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St. Petersburg police chief Mikhail Sukhodolsky was removed from his position Friday amid drama at the city’s police headquarters.
Armed OMON special task force officers blocked the entrance and exit to the headquarters of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast police, located at 50-52 Suvorovsky Prospekt, on Friday afternoon, Fontanka. |
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Gazprom expects to increase its 2012 exports to Europe by 154 billion cubic meters with an average export price higher by 3.2 percent at $415 per thousand cubic meters, a press release for investors said, RIA-Novosti reported. |
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World oil prices rose Monday on news of parliament's approval of a deal that will allow Greece to escape default on its $360 billion debt.
The price of March futures of benchmark crude oil West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 0.93 percent to $99.59 per barrel, while the March futures for Brent crude rose 0. |
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Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, sending a clear message that Russia intends to stand by its strongest ally in the Middle East amid an international outcry over the country's response to a civil revolt. |
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United Russia is searching for a way to reinvent itself, considering options ranging from a name change to dissolving the party and creating new factions, several high-placed party officials told newspaper Izvestiya on Friday.
As the leadership of United Russia has begun to doubt the survivability of its brand, officials are beginning serious discussions about the future of the country's dominant political party. |
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A senior lieutenant serving on the Gepard atomic submarine, part of the Northern Fleet, hanged himself in his cabin, Northern Fleet Investigative Committee spokesperson Alexander Kuratov said Monday, RIA-Novosti reported. |
All photos from issue.
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 The city saw its biggest protest rally in 20 years on Saturday, when thousands took to the streets to take part in political protest against electoral fraud and the current government.
Estimates of the number of participants varied from 5,000 to 30,000 people, who marched 2.5 kilometers from Ligovsky Prospekt to Konyushennaya Ploshchad in the city center, despite temperatures of lower than 20 degrees Celcius.
Held as part of the For Honest Elections campaign of rallies across Russia one month before the presidential elections scheduled for March 4, slogans and banners at the local rally were mostly directed against would-be president Vladimir Putin. Protesters condemned both last year’s State Duma elections as being rigged, as well as violations in favor of Putin reported during the current presidential campaign. |
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YOU’RE FIRED!
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
Thousands of protesters at the March for Honest Elections rally in the city center in freezing temperatures on Saturday, Feb. 4. The sign depicting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s face reads, ‘We’re not the opposition, we’re your employers, we’re not protesting, we’re firing you!’ |
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Police Major Alexei Malykh, former acting deputy head of the criminal department where 15-year-old Nikita Leontiev died on Jan. 22 after being interrogated, died of a heart attack on Feb. 5, according to preliminary reports, local news site Fontanka.ru reported.
When the inspection into the boy’s death began, Malykh and Oleg Prokhorenko, the superiors of Denis Ivanov — the policeman arrested for brutally beating the teen — were fired, citing violation of service discipline.
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 A local social activist says he was badly beaten in an attempt to prevent him from taking part in Saturday’s anti-Putin rally.
Filipp Kostenko, who works at the Memorial Anti-Discrimination Center, was on his way to work on Friday morning when he was attacked in a dark deserted park in the southwest of the city. |
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Measles Outbreak
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — St. Petersburg is facing a measles outbreak, with almost 90 cases having been registered in the city by Tuesday afternoon, RIA-Novosti reported. |
 For some people, pink is the color of shyness, the shade of blushing cheeks. To others, it is the color of escapism and illusions, and even happiness — but of a particular kind, when you are wearing rose-tinted glasses.
St. Petersburg’s ironic fashion designer Tatyana Parfyonova has used pink as the title — and the color of the cover — of her second book, which explores the emotional sides of colors and tones. |
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Head of Health Leaves
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The head of the city’s Health Committee, Yury Scherbuk, left his position last week, Interfax reported. |
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 MOSCOW — Communist Gennady Zyuganov and businessman Mikhail Prokhorov kicked off the presidential campaign season on Monday with a testy TV debate that centered on Zyuganov’s political accomplishments and Prokhorov’s connection to the chaotic 1990s.
The candidates repeated familiar promises and accusations, with Zyuganov pledging to bring “justice and socialism” and warning that a vote for his billionaire opponent was a vote for plutocracy. |
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MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin published the fourth in a series of newspaper articles Monday, and in it, the odds-on favorite to win the presidency addresses the middle class and calls for “true democracy. |
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MOSCOW — Dozens of cities around the globe saw mini versions of Saturday’s For Honest Elections rally over the weekend as opposition-minded Russian expats gathered to show solidarity, educate locals and network in an extension of Russia’s remarkable winter of political activism.
Gatherings in London, New York and other centers of the Russian diaspora drew between 100 and 200, a faint echo of the tens of thousands who marched to Bolotnaya Ploshchad in central Moscow to demand political reform, while thousands more attended a rally several kilometers away to support Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s presidential campaign.
The expat protesters waved handmade signs, shouted slogans and sang songs, their demands by now familiar: fair elections and political liberalization. |
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 MOSCOW — Bone-chilling cold did little to lessen the spirit of protesters calling for political reform as tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday in a show of strength that does not appear to have diminished. |
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MOSCOW — Most of the videos purportedly showing violations committed during the December parliamentary elections were “edited” and distributed online from the United States, investigators said Saturday, once again heating up anti-American rhetoric.
Federal investigators examined online videos posted to bolster complaints of fraud at polling stations Dec. |
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MOSCOW — U.S. Senator John McCain has again angered supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by describing Russia’s nascent protest movement as an extension of the Arab Spring uprisings that have shaken and toppled governments across the Middle East. |
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MOSCOW — Scientists on Thursday breached the ice sheet that has sealed sub-glacial Lake Vostok for more than 20 million years, reaching a critical stage in a decades-long drilling project, RIA-Novosti reported.
Lake Vostok is the largest of a network of hidden sub-glacial Antarctic lakes discovered in the 1990s, capturing the attention of scientists around the world. |
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 MOSCOW — Although the number of Russia’s Internet users is steadily growing, television is likely to remain more important for advertisers, who are expected to spend half of their ad budgets on TV commercials over the next decade, a leading ad seller said Saturday. |
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MOSCOW — The Central Bank held back from cutting interest rates Friday and again stressed its commitment to fighting inflation that is at a record low, ahead of the presidential election in March. |
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MOSCOW — The last seven days in January saw foreign investors putting $414 million into investment funds that have Russian portfolios — the highest inflow seen since April of 2011.
Of that inflow, $237 million was specifically targeted to Russia. This represents a change in the direction of capital flows, since the last half of 2011 saw continuous flight from domestic markets. |
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MOSCOW — A company half-owned by BP and several other major oil companies will sacrifice more profits to support farmers this year thanks to a Cabinet decree published Friday. |
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 On Saturday, we saw a new wave of protest rallies. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets despite the bitter cold. Braving temperatures of minus 19 degree Celsius, as many as 200,000 people turned out in Moscow alone. At Bolotnaya Ploshchad, protesters called for political liberalization and for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign, while others at Poklonnaya Gora demonstrated their support for the country’s leadership. |
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At a meeting with a group of young lawyers last week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised that the upcoming presidential election would be honest and that the results would not be manipulated. |
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This week’s main music event appears to be a local visit by Lyapis Trubetskoy, as the Belarus ska-punk starts its concert tour from St. Petersburg.
The band’s web site reported early Tuesday that the concert at Kosmonavt due to take place Saturday, Feb. 11 is sold out, but there could be a chance to catch them at Yubileiny Sports Complex on Friday, Feb. 10, when Lyapis Trubetskoy is scheduled to perform as part of Chart Dozen, an annual music event featuring a number of rock bands of varying quality.
Lyapis Trubetskoy chose St. |
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VADIM MAKHOROV
THE CITY AS SEEN FROM ITS
MUCH LOVED ROOFTOPS IS
THE FOCUS OF A NEW
PHOTO EXHIBITION AT THE
RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL
SOCIETY. |
 One of the most recent additions to the local club scene, Dada sets music above partying. Having opened just over three months ago, the club is the brainchild of Leonid Novikov, frontman of the goth-rock band Para Bellvm, once an editor at the now-defunct Fuzz music magazine and the Russian edition of Rolling Stone, and art director of a number of clubs, most recently Shum.
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Works by nine leading comic artists from Russia and Europe are on display at Loft Project Etagi this month as part of a traveling exhibition created by the “Respect. Comics From Different Countries” project.
The exhibit is devoted to the clash of cultures and represents graphic narratives that were made during a five-day workshop at the KomMissia international comic festival. The social concept brings together an array of comics that vary dramatically in terms of genres, subject and the style of drawing.
