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 The Program for the Preservation of St. Petersburg’s Historical Center will be completely revised, according to a press service representative from the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade, which is in charge of the program.
The program, which is planned to be carried out between 2013 and 2018, has already produced multiple discussions concerning its expedience. The program was initially planned to be implemented in seven zones within the city’s Tsentralny (Central) and Admiralteisky districts in six different spheres: The restoration of cultural heritage sites and the renovation of buildings; planting and redevelopment of other sites; the reconstruction of engineering infrastructure; traffic mitigation; the reconstruction of bridges and embankments; and the enhancement of the areas’ appeal to tourists. |
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FIELD OF DREAMS
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
Residents enjoy the spotty sunshine on the Field of Mars on Tuesday. As part of the city’s redevelopment program, one architec-
tural bureau has proposed turning the Pavlovskiye barracks building seen in the background into a 5-star hotel. |
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As the city’s traffic jams get worse and worse, increasing numbers of city residents are turning to more compact forms of transport such as scooters and motorbikes that enable drivers to bypass lines of cars and other larger vehicles. But as the number of two-wheeled vehicles on the roads increases, so is the number of accidents involving these alternative forms of transport.
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 At least 150 young women took part in St. Petersburg’s Stiletto Race, an annual sporting and entertainment event held by Glamour magazine, on Saturday.
Women from St. Petersburg and other cities came to show off their athletic abilities, favorite shoes and sense of humor. |
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Manilova Gets New Post
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Former St. Petersburg deputy governor Alla Manilova was appointed deputy culture minister last week, Interfax reported. |
All photos from issue.
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 WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Catholic church is preparing to welcome the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to Poland in August, a visit church leaders describe as a historic step toward healing wounds between Russians and Poles.
The two Slavic nations have been divided for centuries by religion, with Poles predominantly Roman Catholic and Russians largely Orthodox. |
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MOSCOW — Six years after outspoken journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in a Moscow apartment building, investigators announced Monday that charges would be brought against a former police officer suspected of conspiring to murder her. |
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MOSCOW — As a disputed bill branding foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations “foreign agents” waits approval by the Federation Council, confusion reigned Monday over the bill’s effect on large international business groups.
Representatives of both the Association of European Businesses and the Russo-German Chamber of Commerce said they fear that their organizations will fall under the legislation, since many of their member companies are registered abroad. |
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KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s biggest opposition group launched a campaign Monday to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych for what it called suspected constitutional violations, the stifling of democracy and the persecution of opposition leaders. |
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MOSCOW — A senior State Duma deputy said the Constitution might be amended to allow the president to serve more than two consecutive terms, renewing speculation that even more power might be vested in the executive branch.
Vladimir Pligin, chairman of the Duma’s Constitution and State Affairs Committee, said during an informal chat with reporters at RIA-Novosti’s offices last Friday that such an amendment was “possible.”
“It depends on how our system is working at the time,” Pligin said in response to a question about the two-term clause from a reporter.
The term limit, introduced in the 1993 Constitution, allowed President Vladimir Putin to assume power in May after serving two terms as president from 2000 to 2008 and stepping aside for his protégé Dmitry Medvedev from 2008 to 2012. |
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 MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday said Moscow is ready to seek consensus in the UN Security Council on a new resolution aimed at ending Syria’s civil war, but gave no indication how it would resolve a disagreement over a Britain-sponsored resolution. |
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MOSCOW — Two opposition activists have fled the country and say they want to receive political asylum in Europe because of fear of imprisonment after being investigated for violence at a May 6 protest.
Anastasia Rybachenko of the Solidarity movement said Monday that she would file an asylum request in Germany after her visa was due to expire July 18. |
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ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A trio of astronauts traveling onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule has reached the International Space Station, two days after launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan. |
 KASIMOV, Ryazan Region — Ever since disputed State Duma elections sparked an opposition revival beginning in December, activists have been paying more attention to Kasimov and other provincial towns where discontent is high and salaries are low.
