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MOSCOW - The Central Elections Commission is pushing for a new law on political parties that would slash the number of existing political groups by over 90 percent, leaving only a dozen or so major players and barring the rest from participating in parliamentary elections. |
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MOSCOW - Convicted U.S. spy Edmond Pope left Russia on Thursday just hours after President Vladimir Putin freed him from a 20-year jail sentence due to his poor health and the importance of U. |
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 When conversation turns to donating money to a charity project in Russia, the next sentence is usually about how the donation - instead of going for its intended purpose - will disappear irretrievably into the bowels of some scam. Doubt hangs over any transaction in Russia like a cloud. |
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St. Petersburg prosecutors have finalized and sent to court the case of Yury Basatin, a 49-year-old school director, who is charged with abusing his power and taking bribes from teachers. |
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Shutov Hunger Strike ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Jailed businessman and lawmaker Yury Shutov has declared a hunger strike in his cell, Interfax reported. According to the report, Shutov started a so-called "dry" hunger strike a week ago, refusing both to eat and drink. |
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MOSCOW - Spanish police arrested Vladimir Gusinsky, who is wanted in Russia on fraud charges, at his home in southern Spain in the early hours of Tuesday morning. |
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MOSCOW - Russian politicians said on Thursday that the election of George W. Bush could promote better ties between the two countries. The Kremlin has not yet officially commented on the confirmation of Bush's victory, but President Vladimir Putin referred directly to maintaining good relations with the U. |
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The Legislative Assembly amended the City Charter Wednesday, changing 29 articles and adding more than 150 amendments, to bring it into line with federal legislation, completing a federal pet project that has been imposed on regions throughout Russia. |
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 The City Finance Committee has said that the World Bank will lend St. Petersburg another $100 million for the reconstruction of the historic city center, in a sign that it approves of the way a pilot project has been run. The news followed World Bank President James Wolfensohn's announcement in Tokyo on Monday that the bank would most likely loan Russia $800 million "in the next period. |
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HELSINKI, Finland - Business heads in northwestern Russia are more positive about the future than a year ago, with almost half saying that turnover in 2001 would top this year's levels, a study by Finland's Central Chamber of Commerce showed. |
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MOSCOW - The nation's No. 1 oil firm LUKoil says it has accepted for purchase the 72 percent of Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. shares tendered in response to LUKoil's $5-per-share offer. The deal marks the first time a U.S. public company has been acquired by a Russian corporation. |
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LONDON - Feeble oil prices steadied on Thursday after a sharp slump on Wednesday triggered by the resumption of UN-monitored Iraqi crude exports. London Brent futures for the expiring January contract gained 51 cents to $25. |
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BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union fisheries ministers will decide some of the deepest ever cuts in catch quotas Thursday following dire predictions that stocks of North Sea cod are close to collapse. "These are very tough measures but something must be done," Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU Farm and Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler, said Wednesday. |
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Crude Tariffs To Rise MOSCOW (Reuters) - The export tariff on crude oil will rise to 48 euros a ton from 41 euros at a price of $30 to $32.50 a barrel, a spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday. |
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Dear Editor, With the world's focus still firmly fixed on the battle over Florida's votes, few have noticed that as many as 2.5 million Russian citizens have also become "disenfranchised" in their new democracy. These people recently signed a petition all across Russia's vast territory in order to hold a nationwide referendum on Russia's beleaguered environment. |
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PRESIDENT Bill Clinton still has an opportunity to put impeachment and other mishaps behind him and achieve a legacy he can be proud of: a meaningful worldwide treaty on organic pollutants. |
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Street demonstrations, police detentions, hoax bomb calls and threats of court battles were the on the menu as Russia's seventh Constitution Day was celebrated this week, while the Duma was busy reintroducing the new/old national anthem. The press speculated that the adoption of the Soviet anthem signified the end of Yeltsin's legacy and his constitution, and the dawn of a new era in which a modified version would serve the interests of his successor. |
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A Beast That Took Too Long To Kill WITH a ceremonial flick of a switch today, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will shut down. Forever. Good riddance. |
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The Public Isn't Divided - It's Schizoid PUBLIC opinion polls in Russia are a hopeless matter. Each year Russian sociologists conduct complex research into the public mind and in every study we are told that Russians do not want to choose between the two evils that politicians and intellectuals are always putting in front of them. |
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THIS month the Keston Institute posted on its Web site (www.keston.org) two of the most unjustly neglected documents of the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet rule. |
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The Orient Express restaurant, which has just opened in a downtown district on Ulitsa Marata, has surely made the right choice for a place to settle down. No, the location is not exactly one of the most fashionable in the city. No, the outside view doesn't promise you the classical beauty of imperial St. Petersburg, but the constant cling-clang and seismic-like reverberations of a tram line just beyond the windows will provide you with the sort of sensations one usually has while on a train. True, the designers of the place may have gone to much effort to make their clientele feel like passengers: the walls and table napkins bear pictures of locomotives, and there are a few cute train models worth a minute of your attention. |
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 German cinema has experienced revitalization over the past decade. With a growing economy and improvements in cinema infrastructure, film production in Germany has increased and so has international interest, piqued by such popular hits as Tom Tykwer's "Run, Lola, Run. |
 David Thomas, who has led the seminal U.S. band Pere Ubu for 25 years, is one of the most influential musicians of today. With his unmistakable vocals and accordion, he developed a sound which combines traditional rock elements with avant-garde and improvisation. |
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Moliere's Don Juan is one of the most popular plays in the repertoires of theaters around the world. In Russia the tradition is to interpret the subject tragically. |
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CATANIA, Sicily - Trafficking in people, taking women and children into slavery and prostitution, is producing profits second only to those from the drug trade for organized crime, a UN official said on Thursday. Calling on governments to unite to combat the trafficking, Pino Arlacchi, a UN under-secretary general, told a forum in Sicily that its victims were exploited repeatedly. |
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Italy Backs Libya ROME (AP) - Italy prodded the United States on Wednesday to move more quickly on ending Libya's isolation as a past supporter of terrorism, saying Libya had proved itself with moves like the surrender of the Lockerbie suspects. |
 PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - The return of Mario Lemieux can't come soon enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who watched a two-goal lead disappear in a flurry of Toronto scoring. Alexei Kovalev had a short-handed goal and an assist on Martin Straka's power-play tally to stake Pittsburgh to a 2-0 lead before the Maple Leafs stormed back on the way to a 7-4 National Hockey League victory that stretched their unbeaten streak to six games. |
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 LIVERPOOL, England - Michael Owen celebrated his 21st birthday a day early on Wednesday when he guided Liverpool to a 3-0 extra-time victory over Fulham to reach the League Cup semifinals. |
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FIFA Honors Pele RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - In the end, Pele was king, national pride was saved, and Brazilian fans were placated - sort of. After a survey to choose the century's best soccer player surprisingly named Argentina's Diego Maradona instead of Pele, the sport's ruling body found a diplomatic solution: It awarded two prizes. |
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - One night after downing the defending National Basketball Association champion Los Angeles Lakers, the Milwaukee Bucks picked off another Western Conference power with a 111-102 victory over the Utah Jazz. |
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Issues Archive