LOCAL NEWS

CHAPMAN’S EX RECALLS SECRETIVE, KIND GIRL

MOSCOW — When Vyacheslav Serkov got a phone call last week from a friend asking whether his former high school sweetheart had been arrested in New York on suspicion of spying, he could not believe his ears.

Serkov, 29, has known Anna Chapman, 28, since they attended eighth grade together at a school in Volgograd. He got the phone call on June 29, a day after the U.S. Justice Department announced that it had arrested Chapman and nine other suspects on suspicion of working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

While Serkov said Chapman was sometimes secretive, he insisted that there was nothing wrong with that and expressed chagrin at the portrait of Chapman painted by the media.

CITY THEATER THRIVES THANKS TO BANANA MOGUL

Want to support Russian ballet and opera? Have a banana.

The Joint Fruit Company, or JFC, imports every third banana that comes into Russia, and its principal owner, Vladimir Kekhman, doubles as director — and major benefactor — of St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theater, which once had to survive on meager City Hall funding.

While it’s not unusual for major businesses to support the arts, company executives who take the reins of a cultural establishment are few and far between.

Russians Spend Longest Waiting in Line

People spend an average of 27 minutes waiting in line in Russia, longer than anywhere else in Europe, according to a new survey.

Russia’s dismal showing is mainly because of long lines at post offices and banks, as well as the fact that workers at places where Russians line up never do anything to reduce the lines, said Oksana Aulchenkova, head of the Nextep marketing company, which carried out the survey.

NATIONAL NEWS

In Brief

Straight Parade?

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A state-sponsored attempt to compete with St. Valentine’s Day was marked in St. Petersburg on Thursday with a concert of romantic, patriotic and disco songs and games on St. Isaac’s Square.

The holiday, St. Peter and St. Fevroniya’s Family, Love and Fidelity Day, has been held in Russia since 2008.

LOCAL BUSINESS

BSH TO BUILD $25 MLN PLANT IN STRELNA

BSH Bytovye Pribory, the daughter company of German company Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH) in St. Petersburg, is to spend $25 million on a washing machine plant in Strelna, outside St. Petersburg.

BSH has already laid the foundations for the washing machine factory, which is due to be built by 2012 and will produce 300,000 machines per year, according to Harald Richter, commercial manager for BSH Bytovye Pribory.

MYSTERIOUS BUYER GETS COMPROMAT PORTAL

MOSCOW — Andrei Rutberg, a little-known private investor, has purchased the portal Compromat.ru, the Internet’s largest source of compromising information and allegations about Russian politicians and businessmen.

OPINION

RUSSIA’S SELF-DEFEATING ‘BUT’

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions that without normal democratic development, there is no future for Russia. We Russians are pleased to hear these enlightened words, yet Putin invariably adds a “but” to these soaring statements, which weakens them considerably.

A COUNTRY RULED BY AMOEBAS

Moscow road workers closed the bridge on Leningradskoye Shosse without any forewarning, leaving only one of three lanes open in one direction and backing up traffic to Sheremetyevo Airport for hours.

CULTURE

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

John Malkovich portrays the charming serial killer Jack Unterweger in an opera version of the true story of an Austrian maniac at the Mariinsky Concert Hall on Sunday as part of an international tour of “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer.

CHERNOV’S CHOICE

Tantsy, an alternative music club located amid beautiful ruins between Gorokhovaya Ulitsa and Sennaya Ploshchad, has announced a series of outdoor Gastarbeiter Parties (guest worker parties) — night-time events aimed at the local expat community.

Going underground

One author who is no stranger to these pages has an almost pathological aversion to restaurants located in basements. Sadly for him, they are an all too common phenomenon in St. Petersburg. Pogreeb, which opened earlier this summer on the newly rebuilt corner of the Griboyedov Canal and Cheboksarsky Pereulok, now adds to the list.

WORLD

CUBA TO EASE PLIGHT OF JAILED DISSIDENTS IN DEAL WITH SPAIN

HAVANA, Cuba — Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said his country is willing to take in 52 Cuban political prisoners set for release by Raul Castro’s government.

“The Spanish government has accepted the proposal that all those who are released travel to Spain, if they so wish,” Moratinos told reporters at the conclusion of his visit to the island.

U.K. GIVES ASYLUM TO GAY REFUGEES

LONDON — Two gay failed asylum seekers in Britain who said they would face persecution because of their sexuality if they were sent home won their Supreme Court appeals against their deportation on Wednesday.

SPORT

‘PSYCHIC’ OCTOPUS TO PREDICT WINNER

BERLIN — Paul the “psychic” octopus, who has become a global star after correctly forecasting all six of Germany’s World Cup games, will predict the final, but only if his hefty workload has not exhausted him.

The mollusc medium, who stunned Germany by tipping Spain in the semi-final — spot on as it turned out, will on Friday make his prediction for the third-place Germany match with Uruguay, a spokesman for his aquarium told AFP.

Paul’s handlers will follow the now familiar routine. Two boxes will be lowered into his tank, each containing a tasty morsel of food and the flags of the two opposing teams.

Whichever box Paul wrenches open is adjudged to be the winner.

SPAIN FACES HOLLAND IN WORLD CUP FINAL

JOHANNESBURG — Football fans cheered in Madrid and shed tears in Berlin as Spain set up a World Cup final showdown with Holland at Soccer City on Sunday.

Is it OK to Cheat in Football?

Shortly before halftime in the World Cup elimination match between England and Germany on June 27, the English midfielder Frank Lampard had a shot at goal that struck the crossbar and bounced down onto the ground, clearly over the goal line. The goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, grabbed the ball and put it back into play.