Are you reading news from another millenium?
December is long gone. If your browser is still pulling up this issue, try book-marking the home page we share with our parent paper, the Russian-language daily Vladivostok. You will find it at http://www.vladnews.ru. And we apologize for the inconvenience.

Unity beats Communists in Far East
By Anatoly Medetsky
The Kremlin-sponsored Unity bloc, which took second place in Russia's parliamentary election Sunday, captured the highest proportion of the vote in the Far East, showing the militarized region's greater support for prime minister and the war in Chechnya.

Nazdratenko claims victory in election
By Russell Working
Two days before Sunday's vote in this far eastern city, a delegation of poll watchers from Europe were shocked to find election officials hard at work crossing names off the ballots.

City Duma election: 17 failures and counting
By Anatoly Medetsky
Too few deputies won seats in the 17th attempt to elect Vladivostok City Duma Sunday to make the body legal, and the city remains without any elected authorities.

International observers praise Duma elections
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Moscow -- European observers who monitored Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia say the poll was an important step forward in the country's democratic development.

A seal's what? Hey, buddy, that's contraband
By Anatoly Medetsky
Customs this year registered a surge in the smuggling from Russia of delicacy river fish and animals and their organs used in oriental medicine, ranging from frogs to seals' penises.

Letter from Vladivostok
Booze and ballots: Just another election day in the Far East
By Russell Working
Borodino Cinema was a scene to warm the heart of any democrat this Sunday. On a bitterly cold day voters bundled in leather and fur crowded the lobby and the restaurant and lined up at the polling booths.

Faces of Vladivostok

Updated news and business stories inside.