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 MINSK - Russian President Vladimir Pu tin dashed prospects for speedy progress on a proposed merger with neighboring Belarus on Thursday, telling Be larussian President Alexander Lu ka shen ko that the project required careful thought. The two leaders met in the Belarussian capital Minsk ahead of a summit of 11 former Soviet states. |
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A violent Nov. 16 raid on Promyshlenno-Stroitelny Bank - played down by bank and city officials as an isolated incident - has turned out to be an inspection of 29 current and former City Hall officials' bank accounts, documents obtained from the City Prosecutor's Office reveal. |
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After nearly five months of quarreling with City Hall, the city budget passed its second reading in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday - with plenty of extra cash to spare for the deputies. The 41.8 billion ($15 million) budget is scheduled for a third and final reading - which it is expected to pass with flying colors - next week, just squeaking in before the Jan. |
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MOSCOW - The Central Elections Commission on Wednesday dealt a blow to environmentalists' hopes of blocking the import of spent nuclear fuel into the country, turning down the 2. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin created a new cabinet post responsible for Chechnya on Tuesday, signaling his mounting frustration with the failure to end a costly war and refugee crisis. Putin issued a decree naming former construction official Vladimir Yelagin, a minister without portfolio tasked with overseeing "socio-economic development" in Chechnya. Kremlin Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky made clear that Moscow was unhappy with reconstruction efforts under Akhmad Kadyrov, the Muslim cleric and one-time rebel guerrilla tapped to run the region after federal forces took control. "In recent months social-economic questions in Chechnya have either gone unresolved altogether, or were resolved inefficiently," Yastrzhembsky said. |
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 MOSCOW - In a move that seems to undermine legislation passed this summer to limit the power of regional leaders, the State Duma on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would allow many governors to seek a third term in office. |
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The visit of Italian President Carlo Ciampi to St. Petersburg this week brought good news to the city's ailing metro, with the announcement that a $35.9 million loan to complete repairs to the collapsed section of tunnel in the city's northeast has finally been cleared. |
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MOSCOW - Imagine government-run "holding pens" outside Moscow and St. Petersburg for tens of thousands of immigrant would-be workers. Or empty-yet-hospitable towns summoned, by Kremlin fiat, out of the steppes of Siberia, ready to embrace new worker-citizens. |
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Presidents Immune MOSCOW (AP) - The State Duma gave initial approval Wednesday to a bill offering former presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for actions during their tenure, despite objections that the measure is unconstitutional. The bill also says former presidents' offices cannot be searched and their documents cannot be perused. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has sent President Yasser Arafat a message reasserting Russian support for a separate Palestinian state and a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW - Russia's Orthodox Church has named the apostle Matthew patron saint of the country's feared tax police, the Segodnya newspaper reported on Thursday. Russian tax police - known for storming buildings in black ski masks to conduct an audit - have had something of a public relations problem, as did the widely despised Roman tax collectors, or "publicans," of biblical times. |
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MOSCOW - A report prepared for the government by tax authorities suggests that oil companies are using complicated yet legal schemes to deny federal coffers about $25 in tax revenue per ton of oil - or roughly a staggering $9 billion annually. Nine billion dollars is about a quarter of the entire 2001 federal budget. |
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The rights to develop four plots of land near Nevsky Prospect will be sold by the City Property Fund by tender early next year, with the city hoping to raise up to $4 million, according to officials. |
 MOSCOW - The vital statistics of the nation's economy are "the most impressive indicators of Russia's development for the past three centuries," but at the same time this year has been one of missed opportunities, Andrei Illarionov, economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said at a news conference Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW - Just when the dust seemed to have settled after months of management disputes at Moscow's Kristall vodka distillery, the legality of a new management team has been contested in court. |
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While the legendary inventiveness of Russia's hackers has made frequent headlines in recent years, the small number of experts discussing technological security in the city last week said that the chances of disruption or danger to public services was slim. |
