|
|
|
|
Environmentalist and former espionage defendant Alexander Nikitin won a libel lawsuit against the newspaper Chas Pik and journalist Alexander Zubarev for an article that the Kuybishevsky Federal Court deemed libelous. The article was published on May 14 - five months after Nikitin's final acquittal on all the espionage charges that had been brought against him by the Federal Security Service, or FSB. Entitled "When Politicians Talk, Themis is Silent," - in reference to the Greek god of justice - it argued that Nikitin had been acquitted for political reasons. In finding for Nikitin on Thursday, the court ordered Chas Pik to publish a retraction of Zubarev's article and to pay a modest but undisclosed sum to Nikitin. |
|
 Avant-garde artist and political activist Kirill Miller was badly beaten in what appears to be politically motivated violence, according to the artist and his colleagues. |
|
MOSCOW - The Audit Chamber, parliament's largely toothless budgetary watchdog, could soon lose its independence in exchange for wider powers under legislation being discussed in the State Duma. The bill, which would give President Vladimir Putin the right to choose the Audit Chamber's head and order investigations, was recently approved by the Duma budgetary committee and could go before lawmakers as early as the fall. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
Police have retrieved the newborn baby boy who was abducted last week from Maternity House No. 10. The baby has been returned to his parents unharmed, and police have arrested 25-year-old Oksana Chernik, who has reportedly confessed to kidnapping the infant. The baby was abducted late at night on June 29 from the ward where he was sleeping together with his mother, 28-year-old Viktoria Lisichkina. Although it is normal practice for there to be several women in each ward, Lisichkina had paid an additional fee for a private room. From the start, the police suspected a young woman who had been hired by the maternity ward as a cleaner just the week before. |
|
 In the early hours as the city sleeps, its empty streets are the setting for an unusual experiment. Spetstrans, the municipal street cleaners, and the Severnoye Siyaniye Perfumes and Cosmetics Factory have begun using the factory's soapy, waste, run-off water to clean city roads. |
 Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya has said that many of the residents of Chechen villages who complained to her in February that paratroopers from a nearby base were kidnapping villagers for ransom were later killed by the military in retaliation. |
|
YEKATERINBURG, Ural Mountins - Sirens wailed and flags were lowered to half mast on Thursday as Russia observed a day of mourning for 145 people killed in the country's worst air disaster in years. |
|
MOSCOW - Russia's biggest air disaster in a decade is raising new fears about the safety of the country's mostly Soviet-built aircraft. But aviation experts scoffed at the jitters Wednesday, saying that while the thousands of planes may be considered past their prime by Western standards, they are still among the safest aircraft in service anywhere. |
|
Missing Children ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A police search is underway for two 12-year-olds, Karina Petrova and Sergei Akchurin, who were reported missing on Saturday from a summer camp on Lake Ladoga in the Vsevolozhsk region of the Leningrad Oblast. |
|
|
|
 The State Duma on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a new compromise Labor Code that has the support of the Kremlin and the main trade unions. The Communists, though, remain opposed. The real show was outside the Duma, where a few thousand demonstrators gathered in the morning. |
|
MOSCOW - The State Duma has taken a big step toward passing crucial legislation to combat money laundering and to help the country avoid potentially humiliating international sanctions. |
|
In an unusual, though seemingly logical, move to maintain its place on the market, Russia's long-distance monopoly Rostelecom has announced it was changing its international telephone tariffs. The company is dropping the rates it charges local providers - such as Petersburg Telephone Network, or PTS, in the city - to European and North American destinations, but raising those for CIS countries. |
|
MOSCOW - Gazprom puzzled the market Wednesday, reporting a whopping net profit of $10 billion for 2000 - by far the largest ever reported by a Russian company. |
|
Logovaz News Corp., owned by Boris Berezovsky and Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch, stepped into the St. Petersburg radio market last week with the purchase of radio station Modern. Modern has two broadcasting licenses for St. Petersburg and holds 14 licenses for broadcasting in the regions, including Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Kaliningrad and Sochi. |
|
Discussions of economic development and legal reform often take on a chicken-and-egg character - which comes first? About 450 judges, ministers, parliamentarians, scholars, lawyers and representatives of NGOs from 75 countries will be in town to take up this question at the Global Conference on Law and Justice organized by the World Bank and co-hosted by the Russian government, beginning this Sunday. |
|
St. Petersburg's Finance Committee has rejected a proposal that would have lowered profit taxes for the city's businesses from 24 to 20 percent. The new Federal Profit-Tax Law, which was approved by the State Duma in the second reading late last month, calls for corporate profit taxes to be lowered from 35 percent to 24 percent. |
|
EBRD Invests $2.5M MOSCOW (Reuters) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will invest a total of $2.5 million in the production of Russian candy and computer components, the bank said Thursday. |
|
MOSCOW - A Khanty-Mansiisk court on Wednesday ordered guards hired by Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK) to leave the premises of a Siberian oil complex claimed by a Canadian producer. A standoff of sorts had been expected on Thursday, when the court bailiff was scheduled to present the document to the new management of Yugraneft Corp. |
|
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov blasted the World Trade Organization on Monday for its decision to postpone further talks on Russia's membership until it adjusts all its legislation to WTO standards. |
|
MOSCOW - The federal government's 50-billion-ruble ($1.7-billion) plan to wire its public school system is being contested by international computer majors left out of the project. At least three IT companies, Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer and Russia's Arsenal, say that the Education Ministry, which is overseeing the project, chose Microsoft as the software supplier without considering similar products of their own. |
|
MOSCOW - Did Russia agree to buy 36 airplanes from Airbus in return for securing $1.8 billion in orders from the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. |
|
|
|
|
THE extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague represents both the greatest victory and the most important test for the United Nations' war crimes tribunal and for the emerging regime of international human rights law. It is not at all clear that either is ready for the test. |
|
LAST week, the Kremlin spin machine worked overtime to celebrate the latest glorious victory from Chechnya. The death of rebel commander Arbi Barayev was touted as the latest proof of the success of the federal campaign. |
|
Return Engagement Liar. Oathbreaker. Conspirator. Criminal. Cheerleader for brutal murderers. Subverter of the U.S. Constitution. Yes, it must be another White House appointment by George W. Bush! Last week, the eminent statesman once more fulfilled his promise to "restore honor and integrity to government" by naming Elliott Abrams to a prestigious post on the White House National Security Council. |
|
|
|
 Vnezapny Sych, a legendary local band, returns with an album and new lineup, which will be showcased at the Faculty club on Friday. Though the band's own music hasn't been heard much lately, co-founder and songwriter Kirill "Kesha" Spechinsky's songs constitute the finest of Pep-See's repertoire - the girl-fronted alternative pop band, which Spechinsky helped to form in 1993. |
|
The worst thing that happened last week was probably the end of Phantom FM - the radio station that had been entertaining sophisticated listeners since April. |
|
July is a time when the smaller museums of St. Petersburg experience an unusual influx of visitors - if, of course, the museums have joined the annual project of the Pro Arte Institute, which aims to bring together contemporary and traditional collections of art. The project had its very successful debut last year with 10 lesser-known local museums, including the Memorial Museum of the Narodovolets-2 Submarine, the Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Veterinary Medicine and the Arkhip Kuindzhi Apartment Museum, hosting 14 modern-art exhibitions and installations. This year, projects by St. Petersburg, Moscow and German artists will be on display in 11 museums between July 7 and 30. |
|
 Throughout Eastern European cities such as St. Petersburg 150 years ago, a new musical form was emerging in the then-thriving Jewish communities. An amalgam of various strands of Jewish folk music, Yiddish dance and the liturgical traditions of Torah chant, the form came to be known as klezmer - a word which is itself an amalgam of the Hebrew kle, instrument, and zemer, song. |
|
From the people who brought you La Strada pizzeria comes the "oriental restaurant" Kalif, with an unremarkable exterior that probably isn't helping it much in attracting the thousands of tourists that throng nearby Palace Square. Inside, however, it's a different story, with attractively presented tables nestling among murals, decorations and even waitresses that are unmistakably Central Asian. One is greeted in the traditional Uzbek way - with bowls of nuts, raisins and dried fruit complementing a pot of refreshing green tea - as one peruses an admirable menu and wine list that are extensive without being overwhelming. The selection covers a range of prices , from 440 rubles ($15) for an excellent bottle of Mukuzani, to around $1,000 for Chateau de Je Ne Sais Quoi, circa 1986. |
|
 It's got perhaps the most popular of video games as source material. It's got a sought-after star as its marquee attraction. It's got one of the longest and most convoluted writing credits in recent history. |
|
The Pro Arte Insititute has managed to establish itself firmly in St. Petersburg over a very short period of time: It has a new financial sponsor in the Ford Foundation, has founded courses of modern art and media technology and has created a new concert hall in the city in the Peter and Paul Fortress. |
|
|
|
|
Kohl Off the Hook? BERLIN (Reuters) - Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl won a major legal battle on Wednesday when a court ruled that Germany could not release his East German secret police file without his permission. If upheld, the ruling could spare Kohl, who has seen his once towering reputation badly damaged by a slush fund scandal, further embarrassment and bar researchers from seeing unique historical files on thousands of public figures. |
|
Leafs Ink Mogilny TORONTO (AP) - Alexander Mogilny, admitting that leaving the powerful New Jersey Devils was not his first choice, signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. |
Temp: 0°C overcast 
Issues Archive