|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - The presidents of Russia and France said after Kremlin talks on Monday that they had almost identical positions on most issues, but differed openly on the future of Yugoslavia and separatist Chechnya. Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac undertook their two-day meeting with a commitment to improve ties damaged by disputes over Russia's military campaign in Chechnya and legal rows. Chirac said they had achieved "considerable convergence" on many issues and Putin said their views "almost coincided." The two leaders issued a statement appealing against any moves to undermine existing international security arrangements, but carefully avoiding any mention of U. |
|
 St. Petersburg will take a major step this summer toward proving that its nickname, the Venice of the North, is no mere poetic comparison. On Friday, Vice Governor Valery Malyshev announced plans by the City Administration to develop a system of municipal water taxis as an alternative to increasingly overcrowded roads. |
|
MOSCOW - Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for the head of TV6, the small television station that has served as a home-in-exile for journalists who fled NTV when it was taken over by Gazprom. The Prosecutor General's Office said Friday that Arkady Patarkatsishvili, chairman of the board of Boris Berezovsky-owned TV6, was charged with helping an associate of Berezovsky's escape from custody. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has sacked deputy chief of the General Staff Colonel-General Valery Manilov, bringing an end to the military career of the army's chief spokesperson. Manilov was one of the armed forces' most public faces for nearly a decade. |
|
The cabinet gave the go-ahead on Thursday to amendments to visa rules that, if approved by parliament, would allow many tourists to visit Russia without visas. |
|
The State Duma gave preliminary approval Thursday to a set of bills aimed at reforming the judiciary system by putting higher professional demands on judges and making them more accountable to the public. The lawmakers also passed a new bill defining the status of defense lawyers. |
|
MOSCOW - Many tried and some died, but the world's only unconquered 8,000-meter-plus summit has finally been successfully tackled by a Russian expedition. |
 In 1856, at the royal summer residence - the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (now called Pushkin) - Johann Strauss Jr. made his first appearance before the Russian Imperial Court. The Viennese waltz master's Russian debut, where he conducted and played the violin, occasioned an exclusive ball in the best tsarist traditions, with only the cream of the Petersburg nobility, a few important cultural figures of the day and the royal family of Tsar Alexander II in attendance. |
|
Anti-Nuke Protest MOSCOW (AP) - Thirty Greenpeace activists were detained on Thursday for protesting on Red Square against legislation that would allow Russia to import spent nuclear fuel for processing and indefinite storage. |
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - The government grabbed control of Gazprom at the annual shareholders meeting Friday by securing a majority on the board of directors, a move that sets the stage for rapid and long-awaited reforms at the unwieldy gas giant. Government officials won six out of the 11 seats on Gazprom's board. |
|
MOSCOW - Tyumen Oil Co. has deployed a team of armed security guards to secure a western Siberian oil complex claimed by a Canadian producer. The Siberian complex belongs to Yugraneft, a small oil company with annual production of 350,000 tons a year. |
|
The St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Arbitration Court on Friday ordered that assets transferred by the city's Samson food-processing concern to daughter companies in a reorganization carried out in the fall of 2000 be returned to the parent. In a decision which the Moskovsky Industrialny Bank (MIB), which has a stake in the daughter companies, promises to appeal, the court agreed with arguments made by the Federal Service for Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy, or FSFO, that some aspects of the division of the firm were illegal. |
|
MOSCOW - Russian Aluminum, the top domestic aluminum producer and No. 2 in the world, said Monday it had hired former deputy prime minister Alexander Livshits as deputy chief executive. |
|
MOSCOW - The European aerospace community welcomed Russia onto the global market Monday as the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. sealed a 2.1 billion euro ($1.8 billion) deal with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency outsourcing parts for civilian and military aircraft and space technologies. |
|
MOSCOW - Rostelecom shareholders voted in a new board of directors at their annual meeting Saturday, leaving only one minority representative and one from the company itself. |
|
