|
|
|
 Activists and journalists are demanding an investigation into beatings and arbitrary arrests made Saturday at a peaceful rally in defense of the constitutional right of assembly. People were punched and hit with police batons, dragged by their hair, pushed face-first against a police bus and half-strangled inside the bus. Three detained men were taken to hospital from the police precincts where they were being held, while an old woman who fell to the ground after being pushed by a police officer was taken to hospital from the site of the rally — outside Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospekt. Sixty nine were detained during several waves of brutal arrests in the rally, which was part of Strategy 31, the civil campaign demanding the right to assemble peacefully that has been held across Russia since July 2009 on the 31st day of the months with 31 days. |
|
TONGUE TWISTER
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A cow licks its lips at the Novoladozhskoye dairy farm, where milk is produced for the Finnish concern Valio. Russian agricultural safety officials will lift a ban imposed on imports of Finnish dairy products next week, the Finnish Food Safety Authority said in a statement on Friday. |
|
MOSCOW — The death toll from wildfires raging across central and western Russia rose to 40 on Monday, as millions of Muscovites coughed through a haze of smoke from burning peat bogs and firefighters scrambled to put out hundreds of new blazes. The fires come after weeks of searing heat and practically no rain. Although temperatures in the Moscow area dipped modestly over the weekend, experts predict they’ll climb back to around 38 degrees Celsius this week.
|
|
The city’s environmental prosecutor’s office said Monday that a criminal case had been opened into a recent discharge of toxic industrial waste into the Slavyanka River, which flows from Pavlovsk into the Rybatskoye district of St. Petersburg. An official statement posted on the web site of the prosecutor’s office said a massive case of waste dumping had been registered in the early hours of June 4, which resulted in the death of large numbers of fish. |
|
The Russian Athletics squad is returning triumphant from the 2010 European Athletics Championships, which ended in Barcelona on Sunday. Russia topped the medal table, taking 10 golds, six silvers and eight bronzes, beating France (eight golds, six silvers, four bronzes) and the U. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — The Presidium on Thursday approved an outline for the 2011-13 federal budget, which included a large infusion of funding for federal targeted programs and a steadily decreasing deficit throughout the period. The plan foresees a deficit of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, dropping to 3.1 percent and 2.9 percent in 2012 and 2013 respectively. To start reducing the shortfall without seriously curtailing spending, the government will embark on an ambitious new tax regime, including hefty hikes on oil and gas extraction and increased duties on nickel and copper exports. Additionally, the government hopes to raise at least $29 billion over the next three years by selling stakes in 11 state-owned companies. |
|
PARALYTIC!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Veterans of Russia’s elite paratroop forces celebrate their annual holiday on Monday. Temperatures are set to remain high, with weather forecasters predicting thunderstorms toward the end of the week. |
 MOSCOW — The government is counting on foreign investors to help it privatize an estimated $29 billion in assets to reduce the state’s “excessive” presence in the economy, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said Thursday. Stakes in 11 state-run companies will be offered starting next year, and the sales will proceed even if state revenues outpace expectations, Nabiullina said during a government meeting on budget plans.
|
|
The Peace Tower, which was erected in the center of the city’s Sennaya Ploshchad in 2003 when St. Petersburg was celebrating its 300th anniversary, could not withstand the extreme summer temperatures and has been dismantled. After the glass surface of the tower became covered with cracks, it was disassembled and removed from the square on Thursday. |
|
MOSCOW — The European Court of Human Rights has awarded 668,000 euros ($873,000) to 87 military veterans from the town of Novocherkassk in the Rostov region who were denied pensions and other compensations, the Vremya Novostei daily reported Monday. |
|
MOSCOW — The Federal Drug Control Service said Friday that a man arrested last month in a cocaine smuggling ring was a show business producer who organized Russian concerts for internationally acclaimed musicians like Elton John, Duran Duran and Enrique Iglesias. |
|
MOSCOW — Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has stepped down for health reasons and appointed Aslambek Vadalov as his successor, the rebel web site Kavkaz Center said, Reuters reported. |
|
Mitvol Loses Suit MOSCOW (SPT) — Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court on Friday threw out a 20 million ruble ($660,800) defamation lawsuit filed by Oleg Mitvol, prefect of the city’s Northern Administrative District, against Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Interfax reported. Mitvol sued Zhirinovsky for accusing city authorities of corruption during a live television broadcast in April. The prefect, who was not directly mentioned in Zhirinovsky’s speech but said he sued as a city official, promised to appeal. Mitvol, Mayor Yury Luzhkov and other city officials have filed similar lawsuits against Zhirinovsky with the Savyolovsky District Court. |
|
 MOSCOW — A campaign to protect the Khimki forest took a dramatic turn late Wednesday when dozens of people stormed the Khimki town administration building, pelting it with smoke grenades and smearing slogans on the walls. |
|
A boy who was sent back to Russia by his American adoptive mother has been placed back in an orphanage, the lawyer for an adoption agency said. Larry Crain, who works for the World Association for Children and Parents, said he did not have further information about the orphanage, the Shelbyville Times-Gazette reported Friday. |
|
MOSCOW — Kommersant editorMikhail Mikhailin announced Thursday that he was resigning from the Moscow police’s public council because the police have failed to prosecute officers who broke a journalist’s arm at an opposition rally. |
|
|
|
 The St. Petersburg Metropolitan plans to launch a pilot project in the city that will allow people to pay for the metro using their mobile phone. Potential partners for the project include Megafon and Bank St. Petersburg. Passengers will be able to pay their metro fare using their mobile phone from the autumn, Yevgeny Yelin, a representative of the committee for economic development, industrial policy and trade (KERPPiT), said at a government meeting last Tuesday. |
|
H&M Store on Nevsky ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — H&M Hennes and Mauritz will open a new store on Nevsky Prospekt later this month, the clothes retailers’ press service announced Monday. |
 MOSCOW — Suleiman Kerimov only became co-owner of Uralkali a month and a half ago, but he is already trying to use it to create the world’s largest potash company. Vedomosti has learned that he is in talks on purchasing Belaruskali and Silvinit. Kerimov, Filaret Galchyov and Alexander Nesis bought a controlling stake in Uralkali on June 11 from Dmitry Rybolovlev. |
|
|
|
 As the second anniversary of the August 2008 war approaches this week, Georgians, Abkhaz, Ossetians and Russians are still recovering from the conflict’s terrible legacy. On the one hand, there is a sense of exhaustion, hopelessness and cynicism on all sides. |
|
Russia’s security and law enforcement agencies have a case of summer fever. Last Thursday, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that expands the powers of the Federal Security Service. |
|
|
|
 MOSCOW — By the numbers, the authorities care about stray dogs as much as people. Moscow City Hall has allocated $190 per month for every stray dog that is housed in its animal shelters this year — the same amount that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has deemed as Russia’s minimum living wage in 2010. In addition, millions of dollars have been earmarked to construct animal shelters and to neuter strays. |
|
 MOSCOW — Anna Andreyeva seems like an average teenager at first. At 16, she’s a bit dorky and shy but already has what it takes to be a Russian beauty: long, light ash-brown hair, blue eyes and a lean physique. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive