IN BRIEF

Published: July 18, 2012 (Issue # 1718)

Manilova Gets New Post

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Former St. Petersburg deputy governor Alla Manilova was appointed deputy culture minister last week, Interfax reported.

Manilova left her position in St. Petersburg in 2011.

Pulkovo Makes Top 100

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The new Pulkovo Airport terminal project made the list of the world’s top 100 best innovation projects meant to improve city infrastructure, according to the press service of Northern Capital Gateway, the consortium responsible for managing the airport.

The list of projects was published by KPMG audit and tax services company, in its Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition report.

The projects were selected by independent boards of field experts from five different regions of the world including Asia and the Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Sergei Emdin, general director of Northern Capital Gateway, said Pulkovo’s new terminal was the only Russian project to make the list.

“This world recognition makes us sure that we have chosen the right direction for the development of the airport. At the end of 2013 passengers at the airport will be able to see the renovated airport, which will meet the highest service standards,” Emdin said.

The Pulkovo reconstruction project was included on the list under the category of global connections. Among the other nominees in the same group were the Medina airport in Saudi Arabia, the airport in the Canadian city of Calgary and the tunnel project between Scandinavia and Central Europe.

City Short on Blood

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — St. Petersburg needs a program to encourage people to donate blood, the head doctor of the city’s Blood Transfusion Center, Vladimir Krasnyakov, said Monday.

“The city needs financing for social advertising. Today there are 15 donors in St. Petersburg for every 1,000 people. In Europe there are 50 donors for as many people and in the U.S. — 60 donors,” Krasnyakov said.

Krasnyakov said that in order to solve the problem of the lack of donor blood in the city, St. Petersburg would need at least twice as many donors as it has now, Interfax reported.

“If a person gets used to donating blood, a situation in which the person experiences emergency blood loss is not as dangerous for them,” Krasnyakov said.

Vladimir Zholobov, deputy head of St. Petersburg’s Health Committee, said that in the summer, the problem of a lack of donor blood is usually more pressing, since many donors go on vacation while operations continue to be performed in the city.

In Russia, people who donate through blood drives at work get an extra day of vacation and a day off on the day when they give blood, as well as financial compensation for a meal, Zholobov said.

Zholobov said they are currently considering replacing the financial compensation with an actual meal.