IN BRIEF

Published: February 27, 2013 (Issue # 1748)

Payments Flak

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — President Vladimir Putin has strongly criticized the high increase in the cost of communal services in a number of the country’s regions and demanded that the Russian Regional Development Ministry provide a clear explanation of such growth, news website Fontanka.ru reported.

“In some districts of St. Petersburg communal payments have risen by 40 percent. Please, explain to people why in November and December they had to pay one sum of money and then in January and February they had such a leap in payments.

This has happened in some districts of St. Petersburg. In Murmansk, as you say, those payments increased by more than 200 percent in some districts. Have you lost your mind?” Putin said at a meeting on the issues of housing maintenance and utilities when speaking to Head of the Regional Development Ministry Igor Slyunyayev.

Deadly Flu Outbreak

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — At least four people have died from complications of flu in St. Petersburg this season, Interfax reported last week, with reference to a source in medical circles.

Three lethal cases were registered in Botkin Hospital and one more case in Hospital No. 26.

However, no official information on the matter has been released yet, Interfax reported.

Bride Snatched

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — About 300 members of Petersburg’s Azerbaijani diaspora have held a meeting in the city in connection with an incident that took place Feb. 19, when a dispute over the snatching of a bride resulted in a large-scale brawl in the south of the city, Interfax reported.

The meeting was attended by community leaders, who had traveled to St. Petersburg from Azerbaijan, and the parents of both families.

The Consul General of Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg, Gudsi Osmanov, described the incident as intolerable. He called upon the city’s Azerbaijani population to live in accordance with the legislation of their host country. “Otherwise, you may set the local population not only against individual people but also against the whole Azerbaijani community,” Interfax reported Osmanov as saying.

Representatives of the two parties shook hands and promised to resolve their problems by legal means in future.

The brawl, which involved more than 20 people, took place Feb. 19 near the Chistiye Prudy cafe on Ul. Dmitrova.

As a result of the conflict four people were hospitalized with different injuries. A knife, a baseball bat and two firearms were found at the site of the incident.

Police first detained 15 suspected participants and later 13 more. Three people have been arrested. The prosecution has opened a criminal case to investigate charges of attempted murder.