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 Oksana Dmitriyeva, the local leader of the Just Russia parliamentary party, was greeted with boos and cries of “Give back your mandate” at a second local authorized rally Sunday at which thousands turned up to demand the annulment of the recent State Duma and Legislative Assembly elections.
“We won’t give back our mandates,” Dmitriyeva said.
“Nevertheless, we believe that the election was dishonest and falsified; we don’t recognize these elections and we demand a recount of votes and the announcement of new elections.”
As the volume of noise increased, Dmitriyeva said that those protesters who were booing her were “working for United Russia” and described them as “provocateurs. |
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE
DMITRY LOVETSKY / AP
Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov embraces a protester dressed as a superhero at a rally protesting electoral fraud on Pionerskaya Ploshchad on Sunday. Another rally calling for a recount and new elections is due to be held Dec. 24. |
 Having problems understanding the Russian sense of humor? A new autobiographical book by a Russian writer who has been exploring life through satire offers valuable insight into the minds of Russian people and what has been making them laugh during the past few decades. The author in question is Arkady Arkanov, 78, one of the country’s most admired and respected satirists.
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 This Christmas Eve, St. Petersburg’s abandoned animals will have the chance to experience a Christmas miracle: To find a new home and family.
Loft Project Etagi is once again organizing a charity event titled “I Want to Go Home” to help rehouse abandoned cats and dogs on Dec. 24.
Twice a year for the past three years, dogs and cats from the city’s shelters have been brought to the exhibition halls of Loft Project Etagi to enable city residents to find a new friend. |
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 As New Year approaches, Loft Project Etagi promises to be flooded with creative spirit thanks to FREE’k bazaar, a design and handmade market running from Dec. |
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Doing It For the Kids
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — “Artist,” a charity founded by the Russian actors Yevgeny Mironov and Maria Mironova with pediatrician and journalist Natalya Shaginyan Nidem, will hold a New Year’s charity event for children with health problems in St. Petersburg from Dec. 19 to Jan. |
All photos from issue.
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 MOSCOW — The sudden death of maverick North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il cast a cloud over the future of the world’s last Stalinist state, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that it should not affect relations between the two countries.
Analysts agreed that Russia is likely to remain an important trading partner of North Korea, but only if the country is not plunged into chaos by feuding clans — which, they said, is a more likely consequence of Kim’s death than a gradual democratization of the closed country. |
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Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was the victim of a phone tapping scandal this week, while the LiveJournal and Gmail account of prominent author Boris Akunin, who has also attended recent opposition rallies, were hacked into. |
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MOSCOW — Time appeared to be running out Tuesday to rescue 39 people still missing more than 2 days after an oil rig capsized and sank in stormy, freezing waters off the eastern coast of Russia in the sea of Okhotsk.
Rescuers say they found four lifeboats and an inflatable life raft in the frigid water near where the oil rig capsized, but all of the boats were empty.
The State Sea Rescue Coordination Center said Tuesday all the lifeboats were empty, though in one of the boats the emergency lights were on.
Of the 67 men aboard, 14 were plucked alive from the icy water immediately after the accident and taken to a hospital. Workers have since pulled out 11 bodies from the Sea of Okhotsk, and three objects that may be bodies have been spotted but not yet retrieved. |
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 MOSCOW — The World Trade Organization officially welcomed Russia as a member Friday, bringing the curtain down on the country’s 18-year accession process. |
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 A block of programs aimed at helping small business development has been extended to a governmental level. As the realities of the economic and business sphere are always subject to change, some programs to retrain and update business and management personnel have been designed. |
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Russian cell network operator Megafon has cut international roaming fees for subscribers by three to nine times in most European countries, Turkey and in the European part of CIS countries. |
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Sales of new cars in St. Petersburg have grown by almost 50 percent during the past year, AlfaStrakhovaniye insurance company’s analytical center reported.
Between January and September of this year at least 140,057 new cars were sold in the city, 49. |
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Family Housing
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city should develop a financial support program to help families with a lot of children to build dachas or other detached houses on the land they are given by the city, Poltavchenko said last week, Interfax reported. |
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 It is already clear that Russia will experience a systemic political crisis in 2012. The country’s leaders and institutions will completely lose the people’s trust by next summer. The authorities will become vacillating and weak and will flounder from one crisis to another. |
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The surge in street protests this month was the natural result of widespread discontent that has been building up steam for several years without any outlet. |
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 The concert held at Tavrichesky Palace on Dec. 10 could probably have claimed a Guinness book entry: It took at least 15 years to put together. The cause was well worth the lengthy preparations. The performance, entitled The Imperial Musical Collection, showcased 20 long-lost musical works composed exclusively by members of the Romanov family, including Tsar Alexander II and Prince Konstantin Romanov. |
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As the festive season gets underway, the city’s museums are preparing a host of seasonal exhibits, including special programs and excursions aimed at younger visitors. |
 A feature-length prequel to Smeshariki, one of Russia’s most popular modern cartoon series, will be released across the country Thursday.
The 90-minute 3D cartoon called “Smeshariki. Nachalo.” (Smeshariki. The Beginning) is an adventure story about the characters loved both by children and adults finding themselves in a modern metropolis as superheroes. |
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Few local rock musicians were in the crowd during the recent anti-electoral fraud rallies in St. Petersburg, but the situation may change this Saturday when a concert/rally is planned to take place in the city. |
 Vasily Shumov, singer and guitarist with the reformed veteran Moscow band Center, which has recently come up with a new album examining and dissecting Putinism, is determined to hold a concert-cum-exhibition in defense of Russian political prisoners — even if the planned show due last Saturday was abruptly shut down. |
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Vegan in furs
Of all the things one might expect to find in a vegetarian café (a green color scheme, ethno music, wait staff with dreads, perhaps), a patron in a fur coat is probably not on most people’s list, even in Russia. |
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 USINSK — On the bright yellow tundra outside this oil town near the Arctic Circle, a pitch-black pool of crude stretches toward the horizon. The source: A decommissioned well whose rusty screws ooze with oil, viscous like jam.
This is the face of Russia’s oil country, a sprawling, inhospitable zone that experts say represents the world’s worst ecological oil catastrophe. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive