LOCAL NEWS

FIRST TEST FLIGHT FOR STEALTH FIGHTER

MOSCOW — A prototype of Russia’s first stealth fighter successfully completed its long-delayed maiden flight Friday, receiving a warm welcome from government officials who hope that the jet will become a new centerpiece for the country’s aging air fleet.

The flight is also welcome news for Russia’s military industry, which is struggling to develop technologies not based on Soviet designs. The military’s 13th test of its new Bulava intercontinental missile failed in December, resulting in a bizarre and much-publicized light show over northern Norway.

The successful test of the T-50 PAK FA fighter, made by state-run Sukhoi, comes amid a spate of crashes involving the company’s aging Su-27, which are often blamed on human error.

THOUSANDS DECRY PUTIN IN PUBLIC PROTESTS

Up to 12,000 protesters called on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign in a rare outpouring of anger with the popular leader during a weekend rally in Kaliningrad, a city with a population of one million.

The peaceful protest was the largest in a flurry of weekend demonstrations, including one in St. Petersburg, all of which shared a common thread: Growing frustration with the country’s leaders.

HACKER ATTACK SHUTS NOVAYA GAZETA’S SITE

MOSCOW — Novaya Gazeta’s web site was paralyzed by a hacker attack for a sixth day Sunday in what editors called the strongest assault ever to hit the opposition newspaper’s online edition.

The denial of service attack started Tuesday morning and peaked Thursday when the site recorded 1.

SAPSAN TRAIN ATTACKED WITH STONES, ICE

The Sapsan train, the new high-speed link between Moscow and St. Petersburg launched late last year by Russian Railways (RZD), was attacked with stones and chunks of ice twice in January.

NATIONAL NEWS

CARGO OF TOXIC WASTE ARRIVES IN CITY’S PORT

A cargo of 650 tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride arrived at the city’s port on Monday. The radioactive load, which is due to travel on by rail to the Siberian Chemical Factory in the Siberian town of Seversk for reprocessing, was brought in by The Captain Kuroptev ship, a vessel that has repeatedly come into conflict in the past with ecological groups trying to prevent it from docking.

MIGRATION DRIVES POPULATION GROWTH

MOSCOW — The Federal Migration Service announced Friday that it had contributed to Russia’s first demographic increase in 15 years by granting Russian citizenship to about 400,000 people last year.

RUSSIA, SOUTH OSSETIA AGREE VISA-FREE TRAVEL

MOSCOW — Russia and Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia agreed to visa-free travel Monday, provoking outrage from Georgia.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his South Ossetian counterpart, Murat Dzhioyev, signed the deal in Moscow as part of a bilateral friendship and cooperation agreement signed in September 2008, South Ossetia’s representative office in Moscow said in a statement.

IN BRIEF

Dam Investigation

MOSCOW (SPT) — Khakassia’s police have opened a criminal investigation into a company accused of embezzling money meant for maintenance work at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant, where an accident killed 75 people in August.

LOCAL BUSINESS

HOTEL CONVERSION PLANNED ON NEVSKY

The joint owners of Ilim pulp-and-paper company, Mikhail and Boris Zingarevich, intend to take part in the conversion of a building on Nevsky Prospekt into a hotel.

IFG-Basis-Project submitted a planning application to turn 7-9 Nevsky Prospekt into a hotel in July last year, said Yelena Kokshina, press secretary of the city’s construction committee.

RUSSIA LOW ON GLOBALIZATION REPORT

MOSCOW — Russia is one of the least globalized countries among the 60 largest economies in the world, according to a report released Friday.

The country ranks 55th on the list, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Ernst & Young — just above Indonesia and below Ecuador.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE ORLOVSKY TUNNEL

City Hall is reopening the tender for St. Petersburg’s 47.7 billion ruble ($1.6 billion) Orlovsky Tunnel.

The tender commission will begin examining bids for the construction and operation of the Orlovsky Tunnel on Feb. 18, said Alexei Chichkanov, chairman of the city’s investment and strategic projects committee.

CITY’S FERRY CONNECTION TO HELSINKI SET TO BE RESTORED

A ferry connection between St. Petersburg and Helsinki is once again being launched after an 18-month gap.

From April this year, the St. Peter Line company will operate the Princess Maria passenger ferry, said Andrei Mushkarev, development director of Inflot Worldwide, which is the official representative and agent of the operator in St.

In Brief

Recovery Speeds Up

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s economy grew a seasonally adjusted 6 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three-month period, Goldman Sachs economist Rory MacFarquhar estimated after full-year figures were released Monday.

“The recovery in the last few months of the year was considerably faster than we had expected,” he said in an e-mailed note to investors.