|
|
|
 When, in 1964, a Leningrad district court sentenced the future Nobel Prize laureate and unemployed poet Joseph Brodsky to five years of forced labor for "parasitism," the judge could not know that 40 years later that his decision would add half a page to the St. Petersburg Book of Records. It was the country's first and only criminal court trial of a future Nobel Prize winner, according to the recently published book. |
|
 New St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's friends in high places were on prominent display as she was officially inaugurated Wednesday in the city's Mariinsky Palace. |
|
The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to adopt a resolution on the future of Iraq. The 15-0 vote was a victory for the United States, but its impact was to some extent symbolic. Hours before the Security Council acted, Russia, France and Germany, all of which opposed the war on Iraq, agreed to back the measure. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast officials on Thursday blamed Moscow for problems foreigners are having getting visas and work permits. Speaking at a roundtable on visas and related matters for American Chamber of Commerce members, the officials said they did not expect any quick improvement. |
|
River Border Shifts ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Deputies of the Estonian parliament sent an inquiry to the Estonian Interior Ministry on problems with border markers on the Narvar river, Interfax reported Thursday. |
|
Anna Markova, former vice-governor of St. Petersburg and second-placed candidate in the recent gubernatorial elections, this week announced plans to create a political foundation. Although she declined to name any political or financial supporters for the future foundation on the grounds that negotiations are still being held, Markova said the organization, tentatively titled "New Right Policy," has already drawn much interest from a number of non-governmental organizations, financial groups and ordinary people. "Only 10 days have passed since the elections, and the idea is still rather raw, but what I can tell you right now is that the foundation's main purpose is to develop an efficient new policy leaning for support on active, responsible and conscious citizens," Markova said. |
|
 The world's Jews this week are celebrating Succoth - the Jewish Harvest Festival - which begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri. The dates change every year in the Gregorian calendar that is used throughout the world, but always fall in September or October. |
|
Raf Shakirov, former editor of newspaper Gazeta, was on Thursday appointed to head Moscow-based national daily Izvestia, Interfax reported. Last year Shakirov worked as editor of Kommersant before financial tycoon in exile Boris Berezovsky, a strong opponent of President Vladimir Putin, acquired a controlling stake in Kommersant's publishing house. |
|
|
|
 MOSCOW - Is Russia ready for a regime change? It had better be. A new Customs Code comes into force in just over two months that proponents say promises a dramatic increase in international trade volumes by improving the way Russia does business with the rest of the world. |
|
MOSCOW - The European Union and Russia agreed Thursday to move toward full integration of their respective electricity grids, an ambitious project both sides said could be completed by 2007. |
|
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Thursday hailed the growing role small businesses are playing in the economy, but called on the government to redouble its efforts to support the sector through less bureaucracy and taxes. Kasyanov, speaking to ministers during the weekly Cabinet meeting, said small businesses now account for 20 percent of gross domestic product, up from 14 percent just a year ago, but that bureaucracy remains "the most sensitive and painful issue" for the sector. |
|
Housing Solution ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Gosstroy chairman Nikolai Koshman announced at a briefing in St. Petersburg Thursday that the ministry will implement a program to renovate dilapidated housing in the city, Interfax reported. |
 CURONIAN SPIT, Lithuania/Kaliningrad - The golden dunes and towering forests of the Curonian Spit seem to exude a sense of natural majesty and calm. Yet this 99-kilometer wisp of wild and sandy land in the Baltic Sea shared by Lithuania and Kaliningrad has become ground zero in an increasingly contentious conflict pitting oilmen against ecologists and two increasingly divergent cultures against each other. |
|
MOSCOW - American food and agriculture giant Cargill plans to invest $200 million in expanding its business in Russia, according to Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev. |
|
Publisher Joint Venture MOSCOW (SPT) - The news and publishing houses Prof-Media and Independent Media will set up a joint venture for establishing or acquiring up to 20 professional magazines on the Russian market over the next five years, the press service of Prof-Media, which is a part of the Interros group, reported Thursday. |
|
|
|
|
United Russia's party list for the State Duma elections, announced at the party's congress on Sept. 20, provided analysts with plenty of food for thought. In addition to the two regional heavyweights, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev, included on the federal part of the list, 28 regional leaders figure on regional lists. |
