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MOSCOW — United Russia’s majority in the State Duma suffered a major blow to its image Wednesday, when the Federation Council voted down controversial tax hikes on car owners that were broadly criticized by auto owners, opposition parties and eventually the Kremlin. The about-face was one of the very few instances where the authorities have backed down on plans because of a public outcry, and it was the latest victory for well-organized drivers’ groups. The changes, intended to help plug a budget deficit next year, would have doubled the base rate of a transportation tax that is key to funding some regional budgets. It is also a major embarrassment for United Russia, which has a large enough legislative majority to change the Constitution unilaterally, and feeds perceptions that the party is following orders rather than generating ideas. |
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CLOWNS IN TOWN
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Retired actress Inessa Mamysheva (l) is embraced by a member of an international team of clowns, led by doctor and clown Patch Adams, at the Retired Actors’ and Artists’ House on the city’s Petrograd Side on Wednesday as part of a charity event. |
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MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s passion for geography was on full display Wednesday as he became head of the Russian Geographical Society’s board of trustees, a day after Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu unexpectedly became the group’s president. The shakeup at the St. Petersburg-based society, which bills itself as Russia’s oldest organization, has ruffled feathers in the group.
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In a much-anticipated ruling, the Constitutional Court on Thursday introduced a permanent ban on capital punishment in Russia. The moratorium on the death penalty was due to expire on Jan. 1, 2010. While the procedure may seem nothing more than a technicality — Russia has signed Protocol Six of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of the death penalty — it has been surrounded by fierce debate. |
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Charity Presentation ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Swedish medical center Ekolsund is hosting a charity event this weekend in conjunction with The Petersburg Balls Fund. |
All photos from issue.
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The controversial Gazprom Tower found itself under harsh attack last week on Russia’s main state television, Channel One, for the third time in the past four weeks — and its supporters struggled to offer any good reason to back the 403-meter-tall skyscraper in close proximity to the city center. |
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MOSCOW — A 37-year-old lawyer jailed amid a heated tax dispute between Hermitage Capital, once the largest investment fund in Russia, and the Interior Ministry died abruptly in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. |
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St. Petersburg’s central thoroughfare looks set to cease being a street of boutiques, as mid-range clothing stores and restaurant chains replace luxury brands. At 47 Nevsky Prospekt, where an Escada store used to be located, a Dve Palochki sushi chain restaurant opened in October. |
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MOSCOW — RusHydro is taking full control of management to complete building the Boguchanskaya dam, and the hydropower firm will be able to raise up to $660 million selling shares to the private sector next year, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Wednesday. |
 MOSCOW — The Central Bank has foiled an attempt to steal 1.25 billion rubles ($44 million) from the state’s Pension Fund using counterfeit documents, a scheme that bankers say couldn’t have been carried out by ordinary criminals. The Pension Fund discovered the theft Monday when it received a notice from the Central Bank that 1. |
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MOSCOW — Companies in Russia experienced more economic crime this year than anywhere else in the world, according to a report released Thursday, which underscores the difficulties facing an ambitious Kremlin plan to curb corruption and lawlessness. |
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MOSCOW — The government will encourage consolidation in the petrochemicals industry because it is too fragmented to become globally competitive, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said late Tuesday, Reuters reported. “Consolidation of this industry stands high on the agenda. The state should help this process and will definitely do it,” Putin told government officials and oil industry executives in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan. |
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Builders say they are pleased with a government plan to develop the construction of low-rise housing, which they plan to offer for no more than 30,000 rubles ($1,050) per square meter. “We need to pull people out of the slums,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday during a government meeting on the housing sector. In the first nine months of the year, 35 million square meters of housing were constructed, although Putin said the yearly goal of 52 million square meters could still be reached thanks to construction started before the crisis. He also ordered the government “to create the conditions for the start of new construction,” with low-rise housing being among the priorities. |
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 MOSCOW — As housing in Moscow gets more and more cramped, some homeowners are looking upward for extra space. The construction of mansards, or stylized roof extensions giving room for an extra loft, has become popular among homeowners as a cheap and effective way to increase the area of their apartments. |
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A consortium of Gazprombank, Goldman Sachs and Citibank has taken control of RosEuroDevelopment, a major commercial real estate developer, because of the company’s debt. One of the developer’s competitors told Vedomosti that a controlling stake had gone to the new owners, which was confirmed by RosEuroDevelopment board member Ilya Brodsky, chief executive Nikolai Artemenko, and a representative from one of the company’s shareholders. |
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 History has seen many cases of the ruling elite leading society into a dead end while convincing the people all of the time that the road is leading toward a bright future. But it is a truly unique situation when a country’s leaders admit that they are at a dead end and then search for a way to stay there. |
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I have been wondering lately: How much of Russia’s gross domestic product is lost to bribes taken by government officials? Consider an ordinary example — the price of housing. |
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 “Revolutionary Lion,” a new exhibition at the Museum of Political History, pays tribute to the life and work of Leon Trotsky. On Nov. 6, the museum unveiled a modest but concise exhibition of rare photographs, manuscripts, letters and other artifacts in honor of the 130th anniversary of Trotsky’s birth, on Nov. |
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Marc Almond returns to St. Petersburg to give a glimpse of his second “Russian” album, called “Orpheus in Exile.” Due to perform at Zal Ozhidaniya on Sunday, Almond will pay homage to the late St. |
 A new exhibition at the Stroganov Palace titled “The Modern Art of India: Pictorial Trajectories,” traces the development of modern Indian art with selected pieces from the late 19th century through to the beginning of the 21st century. It is the first time in several decades that an exhibition focused solely on Indian art has been displayed in St. |
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Following its success with the Stroganoff Steak House and Russian Vodka Room No. 1, the Svoi V Gorode restaurant group has opened Fish House, an upscale modern restaurant on Pereulok Grivtsova. |
 The Royal Ballet in London has invited two Mariinsky ballerinas as guest dancers this year. Following Yekaterina Osmolkina’s guest appearances in “Swan Lake” in March, another star, Yevgenia Obraztsova (who was in Cedric Klapisch’s 2005 film “Russian Dolls” as well as in Bertand Normand’s 2006 film “Ballerina”), appeared in “The Sleeping Beauty.” Last Saturday, for her second and final performance, Obraztsova was superb and showed herself to be fully at home in The Royal Ballet’s production of “Beauty. |
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 Marc de Passorio, a distinguished chef with extensive international experience, is bursting with pride over his restaurant’s first Michelin star, which was awarded in March this year. |
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