LOCAL NEWS

OFFICERS GO ON TRIAL FOR RAPING PRISONERS

High-ranking officers in penal institutions are to go on trial for abusing prisoners in St. Petersburg, the General Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release Friday.

The case of seven officers from the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishment (FSIN), whom investigators say were involved in beatings and rapes, has been sent to the Smolninsky District Court, the press release said.

The officers are charged with abuse of authority committed with the use of violence, which is punishable by three to ten years in prison. Four convicts are charged with “committing violent acts of a sexual nature” as part of the same case.

Although one prisoner is reported to have committed suicide by cutting his throat after being abused, none of the officers is charged with having driven him to suicide.

CRASH DRIVES LUKOIL INTO PR NIGHTMARE

MOSCOW — LUKoil, the country’s biggest private oil company, faces a public relations nightmare after one of its vice presidents was involved in a car crash that killed two people and has ignited a storm of protest about a possible police cover-up.

Bloggers are seething over what they interpret as insensitive comments made by the company about the accident, while some have called for a boycott of LUKoil gas stations and a popular rapper has written a song declaring that the vice president, Anatoly Barkov, will go to hell.

RUSSIAN FORCES KILL 8, FIND TRAIN ATTACK CLUES

MOSCOW — Russian forces have killed eight suspected rebels and arrested 10 others in a raid that also found clues relating to two bomb attacks on trains in 2007 and 2009, the FSB security service said Saturday.

“Eight terrorists were fatally injured in the firefight,” the FSB said in a statement, adding that one of those killed was alleged guerrilla leader Alexander Tikhomirov, an associate of Chechen separatist chief Doku Umarov.

IN BRIEF

Arrest Over $172 M

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A Russian immigrant has been indicted on charges of illegally using shell corporations to move $172 million to 50 countries.

NATIONAL NEWS

PUTIN SUGGESTS OLYMPIC FUNDS WERE MISSPENT

MOSCOW — Money earmarked for Russia’s Vancouver Olympics preparations might have been misspent, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

“Maybe the money was spent not on what was needed but instead on what someone wanted to spend it on,” Putin told top sports officials that he summoned for a grilling Friday about Russia’s worst-ever performance at the Winter Games.

Putin, chairing a meeting to analyze the reasons behind the Olympic flop, said the government had spent about 3.5 billion rubles ($117 million) in three years to prepare for the Vancouver Games — a sum that he claimed was comparable with those spent by the nations that won the most medals.

UKRAINE, RUSSIA OPEN ‘NEW PAGE’

MOSCOW — Ukraine’s new president Viktor Yanukovych vowed Friday to end years of acrimony with Russia, as he paid his first visit to Moscow since taking office last week.

LOCAL BUSINESS

KUDRIN OPPOSES 6.3% PENSION INCREASES

The government will increase pensions by 6.3 percent next month despite warnings from Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Thursday that the budget cannot afford it.

“We have the means, and I think the decision to increase pensions will not affect the macroeconomic conditions,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a Cabinet meeting.

IN BRIEF

IT Market to Grow

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s information technology market may expand 15 percent this year, helped by higher sales of computers and software, said Nikolai Pryanishnikov, president for Microsoft in Russia.

CULTURE

In the Spotlight: Winter Olympics

Last week, even the most sport-phobic person couldn’t avoid hearing that Russia took part in an event involving luge, curling and skeleton. And that, frankly, it needs to try harder.

Channel One turned over its weekend comedy shows “ProjectorParisHilton” and “Multiple Personalities” to a satirical discussion of the Winter Olympics.