World Headlines: Issue #1691(2), Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The St. Petersburg Times Issue #1691(2), Wednesday, January 18, 2012
LOCAL NEWS
Believers to Take the Plunge		IN BRIEF
	Many Russians will throw themselves into freezing rivers and lakes on Thursday as the country's Orthodox Church prepares to celebrate Epiphany, which marks the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Read the story...	Cruisers Come Home ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Thirty-two tourists from St. Petersburg were on board the Italian passenger cruise liner Costa Concordia, which sank last week, and will return home this week, Fontanka reported. Read the story...
City Refuses to Approve Commemorative Rally		Petersburg Population on the Up
The city authorities have refused to authorize an annual anti-fascist march and rally in memory of the slain anti-fascists Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova due to be held on Thursday, Jan. 19, allowing only a "picket" on the largely deserted Ploshchad Sakharova on Vasilyevsky Island. Read the story...		St. Petersburg's population has almost returned to the figure of five million people, which it reached just before the start of perestroika in 1985 before shrinking to 4.25 million people during the mass exodus of locals at the height of desperate times during the economic reforms of the 1990s. Read the story...
NATIONAL NEWS
Kremlin Concedes on Gubernatorial Vote		Probe's Landing Site Still Unknown
	MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev once declared that direct gubernatorial elections would not return to Russia in 100 years. But on Monday, less than three years after making the vow, Medvedev asked the State Duma to reintroduce the elections in what looked like a major concession to the opposition protesters who took to the streets after last month's parliamentary elections. Read the story...	MOSCOW — Space officials say, despite claims a failed Mars probe crashed in the Pacific Ocean near Chile, they still have no firm information on where it actually plummeted to Earth. The unmanned Fobos-Grunt probe fell Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months. Read the story...
New U.S. Ambassador, Michael McFaul, Arrives to Keep 'Reset' Alive		In New Tactic, Putin Courts Middle Class
MOSCOW — The architect of U.S. President Barack Obama's Russia policy arrived in Moscow this weekend to become the new U.S. ambassador at a critical time for the nations' "reset" of relations, which has grown imperiled by bitter election campaigns in both countries. Read the story...			MOSCOW — Trying to win back the hearts and minds of people he until recently dismissed, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appealed Monday to the middle-class voters who took to the streets in protest last month, to help sweep him back into office as president in March. Read the story...
Group To Prepare Election Observers		Kazakh Ruling Party's Victory Tempered by Criticism
MOSCOW — The liberal opposition Yabloko party and the Moscow Helsinki Group are creating a public organization to finance the training of monitors for the March 4 presidential vote and other elections. Read the story...		ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Weekend elections have determined that Kazakhstan's parliament is no longer a one-party chamber, but international observers say the vote failed to meet democratic standards. Authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev had called the snap election in November, so Kazakhstan could proceed further along the path of democracy, he said. Read the story...
NATIONAL BUSINESS
AirportCity Takes Off With New Hotel		Businesses Refuse To Listen To PM Putin
	A new multi-functional complex, AirportCity St. Petersburg, officially opened at the end of last year, located close to the city's Pulkovo II Airport. The final version of the complex will include several business centers and a four-star hotel complete with restaurants and conference halls. Read the story...	MOSCOW — Energy companies are preparing a collective appeal to the government to demand softening the conditions of the order requiring state companies and banks to disclose the beneficiaries of all parties they sign contracts with. Read the story...
Severstal's Gold Miner Split-Off Is a Success		Moscow To Get 2 More Metro Stops
MOSCOW — Steel giant Severstal said Monday that enough minority shareholders agreed to swap the steelmaker's shares for the securities of its gold-mining unit Nord Gold, paving the way for the unit's London listing later this week. Read the story...		MOSCOW — A metro transfer hub will be built at the Moskva-City business center, according to the press service of the capital's construction department, citing Sergei Kidyayev, vice president of Ingeokom, the main contractor for the construction of the Khodynskaya and the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya lines. Read the story...
OPINION
The Decembrists' Manifesto		comment: Season's Greetings From the Tax Inspectorate
	One of the most common criticisms of the "Decembrists 2.0" protest movement is that it has no program, strategy or vision. But the opposite is true. Taken together, the five demands put forward by protesters at the Bolotnaya Ploshchad and Prospekt Akademika Sakharova rallies comprise a coherent program with a clear strategic goal. Read the story...	Investments often take time before they begin generating a profit. Investors are well aware of this fact. The St. Petersburg tax authorities apparently are not. Just before the New Year holidays, one of our clients — a subsidiary owned by European shareholders — received a rather ambiguous phone call from the tax authorities inviting them to a meeting, although the topic of conversation was not revealed. Read the story...
CULTURE
The shoes say it all		word's worth: Sitting Around
	Jimmy Baldinini enjoys looking at women's legs. The veteran of Italian shoe design, who runs the world-renowned shoe label Baldinini, admits this addiction without so much as a blink of the eye or any hint of embarrassment — and rightly so: He is a master shoemaker. Read the story...	Сидеть: to sit, more or less Whew. The annual winter 10-day Russian eat-and-drinkathon is finally over. Isn't it amazing how tight a pair of jeans can get in just a little over a week? Along with contemplating my girth, I've been considering — in a languid, hung over sort of way — stance verbs in Russian. Read the story...
A return to roots		CHERNOV'S CHOICE
	1990s pop legends Dva Samolyota have managed to keep their youthful fun spirit, despite a difficult history and lineup changes, says Anton Belyankin, the band's frontman and only original member, as the band gets ready to perform at Griboyedov, the seminal local bunker club that its members helped to launch and now manage. Read the story...	This week is one that clubs describe as a "dead week." Coming soon after the lengthy New Year/Christmas holidays, it lacks many great events, as the concert-going public relaxes after taxing celebrations and is frequently left without money to afford a ticket. Read the story...
THE DISH: Via dell'oliva
During the dark and often dreary Petersburg winter, it is not uncommon to long to be transported from this concrete metropolis to a time when life was simpler…and sunnier. This magical city grants the key to such secrets to those who search for them. Read the story...
FEATURES
Bringing the New Play Movement to St. Petersburg		Document Shows KGB Stopped Probe
	Milena Avimskaya was born in Kazakhstan, grew up in the Siberian city of Surgut and was educated in Moscow. She found her calling in St. Petersburg. A graduate of the department of theater management at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in Moscow, she is the founder and managing director of St. Read the story...		STOCKHOLM — A newly found Swedish document shows how the KGB intervened in the early 1990s to stop an investigation into World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg's fate, two U.S.-based researchers said Monday. Read the story...