MOSCOW - A noisy rally by supporters of Mikhail Khodorkovsky outside the court ended in a brawl Monday, with police detaining 28 people, including Yabloko deputy head Sergei Mitrokhin, and beat former chess champion Garry Kasparov with batons.
About 300 people - a mix of children, students, middle-aged adults and pensioners - rallied outside the Meschansky District Court at noon as judges inside started reading the verdict in the 11-month trial of Yukos founders Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
MOSCOW - A Moscow court began reading on Monday a verdict of several hundred pages in the state's case against Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, using language that left little doubt that the two men would be found guilty on fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion charges.
The St. Petersburg city government last week approved a bill that is intended to return to religious organizations their property that was nationalized after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Under the bill, religious buildings and those used for religious purposes, which are currently assigned to religious organizations for their permanent, rent-free use, will become the property of religious organizations.
Under pressure from human rights advocates, the City Prosecutor's Office has decided to open a criminal case over anti-Semitic articles printed in newspapers Za Russkoe Delo and Rus Pravoslavnaya.
It had previously rejected opening a criminal case and had decided that a warning to the newspaper's editors was sufficient.
A leader of the anti-Kremlin political movement Iduschiye Bez Putina, or Walking Without Putin, was detained by the police on Saturday while he was trying to protest against a rally organized by Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth organization, 30 members of which gathered on St.
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Valentina Matviyenko dismissed speculations about her possible relocation to Moscow, Interfax reported.
Speaking to the agency in Beijing, shortly before she took the plane to Shanghai, where she was currently on an official visit over the weekend, Matviyenko branded the rumors groundless. "All this talk about me moving to Moscow is nothing but fictitious hearsay," Matviyenko was quoted as saying on Friday. "I'd recommend you never trust rumors."
On Saturday, in Shanghai, Matviyenko signed a contract with Chinese investors to build the Baltic Pearl in St. Petersburg.
City authorities are developing a grandiose $21 million plan to revive the Oranienbaum former royal estate at Lomonosov, about 30 kilometers west of St.
MOSCOW - Few personify the country's turbulent banking history as well as Nikolai Plotnikov, a 74-year-old retired physics teacher who joined a crowd of angry protesters in front of the Central Bank on Thursday morning.
Leaning on his cane as a light drizzle pattered down on a crowd of 50 people, Plotnikov recounted how he lost his savings in three successive bank crises, starting with the 1992 devaluation of the ruble, then in the 1998 default - and finally in the Sodbiznesbank affair last year.
MOSCOW - Two LDPR deputies on Thursday pressed for former Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov be sent back to Russia and darkly warned that if the United States succeeds in extraditing him from Switzerland on fraud and money-laundering charges, the Kremlin could face a popular uprising.
MOSCOW - The Constitutional Court has opened the door to suspects being tried twice for the same crime, even after an acquittal, by issuing a ruling that brings the law into line with Western norms but could allow authorities to muzzle opposition and rights activists.
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday struck down Article 405 of the Criminal Procedural Code, which banned courts from reconsidering cases if the review might lead to stricter verdicts.
Chinese investments into St. Petersburg may top $12 billion by 2020, Governor Valntina Matviyenko, said Monday at a news conference.
Besides the $1.2 billion Baltic Pearl project, the investment agreement that the governor signed Saturday with the Shanghai government, the investment initiatives may include financing for techno-park construction ranging from $3 billion to $4.
Among rising summer travel activity in the city, a local ship operator is launching a new high-speed catamaran route between St. Petersburg and Finland.
ST. PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Regional electricity firm Lenenergo said Saturday that it had cut its net loss to 429 million rubles ($15 million) in 2004 from 961 million rubles the year before.
MOSCOW - Carlyle group, the world's largest equity fund manager whose board once boasted former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has effectively closed its Moscow office and canceled plans for a $300 million Russia investment fund.
The group cited Russia's unappealing "risk profile" in its decision to curtail operations in the country.
Moscow (Bloomberg) - Russian officials are protecting the piracy of films, music, business software and books, helping make the country one of the biggest producers of counterfeit electronic goods, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against unidentified managers at the diamond monopoly Alrosa for allegedly embezzling 153 million rubles ($5.47 million), a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office said Saturday.
Prosecutors will examine Alrosa's finances in connection with the case, spokesman Sergei Marchenko said.
Russia has dropped four places in an annual study conducted to assess the competitiveness of 60 economies around the world.
The World Competitiveness Scoreboard, compiled by the Lausanne-based Institute for Management Development and released on Thursday, ranked Russia at 54.
Advertising scandals have arisen between mobile operators MTS and Vimpelcom, which trades as Beeline, several times in recent years. Mobile TeleSystems hasn't missed a chance to have a dig at its competitor with the help of video clips parodying it broadcasted on federal television.
The city may be close to meeting one of its longest standing needs - building a world-class football stadium. Politicians have said all the right things and financiers have made generous promises.
A consortium of Finnish companies has unveiled a joint plan to expand investment into the Russian and Baltic real estate markets. SRV Group, a leading Finnish construction company, together with a group of high net-worth shareholders, established Vicus Ltd.
Most people associate accounting reform with moving to international accounting standards. However, the problem is really far broader than this. The accounting and financial reporting system in Russia absolutely has to change.
MOSCOW - The governor of Penza has won President Vladimir Putin's approval for an extended term, while embattled Altai region Governor Mikhail Yevdokimov has asked 12 deputy governors to resign.
The commonplace view of the earth from an airplane at 35,000 feet - a vista that would have astounded Dickens or Darwin - can be instructive when we contemplate the fate of our earth. We see faintly, or imagine we can, the spherical curve of the horizon and, by extrapolation, sense how far we would have to travel to circumnavigate, and how tiny we are in relation to this home suspended in sterile space.
There can be no doubt that the Russian medical system needs to be changed: it is costly, ineffective and fails to fulfill its fundamental goals - to keep the population healthy.
The next president of the United States was on the road last week, throwing red meat about "moral issues" to a baying crowd of Bushist Party faithful - while simultaneously trying to cut off medical support for a 6-year-old girl his agents had previously tried to kill.
Yes, it was Jeb Bush, governor of the ruling family's Florida dominions, pounding the pulpit - er, podium - at a Republican conclave in Georgia.
WASHINGTON (AP) - As Iran appears to move closer to resuming nuclear activities, support has been quietly building in Congress for new U.S. sanctions, including penalties that could affect multinational companies and this country's foreign aid recipients.
MOSCOW (Reuters, SPT) - CSKA Moscow's morale suffered a blow before its first European final when they lost 1-0 at FC Zenit St.
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The expanding population of St. Petersburg means that the issue of housing remains one of the city’s key concerns, particularly in light of the fact that the main contributor to the population growth is migration. According to a census conducted in 2010, the population of the northwest federal district decreased by 2.8 percent from 2002, while the population of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast increased by 4 and 2.6 percent respectively, which is explained by migratory flows, including within the northwest region itself.High City Prices Cause Building Boom in LenOblast
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