Heeding a call by opposition leader Alexei Navalny on his blog, about 55 activists from Ryazan and Moscow drove to Kasimov to urge its 33,000 residents to vote in upcoming city legislature elections. |
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MOSCOW — United Russia wants to label media outlets financed from abroad as “foreign agents” and to gain the power to oust lawmakers without a court ruling, news reports said Monday. |
 REUTOV — Nikolai Leonov was walking through this Moscow suburb with his 2-year-old daughter when the toddler bent down and picked up a bloodied syringe from the grass. “I snatched it away from her a second before she could hurt herself,” Leonov said, still shaken days later. |
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MOSCOW — The Foreign Ministry is taking steps to expand its online presence, with plans to open a Facebook account and increase the number of its Twitter feeds. |
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MOSCOW — The acting head of Russia’s football federation has announced that former England coach Fabio Capello has been chosen to lead the national team and is expected to soon visit Moscow to sign a contract.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted federation head Nikita Simonyan as saying the decision to appoint Capello was made Monday. |
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PHILADELPHIA — A Ukrainian convicted of smuggling desperate villagers to the United States to work in bondage has been sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. |
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4.jpg) MOSCOW — Drivers will find that servicing their cars is simpler but buying a new one is slightly more expensive, under legislation passed late last week.
Among the flurry of laws Duma deputies signed off on before retiring for their summer recess were two pieces of automobile legislation. |
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MOSCOW — Russian distillers last month produced the largest June output of liquor in the past 10 years, eclipsing previous records set for vodka and cognac production. |
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MOSCOW — The majority of Russians are concerned about the onset of a new economic crisis but have taken few steps to prepare for the prospect of hard times ahead, a poll released Monday showed.
Pollsters from state-run VTsIOM found that 58 percent of those surveyed harbored fears of another downturn, while 85 percent had made no preparations for a worsening economic outlook, Interfax reported. |
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MOSCOW — Investment bank Renaissance Capital is predicting a tide of government takeovers in the oil and gas industry.
State-owned companies — a reference to Rosneft and Gazprom — and other players with strong connections to the government will be the most active buyers, after companies saw their value dip well below the fair market level, the bank said in a report Monday. |
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MOSCOW — The Cabinet approved a new long-term plan to support farming, changing some approaches that could raise questions among WTO members.
Federal agricultural subsidies and spending are rising very moderately despite fears that Russia’s entry into the global trade group in the next few weeks will challenge the sector thanks to a surge in foreign competition. |
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MOSCOW — The government has allocated 242.3 hectares of land from the forest fund to construct the Nizhny Novgorod Nuclear Power Plant, Interfax reported. |
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 Just before it left for its summer recess, the State Duma passed legislation that will control the Internet. This is something authorities have been preparing for years. The first piece of legislation was adopted in 2007, which permitted courts to block access to specific Internet sites. |
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Ten days have passed since the floods in Krymsk, and we can already observe some interesting patterns connected with that tragedy.
The first, and most unpleasant for the authorities, is the persistent rumor that the flood was not caused by heavy rains but by a surge of water from the Neberdzhayevskoye reservoir above the town. |
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 Fashion designer Ianis Chamalidy thrives on challenges. He admires the Greek mythological hero Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods to give to mankind, and creates jewelry collections celebrating the courage of ancient Greek mortal weaver Arachne, who took part in a doomed contest with the goddess Athena, only to be forever turned into a spider. He creates some of the most sensual drapings on the Russian fashion scene, and credits his inspiration to the life stories of Orthodox female saints.
“The themes of knighthood, self-sacrifice and monasticism are present in virtually all of my collections,” the 36-year-old designer told The St. Petersburg Times this week. “It may sound shocking if I tell you that my muse is essentially a vestal, a nun, a chaste woman, a saint, but it’s true. One of my recent collections, Facing the Wind (Navstrechu Vetru) is a reverence to Mary of Egypt [the patron saint of penitents], who lived the life of a dissolute in a bustling megalopolis, yet she was able to discover a different part of herself — a serene and virtuous part. |
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RUSSIAN MUSEUM
OLEST KIPRENSKY’S PORTRAIT
OF COLONEL YEVGRAF
DAVYDOV (1809)
IS AMONG THE ITEMS ON
SHOW AT AN EXHIBIT DEVOTED
TO THE 1812 FRENCH
INVASION OF RUSSIA. |
 The faceoff of lust and repression and the battle between hormones and morality are at the heart of Joven y Alocada (Young and Wild), which began screening at Dom Kino on July 12.
