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 Xerox-CIS signed on as the first general sponsor of St. Petersburg's 300th-anniversary celebration at a ceremony with Governor Vladimir Yakovlev at Smolny on Thursday. As general sponsor, the company has pledged to provide $3 million for the festivities. |
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The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States have dealt a harsh blow to the local economy, which is increasingly dependent on international tourism. |
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King Travels On ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia left St. Petersburg on Thursday morning, continuing their state visit to Russia by flying on to Arkhangelsk, Interfax reported. The royal couple visited the monastery complex at Solovki on Thursday, returning to Arkhangelsk late in the afternoon. |
All photos from issue.
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MURMANSK, Far North - More than 14 months after setting out for what became its last mission, the Kursk nuclear submarine returned home Wednesday, greeted by the silent residents of a small, heavily guarded Arctic port. Accompanied by two military ships, the Giant 4 barge, with the crippled submarine clamped to its bottom, was hauled by a tugboat to the Roslyakovo shipyard, slowly moving past the submarine's home base in Severomorsk where a crowd stood on the pier in a biting wind bidding farewell to the once reverred Kursk. The Northern Fleet commander, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, called through loudspeakers for five minutes of silence to commemorate the submarine's 118 crew members, who died last August when an explosion sank the Kursk in the Barents Sea during naval exercises. |
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 At least 30 graves have been prepared at the Serafimov Cemetery for the remains of crew members from the Kursk nuclear submarine whose families wish them to be interred in St. |
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Ivanov Says No to U.S. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov reaffirmed Wednesday Russia's policy of refusing U.S. warplanes airspace to attack Afg ha ni stan, despite its support for the U.S.-led strikes against the Taliban. Ivanov told the Federation Council only transport aircraft ferrying relief supplies to zones affected by the strikes would be granted air corridors. |
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MOSCOW - The Federation Council approved the Land Code on Wednesday, putting an end to a decade-long debate in parliament over land sales, but leaving open the most controversial issue, the sale of agricultural land. The code will regulate the sale of 2 percent of land in cities and villages, which attract's 75 percent of all investment in the country, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said. |
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MOSCOW - Russian airlines may no longer face an outright ban on flights abroad after noise and emission standards come into force next year, thanks to a resolution approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) allowing the slow withdrawal of noncompliant aircraft, an air official said Tuesday. |
 When an extraordinary shareholders meeting late last month elected Alexander Kondratiev as general director of the Dom Leningradskoy Torgovly (DLT), a three-year battle by the City Property Committee (KUGI) to regain control over the firm finally came to a successful end. |
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MOSCOW - Local brewery Vena brewery said Wednesday its targeted high-end market segment is growing so rapidly that it is scrambling to increase capacity. |
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Telia Plans Investment MOSCOW (SPT) - Sweden's Telia International Carrier (TIC) outlined plans Tuesday to tap the potential it sees in Russia's Internet market by upping its activities in Moscow and St. Petersburg "TIC came late to Russia and our strategy is to [acquire] customers and build market share in the carrier market," said Lars Rydin, vice president for strategic development. |
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The New York Times SINCE the end of the Cold War, the Voice of America's radio programs have metamorphosed from government echo into real journalism. The station, which broadcasts in 53 languages worldwide, is for many people the only available counter to their governments' propaganda. |
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LOOKING back from my sickbed in Moscow, it seems strange that I didn't get typhoid or anthrax. Looking back, it is surprising that I got away with just plain dysentery. |
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SPEAKING in Belgium, President Vladimir Putin explained to European politicians, softened by many years of peace, that you needn't worry too much about civilian casualties when going to war. The rich experience of the Chechen campaign taught the president that innocent civilians inevitably suffer when you do battle with terrorists, but that blame for this can be apportioned to the terrorists. |
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PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin's decision to support the U.S. anti-terrorism operation - and to nudge Russia's central Asian satellites to do the same - was perceived as something of a turning point in Mos cow's relationship with the West. |
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 "Cynic is the place where everything is permitted, except aggression," says Vla di mir Postnichenko, the club's founder. "You can do whatever you want as long as you don't get in anyone else's way. That's the only requirement here." It could be a spontaneous concert by a rock group that just happened to drop by or an amateur strip show, but most things are not planned at Cynic, the inexpensive underground-style club that opened near the Moscow Station in February and has been packed on most nights since. |
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 The Early Music Festival is in many ways a unique phenomenon for St. Petersburg. The festival, now in its fourth year, is not intended for the general concert-going public that is used to grandiose romantic symphonies and pathos-ridden concertos, but for the enlightened, and even slightly overin dulged music connoisseur who values refined expression and imaginative repertoire above all. |
 "Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage." This laconic title speaks for itself. One of the greatest living artists, whose work stretches over most of the 20th century, French-born U.S. artist Louise Bourgeois has finally brought her art to the Hermitage. |
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Who said that a classical venue can't host a piece of kitsch? Only the St. Petersburg Philharmonic is brave enough to organize a festival that has the word kitsch in its title. |
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During my university days, I had a friend who insisted every time I got sick that what I needed was some "Jewish penicillin," or chicken soup with matzo balls. Given that she was Jewish I took her word on the nomenclature and, since she was pretty bright, I took her word on the medicinal qualities of the dish as well. She never steered me wrong. The fact that I found myself ill and with plans to check out a Jewish restaurant this weekend was merely fortuitous. Sem Sorok (Seven Forty) restaurant is located a bit off the beaten path, but it's worth the trip out into the city's Vyborgsky region. My dining companion and I arrived and were shown to our table, passing on the way the three-piece combo (violin, clarinet and guitar) that added to the atmosphere for the evening, playing Jewish folk music with the occasional pop ballad thrown in to break things up a bit. |
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 As the city's 300th birthday approaches, authorities are seeking support from local and international businesses to refurbish the city, as the money allocated from the federal budget is woefully inadequate to the task of recovering from decades of neglect. |
 The recent trend in St. Petersburg architecture has been a kind of historicism, which has also been called the Petersburg style. The facades of new buildings that have filled some of the few available empty plots in the city's historical center have been stylized to fit the old neighborhood. |
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In about two years, the citizens of St. Petersburg, as well as tourists visiting the city, could have the opportunity to swim in the pools of a new $42-million aqua park. |
 The Admiralty District lies in the heart of the city, home to such pearls as the Admiralty, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman and the Mariinsky Theater. However, alongside these shining jewels are some rough stones, waiting to be polished and brought to public attention. With the upcoming city jubilee, local authorities are motivated to turn their attention to New Holland, Sennaya Ploshchad, the Warsaw Railroad Station and the General Post Office building, or Pochtamt. |
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 More than 2 million people each day visit Nevsky Prospect, the heart of St. Petersburg's Central District. This district includes such landmarks Kazan Cathedral, Palace Square and the Summer Garden. |
 Mikhailovsky Castle has always been one of the most mysterious, tragic and sadly forgotten spots in St. Petersburg. Until now, that is. The building is best known as the site of the murder of Tsar Paul I. In fact, many still think that his ghost wanders its endless corridors. The paranoid son of Catherine the Great, Paul ordered this fortress built both because he feared that he would be assassinated and because he hated his mother so much that he refused to live in her home, the Winter Palace. |
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 St. Petersburg's historical center will get a boost this month when a World Bank delegation meets with city leaders to finalize a $150-million loan for the reconstruction of the city center. |
 No other museum in Russia has been as active internationally as the State Hermitage Museum. Although the Hermitage welcomed about 2.4 million visitors last year, the administration is dissatisfied even with this impressive figure and is looking for ways to reach a wider audience. Last fall, Somerset House in London became home to the Hermitage Rooms. |
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Naipaul Wins Nobel STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Trinidad-born British writer V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for "perceptive narrative" in his writings about travels in India, Africa, Iran and elsewhere. Nai pa ul, who was born in Tri ni dad but is British by choice, has fashioned his novels and journalism from the cultural chaos of the postcolonial world. |
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Terrorism Disclaimers BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Australian swimmers competing in next month's World Cup and U.S. Open in New York have been asked to sign disclaimers preventing Australian Swimming Inc. |
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