LOCAL NEWS

9 HELD, ACCUSED OF SMUGGLING YACHTS

MOSCOW — Police detained managers of the country’s leading luxury yacht importer along with several customs officials on smuggling charges Wednesday, in what could become the country’s next high-profile smuggling case after the closure of Moscow’s Cherkizovsky Market.

A total of nine people were detained, including founders, managers and staff from Burevestnik Group and members of the Federal Customs Service’s central administration, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The suspects are accused of evading customs duties on expensive ships imported from Britain and Italy between 2007 and 2009, said the statement published on the committee’s web site. Investigators also searched 15 homes and offices, the statement said.

OUTSPOKEN PIRACY EXPERT MIKHAIL VOITENKO FLEES RUSSIA

MOSCOW — The mysterious saga surrounding the disappearance of the Arctic Sea cargo ship took a new twist Wednesday when an outspoken piracy expert who saw political overtones in the case fled Russia.

Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of the respected Sovfrakht Marine Bulletin web site, told The St. Petersburg Times by telephone from Istanbul that he had been pressured into leaving.

Chichvarkin Says He Won't Return

MOSCOW — Former Yevroset chairman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who is living in self-imposed exile in London, said he had no plans to return to Russia but would be happy to discuss criminal charges waiting for him at home in a British court.

“When it becomes a free country where it is possible to build something, I will gladly return,” Chichvarkin told the Bfm.

NATIONAL NEWS

INTERFAX REPORTER EXPELLED FROM DAM

MOSCOW — RusHydro expelled an Interfax reporter from its Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, where a flood last month killed 75 people, over what the news agency said Wednesday was the journalist’s refusal to let the company edit his stories.

The state-run power giant accused the unidentified reporter of “incompetence” and violating safety rules. The dispute over coverage of the disaster and its consequences also embroiled Rustem Adagamov, one of Russia’s best-known bloggers. Interfax hinted that RusHydro was influencing his on-site posts from Khakasia.

Coverage of the Aug. 17 accident has set the government on edge, with questions arising about whether Soviet-era infrastructure has been adequately maintained and how rescue efforts at Sayano-Shushenskaya were handled.

VIOLENCE FLARES AT GAZPROM TOWER HEARING

Violence broke out Tuesday at a third and final public hearing devoted to the Okhta Center, or “Gazprom tower” — the 400-meter skyscraper that Gazprom, Russia’s largest energy company, is planning to build in St.

August Oil Output Hits New Record

MOSCOW — Russian oil output hit a record high in August, nearing 10 million barrels per day as Rosneft began production at a new giant field, while gas production recovered from its lows on improved demand, according to Energy Ministry data released Wednesday, Reuters reported.

August oil output rose to 9.

REAL ESTATE

PROPERTY MARKET NEARS BOTTOM

The Russian real estate market appears to be bottoming out, with the rate of decrease in prices for real estate slowwing every month.

In August, prices for residential real estate decreased by just 0.7 percent in St. Petersburg and 0.3 percent in Moscow, according to the Construction News Agency.

LOCAL LUXURY HOTELS FROZEN AMID RECESSION

Eleven hotels planned for St. Petersburg have been put on hold as a result of the economic crisis. The frozen hotels would have provided at least 2,425 new rooms for St.

MOSCOW SEES INNOVATIONS IN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

MOSCOW — Moscow is taking a completely new approach to construction, creating a first public-private partnership that will bear all the infrastructure costs to develop a property, a City Hall source said.

Mayor Yury Luzhkov signed an order Friday creating the partnership, which will develop land along a road in southern Moscow.

REAL ESTATE FORUM TO GIVE LIMELIGHT TO TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT, FUNDING

The ProEstate 2009 International Investment Real Estate Forum opened in St. Petersburg on Thursday, attracting participants from more than 30 countries as well as 40 Russian regions, according to the forum’s press service.

OPINION

SPINNING STALIN

The decision by Moscow authorities to restore Stalin’s name to the vestibule of the Kurskaya metro station on the 130th anniversary of his birth has sparked a storm of debate. Not surprisingly, not a single official from the Moscow Mayor’s Office has taken responsibility for reinstating the verse from the 1944 version of the Soviet anthem that reads, “Stalin raised us to be loyal to the nation; He inspired us to work and be heroic.

GEOPOLITICS FOR SWINDLERS

President Dmitry Medvedev visited Ulan  Bator on Aug. 25 and 26 and signed a commercial agreement with the Mongolian authorities. Hardly a month passes without Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin or, in rare cases, Medvedev visiting one exotic country after another and signing ground-breaking commercial agreements.

CULTURE

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Now in its twelfth edition, the city’s groundbreaking Earlymusic Festival returns to the city next week with an array of exciting new concerts and ensembles. Every fall, vibrant performances by the refined musicians that it attracts evoke, embody and revive the long-lost noble spirit of St.

CHERNOV’S CHOICE

To the shock of onlookers and the club’s management, a punk concert was called off by the OMON special-task police force on Monday.

The U.S. hardcore punk band Die Young, which was to perform at the underground club Zoccolo, failed to perform after an estimated 50 OMON policemen and around 10 high-ranking police officers arrived at the venue before the show and ordered the show to be canceled.

Black sea magic

An incredibly relaxing late summer evening.

As the sun is setting we lie back and relax on soft dark sofas and watch small yachts slowly cruise past Petrovsky Island, young crews dancing, chatting and enjoying their drinks.

We order our own drinks — fresh, zesty homemade lemon and lime lemonade with mint leaves and a touch of strawberry, adding a pinkish color and a mild aroma (200 rubles, $6.