SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1009 (76), Tuesday, October 5, 2004
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TITLE: Pensioner Takes Fight for Attic Access to Strasbourg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Pensioner Lidiya Tumasova, who is fighting for the right to hang out her washing to dry in the attic of her apartment building, is hopes to get a positive decision from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg soon.
"Recently I met Natalya Andersen, a lawyer on civil cases at the international defense center, in Moscow," Tumasova said in an interview last week. "She told me the case might be reviewed within three years of me submitting my application. I'm 75 but I hope to live that long."
Tumasova filed an appeal to the court in February after she lost access to the attic of her apartment building on Ulitsa Malaya Konyushennaya in the center of city where until 1997 she used to regularly dry her washing.
That year, the city government issued an order for the attic to be reconstructed.
Formerly the shared property of the about 100 residents of the building, the attic was then converted into a private residential garret for new individual owners.
"Since that year I have had to dry my sheets on a rail in the kitchen, which occupies about 8 square meters, or in our narrow corridor," said Tumasova as she pointed at the linen hanging at her kitchen.
"It's very inconvenient, and unhealthy because it makes the air in the apartment too humid, especially on top of St. Petersburg's already damp climate," she said.
Tumasova said sometimes she even dries her linen in the parking lot in the yard of her apartment building, "when there are not too many cars."
Tumasova said she has earlier filed lawsuits in the court of the central district, where she lives, and in the city court over her right to use the attic. She said she won a number of those lawsuits regarding parts of the issue.
However, the situation didn't change. Then she thought of approaching the court in Strasbourg. Tumasova, a survivor of the World War II Siege of Leningrad and a former physical education teacher, tries to lead a healthy life.
She swims in the Neva River every day of the year, even between ice floes in winter.
She said residents in the building where she lives, which was constructed in 1825, had always dried their linen in the attic. This is tradition kept in many of the city's old apartment buildings.
Tumasova said that in order to silence her, the new owners of the garret offered to buy her a washing machine with a dryer.
However, Tumasova refused, saying that all other residents of the building, who also protested at the loss of the common attic and signed her complaints to local courts should also get washing machines and dryers.
The pensioner said she is unable to wash her linen at dry-cleaning services, because she can't afford it on her pension.
Andrei Yakovlev, resident of one of the apartments now located at what Tumasova describes as a "former attic," said that at the time he acquired it for reconstruction, the space had had the status of "non-residential accommodation" since 1971, making it not part of the building's living area unless converted.
"And that fact made it a different story," Yakovlev said.
Yakovlev said the decision of the city's Kuibyshev court in the central district, which considered the case in 2003, did not find enough grounds to satisfy Tumasova's complaint.
However, Tumasova said she won a number of previous court hearings regarding the case in the same court. She said the decision from 2003 was not right.
At the same time, Yakovlev does not mind Tumasova's decision to complain to the Strasbourg Court.
"That's her right," he said.
Tumasova said court has confirmed that it had received her complaint.
However, the press service of the court said Wednesday that it would take from several months to three years to decide if her case would be admissible.
Few cases from Russia have been ajudicated by the court.
In 2003, when it received 5,996 applications, the court heard just three cases connected to Russia.
The country that received the most attention from the court was Italy with 15 percent of judgments followed by Turkey and France sharing second place with 10.8 percent of judgments.
Only five applications from Russia were declared admissible, while for Turkey this number was 142 and for Poland it was 83.
The European Court of Human Rights is the court of last resort for thousands of Russians who fail to get justice inside Russia.
"I really hope to win this case," Tumasova said.
TITLE: Top Cop Recants Twice
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin denied Friday criticizing an investigation into the beating to death of a man said to be from near St. Petersburg who was suspected of trying to plant a car bomb in Moscow.
Pronin also denied that he had announced the arrest of two Chechens earlier in the week and had linked them to the murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov
Major Russian dailies said Saturday that Pronin was being forced to retract his remarks after speaking too soon on the two high-profile investigations. The reports said Pronin had wanted to be the first to announce developments in the investigations to show his superiors that he was on top of things.
Izvestia, citing an Interior Ministry source, said the ministry has been discussing firing Pronin and he knows it.
Pronin on Thursday fired four police officials, including Vyacheslav Baranov, head of the city police's organized crime department.
Andrei Semigin, chief of the 83rd precinct was also fired, as was chief investigator Anton Gusev and his deputy Vyacheslav Dushenko. Alexander Pumane, the man identified by the police as being caught with the car bomb, was interrogated at the 83th precinct.
Baranov was fired due to incompetence unrelated to the death, Pronin's spokesman said. No official reason was given for the other three dismissals, though Russian dailies reported they were prompted by the death.
The bomb suspect, thought to be from the St. Petersburg satellite town of Pushkin, was detained on Sept. 18 near Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow with two land mines and 200 grams of TNT in his car.
He died several hours later in the hospital after reportedly being interrogated by a total of 150 law enforcement officers. Doctors said he had severe brain injuries.
A warrant has been issued for Dushenko, a police major suspected of beating Pumane in a manner that lead to his death.
Local media reported that Dushenko had interrupted the interrogation of Pumane with the words, "I'll make him talk," and took him to the cellar of the 83rd district police station. The result was that Pumane died in an emergency ward of the Sklifosovsky hospital.
Moscow city prosecutors have tried to interview Dushenko ever since the investigation began, but he has not appeared once at his workplace. Nor could he be found at home or with close relatives.
The identity of the suspect remains unclear. Pumane's former wife and colleagues have said they do not recognize the body.
Pronin announced Friday that all of the law enforcement authorities involved in the suspected bomber's interrogation committed violations but that the Presnensky city district prosecutor, whose territory includes the 83th precinct, was especially to blame, Interfax reported. "He should have come and directly overseen the interrogation," Pronin was quoted as saying.
The Moscow city prosecutor's office immediately retorted with a statement pointing out that it was Pronin's subordinates on the police force who had apparently misused their authority in the death.
Late Friday afternoon, Pronin's spokesman said his boss denied that he had criticized the Presnensky prosecutor.
Meanwhile, two Chechen men, Aslan Sagayev, 24, and Kazbek Elmurzayev, 24, were detained early Tuesday after police got a tip that they were holding a hostage and raided their rented apartment in western Moscow.
Pronin said a few hours later that investigators believed that one of three pistols found in the apartment was used in Klebnikov's killing, Interfax reported. Klebnikov, the editor of Russian Forbes magazine and an investigative reporter, was shot outside his office July 9.
The Prosecutor General's Office immediately lambasted Pronin for releasing details of the arrests.
Three days later, Pronin said he had never released any information.
"Pronin denies ... that he announced the arrest of two natives of Chechnya who were allegedly involved in the murder of Paul Klebnikov," his spokesman Kirill Mazurin said Friday, RIA-Novosti reported.
An unidentified city police official close to the Klebnikov investigation told RIA-Novosti on Tuesday that ballistic tests indicated a gun found in the apartment was used to kill the journalist.
But the presumed murder weapon - a Stechkin pistol - was not among the three seized guns, Gazeta and Vremya Novostei reported Friday, citing sources.
A Dagestani businessman who was allegedly kidnapped by Sagayev and Elmurzayev said he was in fact abducted by Federal Security Service officers over his failure to pay them $300,000 in a stalled business deal.
In an interview published Monday in Kommersant, Akhmed-Pasha Aliyev said he secured $60 million from relatives in the U.S. to develop 2 hectares in Moscow with a private company partly owned by FSB officers Roman Slivkin, Oleg Sachkov and Dmitry Frolov.
Aliyev said he received $300,000 from the company for acting as the intermediary.
But the $60 million payment was delayed, and he was abducted on Sept. 16 at a restaurant on Ryzansky Prospekt in southern Moscow, he said.
TITLE: Zenit Scales New Heights Home and Away
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: After beating Red Star Belgrade 2-1 in the second leg of the first round of the UEFA Cup, eliminating the 1990/91 European champions 6-1 on aggregate, FC Zenit is entering the most successful period of its recent history.
St. Petersburg's soccer team drew with FC Amkar Perm 0-0 on Monday to become equal top of the 16-member Russian Premier League. The team's victory over Red Star on Thursday, consolidating the 4-0 thumping it gave the Serbian-Montenegrin team in the first leg on Sept. 16, takes Zenit to new heights in European football.
The draw for next phase of the contest is due to take place on Tuesday in Nyon, Switzerland and will feature eight groups of five teams, who will each play two home and two away games.
After that, the top three teams from each group advance to a new knockout stage. Crowd trouble at Thursday's match in Belgrade, which was attended by between 400 and 500 Zenit fans, was blamed on distraught Red Star supporters. Police used tear gas and batons to disperse Red Star fans, who called for managing director Dragan Dzajic and other club officials to stand down after a string of poor results, Reuters reported.
"We weren't aware of much trouble but Yugloslav fans are known to be lively," a source at Zenit's press office said Monday, referring to Red Star supporters.
"There were no fights between our fans and theirs."
Zenit's self-styled "crazy fans" are some of the most loyal and fanatical in Russia. Coach Vlastimil Petrzela is sure to be feted as a living god if the team progresses further internationally or becomes Russian champion when the season ends next month.
But Zenit's domestic success may not suit powerful business interests behind Moscow teams CSKA, Spartak and Lokomotiv which have traditionally duked it out for the top spot in the Premier League.
A group of St. Petersburg legislators have urged Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to investigate possible match fixing after Zenit lost to FC Shinnik Yaroslav after a dubious penalty decision in a recent domestic fixture, reported Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper on Wednesday.
"The soccer bureaucrats want to see one of the Moscow clubs as champions," the deputies wrote to Fradkov and to the president of the Russian Football Union, Vyacheslav Koloskov.
With five games left in the season Zenit, which is sponsored by state gas monopoly Gazprom, is equal top of the championship with CSKA. Both are on 49 points. CSKA is sponsored by soccer-loving oligarch Roman Abramovich's Sibneft oil company.
Zenit's success is due in part to the appointment two years ago of Czech coach Petrzela by former club president Vitaly Mutko in a move that broke a long-held taboo about foreigners coaching Russian professional sports teams.
Petrzela rapidly transformed Zenit from the also-rans of Russian soccer to last season's runners up behind current champion CSKA. His example encouraged other teams, including CSKA, to dump Russian coaches for foreign ones before the current season began in March.
Last month Zenit announced that it had extended Petrzela's contract through 2007.
Petrzela brought discipline and drive to the squad and spent some of the club's estimated $14 million budget on strengthening weaknesses in its defensive line-up.
In the summer Petrzela signed defenders Jan Flachbart from the Czech Republic, Egidijus Majus from Lithuania and Martin Skrtel from Slovakia.
Star striker Alexander Kershakov, Zenit's most valuable player who is thought to be worth as much as $10 million, has been tipped to be snapped up by a top European club. But shortly after the UEFA Cup first-leg match against Red Star last month Kershakov extended his contract with Zenit until 2007.
At the same time Vyacheslav Malafeyev, one of the league's best goalkeepers, extended his contract to 2009. Both players are Russian internationals.
Zenit's success has not gone unnoticed by City Hall which announced that it plans to build a new 50,000 seat stadium suitable for hosting European-level soccer games.
"In October we will make a final decision on building an international-standard soccer stadium," Interfax quoted Governor Valentina Matviyenko as saying last week.
Facilities at Zenit's current home at Petrovsky Stadium are basic, but leaving the venerable 22,000-seat venue could be an emotional wrench for the team's "crazy fans."
