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MOSCOW — A Moscow court sentenced a map enthusiast to four years in prison on Thursday for passing classified information to the United States that one report said could help the U.S. military in a missile strike against Russia. The trial looked unlikely to upset U.S.-Russian relations, which have rebounded since U.S. President Barack Obama announced a “reset” last year and, among other things, ditched a plan to place an anti-missile shield in Central Europe that Moscow saw as a security threat. But fears of Russia’s vulnerability to a U.S. strike have been voiced in hawkish Russian circles after Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START agreement to cut nuclear arms in April, and a retired Russian general warned on Thursday that the country’s air defenses were weak. |
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MUSEUM NIGHT
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Actors recreate the atmosphere of an early 20th-century dacha at 13 Bolotnaya Ulitsa, a branch of the Political History Museum, as part of the international Museum Night event which was held on Saturday night. |
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MOSCOW — Senator Sergei Pugachyov out-earned all lawmakers in the Federation Council and State Duma last year with a declared income of just over 3 billion rubles ($99 million), while fellow billionaire Senator Suleiman Kerimov earned just a quarter of a million dollars, according to newly released income declarations. More than 500 State Duma Deputies and Federation Council Senators published their income declarations late last week, giving the first comprehensive overview of the wealth of the country’s lawmakers.
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 MOSCOW — Swedish retailer IKEA, the biggest owner of commercial real estate in Russia, has been beset by accusations of corruption. Whether the accusations prove true is uncertain, but what is clear is that the Swedish company has adapted to the rules of Russian business better than Russians themselves. |
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Actor Romalio Killed ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the murder of actor Tito Romalio, a native of Brazil, it reported in a statement to the press. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Twenty-eight people were arrested when Russian authorities cracked down on a protest in a Siberian coal-mining town where at least 66 people died in explosions last weekend, officials said Saturday. Media reports said more than 20 people had been injured late Friday evening after police clashed with the protesters, who had blocked a railroad in the disaster-struck town of Mezhdurechensk. “Negotiations with regional government officials and police led to nothing. Soon afterwards, riot police began removing people from the railway. Rocks and bottles were thrown at the police,” Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement. |
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THE VIKING LINE
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Re-enactors recreate a Viking battle scene at the Peter and Paul Fortress on Friday, as part of the Days of Norway in St. Petersburg festival that will be running throughout the week. |
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MOSCOW — The Russian military did not intend to kill Somali pirates who are believed to be dead after being set afloat at sea in a small boat about 10 days ago, a senior commander was quoted as saying Monday. Navy captain Ildar Akhmerov confirmed earlier reports that the 10 captured pirates and their one dead comrade who had attempted to seize a Russian oil tanker were put to sea in a boat without any navigation equipment.
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 MOSCOW — The government has done well in prioritizing spending during the crisis, but severe budget cuts and systemic reforms will be required over the next three years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday. “We need to do a complete revision of our current obligations and cut ineffective and secondary spending,” Putin said in an unusually long and decisive address to the Finance and Economic Development ministries. |
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MOSCOW — Norwegian fund Storm Real Estate, which invests in Russian real estate, may become a public company. Depending on the economic conditions over the next 12 months, the fund may list on Oslo’s stock exchange, the company said in its first quarter report. |
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Customs Union MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia will receive 87.97 percent of customs revenue as part of a union with Belarus and Kazakhstan that comes into force on July 1, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday. Belarus will receive 4. |
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MOSCOW — The government’s new envoy to the restive Caucasus, Alexander Khloponin, said Friday that he would support oil companies such as LUKoil in seeking tax breaks for drilling in the Caspian Sea in a statement that gives the issue a political dimension. |
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MOSCOW — Hosting the football World Cup finals in 2018 or 2022 will boost the development of Russia’s sport and tourist infrastructure, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Thursday. “These are immense opportunities for business. … That’s what we call associated infrastructure — hotels, city infrastructure,” Shuvalov said at the presentation of Russia’s bid to host the championship football tournament. |
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The turmoil last week in global financial markets, presumably precipitated by Greece’s unsustainable debt problems, reminded me of why I studied macroeconomics. As interesting as it may be to study how individuals and families make their choices of what to buy, how much to save and when to borrow, the scale at the level of an entire country is truly fascinating. Of course, in macroeconomics, the policy choices of governments play a central role in the determination of economic performance. It seems that the Greek government, as well as others in the southern part of the euro zone, allowed themselves to be lulled by the benign borrowing conditions in the euro, their domestic currency, to jump-start growth through debt financing. |
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 A supposedly confidential Foreign Ministry document — an intentional leak that was published on Russian Newsweek’s web site this week — has created a stir among diplomats and journalists. |
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There is a Russian proverb that explains why everything always takes so long in Russia. “Russians are slow to harness a horse, but once they finally do it, they ride fast.” Coming to grips with World War II has certainly taken a very long time in Russia. In the West, the 65th anniversary of victory over the Nazis, or Victory in Europe Day as it is known in the English-speaking world, was a fairly minor event. |
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 At the eastern end of Palace Embankment, fronting the Neva by the Troitsky Bridge, and before you reach the elegant iron railings of the Summer Garden, there are two mansions that were built in the late eighteenth century and are now merged into one to house the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts. |
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Issues Archive