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 MOSCOW - Seeing Russia for its trees, Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen and a contingent of forestry-industry executives arrived Thursday for a three-day visit whose highlight will be the first Russian-Finnish timber conference. Greenpeace activists, however, greeted Lipponen's arrival with protests in front of the Finnish Embassy. The environmental group fears Russia will lobby on behalf of timber companies rather than follow through on a $2. |
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 "I will never forget such an unusual Olympics," said Anton Sikharulidze, who - together with partner Yelena Berezhnaya - shared the gold medal for pairs figure skating with Canadians David Pelletier and Jamie Sale at the just-completed Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW - A group of nationalist politicians, military officials and Cossack leaders have formed a new party that calls for a better deal for ethnic Russians and explicitly blames Jews for stealing the country's wealth. The People's Patriotic Party of Russia was created at a meeting of 187 delegates from 70 regions held Saturday in the Moscow region town of Moskovsky. |
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Vice Governor Charged ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Vice Governor Anatoly Kagan, who chairs the City Hall Health Committee, was charged with misuse of budgetary funds and criminal negligence on Thursday, Interfax reported, citing sources in Governor Vla di mir Yakovlev's administration. |
 The Leningrad Oblast Legislative Assembly on Tuesday elected Alfred Kokh, the controversial former head of the State Property Committee and the former head of the Gazprom-Media holding, to serve as its representative in the Federation Council. Kokh's candidature was offered by a group of 17 lawmakers, and was approved by 29 of the body's 48 deputies. |
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U.S.-funded radio broadcasts in Chechen, which are due to begin this week, appeared to be in doubt on Tuesday as the State Department said it was discussing their future with Congress. |
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A&F Sells Out MOSCOW (MT) - The Argumenty i Fakty weekly became the last major Russian newspaper owned by its journalists to sell out to an outside investor - its bank, Promsvyazbank - Izvestia reported Thursday. Citing Nikolai Zyatkov, the newspaper's general director who also became editor in January, the report said the first stake was sold to the bank in November. |
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 Although most of the projects are still in their early planning or development stages, a movement is afoot to relocate some of the city's old industrial dinosaurs out of the city center and convert the land and buildings they occupy to commercial and business usage. |
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MOSCOW - Cyprus-registered Norex Petroleum on Tuesday filed a suit in a U.S. court, charging Tyumen Oil Co. and its owners with violence and racketeering in a takeover of a Siberian oil producer. |
 MOSCOW - If by no other measure, the government's reform effort over the last two years can be called a success for bringing 400,000 new small and medium-sized enterprises above the radar, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday. "The shadow economy has started to shrink and is becoming more legal," Kudrin told an American Chamber of Commerce conference attended by leading economists and business figures. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin asked the government Wednesday to prepare legislation that would simplify the taxation process for small businesses, less than two months after it went back on its word to support that sector of the economy. |
 As the battle involving the Disegni clothing chain winds up, General Director Harald Jonassen is getting back down to business. The Disegni warehouse, stores and offices that were temporarily closed during a dispute last July have reopened, and new spring clothing is about to go on sale. |
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MOSCOW - Auto-industry representatives have thrown a hitch into WTO talks, arguing Russia should only enter the trade body if it can install protectionist import duties of at least 30 percent on foreign cars. |
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TRY to solve this puzzle: two world leaders are behaving like political twins. Both have chosen security and order as their priorities and have used war to consolidate society. Both prefer to avoid coalition-building and are fascinated by military might. |
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"When you believe that the judging is biased, you must perform in such a way that your victory is absolutely incontestable." Russia's great figure skating coach Tatyana Tarasova made this observation when asked about the scandals at the Olympics in Salt Lake City. |
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THE country's leaders are taking great pains to improve the political-party system. Their approach is that of an animal breeder who focuses on improving the breed, or more precisely on making it larger. Current legislation effectively makes small parties illegal. |
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AFTER the scandals at the Olympics peaked Thursday with the disqualification of the women's 4x5K relay team, President Vladimir Putin weighed in with support for the country's athletes and criticism of the judging. |
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 St. Petersburg's balletophiles are eagerly anticipating a 10-day visual spectacular, as the Mariinsky Theater's Second International Ballet Festival opens next week, determing to build upon the impressive success enjoyed by last year's debut. The festival runs from March 9 through March 18. The festival - which came into being thanks to the efforts of indefatigable maestro and Mariinsky Artistic Director Valery Gergiev - strives, as Gergiev puts it, "to agitate souls. |
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 The Imperial Russian Ballet was created eight years ago by Gediminas Taranda especially to participate in jubilee celebrations honoring Maya Plisetskaya. |
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Deadushki, the popular local electronic band, is putting together something called Industry of Sound, a festival of independent experimental music that will take place at Red Club on March 7. The all-night event will include Deadushki, Theodor Bastard, Zhelezny Klyk, Kokteil Bromtona, Dubsinth and Finland's Cleaning Women. |
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This week's insightful glance at the world of St. Petersburg dining was supposed to be written by our Canadian deputy editor, but he was so overcome after his great nation won some sort of ice-hockey something (he wasn't very articulate), that he cried off like a big baby, leaving muggins here to pick up the pieces. |
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U.S. Admits Deaths WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 15,000 cancer deaths in the United States were probably caused by radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear-weapons tests worldwide, according to portions of a government study made public by USA Today. |
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Olympics Rumble On SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Olympic Committee head Kim Un-yong resigned on Thursday over a speed-skating controversy at the Winter Olympics, in which a Korean skater was disqualified from a gold medal, YTN television news reported. |
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