The authors have chosen to depict subjects ranging from a battleship, a fascist chicken, a black woman within a white city, a man who has lost all his hair and many other unusual characters. |
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 All roads lead to the Hermitage this month, where a contemporary Italian photographer has captured an unexpected side to the eternal city.
In the “Imaginary Theaters in Rome,” exhibit Carlo Gavazzeni Ricordi presents 30 views and panoramic images of the city, enhanced by a 3D-effect. |
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Íàöèîíàëüíîñòü: ethnicity (or not)
What is íàöèîíàëüíîñòü?
Dictionaries tell you that it’s ethnicity: ïðèíàäëåæíîñòü ÷åëîâåêà ê ýòíè÷åñêîé îáùíîñòè, îòëè÷àþùåéñÿ îñîáåííîñòÿìè ÿçûêà, êóëüòóðû, ïñèõîëîãèè, òðàäèöèé, îáû÷àåâ, îáðàçà æèçíè (a person’s identification with an ethnic group that is distinguished by a distinctive language, culture, psychology, traditions, customs and way of life).
When one native Russian speaker asks another, Êòî òû ïî íàöèîíàëüíîñòè? (What’s your ethnic background?), they are talking about origins. The reply might be: Ïàïà — ðóññêèé, à ìàìà — òàòàðêà (My father’s Russian, while my mother’s Tatar.)
So when I’m asked, Êòî òû ïî íàöèîíàëüíîñòè?, I say: Ìàìà — óêðàèíêà, à ïàïà — ëåìêî (My mother was Ukrainian and my father was a Lemko), often adding: Ýòî — çàêàðïàòñêàÿ íàðîäíîñòü (That’s a Trans-Carpathian ethnic group). |
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 St. Petersburg’s rooftops have become an iconic element of 21st-century sightseeing in the city. In addition to climbing up the towers of Smolny or St. |
 For an exhibition titled “Arctic Hysteria,” the atmosphere at the Russian Center of Photography (Rosphoto), where the work of 14 Finnish artists is currently on display, is surprisingly pacific. It is also remarkably expansive. The sprawling show, which comprises photography, film, video and sound installation, takes up all three of the center’s gallery spaces, as well as its shop, cafe and entrance halls. |
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On the local culinary landscape, Georgian food has been offering Russian diners access to the exotic since long before the sushi revolution. From small local cafés that serve as banqueting halls for the diaspora to over-the-top palaces of kitsch that draw in the tourists, Central Asian cooks have done more to introduce complex spicing and such unusual ingredients as pomegranate seeds, eggplant and cilantro into Russia’s gastronomic vernacular than just about any other force. |
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 Whether your love is just a day old or decades old, a special Valentine’s Day celebration might be just what the doctor ordered for your relationship. After all, as the proverb goes, actions speak louder than words. Luckily, St. Petersburg is home to a range of ways to celebrate the most romantic day of the year — regardless of your budget. The St. Petersburg Times presents a variety of different ways to spend a special St. |
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 The St. Petersburg residential real estate market is on the road to recovery after the crisis, but the annual launch of residential buildings is still yet to meet levels from 2008. |
 Russia’s oldest jewelry-maker, Russkiye Samotsvety, which celebrates its centenary this year, has stuck to a somewhat paradoxical survival strategy. After the economic crisis, the Russian jewelry market saw steady growth in the sales of economy-class items, which is natural, as most people’s incomes have been dropping. However, what the St. Petersburg company plans to focus on is its century-old unique techniques, in which handmade work comprises at least 50 percent of every piece, and cannot be replaced by machine work. |
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 MOSCOW — As the anti-election fraud protest at Prospekt Akademika Sakharova raged around her, Yelena Bogush seemed out of place.
While most of the democracy-hungry crowd held up signs demanding “Fair elections,” or the ouster of “The party of crooks and thieves,” Bogush clutched a sign close to her chest, reading: “My husband died on the Kolskaya platform. |
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 LOS ANGELES — Investigators worked Sunday to piece together what killed Whitney Houston as the music industry's biggest names gathered for a Grammy Awards show that felt as much like a memorial as a celebration.
Coroner's officials say they will not release any information on an autopsy performed Sunday at the request of police detectives investigating the singer's death. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
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