The stadium, which is occupies an part of an island in the River Neva, is regarded as hallowed ground. In folk memory the timber from its wooden stands fueled fires that kept citizens warm during the coldest months of the Siege of Leningrad during World War II.
The stadium also hosted the international Goodwill Games in 1994 in an ambitious attempt by former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchack to raise St. Petersburg's profile, However the event was widely regarded as a financial and sporting flop.
Despite being hailed with cries of "Zenit... Champion!" all over the city on match days - on one memorable occasion drowning out the opera singer Placido Domingo as he gave an open-air concert on Palace Square in 2001 - the St. Petersburg team has had few successes in its 80 year history.
Founded as a factory team under the name Stalinets Leningrad, the club joined the Soviet premier league in 1938. Fearing murderous retribution from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin for poor performances the team dropped his name from its title and adopted the name of its then sponsor, the Zenit optical company, in 1940.
The change brought the team luck and it lifted the Soviet Cup in 1944. In 1984 the team won its first and only Soviet league title but quickly lost momentum. For much of the next ten years played in the lower divisions. Throughout the wilderness years St. Petersburg fans kept the faith and Zenit eventually returned to the top flight in 1996 in the newly-formed Russian League.
The UEFA Cup draw on Tuesday determines which team Zenit will play next in the Europe-wide competition. A computer draw is to determine the fixture schedule with factors such as stadium clashes and winter weather taken into account. It will be impossible to play professional football in northern Europe, including St. Petersburg, in mid-December.
TITLE: Alfyorov Slams Science Funding Cuts
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Alfyorov has condemned a government proposal to privatize some of the state's cash-strapped scientific and research organizations.
The Education and Science Ministry has developed a plan called the National Concept of Participation in Managing State Scientific and Research Organizations.
It proposes reducing the number of state scientific institutions from more than 2,000 currently operating to between 100 and 200 by 2008.
The plan aims to halve state expenditure on science by 2006.
Staff of many of the institutes, which were lavishly funded in Soviet times, are destitute and those without commercial contracts have almost no income.
Many resort to letting out space to other firms to earn money.
Several federal programs, including a Medical Industry Development Plan and Development of Methods of Protection of Population From Dangerous Pathogens, are scheduled to be suspended for an unspecified period of time.
Scientists are getting ready to participate in a nationwide protest on Oct.20.
The biggest meeting will be organized outside the federal government headquarters in Moscow.
"We scientists are bewildered by this document," Alfyorov said at a news conference in Rosbalt news agency last week.
"The ministry has been acting in a tactless and in arbitrary manner, without even informing us about the plan, let alone asking our advice."
"If the government accepts the plan, it means Russian science will soon be dead and buried," he added.
The plan will be presented to the Russian government for approval in the near future.
Alfyorov chairs the St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Academy of Sciences.
Eduard Tropp, the center's principal scientific secretary, compared the ministry's tactics with Soviet collectivization.
"By selling out the country's scientific institutions the state is unilaterally unloading its responsibilities to support science in Russia," Tropp said.
The St. Petersburg Scientific Center is preparing an alternative concept for the development of science and research in the country. The document will be completed by mid-October and then presented to President Vladimir Putin for review.
The center is an umbrella group for 60 local scientific and research institutions.
"Not a single one of them will be sold into private hands," Alfyorov said. "We just won't let it happen."
TITLE: Protest Blasts Kremlin, Warns of Dictatorship
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: About 100 people took part in a protest against irresponsible government and a looming sense of dictatorship in the central city on Saturday.
Organized by the Civil Action group, the protest featured members of the democratic movement of 1980s and 1990s, including representatives of Yabloko and Union of Right Forces parties, the Memorial human rights organization and the group Conscience, which supports businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The group filed a petition demanding that President Vladimir Putin take responsibility for corruption and bureaucrats' abuses of their authority. "The notorious power vertical that is being convulsively strengthened after another act of terrorism can't protect us from terror, from the arbitrariness and corruption of authorities," the petition says.
Demonstrators held posters saying "KGB, take your hands off the administration," "Clean up the FSB from terrorists of the KGB!" and also a portrait of Vladimir Putin with the slogan "That's enough!" written on it.
"Who is punished for the Beslan tragedy? Only little people are being held to blame. The people who brutally killed [Alexander Pumane], a valuable witness suspected of terrorism, are getting awards. Bribery and theft are flourishing. Terrorists are walking freely in our cities. They have never before felt as free as they do under this power vertical. What is going to happen when this vertical is finally at full strength?"
"The power vertical is being strengthened at the expense of our rights, political, social and economical, that we gained through a hard struggle in recent years. The country is being dragged back into its past of blood and poverty," the petition says.
The demonstrators demanded the regime quit the Kremlin if it is "not able to take Russia forward."
"We demand that those who made law enforcement harm the public but favor criminals be punished. And we have had enough of blaming the predecessors, it's time to answer for five years of work."
Putin became prime minister in 1999 and has virtually been the top official in the country since then.
Members of human rights organizations called for the prosecutions of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to be halted, protested against the war in Chechnya and asked St. Petersburgers to participate in a march against hatred planned in the city for Oct. 31.
Yuly Rybakov, a human rights advocate and former State Duma lawmaker who did not participate in the meeting because he was out of town, said "a government formed of the KGB has got what it wanted by making people scared."
"I will try to be there [for the march against hatred] because hatred is what the government uses to raise fear and subordination in society," Rybakov said Monday in a telephone interview from a village outside St. Petersburg.
"This is the foundation that the current FSB-based government is using to build a new empire that will lead to the end of Russia," he said. "If multinational Russia starts fighting against itself, that will be it."
There were no disturbances reported.
TITLE: Bush, Kerry Criticize Putin in Debate
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - U.S. President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, expressed concern in their first debate that President Vladimir Putin is rolling back democratic reforms-but the criticism received little coverage in Russia.
Kerry offered the more critical assessment of Putin's decision to scrap popular elections for governors and individual races for the State Duma as part of Russia's war on terror.
"I regret what's happened in these past months. And I think it goes beyond just the response to terror," he said in the televised debate Thursday night. "Mr. Putin now controls all the television stations. His political opposition is being put in jail."
Kerry was apparently referring to billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested last October after his political and business ambitions provoked the Kremlin's wrath.
"This is a very important country to us and we want a partnership, but we always have to stand up for democracy," Kerry said. "As [Washington Post columnist] George Will said the other day, 'Freedom on the march? Not in Russia right now.'"
Bush, who reiterated his strong admiration of Putin on Sept. 12, a day before Putin announced the political reforms, was careful in choosing his words to describe Putin's drive. "No, I don't think it's OK and said so publicly," he said. "I think that there needs to be checks and balances in a democracy, and made that very clear, that by consolidating power in the central government, he's sending a signal to the Western world and the United States that - that - that perhaps he doesn't believe in checks and balances. And I told him that."
Still, Bush said he had "a good relation with Vladimir" and regarded Putin as "a strong ally in the war on terror."
He said Russia "went through a horrible situation in Beslan, where these terrorists gunned down young schoolkids.
"That's why we need to be firm in resolve in bringing them to justice. It's precisely what Vladimir Putin understands as well," Bush said.
"Vladimir is going to have to make some hard choices, and I think it's very important for the American president, as well as other western leaders, to remind him of the great benefits of democracy, that democracy will best help the people realize their hopes and aspirations and dreams," he said.
Bush and Kerry's critical comments were not mentioned on state-controlled television networks Channel One, Rossia and NTV in their coverage of the debate. Surprisingly, Kommersant, which is owned by fierce Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, did not report about the debate at all. Other newspapers, such as Trud and Rossiiskaya Gazeta, published reports about the debates but left out Kerry's remark that Putin controls the television airwaves and jails his opponents. Trud said only that Kerry spoke "toughly" about undemocratic changes in Russia.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta said "both speakers expressed concern about the prospects of democracy in Russia" and noted that Bush differed with Putin about "checks and balances."
Ren-TV, the only television channel whose news coverage is considered somewhat independent of the Kremlin, briefly mentioned the criticism on its news programs Friday.
Izvestia, whose editor resigned last month under pressure from the Kremlin, published a full transcript of the debate, including the criticism, as did Interfax.
Ekho Moskvy radio aired the criticism and invited several politicians to comment. Mikhail Margelov, head of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, dismissed Kerry's criticism as "a typical topic for the Democrats." Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, concurred, telling the radio station: "Rhetoric during an election campaign is just rhetoric. We don't need to attach great importance to it."
The leader of the nationalist-populist Rodina party, Dmitry Rogozin, said Bush and Kerry should mind their own business. "We shouldn't tuck our tails between our legs. What we are doing is our own internal affair," he said.
Deputy Communist Party chief Ivan Melnikov said Bush "understands the antidemocratic nature of Putin's recent initiatives" but because of his office could not speak as candidly as Kerry.
Russia was only mentioned one other time during the debate, by Kerry in answer to a question about what is the most serious threat to U.S. security. Nuclear proliferation, he replied, and securing "some 600-plus" tons of poorly guarded nuclear materials "in the former Soviet Union, in Russia."
Bush agreed that nuclear proliferation was the biggest challenge and defended his nonproliferation efforts.
Kerry, meanwhile, incorrectly identified the location of the former KGB headquarters, the Lubyanka, as Treblinka Square.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Bridge Design Contest
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The British Consulate General in St. Petersburg, City Hall's town planning and architecture committee and the St. Petersburg Union of Architects announced an architectural competition "Bridges of St. Petersburg: New look" at a news conference Monday.
The competition is open to young designers and students of architecture who are asked to submit their design of a pedestrian bridge either over Kronverksky Proliv, the Malaya Neva or the Fontanka canal.
The projects should be submitted by Nov. 15, and the results of the competition will be judged during the Days of the Modern British Architecture from Nov. 22 to Dec. 5. Details about the competition can be found at www.bridgevision.spb.ru
Although there are no immediate plans to construct any pedestrian bridges, mainly due to the lack of money, the town planning and architecture committee said such bridges are needed and the best projects could be built later.
The winner will go to Britain and get a two-week internship at an architectural firm, while all the designs will be displayed in an exhibition during British architecture week. George Edgar, the British Consul General in St. Petersburg, said outstanding and extraordinary designs that blend into the surroundings are likely to win.
"Bridges play a very important role, they act as a significant symbol in the life of the city", he added.
Kresty Numbers Down
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The number of prisoners in Kresty, the city's 19th century pre-trial detention center that has been long criticized for its unsatisfactory conditions, has fallen by 3,000 people, Interfax reported Thursday.
"Over the last years, the number of prisoners has constantly been falling," said Alexei Gerasimov, deputy head of Kresty.
"Today we are reaching European standards of holding prisoners, which are for 2 square meters for a person," he said.
Gerasimov said that several years ago the number of prisoners had sometimes reached up to 13,000, and the conditions needed to be improved. At that time prisoners in some cells had to sleep in turns because there were not enough beds, Gerasimov said.
Masonry Fall Injures
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Three people were injured as a result of the collapse of a stucco moulding from the front of a building on Liteiny Prospekt, Interfax reported Saturday.
A man, who suffered a head injury, and two women, who were concussed, were hospitalized.
The St. Petersburg Emergency Situations press-service said the accident happened because essential repairs to the building's facade had not been made.
Vice Governor Hurt
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Grigory Dvas, vice governor of the Leningrad Oblast responsible for much of the foreign investment in the region, was injured in an auto accident Friday, Interfax said.
The vice governor's auto collided with a Zhiguli on Dvortsovy bridge. Dvas received numerous injuries, including fractures of the collar bone and two ribs.
The Leningrad Oblast government's press-service said Monday that Dvas is in a stable condition.
