News Blog from St. Petersburg: Fantasy Island Ayano Hodouchi Friday night parties at the St. Pete economic forum can be heavenly, if you’re a VIP and the sun is shining. But if you’re not, and it’s chucking it down, it can be your very own circle of hell.

Local Moscow Zoo’s baby boom Nathan Toohey The warm weather has seen the zoo’s spring arrivals come out to play

News Kidnapping of Rosneft executive’s son a mystery Anna Arutunyan The kidnapping of Mikhail Stavsky, Jnr., the son of Rosneft vice president Mikhail Stavsky, remains shrouded in mystery seven weeks after the student, whose age has been variously identified as 17, 18 and 19, was abducted by unidentified assailants in Moscow in broad daylight.

News Picking up Pikalyovo Anna Arutunyan Vladimir Putin visits the small town after protests and chews out company officials over unpaid wages

Business Russian rescue operation for crashing car market Ayano Hodouchi The Sberbank-backed Opel deal should boost the ailing Russian auto industry while bailing out the European arm of bankrupt General Motors

Comment Doing the right thing Tim Wall The residents' protests in the small Leningrad region town of Pikalyovo, against the economic destruction of their town in a few short months, have achieved three quite remarkable things.

Comment Arms on the agenda Irina Aervitz Advocates of gun legalisation argue it would provide forbetter control

Comment Ditching Big Brother Sergei Balashov Belarus’ authoritarian president has criticised Russia before, over gas and subsidies. But this time, in harshly targeting Vladimir Putin, perhaps Alexander Lukashenko really has crossed the line

News The week in review - South Ossetia elections denounced by West

Business Sochi games go private Ayano Hodouchi The organisers of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games have announced that they can get by with private funding until 2011, and said they have raised $500 million in sponsorship in the first five months of the year.

Business Exchanges bargain bin or oversold Ed Bentley After one of the most volatile trading weeks to date, not even the analysts can agree which way the Russian markets are facing.

Business Pushing the rouble Ed Bentley One of the president’s favourite policies, to make the Russian currency a key regional currency, will be given another airing at the BRIC summit this month

Arts & Entertainment Nightlife calendar 5–11 June­

Nightlife The joy of sax

Sports A close Finnish Ed Bentley The Russian national football team travels to Finland on June 10 in a must-win fixture to keep their hopes of qualifying for South Africa 2010 alive.