LOCAL NEWS

CITY FACES DRESDEN’S FATE AT UNESCO

In a move that many believe could be repeated for St. Petersburg, the UN cultural body UNESCO has dropped the city of Dresden from its prestigious World Heritage List as a result of the construction of a controversial four-lane bridge over the Elbe River.

UNESCO has previously warned that the siting of a new skyscraper headquarters for the energy giant Gazprom in St. Petersburg could have a similar result.

‘EUROPE’S LAST PAGANS’ WORSHIP IN MARII-EL REPUBLIC GROVE

MARISOLA, Marii-El Republic — More than 50 worshippers gathered in a sacred grove on a hot June afternoon outside the village of Marisola. The crowd, mostly women dressed in national costumes and colorful headscarves, stood on a glade opposite a spruce where men were busy conducting prayers.

‘EUROPE’S LAST PAGANS’ WORSHIP IN MARII-EL REPUBLIC GROVE

MARISOLA, Marii-El Republic — More than 50 worshippers gathered in a sacred grove on a hot June afternoon outside the village of Marisola. The crowd, mostly women dressed in national costumes and colorful headscarves, stood on a glade opposite a spruce where men were busy conducting prayers.

TWO CHILDREN SERIOUSLY INJURED IN DOG ATTACKS

Residents of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast were shocked by at least two cases of dog attacks on children last week.

In the first instance, an Akita dog nearly scalped an eight-year-old girl in the village of Osinovets on June 29.

MOSCOW URGES CALM ON N. KOREA

MOSCOW — The Foreign Ministry has called for calm after North Korea stoked regional tensions by firing seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, its biggest barrage of ballistic missiles since 2006.

The ministry said Russia and China had agreed that all sides should refrain from any steps that could further destabilize the region and were calling for a return to suspended six-party talks involving China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States aimed at coaxing North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

REVIEW: THE LAST DAYS OF THE ROMANOVS

Nicholas II was not the first Russian tsar to die at the hands of revolutionaries. Alexander II had been killed by a terrorist’s bomb in March of 1881, but the People’s Will’s “hunt for the tsar” in the years leading up to that assassination had at least the asymmetry of a small band of desperate revolutionaries attempting to take the life of the head of a powerful Empire.

NATIONAL NEWS

TALL SHIPS HEAD FOR CITY AS BALTIC SERIES KICKS OFF

The Tall Ships’ Races Baltic 2009, which runs from Gdynia, Poland, to St. Petersburg began on Sunday.

There were reports that over a million spectators turned out to see the ships off. They are due to arrive in St. Petersburg for the event’s conclusion next weekend.

"Mir," a white-and-blue-hulled Russian ship, with Captain Yury Galkin at the helm, demonstrated a textbook start and led from the committee vessel end of the line. However, hot on her heels was the Sail Training Association of Poland’s barquentine "Pogoria," with the eye-catching green barque "Alexander von Humboldt" from Germany third across the line.

VIOLENCE ROCKS NORTH CAUCASUS

MOSCOW — An unusually large number of attacks have roiled the North Caucasus in recent weeks, including a bloody ambush Saturday that killed at least nine Chechen police officers in Ingushetia, raising new fears that the situation is spiraling out of control in the restive region.

The chief of the Investigative Committee warned that insurgents have found new sources of financing from abroad, while analysts said the attacks looked like a reaction against a counterterrorism operation in the region.

DUMA GIVES APPROVAL TO ANTI-GRAFT BILL

MOSCOW — The State Duma on Friday approved anti-corruption legislation proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev that has been broadly welcomed by campaigners, Reuters reported.

The bill gives prosecutors the right to probe new legislation for loopholes that could be exploited by corrupt officials.

IN BRIEF

Madonna’s Curse

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Lawmakers have complained to Governor Valentina Matviyenko after pop star Madonna used a Russian swear word to describe her concert next month on the city’s Palace Square.

OPINION

OBAMA IS PREPARED TO CALL MEDVEDEV’S BLUFF

U.S. President Barack Obama descends on Moscow on Monday in the first major encounter between U.S. and Russian leaders since they both agreed to hit the “reset” button.”

Obama’s push to re-engineer the troubled U.S.-Russia relationship has already turned into a policy challenge for the Kremlin.

ADVICE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama,

Welcome to Moscow!

We expats are delighted that you’ve come for a visit and wanted to give you a few tips for negotiating the city, your hosts and those tricky arms treaties.