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 Russia is preparing to send marines to defend its naval base in Syria, amid continued unrest in the Arab state, Interfax reported Monday, citing a Navy source.
Two large troop transport vessels and a rescue tugboat will defend Russian civilians and infrastructure in the port city of Tartus and also evacuate equipment if necessary, the source said.
Tartus is home to Russia's only naval base outside the former Soviet Union. |
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 Authorities on Monday declared a state of emergency in seven federal subjects in Russia's eastern and far eastern territories as forest fires continue to rage. |
 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is calling attention to the introduction of a common currency for the Eurasian Union of former Soviet countries as a hedge against growing volatility in global financial markets.
Although he noted that creating such a currency is a long-term project — the Eurasian Union is expected to start functioning in 2015 — he said it's time "to think ahead."
"It's not a matter of concern for today, but we should think about it," Medvedev told a business forum in St. |
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 A gay-rights leader on Wednesday lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights over a controversial St. Petersburg law introducing fines for promoting homosexuality. |
 The cost of replacing a leaking roof, installing new pipes and making other major repairs could be transferred from the municipal companies managing apartment buildings to individual apartment owners if a United Russia-backed bill in the State Duma becomes law.
Such a measure would affect most of the country: Roughly 70 percent of the country's citizens own their apartments, said Sergei Smirnov, director of the Institute of Social Policy and Socio-Economic Programs at the Higher School of Economics. |
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 Rumors that homeless St. Petersburg residents will be expelled from the city before the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum next week are unfounded, city police chief Sergei Umnov said Thursday. |
All photos from issue.
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 Thousands of St. Petersburg residents and visitors gathered Tuesday in protest of Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency amid outcry about electoral fraud, raids on opposition leaders’ homes and continued arrests of protesters.
The police gave their permission for a peaceful march and stationary rally, organized by two different opposition groups, to take place. They stopped the marchers several hundred meters before the march’s designated end point, however, and ordered them to disperse for allegedly exceeding the authorized time limit, briefly detaining the protest’s leaders.
The protests coincided with the state Russia Day holiday and were dubbed “Russia Day Without Putin. |
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INDEPENDENCE DAY
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
Protesters walk along Ulitsa Belinskogo during a march against Putin and electoral fraud on Tuesday, the Russia Day national
holiday. Several thousand people marched from the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall to Konyushennaya Ploshchad. |
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New Holland island, which opened to the public for the first time last summer, kicks off its new summer season this weekend.
New Holland is currently undergoing a seven-year redevelopment project that will turn the historic island, formed by canals created under Peter the Great in the early 18th century, into a multi-functional cultural center.
From Saturday, visitors to the island can relax on the grass and in deck chairs, browse a flea market and warm up by a fire pit.
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The Trial of Twelve, in which 12 opposition activists are on trial as “extremists” belonging to the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and described as “farcical” by the defense and human rights activists, hit a new low Friday when surveillance tapes were demonstrated at the Vyborgsky District Court. |
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The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly on Wednesday will discuss the fate of the Pulkovo Observatory, an internationally recognized institution that has recently found itself at risk of being moved to the Kola Peninsula as a group of deep-pocketed investors is lobbying to seize the choice plot of land occupied by the astronomers. |
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St. Petersburg police are investigating the death of seven-year-old Grigory Kiriyenko, who drowned at St. Petersburg’s Waterville water park last Thursday.
The boy was visiting the water park on Ulitsa Korablestroitelei with his mother. Rosbalt news agency on Saturday cited the boy’s mother as saying he could not swim. |
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A local 17-year-old gamer killed his mother for disturbing him while he was playing a shooter game on his computer last Friday. After stabbing his mother four times with a large kitchen knife, the teenager went back to playing his game. |
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 MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of Russians flooded Moscow’s tree-lined boulevards Tuesday in the first massive protest against President Vladimir Putin’s rule since his inauguration in May — a rally that came even as police interrogated key opposition leaders. |
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MOSCOW — Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told radio listeners last Saturday that Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin should be laid to rest and his mausoleum turned into a museum. |
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin conducted a small reform of the nation’s judicial system late last week, raising judges’ salaries, easing requirements for appointing justices and ordering court hearings to be broadcast live.
Many federal judges will get a 6 percent raise on Oct. |
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KIEV, Ukraine — Two high-profile EU representatives arrived in Kiev on Monday to observe the legal proceedings against jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. |
 WARSAW, Poland — Russia’s soccer federation warned its fans Sunday that hooliganism could cost the team vital points at Euro 2012 after UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings into reports of violence by supporters at the team’s first match.
Video emerged Saturday of Russia fans fighting with stadium security officers in Wroclaw and UEFA also says it is investigating reports by anti-racism experts of abuse directed at Czech players during Russia’s 4-1 victory. |
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NEWARK, New Jersey — A Ukrainian man federal prosecutors said may be the most significant distributor of child pornography ever prosecuted in the United States was charged Monday with operating a network of websites. |
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 VTB Bank, the main investor and company in charge of the European Embankment development project, held a press conference last week to defend its project, saying it would create a new attractive area in the city.
“It will be a lively, interesting and significant part of the city,” Sergei Choban, the project’s head architect said at a meeting of the project’s representatives with media last week. |
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MOSCOW — The heavy gates of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower were swung open more than 50 times to film a 30-second promotional clip for the Sochi Olympics. |
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MOSCOW — The latest move in a legal crusade to crack down on Russians’ love of alcohol could see beer advertising banished from the Internet.
