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As widely expected, the State Duma on Thursday easily passed in a final third reading the Kremlin-backed bill replacing healthcare and transportation benefits for socially vulnerable groups with cash payments. It took deputies less than 30 minutes to approve the bill by a vote of 309-118 with no abstentions and to veto a proposal from a Communist deputy to revisit the benefits issue in November. The deputy, Vladimir Grishukov, complained that he and the other lawmakers had not been given enough time to familiarize themselves with the bill before the vote. A total of 91 deputies supported his proposal, while a minimum of 226 were needed to put the issue on the Duma's fall agenda. |
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 STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Unlike the beautiful but tragic heroine of the hit Russian movie "Interdevochka" ("International Girl"), Russian women in Sweden today say they have found a better life - despite occasional pangs of homesickness for the life they left behind in Russia. |
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A working group to provide security for foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg has been set up by the Russian Union of Tourism Industry or RTS, the city police, City Hall's external affairs committee and a range local tourist companies, the police said Thursday. The group aims for closer cooperation between tourist companies, hotel businesses and the police to prevent crimes being committed against foreign visitors in St. |
All photos from issue.
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With the government set to enact a new social services law in which the benefits or privileges - such as free public transport - assigned to certain needy groups, like pensioners, will be replaced by monetary payments or compensation Irina Titova asked the people of St. |
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In an effort to stem losses of holiday bookings by Russians to Cyprus of up to 25 percent after visa-free travel was abolished this year, Cypriot authorities voiced a plan this week to keep visas free of charge until the end of 2004 and possibly throughout 2005. |
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A Moscow man is in police custody on suspicion of killing and eating his landlady's dog. Police arrested Maxim Kolov, 21, on July 9 after Nina Zotova reported that her tenant had killed her dog Tuzik, a Husky-Collie half-breed. Police spokeswoman Yelena Zasimova said that on July 8 Kolov came to visit Zotova, 66, at her apartment in northeast Moscow. |
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The Russian Foreign Ministry has denounced the erecting of a memorial in Estonia to local residents that fought against the Soviet Army in World War II as part of a Nazi SS division, Interfax reported Wednesday quoting government officials. |
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Santa in Tax Dodge VOLOGDA (SPT) - Ded Moroz, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, has been charged with tax violations, Interfax reported Tuesday quoting the police of Vologodskaya Oblast. A former manager of the Ded Moroz Estate, located in Vologodsdaya Oblast, allegedly collected 1.1 million rubles ($38,000) of taxes from employees of the company from March 1, 2002 until January 1, 2004, but paid to the federal budget only 113,500 rubles ($3. |
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 MOSCOW - Yukos shares rallied more than 10 percent on Thursday to 140 rubles due to a decision by bailiffs to let the oil major use its bank accounts for funding operations, bringing gains since a wave of panic selling in late July to 77 percent. Analysts said the bailiffs' decision was positive for Yukos' operations but also contained a negative factor as it would make it hard for the company to file for bankruptcy. |
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MOSCOW - The government will sell its 7.59 percent stake in Lukoil for a minimum of $1.26 billion, the Federal Property Agency said Wednesday. U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips is widely seen as the favorite bidder. |
 The city will receive 2 million square meters in new housing this year, but experts believe that is not enough to stabilize prices. "We're close to crossing the 2 million square meters mark this year. Even if we reach 1.95 million, that should be enough," the city's vice-governor Alexander Vakhmistrov said at a news conference Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW - Concerned about the growing number of terrorist attacks and the vulnerability of transportation, the Transportation Ministry said Tuesday it will draft a security law by year's end that will make all transportation sectors better prepared. |
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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or EBRD loaned Russia $161 million for the economic development of St. Petersburg, the bank said in a press release Wednesday. The money, loaned for 17 years, will go to finance the city's economic development projects, and the government's co-financing part in the project will amount to $78. |
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Nukes Cut Output ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Russia's 10 nuclear power plants cut output 3 percent in the first seven months of the year. The cut was due to the reconstruction work that is being carried out on generators near St. |
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Economists have identified a strong, negative empirical link between long-term economic growth and the share of the economy that originates in the natural resources sector. Since World War II, not a single natural resource dependent economy has managed to sustain respectable growth over several decades in average real GDP per capita. |
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This fall St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly will be overloaded with work after the State Duma passes the Kremlin-backed bill replacing healthcare and transportation benefits for socially vulnerable groups with non-indexed cash payments this week. |
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 The Mariinsky Theater wraps up its 211th season Tuesday, with a performance of Kenneth McMillan's "Manon". Over the past nine months the company's artistic goals were rather tied to financial challenges. The Mariinsky has been not only putting on new shows, but also rebuilding the sets for the thirty-something productions which were destroyed in a huge fire at one of the theater's warehouses. |
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Lukashenko's Great Eggs of Wisdom Lukashenko’s Great Eggs of Wisdom Ever since Viktor Chernomyrdin left the Moscow spotlight, following Russian politics just hasn’t been as much linguistic fun: President Vladimir Putin’s occasionally salty expressions just can’t match the glory of Chernomyrdin’s malapropisms. |
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For many Americans, the name - The Meatgrinder - may conjure up visions of some cowboy-style eatery in the badlands of Texas, where your 36 ounce T-bone steak is free if you can eat it in one sitting. Likewise for the obligatory 42 ounces of moonshine served with every meal. In a Russian context, the name seems a little less grotesque. This Meatgrinder is hip, with a modern feel and a trendy atmosphere. Billed as a novelty, the new café on Malaya Morskaya is a recycled, perhaps revamped version of what's already been done in Moscow by the Russian chain Yelki Palki. Yelki Palki, located just adjacent to Pushkin Square on Tverskaya Street, Moscow's main thoroughfare, is done in the style of Mongolian barbecue and features the same giant, flat, round grill that The Meatgrinder has here. |
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 An Erotic Museum in the middle of St. Petersburg? The metal plaque with the admittedly artistic, yet nonetheless raunchy logo of a 19th century professor-type and three naked ladies inter-linking their limbs at splendid angles, certainly causes a double-take as one strolls along Furshtatskaya Ulitsa. |
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TORONTO, Canada - Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova had little difficulty in her first match at the $1.3 million Montreal Cup on Wednesday, downing Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico 6-1 6-4. However, fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva and eight-seeded compatriot Nadia Petrova were second-round upset victims on the third full day of competition at the event. The 17-year-old Sharapova, the first Russian player to win Wimbledon, was challenged briefly in the second set but was able to quickly recover and put the match away with her dominating backhand and solid groundstrokes. "She definitely picked up her game in the second set," the sixth-seeded Sharapova said. |
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 In the world of rugby union, Georgia dominates the CIS and Krasnoyarsk is the capital of Russia. This balance of power may not last forever, however, if the Moscow rugby establishment has its way. |
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