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 Governor Vladimir Yakovlev announced in an interview with TRK Peterburg television on Wednesday that he will not run for a third term in office in the 2004 gubernatorial elections. The announcement seems to signal the end of attempts by Yakovlev and his supporters over the past year to circumvent a City Charter article limiting the governor to two terms. |
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LONDON - Controversial powerbroker Boris Berezovsky emerged Wednesday from extradition hearings in London's Bow Street Magistrates Court wearing a satirical mask of President Vladimir Putin in defiance of the regime he claims is seeking to muzzle and even kill him for his opposition stance. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW - In a sharp rebuke to Russia, European lawmakers on Wednesday agreed that a war-crimes tribunal for Chechnya should be formed if Moscow fails to take a tougher stance on human-rights violations in the republic. On Thursday, Russia angrily denounced the suggestion as "politically harmful. |
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In a rare moment of unity, all but one of the deputies at the Legislative Assembly voted in favor of a resolution addressed to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov protesting a Finance Ministry decision to block the transfer of federal funds to city coffers. |
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A St. Petersburg police officer was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder on Saturday of four employees at an electronic-slot-machine parlor on Sredny Prospect on Vasilievsky Island. The Prosecutor's Office said that Konsantin Olenchikov, a police officer in the city's Central District who it would only say was in his mid twenties, was being held for the crime. |
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MOSCOW - Unable to find enough volunteers and conscripts to fill its ranks, the military is planning to recruit citizens from other former Soviet republics to serve in its all-volunteers units, the Defense Ministry said. |
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MOSCOW - Drug dealers will face tougher sentences of up to 20 years in prison, while addicts will be get more lenient treatment under Kremlin-drafted legislation aimed at tackling the country's soaring drug problem. "We have prepared a bill stipulating a prison term of 15 to 20 years for drug dealers," President Vladimir Putin said in the Central Russian city of Tambov on Wednesday. |
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Seleznyov To Leave MOSCOW (SPT) - State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said Thursday that he does not want to retain his post if he is re-elected to parliament in December elections, Interfax reported. |
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MOSCOW - With U.S.-led forces nearing the outskirts of Baghdad, the Kremlin is softening its staunch opposition to the war, in what analysts say is an indication that Moscow wants to mend frayed relations with Washington and, perhaps, win a spot for Russian companies in postwar Iraq. "For political and economic considerations, Russia is not interested in the defeat of the United States," President Vladimir Putin told reporters in the Central Russian city of Tambov on Wednesday. Putin did not elaborate, but he continued to toe the softer line Thursday, saying Russia will continue to cooperate with the United States, despite differences over Iraq. |
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 MOSCOW - Russia is not only losing its position in the world economy, it has already lost its position as the economic engine of the former Soviet Union, presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov said on Wednesday. |
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Local mobile-phone users are hoping to make some savings in the midst of a price war, as the country's No. 2 mobile operator, Vimpelcom, unveiled plans to sign up the first St. Petersburg customers to its Beeline services in mid-April. In response, the two GSM-standard competitors currently operating on the local market, Megafon and MTS, have announced special rates and extra services. Market analysts are predicting that Vimpelcom will struggle to capture a significant market as a result of its late arrival. The Vimpelcom network in St. Petersburg was given the final go-ahead by the State Communications Committee on Monday, and testing began on Tuesday, Vimpelcom Vice President Alexei Mishenko said at a press conference on Tuesday. |
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 MOSCOW - Lawmakers this month will sink their teeth into a Kremlin-backed plan to clean up an incestuous corner of the judicial system by breaking too-close ties between arbitration and appeals courts. |
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MOSCOW - The number of ministries and other federal bodies with similar powers would be slashed from 56 to 15 or 17 under a plan being drafted by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the ministry said Tuesday. A proposal to dissolve at least three governmental bodies has already been forwarded to the cabinet, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Mikhail Dmitriyev was quoted by news agencies as saying. |
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MOSCOW - A New York court has thrown out a $3-billion racketeering and corruption suit against metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska and his company Russian Aluminum, a RusAl lawyer said Monday. |
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IN his classic book "On War," Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz wrote: "War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty." I will, nonetheless, attempt to offer an assessment of the current military campaign in Iraq, using the 1991 Desert Storm operation as a point of comparison. |
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JUST as in English, there is a saying in Russian that a good host would give someone his last shirt. Lately I've felt like writing to the Kremlin and telling them my size, since the shirts it seems to be ready to give away are those of myself and the other 4. |
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 Like an aging radical with a glint in his eye, the Golden Mask festival probably never will settle down into complete respectability. It not only would be hard to imagine the Golden Mask without a few good controversies, it would be a downright shame. That is always almost half the fun. And yet, since it was founded nine years ago, the Golden Mask has grown up. It has become what Eduard Boyakov wanted when he signed on as general director in 1996 - a national forum, a time and space that brings together Russian theaters from all over the country on a regular basis. |
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 When an article in The Guardian called Menlo Park "very, very odd," the newspaper was not exaggerating. The London-based band uses theatrics such as hog roasts, cockroach races, fire-eating and trapeze art in its shows, while still managing to produce music. |
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This Saturday's Fuzz Awards concert will, at last, be headlined by Leningrad, which has been arguably Russia's most popular rock act of the last few years, in spite of - or perhaps because of - being banned in Moscow (by personal order of Mayor Yury Luzhkov), the Moscow Oblast and, now, Estonia for its often expletive-laden lyrics. |
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Tuesday evening was somewhat frenetic for me. In between finishing an article, having my newly purchased washing machine installed and meeting friends who were visiting from London and Irkutsk, respectively, I had to find time to eat, preferably at somewhere that I could subsequently review for this column. |
 The fourth running ot the Festival of New British film kicks off at Dom Kino on Wednesday. This year's festival includes 12 films, all of which will be shown at Dom Kino. The festival opens with a screening of Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters" (see interview, this page) at which several cast members are expected to be present, although the director himself cannot attend. The festival will also be held in Moscow, where it opens on Thursday, and a shorter version will be held in several other cities across Russia, including Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. |
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 An award-winning film that outraged the Vatican is set to open the fourth Festival of New British Film next week. The work in question is Peter Mullan's 2002 film "The Magdalene Sisters," which won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. |
 Certain articles that appear in these pages need disclaimers, and this is one of them, as it largely concerns Viktor Bogorad, whose cartoons appear in the pages of The St. Petersburg Times. Nevertheless, the exhibition of works by his cartoonists collective is proof, if it were needed, of the immense talent of local artists - not to mention of the strange mental processes that set cartoonists apart from the rest of us. |
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Exhibitions of works by Moscow artists are becoming increasingly common in St. Petersburg galleries. The past winter has seen Oleg Kulik, a scandalous Moscow artist who is no longer a wonder in the capital, at the private D-137 Gallery and "Moscow Art Manezh St. |
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Nepronitsayemoye litso: a poker face I don't know if it's the nature of capitalism in general, or American capitalism in particular, but card games, both honest and dishonest, are a great source of figurative expressions for dealings in business. Luckily for the card players and wheeler-dealers among us, Russian offers many of the same metaphors from the card table. |
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Lemieux Retiring? PITTSBURGH (AP) - Mario Lemieux set up Eric Meloche's game-winning goal with 0:10.1 left in possibly his final NHL game, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for two goals in the closing minutes to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Wednesday night. Lemieux has said for weeks he may not play again next season, especially with the Penguins locked into a multiyear rebuilding mode. |
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