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MOSCOW - In the middle of a Mos cow winter, Sergei Shiyan dreams of Dubai. Shiyan yearns not for the yearlong summer, beaches and palm trees. Instead, he is impressed by Dubai Internet City in the United Arab Emirates, an electronic- and media-free zone where there are no taxes levied on corporate profits and income. |
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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Russian Gazprom has recently reduced its gas supply to Yugoslavia by about a third, an industry source in Belgrade said Wednesday. "On Nov. 20 Gazprom cut its daily deliveries to 3 million cubic meters from a previous 4.17 million cubic meters, which covers only half of the country's daily needs," an official of state oil and gas monopoly Naftna Industrija Srbije said. |
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MOSCOW - The State Property Fund said this week that its biggest project for 2001 will be to sell 6 percent of No. 1 oil major LUKoil through American Depositary Receipts, the first year in nearly a decade a controlling stake in a major state enterprise won't be auctioned off. |
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MOSCOW - The country's municipally owned businesses, property and housing are in critical condition and need dramatic reorganization, said participants of a German government-sponsored conference on the issue, which ended Wednesday. More than 130 representatives from the private and public sectors of Germany and Russia attended the Moscow region conference, one of 27 projects in the German government's $11. |
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MOSCOW - With President Vla di mir Putin's administration still trying to define its policy on managing state assets, the Property Ministry is busy trying to put its house in order - pushing for a new privatization law and consolidating its grip on regional property committees. |
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MOSCOW - In what is being billed as a simplification of the rules and a dropping of barriers to foreign trade, customs officials are following orders from the Cabinet to reduce import tariffs on thousands of items. The government says the new rules - which will kick in on Jan. 1 - will make moving goods through customs cheaper and less Byzantine, bringing savings that will be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices. It also hopes the simplified rules will end a common practice of dickering over the exact definition of a particular import in hopes of getting it a cheaper tariff. But officials at the State Customs Committee say they do not know what effect the changes will have on the billions of dollars in revenues their service traditionally earns for the budget - about 40 percent of the federal budget is funded by customs alone. |
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 MOSCOW - It may have copied the Baltika name, the Baltika logos and the Baltika strategy of distinguishing flavors by numbers, but the company that makes Baltika cigarettes is not guilty of violating Baltika's trademark. |
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Dear Editor, Nikita Ivanov's article ["Old Legal Habits Are Dying Hard Among Today's Judges," Nov. 17] shows clear ignorance of Russian law. In questioning the legitimacy of the trade union at McDonald's, he refers to a registration procedure in the Russian Law on Trade Unions. |
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A UNITED NATIONS conference on how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming ended Saturday after failing to achieve any legally binding agreement on measures by which developed countries would reduce emissions. |
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Northwestern financial heavyweights had to undergo a five-hour refresher course organized by the region's super governor this week, to learn to Think in New Ways (financially) in exchange for political favors and freedom from harassment. Meanwhile, two of the oligarchs who wrote the book on making deals with the government are still reported missing. |
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Easy Tips for Financing a Run for Office RUSSIA is a continuous stream of gubernatorial elections. Against the background of what is happening in the United States, these elections show the advantages of the Russian system, in which one can usually determine the winner by the day of the voting and - often - quite a bit earlier than that. |
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Can This Be The Road to Democracy? DESPITE innumerable official assurances that Russia is striving to become a democracy, it all too often seems that the country is running full speed in exactly the opposite direction. This impression was reinforced this week by a series of government actions designed to deny the Russian people the ability to express their will and participate actively in government. |
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ALMOST 20 years have passed since AIDS was first identified. Since then, almost 14 million people worldwide have died from the disease. A further 33 million are believed to be living with HIV. |
