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 Both Svetlana Oskina and her Swedish foster father, Kjell Gerdin, are happy people - their dreams are at last coming true. By the time she was 12 years old, after six years of begging on the street, sniffing glue and living in a manhole, Oskina, who is now 19, had two dreams - to have a father, who would protect her from the hardships of her street life, and to study. |
All photos from issue.
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Wednesday marked the fourth anniversary of the assassination of State Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova, who was gunned down in the stairwell of her apartment building in St. Petersburg. The day of mourning brought tributes from political luminaries and ordinary citizens alike. Relatives and friends of Starovoitova gathered at noon to attend a memorial service at the Alexander Nevsky monastery, where the murdered deputy is buried. A number of political figures were present, including Irina Khakamada, the vice speaker of the State Duma and co-leader of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party, and Yevgeny Makarov, who represented Northwest Region Presidential Representative Viktor Cherkesov. |
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 While the easing of a request from the government has brought some sighs of relief, the shortage of hotel rooms that St. Petersburg experiences every year during the peak of the tourism season will be exacerbated by the city's 300th-anniversary celebrations in May and June. |
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MOSCOW - After a four-month trial, the Moscow City Court on Wednesday convicted five young men of participating in a skinhead rampage in Moscow's Tsaritsyno Market last year that killed three people and injured more than 30. Student Sergei Volkov, 20, was found guilty of organizing the Oct. |
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MOSCOW - After conducting its own probe into the handling of last month's hostage crisis, the Union of Right Forces party (SPS) blamed the death of 128 siege victims on officials in charge of organizing the rescue effort, the party's leadership said at an extraordinary meeting Tuesday evening. |
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MOSCOW - In an unusual display of solidarity, the country's media petitioned President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to veto restrictive amendments to the media law and promised to swiftly develop an effective code of behavior during emergencies. Putin has until next Wednesday to sign or veto the bill, which parliament adopted shortly after last month's hostage crisis in Moscow. |
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MOSCOW - The cabinet on Thursday approved a near-term blueprint for boosting the stock market by increasing transparency, eliminating bureaucracy and heightening public awareness. Igor Kostikov, chairperson of the stock market's main regulator, the Federal Securities Commission, which drew up the plan, said that it is necessary that the stock market should support the country's development in the long run. |
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MOSCOW - The State Duma on Wednesday voted to postpone until Dec. 18 the crucial second reading of a package of bills that would allow for a controversial energy-sector restructuring. |
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Ilim Pulp Enterprise announced major restructuring plans at a press conference on Tuesday. The plans involve a share swap unifying shares in its subsidiaries as shares in the head corporation. Ilim Pulp Enterprise, one of the ten largest pulp producers in the world, manufactures 61 percent of the pulp produced in Russia and 77 percent of Russian cardboard. The company's total turnover in 2002 is expected to be $1 billion and it employs a workforce of around 50,000. At present, the corporation comprises Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill, Bratsk Mill, Ust-Ilimsk Forest Integrated Industrial Plant, St. Petersburg Cardboard Printing Integrated Plant and 42 lumber companies. |
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 MOSCOW - Drivers in St. Petersburg and Moscow will have to pay considerably more than expected for compulsory third-party car insurance, according to the Finance Ministry. |
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MOSCOW - With fewer bills to pay, members of the middle class have plenty to spend on clothes, appliances and audio-video equipment, among other things, driving up the consumer-goods market in the process, analysts say. Utility and housing costs are lower compared to Western countries, allowing members of St. |
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Having catered to corporate clients for years, local banks are now turning to private customers in search of fresh pastures, with three commercial banks announcing ambitions plans to expand this sector of their business in the last few weeks alone. |
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MOSCOW - The Krasnoyarsk region has slashed household electricity bills by 15 percent in what it said was an attempt to ease the burden of utility bills, once subsidies to consumers are all but phased out next year. The cut, which fulfills a campaign promise made by new Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Khloponin, will cost regional power supplier Krasnoyarskenergo about 150 million rubles ($4. |
