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MOSCOW — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday welcomed Russian investment into Opel, chipmakers Infineon and Qimonda and a shipyard in Germany, whose recovering economy won praise from President Dmitry Medvedev. The two leaders met for cordial one-day talks at Medvedev’s summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, and the only public criticism came during a final news conference when Merkel condemned a series of killings of human rights activists in Chechnya. Medvedev ordered Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov to bring the killers to justice. At the news conference, Merkel reiterated her support for Magna-Sberbank’s bid for Opel and said she and Medvedev had discussed “a strategic partnership in the field of electronics,” namely investments into Infineon Technologies and “probably” Qimonda. |
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FURRY FRIENDS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A boy examines two feline exhibits at the Loft Project Etazhi art center on Saturday. The exhibition featured cats and dogs up for adoption from St. Petersburg’s Rzhevka animal shelter. |
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MOSCOW — Two Su-27 fighter jets collided in midair above the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky during a rehearsal for the MAKS air show on Sunday, killing one pilot and injuring five people on the ground. The crash occurred when jets with the elite Russian Knights flying team attempted a maneuver in which they lined up with a distance of just two meters separating the nose of one from the tail of the other, said Magomet Tolboyev, the honorary president of the air show.
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St. Petersburg’s Environmental Prosecutor Yury Pykhtyrev said this week that an investigation into a series of oil discharges into the waters of the Okhta River has shown that the most likely cause of the pollution was accidental interference with stocks of oil products during the construction of Okhta Center, the new local headquarters for Gazprom Neft. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The search for a missing cargo ship and its Russian crew is “under control,” and Moscow does not need any additional help, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Saturday. The statement came the same day that Finnish authorities said they received a ransom request, and it follows a spate of reported sightings, none of which has been confirmed. The vessel, the Arctic Sea, was last seen in the Bay of Biscay, off the western coast of France, on July 30 — two days after radio contact was lost. An unidentified high-ranking military official in Brussels told Itar-Tass on Saturday that Artic Sea’s location had been determined, but that it was not announced for unclear reasons. |
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SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Anton Adasinsky of the Derevo theater troupe and Yevgeny Fyodorov, lead singer of Tequilajazzz (r), perform at the closing of the Open Cinema festival on Saturday. |
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MOSCOW — The Investigative Committee will create a branch to deal with violations connected to the construction projects for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, the committee’s head, Alexander Bastrykin, said Friday. The department will hire officers with experience in investigating financial and economic crimes, Bastrykin said, Interfax reported. “We mustn’t allow embezzlement of state money,” he said.
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This week, the Rossia channel started a new daytime show called “Otchayanniye Domokhozyaiki,” or “Desperate Housewives.” The presenters wear high heels and dresses to deliver words of wisdom on how to cook rice and make yourself trim and on what kind of dressing gowns can be worn during the day. |
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Authorities can start releasing prisoners convicted of less serious crimes as early as this month, according to Justice Ministry instructions published Friday in Rossiiskaya Gazeta. |
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President Dmitry Medvedev took a helicopter tour of construction work for the Sochi Olympics on Thursday and regaled a student brigade with stories from his days as a summer laborer. Accompanied by new Olimpstroi chief Taimuraz Bolloyev, Medvedev flew over several key sites, snapping photos from his personal camera and joking that he had taken the construction under his personal control. |
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The Central Bank and prominent lawmakers say the ruble does not need to be devalued, but a 10.9 percent drop in gross domestic product and a projected federal deficit of 9.4 percent of GDP are causing some to start second-guessing. As the ruble closes a volatile week, market watchers are split on what direction the currency will take in coming months, with some saying devaluation is inevitable while others contend that the biggest problem the currency faces is excessive appreciation. |
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Russians suffered more during the 1998 crisis than they are during the current one, according to a survey released Thursday. About 40 percent of Russians said they have not been affected by the current economic crisis, up from the 26 percent who made the same claim about the 1998 default and ruble devaluation, according to the survey by the Public Opinion Foundation. |
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The Industry and Trade Ministry has proposed legislation that would allow nonprescription drugs to be sold in supermarkets, the ministry said Friday. “We are proposing a legislative review of the participation of nonspecialized trade organizations in retail sales of medications,” a ministry spokeswoman said, RIA-Novosti reported. |
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Vneshekonombank plans to lend an additional 60 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) in the third quarter to borrowers in the “real economy,” bank head Vladimir Dmitriyev said Saturday. |
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Cell phones are starting to pile up at customs offices again, as the Federal Customs Service makes sure that importers aren’t packing more than one handset per box. Customs officials are using various pretexts to refuse to register customs declarations for mobile phones and aren’t letting them into the country, managers for three phone companies said. |
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Freedom to travel abroad has come under serious threat, with Russia’s public health chief Gennady Onishchenko proposing to ban Russian school trips to the U.K over fears of the children catching swine flu. The country’s chief medical officer does not have the legal right to enforce such suggestions — it’s the jurisdiction of the State Duma or president. |
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Issues Archive