|
|
|
 MOSCOW - Increasing the pressure on his Belarussian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin went for the jackpot Wednesday and unexpectedly proposed a de facto absorption of the economically weaker country as his favored option for unifying the two Slavic neighbors. Halfway through Kremlin talks billed as an effort to address the cooled relationship between Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, the two leaders emerged before the press and Putin outlined a schedule for reunification. |
|
 As Yelena Lozbinova leaves the playground where a strange girl is walking her old dog, Epifan, the slim black Doberman pinscher gives her a heartbreaking look. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - What a difference a decade makes. It was 10 years ago Wednesday that Boris Yeltsin put his presidential pen to paper to create officially the controversial privatization voucher, a check representing a fraction of the country's estimated value that eventually would be distributed to every man, woman and child in the country. |
|
St. Petersburg governor Vladimir Yakovlev took advantage of an official visit to Finland late last week to reveal a family secret that not only explains much of his interest in St. |
|
MOSCOW - Hacking the hackers is a crime, according to an FSB officer who has charged the FBI with using illegal methods to snare two young Russians who were arrested in the United States. Igor Tkach, an officer in the Chelyabinsk branch of the Federal Security Service, has opened a criminal case against FBI Special Agent Michael Schuler, Interfax reported Thursday, citing the FSB press service in Moscow. |
|
Having apprehended a man on Tuesday evening while in the process of robbing an office in Dom Zhurnalistov, St. Petersburg police announced Wednesday not only that he wasn't who they originally thought he was, but that he is also a suspect in a number of other robberies in the city. |
|
Putin Sports Chair MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to create a consultative council on sports that will be headed by two of the country's most prominent advertisements for physical fitness: former ice-hockey star and present head of the State Sports Committee Vyacheslav Fetisov and the president himself. |
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW - Igor Kostikov, head of the Federal Securities Commission, on Wednesday accused embattled pulp-and-paper conglomerate Ilim Pulp of inappropriate advances toward FSC officials, plotting a $1-million 'black' public relations campaign against the FSC and violating shareholder rights. |
|
MOSCOW - A Russian film has squeezed its way into the last spot of the country's top 10 box-office openings for 2002, which are dominated by Hollywood blockbusters. |
|
|
|
|
JUDGING by the recent spate of fiery proclamations from Moscow and Brussels, transit rights to and from the Kaliningrad exclave are the most contentious issue in Russia's relations with the West. Both the Russians and the Europeans are sticking to their guns, and the negotiations appear to be getting nowhere fast. |
|
NATO'S upcoming eastward expansion and its new partnership with Russia have prompted a major change in direction by one of Europe's largest and most unsettled nations, Ukraine. |
|
I LOVE trains. You leave Moscow in the evening, and the next morning you arrive in another city where you don't even have to worry about finding a hotel room. You've got an overnight ticket home in your pocket. In the compartments people drink tea and talk about life. There's no need for double-dealing here. |
|
|
|
 The exhibition of art by rock musicians that opened at the Manege this week is meant to add a new angle to music by Russian rock bands, but it actually falls short of being representative in any way. While it claims to be the first show in the city to recognize artwork by rock musicians, it falls down because there are simply not enough actual musicians on display. The Russian title promises works by rok muzykanty (rock musicians) and rok khudozhniki, a Perestroika-era neologism that denotes people who were involved in any art activities related to rock music - be it designing album covers, stage props, or even the musicians' make up. |
|
 "This is what I need for 'Onegin:' 2) average, though well-trained and reliable singers; 2) singers who, in addition, can act simply and well; 3) an understated production, but one that nonetheless strictly matches the era . |
|
Matt Bellamy of the British band Muse, which played Moscow and St. Petersburg in May, was so impressed with the experience that he felt obliged to share it with the readers of Britain's The Guardian newspaper. One of the finest parts of his article is devoted to a certain St. |
|
Happy accidents are usually those that you stumble upon yourself but, as I discovered this week, you can sometimes be directed into them by your arts editor (assuming, of course, that you have such a creature. |
 Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, the two French directors behind the Mariinsky Theater's latest production of Tchaikovsky's "Yevgeny Onegin," (see review, p. ii) staged their first opera (Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream") at the Lyons Opera in 1982 - the same year that the Mariinsky's last revamping of "Yevgeny Onegin" premiered. Since then, the pair has put on more than 60 operas across the world. |
|
 Aug. 8 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Valery Yermolayev, whose work, while well known to those in the world of St. Petersburg film, went largely unnoticed by many cinema-goers. |
 Forty kilometers along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland from St. Petersburg lies the town of Oranienbaum. Since the 18th century, Oranienbaum has been inextricably linked to the fate of the Romanov dynasty, which built three palaces built on 200 hectares of parkland around the town. The Grand Palace was the first. Work on it began in 1710, on the orders of the then-governor general of St. |
|
 St. Petersburg's world-famous "White Nights" may now be over (they last only for a short period a few days each side of the summer solstice), but midnight-sun worshippers will be pleased to know that they can still get a fix - by leaving the city. |
|
|
|
 MOSCOW - The Druzhba field in the north of Moscow wouldn't be at the top of anyone's list as a place to play baseball. Designed for rugby, the rocky grounds have no markings and only a sandy lump is identifiable as a pitcher's mound. But a group of 11- and 12-year-old boys has been playing the game here faithfully since the snow melted away in April. |
Temp: 0°C partly cloudy 
Issues Archive