Organ Restored
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - An organ that has been restored in Germany will play again in the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in January, Interfax reported Friday.
The musical instrument, made by sons of famous 18th century organ craftsman Eberhard Friedrich Walcker had been dismantled and sent to Germany for restoration. The work, provided by the German firm Kleis, was worth about 1.5 million euros.
The organ is being reinstalled in the Philharmonic.
SS Monument Alert
ESTONIA - The erection of a monument portraying a World War II Estonian soldier wearing the uniform of a German SS officer in the village of Lihula could damage Estonia's foreign relations, Interfax quoted the German ambassador to Estonia, Jurgen Droge, as saying.
The agency cited an interview in the Postimes newspaper in which Droge confirmed that his opinion was based on publications in German newspapers and the reaction of the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
The monument to Estonians, who fought on the side of Hitler's Germany was erected in the west of Estonia in Lihula on Aug. 20. However, under the pressure of EU allies and NATO the Estonian government ordered it dismantled.
The dismantling led to some Estonians vandalizing monuments to Soviet soldiers. Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Hitler's Germany in 1941 until Soviet troops returned. Estonians fought for both sides.
600 Bombs Defused
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - In the last three months, St. Petersburg sappers have neutralized 600 explosive objects left over from World War II, Interfax reported Monday.
Most of the explosives were in the Pushkin district, said Yury Klyonov, head of the press service of the Leningrad Military District.
Money Misused
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Money allocated for the reconstruction and restoration of Oranienbaum museum in the town of Lomonosov in the Leningrad Oblast was partly used for other purposes, Interfax quoted the State Audit Chamber as saying Friday.
The chamber's press service said that between 1998 and 2004 more than 25 million rubles ($862,000) was allocated for the restoration. However, 533,800 rubles ($18,000) was spent on other things.
Announcer Robbed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) -Unidentified attackers robbed a St. Petersburg's sports news announcer on Saturday, Interfax reported.
Nikita Gulin, who works for Vesti Peterburg, was attacked on Bolshoi Prospekt on the Petrograd Side when he was returning from work. The attackers beat him up and took his money.
New Russian Cartoon
MOSCOW - A new full-length cartoon "Neznaika and Barrabass" is almost ready to hit Russian TV screens, Interfax reported Monday.
The cartoon's premiere will take place in Moscow's Rolan movie theater on Friday and it will first be screened on television on Oct. 28.
The cartoon's budget was $ 3.5 million and it is 80 minutes long, said a representative of the company distributing it.
The action in the cartoon takes place 100 years ago deep in the woods in a little town, settled with tiny forest people.
They try not to be seen by Big People so nobody knows about them until an angry criminal Barrabass attacks them. Passport Returned
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) - A businessman whose alleged ties to Russian mafia groups fueled the ouster of Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas will get his Russian passport back, a court ruled Thursday.
Yury Borisov, a Russian who was granted Lithuanian citizenship last year by Paksas, asked the court in Vilnius for his passport back in exchange for a written pledge not to leave the country.
Chechen Human Rights
MOSCOW (AP) - Europe's top human rights official on Wednesday strongly urged Russia to put an end to disappearances of civilians in Chechnya, saying they have acquired a "scandalous" scale.
Alvaro Gil-Robles, Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said that he had seen some improvements on a trip to Chechnya earlier this month but emphasized that disappearances have remained a major obstacle to peace and stability in Chechnya.
Voronezh Convictions
MOSCOW (AP) - A Voronezh court on Thursday convicted two men and a teenager in the racially motivated stabbing death of an African student and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from nine to 17 years.
Yevgeny Shishlov, 22, was sentenced to 17 years in the February slaying of Amaru Antonio Lima, 24, a medical student from Guinea-Bissau, Itar-Tass and Interfax reported. His accomplice Roman Ledenyov, 20, was given a 10-year prison sentence.
A third participant in the killing, who was identified only as a 16-year-old male law student, was sentenced to nine years by the court in the city of Voronezh. NTV television identified him as Vladimir Kokoshin.
Refugee Center Worries
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine expressed concern Thursday about media reports that the European Union wants to set up camps for would-be migrants - notably Chechens - on its territory.
EU interior and justice ministers were to discuss proposals Thursday and Friday for immigration "gateways" - reception centers in countries beyond EU borders to process and repatriate those who do not meet immigration requirements.
Fradkov: Help Exclave
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov appealed to the European Union presidency on Thursday help ease the transport of cargo from its isolated Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad through the EU's new member states that surround it.
Fradkov said he raised the problems of trafficking goods from Kaliningrad and the treatment of Russian speakers in the Baltic states in his talks with Dutch government leaders.
South Ossetian Plea
MOSCOW (AP) - The leader of Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region reiterated that he wants his province to join with North Ossetia and become part of Russia, Interfax reported.
Speaking at a Moscow ceremony Wednesday marking the dispatch of humanitarian aid to his region, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said South Ossetia's leadership would "work on several economic projects" that would foster integration with Russia.
General Resigns
MOSCOW (SPT) - General Nikolai Kormiltsev tendered his resignation as the commander of the ground forces to President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, his spokesman Yakov Firsov said.
The 58-year-old commander confirmed his decision to step down in an interview with Itar-Tass, but would not reveal the reason.
Moskovsky Komsomolets said Kormiltsev decided to follow the lead of General Anatoly Kvashnin, who resigned earlier this year as chief of General Staff after losing operational control of the armed forces. Kormiltsev was an ally of Kvashnin's, the daily's web site said.
TITLE: President Creates A Rights Center
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin signed a decree last week to set up a center that will help protect the rights of Russians in former Soviet republics, which became independent when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The decree establishes the International Human Rights Center and instructs Putin's regional envoys and local officials to cooperate with rights groups, the Kremlin said in a news release.
The international center will help defend the rights of Russian citizens abroad, said Ella Pamfilova, a former government minister and head of the presidential human rights commission that called for the center's creation.
Russian authorities have often criticized the treatment of ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in the former Soviet republics, which became independent in 1991, saying they are often deprived of jobs and of education in their native language.
Russian officials have been particularly critical of the authorities in the Baltic states, especially Latvia and Estonia, and have repeatedly called on the European Union to protect the rights of Russians there.
Russian authorities also express concern about the fate of Russians in Central Asian nations, including Turkmenistan.
In addition, many people in separatist regions in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have been granted Russian passports, and Russian officials say Mocow is obliged to protect their rights-a trend that worries Georgian officials who fear it is aimed to undermine their authority. Human rights activists also say that some of the worst violations occur in Russia's far-flung regions, where the rule of law is sometimes less prevalent than in Moscow.
"Developing the human rights movement, especially in the regions, is very important," Interfax quoted Pamfilolva as saying on Sept. 27.
But the decree's focus may be on monitoring the rights of Russians living in what Russia calls "the near abroad"-the former Soviet republics. Ethnic Russians make up sizable minitories in the former republics. Some activists criticized the initiative as a sign of a return to Soviet-style state control over society.
"This is the return of the Soviet system of quasi-public organizations," said Yuri Samodurov, an activist who heads the Sakharov Museum. During the Soviet era, the Communist Party was in charge of every organization in the country.
Samodurov expressed doubt over whether a state-funded public organization can be truly independent.
"This is another step in building the so-called 'vertical of power,'" he said, referring to measures Putin has taken to consolidate his authority over the country. "Now they are targeting the human rights movement-the only sector which is not yet under their control."
TITLE: Kremlin Bids to Hire, Fire Governors
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin will be able to hire and fire regional leaders and disband regional legislatures that reject his nominees more than once, according to a Kremlin-sponsored bill submitted to the State Duma this week.
In interviews published Wednesday, officials in Putin's retinue sought to talk up the bill, which scraps the popular vote for regional leaders and is a key plank in Putin's plan to strengthen the executive chain of command in response to the latest terrorist attacks.
The bill allows Putin to select and nominate a candidate for consideration by regional lawmakers, Interfax reported. If the lawmakers reject the candidate, Putin could nominate the same person again or offer a new candidate. After a second rejection, Putin could appoint an acting governor, disband the legislature, or both.
The president would have the right to fire governors, Interfax said.
Allegations of wrongdoing by prosecutors is cause for dismissal, Kommersant reported Wednesday.
Regional lawmakers could also seek a governor's dismissal by passing a no-confidence vote with a two-thirds majority. But the vote would not necessarily lead to the governor's sacking, Kommersant said.
The bill does not specify how many terms a governor could serve. Current legislation limits governors elected after 1999 to two terms. Under current law, regional leaders must be at least 30 years old, and a single term in office cannot exceed five years.
Regional leaders, however, will gain additional powers, including responsibility for overseeing the local branches of federal agencies.
Most governors will come from their respective regions, but nominees might also hail from Moscow, said Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of presidential administration, Interfax reported.
The bill is expected to sail through the Kremlin-controlled State Duma this fall.
Nevertheless, Surkov and Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov promoted it and other sweeping reforms to the electoral system in interviews published Wednesday.
The proposed system of gubernatorial elections "will allow us... to adapt the state mechanism to the extreme conditions of an unannounced war" against terror, Surkov said in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Surkov brushed aside allegations that Putin wants to increase his power. "Putin strengthens the state, not himself," he said. "His current authority is high enough, and he has no problems in relations with regional leaders."
If the bill is passed, all regional leaders will be chosen under the new system by 2009, Surkov said.
In an apparent response to international criticism that the change would be a retreat from democracy, Surkov said Putin would have to coordinate his nominations with the opposition in regional legislatures because United Russia controls only 17 of them.
United Russia has said, however, that it intends to control most of the legislatures in the country's 89 regions by the end of the year-a goal that analysts call more than feasible.
Gryzlov told Izvestia that in addition to fighting terrorism, the latest presidential initiatives could help stamp out corruption in regional administrations. "An unacceptably high percentage" of governors in the past 13 years focused on "protecting the interests of their companies or dominating a region with their relatives," he said.
Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said Wednesday that the changes could improve the country's economy, political system and national security.
However, one Kremlin official, Putin's economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, offered some criticism Monday. Asked by a reporter about the moves, he said there are different types of democracy in the world. Pushed further, he added, "My view is that competition is better than a monopoly in all areas and all places. I don't know of any examples in life, either economic or other, where in the long term a monopoly is more effective than competition."
Staff Writer Guy Faulconbridge contributed to this report.
TITLE: Bill Puts President In Charge of Judges
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In a move to further strengthen the Kremlin's grip, the Federation Council has drafted a bill that would blur the line between the separation of the judicial and executive branches of power by putting the judiciary system under the control of the Kremlin.
The draft, which was overwhelmingly approved by Federation Council senators on Wednesday, would allow the Kremlin to appoint half of the members of the Supreme Qualification Collegium and the Federation Council to pick the rest. The collegium is the only authority in the country that can fire judges, and it also appoints judges to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court.
The bill appears to be an attempt to legitimize something that is already happening in reality, analysts said Thursday.
"The judiciary system is now fully under the control of the executive branch, and this bill will just legalize the situation," said Andrei Pokhmelkin, a legal expert from the Moscow-based Independent Council of Legal Experts.
The Supreme Qualification Collegium consists of 29 members, 18 of whom are judges elected by secret ballot every four years by the All-Russia Congress of Judges, an association of judges. Ten members are public representatives appointed by the Federation Council, while the remaining one is appointed by the president as his representative.
The Federation Council's bill proposes cutting the members of the collegiums to 21 people. The judges on the collegium would be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Federation Council, while public representatives would be nominated by the speaker of the Federation Council and approved by the chamber. The president would keep the right to pick his own representative.
