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Tax Bill Puts Dent In Party’s
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MOSCOW — United Russia’s majority in the State Duma suffered a major blow to its image Wednesday, when the Federation Council voted down controversial tax hikes on car owners that were broadly criticized by auto owners, opposition parties and eventually the Kremlin. The about-face was one of the very few instances where the authorities have backed down on plans because of a public outcry, and it was the latest victory for well-organized drivers’ groups. The changes, intended to help plug a budget deficit next year, would have doubled the base rate of a transportation tax that is key to funding some regional budgets. It is also a major embarrassment for United Russia, which has a large enough legislative majority to change the Constitution unilaterally, and feeds perceptions that the party is following ... |
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| Retired actress Inessa Mamysheva (l) is embraced by a member of an international team of clowns, led by doctor and clown Patch Adams, at the Retired Actors’ and Artists’ House on the city’s Petrograd Side on Wednesday as part of a charity event. |
State Lays Claim to Geography Society
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s passion for geography was on full display Wednesday as he became head of the Russian Geographical Society’s board ... |
Constitutional Court Rules for Ban on Death Penalty
In a much-anticipated ruling, the Constitutional Court on Thursday introduced a permanent ban on capital punishment in Russia. The moratorium on the death penalty was due to expire on Jan. 1, 2010. While the procedure may seem nothing more than a technicality — Russia has signed Protocol Six of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of the death penalty — it has been surrounded by fierce debate. The death penalty was suspended in Russia in 1996, when the country became a member of the Council of Europe and signed Protocol Six. Since then, the Kremlin has periodically promised to ban the death penalty completely, but each time has stopped short of actually doing so. In 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled that capital punishment would not be administered until all of Russia’s ... |
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Russia Crashes Out of Soccer World Cup
MARIBOR, Slovenia — A first-half goal from Zlatko Dedic earned Slovenia a place at next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa, eliminating Russia on the away goals rule. Slovenia surprised Russia with its attacking game, giving the visitors little space ... |
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In Brief
Charity Presentation ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Swedish medical center Ekolsund is hosting a charity event this weekend in conjunction with The Petersburg Balls Fund. The occasion, scheduled for Saturday, will benefit two schoolchildren from Children’s ... |
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TV Campaign Against Gazprom Tower Mounts
The controversial Gazprom Tower found itself under harsh attack last week on Russia’s main state television, Channel One, for the third time in the past ... |
Hermitage Lawyer Dies in Custody
MOSCOW — A 37-year-old lawyer jailed amid a heated tax dispute between Hermitage Capital, once the largest investment fund in Russia, and the Interior ... |
Shooting of 'Bonebreaker' Sparks Violence in Moscow
MOSCOW — A simmering confrontation between far-right youths and anti-racist activists has erupted into Moscow’s streets after the fatal shooting of an ... |
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Speedy Entry to WTO Sought
 Russia remains committed to joining the World Trade Organization and wants to complete membership talks as quickly as possible, alone or with trade partners ... |
Face of Nevsky Changes As Rental Rates Decrease
St. Petersburg’s central thoroughfare looks set to cease being a street of boutiques, as mid-range clothing stores and restaurant chains replace luxury brands. At 47 Nevsky Prospekt, where an Escada store used to be located, a Dve Palochki sushi chain restaurant opened in October. Nevsky Prospekt wasn’t the company’s priority, but the favorable terms made it possible to open another outlet, said Yakov Pak, marketing director of Dve Palochki. According to him, rental rates are now 30 percent lower than before the crisis, and investment amounted ... |
Energy Minister Says RusHydro Will Manage Dam Alone
MOSCOW — RusHydro is taking full control of management to complete building the Boguchanskaya dam, and the hydropower firm will be able to raise up to $660 million selling shares to the private sector next year, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Wednesday. Shmatko said United Company RusAl would be pulling out the management of its joint project with RusHydro — building the Boguchanskaya hydroelectric plant — although the aluminum giant will stay on as a financial partner. After the Sayano-Shushenskaya accident, the government urged RusHydro ... |
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Ukraine Seeks Amendment to Gas Agreement
MOSCOW — Ukraine is seeking an amendment to its accord with Russia to waive fines for buying less gas than contracted this year, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said in a letter to Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. State-run Naftogaz Ukrainy may be unable to prepare for the heating season starting at the end of next year, potentially threatening “the reliability of gas shipments to Ukraine and transit to other European states,” Yushchenko said in the letter posted on his web site. The president wants to reduce the volumes of natural ... |
