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 City Hall performed an abrupt about-face on Thursday evening when it retracted the official approval it had issued Tuesday for the St. Petersburg Gay Pride event due to be held this weekend, and had the organizers charged with violating the city’s infamous anti-gay law. But the organizers say they will go ahead with the rally despite the ban.
City Hall said that the ban was imposed on the grounds that local media had reported it as a “gay pride event (parade),” rather than a “march and stationary rally against the violations of LGBT people’s rights,” as it was described in the application submitted to City Hall last week, the organizers said. |
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 Police on Thursday searched the central office of real estate firm Inkom in connection with an investigation into the theft of 550 million rubles ($17 million) at formerly city-owned Bank of Moscow. |
 Well-known Russian illusionist Ilya Safronov was rushed to a hospital Thursday after messing up a trick while recording a show for Ukrainian TV.
Safronov was performing a trick called "Hook From the Eye" with his brothers Sergei and Andrei for the "Ukraine of Wonders" show on the New Channel station, RIA-Novosti reported.
While recording in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopol, Ilya asked for the cameras to be switched off midway through the trick, in which the conjurer appears to swallow a razor-sharp hook. |
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 Three women accused of performing an anti-Kremlin song in Christ the Savior Cathedral went on hunger strike Wednesday to protest a Moscow court ruling that they must finish preparing their defense against hooliganism charges by Monday. |
All photos from issue.
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 An emergency appeal was made in St. Petersburg on Tuesday during which ambassadors from UNESCO and the Malian Minister of Culture called for the world’s governments and international organizations “not to allow vandals to wipe out historical monuments” in the Malian city of Timbuktu. |
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City Hall has for the first time ever authorized St. Petersburg Pride, an annual LGBT rights event, which will take place in Polyustrovsky Park in northwest St. |
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Activists from The Other Russia opposition party protested the trial of 12 local party members and the arrests of Moscow protesters near the Investigative Committee building on the Moika River embankment Thursday.
The activists chained themselves to the building and unfurled a banner reading “You can’t put everyone in prison.” The leaflets that they threw in the air accused the Investigative Committee of having been transformed into a tool for political oppression.
The trial of the 12 Other Russia activists, who are accused of being members of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP), has been adjourned due to the judge going on vacation. Lawyers and rights activists have condemned the proceedings as political persecution of the opposition. |
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 City ombudsman Alexander Shishlov said the number of complaints the ombudsman’s office has received since he was elected in April has increased by 150 percent and is continuing to grow, but refuses to let this dishearten him. |
 A community bike ride held Sunday attracted a record number of participants for the city and resulted in the writing of 662 letters to the city governor demanding the improvement of cycling infrastructure and rules in St. Petersburg.
The aim of the event, titled “Za Velogorod” (For a Bike-City), was to show the government and other citizens that bikes can be a safe and convenient way of traveling around the city. |
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Online Border Booking
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — People traveling from Russia to Estonia will now be able to make a preliminary booking online to cross the border, Interfax reported. |
 Drivers of illegally parked cars will now be obligated to pay not only a fine for violating the law, but also the cost of towing their vehicle under new federal and local laws that came into force Sunday.
Under the previous law, towing costs were included in the city’s budget. |
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Drowned Baby Found
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The body of a two-month-old baby was found in the waters of the Malaya Neva River on Sunday. His mother’s body was found in the same area the next day. |
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Five night bus routes were launched in St. Petersburg on July 1. The routes follow those of the metro system, which closes shortly after midnight, and are designed to fill the gap in public transport during the night.
The night buses will be marked with the letter M, and their numbers correspond to the number of the underground line along which they run: 1 M for the Red Line, 2 M for the Blue Line, 3 M for the Green Line, 4 M for the Yellow Line and 5 M for the Purple Line. |
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The Russian military is ready to shoot down passenger planes if they are hijacked by terrorists and flown toward a site of strategic importance, Andrei Dyomin, head of Russia’s Air Defense Headquarters said, Interfax reported. |
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 MOSCOW — The success and possible future undoing of President Vladimir Putin lies in the contrast between people like provincial housewife Yekaterina Arsentyeva and Moscow student Kirill Guskov.
In the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Arsentyeva sees Putin as the only man who can ensure her children have a decent future. |
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MOSCOW — The opposition will hold anti-Kremlin demonstrations on July 26 and hopes for a large turnout not only in Moscow but also nationwide and in other countries, an organizer said Monday. |
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MOSCOW — About 1,000 organizations, including anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, independent election monitor Golos and even the Russian Orthodox Church, could fall under proposed tighter regulations for foreign-funded NGOs that conduct “political” activity.
Under legislation submitted to the State Duma late last week by the ruling United Russia party, such NGOs must register as “foreign agents” within 90 days of the rules coming into force or risk 300,000-ruble ($9,250) fines and four-year prison terms.