The bill, portions of which are posted on the Federation Council's web site, allows the president to fire the judges on the collegium with the collegium's consent and the Federation Council to fire the public representatives.
The bill comes about three weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced a sweeping shakeup of the country's political life by scrapping the popular vote for regional leaders in favor of a system under which he would submit candidates to regional legislatures for their approval. Putin also called for an end to individual races in State Duma elections.
He said the changes were needed to strengthen the executive chain of command-and the country-after the recent terrorist attacks.
Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, a co-author of the judges bill, said the change is needed to stamp out corruption in the judiciary system in order to fight terrorism.
Independent State Duma Deputy Sergei Popov said the bill was the wrong way to go. "There are two main problems-judges are corrupt or biased-in our judicial system. But you cannot fight against corruption by making them more biased," said Popov, a member of the Duma's Legislation Committee.
"This bill shows that those in power are suffering from some kind of paranoia. We don't have a political opposition, and the judicial system is already under the control of the executive branch-but they are still frightened of something," Pokhmelkin said.
Sergei Nanosov, a legal expert with the independent Legal Council think tank, called the bill "a very dangerous attempt to put an end to judges' independence."
"They will be under the Kremlin's control," he said. "Since the main function of the Supreme Qualification Collegium was to fire judges, judges who refuse to fulfill certain orders might get fired because half of the collegium's members are loyal to the Kremlin."
The bill also gives the president control of the Judges Department, a federal body responsible for the administration of the courts.
The director of the department is now appointed by the chairman of the Supreme Court, but the bill allows the president to appoint and fire the director.
The bill clearly contradicts the Lisbon convention, which Russia signed in 1998. Under the convention, half of the members of the Supreme Qualification Collegium should be judges elected by the judges themselves, Pokhmelkin said.
"There are too many things in our country that don't coincide with international standards, and this proposal is not an exception," he said.
Senators approved the bill in a 175-2 vote Wednesday. One senator abstained.
Analysts said the bill is clearly backed by Putin since its authors are close allies of the president. In addition to Mironov, the authors include Federation Council deputy speakers Alexander Torshin, Dmitry Mezentsev, Mikhail Nikolayev and Svetlana Orlova, as well as the Kremlin-connected Center for Strategic Development, which helped run Putin's election campaign in 2000.
The Duma is expected to consider the bill this fall.
TITLE: Ferry Disaster Haunts Baltic 10 Years On
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TALLINN, Estonia - Ilkka Karppala remembers the stormy day before a night 10 years ago when the Estonia sank, killing 852 people in one of the worst maritime disasters in history.
"It was very dark and dismal all day. Bad weather," said Karppala, the Finnish coast guard officer who first heard the ferry's Mayday - which failed to identify the vessel.
The weather was so bad that it ripped a branch off a cherry tree in his garden as he left for the night shift at the coast guard station in Turku, which became the base for rescue operations.
"I mentioned the broken branch to my wife and remember saying, 'Anything could happen on a night like this,'" he said. "And what we had thought was impossible actually happened."
The Estonia was headed for Stockholm, Sweden, with 989 people on board when it capsized off the southwestern coast of Finland in the middle of the night.
The disaster shocked a region unaccustomed to such disasters, and spawned a host of conspiracy theories as well as prompting new, stringent safety standards for passenger ferries.
The ferry was carrying Swedish vacationers, Estonian politicians and tourists when waves as high as 8 meters ripped off the 56-ton bow door, letting water gush into the car deck.
The Estonia sank in just 45 minutes, at 1:48 a.m. on Sept. 28, 1994. Only 137 people survived.
Russian reports accused crime gangs of blowing the ship up as part of a vendetta between drug-dealing cartels.
But an official inquiry, by a commission of Estonian, Finnish and Swedish experts, blamed faulty bow door locks, the storm and human error in its 230-page final report released in 1997.
"We still stand behind these findings. The locks on the visor door were too weak and the speed of the vessel was a bit too fast for the weather conditions," said Kari Lehtola, the retired head of the Finnish investigative team in the international commission. "There was no single cause. And we know much more about maritime safety today."
Poor communications, an inexperienced crew and rescuers overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task were contributory factors. More lives could have been saved if the crew and rescuers had been more efficient, the commission said.
The first Finnish rescue helicopter did not arrive on the scene of the accident - about 70 kilometers off the coast - until one hour, 40 minutes after the first Mayday call.
They were met by a disconsolate sight - hundreds of life vests, many of them empty and some with dead bodies, and dozens of rafts, some overturned, thrashing about in the waves with blinking reflectors.
"It felt like you were in the middle of a movie set. We asked ourselves, 'Is this real? Is this even possible?'" said Matti Rytkonen, a rescue helicopter pilot.
The southern Estonian town of Voru lost 17 people in the sinking, including the mayor and several business owners who were traveling to Sweden for a conference.
"It's hard to forget because we lost so many people," said Kulli Kaldvee, secretary of the town council.
Then-Prime Minister Mart Laar said the Estonia sinking was a blow to the small nation just as it was emerging from its Soviet past.
"It was certainly the saddest time during my term of office," he said. "But the Estonia accident didn't disturb the progress of Estonia as a nation ... and new [tourists] have come in place of the old."
Ten years later, dozens of passenger vessels ply the Baltic between ports in Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Poland and Germany. They include small, fast catamarans and large ferries carrying as many as 2,000 passengers. Few have the visor-style bow doors as most were welded shut after the accident.
"The locks on ferries now are about 10 times stronger than they were on the Estonia. New stricter safety regulations would not allow the Estonia to sail today," said Tuomo Karppinen, head of the Finnish Accident Investigation Board and a member of the original Estonia investigation team.
Ain Kalk, an Estonian construction engineer traveling with his 11-year-old daughter on the Meloodia ferry from Tallinn, Estonia, to Helsinki, the Finnish capital, on a recent day said he was not worried about a ferry disaster.
The Estonia ferry disaster "was an accident that happens once in a thousand years. Ships are much safer now," said Kalk, 39.
Some, including bereaved families in Sweden, have demanded the ferry be floated some 80 meters so it can be better investigated and the bodies retrieved.
The Swedish government rejected the proposal, estimated in 1994 to cost more than $100 million, as impractical and too expensive.
"The sea is a mystery, and it's something people can't control," Lehtola said.
Karppala, the Finnish coast guard officer, believes the sunken ferry should remain on the sea bed.
"It is a good grave, a good resting place," he said. "The ship should not be brought up; there's no reason to open up old wounds again."
Despite new rules and safety requirements, Karppala is certain of one thing: Similar accidents probably will happen again.
"The sea gives and the sea takes away; it always has done and it always will."
Matti Huuhtanen, based in Helsinki since 1988, covered the 1994 ferry disaster when news of its sinking was first reported by maritime rescue services in Finland.
TITLE: Izvestia Still Without An Editor
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The delay in appointing a replacement for Izvestia editor Raf Shakirov, who resigned after criticism of the newspaper's coverage of the Beslan crisis, is likely due to a dearth of candidates who are qualified and loyal to the Kremlin, lawmakers and analysts said.
Izvestia publisher Prof-Media, which is owned by billionaire Vladimir Potanin, said after Shakirov's resignation on Sept. 6 that it would find a new editor within a week, but almost a month later an interim editor, Vladimir Borodin, is still running the daily.
Borodin held the post of executive secretary at the newspaper under Shakirov. His name has not surfaced as a possible replacement.
Izvestia held a general shareholders meeting Tuesday to discuss the appointment, a newspaper spokeswoman said. She refused further comment until after a board meeting later this week.
The day after the Sept. 3 storming of the Beslan school, Izvestia ran a special edition devoted to the tragedy that included a full front-page photograph of a hostage being rescued. An Izvestia staffer has said Shakirov stepped down after the newspaper's owners got an angry telephone call from the Kremlin.
Media watchers and newspapers, including Moskovskiye Novosti, have named seven possible candidates to replace Shakirov-most of them closely linked to the Kremlin and the Cabinet.
MN's list includes three women-Natalya Timakova, head of the presidential press service, Natalya Cherkesova, director of the Rosbalt news agency and wife of the head of the Federal Drug Control Service, and Alla Manilova, public relations chief for the St. Petersburg administration.
Other possible candidates include former Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky, former Nezavisimaya Gazeta editor Vitaly Tretyakov and Komsomolskaya Pravda editor Vladimir Sungorkin.
Pavel Gutiontov of the Russian Union of Journalists said Izvestia's search was taking longer than expected because there are not many editors who have high professional standards and are loyal to the Kremlin. "It's extremely difficult to find a person who suits the authorities 100 percent and is authoritative enough to run a newspaper" the size of Izvestia, he said.
Gutiontov said the newspaper and its owners would not have the last word about the shortlist of candidates, in an apparent reference to possible Kremlin interference. "Other people are making the decision, and Potanin might not even be aware" of the candidates, he said.
"Of course, it's possible to appoint a very obedient person from the circle that is very close to the 'emperor,'" said Boris Reznik, deputy head of the State Duma's Information Policy Committee and a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, referring to President Vladimir Putin. "But this would make it quite a different newspaper.
"There's probably some fighting going on at the top," he said, adding that the authorities are being cautious because Izvestia is "a worldwide brand."
Gutiontov said the choice for editor could be a surprise.
Amid the uncertainty about the editor, leading Izvestia reporter Svetlana Babayeva has moved on to work as RIA-Novosti's London bureau chief.
Prof-Media holds a majority stake in Komsomolskaya Pravda and a 35 percent stake in Independent Media, The St. Petersburg Times' parent company.
TITLE: Honey, I Brought Back The Mead
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Traditional Russian honey-based alcoholic beverages are being revived in St. Petersburg with the Institute of Honey-Brewing (Institute Medovareniya) which has started a new production of mead and apple cider, and is planning to launch other almost forgotten strong alcoholic drinks, such as shibach and medvyack.
In fact, traditional Russian drinking - that which can be found in fables and fairytales - revolved around honey-based light and strong alcoholic drinks with various herbs, rather than the popular staples of drinkers today: beer and vodka.
Most of these traditional drinks ceased to be produced shortly after the October revolution and are only now re-appearing. With the beer market almost saturated, it seems that alcohol-producers are eager to look out for new products to attract customers' attention.
The Tsarskoye Selo-based Honey-Brewing Institute first tried to reconstruct the formulae of mead beverages in 1997, which led to the creation of the company "Khlebnoe" (from the word "khlyebnoe" - "slurping").
The financial crisis of '98 slowed down the company's plans, but a few years later "Khlebnoye" started production of mead in Tsarskoye Selo. Recently, it acquired yet another production facility in the center of St. Petersburg from the micro-brewery Tinkoff.
This is the first large-scale mead production in Russia since the World War I.
Besides "Khlebnoye" there are only a few producers, mainly local or restaurant-based, in Novgorod and Suzdal.
According to "Khlebnoe" president Alexei Dolzhenko, the company currently produces 100,000 bottles (0.33 liters) per month at its Pushkin facility, and 350,000 bottles per month at its St. Petersburg facility.
Yet another 20,000 liters per month of draft mead (which is distributed to a network of cafés, restaurants and blini stalls) is made at the company's Kolpino production facility.
In the next few months mead production will be relocated to St. Petersburg, while the Pushkin facility will specialize in cider, and, most likely, new strong alcohol honey-based beverages.
The St. Petersburg facility has the capacity to produce up to 700,000-800,000 bottles per month, depending on market demands, the company said.
"Khlebnoye" has a turnover of 4 million rubles per month ($1.6 million per year) at the moment. When production reaches full capacity, this will increase to $10 million per year. So far, $750,000 has been invested in the expansion.
Larisa Kotenko, the company's spokesperson, says that the main ingredient - honey - is supplied by a Volgograd-based farm.
The shelf life of mead and apple cider is four months, since neither contains preserving agents or is pasteurized.
Two types of honey-based beverages (brand names "Tsarskoye selo" and "Travyanoi") will be available in shops from Oct. 15 and will cost from 32 to 38 rubles. Apple cider (brand name "Sidorova koza") will be sold from mid-November, at 30 rubles to 36 rubles per bottle.
Dolzhenko says that the Institute of Honey-Brewing conducts ongoing research into strong alcohol mead products such as shibach, made from honey wash, and medvyack, produced from honey using cognac technology.
The company will need yet another license before production of either of those can begin.
Another possible new product, sbiten, a hot honey beverage with herbs, and snacks to complement these beverages are all in the process of development.
According to Dolzhenko, prospects for the future of these "new" traditional drinks are as yet unclear, and this keeps the company from distributing them throughout Russia for the time being.
However, should the market prove receptive, Dolzhenko said he hoped to be either offering franchise schemes to small and medium-sized breweries, or to start mass production in St. Petersburg.
TITLE: Russia Poised To Turn Finland's Top Partner
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Russia is well on the way to emerging as Finland's number one trading partner as the country's economy modernizes and diversifies, according to Pekka Sutela, the director of Bank of Finland's department for periods of economic transitions.
Already, Finnish imports from Russia are second only in volume to imports from Germany.
Russia is also Finland's number three export destination, after Sweden and Germany. During the first half of 2004, Finnish exports to Russia grew by 22 percent to 1.9 billion euro, while exports to Germany declined by 10 percent and those to the Britain by 14 percent. During the same period Russian exports to Finland approached 2.6 billion euro, Sutela said.
"Even taking into account inflation, this trade level is higher than the one in early-to-mid 1980s, at the peak of Finnish-Soviet trade," said Sutela. "If development continues as it recently has, Russia will emerge as our main trading partner in a couple of years," he predicted.
The director of Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Anna Pajalin, took a more cautious position, but could see Russia becoming Finland's top trading partner in "maybe five years". She suggested the important factors involved were Russia gaining entry into the WTO and a change in its Customs & Excise procedures, which are currently "a real sharp issue that hinders trade."
"It is very important that Russia joins the WTO," explained Pajalin. "At the moment Finnish companies waste time and money because to trade with Russia they must meet the world trading standards as well as Russia's too. It does not mean that the standards are all that different, but they create double the paperwork and involve a lot of bureaucratic rubber-stamping."
Russia is an important market for Finnish machinery, electronics, and paper. Building materials and food produce are particularly important because of the relatively short transport distances. In return, Russian exports come in the form of energy fuels and raw materials.
"There are already some 350 companies with Finnish ownership in St. Petersburg alone, and the number will grow," said Sutela. "For many Finnish small and medium-sized companies, Russia is a natural step in internationalization," said Sutela.
The Bank of Finland's director also expressed a hope to see Russia more actively investing in Finland: "The situation in which Russia almost only exports energy and raw materials will hopefully change.
"We would also need more Finnish tourists in Russia and more Russian investment in Finland," he added.
TITLE: Foreign Investors Like To See Russia Pretty
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia needs to take better care of its image abroad if it wants to compete for foreign investment with other developing countries like China and India, senior executives from leading multinationals said last week.
The government should figure out how to bring its often negative image into line with the more positive reality of doing business in Russia, said a number of members of the Foreign Investment Advisory Committee.
FIAC is a forum that for the past decade has been bringing together government officials with the leaders of 25 large, long-standing investors, including BP, Nestle, ExxonMobil and Deutsche Bank.
"Other regions of the world, China especially, have become favored destinations for investment," said Jim Turley, chairman of Ernst & Young Global, who co-chairs FIAC with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
"Global competition for investment dollars is heightening, and with the heightening of global competition, image is very important."
Last year, Russia received a mere $6.8 billion in foreign direct investment, compared to China's $53.5 billion, according to Renaissance Capital.
FIAC also made some more expected recommendations, calling on the government to continue administrative reforms, bring stability to the banking system, and improve tax and accounting practices.
Participants singled out the need for Russia to clamp down on excessive bureaucracy if it wants to compete for investment.
But for the first time in its 10-year history, FIAC created a special working group dedicated to boosting Russia's image.
"Russia needs to put forward its own strengths better," said Ralph Kugler, president of Unilever and coordinator of the "Image of Russia" working group.
Countries like China and India "might have lower labor costs," Kugler said. "Russia, on the other hand, might have a higher standard of education."
The working group discussed surveying investors at home and abroad to identify and address barriers to investment.
"There was a general consensus between the foreign investors and the government about the fact that the perception of Russia didn't align with the reality of the investment climate in Russia - and that that perception needed to be moved," said Grant Winterton, Coca-Cola's general manager for Russia.
The final communique also recommended that the government complete a plan to spread awareness among foreign investors that political and economic risk is dropping.
The plan calls for putting Russia in the limelight by sending government officials abroad to meet with potential investors, holding conferences on key regions or industries, and publishing information about business developments in the regions.
Not all the executives gathered in the President Hotel agreed that a government-run media offensive is what Russia needs, however.
"So many opportunities are missed because of the wrong perception from abroad," said Michel Perhirin, chairman of the board at Raiffeisenbank. But, he added, "I don't believe a media campaign could be extremely effective."
Perhirin said that a better way to dispel myths about the country would be to let foreign executives come to Russia and see the reality of doing business here on their own.
A few FIAC members suggested that the country's image is not the key to attracting investment.
"Investors look beyond image into more concrete realities," said John Barry, president of Shell in Russia. "We don't take image into account when we're making $10 billion investments."
"People are looking beyond Yukos," Barry said. "They're looking at the legal system, the tax system, and getting that [investment] environment right."
Established in 1994 as a venue for foreign investors and government officials to share investment concerns, FIAC has had a big impact in pushing through a number of reforms.
TITLE: Irkut Becomes MiG's Wingman
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Legendary fighter jet maker MiG will merge with rival Sukhoi manufacturer Irkut, a top government official said Friday.
"MiG and Irkut will form an ideal structure and that is what we want," Federal Industry Agency chief Boris Alyoshin said as he presented Irkut CEO Alexei Fyodorov as MiG's new chief executive.
Fyodorov was given his second company to run after MiG general director Valery Toryanin was fired on Sept. 25.
This led to speculation that the government had finally decided to push forward with stalled plans to consolidate the industry.
"The change in leadership is first of all connected to the ongoing consolidation of [the industry] and MiG cannot stand aside from it," Alyoshin said, news agency Interfax reported. "These two companies have to be together," he said.
Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, an independent defense think tank, called the move historic.
"This has marked the most important event in the history of post-Soviet aircraft manufacturing," he said. "Merging MiG and Irkut is the beginning of OAK," he added, referring to the Russian acronym for the Unified Aircraft-Building Corp., a holding company Irkut has long been pushing for the government to create.
Under the proposed plan, which is backed by Alyoshin, privately controlled Irkut and state-run MiG, Sukhoi, Tupolev and Ilyushin would all be brought under one roof.
However, how that will be done is still up in the air and Sukhoi, Tupolev and Ilyushin are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"It all depends on how the companies are unified," said Alexander Zatuchny, adviser to Tupolev president Igor Shevchuk.
When at MiG, Toryanin was a vocal opponent of the plan, arguing that it was just an excuse to redistribute property and divert cash from future sales to companies whose export contracts are about to expire.
Alyoshin said Toryanin was fired for not being "effective enough", pointing to MiG's failure to fulfill "a few international contracts." He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, Fyodorov, the industry's new top gun, told Interfax that he was already at work analyzing MiG's research and development programs and the whole of its entire product range.
He said the goals were to create a powerful new company able to compete on the global market, while providing for the needs of Russia's armed forces.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: IBC and Inco Merge
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The International Business Club Corp., (IBC) and Inko, two leading distributors of frozen and ready-made food products in St. Petersburg and Moscow, have announced a merger deal. The merger will serve to develop distribution in the regions and create a company that would be a leader in the distribution of frozen food on the Russian market, IBC's press release said.
IBC has been the Russian distributor for Talosto, Nestle, Darya and other brands, as well as the dealer for Petrokholod and Khladcombinat No. 1. The company also owns the Maestro di Mare seafood and Fritoshka french fries brands.
Heineken Buys Sobol
DUBLIN (Bloomberg) - Heineken, the world's No. 3 beer-maker, agreed to buy the Sobol brewery in Siberia to increase production capacity and grow in a market where people are increasingly choosing beer over vodka.
The purchase of the one-year-old brewery in Novosibirsk will allow Heineken to raise production of domestic brands Bochkarev and Okhota as its St. Petersburg plant grows by as much as 20 percent a year. Heineken didn't disclose the price it paid for Sobol.
Baltic Debt Report
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania owe Russia $3.06 billion in former Soviet debt, according to an Audit Chamber report made public on Thursday.
The three countries' combined share of Soviet external debt has been estimated by the Central Bank and Vneshekonombank, the Audit Chamber said.
In addition, existing treaties between Russia and the Baltic states do not account for compensation of Soviet state property in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, the Audit Chamber said.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry denounced such claims as "absurd," while the Latvian Foreign Ministry said there was "no moral, legal or economic basis" for the demands.
In 2000 Lithuania pressed a compensation claim against Russia, the legal successor to the Soviet Union, for roughly $20 billion. Asian Stocks Rally
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares jumped to multi-month highs on Monday on a rally in semiconductor-related issues. Singapore's stock index reached its highest level in nearly four years and Australia's stock index set an all-time high. Japan's Nikkei stock index jumped 2.68 percent to 11,279.63, its biggest one-day gain since June 7, while a broad measure of shares elsewhere in Asia hit a five-month high.
Limitations Lifted
MOSCOW (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed a resolution canceling a number of legislative acts concerning strategic companies that may not be privatized, the government press service said in a statement.
According to the document, there is no legal force behind restrictions on the privatization of a list of companies and organizations in the defense complex. It says there is no legality in restrictions on the sale of federal shares in a list of joint stock companies who produce strategic products for national security.
In the resolution, the government canceled points in several legislative acts, including the sale of federally owned shares in Gazprom and the sale of OAO Svyazinvest.
Heiken To Buy Sobol
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Dutch brewer Heineken NV has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of Sobol Beer LLC in Novosibirsk in western Siberia.
The transaction will be funded from available cash resources. With Heineken St. Petersburg brewery growing by 15 to 20 percent per annum, the acquisition will provide for immediate additional production capacity for the national brands Bochkarev and Okhota, the company said in a statement.
Jean Francois van Boxmeer, member of the executive board of Heineken NV said: "This acquisition fits perfectly with our growth strategy for Russia, following our recent acquisition of the Shikhan and the Volga Breweries. It reinforces our No. 3 position and further strengthens our distribution and sales platform in this fast growing beer market."
This transaction is subject to regulatory approval. As agreed by both parties the acquisition price will not be published.
The brewery was newly constructed in August 2003 and has a production capacity of 1.2 million hectolitres. It is currently producing the Sobol and Zhigulevskoye brands with a total volume of 200,000 hectolitres.
Railways Upgraded
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Russian Railways Co., or RZD, will sell $500 million of eurobonds in 2005 to fund plans to build new rail links and upgrade ageing equipment, chief executive Gennady Fadeyev said. The country's railway monopoly will sell the bonds at the end of the first half of next year, Fadeyev said at a news conference.
