LOCAL NEWS

NUMBERS DOWN, RALLIES MEET WITH MIXED RESULTS

The Moscow anti-electoral fraud rally held as part of national campaign of protests on Saturday, was reported as having attracted even more people than the Dec. 10 demo estimated as more than 100,000, but the St. Petersburg demo split into three smaller protests resulting in a number of controversies.

Still, thousands showed up to demand the annulment of the falsified elections and punishment for the falsifiers at rallies on Pionerskaya Ploshchad and Ploshchad Sakharova, while a group of The Other Russia activists got arrested while attempting to submit the protesters’ demands to City Hall.

Co-organizers from Solidarity and other oppositional groups say that the A Just Russia party hijacked the Pionerskaya Ploshchad rally, turning it into its own demo, rather than a civic protest, despite agreements.

A Just Russia’s local chair Oksana Dmitriyeva did not permit the banner “For Honest Elections” (A Just Russia party banner was used as the backdrop instead) and rejected the allegedly agreed list of speakers, while party anthems blared from the loudspeakers instead of the protest songs that the other group of organizers thought it had been agreed.

‘PEARL ENSIGN’ AVOIDS TIME IN PRISON

A former police officer was given a suspended sentence for beating up and insulting political protesters on camera last year, Interfax reported Monday.

The defense and plaintiffs both promised to appeal, but Solidarity activist Alexei Ivanov, who testified in the hearings, called the verdict fair — a significant victory, given that the country’s courts are widely alleged to be biased toward law enforcement.

NATIONAL NEWS

KREMLIN KEEPS SILENT ON NEW MASSIVE PROTEST

MOSCOW — Organizers of last weekend’s anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow, allegedly the biggest street protest since 1993, were divided on whether they could press authorities into cooperating.

Anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny wrote on his LiveJournal blog that “inhabitants of the Kremlin declared readiness to evolve for the sake of survival.

KOSTENKO LOSES RELEASE APPEAL

The appeal court on Monday refused to free Filipp Kostenko, who — after serving 15 days in prison — was sentenced to another 15 days last week in what his lawyer describes as a “political reprisal.

Udaltsov Given New Jail Term

MOSCOW — Radical opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov will meet the new year in a Moscow prison, a city judge decreed in a ruling that sparked protests outside the courtroom.

The new 10-day jail term for Udaltsov appeared to be a bad political move, fueling anti-Kremlin sentiment that is still riding high after a record protest rally on Prospekt Akademika Sakharova last weekend.

BUSINESS

Ferrero’s Spanish Director Leads With the Heart

MOSCOW — Arturo Cardelus has spent hundreds of hours on Russian lessons in the eight years since he moved to Moscow to build up the local operations of Ferrero, the Italian family-owned chocolate giant.

The 69-year-old Spaniard admits that learning Russian — his sixth language after Spanish, English, Italian, French and Portuguese — is an obsession.

OPINION

PUTIN’S HALCYON DAYS ARE OVER

In 2007, right before he stepped down after his second term in office, then-President Vladimir Putin was at the height of his political career, enjoying ratings of 80 percent. Since then, however, Putin’s popularity has dropped significantly. But you wouldn’t know it judging by his cool, confident behavior in the past few weeks, despite the widespread protests.

ALWAYS A DISSIDENT: WHY RUSSIA NO LONGER EMULATES THE U.S.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has declared that those who participated in the recent wave of protests against rigged State Duma elections were encouraged and paid for by the United States.

CULTURE

GIRLS ON TOP

Iva Nova, a local all-women band that blends Slavic folk, punk and avant-rock into a wild, danceable mix, is preparing to perform its traditional New Year concert on January 1. This passing year brought a number of new songs and a video.

Directed by the Akhe Theater’s Pavel Semchenko, the improvised video is to the song “Yaga” and will be available on YouTube early next year.

“Yaga” is one of the more radio-friendly songs of “K Sebe Nezhno” (Treat Tenderly), Iva Nova’s second full-length studio album, released on Moscow label Geometriya – whose releases include those by such sophisticated art rock bands as Auktyon and Vezhlivy Otkaz – last year.

VYSOTSKY RECREATED FOR FIRST BIOPIC

MOSCOW — Thirty-one years after Vysotsky’s death during the Moscow Olympics, the first-ever biopic has made it to the screen, drawing crowds, controversy and some displeasure from fans of one of the most revered artists in the Soviet Union.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: BACK TO THE GRINDSTONE

This week, the State Duma opened for business with the new deputies including actress Maria Kozhevnikova, 27, who once posed for Playboy and this year was voted Russia’s sexiest woman by the readers of men’s magazine Maxim.

The actress is best known for playing a dumb blonde called Allochka in the student comedy series “Univer,” with the catchphrase “pipets” (“fiddlesticks”).

THE DISH: MAGNOLIA

Gorgeous Georgia

It should immediately be admitted that our attempt to get a feel for this relatively new Georgian on the Petrograd Side was hampered by one of those horrific events that assails Petersburg at this time of year.

FEATURES

Journeying to Father Frost’s Hometown

The Russian north has always held a fairy-tale appeal for its wooden architecture, historical monuments and expanses of forest, marshland and lakes. Nestled in the northeastern corner of the Vologda region, the town of Veliky Ustyug is no exception.

Though a small settlement of some 30,000 people, it boasts a venerable historical pedigree and enjoys a special cachet among tourists after being designated the “hometown” of Ded Moroz in 1998.