Of about 230,000 non-governmental organizations operating in the country, tens of thousands receive money from abroad, and about 1,000 of those are involved in “political” activity and will need to register under the new legislation, RIA-Novosti reported Monday, citing a Kremlin source. |
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 MOSCOW — Russian civil aviation’s reputation for safety took a hit in the post-Soviet period, reaching a low in 2011 after a number of fatal crashes. But there were also years without any fatal crashes at all. |
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MOSCOW — Utilities bills, alcohol and tobacco prices and parking fines shot up Sunday under government initiatives that few doubt are unnecessary but hold the potential of fueling discontent against the Kremlin.
The government is keeping an especially close eye on public reaction to the 15-percent increase in the cost of utilities, electricity, gas and water. |
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MOSCOW — Investigators are ready to take their case against Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder to court — but the U.K. refuses to notify the British citizen, let alone extradite him. |
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MOSCOW — During a visit to the Far East, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev traveled Tuesday to Kunashir Island, inflaming a long-standing territorial dispute with Japan over the Kuril Islands.
Medvedev took an unflinching tone before the visit, saying that “the practice of visiting the islands by the Russian leadership will continue,” RIA-Novosti reported. |
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MOSCOW — A police officer investigating organized crime in Bashkortostan was rushed to hospital after being beaten by Federal Security Service officials, police said Tuesday. |
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 I have often had conversations with Russian officials who sincerely believe that the opposition movement is funded by the United States as part of a conspiracy against Russia. Belief in a sinister U.S. plot plays a central role in their entire world view. |
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The Nazis won the elections in 1932. Salvodor Allende, a Marxist, won the elections in Chile in 1970. And now Islamist Mohammad Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, has won the presidential election in Egypt. |
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 Leonid Fyodorov, the frontman of avant-rock band Auctyon, will premiere his new solo album in the city, performing songs set to the poems of the Soviet-era poet
Alexander Vvedensky at Dada club this week.
Called “Vesna” (Spring), the album was released on the Moscow-based Ulitka label on May 18 and showcased in Moscow on the same day. St. Petersburg’s premiere, scheduled for later that month, was however postponed due to illness, Fyodorov said speaking to The St. Petersburg Times this week.
“I got sick, something terrible happened to my voice,” he said.
Fyodorov himself provided all of the instrumentals and vocals for the album, except for one track to which his wife contributed some vocals. |
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VIKTORIA IVANYUTINA / SPT
A TRAVELING EXHIBIT OF PAINTED
BEARS HAS LANDED IN THE CITY
WITH THE AIM OF PROMOTING LOVE
AND HARMONY AMONG THE
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. |
 Culture from the promised land will abound in the city for much of this month as the Days of Israeli Art and Culture in Russia festival gets under way, offering the chance to experience Jewish culture with the aim of promoting understanding between the two nations. Exhibitions, lectures, workshops and the presentation of new art projects will take place around the city through July 22.
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Ñàìî ñîáîé: short for ñàìî ñîáîé ðàçóìååòñÿ — it goes without saying
So you open up the morning newspaper, armed with four years of Russian grammar and conversation classes, three years of studying Russian literature in the original, and two years of watching Russian videos on YouTube. You’re prepared.
And then you read: Ñïàñèáî çà ìèòèíã íà Ñàõàðîâà. Thank you for the rally on… Well, that can’t be right. If the rally is on something, you need the prepositional case: íà Ñàõàðîâå. Sheesh. Editorial standards are going down the drain … unless I’ve got it wrong. Maybe it’s the accusative case and the author is thankful that the rally moved toward …? That doesn’t make sense. |
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 The world-touring United Buddy Bears are celebrating their 25th exhibition and 10th anniversary in St. Petersburg. One hundred and forty-three brightly painted two-meter tall bear figures from all over the world stand hand in hand in the Alexandrovsky Garden, promoting living together in peace and harmony. |
 Last week, the campaign to free the punk group Pussy Riot hit the big time with some glossy, powerful and unexpected people signing a petition saying they should either face a minor administrative punishment or be released.
It’s a fascinating situation when establishment figures like actor and director Fyodor Bondarchuk — whose films are dependent on state funding — or middle-of-the-road pop star Valery Meladze stick their necks out for a band of underground feminists who want to overthrow Vladimir Putin. |
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Culinary crossroads
Can’t decide on where to go for dinner? Does everybody feel like eating something different? If so, then Mamma Mia may be the place for you. |
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 SUZDAL, Vladimir Region — Dating back more than 1,000 years, Suzdal is one of Russia’s oldest settlements and a place almost completely untouched by the pace of change that has transformed the architecture of the country’s major cities into one of aesthetic extremes.
Regarded by many Russians as the “jewel” of Moscow’s Golden Ring, the town is located a mere 200 kilometers northeast of the capital. |
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 MOSCOW — Yelena Stepanova’s family never had a dacha, but as a child she gathered nuts, berries and mushrooms in the woods of her hometown in the Moscow suburb of Khimki. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive