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Just when it may have been safe to turn your radio back on, the St. Petersburg Union of Composers has caught the Kremlin's anthem fever and presented a set of lyrics to local officials for the city's currently wordless theme song. St. Petersburg's little-heard rallying song currently consists of a wordless movement from the opera "The Bronze Horseman," by the Belgian-born Russian composer Reingold Glier, which was adopted as the city anthem in 1991. |
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MOSCOW - Russian officials said on Thursday that they were scouring Chech nya for a U.S. aid worker from Medecins Sans Frontieres [Doctors Without Borders] who was kidnapped by armed gunmen as the aid group concerned suspended its operations in the rebel region. |
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Nikolai Patrushev, the national director for the Federal Security Service, or FSB, Tuesday relieved Alexander Grigoryev - a close ally of President Vladimir Putin - of his post as director of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast FSB. In his place, Patrushev appointed Lt. Gen. Sergei Smirnov, a St. |
All photos from issue.
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 MOSCOW - After weeks of rumors in Moscow's media circles, the mysterious "foreign investor" negotiating a potential purchase of a blocking stake in Vladimir Gusinsky's beleaguered NTV was publicly named. And a familiar name it is: CNN founder and Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner. Confronted with a question from an Itar-Tass correspondent after a news conference Monday in Washington dedicated to an unrelated subject, Turner all but confirmed that he was indeed talking to Media-MOST, Prime-Tass reported. |
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 The Health Ministry on Tuesday called for tough curbs to be placed on beer to counter what it said was a deadly addiction sweeping the nation. Deputy Health Minister Gennady Onishchenko warned that Russians have been buying into advertising touting the frothy beverage as a healthy alternative to the traditional favorite vodka, but instead of picking beer over vodka are drinking both at a frenetic pace. |
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MOSCOW - Alcohol producers and wholesalers awoke with a serious hangover New Year's Day after President Vladimir Putin made them outlaws with a late-year veto that shocked the industry. "All alcohol that is now being produced and sold on the territory of Russia is technically illegal," said National Alcohol Association head Pavel Shapkin. |
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A check into the legal status of Russian dancers at an Anchorage strip club has uncovered what U.S. federal prosecutors say was a scheme to force women into the sex trade. |
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MOSCOW - Exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky said in an interview on Thursday that the state is planning to take control of Russia's top television station ORT, as a dispute rumbled over rival NTV's bid to stay independent. The status of Russia's media has come under close scrutiny under President Vladimir Putin, with some critics accusing him of trying to stifle free speech. NTV, Russia's biggest independent TV network and considered the most influential Russian media outlet not controlled by the Kremlin, says it has battled government influence. NTV has launched talks to sell shares to the U.S. media mogul Ted Turner, who founded CNN. |
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 MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin returned to his cherished theme of law and order on Thursday, defending Russia's prosecutors and saying they were no longer instruments of totalitarian oppression. |
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Rail Fare Hikes ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Fares on long-distance railroad trips will be increased by 30 percent starting Wednesday in a bid to reduce government subsidies to the railways and to turn around its loss-making activities, the Railways Ministry said Tuesday. Ticket prices from Moscow to St. |
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MOSCOW - Foreign capital has poured into the development of the telecommunications sector over the last 10 years. Foreign investors now hold significant stakes in almost all mobile-and fixed-communications companies. But the reconstruction of the sector planned by the Communications Ministry could lead to significant cutbacks in foreign holdings. |
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An adviser to Lenenergo general director Andrei Likhachev has said that the local energy utility has paid 286 million rubles (about $10 million) it owed to the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES) for electricity supplied to Lenenergo in December, RosBusinessConsulting reported on Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW - In an effort to increase its influence in the discussion of proposals for the restructuring the UES national electricity grid, the Kremlin administration has set up a working group to draw up a suggested reform program. The group, to be headed by Viktor Kress, Tomsk governor and Unified Energy Systems board member, includes about two dozen people, selected to represent the broad spectrum of lobby groups concerned with the restructuring - from local energos to the nuclear power industry to minority shareholders. |
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The saga of six refrigeration ships which have been stranded in St. Petersburg's harbor for over 1 1/2 years took another turn in December when five of the vessels were sold to the Preobrazhenskaya Trawling Fleet Base for $4 million. |
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LONDON - World oil prices continued to flex their muscles on Thursday as news that OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia was preparing to slash supplies in February spurred an already buoyant market. London benchmark Brent blend shot up 51 cents to $25.85 a barrel, just under the session high of $25.90 that extended Wednesday's sharp gains. |
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Dear Editor, It is touching to see how concerned Western officials and the media are with the fate of the few thousand NATO soldiers serving in the Balkans, without ever uttering a word about the 10 million Serbs and Albanians who were unwillingly exposed to the depleted-uranium bombs. |
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Life was back to normal this week, as the hibernating Russian press shook off any after-effects of the festive season. But while some had reason to celebrate, others were looking into their crystal balls and predicting calamity ahead. |
