IN BRIEF

Published: October 24, 2012 (Issue # 1732)

Hermitage Pickpockets

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The director of the city’s State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, has complained about pickpockets operating in the halls of the museum, stealing tourists’ purses, wallets and cell phones.

“The director of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Nikolai Burov, told me that they had caught pickpockets stealing tourists’ belongings in the cathedral. So, it looks as if those thieves have now come in our direction. We catch pickpockets, too, though,” said Piotrovsky, adding that for that purpose the museum’s security guards use recordings from the video cameras fixed in the Winter Palace, Interfax reported.

St. Petersburg Expands

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A bill on the expansion of St. Petersburg’s city borders passed Sept. 19 came into effect last week, Interfax reported.

The bill extends the city’s territory to include several settlements and residential areas that were previously part of the Leningrad Oblast.

As a result of the changes, the city now covers land in and around the village of Pesochnoye to the northwest of the city, as well as artificial land near Sestroretsk to the north of the Kronstadt flood barrier, the reclaimed land on the western edge of Vasilyevsky Island, and the village of Novogorelovo in the Lomonosovsky district to the southwest of the city.

Polish Visa Center

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Poland opened a visa center in St. Petersburg on Friday, Interfax reported.

The visa center will collect visa fees, check application forms and issue processed passports. Decisions on the issuing of visas will remain the exclusive right of the Polish Consulate General.