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 She's well-versed in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. She's charming, loves Dostoevsky, orchids and dogs, and knows how to keep state secrets. Oh, and she's the most beautiful woman in the world. Oksana Fyodorova, 24, was crowned Miss Universe at a glitzy ceremony in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Wednesday, sweeping away 74 other contestants to become the first Russian to win the title. |
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Ending an almost two-year struggle to chose a date for elections to the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly the Chamber Assembly on Wednesday passed an amendment to the City Charter setting out Dec. |
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MOSCOW - The European Union announced Wednesday that it would finally recognize Russia as a market economy, a key victory for President Vladimir Putin in his drive to bring the country into the WTO and the global economy. But Putin failed to convince European officials at a EU-Russia summit to make concessions over a bitter dispute surrounding Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave that will be sandwiched between EU member states when Poland and Lithuania join the union as early as 2004. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW - For months after President Vladimir Putin came to power, the most often asked question among journalists and pundits seemed to be: "Who is Putin?" Two years later, at least one of his traits is clear: Putin is a master of dry one-liners - a feature that experts say is typical for a career spy and a sure sign that the once bland-seeming newcomer has become used to being president. |
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The Rosbalt news agency has filed a lawsuit for libel against Alexander Afanasyev, the spokesperson for St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, and local television station Channel 5, representatives of Rosbalt said Thursday. |
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MOSCOW - Experts gathering on Thursday on the heels of three major international summits said the West's leading policy-making institutions must include Russia in a broad strategic framework if they want to successfully tackle the top global priority: terrorism. |
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MOSCOW - The Kremlin's bid to help steer India and Pakistan off the war path fizzled Friday as Delhi rejected President Vladimir Putin's offer to sit down to talks with the two nations' leaders next week. |
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 The Vena brewery, one of St. Petersburg's largest, doubled its production capacity by completing a $27-million investment project in just under a year, raising its production of Nevskoye and Tuborg brands to a total of 24 million liters per year. According to Barry Marshall, the general director of Vena, the work carried out by Danbrew, a subsidiary of Carlsberg Breweries, began in June 2001 with the building of new water-filtering, brewing, bottling and storage facilities. |
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MOSCOW - Tempers are flaring in the high-stakes brawl for global control of Russia's best-known brand of vodka. The government, which recently renationalized the Stolichnaya brand, is now trying to prevent its production abroad. |
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MOSCOW - Last week's sale of an oil company was an overlooked epilogue to Russia's history of privatization. The process of transferring Eastern Oil Co., or VNK, from state to private hands was a tortured one that began in 1995 and only ended last Friday, when oil major Yukos acquired the last government stake of 37 percent. |
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The city administration is planning to register and sell the rights to the use of an official city trademark for the coming St. Petersburg 300th-anniversary. |
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MOSCOW - The World Bank has weighed in on the widening debate over how fast the government can realistically expect the economy to grow over the next several years, warning that, without a significant increase in capital investment, the rate will linger in the 1-2 percent range. |
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Chain Store Expansion ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Agrotorg, which operates the Pyatyorochka supermarket chain, has opened its 100th store, on Bogatyrsky Prospect, Sergey Lepkovich, the director of the chain, said at a press conference held Thursday. |
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THESE are heady days for Russia's relations with the West. The arms-reduction agreement with the United States, and today's decisions on a new relationship with NATO have set the seal on Russia's emerging role as a participant in our collective security. |
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WASHINGTON - There are crates in Russia full of fences, surveillance cameras, motion sensors and other security tools, all purchased by the U.S. government as a gift to the Russian people - and lying unused. |
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 For the city's classical-music fans and opera and ballet lovers, June brings a feast of entertainment, as the Mariinsky Theater launches the tenth running of its internationally renowned festival, "Stars of the White Nights." This year's festival is noticeably less glittering with international luminaries than last year's. |
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The new location for the hip, grungy student bar Cynic has finally been announced. According to Cynic's owner, Vladimir Postnichenko, the popular, yet presently rather neglected, hangout will move to 4 Pereulok Antonenko, just off St. |
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One of the less pleasing aspects of living out in the wastes of what is known as Vasilievsky Island is the amount of time that I have to spend traveling to work every day. This usually means that, on waking up late, I have no time to prepare any food to take with me for lunch and, as a result, have often been reduced to going to MacDonald's or Pizza Hut. |
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Mikhail Bulgakov's epic novel "The Master and Margarita" is one of the best-loved - and most mysterious - works of 20th-century Russian literature. |
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Notwithstanding histories by Stephen Ambrose and movies such as "Saving Private Ryan," the popularized Western notion that America's military played the predominant role in defeating Nazi Germany is incorrect. The Soviet Union's Red Army accomplished that awesome feat. Yet the spoils of that victory - increased political legitimacy at home and the opportunity to enhance Soviet security through political control over the newly "liberated" states of Eastern Europe - were jeopardized as soon as the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Consequently, in August 1945 Joseph Stalin pleaded with Igor Kurchatov (director of the Soviet atomic bomb project) and others: "Comrades - a single demand of you. |
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 The seventh annual fashion-design competition "The Admiral's Needle" got off to a strong start this week, building on a tradition of introducing the public and the fashion industry to over 3,000 young designers from St. |
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From its former role as one of the most hotly debated events of the 20th century, the Russian Revolution has slipped to something of a historical curiosity at the beginning of the 21st. And not a nice curio either - more of a political Chernobyl; an event that teaches by negative example; a caution of what can happen when people tamper with the natural order of things in pursuit of noble-sounding goals. All of this is understandable. The terror of the French Revolution, after all, set France so far back that an attempt at democracy was replaced by emperors. But once the idea of political equality was let loose upon the land, it would not go away, and it was only a matter of time before better efforts came along, and not only France, but much of the world came to see democracy as a standard and eventually as a human right. |
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 As well as showcasing the established singers of the Mariinsky Theater, the "Stars of the White Nights" festival gives the theater's up-and-coming stars a chance to shine on the big stage. |
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JAMMU, India - As tensions mounted between India and Pakistan, two militants stormed an Indian police camp in Kashmir on Thursday, killing three officers and wounding several others before being trapped by security forces. Indian security forces said that the militants holed up in a camp building in the mountainous Doda region, exchanging fire with police until their capture. |
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Israel Raids Continue JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli troops seized three Palestinians in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday in the West Bank town of Hebron, the latest in a series of incursions intended to pre-empt Palestinian attacks, officials said. |
 PARIS - Second-seeded Marat Safin rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 second-round win over Olivier Rochus at the French Open on Thursday. The 193-centimeter Safin, who'd been bothered by a pinched nerve in his back, made a diving stab volley at match point and was covered with clay as he went to the net to shake hands with the 165-centimeter Rochus. |
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Youth Lag SHIMIZU, Japan (Reuters) - Teenage Russian striker Alexander Kerzhakov says he and his team mates are struggling to shake off jet-lag after arriving at their World Cup base. |
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