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Roman Abramovich, who was orphaned as a child, is now the 16th-richest man in the world according to the latest list of the world’s richest people from Forbes, released on Thursday. Forbes pegged Abramovich’s wealth at , $18.7 billion, which put him at the head of a list of 53 Russian billionaires.
Since I date my news weeks from Monday to Friday, I missed out reporting on the large protest march in St. Peterburg last Saturday. According to the New York Times, thousands of demonstrators gathered on the city’s fashionable boulevard, Nevsky Prospekt, to show their support for an opposition political group Other Russia. The Times said that police said they had arrested 113 protesters, but Other Russia put the detentions at several hundred. This Sunday, March 11, Russians in 14 regions will vote in legislative elections that some observers think will foreshadow next year’s presidential election. There’s a good backgrounder on Radio Free Europe.
On Monday, the Russian-born writer Henri Troyat died in Paris at the age of 95. Born Lev Tarasov in Moscow, Troyat and his family fled to France during the Revolution. He was the author of several widely translated biographies, including one I have read on Catherine the Great.
Another death on Monday was more disturbing. A military reporter for Kommersant, Russia’s top business daily, died after falling out of a window. According to the Associated Press, Ivan Safronov had done a lot of reporting critical of the military. An investigation into his death has been opened.
And the Russian Interior Ministry said Monday that crimes against foreigners in Russia in January had doubled from January 2006. There were a total of 1,167 cases, aimed particularly at foreigners with non-Slavic features. The chief targets have been foreign students in St. Petersburg, and Voronezh.
Radio Free Europe reported Friday that the United States is pressing Russia to investigate the poisoning of two U.S. citizens in Moscow. Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter, Yana fell ill on February 24 and were admitted to a Los Angeles hospital with suspected thallium poisoning on March 7. Thallium is a metal used primarily as a rat poison. Another California paper said the woman is a medical doctor.
In business, Meredith Corp. , the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and Ladies’ Home Journal, announced that it will start a Russian-language edition of More magazine later this year. More is aimed at women over 40. Meredith said it will distribute the new magazine in Russia and neighboring countries. And Reuters said the giant food company H.J. Heinz pledged to keep operating in Russia despite the difficulties of winning significant market share there.
In adoption, there was absolutely no official reaction to last week’s appeal by the National Council for Adoption for Russia to improve the reaccreditation process. Unfortunately, many more agencies have seen their accreditations expire and so the list on the U.S. Embassy’s Web site has shrunk to just three names: Alliance for Children, Children of the World Adoption Agency and Gift of Life Adoption Services.