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Attack on Beer Ignores Real Problem IT is especially frustrating to watch as government agencies address serious problems with proposals that are almost laughably inadequate. The latest case in point came on Tuesday, when Deputy Health Minister Gennady Onishchenko launched an assault on the beer industry, claiming that beer had become a major contributing factor to Russia's overall alcoholism crisis. |
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Bill, Now It's Your Turn To Nod and Smile PRESIDENT Bill Clinton, Jan. 20 will bring tremendous personal changes for you and your family. Although you have not announced your plans, it is certain that you will take on the historic role of the first former president Senate spouse. |
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RUSSIA is coming to a critical juncture in its resurrection, yet amid renewed growth and hope, shortsightedness by several European countries that refuse to renegotiate Russia's Paris Club debt is threatening to derail the incipient economic recovery. While there is a growing perception in the West that Russia is at last showing signs of recovery after 10 years of a catastrophic downward spiral following the collapse of communism, many do not fully appreciate just how fragile this rebound remains. |
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 The Mariinsky Theater has taken a step toward ever-greater artistic independence with the opening of its own recording studio, which was presented to the press on Tuesday by artistic director Valery Gergiev. "We just invited a few singers who aren't singing in the opera tonight, and who were available," Gergiev said, as soloists Vasily Gerello, Daniil Shtoda and Irina Dzhioyeva lined up to be recorded performing operatic arias, with the Mariinsky's orchestra playing an excerpt from Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin. |
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Edik Nesterenko of Petlya Nesterova was walking through the city at night from one club to another, when he suddenly saw a Duran Duran poster. The singer gasped and almost went into hysterics, laughing and crying at the same time. |
 "Bedazzled" is about a troubled young man, unhappy with his life and desperate for wealth, love and power, who signs away his immortal soul in exchange for everything he thinks he desires. Does this sound familiar? It's a story that has been recycled more frequently than "A Star Is Born," and not only in Hollywood: It goes back at least to Christopher Marlowe's "Tragical History of Dr. |
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Theater-going in St. Petersburg can be more than a little intimidating for those whose Russian is not up to the finer nuances of Chekhov or Ostrovsky in their native language. |
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The "Arts Square" festival, which ended the musical year in 2000 and began this one, had its closing performance on Saturday with an appearance from the eminent conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky - his first appearance in St. Petersburg since 1989, although he has worked with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in both Naples and London over the intervening period. The winding route that brought him back to a city he professes to love seemed emblematic of Rozhdestvensky's circuitous route through Russian symphonic music as a whole, however, and Saturday's concert was very much in this vein. The first person to perform the symphonies of Alfred Schnittke, Rozhdestvensky included that composer's piano concerto in a fairly "unfestive" program. |
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 Since trip hop/acid jazz group Funki Porcini's visit to St. Petersburg a year ago, the city hasn't had a lot of trip-hop performers to brag about. Two sets on Sunday from DJ Vadim - St. |
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One may have to be a purple-suited, gold-chained, toothless and grinning mobster with a flat top and a Nokia phone to feel at home at the Enjoy Restaurant. In fact, one should be just about anyone but a normal restaurant visitor to enjoy this most extraordinary mishmash of a diner. Enjoy looks like a teenage first-date nook, feels like a gangster den, sounds like a Texan truck stop and tastes like a serve-yourself-quick-and-leave bistro. |
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 PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia native Rasheed Wallace had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Western Conference-leading Portland Trail Blazers never trailed in a 93-75 National Basketball Association victory over the Eastern-leading 76ers. Wallace had a follow shot, a dunk and a long jumper during an opening 16-3 run as the Blazers took command early and never looked back, cruising to their ninth straight win while ending Philadelphia's seven-game run. |
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Plavsic Turns Herself In THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic surrendered voluntarily Wednesday to the war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague and will answer to genocide charges in court Thursday, the tribunal said. |
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JAKARTA, Indonesia - Six men suspected of murdering three UN aid workers in West Timor went on trial in Indonesia on Thursday, launching a court case that will be closely watched by the international community. The six East Timorese, who consider themselves Indonesian, have been charged in connection with a Sept. |
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ATLANTA - Dallas Stars goalie Ed Belfour is back from his walkout, but not back on the ice. Backup Marty Turco made 31 saves for his third straight victory and Brett Hull scored twice as the Stars held on for a 3-2 National Hockey League victory over the Atlanta Thrashers. |
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Bradman Doing Well ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - Australian cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman is resting at home after a bout of pneumonia forced him into the hospital before Christmas, his son said Thursday. John Bradman issued a statement amid speculation that Bradman, 92, was suffering deteriorating health. |
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KAPALUA, Hawaii - It won't be easy for Tiger Woods to match his accomplishments of last year, but it won't be for lack of effort. "Just try to get better than last year," he said when asked his goal Wednesday on the eve of the Mercedes Championship, where he will make his 2001 debut after skipping last week's Match Play Championship in Australia. |
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LONDON - English division one side Crystal Palace took a step toward its first appearance in a League Cup final with a surprise 2-1 win over premier league Liverpool in Wednesday's semifinal first leg. Latvian Andrejs Rubins put Palace ahead at Selhurst Park after 56 minutes with a vicious left-footed drive. |
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