vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #153 / Special reports / Reading article...

Highway should ease traffic into town

A new highway in Vladivostok will make access to the city center easier. The road links two major transport arteries in the Pervomaisky District and will be part of a new bus route. Construction took two months.

Duma elections slated

Deputy Mayor Nikolai Markovtsev recently scheduled City Duma elections for March 29, 1998. Vladivostok will elect 22 deputies. Elections were held last December, but the minimum 25 percent turnout met in only three races.

Sailors detained in Japan

Two Russian sailors were recently detained overnight in an unmarked car after they tried to leave their ship and enter a Japanese port. A Kyushu police spokesman said that ship’s crew are not allowed to go ashore in Japanese harbors. An investigation is underway.

Bad pipes cost bucks

Poorly-maintained heating pipes in Vladivostok cost the city an extra 400 billion rubles ($67 million) yearly, a City Hall commission recently announced. The commission said that theft of insulation materials results in heat loss that Dalenergo charges for anyway.

Governor plans US trip

Krai Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko planned to meet with more than 250 American companies in San Francisco Oct. 30 to discuss investment opportunities in Primorye. He also planned push for development of local and international flights to Vladivostok, and tout the region’s extensive port system and link to the Trans-Siberian railway. But urgent business required him to cancel a planned trip that week to Portland, Ore., and instead go to Moscow.

Vote OK’s waste plant

A floating radioactive waste treatment plant will be built within Bolshoi Kamen, City Duma members announced. The vote stipulates that the government help alleviate unemployment. It also obligates the federal government to pay one percent of the yearly Zvezda defense contract to the city budget.

Fire burns near China

A fire near the Russian-Chinese border has ruined 252 hectares of land and was still burning strong. Fire teams, forest rangers and border guards are fighting the blaze, which may cross over into China at any time, officials say.

Tram jumps tracks, again

A tram derailed early Oct. 29, delaying traffic all day near Pokrovsky Park area. The hind wheels of a single-wagon tram jumped the tracks at 8:35am after a stone became inadvertently wedged into the rail grooves. No injuries were reported. The accident is the second in three weeks.

Aeroflot opens new route

Aeroflot announced a new route from Vladivostok to Seattle Oct. 28. Starting Nov. 3, flights will leave from Vladivostok at 6:00 p.m.Wednesday and at 4:40 p.m. Friday.