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 This artist is a legend, but a legend unexplored by the masses. Though Soviet censorship restrictions are long gone, and his artistry is availiable for all to see, Kazimir Malevich - one of the key figures of 20th century visual art - still remains no more and no less than the author of "Black Square" to many Russians. |
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While Russian ballet, opera and symphonic music are well known all over the world, contemporary Russian drama and cinema are still terra incognita for most foreign audiences. |
 St. Petersburg, however much a musical city, is not too advanced in the sphere of contemporary music. Depressing festivals with questionable music and unreliable, second-rate composers do not improve the situation. Academicism, traditionally dominating all forms of creative expression, has left only minuscule room for experimentation. |
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The proliferation of 24-hour bistro-style Russian food joints around town should soon be enough to put McDonald's out of business. The bistro known as "U Tyoshi na Blinakh" which opened earlier this year is a case in point: cheap, friendly and tasty, the service is no slower, and the food is certainly a lot better for you than anything that you will experience at the Golden Arches. |
 Although cloning is not all that new a subject in films, it has never been adequately mined as a theme. The new Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle "The 6th Day," now playing at local theaters, uses cloning as a mere superficial plot device, giving a slightly novel twist to what is essentially a standard B-actioner masquerading as a topical sci-fi film. The film is itself a clone, echoing director Paul Verhoeven's "Total Recall" in a number of ways, from its concepts of recording memory right down to Arnie's ride in an automated taxi. |
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 A "magic event" was how local promoters publicized Tuxedomoon's one-off Russian show which took place in St. Petersburg last Monday. Enjoying cult status with local trendy youths of the 1980s and early 1990s, Tuxedomoon was expected to be a sell-out show with crowds of ticketless fans storming the 400-seat Estrada Theater desperate for an exclusive glimpse of their idols. |
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Aspiring travelers without a taste for authenticity can party the night away anywhere they like without ever leaving the center of St. Petersburg. Saigon, London, Manhattan, Rio, Liverpool and even Africa are all a short metro ride away, although generally the similarities tend to be in name only. |
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Offering a sight that has forced theatrical critics to resort to euphemisms and look for mollifying metaphors will be the St. Petersburg Doll Theater (10 Ul. |
 "On entering the Hermitage, the title and rank must be put off, as well as the hat and sword," wrote the Russian empress Catherine the Great in the late 18th century, setting up ten rules to be observed by visitors of Russia's greatest museum. Whoever failed to obey by her rules was not to be welcomed to the galleries again. |
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An exhibition of sumptuous jewelry, gold and silver bowls, lavishly engraved icon covers and diamond-encrusted images of saints, now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, is a testament to the skill of Russian decorative artists over the last 10 centuries. |
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bradbury dies LONDON (Reuters) - Literary Britain paid homage on Tuesday to the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury, saying writers had lost a towering inspiration and readers a satirical master. Bradbury died at the age of 68 after losing a fight against pneumonia. A prolific author-academic, he will be remembered as much for nurturing new talent as producing books of his own. It was 30 years ago that Bradbury broke ground by co-founding a creative writing course. Novelist Rose Tremain declared it was Britain's first - and "still the best." A roll call of unknowns became big names under the guiding hand of Bradbury: a "gentle giant" for whom writing was life itself. |
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 St. Petersburg has many individual artistic photography exhibits, but one significant event which serves to unify projects and thus attract healthy interest in them is the Fall Photo Marathon. |
 In "Coyote Ugly," three of the supermodel bartenders - Zoe (Tyra Banks), Rachel (Bridget Moynahan) and Cammie (Izabella Miko) - are poring over an issue of Playboy and making fun of the Playmate's favorite movie, "Saving Private Ryan." At this point, there's a cosmic shift in the universe, a rumbling that disrupts the plates of karma. |
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Living on a tight budget in St. Petersburg, one comes to appreciate the beauty of a few no-nonsense essentials - like khleb, kolbasa, and let's not forget Moloko. |
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The unquiet ghost of Richard Nixon still haunts the American body politic. We can see his spirit moving over the dark waters of the current political scene: the bitter divisions, the dirty tricks, the legal wrangling, the poisoned rhetoric, and, above all, the brutal, overwhelming power of money. Behind all of these - so clearly on display during the recent campaign and its unseemly aftermath - stands the jowly visage of Nixon, chief abettor of the gradual corruption of the American state over the last fifty years. Anthony Summers captures this well in his important new book, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, a thorough and well-written account of the high crimes and misdemeanors that marked every stage of Nixon's torturous rise to the presidency and of the personal demons that helped bring about his downfall. |
