Hundreds of Libyan refugees are feared dead after an overcrowded ship carrying some 600 people trying to flee Libya sank just outside of the port of Tripoli, world media reported Monday. The unrest in the country, which began in mid-February, has already claimed thousands of lives, with Muammar Gaddafi’s troops maintaining their combat capabilities despite [...]
Archives: 09 May 2011
May 9, 2011
May 9, 2011
Main news of May 9
Russia: * Our duty is to safeguard peace achieved by the victory in the 1941-45 war against Nazi Germany, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a military parade in Moscow * A military parade dedicated to the 66th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War was launched on [...]
May 9, 2011
Three million people celebrated Victory Day in Moscow
Some 3,000,000 people took part in Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, the Russian capital’s police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said. Victory Day that Russia celebrates on May 9 marks the final defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. This year, the 66th anniversary [...]
May 9, 2011
TNK-BP to Sell Its Arbat Office to Ananyev Brothers
TNK-BP has agreed to sell its office complex Alfa Arbat Center on the Arbat to Promsvyaznedvizhimost, which is controlled by the Ananyev brothers, in a deal that could be worth up to $260 million, according to a source close to one of the parties in the transaction. The oil company will lease office space in the Nordstar tower in the Begovoi neighborhood. Promsvyaz expects to turn a profit on renting out [...]
May 9, 2011
Demolition Wrecks Permits for All
Moscow’s cultural heritage agency is taking decisive action after the illegal destruction of this building’s facade. Moscow authorities canceled all previously issued permits for demolition or partial dismantling of structures in areas containing historic buildings, in response to the illegal demolition of the Kolbe house on Bolshaya Yakimanka Ulitsa by Capital Group developers. Moskomnaslediye, the city department responsible for protecting cultural heritage, said in a statement [...]
May 9, 2011
2 Nationalists Jailed for Killing Lawyer
Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis listening to their sentences Friday. An ultranationalist was sentenced to life in prison, and his girlfriend received an 18-year sentence for the brazen daylight killing of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and a Novaya Gazeta reporter. Nikita Tikhonov, 31, received the maximum sentence after the court convicted him of gunning down Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. Tikhonov’s 26-year-old girlfriend, Yevgenia Khasis, was [...]
May 9, 2011
Mironov Urged to Resign
United Russia has called on Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov to resign as tensions between pro-Kremlin parties rise ahead of December’s State Duma elections and the 2012 presidential vote. “We have a position on Mironov: He must renounce his mandate as senator,” Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the Duma and chairman of United Russia’s supreme council, said in a statement Friday. Mironov, who stepped down as [...]
May 9, 2011
Foreign Real Estate Gains Popularity
Russians buying real estate abroad tend to purchase property in Europe for investment purposes and are seeing up to 12 percent annual returns, a real estate agency said last week. The most frequently targeted countries include Britain, Austria, France, Switzerland and Germany, said Igor Indriksons, head of the international investments department at IntermarkSavills. Buyers are attracted to these countries because of their stability and low level of risk, he [...]
May 9, 2011
Smog Jitters Start as the First Fires Break Out
As warm May weather revives memories of the smog that caused the capital to choke for weeks last summer, the Emergency Situations Ministry has offered assurances that it has control over the source of the air pollution — burning peat bogs and forests in the Moscow region. Yevgeny Sekirin, head of the ministry’s branch in the region, acknowledged that bogs and forests have started smoldering outside Moscow [...]
May 9, 2011
2 Dozen Khimki Defenders Detained
Environmental activist Yevgenia Chirikova and Left Front Leader Sergei Udaltsov at an earlier protest against the planned Khimki highway. The two were detained by police at Sunday’s protest. 1 of 2 Riot police roughly broke up a protest over the destruction of the Khimki forest, briefly detaining two dozen activists and beating one so badly that he required hospitalization, [...]
May 9, 2011
Putin Forming Pre-Vote ‘Front’
Putin and President Medvedev watching a Red Square parade on Monday. Non-United Russia politicians of all stripes have united to denounce an initiative by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to form a nonpartisan group as little more than a ploy to save the ruling party from defeat in December’s parliamentary elections. Putin announced the formation of the All-Russia People’s Front at a United Russia conference in Volgograd on Friday, saying the group would [...]
May 9, 2011
Rosneft Gets Final Say in BP Tie-Up
Rosneft finds itself in a peculiar position this week after an international arbitration tribunal decided to give it the last word on a $16 billion tie-up — not with BP as it had hoped but rather with TNK-BP, a smaller rival that it has expressedly not wanted to work with. The tribunal ruled Friday that TNK-BP must take BP’s place in the deal and that, if [...]
May 9, 2011
Record 20,000 Troops but No May 9 Jets
A scaled-down number of military vehicles driving through Red Square during a Victory Day parade on Monday. 1 of 2 President Dmitry Medvedev promised upgrades and dignity for the armed forces as a record 20,000 soldiers and officers marched across Red Square for Victory Day on Monday. But in a change from recent years, the [...]
May 9, 2011
Russian communists rally for socialism on Victory Day
Thousands of members of the Communist Party marched downtown Moscow on Monday proclaiming the socialist model as the only way for Russia’s revival and development. Victory Day in Russia on May 9 marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War. According to Moscow police, the communist rally gathered about 5,000 [...]