St. Petersburg is not only Russia's most beautiful city, but arguably also one of the most sought after destinations in Europe. Now it is challenging Paris and London to become a center for theatrical art.

Bentley Motors is further expanding its dealer network in the growing Russian market and today opens a new showroom in St. Petersburg. The official press conference, marking the opening of the new dealership to customers, was hosted by Michael Mayer, Regional Director Europe.

The Tatar community in St. Petersburg says a young man who was murdered in early July was the victim of a racist attack. Damir Zainullin, a 23-year-old ethnic Tatar, was stabbed to death while on his way to work on July 1. He had graduated from St. Petersburg's Agricultural University the day before the attack, which took place in close proximity to a police station.

An informal summit of presidents from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is taking place in St. Petersburg. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already held bilateral talks in St. Petersburg with a number of CIS leaders, including the Tajik, Georgian, and Uzbek presidents.

More than 6,000 politicians and business managers from around the world have gathered in St. Petersburg for the Russian city's 11th annual international economic forum.

The opposition group Other Russia is due to hold a March of Dissent demonstration in St. Petersburg on June 9 to coincide with an international economic forum in the city.

Japanese automaker Suzuki and Japanese trading corporation Itochu signed an agreement Friday initiating a $125 million project to build a car plant near St. Petersburg. The plant should start assembling cars, mostly Grand Vitara four-wheel drive vehicles, in 2009. The two investors will control the plant on a parity basis, Japan's Nikkei newspaper said earlier this week.

Russia's second city of St. Petersburg is set to host a round of summits and an opposition demonstration this weekend. Thousands of international investors are due to descend on St. Petersburg for an economic forum in which President Vladimir Putin will try to soothe fears about Russia's political and economic direction.

The Federal Security Service announced Saturday it had detained two suspects who planned an attempt to assassinate governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko. "The Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry have prevented an assassination attempt on the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matviyenko," the security agency said in a statement.

As a court began considering if a banned opposition group is an extremist organization, lower house of Russian parliament approved the legal amendments toughening criminal punishment for extremism.

The Kremlin today dismissed recent opposition rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg as "extremely marginal." Speaking on state-run television station Russia today, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said that foreign media had exaggerated the police crackdown on the April 14-15 rallies, although he said there had been some "overreaction" by the police.

Rallies in St. Petersburg and Moscow saw some of the largest displays of police force used against the political opposition since President Vladimir Putin took office seven years ago.