LOCAL NEWS

COPS BUST ALLEGED GANG OF FAKE PRIESTS

City police this week opened a criminal case against an alleged confidence scam involving fraudulent priests performing bogus burial services and other rituals.

The alleged scam involved false religious ceremonies at St. Elizabeth’s Church, located near Yelizavetinskaya Hospital at 14 Ulitsa Vavilovikh in the north of St. Petersburg. The phony priests also charged locals for access to fake sacred relics of Orthodox saints, including those of St. Nicholas and St. Panteleimon, police say.

“A group of swindlers disguised as Orthodox priests charged relatives of patients who died at the Yelizavetinskaya Hospital for the performance of religious rites at the hospital’s morgue,” the city police press office said Thursday.

DISABLED ATHLETES SHOW UP OLYMPIC TEAM

MOSCOW — As Russia recovers from its worst-ever Winter Olympics, it’s getting a welcome boost from unlikely quarters.

Five days into the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver, Russia’s team had already left its rivals — and the Russian Olympic team — in the dust with six gold medals, six silvers and three bronzes.

RUSSIA TODAY USES CONTROVERSY TO SEEK VIEWERS

MOSCOW — Russia Today kicked off a billboard campaign in December featuring the faces of U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad superimposed over each other.

“Who poses the greater nuclear threat?” read the billboard, which included the television channel’s logo and the slogan, “RT News: Question More.

EDITOR, KREMLIN CRITIC DECRY YOUTUBE VIDEO

MOSCOW — Russian Newsweek editor Mikhail Fishman and opposition politician Ilya Yashin cried foul Thursday after a video surfaced on YouTube that seemingly shows them giving bribes to traffic police officers.

President Warns Officials They Must Obey Orders

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev warned federal and regional officials on Tuesday that they could find themselves out on the street for not fulfilling his orders in a timely manner, including a sweeping reorganization of the state corporations created under his predecessor.

The remarks — made at a Kremlin meeting that included a number of ministers and regional bosses who listened in by video link — were Medvedev’s latest initiative to raise his profile as the country’s top politician.

NATIONAL NEWS

LOCAL YABLOKO MEMBERS OPPOSE PARTY LEADERSHIP

An interparty struggle between the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko and the democratic party’s leadership in Moscow went public this week.

Local members quit the Solidarity democratic movement in order to comply with a party congress resolution obliging them to leave all political movements, coalitions and groups other than Yabloko, but issued an unusual statement criticizing the party’s leadership on Tuesday.

KALININ, ARCHITECT OF PRISON SYSTEM, FIRED

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev has fired Deputy Justice Minister Yury Kalinin, an architect of the country’s notoriously corrupt prison system, the Kremlin said in an official statement Tuesday.

Boy at Center of Custody Dispute Goes Home

Robert Rantala, the seven-year-old child taken into care by Finnish social services, will stay with his Russian mother Inga Rantala and her Finnish husband Villi Pekka.

Finnish social workers have said they will not take Robert back to the children’s home, and will not file a case against the boy’s mother.

LOCAL BUSINESS

FORUM FOCUSES ON CITY ECOLOGY

The quality of St. Petersburg’s tap water was one of the spotlight issues at the Ecology of a Big City international ecology forum held at the city’s Lenexpo exhibition from Wednesday to Friday this week.

The issue was selected as a central theme by the local water utility Vodokanal, in response to concern expressed by many inhabitants of St.

ONLINE SHOPPING MIRED IN SHIPPING PROBLEMS

MOSCOW — Foreign-based Internet shopping sites are drawing increasing numbers of Russian consumers looking for deals, but as delays mount at the country’s notoriously inefficient postal service, many are finding that securing delivery of their items is no simple task.

TAX BREAKS PLANNED FOR INVESTORS IN INNOVATION

MOSCOW — The government is planning to exempt investors from long-term capital gains taxes, but for now the proposed rules would only apply to shares of companies not traded on exchanges, in the hope of stimulating private equity and venture capital investment.

RUSSIAN TECHNOLOGIES MAY LOSE AIR ASSETS TO AEROFLOT

MOSCOW — Russian Technologies could be left without its airlines or a stake in Aeroflot because the state corporation and state-run airline cannot agree on how to manage their aviation assets jointly.

OPINION

BRINGING THE MONEY BACK TO RUSSIA

The credit crisis, which will soon be three years old, may be over, depending on whom you listen to and on when you think it started. Whether it is over or not, the effects of a global crisis continue to be felt in all markets. International lending to Russia — other than to sovereign-grade borrowers — has slowed to a trickle, and domestic credit to the real economy is not in plentiful supply.

START OF A NEW THAW

Ever since the 1960s, Russians have used weather conditions as metaphors for politics. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s rejection of the personality cult and mass repression under his predecessor, Josef Stalin, was referred to as “the thaw.

CULTURE

FRENCH FLAIR

With 2010 officially designated as the Year of France in Russia (and the Year of Russia in France,) St. Petersburg is actively playing host to French-themed events as well as representing Russia through cultural events in various French cities.

Russia and France have long traditions of bilateral cooperation.

WORD’S WORTH

Íóëåâûå ãîäû: the first decade of the 21st century; the “naughts/noughts”

So you’re sitting around the table with your friends, reminiscing about times gone by.

In vino veritas

Culinary adventurers, take note: the hottest trend in the restaurant world has arrived in St. Petersburg. Molecular gastronomy — the highly innovative cooking style that uses science to create previously unthinkable flavors and textures — has found a home in the kitchen of Wine Bar Grand Cru on the Fontanka, where the creative cuisine is sure to delight intrepid diners.