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Bolshoi ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two accomplices have partially confessed to organizing the January acid attack on Bolshoi ballet director Sergei Filin over a work conflict.
But Dmitrichenko’s colleagues doubted his confession, saying his temper wasn’t consistent with cultivating revenge plans. |
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Investigators questioned two prominent opposition activists from St. Petersburg last Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation into violence at an anti-Kremlin demonstration on Moscow's Bolotnaya Ploshchad last year. |
All photos from issue.
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Lufthansa, the largest foreign airline company serving St. Petersburg, is to introduce changes to its service both to the city and around the world beginning July 1 this year.
According to the new operational structure the company’s budget airline, Germanwings, will take over all Lufthansa flights to non-hub German cities such as Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, while Lufthansa-branded flights will continue to serve Munich and Frankfurt.
Lufthansa’s flights from St. Petersburg to Dusseldorf will also be taken over by Germanwings later this year, said Ronald Schulz, regional director of Lufthansa in Russia and the CIS, at a news conference in St. Petersburg on Feb 28.
“The date of the changeover has not yet been specified,” Schulz said.
The new Germanwings flights will offer three classes of economy service. |
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SUNNY DAYS
ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
Sunbathers undeterred by sub-zero temperatures bare it all along the banks of the Neva River at the Peter and Paul Fortress. With Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) celebrations
scheduled for the coming week, festivities surrounding the return of sunnier days will fill the city’s parks with the sounds of folk music and traditional games and dances. |
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A teenager was charged with holding an unauthorized assembly after being detained at a Harlem Shake flash mob in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Vasily Zabelov, 17, is seen on a video on the Fontanka.ru website being led by two policemen to a police car following the flash mob, which drew hundreds to a site near the Galereya shopping center next to the Moscow Railway Station on Ligovsky Prospekt.
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Flu Deaths Rise
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — At least nine lethal cases from flu complications have been registered in the city since the beginning of this year’s flu season, the local chapter of the Russian Consumer Watch said Monday, Interfax reported.
Among those who died were five people in their forties, three people in their seventies and one person in their fifties.
Lab analysis confirmed six of the cases as flu of the A(N1H1)pdm09 type; two cases as flu virus of atypical A type; and one case as flu virus of B type.
None of those who died had received anti-flu vaccinations and all of them had other health problems such as heart illnesses, diabetes, leukemia and chronic alcoholism. |
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 The Tsarskoye Selo estate has received a precious present in the form of a collection of favorite perfumes owned by Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II, and the members of his family. |
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Russian charity foundation Liniya Zhizni (Life Line), which helps children with severe health problems in Russia, has presented awards to representatives of a number of Russian media that are active in covering charity issues in Russia.
Among those honored by Life Line at an event in St. |
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SKA St. Petersburg dispatched Atlant Moscow Oblast in Game 5 of the KHL Western Conference quarter-finals Thursday night at St. Petersburg’s Ice Palace, winning the series 4-1. |
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 MOSCOW— President Vladimir Putin’s official spokesman said Monday that Putin had watched in advance a sketch aired Sunday night on NTV that mocked the president for his diminutive stature and manicured public persona.
Russian television viewers are rarely exposed to criticism of the ruling elite in prime-time shows, and national media are frequently ranked as “not free” in international rankings of press freedom. |
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MOSCOW — Liberal opposition leader Ilya Yashin was questioned Tuesday as a witness in the criminal case against low-profile leftist opposition leader Leonid Razvozzhayev, who is currently in detention on suspicion of plotting mass riots. |
 MOSCOW — The personal fortunes of businessmen rumored to enjoy close relationships with President Vladimir Putin jumped sharply in a new Forbes ranking Monday as Facebook investor Alisher Usmanov retained the title of Russia’s richest man.
The wealth of Gennady Timchenko, owner of oil trader Gunvor and a large stakeholder in gas producer Novatek, showed a rise of $5 billion from last year, according to the latest Forbes list of global billionaires. |
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MOSCOW — The editors-in-chief of liberal media outlets Gazeta.ru and Kommersant-FM radio are leaving their posts, news reports said Monday.
The announcements immediately spurred speculation of a media crackdown, although neither editor said the decision was linked to pressure regarding the outlet’s editorial policy. |
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PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Far East — Investigators in the Kamchatka region have opened a preliminary investigation into the death of three tourists who froze to death during a mountain climbing expedition on the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to a news report Monday. |
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MOSCOW — The Interior Ministry vowed to press ahead with the extradition of Andrei Borodin, the former head of Bank of Moscow, after Britain decided to grant him political asylum, raising the specter that chilly relations between the two countries could worsen. |
 MOSCOW — Moscow State University, or MGU, has regained a spot among the world’s 50 most reputable institutions of higher learning, according to Times Higher Education magazine’s annual college ratings, released Monday.
But Moscow State’s objective score, which takes into account learning environment, research influence and innovation, remains outside the top 200. |
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MOSCOW — Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko has been rated the most influential woman in Russia for the second year in a row by a group of leading experts and politicians. |
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MOSCOW — Moscow police have detained a suspect in the January acid attack on the Bolshoi Theater’s artistic director, Sergei Filin, a statement on the police website said Tuesday.
The statement did not identify the suspect, but Interfax cited a police source as saying the suspect was not a member of the theater’s ballet troupe. |
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 Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has finally gotten his wish: Russian science has overtaken every other country by apparently figuring out how to clone a fully grown 18-year-old youth. How else would you explain President Vladimir Putin’s recent order to Defense Ministry brass that the army should be fully staffed at 1 million men within two years?
The military would have to draft 600,000 conscripts annually to have 1 million men in uniform. |
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About a year ago, in what sounded like a reluctant endorsement by Russia’s big business of Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency,VTB president Andrei Kostin wrote in Kommersant that for the country to move forward Putin should declare after the inauguration that it would be his last term in office and that he would not seek re-election in 2018. |
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 Beside New Year’s Eve, few days in Russia are as important as International Women’s Day, which takes place annually March 8.
A newly opened exhibition at the History of St. Petersburg Museum commemorates the 100th anniversary of the celebration, offering visitors a chance to trace the changing role of women in Russian society. |
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The fourth annual Slovo festival kicked off in London on Tuesday with an evening of poetry read by Russia’s up-and-coming poet Vera Polozkova. An overnight sensation, Polozkova started out as an obscure blogger, whose image-rich verse gained her sweeping popularity. |
 Yuri Shevchuk and his band DDT, a leading force during the Russian rock revolution of the late 1980s and early 1990s, still pack the stadiums today, despite being effectively banned from major television channels due to Shevchuk’s uncompromising stance and his involvement in political and social protest.
During the past few years, Shevchuk has participated in the anti-Kremlin Dissenters’ March, campaigned to save St. |
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 In the run-up to the beginning of Lent, the week-long Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) is Russia’s version of the spring carnival and is a time to indulge in soon-to-be-forbidden food and celebrate the return of warmer weather. |
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On a recent Saturday afternoon the front of ChouChou, a restaurant housed within a whitewashed industrial building of concrete and glass like a postcard from the 1970s, resembled a beehive. However, it turned out that the gangs of youths huddling together by the entrance were queuing for an event at a club next door — never mind the bizarre time of day for clubbing. |
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 Tbilisi, Georgia — Visitors can sense this city’s vibrancy as soon as they log on to the local public wireless network. “Tbilisi, I love you” pops up on the screen as the network name — a reminder that modern marketing techniques are there to promote the ancient reputation of warmth and hospitality the Georgian capital has earned over the centuries. |
Temp: -1°C clear 
Issues Archive