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NATO adapted well after the end of the Cold War. An organization that had been focused on collective defense found fresh things to do: spreading security and stability to new members and partners in Central Europe, applying force - against Bosnian Serbs and then Serbia proper - to impose peace in Bosnia and Kosovo, and then peacekeeping in the Balkans. |
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LAST week, the Federation Council approved amendments to Russia's laws on terrorism and the mass media that could lead to significant restrictions on freedom of speech. |
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 Although it is a relatively new addition to the local music scene, Iva Nova has a familiar sound - and look - as it formed around a nucleus of three former members of all-female folk-punk sextet Babslei. The trio quit the group in May, for "artistic reasons." Babslei's remaining three members - plus two additions - have continued performing under the old moniker. "The style is the same - you could say there are two similar bands now," says Iva Nova's drummer, Katya Fyodorova, who founded Babslei in 1997. |
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 "Experimental classical music for intellectuals" is how St. Petersburg composer Alexander Radvilovich describes Zvukovyye Puti ("Sound Ways"), the festival that he has run for 13 years. |
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At the height of a concert onslaught, this week is as full of entertainment as the last two, if of more uneven quality. It is also notable for many postponements, cancellations and sudden additions. This weekend's schedules at several clubs have been confused by Moscow folk-rock singer Inna Zhelannaya, who postponed her local club concerts. |
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Standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the entrance and staring at the simple sign, lettered in a traditional script, I found myself wondering how I had managed to end up in this situation again. |
 Since it was founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1898, Moscow's Khudozhestvenny Theater, or MKhAT, has visited St. Petersburg more than 50 times, with the first tour taking place in 1901. The theater last came to the city in 1993, when Oleg Yefremov was its artistic director - but it was already a different MKhAT from the original. |
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The University Center - also known by the strange moniker of the Center of Nourishment, Culture and Business Cooperation - is familiar to State University students as a student dining hall, a stolovaya in the best Soviet tradition. |
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She wanted to be a singer since she was five years old, and the childhood dream came true for Zemfira Ramazanova - better known simply as Zemfira - who plays the Ice Palace on Sunday. Success was no surprise for Zemfira, who was always aware of her potential, although, when she left school, she had to force her autograph on her classmates. "Take it now - or it will soon be too late," she warned. She wasn't joking. Since Zemfira made her debut, with her eponymous 1998 album, she has consistently been at the top of the Russian singles charts, and her three albums to date have become permanent best sellers in record shops - not to mention huge benefits for CD pirates. |
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 Since October, an announcement in neat red lettering has hung in the foyer of the Alexandriinsky Theater. "Dear spectators, we draw your attention to the fact that this production of 'Revizor' is based on the staging of V. |
 In the novel "The Garden of Forking Paths," by Argentinean author Jorges Luis Borges, a Chinese governor named Tsui Pen turns down the throne in order to write a book and create a labyrinth. After Tsui's death, his papers were indecipherable, due to their incoherent and self-contradictory nature, and the labyrinth remained undiscovered. |
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Years ago, Fazil Iskander wrote a story called "Dumayushchy o Rossii i Amerikanets" ("A Thinker About Russia and an American"). Not just a brilliant treatise on Russia in the early years after the Soviet Union, it is also a classic example of the failure of intercultural communication. |
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MOSCOW - Lokomotiv Moscow edged city rival CSKA 1-0 in a one-time "golden game" on Thursday to clinch the first Russian league title in the club's 67-year history. Lokomotiv captain Dmitry Loskov beat Russian international goalkeeper Ruslan Nigmatullin with a low shot from the edge of the box after five minutes to settle an ill-tempered Moscow derby. |
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LONDON - The Netherlands handed Germany a rare home defeat when a performance full of counter-attacking flair earned them a 3-1 victory in Gelsenkirchen. |
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Vaughan Offers Hope ADELAIDE (Reuters) - Michael Vaughan scored his first test hundred against Australia as England's cricketers finally enjoyed some luck on their troubled Ashes tour on Thursday. Vaughan survived a series of let-offs to make 177 on Thursday as England piled on 295 for four on the opening day of the second test at the Adelaide Oval. |
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