11.  But a special government commission has yet to issue a ruling that would clear the way for burial in St. Petersburg, the former imperial capital.

12.  But mostly it made this former imperial capital feel important again.

13.  For a brief moment this summer, former imperial capital St. Petersburg was again on center stage.

14.  For a brief moment this summer, St. Petersburg was again on center stage, the former imperial capital that has slipped into the shadows of post-Soviet life.

15.  Four elderly residents in this old imperial capital vividly recall life in the turbulent years the executions.

16.  Just about everything went right for Putin in St. Petersburg, his hometown and the former imperial capital.

17.  Nearby Zhangjiakou city was for centuries an important trading town linking Beijing, the imperial capital, with Mongolia.

18.  Putin met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in St.Petersburg on Thursday on the eve of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the former Russian imperial capital.

19.  Similar pyrotechnics were planned in Ho Chi Minh City and the former imperial capital, Hue.

20.  Schroeder arrived in the former imperial capital Monday afternoon, and was joined shortly afterward by Putin.