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 The United States is proud of the freedom of its press, and justifiably so. On most any issue, the truth is out there - in print. However, when the publication of facts is drowned out by the dissemination of ideology - itself a constitutionally protected right - the value of a free press is severely diminished. |
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A just criticism recently leveled at this restaurant column was that we tend to review places within a stone's throw of our office. So for this week, it was a logical choice to review the Forum restaurant, which is less than a minute's walk away. In a basement on St. Isaac's Square, this is a venue convenient not just to workers at this office - from a tourist's point of view, it is as ideal a location as you could wish for. Thus, our expectations were high. We found ourselves to be the only customers at 4 p.m., and checked our coats in next to a souvenir shop that appears to be part of the Forum experience. The delights of Russian culture, from matryoshki to amber jewelery, can be purchased here after your meal, or perhaps while you wait for your food: tourists take note. |
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 Though not a big band leader or a spectacular saxophone soloist, Natan Leites is one of the most respected figures in the local jazz community. A jazz activist and promoter for 40 years, Leites was instrumental in helping jazz to take root in St. |
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Headbangers of the world are uniting as the local police get ready for the Motorhead show at the Yubileiny Sports Palace on Friday. The press release stresses the number of trucks the horned ones are bringing (five) and promises an unforgettable show. Motorhead, who are currently on tour promoting the "We Are Motorhead" CD, will be followed by the no-less noisy Soulfly fronted by ex-Sepultura's Max Cavaliera. |
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 FAISALABAD, Pakistan - Saqlain Mushtaq snapped up the wickets of Michael Atherton and England captain Nasser Hussain just before the close to leave the second test intriguingly poised on Thursday. Opener Atherton fell to a pad-bat catch for 32 and Hussain went leg before for 23 to a delivery that slow-motion television replays showed he played onto his pads. |
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A TOWN of 13,500 in the Udmurt republic some 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow, Kambarka is blessed with a picturesque landscape. Here one feels light-years away from civilization in a dreamlike retreat for nature lovers. |
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Yankees Sign Mussina NEW YORK (AP) - Pitcher Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees agreed Thursday to an $88.5 million, six-year contract, The Associated Press learned. Mussina's agent, Arn Tellem, traveled from Los Angeles and arrived in New York early Thursday, intending to complete the deal. The sides then continued negotiations, agreeing on the final terms, a source with knowledge of the talks said on condition of anonymity. Mussina, 32 on Dec. 8, would join a staff on the three-time defending World Series champions that already includes Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez and Andy Pettitte. With a $14.75 million average annual value, the deal makes Mussina the second- or third-highest-paid pitcher in baseball, depending on how Clemens' new contract is evaluated. |
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 NEW YORK - Brian Grant lifted the Miami Heat out of their worst slump in nearly five years with 24 points, nine rebounds and patient play down the stretch of a badly needed 84-81 victory over the New York Knicks Wednesday. |
 TORONTO - In Toronto, the St. Louis Blues earned an improbable 6-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, erasing a five-goal third-period deficit before scoring 18 seconds into overtime. Pavol Demitra assisted on the final three goals for the Blues, who entered the night having allowed a league-low 39 but surrendered an eighth of that over the opening 43 minutes. |
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Helms Attacks Court UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Top Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Jesse Helms have launched a new campaign against the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, which they say will threaten American sovereignty. |
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TALLAHASSEE, Florida - Al Gore's lawyers fought for a quick recount of contested votes in Florida on Thursday, but Republican lawmakers acted to outflank them, voting to call a special legislative session to help propel George W. Bush into the White House. It was another day of bewildering political and legal maneuvering in the struggle for the presidency between Democratic Vice President Gore and Republican George W. |
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