|
|
|
 MOSCOW – The resignation of senior United Russia lawmaker Vladimir Pekhtin following accusations from opposition leader Alexei Navalny that he owned undeclared property in the U.S. triggered speculation that more lawmakers would quit their seats, throwing the ruling party into crisis.
Pundits said Thursday that with lawmakers facing an increasing barrage of incriminating evidence from opposition activists, the Kremlin would try to clean up United Russia — before reputational damage could affect the country's top leadership. |
|
 MOSCOW – Outspoken Kremlin critic Stanislav Belkovsky said Thursday that he wouldn't retract his criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church, even though investigators have summoned him for questioning over an article he penned last week. |
|
MOSCOW – Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, said all “accredited people” will not need a separate visa. “As part of the bid process for all Olympic Games, all bidders must guarantee that the Olympic accreditation card acts as a visa during the period of the Games,” Mitchell said. |
|
Muffled in a light-blue coat and with downcast eyes, 10-year-old Sara ripped apart her American passport outside the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg.
With photo cameras snapping and television cameras rolling, Sara defiantly said she had no intention of living in the U. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
 The small village of Novosyolki, southwest of St. Petersburg, has become City Hall’s favorite site to send St. Petersburg’s LGBT rights activists to rally, as the organizers of another protest planned this week found out when they were told that 15 sites they had suggested within the city were unavailable for their assembly. Meanwhile, a local court found no violations in City Hall’s continued refusals to let LGBT activists rally in the center.
On Monday, City Hall rejected a permit for the Democratic St. Petersburg movement to rally in the city against the national bill forbidding the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors, which is about to be accepted by the State Duma in its second hearing. It was passed in the first hearing on Jan. 25. Similar local laws have already been enacted in St. Petersburg as well as in ten other regions across Russia. |
|
MEN’S DAY
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
On Saturday the country will celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day, a tradition dating back to 1918. The holiday was originally known as Red Army Day and marks the
date of the first mass drafts in Petrograd and Moscow during the Russian Civil War. Observances will include parades and processions to honor veterans of past wars. |
|
Russian ferry operator St. Peter Line, one of the five largest ferry operators plying the Baltic Sea, has announced the opening of regular navigation for its boats Princess Anastasia and Princess Maria.
The company’s first ferry of the season is set to depart St. Petersburg on Friday for a cruise to Helsinki and back. On Saturday, the company will launch a cruise on the Princess Anastasia that calls at Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn before returning to St.
|
|
Maternity Death
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Investigative Committee of St. Petersburg has opened a criminal case into the death of a female citizen of Afghanistan who died in a city maternity home on Oct. 19 last year, Interfax reported.
The investigation established that on that day the 33-year old woman had a Caesarian section. However, the medical help that she received at Maternity Home No. 6 on Ulitsa Mayakovskogo did not meet health and safety requirements, leading to the woman’s death.
The criminal case was opened under part two of Article 238 of the Russian Criminal Code (on the rendering of services which do not meet standards of safety to the lives or health of consumers). |
|
 There is no shortage of outdoor winter activities in and around St. Petersburg, from skiing to sledding to sleigh-riding, provided the weather is good. |
|
A number of the city’s venues built in the second half of the 20th century should be recognized as monuments of regional significance, said historian Boris Kirikov at a meeting of the Cultural Heritage Council at City Hall last week, Interfax reported.
The list of such buildings should include the Finlyandsky railway station, the Pulkovo 1 airport terminal and the Yubileiny Sports Palace. |
|
|
|
 MOSCOW — A bill redefining the conditions under which children can be seized from so-called “socially vulnerable families” has provoked fear among critics that more minors could be taken into state care due to petty infractions.
