World Headlines: Issue #1664(26), Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The St. Petersburg Times Issue #1664(26), Wednesday, July 6, 2011
LOCAL NEWS
Matviyenko's Rule, Future in Spotlight		Central Square to Get New Development Plan
By her enemies, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko is ridiculed for her unorthodox proposals to employ laser rays and homeless people to clean snow from the city's roofs, and for her pushy campaign to erect the Gazprom skyscraper that was nicknamed "Corn on the Cob" by some sarcastic locals. Read the story...			St. Petersburg's City Planning and Architecture Committee is to announce a competition for a development project for Ploshchad Vosstaniya after hosting an international conference devoted to the subject last week. Read the story...
IN BRIEF		Lack of Funds Fatal For Kidney Disease Patients
Schoolgirl's Body Found ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The body of a 10-year-old schoolgirl who had been missing since April was found Monday evening near the village of Izvara in the Leningrad Oblast, Interfax reported. Read the story...		About 200 people with kidney problems die in the city every year because they are unable to afford or get access to the drugs they need, experts estimate. Dialysis treatment costs 50,000 rubles ($1,800) per patient per month and is covered by Compulsory Medical Insurance (OMS) provided by employers and the state, said Alexander Zemchenkov, the city's main nephrologist, during a discussion devoted to patients suffering from kidney disease on Monday. Read the story...
$1Bln in Deals at Maritime Show		Regular Evening Bike Ride Dispersed by Police Officers
	Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko estimated the total value of contracts signed during the Fifth International Maritime Defense Show (IMDS) held in St. Petersburg last week at more than $1 billion. Read the story...	A regular Friday night mass bike ride from Palace Square was unexpectedly broken up by the police last week. About 300 cyclists who gathered on St. Petersburg's central square at 11 p.m. Friday were told to leave in groups from two to eight people and go home, according to witnesses. Read the story...
Opposition Moves to Block Matviyenko's Election
The St. Petersburg political opposition has pledged to do its best to prevent St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko from being elected as a deputy — a procedure she must go through in order to be appointed chair of Russia's Federation Council. Read the story...
NATIONAL NEWS
Record Bailout for Bank of Moscow		When Psychiatrists Assist Unscrupulous Relatives
	MOSCOW — In the largest bailout in modern Russian history, Bank of Moscow, the country's fifth-largest bank, will receive up to $14 billion in state-backed loans after the discovery that almost a third of the bank's assets are "problematic," the Central Bank said. Read the story...	MOSCOW — Galina Kozlova, then 62, was drinking tea in her Moscow apartment when psychiatrists called by her sister broke down the door, handcuffed her, dragged her to a car and took her to a psychiatric hospital. Read the story...
Beyrle: Visas Bigger Deal Than Arms Pact		Chemical Castration Sought For Molesters
MOSCOW — U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle said Monday that the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty was important but the real highlight of a "reset" in U.S.-Russian ties would come next week with the signing of agreements on liberalized visa rules and child adoptions. Read the story...		MOSCOW — Two months after President Dmitry Medvedev called for the voluntary chemical castration of child molesters, a Just Russia deputy introduced a bill demanding mandatory chemical castration to the State Duma on Monday. Read the story...
Police in Belarus Use Tear Gas on Protesters		Dutch Lawmakers Vote for Sanctions In Magnitsky Case
	MINSK, Belarus — Police used tear gas to break up an anti-government protest in Belarus and forcefully detained dozens of demonstrators in the capital Sunday. The authoritarian government had tried to thwart the protest by blocking access to Facebook, Twitter and a major Russian social networking site used by the organizers. Read the story...	MOSCOW — The Netherlands has joined the fray over the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, with the country's legislature voting to support an entry ban and freeze on assets of Russian officials implicated in the case. Read the story...
Putin Slams His Front's Membership Tactics		Former Cop Gets 14 Years for Raping 27 Women
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the involuntary enlistment of people to his All-Russia People's Front on Thursday after the group embarked on a chaotic membership drive that has swept musicians, architects, HIV and cancer patients and even an entire neighborhood into its fold. Read the story...		MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Friday sentenced a former traffic police officer to 14 years in prison for raping 27 women. The Nagatinsky District Court also convicted Artur Kositsyn, 34, who worked as a lieutenant for the Podolsk traffic police force in the Moscow region until May 2009, of attempted rape and sexual harassment, RIA-Novosti reported, citing a court spokeswoman. Read the story...
LOCAL BUSINESS
VTB Hits Road to Reassure Investors		Skolkovo 'Population' Increases by 21
	MOSCOW — VTB, Russia's second-largest lender, will hold roadshows for investors in London and New York to allay concerns about the black hole in the balance sheet of its new acquisition, Bank of Moscow, which received a $14 billion state-backed bailout last week. Read the story...		MOSCOW — The expansion of Moscow's borders and creation of the Moscow Federal District will not affect Skolkovo, the innovation hub near Moscow, Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg told reporters Monday after presenting participation certificates to 21 new resident companies. Read the story...
