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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin ordered a dramatic reshuffle of his cabinet on Wednesday, installing his close allies as defense and interior ministers and ousting the controversial nuclear power minister. Putin chose personally to announce the appointment of his closest adviser, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, to the Defense Ministry post, reassigning Marshal Igor Sergeyev to become a presidential aide on "global stability." Putin removed Colonel General Vla dimir Rushailo from the Interior Ministry post and installed another civilian, Unity faction leader Boris Gryzlov, as Russia's top policeman. He also named a new head of the tax police. |
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 Feeling sick? Doctors unable to help? You could always do what hundreds of others do: seek alternative forms of treatment at the hands of one of the city's "traditional healers," or skhodit k babke - the little old lady with the magic jar of ointment, who can do what the best of medical technology cannot. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has used a shake-up of his security apparatus to boost his authority and assert independence from the shadowy group that catapulted him to power, newspapers said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Putin appointed his close confidant Sergei Ivanov defense minister from his post as top security adviser and drafted in a loyalist parliamentary leader to lead the interior ministry. |
All photos from issue.
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The Northwest Prosecutor's Office said that the head of the St. Petersburg department of the Justice Ministry will be charged with misappropriating 3.5 tons of confiscated chicken legs, authorities confirmed Wednesday. According to Vladimir Goltsimin of the Northwest Prosecutor's Office, Alexander Travin is allegedly involved in the misappropriation of state money received by the Northwest Transport Prosecutor's Office after 3. |
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Russia Spies on Berlin BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia has increased the number of spies operating out of its diplomatic missions in Germany, according to a report released by the German internal security agency on Thursday. |
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WASHINGTON - When the United States decided to expel 50 Russian diplomats believed to be spies, knowing Mos cow was certain to retaliate in kind, the Central Intelligence Agency did not flinch. Instead, the U.S. spy agency supported the move, deciding the benefits of cutting the number of Russian intelligence officers in the United States outweighed any disadvantage in the largest tit-for-tat expulsions since the Cold War. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin sacked Nuclear Power Minister Yev geny Adamov at a time when the minister was coming under mounting pressure for alleged corruption, abuse of office and a controversial plan to import spent nuclear fuel for storage. |
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Responding to high levels of pollution in the Baltic Sea, all 15 members of the European Union agreed in a meeting March 23 in Stockholm - during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin - to help finance environmental investments in Northwest Russia. |
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MOSCOW - Indulging in its own version of spy mania, the Federal Security Services provided tapes to RTR state television purporting to show a U.S. intelligence officer at work in Moscow. |
 Just when Russia might have been safe from shrines to the president - from busts and nature walks bearing Vladimir Putin's name - a local company is mass producing portraits for people who feel the absence of the leader's gaze from their wall. The source of the portraits is unlikely: a company called Arsenal Tradition whose usual focus is producing equipment for the oil industry. |
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MOSCOW - Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus began a visit to Russia on Thursday and said he would discuss Kaliningrad as well as European Union and NATO expansion, key worries for Moscow. |
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NEW YORK - The White House is starting a comprehensive review of all American aid programs to Russia designed to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, The New York Times reported in its online edition on Thursday. The report cited a senior administration official speaking on Wednesday. |
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An attempt by the St. Petersburg police's special art-theft department to track down a suspect in the theft of a painting from the State Hermitage Museum ended in embarrassment this week when a man depicted in a police sketch came forward to deny any involvement in the heist. |
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MOSCOW - Arthur Andersen will present recommendations on a five-year strategy for long-distance operator Rostelecom by April 12, said Vadim Balashov, head of telecoms at the international consulting giant. "So far the strategizing process has not been completed, but it's pretty clear that it will be completed by April 12," Balashov said. Without going into details, Balashov said more than one business plan was being studied. Industry observers say options for the nation's long-distance monopoly include merging with one of the seven pan-regional companies to result from consolidation or transferring some regional assets to these companies. |
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 MOSCOW - "Nothing [in Russia] has been as bad as it has been portrayed in the Western media," Daniel Thorniley told a group of executives from more than 100 Western companies at a seminar Tuesday. |
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Software Plan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drug maker Pfizer Inc. said on Thursday it plans to form an independent company with software giant Microsoft Corp. and computer maker International Business Machines Corp. to develop software and services to help doctors manage their practices and medical information. |
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MOSCOW - After numerous delays, harsh criticism from investors and a beating on the stock market, Russia's No. 1 oil company LUKoil on Tuesday finally released its 1998-1999 financials audited to Western accounting standards. |
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MOSCOW - The markets once trembled when Boris Yeltsin sneezed, but President Vladimir Putin's first major political shakeup is only likely to rock them if he reshuffles his economic team, analysts polled said Wednesday. They said markets might even welcome Putin's ousting earlier in the day of a handful of military men from the Interior and Defense ministries and the replacement of the Nuclear Power Minister and Tax Police chief. |