Amid a renewed push by authorities to decrease the number of children in state care, 84 percent of whose parents are still alive, the bill’s opponents are concerned that it could have the opposite effect. |
|
MOSCOW — Schools and hospitals reopened in the Chelyabinsk region on Monday following repairs of major damages from Friday’s meteorite strike and the subsequent debris fallout, the press service of the region’s governor announced, Interfax reported. |
|
MOSCOW — The opening of a tax evasion trial against deceased whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and business associate Bill Browder, who set up what was once one of Russia’s largest foreign investment firms, has been postponed to March 4 so the state-appointed defense team can familiarize itself with some 60 tomes of case documents.
Magnitsky, whose name titled a recently passed U.S. law imposing international sanctions on alleged human rights abusers, died in a Moscow pretrial detention facility in 2009, about a year after he had accused high-ranking Russian officials of a multimillion-dollar embezzlement. Soon after he made that accusation, Magnitsky was jailed on tax evasion charges. |
|
 MOSCOW — The meteor that struck outside Chelyabinsk on Friday with such suddenness and explosive force has prompted a question among some spooked observers:
If Russian defense officials were unable to track an object 17 meters in diameter rocketing down to earth, how could they detect a much smaller but equally lethal missile?
The answer is: If it were coming from space, they probably couldn’t. |
|
MOSCOW — Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky on Wednesday will ask Russia’s top investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, to open a criminal case against State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomaryov on libel charges for Ponomaryov’s allegation that Zhirinovsky plagiarized his Ph. |
|
MOSCOW — Police say they found the body of Lipetsk city council deputy Mikhail Pakhomov in a barrel of cement in a garage near Moscow. He had been declared missing Feb. |
|
|
|
 This month marks the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, prompting renewed debate over the legacy of Josef Stalin. Once again, many conservative Russians are hoping that the name Volgograd will one day be permanently changed back to Stalingrad. |
|
According to tradition, Russia’s law enforcement officials started off the year by summing up the previous 12 months and making plans for the coming year at board meetings of the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service. |
|
|
|
 The family welfare center in the city’s Primorsky district was crowded Friday afternoon with excited children and their anxious parents, anticipating an audition with a new St. Petersburg ballet academy that has just been launched by the renowned Russian choreographer Boris Eifman.
All classes at the academy, which is funded from the state budget, will be free of charge. At present, the only professional ballet education in St. |
|
 Krzysztof Penderecki, the Polish composer who shot to fame in 1960 at the tender age of 27 with his “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,” will appear at the St. |
|
The 13th edition of Moscow’s Triumph of Jazz festival is making its way to the northern capital for the first time this year. The two concerts included on the St. Petersburg program will be held Feb. 24 at the St. Petersburg State Jazz Philharmonic and Feb. 25 at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall.
The annual event has been held in Moscow since 2000 and is one of Russia’s biggest jazz events of the year, bringing celebrated jazz musicians from around the world to perform alongside Russia’s own stars.
The St. Petersburg version of the program kicks off Sunday at the city’s premier jazz venue with a concert by Grammy-nominated New York pianist Bill Charlap and his trio, renowned for their interpretations of jazz standards. |
|
 Tallinn Music Week, the Estonian capital’s major music industry festival, due to take place from April 4 through 6, is coming to St. Petersburg this week to introduce the neighboring country’s burgeoning music scene to local music lovers. |
 Photos of the most beautiful, amazing and hard-to-reach corners of Russia can be seen in an exhibition titled “Russia’s Wild Nature” which opened last week at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society. The exhibition displays work by finalists of the annual photo contest, held for the second time by National Geographic and the RGS from May to September 2012. |
|
Archingly hip
Regulars on the Petersburg restaurant scene will be familiar with a new type of hip eatery that typically becomes popular with the local young professional and “creative” class. |
|
|
|
 St. Petersburg psychic Tatyana Ikayeva, one of the final ten contestants in the current season of the popular Russian reality television show “Battle of the Psychics,” has made a remarkable career transition. With degrees in finance and law under her belt, and after a successful fifteen-year career as a financial analyst, in 2008 Ikayeva decided to trade it all in for a business of her own — as a psychic. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive