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 St. Petersburg scientist and State Du ma Deputy Zhores Alfyorov, this week's Russian sensation for winning the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday, was greeted with a storm of applause at a Duma session the following day. But Alfyorov, a Communist Party member, used his platform in the Duma to deliver a stinging speech on the dilapidated state of Russian science, and made an urgent call for more funding for scientific institutions. |
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 The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was in St. Petersburg this week mostly to praise what he saw, despite a grim EBRD report released Tuesday that was critical of the bank's past undertakings in Russia. |
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Terrified to punch in a credit card number on the RuNet? Experts say e-commerce customers aren't any more likely to get burned shopping at a known domestic retailer than at the Internet's top shops. Chances are that a local online retailer uses the same level of security software as the biggest dot. |
All photos from issue.
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Which Lennon Street? YEKATERINBURG, Ural Mountains (Reuters) - Most Russian cities have a street called Lenin, but Che lya binsk will become the first to have a Len non Street. Valery Yarushin, a onetime Soviet rock star and lifelong Beatles fan, said in a telephone interview that city council deputies had voted overwhelmingly to back his proposal to name a street after murdered Beatle member John Lennon. |
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Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, chief commander of the Russian Navy, restated his intention to resign over the disaster of the Kursk submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea last August. |
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MOSCOW - The television industry has decided to punish itself for last year's "information wars" by canceling the news category in its annual awards. The Russian Television Academy, which is composed of television veterans and acts as the jury for the TEFI awards, voted "almost unanimously" to exclude the news category from this year's awards, which will be handed out on Oct. |
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MOSCOW - Perhaps the homeless cat hiding in Yury Burkov's building last March was wailing because it was hungry or thirsty. Or perhaps it was just softly meowing for joy. |
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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Russia vowed on Wednesday to work with five of its ex-Soviet allies to boost security in volatile Central Asia and the Caucasus region. President Vladimir Putin and the presidents of Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Kazakstan signed two documents saying they would give "practical meaning" to a Collective Security Treaty of 1992. |
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STAR CITY, Moscow Region - Two Russian cosmonauts and one American, who will be the first crew to man the $60 billion International Space Station this month, said they were ready for their mission after four years of training. |
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution calling on Russia to release a U.S. businessman accused of spying and asking President Bill Clinton to consider cutting Russian financial aid if it does not. The resolution was passed Tuesday by the full House in a voice vote after the International Relations Committee unanimously approved it last week. |
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Local Democratic Party head Ruslan Lin kov was removed from the Coordinating Council of the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, for a breach of discipline, stripping him of the right to run on the unified Yabloko-SPS ticket for Galina Starovoitova's former Duma seat. |
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Starting next Sunday, last call for hard booze in bars and cafes on much of central Vasilievsky Island will be 9 p.m. Although the serving of beer can continue as usual, municipal council authorities say they are sick of the drunken brawls, urine-stained sidewalks and doorways, violent crimes and noisy crowds that congregate in front of buildings during their carousings. |
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 MOSCOW - Not long after pursuing a job opening published in a Virginia financial newspaper, James Cook was lecturing Siberian bankers in felt boots about housing mortgages. Seven years later, the president of DeltaCredit mortgage program can lay claim to being part of the team that invented the Russian word for mortgage: ipoteka. |
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MOSCOW - The Russian Meat Union said on Wednesday that Russia might import up to 30,000 tons of pork meat sausage ingredients per month until the end of the year, and was looking to the United States as a likely supplier. |
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MOSCOW - The debt noose around Media-MOST tightened this week with the Finance Ministry joining the group of creditors seeking their money back. Before Tuesday, only banks or companies with state participation - Vnesh ekonombank, Gazprom and Sber bank - had filed claims against Media-MOST. |
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MOSCOW - Communications Minister Leonid Reiman has annulled last month's controversial move to commandeer frequencies from mobile phone operators Vimpelcom and Mobile TeleSystems to make room for a third newcomer, Sonic Duo. |
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Russian Meat Imports MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Meat Union said Wednesday that Russia might import up to 30,000 tons of pork meat sausage ingredients per month until the end of the year, and was looking to the United States as a likely supplier. |
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The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly has adopted laws creating two new economic development zones in the city, freeing companies in those areas from paying some local taxes. |
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MONTHS before the dilemma rippled from a British labor ward into the world's conscience, the sun-baked village of Xaghra started its own journey toward the awesome decision about Mary and Jodie. A young woman's pregnancy had turned disastrous, and in March she fled with her husband for specialized care in Manchester, England. |
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A relaxed and coherent Boris Yeltsin presented the world with his third book, "The Presidential Marathon," but one of his memoirs' major characters, the president's own anointed successor, beat a path to St. |
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IF there is anything that the violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians underscore, it is how much they have to lose if they don't reach a peace agreement. The sides have come closer than ever to a peace deal, but their accomplishment is being lost in the heat of street battles. |
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IN a recent interview with the U.S. television news analysis program "60 Minutes," former president Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly criticized his heir and godson, current President Vladimir Putin, taking him to task for not being decisive enough. |
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On entering the Fort Ross "Bar Restaurant," one would scarcely suspect that it used to be a Soviet cafe, but according to my dining companion and colleague, not very long ago stodgy pelmeni and lukewarm broth were being served in this very spot. The saloon-style decor, with mezzanine floor, and pleasant wooden furniture, are perhaps not the most subtle in the world, but a perfectly pleasant atmosphere to enjoy a meal and escape the office on a very busy day when there are far more important things to do. |
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The Conservatory Opera Studio, long striving to separate itself from its alma mater, has with its staging of Berlioz's Les Troyens clearly declared its right to an indepedent existence. |
 In Maria Voronina, Yury Tomoshevsky has found an actress capable of the enormous range needed to bring the eponymous heroine of "Hedda Gabler" to life, a true achievement by any measure. However, the director's approach to Ibsen's problematic tragicomedy, and the rather lack-lustre production substantially detract from this brilliant success. |
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A new city magazine drew a lot of attention, along with its share of criticism, when it appeared last week, but its editor called the publication "secondary. |
 "This is perhaps the most tasteless piece ever written, and I would be quite happy if some of the audience was sick." This was how director David Freeman greeted the Mariinsky Theater cast at a rehearsal of Richard Strauss's Salome, scheduled to premiere on Nov. |
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Zoopark, the strange venue in the local zoo, which used a recent rock concert to collect money to buy food for a porcupine so that the poor caged creature could feel full for the next 12 months, is staging the English Day - a party where live acts will sing exclusively in English. |
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While Japanese influence in Russian culture may not be visible, interest in it certainly is, as almost any Japanese event in St. Petersburg, from musical performance to film festival, plays to sizable crowds. The Za Ondekoza taiko drumming group appeared at the Gorky House of Culture to a near-capacity crowd on Wednesday evening - their tour here not only their first in Russia, but also the first time a taiko group has performed in the country. |
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 Two second-half penalties from Alessandro Del Piero gave Italy a 2-0 win over Georgia in their World Cup European group eight qualifier on Wednesday. Italy was pushed all the way by an enterprising Georgian side, which would be justified in feeling they deserved at least a point from an evenly balanced match. Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni was clearly pleased to have picked up another win after Saturday's 3-0 victory over Romania but admitted his side needed to thank goalkeeper Francesco Tol do for two vital first-half saves. |
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 STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Gao Xingjian, a Chinese-born writer, is this year's winner of the Nobel prize for literature. He is credited with producing one of the most original works in any language. |
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ROME - The international community is "way behind" its target to halve world hunger by 2015 in line with a pledge made at a 1996 food summit, the director general of the United Nations' world food body said on Thursday. "We are reducing the number of hungry people by 8 million a year, but the necessary investment that has to go into agriculture is just not there," Jacques Diouf, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, told Reuters. |
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Issues Archive