A new law on advertising that comes into force July 23 will ban all alcohol advertising on television and radio, on the front and back pages of newspapers and magazines, and from outdoor advertising. |
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MOSCOW — Speaking after legal experts listed anti-corruption laws that companies must follow on Russian soil, Yelena Panfilova, general director of Transparency International Russia, had the opposite message: A list of globally accepted anti-corruption standards lacking in Russian law. |
 MOSCOW — Manufacturers of vitamins and dietary supplements will be regulated in an effort to ensure quality in an industry where up to 50 percent of products are falsified, federal authorities said last week at an international conference on trends in the Russian food industry. |
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MOSCOW — Graduates of Russia’s environmental science faculties are struggling to find employment in their sphere despite a global trend toward demand for their expertise, a survey has found. |
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 All week, one of the most popular images in the Russian blogosphere has been a photograph of an old coin issued in 1937, the year that marked the peak of the Stalinist purges. The caption reads: “In circulation once again.” The joke was carried further when the darkly humorous Twitter hashtag #privet37god (hello, 1937) topped the trending charts. |
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The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is devoted to freedom of religion, speech and assembly. In particular, it states, “Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. |
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 Finland’s summer music schedule boasts a wealth of festivals with big international and domestic names to offer, something Russia is lacking. A number of Petersburgers lucky enough to live near the border have already made it a habit to take the trip and visit some of them, with more travelers joining the trend every year.
Some of the festivals, held all across Finland, date back to as early as 1970, like Ruisrock in Turku, while others are newer, like the brand new Kuudes Aisti Festival, which will be launched in Helsinki next month.
But one event with both a great reputation and history is located quite far from St. Petersburg. It opens this week, launching the Finnish festival season.
Aptly called Provinssirock, the festival is based in Seinäjoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, Western Finland. |
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FLOW FESTIVAL
ICELAND’S MOST FAMOUS
EXPORT, SINGERSONGWRITER
BJORK,
HEADLINES THIS YEAR’S
FLOW FESTIVAL IN HELSINKI,
JUST ONE OF FINLAND’S
MANY MUSIC FESTIVALS. |
 In the 1860s, a Scottish-Russian photographer, William Carrick, became one of the first artists to go out onto the streets of Russia and capture images of everyday life. One hundred and fifty years later and in the same gallery where Carrick’s work was exhibited at the start of last year, Danish photographer Keen Heick-Abildhauge presents his take on Russian people through the same medium.
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 Maverick British film director Peter Greenaway will be honored with a retrospective to be held at the city’s Dom Kino movie theater from June 15-18. The survey will present a number of Greenaway’s feature-length films alongside early, lesser-known short films. |
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Ñàëàò: salad, lettuce
Not long ago a friend of mine asked why I’d never written a column on Russian menus — or rather their idiosyncratic (read: hilarious, impenetrable, bizarre) translation into English. |
 The art of Auguste Rodin, arguably the most sensual sculptor of all times, whose works emphasize the connection between the physicality and the spirituality of mankind, will take center stage at a vast display that opens at the Peter and Paul Fortress on June 15.
Titled “Rodin. From St. Petersburg to Moscow,” the ambitious project, which brings bronze casts of some of the sculptor’s finest works such as “The Kiss,” “The Burghers of Calais” and “The Age of Bronze” to the banks of the Neva River, was conceived by the French art dealer and art historian Patrick Carpentier, founder of the Carpentier Art Gallery. |
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 Last week, pop star Filipp Kirkorov and Putin-loving rapper Timati had a mild disagreement on Twitter over who won gongs at an award ceremony, which swiftly deteriorated into a slanging match over who is gay and brought up bad blood over bad debts. |
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Tuscan terrace
A slow, leisurely Saturday lunch on a sunlit terrace by the water — isn’t that what most St. Petersburgers, deprived of sun and overwhelmed by months of bone-chilling winds, long for most of the year? The location alone is more than enough to justify a trip to Le Cristal, one of the city’s most glamorous and relaxed venues. |
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 Natasha takes a whole handful of pills every day — about 25 in total — as part of her treatment course at a tuberculosis clinic in St. Petersburg.
Her battle with the disease has been an uphill struggle, partly because the costly anti-TB medicines she needs have always been hard to come by. This is despite the fact that Russian law requires all patients to have access to high-quality, uninterrupted TB treatment for free. |
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 While Moscow streets and squares during the past six months have become centers of civil protest under the guidance of opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov and Boris Nemtsov, analysts believe that the low level of such activity in St. |
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 GENEVA — UN envoy Kofi Annan has asked governments with influence to “twist arms” to stop escalating violence in Syria, amid few signs that international pressure is having any measurable effect on the fighting.
Syria has intensified its onslaught against the opposition in recent days, ignoring an Annan-brokered ceasefire plan, mounting international condemnation and increasing economic pressure aimed at the government of President Bashar Assad. |
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MADRID — Investors continue to find more questions than answers in Spain’s decision to seek help for its ailing bank sector and tap a 100-billion-euro ($125-billion) area bailout fund. |
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CANBERRA, Australia — The dingo really did take the baby.
Thirty-two years after a 9-week-old infant vanished from an Outback campsite in a case that bitterly divided Australians and inspired a Meryl Streep film, the nation overwhelmingly welcomed a ruling that finally closed the mystery. |
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CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and gave a marathon speech at the launch of his re-election bid, offering a preview of a campaign in which he is likely to push his limits trying to show Venezuelans he is emerging from cancer’s shadow. |
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Issues Archive