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A group of local politicians and city heritage activists have appealed to City Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, asking him to reduce the height of the planned 463-meter Lakhta Center skyscraper, after City Hall gave its official blessing on Aug. 17 to the construction of the notorious project, which is to host the headquarters of Gazprom Neft.
In an open letter, preservationists claim that the skyscraper will “interfere with the panoramas protected by UNESCO and alter some of the city’s signature views, including gems such as the Rostral Columns and the Peter and Paul Cathedral.”
The petitioners include Oksana Dmitrieva, a Just Russia lawmaker at the State Duma; award-winning filmmaker Alexander Sokurov; Maxim Reznik, head of the liberal Yabloko faction at the St. |
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DAWN OF THE DEAD
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
People dressed as zombies pose for the camera during the annual zombie flash mob in Tavrichesky park on Saturday afternoon. Between
500 and 800 people dressed as the living dead came to the park. Police officers were present at the scene, but no arrests were made. |
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Wild bears have been encountered in the Leningrad Oblast with increasing frequency by people picking berries and mushrooms recently, 47News Internet portal reported last week.
People walking in forests have reported seeing bears in the Gatchina, Luga and Lomonosov districts.
Igor Prokhorov, head of the Leningrad Oblast’s Safety, Control and Regulation of Wild Nature Committee, said there are currently about 2,000 bears registered in Leningrad Oblast.
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St. Petersburg police have launched an investigation into a clash between fans of FC Zenit and fans of FC Anzhi at a McDonald’s outlet on Moskovsky Prospekt on Wednesday following a match between the two teams that left a Zenit fan in hospital.
Alexander Rumyantsev, also known as ‘Makasin’ and the leader of one of Zenit’s fan movements, was hospitalized in intensive care and operated on for injuries reportedly received during the game between Anzhi and Zenit in Anzhi’s home town of Makhachkala, Dagestan on Aug. |
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Two people were killed when a Sesna-421 airplane crashed near a kindergarten outside St. Petersburg last week.
The plane crashed to the ground when its engine failed during takeoff. |
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A tourist from St. Petersburg who was left in a coma after suffering a stroke while on holiday in Bulgaria was flown back to the city by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry on Sunday.
Olga Volobuyeva, development director for the charity organization Roditelsky Most, which helps children and families in difficult situations, was taken to the city’s Mariinsky hospital upon arrival. Her condition is described by doctors as stable but serious.
Volobuyeva fell into a coma after suffering a stroke on July 31, the third day of her vacation with her children in Bulgaria. Her medical insurance policy was not enough to cover medical evacuation back to Russia. |
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 Russian media made unfounded accusations against a Finnish professor after he expressed support for the imprisoned members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot earlier this month. |
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The Mezhdunarodny shopping center opened in the city’s Frunzensky district Friday, continuing the trend of opening retail and entertainment complexes in the same buildings as new metro stations.
Projects of shopping complexes adjacent to metro stations, such as the Ligov complex at Obvodny Kanal metro station, Zvenigorodsky complex at Zvenigorodskaya metro station, and Radius at Volkovskaya metro station, appear to have proven the attractiveness of this district to shoppers. |
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Russians have significantly reduced their living expenses while spending on entertainment has halved, Interfax reported this week, referring to a survey carried out by Romir polling agency. |
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Investigators raided a business owned by the parents of opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny on Tuesday morning, reportedly searching for evidence linking Navalny to a high-profile corruption case.
“As far as I understand, they are looking for documents linked to ‘the criminal society, which Navalny created in Kirov,’” anti-corruption campaigner Navalny wrote on Twitter, in reference to an ongoing investigation into his activities while advising Kirov region Governor Nikita Belykh in 2009. |
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Narodny Store Closed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — St. Petersburg’s Krasnogvardeisky district court ruled that the city’s Narodny supermarket should be closed for a period of 15 days after it was found to have violated sanitation and migration laws, the city prosecutor said last week, Interfax reported. |
All photos from issue.
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 The Pussy Riot case undoubtedly marks a new stage in Russia’s degradation. It is obvious that President Vladimir Putin is attempting to strengthen his authoritarian rule with Russian Orthodox fundamentalism and repression. As a result, Russia’s already poor global reputation will only get worse. |
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After the failed putsch of August 1991, the democratic West had an opportunity to establish a protectorate over Russia and conduct radical political and economic reforms like those it implemented in West Germany and Japan following World War II. |
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 “Unknown artist — Portrait of an unknown man,” is one of the captions to be found at a new exhibit in the Benois wing of the State Russian Museum. As a rule, art exhibits are devoted to prominent artists likely to attract big crowds. But opened on Aug. |
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Last weekend saw the opening of Chetvert, a self-described “creative cluster” in a former military barracks on Ulitsa Dekabristov. Although the five-story building is still covered with construction netting, inside, work is going ahead at full steam. |
 A traveling exhibit of photos by the American documentary photography pioneer Walter Rosenblum opened at the city’s Rosphoto exhibition hall Friday.
Titled “Message from the Heart — Walter Rosenblum,” the exhibit is the largest collection of the legendary photographer’s work yet to be shown in Russia. |
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U.S. pop star Lady Gaga will give concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow in December, Interfax reported this week.
The singer will perform at St. Petersburg’s Sports and Concert Complex (SKK) on Dec. |
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An eye for detail
Peering from outside through the aquarium-sized windows of this restaurant into the interior with its blue- and green-colored walls, bookshelves covering the back wall and dark Viennese cafe chairs feels like looking into a ship’s cabin or a private library.
Looking out from the inside, sitting on one of the sofas facing the windows, guests have a cinematic view of Kronverksky Prospekt and Alexandrovsky park that is no less impressive. |
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 St. Petersburg’s pioneering rock club — and the oldest surviving in town — will mark its 18th anniversary this week with a concert by pop-rock band Polyusa and a party.
Once the people who ran it referred to Fish Fabrique as an “educational” club, but now describe it as “historical.”
Originally, Fish Fabrique was launched with a concert by local alt-rock band Tequilajazzz on September 2, 1994, and took its name from Berlin’s club Fabrique and the nickname of its former co-owner, Oleg “Fish” Labetsky. |
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 The Museum of Everything, which toured St. Petersburg earlier this month selecting and exhibiting local artists at an impromptu exhibit space on New Holland island, moved to the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow’s Gorky Park on Saturday. |
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