Schneider Opens Third Local Plant		Medvedev Acts on Petersburg Forum Vows
KOMMUNAR, Leningrad Oblast — French electric services firm Schneider Electric has opened a third Russian factory in a bid to keep up with increasing demand for "smart-grid" technologies in Russia and the CIS. Read the story...		MOSCOW — In a flurry of activity aimed at attracting foreign investors, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Friday that will lift restrictions on domestic companies wanting to list securities abroad and ordered the creation of a central securities depositary by Sept. Read the story...
OPINION
Our Answer to Magnitsky		Matviyenko, Don't Pack Your Bags Just Yet
	"Our answer to Chamberlain." This Soviet slogan originated in the late 1920s as a government protest against British Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain, who was outspoken in his criticism of the Soviet policy toward China. Read the story...	In the run-up to the elections, we are seeing the beginning of a shakeup in top political positions. The Kremlin started with Valentina Matviyenko. She will be moved out of St. Petersburg, where she is governor, and sent to Moscow, where she will serve as speaker of the Federation Council. Read the story...
CULTURE
CHERNOV'S CHOICE		Steppenwolf's new home
Seliger, a summer camp held for the Kremlin-backed movement Nashi, sent out a news release on Friday claiming that a concert by Mumiy Troll is "scheduled to be held" there. The ill-famed Nashi was created when the Kremlin became scared by Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004, and the movement's initial goal was to confront protesters in the street (and on social networks). Read the story...			The Steppenwolf Awards, co-founded by the beleaguered Moscow-based music critic and producer Artyom Troitsky with the aim of promoting talented, innovative and independent music, move to St. Petersburg this week. Read the story...
Scandal at the Tchaikovsky		the word's worth The Really Cool People Say 'Dot'
	Controversial decisions abounded at the 14th International Tchaikovsky competition that concluded in Moscow and St. Petersburg last weekend as the event struggles to regain its international reputation and influence under the leadership of its new head, the Mariinsky Theater's artistic director, Valery Gergiev. Read the story...	What do soap, a hamster, a doggie and a little mouse all have in common? In English, not much. In Russian, they are all slang terms connected with your computer and the Internet. They are also wonderful illustrations of the clever and diverse ways in which the Russian language claims, transforms and reinvents words from English. Read the story...
Identifying Norway's Soviet graves		in the spotlight The Death of Russian Cinema
	There are six Ivanovs listed on the web site: Grigory, Semyon, Pavel, Vasily, Pyotr and Alexei. Ivanov is one of Russia's most common surnames, so it is unlikely that the six were relatives. What they do have in common though, is that all of them died on Norwegian soil between 1942 and 1945, where they remain to this day. Read the story...		Last week, Channel One controller Konstantin Ernst took a dig at the luxuriant breasts of retired ice dancer Anna Semenovich, saying they were doubly responsible for the death of Russian cinema. And a little bit of a fairy tale died, as Russian-born model Natalia Vodianova revealed that she has separated from her husband, British aristocrat Justin Portman, whom she had married in a perfect market stall-to-mansion story. Read the story...
Flora and Fauna
Located directly above its own cake shop on a stretch of the Petrograd Side packed with restaurants and cafes, Truffle is a delightful chateau in the heart of St Petersburg. Designed with French Provence in mind, walking into Truffle is a little like walking into your own home. Read the story...
FEATURE
And Quiet Flows the Don		Spar Supermarket Chain Agrees Franchise Deal
ROSTOV-ON-DON — If you walk around the city center in Rostov-on-Don, one of the most likely things to catch your eye would be groups of Cossacks dressed in traditional dark-blue uniforms and pants with red stripes. Read the story...		St. Petersburg's retailer Intertorg is to open a chain of Spar supermarkets in the northwest region. Dutch retailer Spar International has signed a licensing agreement with the Intertorg trading company (which manages the Narodnaya Semya and Ideya supermarkets). Read the story...
City to Get New 5-Star Hotel		In Czech Republic, Russians Are Back and Thriving
The South Korean hotel firm Lotte plans to build a first-class hotel on the Fontanka River embankment. Lotte Hotels & Resorts, part of South Korea's Lotte Group, will open a hotel at 23 Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanki, a real estate consultant close to City Hall said. Read the story...			PRAGUE — The Russians are back. Twenty years after Soviet troops left to the delight of a liberated nation, Russian schools, businesses, newspapers and communities are thriving in and around Prague. But while many Czechs seem to be leaving decades of bad blood behind them, there's alarm in Russia at the economic impact of a new wave of middle-class immigration to Eastern Europe, where life seems far simpler and where EU membership brings dynamism. Read the story...