LOCAL NEWS

VIGIL SET UP TO STOP DEMOLITION OF BUILDING

A round-the-clock vigil has been established in central St. Petersburg by concerned locals attempting to prevent the demolition of a historic building.

Defenders of St. Petersburg’s cultural heritage set up camp near the Rogov House on the corner of Zagorodny Prospekt and Shcherbakov Pereulok as attempts to demolish the building continued during the weekend and into this week.

At every attempt by workers to start demolition, which the protesters describe as “illegal,” the activists called the police, who repeatedly came and stopped the work because the workers had no demolition permit.

But the workers, equipped with a hydraulic excavator labeled “Building Demolition Association,” managed to almost completely destroy the top floor of the three-story historic building in one sweep on Saturday and two sweeps on Monday.

MEDVEDEV BEGINS SWEEPING POLICE REFORMS

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev last week pressed ahead with a drive for reforms in the scandal-plagued Interior Ministry, ordering sweeping personnel cuts in the ministry’s massive bureaucracy and promising harsh punishments for police who break the law.

At a meeting with top Interior Ministry officials, Medvedev said he had ordered the number of personnel at the ministry’s head office to be halved to about 10,000.

BLIND EYE TURNED TO COUNTERFEIT CELL PHONES

MOSCOW — It’s a typical sight at many of Russia’s electronics markets: a 3,000 ruble Blackberry, a gold-plated Nokia and an iPhone with a television antenna.

Counterfeit and other illegal mobile phones have been flooding into the country, but while law enforcement, mobile providers and phone makers have all pledged to tackle the problem, illegal mobile phones continue to be openly sold in most electronics markets with impunity.

GERGIEV TAKES NEW JOB AS DEAN AT UNIVERSITY

Valery Gergiev, the award-winning artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, has accepted a proposal from the St. Petersburg State University to become dean of its newly created arts faculty.

In Brief

Premiere Canceled

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The premiere of the Mikhailovksy Theater’s new production was canceled Thursday due to a bomb threat.

The premiere of “The Hebrewess” was postponed after a man made an anonymous phone call to the theater at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, according to a statement released by the theater later that evening.

NATIONAL NEWS

‘MERRY GNOME’ SUFFERS OVER PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

MOSCOW — Officials in Omsk hastily removed a theater poster reading, “We Await You, Merry Gnome,” ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Siberian city last week, the Novy Region web site reported Thursday.

The poster, which advertised a children’s play, was located on a street that Medvedev’s convoy was to use on the way to a local refinery, the report said.

TORRENTS.RU WEB SITE CLOSED

MOSCOW — Prosecutors shut down the Torrents.ru web site on Thursday after accusing Russia’s most popular BitTorrent tracker of breaching intellectual property rights.

Matviyenko Uses Official Site to Defend Son

A scandal is brewing over the alleged involvement of businessman Sergei Matviyenko, the only son of St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, in the closure of Khasansky market.

After businessman Yevgeny Abrazheyev, the general director of the market, gave revealing interviews to local media in which he suggested that the market’s troubles had begun after he refused to sell the business to Sergei Matviyenko, it was City Hall’s press office that fired back.

LOCAL BUSINESS

In Brief

Ukraine Pipeline Plans

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom will consider Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yanukovych’s proposal to share ownership of his country’s pipeline system, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev told Russia Today, according to an e-mailed statement from the state-run broadcaster.

OPINION

In the Spotlight: A VIP Visit to Russia

Last week, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher came to Moscow to talk about Twitter with top Kremlin officials and businessmen. On Thursday, he revealed — on Twitter, of course — that the Russians “want to do biz.”

Pretty-boy actor Kutcher is perhaps better known for being married to Demi Moore than for his television and film work.