PM plugs for Shashi Tharoor

In expansive praise for Tharoor, the Prime Minister said, 8216;8216;He has been part of the UN system for 30 years. He is best qualified to preside over the UN. He has outstanding credentials and therefore we are happy to have him as our candidate.8217;8217;

Czar Putin

Czar Putin, as many citizens of St Pete love to call the Russian President, got everything right in hosting the world leaders in his native city. Almost. The one thing he could not manage was weather. Putin, seen as the rainmaker for the city, could not stop the gods from raining on his parade. The last two days of the summit turned out to be cold, wet and windy, robbing the visiting leaders and thousands of journalists the pleasure of the city8217;s famed 8216;8216;white nights8217;8217;.

In summer, when the sun hardly stays out of the city8217;s skies, St Pete is resplendent. Putin certainly tried to push back the rain and show the best of the city to the world.

The Russian government ordered special planes into the air to seed the gathering clouds and induce them to rain outside the main island where the G-8 summit was being held. Cloud-seeding technology has been around for more than 50 years. Like all things about weather, technology seeking to modify it remains iffy at best after all these years.

Opening the Hermitage

The Russian affection for India remains an enduring one, despite all the changes that have taken place here since the collapse of the Soviet Union. What better proof than the decision by the officials of the Hermitage Museum for a small group of Indian journalists on a Monday morning. Museums around the world are usually shut on Mondays. But a request from the Indian officials saw the generous Russian gesture in St. Petersburg. On a normal day at the Hermitage, arguably one of the world8217;s best museums, you would be among hordes of milling visitors. The Indian journalists had the privilege of walking through the Hermitage in splendid isolation. Equally generous were some young Russian journalists who insisted on sharing their vodka with the Indian scribes as they rode the Hydrofoil service from the summit venue back into St. Pete. On a cold windy night at the end of a long day, it was a great toast to the spirit of Indo-Russian friendship.

An expensive summit

Even in a country celebrating its return to the centrestage of world affairs, there were enough voices questioning the costs of holding the G-8 summit. 8216;8216;Expensive guests8217;8217; Novye Izvestya screamed as it noted that the 8216;8216;G8 summit cost Russia a pretty penny.8217;8217; The paper noted that Russia spent more than one million dollars for one of the lunches at the summit. Another newspaper Gazeta observed that Russia spent 400 million on the summit 8212; more than double what Britain had spent on last year8217;s summit at Gleneagles, Scotland.