LOCAL NEWS

OPPONENTS FILE SUIT AGAINST TOWER HEARINGS

Opponents of the Okhta Center, also known as the Gazprom Tower, filed a lawsuit late last week asking the court to cancel an upcoming public hearing as “illegal.” The company ODTs Okhta (Okhta Public and Business Center), the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s company in charge of the construction, needs this hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, as the final public step in its campaign to have the planned skyscraper’s height extended to 396 meters from the 100 meters currently permitted by law.

ODTs Okhta argued earlier this month that the site should be exempted from the city’s law on height regulations as the size and shape of the construction site does not allow for the erection of several smaller buildings, so it must build a 396-meter tower instead.

U.S. RECONSIDERS CONTROVERSIAL MISSILE DEFENSE PLANS

MOSCOW — More than seven months after taking office, President Barack Obama’s administration is actively looking into alternatives to the missile defense plans that roiled U.S.-Russian relations under George W. Bush.

Some of these alternatives entail scrapping missile shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, which would please Russia and major EU players like France and Germany but disappoint U.

Investigation Lists Worst Planning Justifications

“As the suggested plot of land is too small to accommodate our facility we kindly request that City Hall review its size and expand the plot to suit the construction needs,” reads one of the arguments in a list compiled by the St. Petersburg Center for Environmental Expertise of the city’s Society of Natural Scientists (or EKOM), which conducted an investigation into local construction practices.

NATIONAL NEWS

SAILORS MAKE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CLAIM

MOSCOW — Crew members of the Arctic Sea cargo ship joked that they had disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle and been fed ice cream by pirates as they returned home to their families in Arkhangelsk on Sunday.

But the 11 sailors, who were greeted by relatives as they stepped off a train from Moscow, refused to shed any light on what had happened between July 24, when their ship was purportedly seized by hijackers near Sweden, and their rescue off the western coast of Africa by the Navy on Aug.

CRIES OF 'BEAT BLACKS' NOT ETHNIC HATRED

MOSCOW — St. Petersburg investigators said Friday that the severe beating of a Kyrgyz teenager in February was not motivated by ethnic hatred, even though the attackers shouted “Beat the Blacks!” and “Russia for Russians!”

Stunned human rights activists accused investigators of incompetence and voiced concern that nationalists might point to the case to justify their use of similar slogans.

OPINION

MOSCOW’S NEW AFGHANISTAN

Chechen terrorists have claimed responsibility for blowing up the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant. A group calling itself Riyadhus Salihiyn has announced its plans for stepping up “economic warfare” against Russia with the primary targets being oil and gas pipelines, power plants and major industrial enterprises.

CRACKS AND 2ND GUESSES FOR PUTIN 10 YEARS LATER

August marked 10 years since Vladimir Putin appeared on the country’s national stage to become the sum of Russia’s politics, a fixation for the country’s national psyche and a public figure of international scale.

TOO EARLY TO BREAK OUT THE CHAMPANGE

When you are mired in a severe economic crisis, it is normal to get excited at even the smallest morsel of good news. It is therefore tempting to interpret the 0.5 percent monthly improvement in July’s gross domestic product and the smaller contraction in industrial output as an assurance that all is now well with the economy and that the stock market will imminently start the second leg of its recovery rally.

NO PAPERING OVER THE ISSUE

Every second  person I’ve discussed the future of newspapers with  prefers reading text by folding pages ratherr than clicking with their mouse. I also prefer the whisper of paper to the clicking of a keypad.