IN BRIEF

Published: September 12, 2012 (Issue # 1726)

American Stabs Russian

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — An American who inflicted a knife wound on a Russian in the city’s metro last week was determined to have been the victim in the case after local police opened a criminal investigation into the incident, Fontanka.ru news website reported last week.

The incident took place Thursday night at Vladimirskaya metro station.

The conflict between a 49-year-old American man from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and a drunk 25-year-old Russian reportedly began in front of the entrance to the station, continued inside the metro entrance and escalated into a physical fight on the platform.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the Russian man with a knife wound to his forearm and the American with bruises and a dislocated shoulder. Both men were hospitalized, though the American was discharged the next day.

The U.S. citizen had reportedly already been in St. Petersburg for four weeks, having come to the city to make a documentary film about St. Petersburg.

The Russian man said in an interview with Fontanka.ru that he had been on his way home from a wedding party and was drunk, and could not remember the cause of the fight.

City Hall Seeks Puppets

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city’s Culture Committee has allocated two million rubles ($63,000) for the staging of a Petersburg puppet show for adults to be performed in New York City with the aim of developing cultural connections between St. Petersburg and New York. A tender for a contractor was published on the committee’s website, Fontanka.ru news website reported.

The main condition for participants is that the performance should be recognized by international and Russian theater society. The show should have won no fewer than two awards. The play is due to be performed on a specially equipped theater ground in the center of New York with a capacity of no fewer than 200 seats.