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 Gem carver Sergei Kaminsky has spent the last 16 years recreating one of the world's greatest works of art, the mysterious Amber Room from the Catherine Palace in the suburb of Pushkin. Together with about 50 colleagues, from carvers to art historians, Kaminsky spends his days crouched over a microscope, studying tiny bits of amber and fitting them into the vast mosaics that will someday form an exact replica of the lost treasure. |
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MOSCOW - A businessperson who is part of a consortium negotiating with ousted TV6 journalists to make a bid for the station's broadcast license has announced the names of the other participants, some of the wealthiest and best-connected businesspeople in the country. |
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MOSCOW - The State Duma has approved a new presidential bill that will dramatically toughen regulations for migrants and former Soviet citizens who want to obtain a Russian passport. The bill, which increases the period of time a foreigner must live in Russia before being able to apply for citizenship from three years to five, scraped through Wednesday in the key second reading by 235 to 177 votes, with 226 needed for passage. |
All photos from issue.
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Musicians from two prestigious local institutions hit a sour note with alcohol-fuelled rowdyism on two separate flights to the United States, airline officials said on Thursday. Members of the St Petersburg Philharmonic got drunk and disorderly on the first leg of an eight-hour transatlantic crossing from Amsterdam on Feb. |
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Environmental activist Oleg Bodrov, head of the Green World ecological organization in the Leningrad Oblast town of Sosnovy Bor, was attacked and seriously injured this week by unknown assailants. |
 MOSCOW - The controversy surrounding a consignment of spent nuclear fuel imported from Bulgaria last year is set to hit the courts, with environmentalists accusing the company that imported the fuel of exploiting a loophole in the law to bypass new safety requirements. |
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Turkmen Exile MOSCOW (Reuters) - A former Turkmen deputy prime minister has slammed President Saparmurat Niyazov from exile in Russia for opposing economic reforms and pursuing a one-man dictatorship. |
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MOSCOW - Nearly a year after undertaking a rethink of its relationship with the World Bank, the cabinet on Thursday approved a three-year plan of cooperation that slashes borrowing and weeds out expenses on intermediaries The plan calls for Russia to reduce overall borrowing from the Washington-based organization by $400 million to $500 million a year, eliminate budget-substitution loans and overhaul the way the loans are used. "We want to minimize the size of budget-substitution loans and prefer in the future to get financial support from the WB in the form of investment loans and infrastructure loans to reform the energy sector, in particular," Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said after the weekly cabinet meeting. |
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 MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's plan to increase domestic borrowing to stimulate the struggling financial sector is a mistake, President Vladimir Putin's top economic adviser said Thursday. |
 MOSCOW - If the Education Ministry has its way, by the autumn of this year, every child in every school in every village in the country will have access to a personal computer and the Internet. On Feb. 28, the ministry will announce an open tender to install the computers, the second part of a nationwide project that is part of the broader Children of Russia program under the aegis of President Vladimir Putin and the Education Ministry. |
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MOSCOW - Russian Aircraft Corp. MiG beat out four rivals to win a contract to modernize Bulgaria's fleet of MiG-29 fighters, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. |
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Beer Output Up 21% MOSCOW (SPT) - Russian beer production rose 21 percent year on year in January to 443 million liters, Prime-Tass reported the State Statistics Committee as saying Thursday. Production is expected to increase 8 percent to 10 percent year-on-year in 2002 to more than 7 billion liters, according to the estimates of the Russian Brewers Union. |
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IN politics, this year is not likely to bear much resemblance to the first two years of Vladimir Putin's presidency - the distinguishing feature of which has been social stability against the backdrop of an ongoing struggle between members of the Yeltsin-era old guard and the St. |
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NO sooner had the international conference "The Power of the Press and the Pressure of Power" concluded than I was called to St. Petersburg to another international conference, "Russian Journalism: Relations Between Owners and the State. |
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WHAT does the government need housing reform for? Sure, we've heard the line about increasing efficiency and all that. But what's the real reason? The more I watch the weary faces of bureaucrats as they explain to the populace that everything will work out in the end, the more I lose heart. |
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RUSSIAN television has entered a new period of transition. Under President Vladimir Putin, we have seen the agonizing end of the post-Soviet period in media development - when the state's monopoly on ideology was over, but major media, television in particular, continued to survive on subsidies either from the government or from powerful businessmen. |
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 Akvarium has just released a new CD -the band's first album of new material since 1999's "Psi" - and will be celebrating with a concert, including several guests, at the Yubileiny Sports Palace on Friday. "Sister Chaos" ("Sestra Khaos") was released Feb. |
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German baritone Matthias Goerne and Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes are two glittering gems in today's younger generation of performers, having, individually, sold out concerts in major venues around the world. |
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In addition to the looming concerts by Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos and Hurlements d'Leo mentioned in this space last week, some more Western artists will visit the city over the next couple of months. Their dates were announced - either officially or not - this week. |
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This review marks the continuation of The St. Petersburg Times' tireless quest to find the perfect breakfast. Spurred on by visions of stacks of pancakes, Belgian waffles, fat omelets oozing with cheese, ham and eggs with runny yolks, piles of toast slathered in butter and bottomless cups of coffee that are miraculously refilled whenever they are less than two-thirds full, we are in the process of scouring the city for the ideal way to start the day. |
 Opened two years ago on the 6th Liniya, the Art Gorod Gallery is a tiny treasure that is not nearly as well known as it deserves. It has recently expanded, opening a new, larger exhibition space on Bolshoi Prospect while turning the original gallery into an arts and crafts store. Art Gorod's latest exhibition, entitled "The City Through Artists' Eyes," is an excellent introduction to the gallery, as well as an eye-opening examination of St. |
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BEIJING - U.S. President George W. Bush praised China on Thursday for its "strong support" for the war on terrorism as he arrived for talks with President Jiang Zemin that officials in both governments hoped would lead to a long-sought deal limiting Chinese sales of weapons technology to countries hostile to the United States. |
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Afghan Famine Feared BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A food crisis in northern Afghanistan is reaching alarming proportions, and increasing numbers of children are suffering from severe malnutrition, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said Thursday. |
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LONDON - Late goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy and Patrick Kluivert save both Manchester United and Barcelona from embarrassment in the Champions League on Wednesday, as the two giants snatched 1-1 draws in the second group phase of the Champions League Van Nistelrooy converted a penalty deep into injury time to give United a heart-stopping 1-1 draw at Nantes that kept it in first place in Group A, ahead on goal difference of defending champion Bayern Munich, which drew 0-0 away to Boavista. |
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Venus Rises DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Top-seeded Venus Williams rolled past Anna Kou r ni ko va 6-2, 7-6 Wed nes day and advanc ed to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Women's Open. |
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