IN BRIEF

Published: July 11, 2012 (Issue # 1717)

Moms Get Older

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Demographic analysts have registered an increase in the average age among women giving birth to their first child, Interfax reported.

The average age of a woman giving birth for the first time in 1999 was 22 years old, while today the average age is 28. There are also more women now giving birth in the so-called “post-reproductive age” up to 49 years old, Alexander Rzhanenkov, head of the city’s Social Policy Committee, said Tuesday.

The birth rate in the city is currently 1.3 times higher than in 1999. Last year, at least 56,900 children were born in St. Petersburg. Ten percent of babies born last year in the city were born to families of foreign migrant workers, accounting for 5,100 children.

Rzhanenkov said experts also registered worse conditions of health in every new generation compared to the previous one.

“The demographic situation is characterized by an increase in the mother’s age, a high birth rate in non-officially registered families, growth of children in migrant families and high death rate of the working-age male population,” Rzhanenkov was cited as saying by Interfax.

American Addition

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — American Ballet Theater star Marcelo Gomes is to become a guest principal dancer at the city’s Mikhailovsky Theater, the theater announced this week.

Gomes will perform the main role in classical ballets as well as dance in new productions.

The dancer will make his debut on the Mikhailovsky’s stage on the first day of the new season on Sept. 14, when Gomes and Polina Semyonova will dance the main parts in “Giselle.”

“For me, being a native of Brazil who was trained in Paris and the United States, it’s a tremendous honor to be a part of a theater like the Mikhailovsky, which preserves and develops the Russian classical ballet tradition so excellently,” Gomes said.

Anti-WTO Picket

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Activists opposing Russia’s entry into the WTO picketed the building of the city’s Constitutional Court on Monday.

“Stop WTO!” and “We’re against WTO,” were some of the slogans on placards displayed.

The court on Monday announced that the protocol on Russia’s entry into the organization had been signed without violating the country’s laws.

“The protocol was signed and approved in a way that doesn’t contradict the state’s constitutional basis,” the ruling said.

State Duma deputies had earlier protested that the protocol did not correspond to the Russian constitution.

The protocol on Russia’s entry into the WTO was signed on Dec. 16, 2011. According to the federal law on international agreements, the document must be ratified. Under the conditions of entry into the WTO, the procedure must be completed by July 23 this year, after which Russia will become a member of the organization.