Central Bank Averts $44M Pension Fund Heist
 MOSCOW — The Central Bank has foiled an attempt to steal 1.25 billion rubles ($44 million) from the state’s Pension Fund using counterfeit documents, a ... |
Report: Russia No. 1 in Economic Crime
MOSCOW — Companies in Russia experienced more economic crime this year than anywhere else in the world, according to a report released Thursday, which underscores the difficulties facing an ambitious Kremlin plan to curb corruption and lawlessness. Of 86 companies surveyed in Russia, 71 of them — 82.5 percent — said they had been subjected to at least one major economic crime in the past 12 months, according to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers. “This is a shocking 12 percentage point increase compared with our 2007 research (59%), ... |
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Putin Seeks Consolidation For Petrochemicals Sector
MOSCOW — The government will encourage consolidation in the petrochemicals industry because it is too fragmented to become globally competitive, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said late Tuesday, Reuters reported. “Consolidation of this industry stands ... |
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State Plans To Develop Low-Rise Housing
Builders say they are pleased with a government plan to develop the construction of low-rise housing, which they plan to offer for no more than 30,000 rubles ($1,050) per square meter. “We need to pull people out of the slums,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday during a government meeting on the housing sector. In the first nine months of the year, 35 million square meters of housing were constructed, although Putin said the yearly goal of 52 million square meters could still be reached thanks to construction started before the crisis. He also ordered the government “to create ... |
Illegal Additions to Historic Homes
 MOSCOW — As housing in Moscow gets more and more cramped, some homeowners are looking upward for extra space. The construction of mansards, or stylized ... |
Banks Take Control of RosEuroDevelopment
A consortium of Gazprombank, Goldman Sachs and Citibank has taken control of RosEuroDevelopment, a major commercial real estate developer, because of the company’s debt. One of the developer’s competitors told Vedomosti that a controlling stake had gone to the new owners, which was confirmed by RosEuroDevelopment board member Ilya Brodsky, chief executive Nikolai Artemenko, and a representative from one of the company’s shareholders. A year ago, when most developers were facing difficulties because of the financial crisis, RosEuroDevelopment shareholders handed over roughly half of ... |
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 The Perfect Fall Guy
History has seen many cases of the ruling elite leading society into a dead end while convincing the people all of the time that the road is leading toward a bright future. But it is a truly unique situation when a country’s leaders admit that they are ... |
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Putin’s Vertical of Corruption
I have been wondering lately: How much of Russia’s gross domestic product is lost to bribes taken by government officials? Consider an ordinary example — the price of housing. The standard rule is that the price per square meter for an apartment equals ... |
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Life of a lion
 “Revolutionary Lion,” a new exhibition at the Museum of Political History, pays tribute to the life and work of Leon Trotsky. On Nov. 6, the museum unveiled ... |
Chernov’s choice
Marc Almond returns to St. Petersburg to give a glimpse of his second “Russian” album, called “Orpheus in Exile.” Due to perform at Zal Ozhidaniya on Sunday, Almond will pay homage to the late St. Petersburg-born Russian singer Vadim Kozin, who was arrested and sent to the gulag as part of Stalinist political repression in 1944. Before his arrest, Kozin was a highly popular tenor singer in the Soviet Union. Kozin’s Russian biographies say he performed alongside Marlene Dietrich for Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference concert in 1943. It is not clear, however, whether such a concert ever took place. Released in 1950, Kozin was again arrested after what many believed to be police provocation involving ... |
India through the ages
 A new exhibition at the Stroganov Palace titled “The Modern Art of India: Pictorial Trajectories,” traces the development of modern Indian art with selected ... |
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Trout Triumph
Following its success with the Stroganoff Steak House and Russian Vodka Room No. 1, the Svoi V Gorode restaurant group has opened Fish House, an upscale modern restaurant on Pereulok Grivtsova. Located on the ground floor of the Bolloev Center, a newly built office complex that has won plaudits for its sympathetic neo-classical architecture, Fish House is easily spotted from the street because there are fish painted on its windows, suggesting a giant aquarium. Inside, a large open-plan dining area, seating 100 people, also celebrates the fishy theme with depictions of fish ... |
Mariinsky Stars Welcome Guests at the Royal Ballet
 The Royal Ballet in London has invited two Mariinsky ballerinas as guest dancers this year. Following Yekaterina Osmolkina’s guest appearances in “Swan ... |
Michelin-Starred Chef to Create Gourmet Meal at Cote Jardin
 Marc de Passorio, a distinguished chef with extensive international experience, is bursting with pride over his restaurant’s first Michelin star, which ... |
