|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — Former cosmetics retail king Vladimir Nekrasov and reputed crime boss Semyon Mogilevich offered on Wednesday to post bail of $7.5 million — five times more than the amount they are accused of failing to pay in taxes — as preliminary hearings opened for their high-profile trial. Moscow’s Tushinsky District Court rejected their surprise offer to post bail of 240 million rubles and ruled that the trial would be closed to the public. Prosecutors had asked that the trial be held behind closed doors, citing classified investigative methods used to collect evidence against the two suspects. The trial will start on June 1, the court said. Nekrasov, founder of Arbat Prestige, once Russia’s biggest chain of cosmetics stores, is accused of evading taxes of more than 49. |
|
DAY TRIPPERS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Disabled children are taken on an excursion at the State Hermitage Museum on Wednesday. The excursion was organized by the Hermitage and the Umka charity organization. The day was concluded with a special concert by musicians from the Mariinsky Theater. |
|
MOSCOW — Banks may need an additional 500 billion rubles ($16 billion) in capital this year to weather an increase in bad loans, a Central Bank official said Wednesday. The banking sector faces a rough ride this year as bad loans add up, and those loans now make up 4 percent of the overall total if Sberbank’s credit portfolio is excluded, Alexei Simanovsky, head of the Central Bank’s banking supervision department, said at the annual meeting of the Association of Russian Regional Banks.
|
 MOSCOW — Acclaimed actor Oleg Yankovsky, whose lean face and intense dark eyes made him one of the great heartthrobs of the Soviet era, died Wednesday after an illness. He was 65. Yankovsky died at a Moscow hospital after a battle with cancer, Yulia Kosareva, spokeswoman for Lenkom, the Moscow theater where the actor worked for decades, told The Associated Press. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
The proliferation of the emoticon has been one of the more dire consequences of the rise of the Internet and cell phone text messaging over the past two decades — a blight on written communication. There is, after all, only so much sentiment an emoticon can convey. How much happier is a person who types :)))))))) than a person who texts a mere :) to a friend? Indeed, we may never know the degree of sorrow felt by a young Novosibirsk woman over the traffic cop she struck and killed with her car while driving drunk. But a senior traffic safety official said the “cynicism” of the suspect is exemplified by the text message — complete with emoticon — she sent her boyfriend after killing the officer: “Honey, I killed a cop. |
|
HEAVE-HO!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Cadets from the Artillery Military Academy celebrate having taken first prize in the tug-of-war event during the St. Petersburg's annual Governor's Cup military-sports competition. |
|
Forum Security ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Over 5,000 police will oversee security at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Wednesday. Law enforcement personnel during the forum will include approximately 5,000 police officers from St. Petersburg, as well as personnel from around Russia, said the head of the St.
|
|
|
|
|
Russia’s state bank Sberbank is seeking to recover 5.5 billion rubles ($174 million) in debt in court from St. Petersburg’s bankrupt developer Macromir, which belongs to Andrei Rogachyov. Sberbank brought five cases to Moscow’s Arbitration Court after Macromir failed to fulfill its obligations under the terms of the agreement, Fontanka.ru reported on Friday. Sberbank is Macromir’s biggest creditor, and the lawsuits are equal to the company’s total debt to the bank. The company has worked with Sberbank since 2004, and took out all of its loans from the bank to fund the construction of four trade centers in St. Petersburg, including Frantsuzsky Bulvar, City Mall, Rodeo Drive and Felichita. The loans were for a period of seven to 10 years, and the deadlines for paying off the credit were not yet over. |
|
BLACK GOLD
/ Reuters
President Dmitry Medvedev (r) listens to explanations as he visits an oil refinery plant in the city of Khabarovsk on Thursday. |
|
MOSCOW — An increasing number of Russian companies are looking to hire managers, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, according to a survey released Wednesday. The quarterly survey of 400 local and multinational companies by recruitment agency Antal found that 58 percent of them wanted more managers in April, compared to 42 percent in January.