He said two banks were chosen to organize the sale and declined to identify the institutions.
The company is upgrading rail links and buying new rolling stock to meet rising demand from commodity exporters.
TITLE: Yukos Shares Jump 10 Percent
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Trading in Yukos shares leapt more than 10 percent on local exchanges Monday as Russia's top energy conglomerates said they would not bid for its main production subsidiary, which is due to be auctioned as collateral for the company's crushing back-taxes bill.
Trading in Yukos shares was halted for one hour on Moscow's ruble-denominated MICEX exchange Monday while Yukos' share price had soared nearly 14 percent on the dollar-denominated RTS exchange by mid-afternoon.
An evaluation of Yukos' prime west Siberian subsidiary Yuganskneftegz was expected soon from investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Citing an unidentified source, Interfax news agency reported Friday that the company had been valued at between $15.7 billion and $17.3 billion.
Yukos faces a total back tax bill of $7.5 billion or 2000 and 2001, which the company has repeatedly requested more time to pay. Those pleas have fallen on deaf ears, however, and Yuganskneftegaz has widely been expected to pass into Kremlin-friendly hands.
While President Vladimir Putin has insisted repeatedly that his government does not intend to bankrupt Yukos, he acknowledged last month that state-controlled companies could take part in the sale of Yukos assets.
But, news last week that some of Russia's biggest companies were not interested in buying Yukos assets helped spur the company's share price in Monday's trading.
Big-ticket deals such as ConocoPhillips' acquisition of a 7.6 percent stake in No. 2 producer Lukoil last week and Total's recent purchase of a blocking stake in gas producer Novatek have also done much to improve Russia's investment picture, which has been darkened by the Yukos affair.
"Strategic investors are not looking at Yukos as part of their strategy," said Sergei Suverov, head of equities research at Zenit bank. Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov last week joined Russian-British TNK-BP in denying that his company would consider buying Yukos assets.
Surgutneftegaz, Russia's No. 4 producer, also said it would not be bidding in the event of an asset auction. And earlier, Alexei Miller, the CEO of natural gas giant Gazprom, repeated that his company was also not inte-rested.
Suverov said, however, that he still thought it likely that Yukos assets would be sold to a state company. Russia's Natural Resources Ministry is due to review Yuganskneftegaz licenses, and, if pulled, the company's value could be reduced by 80 percent to 90 percent, Suverov noted.
TITLE: PricewaterhouseCooper Partner Relaxes After 25 Years
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Having worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 25 years, Tony Antoniou, a partner and business practice leader at the accounting firm, now opts to take life at a slower pace and enjoys spending time in the two cities he calls home - London and St. Petersburg - although his office is in Moscow.
Born to a family of Cypriot immigrants, Antoniou spent his childhood in Bristol and was educated in London where he graduated with a chemistry degree. He intended to continue scientific research at doctorate level when his career path took a different turn.
"I came into the study room one time and saw my thesis supervisor filling in an application for an accounting training program," said Antoniou. "So I thought - I could either be doing the same two years later, or do it now."
The scientists in England at that time, much like scientists in Russia, were being paid unreasonably little, so a career change from science to business was not uncommon. "It's like the government says: 'if you study science and you like it, then why should we pay you,'" explained Antoniou.
Having impressed his recruiter at the interview, Antoniou was accepted on a three-year accountancy training program with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Upon its completion, he received the equivalent of a CPA qualification. "It was an endurance test as much as anything else," said Antoniou about the long hours and dedication demanded by the program.
While working as an accountant, Antoniou also took the opportunity of temporarily being a financial officer at a hospital - an experience that aided him in the consulting business in Russia later in life.
It was a time of many economic changes as U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's put forward reforms aimed to change Socialist institutions to a free-market system.
"Suddenly the organizations that had never dealt with any financial limitations before, had to start watching their accounts," said Antoniou. During the shift, the situation in England's public institutions was akin to Russia during its switch to an open, market economy. Businesses needed to "improvise" in order to adapt with the changes. "We tend to forget that the West wasn't always the way it is. There is nothing new in Russia's situation," said Antoniou.
After finishing his hospital assignment, Antoniou was switched to PWC's public service department, which now counts well over 100 people, but at the time had just six. The move stimulated Antoniou's motivation.
Soon he got the chance to work on PWC projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and in October 1992 did some work in Moscow. While completing it, he was advised by friends to visit St. Petersburg for the weekend. "It reminded me of a scene from a movie. I was taking the train to St. Petersburg, watching the platform through a slightly frosted glass. People from all walks of life were bustling to and fro," said Antoniou.
While in St. Petersburg he visited the only local PricewaterhouseCooper's office - a room in the hotel Astoria. It was converted to an office, with cables and phone lines running across beds. The phones, however, were ringing off the hook: the few international companies, such as clothing company Littlewoods, who were brave enough to conduct business in the newly-formed Russian Federation were in need of much help and the kind of competent advice only an international consultant could provide.
"Try it for a year," was the reply Antoniou got from the head office in London when he said that he would like to tap into St. Petersburg for business potential.
As there was little documentation available in English or at all at that time, Antoniou said he once had to get a friend of a friend to photocopy the Russian Customs Code. "Now things are so much easier - you can cut, paste or translate it as you like," he said.
Antoniou and his colleagues consulted with the local professionals for help, some of whom the St. Petersburg PWC branch hired later on. "We started to recruit bright local graduates from city universities such as FinEc (the Finance and Economics Institute)," said Antoniou, When PWC had to downsize in order to cut costs during the financial turmoil of '98 "it hurt to let people go."
Antoniou remembers spending the time of the crisis traveling to Moscow at least once a week and trying to learn Russian. "Russian was hard," admitted Antoniou, who speaks Greek and French. "But I made it a point to not go out with any girls who spoke English," he added.
Frank Graves, the COO of Ilim Pulp Enterprise, said Antoniou has done a great job providing consulting services to his company for about six years. "[Antoniou] has a really good and in-depth understanding of the Russian accounting system and management style, and of course he has a great understanding of Western standards, so he has been helping us find the discrepancies and bridge the two. You have to be a bit of a psychiatrist and a great accountant to do that," said Graves.
When asked about Antoniou's Russian, he said his language skills were excellent. "He works with our staff only in Russian."
In July, after spending 11 years in St. Petersburg, Antoniou moved to Moscow. "I kept waiting to enjoy the benefits of the hard work we did in the 90s. But now, I think I can be of more help in Moscow than here."
"It's been good with Tony heading the PWC office (first Coopers&Lybrand) in the city," said Yelena Berezantseva, executive director of the St. Petersburg American Chamber of Commerce. "I've known him since he first came to Russia, and he's been working very hard over the years. Tony's modest and reserved manner has also helped to make the best impression," said Berezantseva.
When asked about the city development, Antoniou said St. Petersburg is growing slower than one would expect, taking all the city's advantages into consideration. Perhaps that's due to delayed infrastructure and transportation developments still to be put in force.
In Moscow one can sense the energy in the air, said Antoniou. "People from all walks of life come to make it or break it there," he said. "It's like New York in that only the fittest survive."
TITLE: Why Taming The Judiciary Is a Bad Move
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin's proposals to take full control over the appointment of regional leaders and to eliminate independent voices from the State Duma have yet to receive final approval. But the Kremlin has already made its move against the third, ostensibly separate branch of government, the judiciary.
Last week the Federation Council - obviously on orders from the Kremlin - put forward legislation that would remove the last vestige of independence from the Supreme Qualification Collegium, which appoints judges to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court. It also has sole authority to fire judges.
At present, 18 of the collegium's 29 members are judges elected by secret ballot by an association of judges. The panel also contains 10 public representatives appointed by the Federation Council and a single member appointed by the president.
Under the new plan, total membership would be cut to 21, 10 of them judges nominated by the president and confirmed by the Federation Council. The upper house would continue to appoint 10 public representatives to the collegium, giving Speaker Sergei Mironov, a die-hard Putin man, near-total control of the appointment process.
The president would also retain the right to appoint a representative to the collegium, ensuring him the swing vote if it were ever needed.
Mironov, a co-author of the bill, said the change in the judicial system was needed to fight terrorism and corruption.
The fight against terrorism has provided a ready justification, in Russia as in the United States, for pushing through constitutionally questionable measures that increase the power of the central government. It is unclear how weakening the authority of regional leaders will better equip them to fight terrorism, or how putting the courts even deeper in the Kremlin's pocket will prevent terrorists from escaping justice.
The fight against corruption would also seem to demand a different battle plan.
An independent judiciary is essential to uprooting corruption because it guarantees that those who break the law will be brought to justice and offers recourse and protection to those whose civil or property rights are violated.
This is what Russia needs. Not courts that all too often do the bidding of prosecutors and the security services. Not courts that sell verdicts to the highest bidder. Making the country's judges directly beholden to the Kremlin will only streamline an already bad system.
If the Kremlin were serious about fighting corruption, it would help Russia's judges to become more independent, first by paying them properly to reduce the incentive to accept bribes and then by punishing those who do.
TITLE: Ukraine HIV Rates Alarm
TEXT: With HIV infection rates in Ukraine doubling every year for the past 3 years and prevalence already tipping 1 percent among the adult population, the monthly incidence is now one of the highest in the European region.
Up to 80 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine are under the age of 30, compared to just 30 percent in the U.S. and Western Europe. Originally a drug-driven epidemic, the share of heterosexually transmitted infection has increased dramatically from 15 percent to almost 40 percent in the space of just five years. While the cumulative official total of HIV cases in Ukraine was 65,495 as of April 1 this year, with a further 6,813 registered with AIDS, the World Health Organization estimates that realistically, the total could already be nearing 600,000. Yet, there was little mention of Ukraine at the recent international conference on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok. U.S. President George W. Bush's $15 billion HIV/AIDS plan, focusing exclusively on countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, takes no account of the seriousness of the epidemic in Ukraine, or in Europe and Eurasia generally.
Boasting a highly educated population and positioned strategically between Russia and the newly expanded EU, Ukraine has struggled to rebuild its economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The country is beset by health and demographic problems associated with an aging population and decreasing birthrates. Even before factoring in deaths from HIV/AIDS, the population is expected to decline from about 47.3 million in 2005 to 45.9 by 2010. In the absence of scaled-up interventions, the impact of HIV/AIDS in Ukraine is projected to accelerate the country's demographic decline, further decreasing the population by between 900,000 and 2.1 million (1.4 percent to 3.1 percent) by 2016. Because the epidemic predominantly affects young people it will lead inexorably to a reduction in society's most economically productive sector, hampering the country's transition to a market economy. Increased service demand from HIV/AIDS patients will encumber an already overstretched health system, absorbing between one-fifth and one-half of Ukraine's total health budget by 2010. This will reduce prospects for sustainable social and economic development and reverse gains already made since independence, leading possibly to political and social unrest. Instability in such a strategic location could also impact on surrounding states, making HIV a security threat not only for Ukraine itself, but also for its regional partners.
The TB epidemic in Ukraine and its convergence with HIV makes tackling the crisis even more urgent. As a recent WHO report highlights: "both diseases are devastating, but the devastation of the HIV/TB co-epidemic surpasses the devastation of either disease on its own." TB is the biggest killer of people with HIV worldwide, with HIV-positive individuals more than 100 times more likely to contract TB than those who are HIV negative. TB is also the only major opportunistic infection that can spread through the air from a HIV positive person to otherwise healthy individuals, making HIV an important factor in the spread of TB.
