|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — A group of visiting U.S. fund managers heard a pitch Wednesday from Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais, who sought to convince them that he could turn nanotechnology into a $30 billion industry by 2015. Russian officials have been wooing foreign investment as part of their drive to modernize the economy through the development of new industries and innovative technologies. On Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the same group, saying Russia was ripe for investment because of its liberal financial regulation. Chubais — an economic liberal best known in the West for his work on the country’s privatizations — won polite endorsement from the delegation, which described the target of $30 billion in revenue as ambitious. |
|
BATH TIME
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
The Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great, the city’s founder, is scrubbed by a specialist from the City Sculpture Museum on Wednesday during the monument’s annual clean ready for City Day celebrations at the weekend. |
|
This year, St. Petersburg’s City Day celebrations will last for four days, with City Hall promising a “grandiose, theatrical celebration.” The festive events began Thursday, the official City Day, but St. Petersburg will continue to celebrate its 307th birthday during the weekend. City Governor Valentina Matviyenko and First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva kicked off the celebrations by laying flowers at the Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great, the founder of St.
|
|
MOSCOW — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili celebrated his country’s independence day Wednesday with the first military parade since Russia routed Georgia in a brief 2008 war and a new round of verbal cannonade against Moscow. Saakashvili, speaking outside the parliament in Tbilisi before the parade and surrounded by young boys dressed in military fatigues, indirectly accused Russia of a continued plot to subjugate his country. |
|
Cocaine Haul Seized ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Russian officials in St. Petersburg seized 120 kilograms of cocaine on a boat arriving from Ecuador, RIA Novosti reported. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — The British Council said Thursday that it had turned down a proposal by the Federal Youth Agency to participate in a summer camp for pro-Kremlin youth. The agency is headed by Vasily Yakemenko, former leader of the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group, which harassed then-British Ambassador Anthony Brenton in 2006 and 2007 for attending a meeting of The Other Russia opposition coalition. The British Council, the cultural arm of the British Embassy, saw two of its three Russian offices closed by Russian authorities in January 2008, and it is fighting back tax claims in Russian courts. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has linked the British Council’s problems to poor diplomatic relations between the two countries. |
|
 St. Petersburg’s reputation as a center of Baroque art and architecture received a notable boost last Friday with the official opening of the newly renovated Marble Hall in the Marble Palace. |
|
MOSCOW — Stung by the high-profile deaths of two ill prisoners in pretrial detention, prison officials have proposed that suspects diagnosed with one of 40 illnesses remain at liberty while investigators build cases against them. Vladislav Tsaturov, who oversees detention facilities for the Federal Prison Service, said in an interview published Wednesday that his agency has drafted legislation that would allow judges to grant freedom to seriously ill suspects. |
|
|
|
|
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Moscow Region — Russia’s biggest shipping company, state-owned Sovkomflot, has agreed to carry oil to China across the Arctic Ocean, an unusual route for such cargo, a senior government banker said Wednesday. Vladimir Dmitriyev, chief of the state development bank VEB, made the statement after the lender’s board, chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, convened earlier in the day to approve a 240 million euro ($293 million) purchase of two ice-breaking tankers from a St. |
|
MOSCOW — The government on Tuesday outlined a plan to lure foreign money for a faster economic recovery by stamping out the hurdles — such as obtaining endless business permits — that investors have stumbled over. |
|
U.S. Poultry Deal Close MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia and the U.S. have reached a preliminary agreement on deliveries of American poultry, Interfax reported, citing Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s public health chief. Onishchenko said he met with U. |
|
MOSCOW — State-run diamond miner Alrosa said Tuesday that it might become a “people’s company” by raising funds through a share issue to the public, although analysts cautioned that previous state IPOs may have soured retail investors to the idea. |
|
|
|
 After a painstaking investigation, South Korea is pointing the finger of blame at North Korea for the sinking of its warship, the Cheonan, on March 26. The debate about how to respond is complicated by the fact that the Cheonan’s sinking does not seem to be a stand-alone event, but was, instead, part of a change in North Korea’s general pattern of behavior. |
|
Is Russia losing the North Caucasus? To answer this question, we must answer another question: What are the terrorists trying to achieve by detonating bombs in the Moscow metro? Answer: They want Allah, not Russia, to rule the North Caucasus. |
|
|
|
 Mikhail Odnoralov was the wunderkind of the non-conformist art movement of the 1960s to 1980s, until his emigration. Thirty years later, the Russian Museum in conjunction with the Ludwig Museum is presenting the first major retrospective of his work in St. |
|
During the build-up to Victory Day, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko banned all strip shows in the city as well as the name of a pub, which had the misfortune — five years ago — to give itself a German name. |
 “The Mystery of Paul the Apostle,” one of the new productions featured in this year’s Stars of the White Nights festival at the Mariinsky Theater, is the first full staging of a key work by the controversial Moscow-based composer Nikolai Karetnikov. Karetnikov, who died in 1994, was successful and well known in his day as the composer of music for many films and theater productions. |
|
The Geogian restaurant Kinza, which opened almost a year ago, is unfortunately located in the glass-and-metal ensemble that is LenExpo, the sprawling multi-building complex of offices and convention halls situated on the northwestern edge of Vasilyevsky Island in the Primorskaya neighborhood. |
|
Back by popular request, our Talk of the Town section will be giving you regular updates on the places to go for some great food, and the places where food poisoning is a genuine threat; the places where you can expect a great atmosphere, and the places best cordoned off, marked hazardous and patrolled by the OMON’s finest. |
|
|
|
|
DUNKIRK, France — A ragtag band of boats that helped rescue Allied soldiers from northern France in 1940 was due in Dunkirk on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the evacuation, a pivotal World War II moment. The flotilla of about 60 “little ships” that sailed across the North Sea from southern England included boats from the original rescue mission. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive