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 On July 1, a 13.5-meter local yacht with a four-person crew will embark on a two-year, around-the-world mission to promote St. Petersburg and its maritime legacy. "The yacht will become St. Petersburg's floating embassy and will help attract more interest to the city, as well as investments and tourism," Pavel Ko she lev, a representative of the City Hall Culture Committee, told reporters Friday. |
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 Local politician and long-time political ally of President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Mironov, became the new speaker of the Federation Council at a special plenary session in Moscow on Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky, once a key figure in former President Boris Yelt sin's inner circle - widely known as "the Family" - came out this week calling on those Family members still in power to step down and start building a liberal opposition to President Vladimir Putin. |
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Acting Vice Governor Alexander Po tek hin tendered his resignation Wed nesday, vehemently denying that the move had any connection to a criminal case against him initiated last month by the Northwest District Prosecutor's Office. |
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MOSCOW - Next spring legislators will review four drafts of a proposed new law on alternative civil service, Eduard Vorobyov, deputy head of the State Duma's Defense Committee told journalists Wednesday. Under the Constitution, draftees have the right to seek alternative civil service - such as working for charities or in medical care - if they cannot perform army service for religious or ethical reasons. |
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 MOSCOW - Russia gave OPEC what it wanted Wednesday, but it may not turn out to be what the crude cartel expected. The country's nine largest oil producers, after meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other top officials, agreed to cut exports from January by 150,000 barrels per day, or about 5 percent - expected to be just enough to trigger a total 2 million bpd cut by major suppliers, mainly OPEC, who want to boost sagging prices. |
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MOSCOW - The preliminary results are in, and the winners are ... media companies. Some $1.7 billion will be spent on advertising in Russia in 2001, up some 50 percent over last year and just $100 million shy of the all-time record set in the pre-crisis glory year of 1997, according to de facto media research monopoly Taylor Nelson Sofres/Gallup. |
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Pyatyorochka, St. Petersburg's largest supermarket chain, which earlier this year moved into the Moscow market, sold a blocking package of shares to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to a report in the business daily Vedomosti. |
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MOSCOW - While the country's No. 1 mobile operator, Mobile TeleSystems, is in the process of launching its operations in St. Petersburg, its fortunes in the Moscow market are on the skids. |
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MOSCOW - Investors should not expect to see the sprawling Gazprom mono poly broken up any time soon, the company's CEO Alexei Miller said. The government has named reform of the gas giant as one of its top priorities and has said the overhaul could include the division of its operations. |
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MOSCOW - Central Bank chairperson Viktor Gerashchenko said Thursday the ruble would remain stable despite falling oil prices. "I do not think that the potential drop in prices for energy resources to some critical threshold will reflect strongly on the ruble-exchange rate. |
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Reserves Fall $1.3Bln MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's gold and currency reserves have made one of their sharpest drops in two years, but analysts said Thursday the country still had enough funds in its coffers to pay debts and support the ruble. The Central Bank earlier said that the reserves fell to $37. |
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Merger Blitz Slows BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - The number of companies seeking European Union permission to merge or acquire others is stagnating and will likely drop this year for the first time in eight years, European Commission statistics showed on Thursday. |
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IN the film "The World According to Garp," Robin Williams is looking at a house he's thinking of buying when, as if from nowhere, a small plane veers out of control and crashes into the home. "We'll take the house," Williams tells the dumbstruck real-estate agent. |
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IMAGINE the following situation: A certain government is conducting anti-terrorist operations. The population and the majority of media outlets support it, but nevertheless the government considers it necessary to maintain tight control of the media's access to information on military operations. |
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"OUR choice is limited to what's on the pre-prepared menu. If none of the items on the menu take your fancy, then you are condemned to sit in silence." I was sitting in a restaurant with an American acquaintance of mine whom I hadn't seen for a number of years. |
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WHAT a difference a war makes. Last year, the United Nations mustered barely enough money to keep its basic operations going in Afghanistan, raising pitiful sums to combat a lethal drought affecting Afghanistan and central Asia. |
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IT'S amazing the number of dead presidents who've been exhumed to prove it's all right to trash the U.S. Constitution. I'm referring to people who cite the authoritarian excesses of previous chief executives as reasons we shouldn't fear that President George W. Bush's plans to run terrorists through military courts. |
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 Authentic world music has taken center stage in St. Petersburg lately, with recent concerts by Pakistani, Armenian and Azeri folk artists receiving both critical and popular acclaim. Naturally enough, people have increasingly been looking for world-music recordings as well. "World music is in high demand now," said Yelena Petrenko, assistant manager of the Kailas music store. Kailas, which started as a small pirate shop on Bolshaya Morskaya, opened at 10 Pushkinskaya Ulitsa last December and since then has been playing a prominent role in promoting sounds from around the globe. |
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 The late ballet master and artistic director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy Igor Belsky used to greet new students by warning them that staging ballets is not something that can be taught. |
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Conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov's arrival in St. Petersburg for two concerts Dec. 1 and 2 was something of a sensation. This legend of Russian conducting has made precious few appearances in his native country since the regrettable scandal that unfolded around him two years ago when Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi unceremoniously dismissed Svetlanov from his post as head conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra, a position he has occupied for 35 years. |
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Local club favorites Markscheider Kunst will showcase their new album with a concert at Red Club on Saturday. Called "Krasivasleva," it was released on the Moscow-based Gala label, also responsible for St. |
 There are some wonderful restaurants in town that for some reason choose to keep too low a profile. I remember stopping in at the Hungarian restaurant Chardash when it first opened and enjoying an excellent meal - with a delicious Hungarian wine - next to their blazing fireplace. I distinctly remember thinking that this is a place to keep in mind. |
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Kashmir Bomb SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - At least 17 people were wounded, including a one-year-old child, on Thursday when militants threw a grenade in a crowded marketplace in the heart of Indian Kashmir's main city, security forces said. A paramilitary spokesperson said the child suffered serious wounds in the blast in Maharaja Bazaar in downtown Srinagar, the summer capital of revolt-torn Jammu and Kashmir state. |
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The Losing Teams WASHINGTON (AP) - Baseball's operating loss was $232 million this year, including a major league-leading $52.9 million by the Toronto Blue Jays. |
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