Affecting 1.5 percent of the population, TB is the most widespread infectious disease in Ukraine today. Currently averaging 70 per 100,000, (compared to 5 per 100,000 in the U.S.), rates of TB in Ukraine have been high for a number of years, jumping 73 percent since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to WHO estimates, the prevalence of HIV among adults with TB is already at 5.7 percent. The dramatic rise in multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), is a further complicating factor, with rates of up to 25 percent registered in some regions and the disease is propagating fastest within the prison system. MDR-TB in HIV-infected individuals is even more difficult to treat than non-resistant TB strains and leads to rapid death among HIV patients. Unfortunately, however, chronic lack of resources and drugs, as well as absence of post-prison healthcare are aggravating the spread of disease. HIV and TB continue to be treated separately and there is little collaboration between institutions. Integration of HIV and TB services is essential to curbing an imminent collision of epidemics. While the recently initiated World Bank supported project intends to tackle the issue of HIV/TB co-infection in prisons in a small-scale project in the southeastern Donetsk region, there is, as yet, no project specifically targeting co-infection among the general population anywhere in the country.
There is widespread concern that present trends cannot be reversed even if all donor supported, Global Fund, EU and other international and domestic programs are implemented at currently budgeted levels. Massive scale-up of prevention, harm reduction and treatment programs is urgently needed in order to stem the burgeoning epidemics. The Ukrainian government, however, has no plan to extend and sustain current interventions following completion of the Global Fund and World Bank-supported projects in 5 years time. Although the scale of the crisis far exceeds Ukraine's capacity to respond, securing long-term national leadership to tackling HIV/AIDS and TB and increasing investment in general healthcare is crucial - both in terms of reversing the present public health crisis and to the assurance of future economic and social stability.
Recent calls for increased political commitment by EU member states to bolster health systems of their neighbors like Ukraine and to establish effective surveillance for communicable disease are prudent and necessary. Increasing migration within the newly expanded European Union, across the border with Ukraine and Russia, as well as to other parts of the globe, heightens the risk of spread of HIV, TB and other infectious diseases. More than 1 million people reportedly leave Ukraine annually in search of work abroad, while the numbers of illegal migrants to Ukraine approaches 550,000, according to UNDP. Thus, the parallel rise in HIV and TB morbidity rates increases the risk not only of onward transmission within Ukraine itself, but also for cross-border spread.
The crisis facing Ukraine is not just a national problem, but a global emergency and demands a global commitment to intervention. Concerted action now can dramatically reduce the human and socio-economic costs of HIV and TB in the country. The urgency is clear.
By Cristina Galvin and Murray Feshbach, USAID Research Project HIV/AIDS Russia/Ukraine. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC. They contributed this piece to The St. Petersburg Times. The views expressed are specifically those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of USAID.
TITLE: SMS Renews Age-Old Art of Letter Writing
TEXT: The SMS, or Short Message Service, message represents a special kind of interpersonal communication - the exchange of short texts via mobile telephones. This form of communication is undergoing a worldwide boom. The number of SMS messages sent has increased 20 times in the last two years and is now running at close to 20 billion messages a month, almost equal to the number of telephone conversations.
When one takes into account other SMS-based services - ringtones, music, pictures, and information - this form of communication is forecasted to account for 56 percent of the market this year. We should emphasize that SMS services grew in popularity all by themselves, the telecommunication companies have had almost nothing to do with promoting them.
SMS messaging is most popular among the young. Statistics show that young people don't use their mobile phones primarily for conversations but for exchanging SMS messages and playing games wired into the handset.
Back when we were in school, we all exchanged notes with classmates. When we couldn't or didn't want to exchange information out loud, a note seemed to provide the best way of communicating. One can say with certainty today that the culture of school notes that developed over several centuries and which the older generation practiced has all but died out. The contemporary school student doesn't rip pages out of their exercise book and pen the important messages on paper. They take a mobile phone from their pocket and, under cover of their desk, type out their message.
However, it would be incorrect to believe that the trend of SMS messaging is exclusive to the young. The growth in SMS messaging affects absolutely every layer of society. In Europe, employers even use SMS messages to tell their staff they are fired. SMS messages are used to transmit ads. For instance, since July Lenta has been sending out owners of its discount cards SMS ads with special offers.
In London it is already possibly to order a taxi by SMS - the response is a note giving the number plate of the car and the surname of the driver.
SMS messages have also entered politics. The St. Petersburg press committee ran a promotion called People's Adviser, during which citizens could send SMS messages to a special number where Governor Valentina Matviyenko would read them.
The wild popularity of SMS messages can, of course, be explained by their extraordinary convenience. Firstly, they are extremely cheap (and when they started they were free). Secondly, they are extraordinarily mobile and convenient. Thanks to the efforts of the cell phone companies, which have virtually covered the whole planet with their networks, it is possible to send SMS messages from anywhere to anywhere. SMS messages combine the merits of telephone and written communication - they are a mobile form of e-mail, only the messages are short and you don't need a computer.
It seemed as if the letter was a victim of the furious pace of life of this century and of everyone having a telephone. And no one thought, when mobile phones began their victorious procession across the planet, that the SMS message, initially just an extra service provided along with voice communication, would become the main use for mobiles. All the same, it seems that people need that service more than they need telephone conversations.
The SMS boom is witness to the inescapable desire of people to write letters to one another. Pleasant and unpleasant, private and official - but letters - humans were writing them thousands of year ago and will continue to write them into the distant future.
Vladimir Gryaznevich is a political analyst with Expert Severo-Zapad magazine. This comment was broadcast on Ekho Moskvy in St. Petersburg on Friday.
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: The Barbarians
Here's a direct quote from the campaign trail: "Vote for the president-or we'll burn your house down!"
Ah yes, democracy in action, Bush-style - ya gotta love it! As it happens, this particular manifestation of the Bushist Party's peculiar notion of free elections comes not from the White House - whose court-appointed denizens have thus far confined themselves to mild, civilized declarations that anybody who opposes them is a godless, baby-killing traitor in league with Satanic terrorists. Instead it's the Big Oil bagman whom the Bushists have installed as ruler of their stepchild colony in Afghanistan.
Installee Hamid Karzai, facing election on Oct. 9 (in those isolated portions of the country not controlled by the "defeated" Taliban, that is), has hit upon a novel campaign strategy, the BBC reports: arson. Tribal chiefs touting their fellow Pashtun for prez have broadcast explicit warnings to their people: Anybody who doesn't vote for Karzai will have their house burned down and their family cut off from all communal activities, such as weddings and funerals. Karzai, the polished sophisticate whose urbane manner and dynamite threads have put a glamorous face (Ben Kingsley's face, actually) on the Bush Regime's atrocious botching of the Afghan adventure, urbanely refused to condemn this barbarity on his behalf.
And why should he? Barbarity is all the rage in Bushist Afghanistan, where large numbers of women are now burning themselves alive to escape continuing repression at the hands of fundamentalist warlords in the pay of the Pentagon, the Guardian reports. And while three years of pounding sand has failed to turn up Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush's hugger-mugger "Special Forces" crews-operating without supervision or accountability-have done a crackerjack job torturing and killing civilians, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The paper detailed the delightful antics of a Special Forces squad - led by a berserker known only as "Crazy Mike" - who subjected captives to near-drowning and electric shocks, ripped out their toenails, and beat them so savagely that some were left crippled while others joined Bush's favorite philosopher way up in the sky. Crazy Mike also threatened to kill any local official who interfered with his good clean fun. Army investigators, prodded into action by the Times story, say they have no idea who was actually in command of Mike's secret unit - nor could they say how many other pocket gulags were squirreled away across the Bushist satrapy.
This stinking fish of unaccountability rots from the head, of course: Bush has given his personal blessing to a worldwide system of torture and murder, pointedly telling his shock troops "I don't want to know" where their secret prisons are and what's being done there, investigator Seymour Hersh reports. The official Bushist line on torture, top intelligence officers told Hersh, is short and sweet: "Grab whom you must. Do what you want."
And why not? There will be no consequences, except for the usual small fry offered up in the ritual sacrifice of "a few bad apples": show trials to divert attention from the systematic perversion of law and morality ordered from on high - as The New York Review of Books makes clear in a devastating excavation of the "official" prison abuse reports. Despite buckets of Pentagon whitewash and Bushist weasel-wording, even these severely constricted Potemkin probes lay bare a nightmare network extending far beyond the goon show at Abu Ghraib. Here too, buried beneath layers of butt-covering lard, we find the most damning fact of all: the professional judgment, by professional soldiers, that Bush's lawless regimen has actually produced "less actionable intelligence" than interrogators were gathering with legal, ethical methods. Not only is Bush's torture policy deeply immoral; it's stupid and ineffective as well.
Recent investigations by independent American legal teams have unearthed more gut-churning details of other "Crazy Mikes" - many of them mercenaries from Bush-crony corporations - still raping and whomping their way through U.S. holding pens all over Iraq, the New Standard reports. This in a prison system where up to 90 percent of the captives have been innocent of any crime, as the Red Cross reports. Yet there is not a chance in hell that any high-ranking commander - much less the perps on the Potomac - will ever face justice for these atrocities.
Meanwhile, as Hamid's tribal henchmen lay down the Bushist line in Afghanistan, the tribes in Iraq are getting a dose of the lessons learned long ago by the Cherokee and the Sioux: White man speak with forked tongue. Washington's armchair warriors are now shredding hard-won cease-fire deals negotiated by U.S. officers with Iraqi tribal leaders to restore peace to volatile areas, the Financial Times reports. The Bushists have ordered new jabs into "no-go areas" - often with airstrikes in heavily populated neighborhoods - in preparation for a late-year offensive to eliminate all resistance to the installation of a client regime in the upcoming "free elections." (Already rigged, natch, in favor of the ruling cliques - not unlike the U.S. election.)
Coalition forces are now killing twice as many innocent people as the insurgents are, the pro-American Iraqi Health Ministry reports - with more than 3,400 civilians killed in the fighting since April alone. All this to smooth the way for Bush's appointed strongman, ex-Baathist enforcer Iyad Allawi, who once led terrorist hit teams in Europe, preying on anti-Saddam dissidents, The New Yorker reports. He later turned on his master, joined the CIA payroll, and directed a terror-bombing campaign against civilian targets in his native land.
Terrorists, torturers, house-burners, oath-breakers, vote-riggers, goons: That's the Bush Tribe for you - a violent, greedy, barbarous clan, befouling the name of democracy all over the world.
TITLE: Iraqi Security Forces Victorious in Samarra
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAMARRA, Iraq - Bloodied by weeks of suicide bombings and assassinations, Iraqi security forces emerged Sunday to patrol Samarra after a morale-boosting victory in this Sunni Triangle city, and U.S. commanders praised their performance.
American and Iraqi commanders have declared the operation in Samarra, 100 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, a successful first step in a major push to wrest key areas of Iraq from insurgents before January elections.
But locals were angered by the civilian death toll.
Of the 70 dead brought to Samarra General Hospital since fighting erupted, 23 were children and 18 were women, hospital official Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin said. Another 160 wounded people also were treated.
"The people who were hurt most are normal people who have nothing to do with anything," said Abdel Latif Hadi, 45.
U.S. warplanes hammered another rebel-held city, Fallujah, the latest strike in weeks of attacks targeting groups linked to terrorists, particularly the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The city hospital said two people were killed and 12 were wounded in the airstrikes. Two more people, a man and his wife, were killed and two others were wounded when a tank fired on a house, Dr. Rafe al-Issawi said.
