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KIBBUTZ GIVAT BRENNER, Israel - When Mariana Madbaneko's family considered returning to their native Russia last year after a tough first year in Israel, it was the teenage Mariana who urged her parents to stay. "It was Mariana more than the others who said my future is here," said her father, Victor, 47, Sunday afternoon, minutes after he buried his 16-year-old daughter in this collective community outside Tel Aviv. Now that Mariana is dead, one of 20 young Israelis killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber Friday night outside a Tel Aviv nightclub popular with teens from the former Soviet Union, her father has had to convince his other children that they should stay in Israel. |
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 Anyone sleeping in the vicinity of St. Isaac's Square last Sunday morning was awakened to the rude smell of truck exhaust, beer, and the sound of 107 engines roaring as drivers geared up for the Fifth Annual, Botchkarov Trophy, nine-day, off-road race. |
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MINSK - A long-delayed plan to create a free-trade zone among former Soviet republics is nearing completion, with agreements between most of the countries already signed, President Vla dimir Putin said. The project was among the issues discussed at a two-day summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose coalition of 12 former Soviet republics, in Minsk. |
All photos from issue.
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In a city where scaffolding seems to bloom on famous monuments with the regularity of spring lilacs, the Alexander Column will soon be cloaked in ladders and bars for a two-year renovation project. What is being renovated, however, is still a matter of debate. City Hall's Committee to Protect Monuments says the column's foundation is slowing giving way, causing the 700-ton granite column to list slightly to the side. According to the City Sculpture Museum, rather than the foundation it's the angel - which has cracked and deteriorated with age - at the column's opposite end that needs the attention. Regardless of the problem, City Hall has inked a $500,000 deal with the Turkish financial firm, Hazar International, to back an overhaul on the statue in time for the city's 300th birthday in 2003 - once local experts have agreed on what needs to be fixed. |
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 Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev showed up at a downtown Moscow restaurant Sunday for a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a debate with Yabloko head Grigory Yavlinsky on a controversial plan to import spent nuclear fuel. |
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The man convicted for embezzling millions of dollars meant to rebuild Grozny after the 1994-96 conflict looked set Monday to be named the Kremlin's pick to oversee the restoration of Chechnya. Former Grozny Mayor Bislan Gantamirov will be appointed chief federal inspector dealing with the restoration of the war-torn Chechen economy by the presidential envoy to the region, Viktor Kazantsev, Interfax quoted sources in Kazantsev's office as saying. |
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Military prosecutors have charged a former deputy finance minister with large-scale embezzlement, according to a news report. But Andrei Vavilov's spokesperson denied the report. |
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Kasyanov on Shuffle MOSCOW (Reuters) - A government reshuffle, previously planned for the end of May, has been postponed until the Cabinet has considered the 2002 draft budget, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said. "There are a number of objective circumstances due to which the structural fine-tuning was postponed," Kasyanov was quoted by Interfax as saying Friday in Minsk, where he was attending a CIS meeting. |
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Two people were killed and nearly $41,000 stolen in broad daylight as the result of an unprecedented armed robbery on Monday. Police are looking for an unidentified male who gunned down two almost unprotected guards and took what had been meant to be the monthly wages for St. |
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MOSCOW - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the flamboyant leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDPR, has decided to take on the role of the wise old uncle to the twin daughters of U.S. President George W. Bush - by writing to them of his concerns and "disappointment" over the young Bushes'recent behavior. |
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Financier George Soros presented the Russian translation of his book on global capitalism and said he was optimistic about the country's future progress toward democracy. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin's top economic adviser accused the government on Friday of trying to ram through a plan to restructure the national power grid without heeding the recommendations that Putin requested. Putin signed off on a sweeping overhaul of Unified Energy Systems on May 19, but told the Economic Development and Trade Ministry to solicit recommendations on some specifics from members of a special government panel headed by UES board member and Tomsk Governor Viktor Kress. |
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Alcohol producers warned Sunday of looming protests after a new law aimed at cracking down on bootleg liquor came into force - and shut down most of the country's vodka and wine production. Flagship Moscow-based distillery Kristall and hundreds of other distilleries and wineries across the country halted production Friday when the law setting up a new excise-stamp system took effect. |
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Putting behind them sharp allegations of unfair arms trade, India and Russia announced Monday that they have reached $10 billion in defense deals that include the joint development of a fifth-generation fighter jet. |
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MOSCOW - The Antimonopoly Ministry is investigating two natural monopolies - Unified Energy System and the Railways Ministry - for allegedly unfairly awarding contracts to insurance companies they own. In the case of the Railways Ministry, the investigation revolves arounds the insurance company ZHASO (a Russian abbreviation for Railways Joint-Stock Co.), which is 20.4 percent owned by the ministry and since 1994 has been the sole supplier of the mandatory passenger insurance on international routes. The Antimonopoly Ministry contends that ZHASO has monopolized the market on all railways-connected insurance. Railways Ministry spokesman Anatoly Yakovlev dismissed the allegations Monday and said that the Antimonopoly Ministry was only trying to "make a fool of us. |