|
|
MOSCOW — A majority of Russian employees think that corporate fraud will grow in coming years, and only a small fraction think that their management is honest, a survey of Russian and European employees found. The survey, whose results were publicized on Wednesday by Ernst & Young, interviewed over 2,000 corporate employees in Europe and Russia, the majority of whom worked in companies with over 1,000 staff. |
|
|
|
 As leaders met in Khabarovsk on Thursday for the next EU-Russia summit, they were due to review progress in negotiations for a new strategic agreement. Since the last summit in Nice in November, there has been a number of major developments affecting the relationship. |
|
You may not have known it, but in terms of his biological progeny, Genghis Khan was the most successful man of all time. It is estimated that one in every 200 people is a descendant of the prolific 13th-century khan of the Mongol Empire. |
|
|
|
 Rodion Shchedrin’s fairytale ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, opened the 17th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival at the Mariinsky Theater on Thursday, marking the start of a spectacular eight-week long fiesta of classical music, opera and ballet. The brains and engine behind this grand-scale project, undeniably Russia’s most prestigious festival of classical arts, is Mariinsky’s charismatic and talented artistic director Valery Gergiev, who every year manages to draw a pantheon of international stars to St. |
|
 Rodion Shchedrin’s fairytale ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, opened the 17th Stars of the White Nights Music Festival at the Mariinsky Theater on Thursday, marking the start of a spectacular eight-week long fiesta of classical music, opera and ballet. |
|
Boris Grebenshchikov may be a friend of Vladislav Surkov, seen as the Kremlin’s gray cardinal, and may have supported president-turned-prime minister Vladimir Putin’s policy in an interview, but that has not stopped a provincial lawyer from attacking the Russian rock guru for promoting “homosexuality, alcoholism and drugs” in his lyrics and, basically, a lack of love for his motherland. In a letter to General Prosecutor Yury Chaika, lawyer Dmitry Yamshchikov from the Siberian city of Tyumen demanded that Grebenshchikov be stripped of the 4th Degree Order of Merit of the Motherland medal that he received for his “great contribution to the development of the art of music” for his 50th birthday in 2003. |
|
 Little known outside South America, Lukas was one of Chile’s finest and most-loved cartoonists. Visitors can check out his warm style at an exhibition this week organized by the Chilean embassy. |
|
Although Rusalina opened back in February, the solitary waitress looked flabbergasted to see a trio of expectant diners enter the restaurant on a recent midweek evening, suggesting that it may not yet have established a regular clientele. The restaurant is a rather unexpected, eclectic establishment. The d?cor in the main room fuses exposed brick walls with multiple chandeliers, and silk drapes and artfully arranged netting with na?ve paintings and the ubiquitous flat-screen TV. The formal atmosphere created by the immaculately laid tables with their deep green tablecloths and real napkins was undermined by the loud pop music that the waitress seemingly switched on especially for us — once she had recovered from her shock. |
|
 This week, CTC started a new sitcom called “Love Isn’t What It Seems.” The heroine is a plump girl called Alisa who blames all her troubles on her extra pounds. |
|
|
|
|
LONDON — The British government on Thursday announced a climbdown over settlement rights for Gurkha veterans, saying all of the Nepalese fighters who have served at least four years can apply to live here. The amended settlement guidelines, announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in the House of Commons, were greeted by an explosion of applause and victory cries by Gurkhas and campaigners gathered outside parliament. |
|
|
|
 ISTANBUL — An extra-time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final here on Wednesday to clinch the Ukrainian side’s first European title. Jadson’s 15-yard shot slipped through the grasp of Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the 97th minute after the teams had been locked 1-1 at the end of normal time. |
|
WARSAW — Maria Sharapova insisted on Wednesday the long hours she spent recovering from a crippling shoulder injury will reap rich rewards with more Grand Slam titles to add to the three she’s already captured. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive