LOCAL NEWS

ADMINISTRATION IN PERM STEPS DOWN OVER NIGHTCLUB FIRE

MOSCOW — The Perm regional administration resigned en masse Wednesday after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered withering criticism in connection with a nightclub fire that killed at least 125 people.

Perm Governor Oleg Chirkunov will form a new administration after investigators wrap up their inquiry into Saturday’s fire started by a pyrotechnics show at the Khromaya Loshad (Lame Horse) nightclub in downtown Perm, according to a statement on the region’s web site, Perm.ru.

Perm’s mayor also submitted his resignation to the city’s legislature.

The highly unusual wave of resignations come a day after Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that officials be held responsible for the fire.

RAIL SAFETY UNDER REVIEW AFTER BLAST

MOSCOW — The 700-kilometer rail link between Moscow and St. Petersburg is patrolled by 180 armed officers, deployed after a 2007 bombing derailed several railcars and injured dozens of passengers.

That breaks down to about one officer for every four kilometers of track.

The site chosen by unknown attackers to plant and detonate another bomb on Nov. 27, killing 26 people aboard the Nevsky Express, was located four kilometers away from the nearest patrol.

City Parliament Clears Way to Build on Green Areas

The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly stripped more than a hundred green spaces of legal protection amid controversy and protests on Wednesday.

The ruling United Russia party, which is led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and dominates the Legislative Assembly, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) voted for the changes to the Law on Public Green Spaces in its third and final reading.

NATIONAL NEWS

ANTI-KRISHNA LEAFLET OFF THE BANNED LIST

MOSCOW — The Justice Ministry has dropped a leaflet from its 450-item list of banned extremist materials, marking the first time that an item has been removed since the list’s creation in 2007.

The leaflet, which accuses Russian Hare Krishnas of selling drugs and weapons and being prepared to kill, was added to the list after a Khabarovsk court convicted a United Russia youth activist of extremism for distributing it at a far eastern festival of Indian culture in July 2008.

A higher Khabarovsk court overturned the ruling in September and ordered the lower court to reconsider the ban on the leaflet, which it did.

IN BRIEF

Hitler’s Remains

MOSCOW (SPT) — Adolf Hitler’s remains were burned and dumped into an East German river by Soviet agents 25 years after the end of World War II, the Federal Security Service said.

The remains of Hitler, his companion Eva Braun and the family of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels were dumped into the Biederitz River in April 1970 on the secret orders of then-KGB chief Yury Andropov, FSB archivist Vasily Khristoforov told Interfax.

LOCAL BUSINESS

STATE FIRMS TO BE SOLD VIA IPO

MOSCOW — The government will sell off most of the state enterprises slated for privatization through an initial public offering, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday.

“This is not a sale of stakes, with the proceeds going into the budget, but an IPO, the result of which being that the money will become part of the equity of the company,” he said, Interfax reported.

CITY BRACED FOR ANNUAL FESTIVE SHOPPING SPREE

Traditionally, pre-holiday sales in December represent 17 to 20 percent of the year’s total sales. However, New Year shopping frenzies put people at risk of buying unnecessary goods, marketing experts say.

Russian to Head Gas Forum

MOSCOW — Key gas exporting countries on Wednesday backed a Russian engineering executive, Leonid Bokhanovsky, to lead their efforts to control gas supplies on the global market, a sign that they recognize Moscow’s primary role in the plan.

Bokhanovsky, first vice president of engineering company Stroitransgaz, will run the Gas Exporting Countries Forum for two years with an option to stay over for another term, an Energy Ministry source said.

OPINION

A WINDOW FOR DOUBLE-DIGIT GAINS

With the equity market up by about 125 percent, 2009 has been an excellent year for Russian investors. Anyone willing to forget that the RTS Index lost $140 billion of market capitalization in 2008 will be more than happy with the $70 billion that it has gained this year.

CATCHING UP WITH AND SURPASSING GUINEA

What a great country Guinea is! Guinean President Moussa Dadis Camara was shot in the head by his military aide and chief of the presidential guard, Aboubacar “Toumba” Diakite.

CULTURE

SQUARING OFF

St. Petersburg’s popularity as a tourist destination reaches its peak in the summer during the White Nights, but the Arts Square Festival, which begins on Monday at the Shostakovich Philharmonic, aims to draw music lovers to the city during the “off-season.

CHERNOV’S CHOICE

Chinese Pilot Jao Da, a reputed Moscow music club, is set to launch a branch in St. Petersburg this week. The venue will open to the public on Saturday with a gig by 188910, a St.

CHANGING HISTORY

Sjeng Scheijen’s “Diaghilev: A Life” is a superb biography of the world’s greatest artistic trailblazer and impresario, Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872–1929.) In this fascinating and moving account, Scheijen clearly describes the life of a complex man who started as an art critic, publisher, art historian and exhibitions organizer and later founded the Ballets Russes.

HOME COMFORTS

Sometimes it feels like the high-end restaurants on the eatery-packed Ulitsa Rubenshteina change as often as the St. Petersburg weather, but the newest addition, the toponymous Rubenstain, is off to a promising start.

WORLD

More Than 120 Wildfires Rage In Australia

SYDNEY — More than 120 wildfires fanned by high winds and soaring temperatures raged in southeastern Australia Thursday, prompting emergency warnings for several towns, officials said.

Some 2,000 firefighters tackled the fires in New South Wales, where a large blaze was burning dangerously close to farming properties in the state’s northwest.