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REPUTED CRIME BOSS SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS

MOSCOW — Reputed St. Petersburg crime boss Vladimir Barsukov was sentenced to 14 years in prison late last Thursday after being convicted of fraud and money laundering during a high-profile trial.

St. Petersburg’s Kuibyshevsky District Court, whose staff moved to the Moscow City Court for the trial out of fear for the safety of the participants, ruled that Barsukov and seven co-defendants were guilty of money laundering and organizing the illegal takeover of companies and property in St. Petersburg between July 2005 and June 2006.

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Barsukov to 15 1/2 years in a maximum-security prison and to fine him 1 million rubles ($34,880).

The court on Thursday also ordered Barsukov to pay the 1 million ruble fine.

Barsukov, who has maintained his innocence, is believed to have led the powerful Tambov crime group in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. He was arrested at his country home outside St. Petersburg in August 2007 by dozens of OMON police officers who were brought from Moscow, while local law enforcement agencies were left in the dark to prevent information leaks.

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GREEN VICTORY AS NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENTS ARE HALTED

Environmentalists from the international pressure group Greenpeace are trumpeting their biggest success in years after German-Dutch company URENCO announced on Monday that it is ending the practice of sending spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing and storage.

Radioactive loads on board foreign ships had been arriving at the port of St. Petersburg ...

DIPLOMA RED TAPE ADDS TO VISA HASSLES

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev urged migration authorities to show more hospitality toward foreigners in his state-of-the-nation address last week, even as those same authorities start enforcing a diploma rule that affects most foreign professionals.

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MEDVEDEV MAKES SOOTHING SPEECH AT APEC SUMMIT

President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the world community Saturday with a call for cooperation and coordination in handling the pullout from economic stimulus ...