Aeroflot Buys Software MOSCOW (SPT) - Aeroflot on Friday signed a five-year agreement with U.S. Sabre Holdings Corp. that will provide the airline with $10 million worth of software products. Aeroflot will use the software for revenue management, pricing, network management, scheduling and operations and hopes to reduce operational costs. |
|
Electronic Alliance TOKYO (AP) - Sharp Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. said Monday they will form a global alliance in consumer electronics, in the latest sign that industry reorganization is accelerating. |
|
"Forgot how good your life is? Don't worry, the tax inspector will remind you." This post-Soviet era saying has real resonance in Russia. As tax bodies are pressured to raise more revenues, law-abiding taxpayers are often the hardest hit. Indeed, the authorities find it easier to collect taxes from law-abiding firms than to chase sub-economy firms with sophisticated tax-evasion schemes. |
|
|
|
|
JUDICIAL reform has finally ceased to be the private business of a few enthusiasts and has now been declared a state priority. As a result, the reform impetus has gathered increased force, but its direction has changed. The judicial reform concept approved in 1991 was full of ideas of judicial independence, democracy and human rights. |
|
SLOBODAN Milosevic is now in the custody of the UN War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, and the world is thrilled by the possibility that this tyrant will actually be made to pay for his crimes. |
|
A new textbook on Russian social history has appeared in bookstores, which is something to delight in. However, the book begins by saying that our compatriots need "cliotherapy" - in other words, to be healed by history. Although the term cliotherapy appears to have been just made up, the idea is hardly new. |
|
SAPPORO, Japan - Recently while strolling through the fishing village of Rausu in Hokkaido's wild and mountainous Shiretoko Peninsula, I happened across two women - one British, the other Japanese - who were touring Japan on foot. |
|
LAST week the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush added a further $18 billion to its Pentagon budget request for next year, bringing the total to $329 billion. That is a lot to be spending on defense programs in a world in which the United States confronts no superpower rivals. Yet most of the latest additions are reasonable, with the bulk of the $18 billion going for improvements in military pay, housing and health care, training and spare parts. |
|
|
|
|
Russia and two other countries have temporarily banned fishing for sturgeon to protect dwindling stocks. As Christopher Pala reports from Ikryanoye, or Caviartown, the fish prized for producing caviar may have outlived the dinosaurs, but they may not long outlive communism. In a sprawling fish farm 50 kilometers north of Astrakhan, on the verdant banks of a Volga River swollen by spring rains, some 200 female sturgeon, each about a meter long, swim slowly in the greenish waters of one of the large ponds. These females were raised here and underwent the fish equivalent of a cesarean section. In a matter of minutes, they were anesthetized, their bellies were opened, the roe was taken out, they were sewn up again and were returned to the water. |
|
 Perhaps the central event of this year's "Message to Man" film festival was the screening of Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda films "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia," with the author herself coming to St. |
 Although many Americans come to St. Petersburg to escape their culture, this Wednesday - July 4, American Independence Day - will be the occasion for nostalgia and homesickness for many in the expatriate community. After all, the staples of U.S. culture that Americans are so accustomed to on this day - apple pie, cheeseburgers and open-grill barbecues - are hard to come by in St. |
|
One of the more sinister features of St. Petersburg life are the floods which strike the city with alarming frequency. The most serious floods have been commemorated on various plaques which show the level the water reached. |
|
WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney rested at home Sunday, getting adjusted to his new pacemaker and anticipating a return to his White House duties on Monday. "He's relaxing and looks forward to being back at work," said spokesperson Juleanna Glover Weiss. |
|
Coup Warning PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) - The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who has long warned of plots to topple his government, has reiterated there are serious threats to national security following a major arms seizure in America. |
|
Zenit St. Petersburg's youth came alive with two goals during the second half to make up a one-goal deficit and defeat Spartak 2-1 Saturday, foiling the Muscovites' bid to end the first half of the Russian Premier Division season in first place. Zenit rookie Alexander Kerzhakov scored his first Premier Division goal to tie the match at 1-1. |
Temp: 0°C overcast 
Issues Archive