The U.S. military, which confirmed only one strike targeting a building where insurgents were moving weapons, regularly accuses the hospital of inflating casualty figures.
Residents said U.S. troops built temporary checkpoints across two entrances into the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, regarded by the U.S. military as the "toughest nut to crack" in Iraq.
"We're very worried that Fallujah might be next after Samarra," Fallujah resident Saad Majid, 40, said. "I have children. I'm very worried about them. We don't sleep all night because of the strikes."
U.S. military officials have signaled they plan to step up attacks into key Iraqi cities this fall-partly as a way to pressure insurgents into negotiating with Iraqi officials.
"I have personally informed (Fallujah residents) that it will not be a picnic. It will be very difficult and devastating," Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer said Sunday. But he said Iraqi troops had to establish a presence in all cities.
On Sunday, Iraqi police patrolled Samarra, while American soldiers and Iraqi National Guard members searched houses for insurgents and weapons.
U.S. commanders praised Iraqi troops during the attack, saying they secured the hospital, a revered shrine and a centuries-old minaret. The Baghdad government has portrayed the battle as a landmark on the road to establishing an effective fighting force.
Washington is eager to raise Iraqis' fighting ability to allow them to take a back seat in combat operations and eventually pull out of Iraq.
TITLE: Sharon Vows to Escalate Attack
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged Sunday to escalate a broad Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, saying troops will remain until Palestinian rocket attacks are halted. Israeli officials said the offensive - in which at least 61 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed - will help clear the way for an Israeli withdrawal.
Israel poured 2,000 troops into northern Gaza after a Palestinian rocket attack on Wednesday killed two preschoolers in the Israeli town of Sderot.
In new bloodshed Sunday, at least eight Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed, while a second 13-year-old boy died of wounds sustained earlier.
Ambulances also brought the bodies of three Palestinians to a Gaza hospital early Monday. Rescue workers said the bodies were found near the Jebaliya refugee camp, but it was not clear how they died or who they were.
The operation gathered momentum again late Sunday when about 25 tanks moved into Beit Hanoun, the town closest to the Israeli border and Sderot.
The fighting has caused heavy damage. Palestinians say Israeli forces have destroyed homes, torn up roads and left a kindergarten in rubble.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Parole for Beatle Killer?
NEW YORK (AFP) - Mark Chapman, the man who gunned down John Lennon in New York, could be released from jail this week - a prospect that has drawn protests and even threats against his life from the former Beatle's fans.
Chapman, now 49, was sentenced to 20 years to life after shooting Lennon five times in the back outside the singer's Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980.
It will be the third hearing for Chapman, whose previous requests to be set free were turned down in 2000 and 2002.
On the last occasion, the parole board ruled that release would "deprecate the seriousness" of his crime.
Pope Hails New Saints
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope John Paul II beatified the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I, who is remembered in Austria for authorizing the use of mustard gas during World War I.
The move brings the Habsburg monarch one step from sainthood.
Also beatified was German mystic Anna Katharina Emmerick whose visions inspired Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ."
The pope, who is 84 and suffers from Parkinson's disease and other ailments, also conferred the status of "blessed", the penultimate step to full sainthood, on two Frenchmen and an Italian nun.
Americans Win Nobel
STOCKHOLM (AP) - Americans Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck have won the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work in studying the biology of the sense of smell.
They discovered a family of about 1,000 genes that give rise to a variety of proteins that sense particular smells. These proteins are found in cells in the nose, which communicate with the brain.
Axel, 58, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Columbia University in New York, shared the prize with Buck, 57, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
They reported the gene discoveries jointly in 1991 and have since worked independently shedding further light on the olfactory system.
The award for medicine opens a week of Nobel Prizes that culminates Oct. 11 with the economics prize. The peace prize, the only one bestowed in Oslo, Norway, will be announced Oct. 8.
Italy Mulls Iraq Exit
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Italy's deputy premier suggested Saturday that his country could pull its troops out of Iraq after elections scheduled for January, saying they will no longer be needed when a representative government is in place.
The remarks by Gianfranco Fini, made after a meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, were the first public indication of when Italy might withdraw its 3,000 troops from Iraq.
"Whenever there is an Iraqi government that represents all Iraqis in a free way, there will be no need for foreign troops to remain in Iraq," Fini said through an interpreter.
Federer Equals Record
BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) - Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-0 Sunday to win the Thailand Open, and joined Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe as the only players to win 12 consecutive finals.
"When I came here I didn't know what to expect," said Federer. "I took it easy after the U.S. Open and was just hoping for a good tournament, and now I've won another one so that's really fantastic.
"I didn't believe I could somehow reach 10 [titles] this year, and it just keeps on going. Obviously I'm very happy."
The Swiss world No. 1 dominated the American second seed, who received treatment in the second set for a right elbow injury.
Ohio State Upset
EVANSTON, Illinois (AP) - Noah Herron scored on a 1-yard run in overtime and had two other touch-downs, and Northwestern backed up its pregame trash talk with a 33-27 upset victory over No. 7 Ohio State on Saturday night.
The victory was Northwestern's first over Ohio State (3-1) since 1971, snapping the Buckeyes' 24-game winning streak in the series and handing them their first loss in Evanston since 1958. After Herron broke through the Buckeyes at the goal line, his teammates piled on him in the corner of the end zone and Northwestern students ran onto the field, turning it into a purple mosh pit.
Phillies Manager Fired
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Larry Bowa's fiery personality made him a fan favorite during his playing days in Philadelphia.
It also helped cost him his job as manager. Bowa was fired by the Phillies on Saturday, a day before the end of yet another disappointing season.
"There were times over the last four years where there were players who haven't been able to adjust to his style," general manager Ed Wade said.
The Phillies failed to reach the playoffs for the 11th straight season.
Brown Rejects Deal
LONDON (Reuters) - Wes Brown could leave Manchester United after manager Alex Ferguson said the England defender had rejected a new contract offer, The Guardian newspaper reported Saturday.
"If he wants to stay we would love that," Ferguson was quoted as saying. "But if he wants to look elsewhere that's up to him. There's nothing you can do with modern-day footballers."
TITLE: More Glory for Russia's Queens of Tennis
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Maria Sharapova and Yelena Dementyeva both won titles Sunday, further underlining Russia's dominance over the women's game.
In Seoul, South Korea, Wimbledon champion Sharapova trounced Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-1 to win the Korea Open.
Meanwhile in Belgium, top-seeded Yelena Dementyeva rallied from 4-1 down in the third set to overcome third-seeded Yelena Bovina 0-6, 6-0, 6-4 in an all-Russian final of the Gaz de France Stars.
Grunting and grimacing to victory, Sharapova had too much firepower for Poland's Domachowska, who held her serve only once in the 58-minute match.
Sharapova took command in the third game after the two players had traded opening service breaks.
Pinning Domachowska to the baseline with a series of stinging service returns, Sharapova kept up the pressure until the 18-year-old Pole wilted, double-faulting to hand the Russian a 3-1 lead.
Sharapova never looked as if she would lose, closing out the set and looking stronger with every point.
"This is the first time playing three tournaments in a row, but I feel really good," Sharapova said.
Sharapova lost in the semifinals of the China Open to compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova just over a week ago and will play in the Japan Open later this week.
"I think I played well this week. Hopefully I'll take that on to next week, play better and win there," Sharapova said.
At the Gaz de France Stars in Hasselt, Belgium, Bovina dominated the start over her hesitant compatriot, then Dementyeva managed a break to kick off the second set and powered through flawlessly.
The third set was another roller coaster, with Bovina ahead 4-1 before Dementyeva roared back with three straight breaks.
"When you play you don't even think about the score," Dementyeva said. "You're trying to win every single point. I was trying to stay focused."
Bovina blamed herself for relaxing "a little bit" after winning the first set. "You always give yourself a break after you win so easily," she said. "I guess that was my mistake today."
Bovina beat Dementyeva en route to winning her third career title in New Haven, Connecticut, in August. It was the fourth ever for Dementyeva, who in her victory speech wished local favorite Kim Clijsters a speedy recovery from her ongoing left wrist injury.
Former world No. 1 Clijsters withdrew from her semifinal against Bovina on Saturday with pain in the same wrist that sidelined her for five months this year until her return to tournament play this week.
(Reuters, AP)
TITLE: Dodgers Capture NL West
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES - Steve Finley's grand slam capped a seven-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL West, beating the San Francisco Giants 7-3 Saturday.
The Dodgers reached the postseason for the first time since making it as the wild card in 1996. They won the division the year before - now, they'll look to win their first postseason game since upsetting Oakland in the 1988 World Series.
Ahead of Sunday's games it was still not certain who the Dodgers would play in the first round, though they will open on the road.
The stunning loss - keyed by three walks and a critical error - left the Giants in a precarious position.
Their division hopes dashed, Barry Bonds and Co. were left hoping that they could beat the Dodgers on Sunday, that Houston would lose its home game to Colorado, and that they then beat the Astros in a one-game playoff Monday in San Francisco.
The Astros beat the Rockies 9-3 Saturday night for a one-game lead over the Giants.
Four days after rallying for five runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Colorado 5-4, the Dodgers did it again - and then some.
Trailing 3-0, the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out on a single by Shawn Green and two walks by Dustin Hermanson.
Hermanson (6-9) was pulled after walking Hee-Seop Choi with the bases loaded to force in the first Dodgers run.
Jason Christiansen came on and got Cesar Izturis to hit a grounder, but shortstop Cody Ransom misplayed it for an error, allowing Robin Ventura to score. Jayson Werth followed with a single off Matt Herges to tie it at 3.
Finley, acquired by the Dodgers from Arizona at the trade deadline, connected off Wayne Franklin for a shot into the right-field seats and the celebration began immediately.
TITLE: Els Surges to Victory After 2-Month Respite
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: THOMASTOWN, Ireland - Two months ago, Ernie Els had no desire to keep playing. Suddenly, the outlook is as bright as ever.
His goals renewed and his batteries recharged, Els looked like a world-beater again Sunday with a one-shot victory in the American Express Championship after a hard-fought duel with Thomas Bjorn in the cold rain.
Els closed with a 3-under 69, keeping pace with an early charge from Bjorn and pulling ahead with a clutch birdie on the 17th that gave him a two-shot margin and the luxury to bogey the final hole and still win his first World Golf Championship title.
Els finished at 18-under 270 and earned $1.2 million, breaking the European tour record for single-season money and giving him a solid lead over Retief Goosen.
The victory also enabled Els to move past Tiger Woods at No. 2 in the world ranking, setting up a showdown with Vijay Singh the rest of the year. Both are scheduled to play the next two events on the European tour.
"It's nice, but I'm still No. 2," Els said with that easy laugh. "I've been chasing Tiger for the last five, six years. And now it seems like I've got to chase Vijay. It's fine. I just feel I'm really in a much better frame of mind right now."
The victory comes two months after the latest setback for the 34-year-old South African, who was in position to win all four majors and didn't get any of them.
Phil Mickelson's birdie on the 72nd hole beat him at the Masters. An 80 from the final group cost him a chance at the U.S. Open. He lost to unheralded Todd Hamilton in a four-hole playoff at the British Open. And he made a bogey on the last hole of the PGA Championship, which knocked him out of a playoff.
For a guy who has struggled with "the little man" in his head, Els had every reason to shut down.
Instead, he took two weeks off and worked on his fitness, trying to put the disappointment behind him.
"I wanted to forget about the majors, the near misses," Els said. "I needed to get that out of my system and start over. Otherwise, I'm going to get left behind. I don't want to do that. I want to win tournaments, and the only way you can do it is to move forward."