. Emfesz managing director Istvan Goczi said last week that Gazprom controlled RosGas, Reuters reported. |
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 MOSCOW — The largest players on the Russian beer market, Baltika and Anheuser-Busch InBev, saw their domestic sales drop in the first quarter as consumption declined for the first time since 1996. |
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VEB to Sell Bonds MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Vneshekonombank, or VEB, plans to sell $10 billion of foreign-currency bonds in five issues under closed subscription, Anna Lyamina, a spokeswoman, said by telephone Thursday. That’s up from the $5 billion in bonds the company said it would sell earlier. |
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In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly designated May 3 as World Press Freedom Day in order “to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom.” But in Russia, there is little to celebrate. Using a range of restrictive measures and methods, the authorities have continued to shrink the space for independent journalism. |
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In response to “The Jason Bourne of Russia,” a column by Yulia Latynina on April 30. Editor, I can’t help but respond to Latynina’s vitriolic attack in her St. |
 Thursday marked the one-year anniversary since President Dmitry Medvedev took the oath of office. He came to power promoting the doctrine of “Four I’s” — that is, to develop the country’s institutions, infrastructure, innovation and investment. But Medvedev was hostage to a system that had been created over the preceding eight years by his mentor, former President Vladimir Putin. |
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You have no idea how difficult it is to train a lap dog to attack people,” an old friend recently told me. “Why would you want your dog to attack someone?” I asked. |
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After British writer H.G. Wells met Vladimir Lenin in the Kremlin in 1920, he described the visit in his book “Russia in the Shadows.” Wells referred to Lenin as “the Kremlin dreamer” after listening to Lenin’s utopian plans for rapidly developing a country in ruins after the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war. |
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 Yuri Fateyev, in his mid-forties, was appointed by Valery Gergiev, head of the Mariinsky, as the acting artistic director of the theater’s ballet nearly a year ago in, June 2008. A former dancer of this greatest of classical ballet companies, he was a good character dancer and one of his memorable roles was the jester in “Swan Lake. |
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This week, the country’s newspapers have been obsessing over the 1970s spy series “17 Moments of Spring,” which the clever people at Rossia television have carefully changed from the original black-and-white film to color. |
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 Nikolai Valuev will be looking to erase the darkest hour of his career when he comes face-to-face with Ruslan Chagaev on May 30. The first-ever heavyweight title fight on Finnish soil will certainly be a special one as the two rivals go back a long way. Back in April 2007, Chagaev shocked the boxing world by clinching a close majority decision to hand the Russian Giant the first — and only — loss of his glorious career. |
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MEXICO CITY — Scoured and disinfected, most of Mexico’s primary schools and kindergartens stood ready to welcome back millions of students Monday after a nationwide shutdown ordered to help put a brake on the spread of swine flu. Children who turned up with symptoms of the illness would be turned away, education officials said. |
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MADRID — Barcelona must wait another week to clinch the Spanish title after Jose Llorente scored a dramatic 90th-minute equaliser as Villarreal gatecrashed the party with a 3-3 draw at Camp Nou on Sunday. Barcelona were on course to win their 19th title in front of their fans when they held a 3-1 lead, but Villarreal scored twice in the final 12 minutes to put the celebrations on hold. Barcelona need just one point from the final three matches, with the next league match at Real Mallorca, to win their first league title since 2006. Real Madrid’s 3-0 defeat at Valencia on Saturday meant Barcelona could have won the title in front of their own fans and they came so close. |
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 LONDON — Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink delivered a damning verdict on the gap between Arsenal and the rest of the ‘big-four’ after his side handed the Gunners their heaviest home league defeat for 32 years. |
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Issues Archive