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 While most managers spend their time trying to improve productivity through adjusting their businesses' structures, providing incentives and monitoring employee performance, those at one company last week decided just to forget it all and go sailing. |
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MOSCOW - A surge in money printing by the Central Bank late last year is starting to be felt, pushing up inflation and worrying the government. Consumer prices are up nearly 10 percent since the start of the year and the money base - the sum of cash in circulation and obligatory reserves of commercial banks held by the Central Bank - is up 5. |
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MOSCOW - Tyumen Oil Co. is putting the finishing touches on a merger with Sidanco that it initiated years ago when it seized a prized oil operator, but the other oil majors are not spooked. |
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Rem Vyakhirev once thought himself one of the country's most powerful people - after the president, of course. Now the former Gazprom chief is wondering just what the Kremlin has in store for him. Vedomosti's Tatyana Lysova, Yulia Bushueva and Yelizaveta Osetinskaya report. |
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It often happens that the most important questions receive the least public attention. The proposed changes to the Labor Code, I think, are a perfect example of this. |
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Two shareholders' meetings held last week by major local companies, dairy producers Petmol and the metal factory Krasnny Vyborzhets, were a strict test for their general directors. The managers of both enterprises might well be termed red directors, meaning that they prefer a Soviet-era managerial style based on administrative forces to market-oriented methods. |
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"Statutory acts on taxes and duties must be formulated so that everyone knows precisely which taxes [duties], when and under what procedure she or he is obliged to pay. |
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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona - When I discussed the exponential function in the first-semester calculus classes that I taught, I invariably used consumption of a nonrenewable natural resource as an example. Since the United States is now engaged in a national debate about energy policy, it may be useful to talk about the mathematics involved in making a rational decision about resource use. |
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IS Colin Powell spreading himself too thin? Or is the U.S. secretary of state being set up and then hung out to dry by more devious rivals in the Bush administration? Or is it that he is part, witting or otherwise, of a hidden master plan to ease U.S. |
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LAST week's decision to remove Rem Vyakhirev from his post as CEO of Gazprom still seems almost too good to be true, even though all indications are that Vyakhirev will be boosted up to the post of chairman of the gas giant's board. |
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OUR old Soviet leaders must be turning over in their graves in envy of our present leaders. After all, in exchange for the control that they imposed on the their citizens, Soviet leaders had to accept at least some responsibility, providing them with free, albeit low-quality, services. |
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A NUMBER of leaks from U.S. officials last week generated a stream of stories in the American media speculating about a possible deal with the Kremlin on missile defense. |
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SINCE Euclid, Ptolemy and other scholars gathered at the great library of Alexandria, Egypt, beginning in the 3rd century BC, it has been clear that science marches forward when scientists have ready access to repositories of knowledge. Many scholars had hoped the Internet would become a modern Alexandria, but in recent years scientists in poor countries and even at financially strapped U. |
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 If driving a car in Russia seems like a challenge, that probably means you are lucky enough to never have tried anything more demanding, such as registering one with the local traffic police or passing their car inspection. However, chances are pretty high that life will throw you into the jungle of legal and practical obstacles put in the way of an ardent car-lover who also has a predilection for abiding by the laws of the country in which he or she lives. |
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What do St. Petersburg residents think of the projects proposed for the city's 300th anniversary? Irina Titova talked to visitors at the exhibition displaying these projects at the Mikhailovsky Manezh that ran from May 24 to 27. |
 Yugoslav composer and pianist Aleksandar Simic may be young, but he knows how to make himself heard. The music of the 28-year-old Belgrade composer is widely performed in and outside his home country. Simic first came to Russia a little over three months ago, when his "Lullaby for Baby Jesus" was performed in the Glinka Philharmonic by the "Rossika" choir during the "Yuletide 2001" festival. |
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In something of a contrast to the many rather somber Soviet-era memorial plaques around the city, this irreverent sculpture on the corner of Voznesensky Propsect and Prospect Rimskogo-Korsakova commemorates a fictional character - the nose which assumes a life of its own from Nikolai Gogol's story of the same name. |
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Attempted Coup BANGUI, Central African Republic (Reuters) - President Ange Felix Patasse's loyalists battled to bring the Central African Republic's capital fully under control a week after a failed coup, despite foreign reinforcements and a declaration of victory. |
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No Comeback Yet BOSTON - Michael Jordan's comeback - if there is one - won't start in a summer league in Boston. The Washington Wizards, which Jordan partly owns, are among 10 NBA teams planning to send a squad to the eight-day workout league that starts July 16 at the University of Massachusetts-Boston campus. |
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