|
Centrist and leftist factions in the State Duma seem to be determined to re-introduce so-called preliminary military training to Russian schools. Last Friday, the Duma voted 338 to 42 in a first reading to revive this compulsory Soviet-era training for students in their final year of school. |
|
While federal authorities pay at least lip service to the goal of Russia becoming integrated into European society, their colleagues in the regions do things that keep pushing Russia back into its past. This happened recently in the republic of Karelia republic, a region that includes thousands of square kilometers annexed from Finland as a result of the 1939 Winter War. |
|
|
|
 Although posters for "The Golden Cockerel" had already been printed, the Mariinsky Theater made a last minute change in its programme and opened its new season with a production of "Mazepa" on October 10. Artistic director Valery Gergiev hadn't been planning to attend the opening of the season, but flew from New York to conduct the opera. He wanted to show support for what this year has become a very meaningful event. |
|
 Griboyedov, the local underground club which made news late last month when it was raided by the drug squad, will celebrate its seventh anniversary with a concert and an all-night party this Saturday. |
|
This Wednesday saw the opening of a new club, something that has happened extremely rarely in the past few months. Called Corinth, it is a brainchild of local singer and author Julia Belomlinskaya, described in a preface to her recent explicit memoirs, "Bednaya Devushka" (Poor Girl), as a "cult figure of early-1980s St. |
|
Picture the scene: a corner table in a dimly-lit cafe, early evening. A middle-aged man in a trenchcoat, a little worse for wear, grasps the hands of a prim young lady opposite. |
 A 90-year-old Swiss artist brought philosophy and mysticism to the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum with an exhibition of his paintings this week. "Victor Ruzo: Life and Work", showing until Nov. 20, represents nearly 200 paintings from all periods of the artist's career. Entering the display you are surprised to see photographs of paintings, and begin to wonder whether you got the directions right. |
|
 When Russian studio Argus International picked up the Gold Medal in animation at the New York Film and Video Festival in 1999 for its pilot presentation of "Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (Shchelkunchik I Myshiny Korol), the future of the project looked bright indeed to producer Vladimir Repin. |
|
Frankie and Roy, the main characters in Ridley Scott's "Matchstick Men,'' are Los Angeles con men - Roy prefers the term con artist - whose temperamental differences only a screenwriter could devise. (The writers, in this case, are Nicholas Griffin and Ted Griffin, adapting Eric Garcia's novel. |
|
My all-time favorite encounter with Madeleine Albright was our landing on the carrier Constellation in 1996. She was ambassador to the United Nations and visiting San Diego - part cross-country speaking tour and part campaign to snag the job of secretary of state. |
|
A brown-eyed young woman brushes her long hair in front of a dressing table covered with hair pins and bottles of perfume. That's the image most people associate with Russian painter Zinaida Serebryakova, but the picture won't go on show at a retrospective of her work opening in Moscow next week. |
|
Zapravit salat: to dress a salad. The first time I stood in a Russian kitchen to make dinner, I had no trouble with the pots and pans, and gas range. |
|
|
|
|
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian police arrested five members of a militant group early Thursday in connection with a deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy, security officials said. Witnesses said a gunfight erupted during the raid. The five are members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group that consists largely of former Palestinian security officials and disgruntled members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, the security officials said. |
|
N.Y. Ferry Disaster NEW YORK (AP) - Police are investigating whether a Staten Island ferry pilot fell asleep during a routine trip across a windy New York Harbor before the mighty vessel slammed into a pier, killing 10 people and injuring at least 42 others, including three who lost limbs. |
|
LONDON - Former European champions Barcelona and Liverpool turned on the style in the UEFA Cup on Wednesday to ease into the second round with big wins over East European opposition. Barcelona, helped by a hat-trick from Brazilian forward Ronaldinho, two apiece from Luis Enrique and Javier Saviola and another goal from Thiago Motta, crushed Slovakia's Puchov 8-0 at the Nou Camp to go through 9-1 on aggregate. |
|
CANBERRA, Australia - Italy took a step closer to a cherished World Cup quarterfinal spot Wednesday, making Tonga's dream of advancing to the next round all the more difficult in the process. |
|
More Semen Found EAGLE, Colorado (AP) - A two-day preliminary hearing jammed full of revealing details about rape suspect Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers and his accuser ended last Wednesday with one more startling revelation - that the panties the woman wore to her rape exam had the semen of another man on them. |
Temp: 0°C partly cloudy 
Issues Archive