ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- TNK-BP, British Petroleum's Russian affiliate, has pledged $25 million to help St. Petersburg restore the city's crumbling historic buildings.
The Art Newspaper said Thursday $5 million in funds already has been transferred to the new St. Petersburg Preservation Foundation, set up in July by city Governor Valentina Matvienko, and the remaining $20 million will be made available by the end of the year. One of the major shareholders in TNK-BP is Victor Vekselberg, who purchased the American Forbes Collection of Faberge art objects last year.
The pledged money is to go toward the restoration of Smolny Cathedral, an 18th century Baroque masterpiece, its neighboring monastery which is now the St. Petersburg City Hall, the Admiralty building next to the Hermitage palace, Emperor Paul I's neo-classic Kammeno Ostrov Palace, and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the city's oldest monastery.
The newspaper noted that the donation was a shrewd move on the part of TNK-BP because the city government has the power to freeze its local business projects and because it will please President Vladimir Putin.
