LOCAL NEWS

A 65-YEAR WAIT FOR AN APARTMENT AND TV

MOSCOW — Mikhail Mogilnichenko, 85, does not like to wear his war decorations because he says it would look like he were showing off, even though he has every right to do so as a combat veteran.

A more practical — though belated — reward was finally bestowed on Mogilnichenko a few weeks ago. The veteran is now preparing to move into a new apartment provided by City Hall.

The apartment came as a surprise. Mogilnichenko said he had not expected the government to fulfill its promise.

“Many years have passed, and I have received a present I never thought of receiving,” Mogilnichenko said in an interview. “It’s very good for me. The apartment is nice and convenient, so I’m very glad and satisfied.

ECO HOTEL PROJECT LAUNCHED IN ST. PETERSBURG

The St. Petersburg Ecology Union is calling on the city’s hotels to join the Eco Hotel project in order to promote environmental protection and attract new clients.

The union, which has developed an ecological certification system for Russian hotels, said it expects at least three hotels to obtain eco status in St. Petersburg by the end of the year.

CHECHEN PRESIDENT SAYS HE DOESN’T OWN A CAR

MOSCOW — Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov owns no cars and lives in a cramped 36-square-meter apartment in Grozny, making him one of Russia’s poorest regional leaders — at least on paper.

According to his newly released income declaration, Kadyrov earned 4 million rubles ($131,000) last year, a slight increase from 3.

YABLOKO CALLS FOR THE BEATING OF ACTIVIST TO BE INVESTIGATED

Leaders of the Yabloko Democratic Party called for two police officers who allegedly beat a party activist Friday to be investigated and brought to justice.

‘HEALER’ GRANTED EARLY PAROLE

MOSCOW — Grigory Grabovoi, a self-proclaimed miracle worker who claimed to be able to resurrect children killed in the Beslan school attack, will be freed on parole Friday after serving half of an eight-year sentence for fraud.

A court of the Urals town of Berezniki ordered on Thursday the early release of Grabovoi, 46, for good behavior, Interfax reported.

KREMLIN LINKS IRAN WITH U.S. TRADE BAN

MOSCOW — A senior Kremlin official said Russia expects the United States to lift bans on trade with four Russian companies if it backs new sanctions against Iran, Reuters reported.

NATIONAL NEWS

UKRAINIAN COMMUNISTS UNVEIL STALIN STATUE

ZAPORIZHIA, Ukraine — Ukrainian communists last week unveiled a controversial monument to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, despite angry criticism from nationalists.

About 1,000 supporters of the Communist Party, including many elderly World War II veterans bedecked with medals, cheered as the monument was dedicated in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhia.

EXILED OIL BOSS GUTSERIYEV MAKES A RETURN TO RUSSIA

MOSCOW — Mikhail Gutseriyev, founder of the Russneft oil company, returned to Russia on Friday after living abroad in exile for more than two years to escape criminal charges, which have since been dropped, Reuters reported.

LOCAL BUSINESS

BERETTA MAY PRODUCE ARMS AT KIROV PLANT

MOSCOW — Italian firearms maker Beretta agreed to consider opening a production unit in Russia, Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to a government transcript released Thursday.

If the deal materializes, Beretta could supply the country’s special forces and police, Chemezov said in a meeting late Wednesday with Putin and Kirov Governor Nikita Belykh.

COURT RULES AGAINST TRANSNEFT OVER CHARITY FUNDS

MOSCOW — Transneft minority shareholder Alexei Navalny has won a court ruling forcing the police to conduct a check into the beneficiaries of the state-owned oil pipeline operator’s billions of rubles in charity donations.

DUMA GETS BILL TO CURB CIRCULAR OWNERSHIP

MOSCOW — State Duma deputies have introduced a bill that would fight circular ownership structures by depriving a company’s subsidiaries of voting rights and dividends from owning shares in the parent firm, although experts said the proposals went too far.

The amendments limiting the use of cross-holdings were submitted by four Duma committee chairmen from United Russia. When subsidiaries buy the parent company’s shares, managers are able to control the firm to shareholders’ detriment and the company becomes less transparent, the deputies wrote in explanatory notes to the bill. There are also risks of conflicts of interests, Viktor Pleskachevsky, a co-author of the bill and chairman of the Property Committee, told Interfax.

ENERGIA SET TO RESCUE BANKRUPT SEA LAUNCH VENTURE

MOSCOW — Space corporation Energia has received preliminary approval from a U.S. court to pay the operating costs of bankrupt consortium Sea Launch, possibly with the intention of purchasing the company.

National Nanotech Network Planned

MOSCOW — The largest state universities and research centers will be integrated into a countrywide nanotechnology network, whose members will receive access to information about one another’s research developments and facilities.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed an order in late April creating the National Nanotechnology Network, which was published Wednesday on the government’s web site.

OPINION

FETING AN ALLIANCE OF SPAM AND POWDERED EGGS

Many Russians are understandably proud of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War — the Soviet term for their war against Nazi Germany from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. Few historians in the East or West would disagree that the bulk of the German army was destroyed on the Eastern Front during World War II.

TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

United Russia is starting to prepare for October regional elections. This is especially important this year because the Kremlin’s strategy has changed since last fall when United Russia did not let more than one of the other three officially sanctioned parties make it to regional legislatures.

FEATURES

Church Calls For Return Of Treasures

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is atoning for the sins of the Bolsheviks — or delivering a heavy blow to Russian culture, depending on whom you ask.

His government is pushing to transfer thousands of “religious items” from museums to the Russian Orthodox Church, a move that art experts and museum workers fear will lead to the ruin of important artifacts now preserved in museums and put many items off-limits to the public.