Based on the real-life blog of a 17-year-old Chilean girl, the film tells the story of Daniela (Alicia Luz Rodriguez), a young woman repressed by her ultra-religious evangelical mother Teresa (Aline Kuppenheim).
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Èíîñòðàííûé àãåíò: spy
I never thought I’d write a column about the word àãåíò (agent). What’s there to write?
Both àãåíò and agent come originally from the Latin, although àãåíò probably entered Russian later than it entered English. Both àãåíò and agent share pretty much the same range of meanings. Àãåíò might be a representative of an organization or person who is empowered to act for them, like ñòðàõîâîé àãåíò (insurance agent) or ëèòåðàòóðíûé àãåíò (literary agent).
Or àãåíò might be a substance that causes some kind of change, like àêòèâíûé àãåíò (active agent) in a chemical process. And then àãåíò might be a spy, like äâîéíîé àãåíò (double agent). |
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 An art exposition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the 1812 French invasion of Russia opened at the Stroganov Palace last week.
“The Year 1812 in Art From the Collection of the State Russian Museum,” features 100 pieces that reflect memories of the French invasion of Russia in many forms such as painting, graphics, sculpture, numismatics, porcelain, glass, furniture and more. |
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Fans of Vladimir Nabokov will know that the eminent Russian-American writer was not only a gifted writer, but also a passionate lepidopterist. A new exhibition at the city’s Nabokov Museum opening this Sunday pays tribute to this passion, attempting to see his works through paintings of his beloved butterflies.
“It is not impossible that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all,” Nabokov once said. He saw butterflies as his main interest, followed by literature. This has inspired more than 40 artists, most of them members of the avant-garde St. Petersburg Academy of Immortal Contemporary Art, to produce artwork on that theme in his honor. |
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 On July 6, television personality-turned-opposition-activist Ksenia Sobchak made her last appearance on Dom-2, the reality show she began hosting eight years ago. |
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Taste the rainbow
The city’s numerous five-star hotels, despite their best efforts, do not really attract a keen following among local residents. They may offer great views, haute cuisine and excellent service, but they are never exactly buzzing with diners. There is one reason for this: Their formidable prices. |
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 INDIANAPOLIS — When they adopted their son from a Russian orphanage in 2007, veterinarian Dan Genatiempo and his wife, Nancy, endured a year filled with red tape, tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs and months of anxious waiting.
The suburban Indianapolis couple recently began the process of adopting a Russian sister for their now 6-year-old son, Max. But they aren’t overly optimistic that their second adoption will be any easier, despite the Russian parliament’s approval of a long-awaited agreement to simplify adoptions by Americans. |
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 As Russia marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Interior Minister and Third Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, Pyotr Stolypin, country experts are scrutinizing his economic legacy. |
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 BEIRUT, Syria — Syrian government forces backed by helicopter gunships battled rebels in heavy clashes with rebels in Damascus, a clear escalation in the most serious fighting in the capital since the country’s conflict began last year, activists said. |
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LONDON — Lots of Olympics security guards didn’t show up for work — and two buses full of Olympians got temporarily lost on London’s winding streets — but the chief of the London Games says preparations are going just fine, thank you. |
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KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier has been sentenced to death for killing four French troops earlier this year in eastern Afghanistan — one of the deadliest in a rising number of attacks in which Afghan forces have turned their guns on their foreign partners, a Kabul official said Tuesday. |
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From Mickey Mouse and a mysterious female companion, to the whiff of economic reform and the surprising ouster of his military mentor, evidence is mounting that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will lead very differently than his secretive father. |
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Issues Archive