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SOLDIERS’ MOTHERS APPEAL VERDICT

Lawyers for Soldiers’ Mothers, a Russian human rights group that campaigns against brutality and abuse in the Russian army, has given The St. Petersburg Times special access to evidence it claims shows forced prostitution in the ranks.

Soldiers’ Mothers say testimonies by former recruits point to a system in which new recruits were sent to sell sex on the streets of St. Petersburg by older recruits who then extorted the money.

“Those who did not have money and failed to give it to the senior recruits on demand were sent to sell themselves on the street at the Catherine Garden,” reads one testimony obtained by Soldiers’ Mothers. “They could either use one of the lists of clients which were always available from the older recruits, or try and pick someone up using their own devices.”

The garden surrounding the monument of Catherine the Great overlooking Nevsky Prospekt is a notorious cruising area for those who seek the services of male prostitutes.

Soldiers’ Mothers is appealing an order handed down by the city’s Kuibyshevsky Federal Court to pay ...

TNK-BP DISPUTE MAY BE TAKEN TO COURT

MOSCOW — The boardroom battle at TNK-BP descended into outright mudslinging over the long holiday break, with the Russian shareholders threatening to have BP-nominated directors disbarred by a Moscow court this week and BP’s chairman accusing them of using illegal “corporate raiding” tactics.

The chief executive of AAR, the consortium representing ...

BARRING ‘MIRACLE,’ EXPAT PAPER EXILE IS ‘DEAD’

MOSCOW — The eXile, Moscow’s notorious English-language alternative biweekly, is shutting down after its investors became frightened by a government inspection and withdrew their funding, the newspaper’s editors said.

“The paper is dead, unless a miracle ...

HIV INFECTION IN CITY OUTSTRIPS REST OF RUSSIA

The rate of HIV infection in St. Petersburg is 2.5 times higher than the Russian average, the acting head doctor at the city’s AIDS Prevention and Treatment ...