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PARIS - Russia's calls for relief on $48 billion in foreign debts will stay on ice pending an assessment of Moscow's ability to pay in the coming years, the head of the Paris Club of creditor nations said in an interview. |
 MOSCOW - The European Commission is wrapping up a year-long investigation into whether gas contracts between Gaz prom and three Italian suppliers break EU antitrust regulations on fair competition, the European Commission said Tuesday. The commission, which acts as the European Union's antimonopoly watchdog, could decide within weeks whether to object to clauses in the contracts that limit the sale of Russian gas in Italy to the three companies - Enel, Snam and Edison - while forbidding them from reselling the gas to third countries. |
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THE dust is still settling after President Vladimir Putin's unexpected government reshuffling Wednesday, but much of the speculation it engendered has centered on the appointment of former Security Council secretary Sergei Ivanov as the new defense minister. |
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THIS year, City Hall is again following an old communist tradition: encouraging local residents to get out on the streets and help clean away the winter grime. |
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IRINA Khakamada was in town this week, and it was a really depressing experience. Vice speaker of the State Duma, leading member of the Union of Right Forces, and a prominent member of the "where-are-they-now-and-what-were-they-for" club of Russian liberal politicians, Khakamada was up here doing exactly what you might expect: calling press conferences, announcing changes to party structure, and pontificating on the governmental reshuffle. |
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Home Base "My lords, I would like to know if the Honorable Lord would deign to tell this House assembled why, in his inestimable opinion, he has felt compelled to, as it were, plough his furrow in a far-off field when he has a harvest rich with bloom on his own home grounds? And if my right good friend the Honorable Lord will not vouchsafe us an answer, I will direct my question to his good Lady wife, who is waiting in a soundproof booth just behind yon ermine curtain!" "Zounds, you cur! I shall bash you with my stick!" "Summon the guard! Restrain the Honorable Lord! And let us resume this learned debate after a brief commercial message. |
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PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has ousted his defense minister, Igor Sergeyev, and replaced him with Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov. For more than half a year, Sergeyev has been a lame-duck minister, partially isolated from real decision-making and openly scorned by many of his staff. |
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IF Western European governments are worried by the opening moves of the Bush administration - and they are - then imagine the view across the Atlantic these days from the less stable, less secure, less firmly democratic countries of central and eastern Europe. |
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Dear Editor, Your editorial is dead-on about the failures of the Western media to properly respect Mir ["May Mir's Legacy Be as Enduring," Mar. 23]. Let's face it, there was never anything wrong with Mir that was not directly related to funding problems. The cargo ship crash, for example, was a result of not having funds to pay for new computer guidance systems for the Progress spacecraft. |
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A person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip - this is how one might describe a talented diplomat. People dealing with international relations are known for the art of twisting subjects with exquisite skill. |
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Inferiori Cocktail, possibly Italy's leading lounge act, will come to St. Petersburg to play a concert this week end - but not for all. The Cocktail will appear at a trendy, invitation-only party at Na bo kov's House on Saturday. |
 "You can't embrace the unembraceable," said that imaginary, though indisputably wise, 19th-century folk philosopher Kozma Prutkov. Prutkov, I think, had either metaphysics or merriment in mind when he uttered his immortal adage. However, he also could have been thinking of the annual Golden Mask national theater festival which opened its seventh running last Friday and concludes with an awards ceremony on April 9. |
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 Totó La Momposina, Colombia's leading folk singer, will bring her dynamic performance to St. Petersburg next week, as part of the first ever Colombian Days Festival in the city. |
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Ostap Bender, the creation of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov in their novels "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf," is one of the most popular heroes in Soviet literature, and now St. Petersburg has a restaurant named in his honor. |
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The "Brodyachaya Sobaka" (The Stray Dog) club is the stuff of legend. In just three short years of its existence from 1912 to 1915 it was a regular hang-out for the most outstanding artists of the time, and gained a reputation as an "artistic laboratory. |
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BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union prepared on Thursday to spearhead efforts to salvage the 1997 Kyoto treaty to tackle global warming after U.S. President Bush sparked a hail of protest by in effect abandoning it. A high-level European Union delegation will visit Washington next week to urge Bush not to ditch it. |
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2nd F-15 Found LONDON (AP) - Rescuers working in blinding snow found wreckage of a second missing American F-15 fighter jet on Wednesday in the Scottish Highlands, the U. |
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NFL Hit With Suit NEW YORK (AP) - Orlando Brown filed a $200 million lawsuit against the NFL on Wednesday, claiming his career was ended by eye injuries sustained from a penalty flag thrown by a referee. Brown's complaint charges the league failed "to properly supervise and enforce rules that flags be properly weighted and thrown in a proper fashion," said lawyer Clifford J. Stern, who said he signed the complaint. A starting offensive tackle for most of his seven-year NFL career, Brown was with Cleveland when he was injured. In a Dec. 19, 1999 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, referee Jeff Triplette threw his penalty flag and it hit Brown's right eye. |
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 MIAMI - Second seed Lindsay Davenport and fifth seed Serena Williams limped out of the quarterfinals of the Ericsson Open with injuries on Wednesday, allowing Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati and Russian Elena Dementieva easy wins. |
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