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Local businessman Mikhail Mirilashvili, arrested in January and charged with kidnapping, may be charged with murder soon, the City Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday. Gennady Ryabov, spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said the bodies of two missing persons, identified only as Dvali and Kukushadze, were found by the police with the assistance of two men who were extradited from Ukraine earlier this month and who stand accused of committing a triple murder in front of the Astoria Hotel last September. The bodies were found near the Southern Heating and Power-Supply Complex on Sofiiskaya Ulitsa in the southern part of the city. Ryabov said that prosecutors have reason to believe that Mirilashvili may be connected to the murder of those men. |
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 After months of rumor, half-steps, committee meetings and planning, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev is expected to give his stamp of approval within the next 10 days to the Europe-Hotel's plan to build several exclusive mini-hotels on Kamenny Island, said Alexander Shabasov, deputy head of the City Construction Committee. |
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Dom Knigi, St. Petersburg's premiere bookstore, may soon be undergoing changes that will make its main store on Nevsky Prospect unrecognizable to its faithful, longtime patrons. Because of plans by its landlord - backed by the city government - the book emporium could be turned into a multilevel mall, leaving only a relatively small space for the city's best-known bookstore. |
All photos from issue.
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 Cramming tourists into local hotels these days - especially top-of-the-line hotels - is a bit like seeing how may clowns you can fit in a Volkswagen Beetle. According to City Hall Tourism Committee officials, the number of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg this year will be about 3 million, or 500,000 people more than last year. That is a full 20 percent increase. "The city was sold out [for the summer] by February, which is much earlier than last year," said the deputy head of the City Tourist Committee in a telephone interview on Tuesday. |
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 MOSCOW - There was only one moment when President Vladimir Putin pointedly refused to answer a question from one of about 500 journalists present in a Kremlin theater where the Supreme Soviet used to meet. |
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MOSCOW - The most dramatic moment during President Vladimir Putin's news conference on Wednesday was an emotional exchange between the president and two reporters over the war in Chechnya. First - after Putin had called on the U.S. government to allow Russian state radio stations similar rights to broadcast from U. |
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WASHINGTON - The United States said two former Belarussian investigators given asylum have revealed credible evidence of a death squad run by President Alexander Lukashenko or members of his entourage. |
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Nizhny Runoff MOSCOW (SPT) - The Nizhny Novgorod gubernatorial race has gone into a runoff between Gennady Khodyrev, a State Duma deputy, and incumbent Governor Ivan Sklyarov after no candidate won more than half of the vote in last Sunday's poll. Khodyrev took 24 percent of the vote, while Sklyarov got 21 percent, Interfax reported Tuesday. |
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MOSCOW - The value of Russia's exports topped $100 billion for the first time last year, with the top 10 exporters accounting for 40 percent of the total, according to a new ranking released Wednesday. Unusually high prices for raw materials, especially oil, fueled the nearly 50 percent jump over the $73 billion in exports Russia produced in 1999, according to the ranking compiled by ratings agency Expert RA with the help of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Moscow International Business Association. |
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MOSCOW - A Russian version of EuroNews television will be on the air by September, state-controlled RTR said on Thursday. But it was unclear how RTR plans to squeeze the European news service onto the already tight television scene and whether one of the existing stations will be bumped to make room "Residents of Moscow and some of Russia's regions will be able to watch about 12 hours of EuroNews broadcasts every day on one of Russia's main channels," RTR said in a statement. |
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MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office has notified arms-export giant Rosoboronexport of large-scale financial violations by its main predecessor, Rosvooruzheniye, involving nearly $40 million worth of OVVZ government bonds. Some observers saw the move as an attack against Rosvooruzheniye's former chief Alexander Kotyolkin. |
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MOSCOW - Russia and China signed an agreement Tuesday that clears the way for a feasibility study on an oil pipeline linking the two countries. In addition, Gazprom will be allowed to participate in a tender for the construction of a gas pipeline to China. |
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Regional power utility Lenenergo announced this week that it plans to raise its profile on Western securities markets by placing level-2 American Depositary Receipts at some point in 2002. At a Monday press conference, Vladislav Kuzminov, the deputy general director in charge of development, said that the level-2 ADR float was part of a long-term strategic plan to tap a number of financial sources. |
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MOSCOW - Three proposals for a new structure to regulate tariffs on the so-called "natural monopolies" were submitted to the government Tuesday. |
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WESTERN advocates for the rule of law in Russia have had much to celebrate lately. In recent weeks, under strong prodding from President Vladimir Putin, the State Duma has moved ahead on two extraordinary pieces of legislation: an entirely new criminal-procedures code and a potentially revolutionary land-reform law. |
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IT is a fact of life that leaders are often allowed to get away with a blatantly authoritarian style so long as they keep winning. When you start losing, the knives come out and your methods are criticized as flawed from the very beginning. |
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THE latest word from the City Tourism Committee is both encouraging and frustrating. The number of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg this year is up 20 percent, expected to top 3 million this year. While that is a far cry from Paris (26 million tourists) and New York (36 million), it is a rate of increase that we can be proud of. |
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Clarifications While a column dedicated in some measure to political satire will perforce use vivid language not often heard inside well-appointed law offices and consultancies, it is important that such vividness is based on solid fact, not "exaggerations. |
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 Judging by the poster for the latest production from the Priyut Komedianta theater, one gets the impression that "Dearest, I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running in the Bathroom" is one play written by two playwrights. Well, it is, and it isn't. |
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In all probability, there's only one place St. Petersburg's music fans will be headed this weekend, as Tequilajazzz will be playing its traditional loud and sweaty concert at the Moloko club - described by the band's frontman as one of his favorites and the heir to the seminal TaMtAm. |
 Anna Stolyarova has been a familiar face on the local club scene over the past 10 years. This leading singer recently left Skafandr, the hard-edged guitar-based outfit, and joined the less-known club pop/rock group Tigry & Pchyoly. She also has plans to create her own electronic project. |
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There is a pleasant if rather soulless town somewhere in the middle of England called Cheltenham, which is mostly famous for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of the highlights of the horse-racing calendar. |
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It seems like quite a while since Boris Eifman and his ballet company have been to St. Petersburg. But starting on Saturday, the legendary Eifman Ballet will be once more before the audiences of its home town, with four productions it has already seen and one premiere, "Don Juan and Molière." In their lengthy absences, Eifman and co. have made New York their second home. The new production premiered there in May to rave reviews in a city where the critics can be particularly severe - the same critics who also welcomed the company's "Don Quixote," "Red Giselle," "Russian Hamlet" and "Tchaikovsky" with open arms. |
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 "I have never seen a man work so hard at being busy," Vickie (Anna Maria Horsford) says to Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), the meticulous forensic psychologist slaving away at distracting himself in "Along Came a Spider. |
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On the Offensive ISLAMABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taleban on Thursday launched a major attack in the northeastern province of Takhar, breaking through the opposition line, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported. AIP, quoting its sources, said though fighting had broken out several times this summer, Thursday's attack was the biggest offensive of the year, with the Taleban using tanks and artillery. |
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'Thorpedo' Mania FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) - The Australian swimming team at the world championship in Fukuoka has been forced to hire bodyguards because of Japan's obsession with Ian Thorpe. |
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Issues Archive