LOCAL NEWS

PUTIN'S POPULARITY NOT OIL DEPENDENT

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin has been accused of undemocratic behavior, of staging unfair elections and of holding on to power like a dictator. But he can point to a strong basis for his legitimacy: He is unbeatably popular among his electorate.

In fact, since Putin’s unexpected rise from little-known bureaucrat to prime minister in August 1999 and president a few months later, his popularity has rarely been rivaled by any other politician in the country.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING PUT IN THE SPOTLIGHT BY LOCAL PROJECT

Two years ago, several young girls who had been trafficked from St. Petersburg were found in Antwerp, Belgium, where they had been forced to work as prostitutes.

NATIONAL NEWS

IMPRISONED ANTIFASCIST'S APPEAL REJECTED BY COURT

The St. Petersburg City Court’s judicial division for criminal cases ruled to uphold the conviction of Alexei Bychin on Tuesday, in an appeal hearing that only lasted ten minutes, according to the imprisoned antifascist’s lawyer. “They didn’t listen to any of our arguments,” lawyer Olga Tseitlina said by phone after the hearing.

LAWYERS SLAM FLAWS IN NEW CASE

MOSCOW — The retrial of four men charged with involvement in the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya began on Wednesday morning only to be quickly adjourned so that lawyers could file a flurry of complaints to prosecutors.

LOCAL BUSINESS

NEW RAID ON MOSCOW MARKET WORRIES VENDORS

MOSCOW — Police have reported that they have interrupted a major smuggling operation at the Sevastopol market in southern Moscow, raising concerns among foreign merchants that many legitimate import businesses would be caught up in a crackdown on counterfeiting.

OLEG TINKOFF SEEKING BUYER FOR RESTAURANTS

MOSCOW — Tinkoff owner Oleg Tinkov announced Monday that he wanted to sell his share in the restaurant business and invited buyers to file their offers by e-mail.

PIKALYOVO SUPPLIER FACING FINE OVER DATA

MOSCOW — The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service may fine fertilizer producer FosAgro up to 500,000 rubles ($16,000) for not submitting information on its production costs, the service said Tuesday.

If FosAgro does not submit the information by Aug. 31, a deal brokered in Pikalyovo in June by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might fall apart.

IN BRIEF

Lower Oil Duty

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — The Economic Development Ministry has sent a proposal to the government to lower export duties on light oil products from 2012 in order to encourage companies to produce higher-value fuels, the ministry said Wednesday.

OPINION

OBAMA’S CONFUSING NUCLEAR POLICY

The Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago. Isn’t it time we abandoned policies specifically designed to deal with it? Arms control talks are a case in point. Why should U.S. officials act as if only a Cold War-style treaty can save the United States and Russia from a destabilizing nuclear arms race?

Despite President Barack Obama’s strange, pre-Moscow summit remark last month in a New York Times interview that the United States and Russia are continuing to “grow” their nuclear stockpiles, both countries have, in fact, reduced their stockpiles drastically since the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991.

PUTIN’S AFGHAN WAR

Events in South Ossetia are unfolding according to last year’s scenario. No sooner had U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced that the United States would not provide arms to Georgia than South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity accused the United States of complicity in genocide against the Ossetian people and announced that Tskhinvali had come under fire from the Georgian village of Nikozi.

CULTURE

OPENING MINDS

The prize for each winning picture at this year’s Open Cinema short-film festival succinctly captures the power the filmmaker wields through his art. A rugged metal-and-glass hourglass with a tap in the center to control the flow of sand, each trophy enables its holder to play with time.

WORD’S WORTH

By Michele A. Berdy

Ñîïåðåæèâàíèå: empathy

Ìû ñàìè ñîçäàåì ñâîè ïðîáëåìû (We create our own problems). Ain’t that the truth. Americans produced the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis and “Police Academy 1-49,” and then they wonder why half the world thinks they’re idiots.

HERE COME THE BRIDES

In pre-Revolutionary Russia, weddings were considered the high point of one’s life. Peasants and aristocrats alike divided their lives into two parts — before and after the wedding — and village celebrations would often stagger on for a whole year after the wedding itself.

RUSSIAN SOUL

Not every change brought about by the financial crisis has been for the worse. It seems only yesterday that we first dined out at this address in its former guise, the excellent Ruan Thai restaurant.

In the spotlight

This month’s Tatler magazine picked Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the Uzbek president, as its cover girl. She’s a glamorous woman with long blonde hair and an eye for a nice piece of Christian Dior. And the sickeningly reverent article is headlined “Queen of Asia.”

Karimova is the eldest daughter of Islam Karimov, who has headed Uzbekistan since 1991 and is accused on a regular basis of holding unfair elections and human rights abuses, such as the torture of political opponents — not that you’ll read about this in Tatler.