SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1039 (5), Friday, January 28, 2005
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TITLE: Russia Off Radar
 At Davos
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: DAVOS, Switzerland - As the World Economic Forum makes headlines in all the major international papers this week, the only splash of interest in Russia so far has been generated by the ever-upbeat born salesman Bill Browder. 
 
Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, gathered together a room of prominent journalists Thursday for a 7:45 a.m. breakfast and a slick presentation in which he made the case for investing in Russia. He argued that Russia's stock market is grossly underperforming and the reason is gross misperceptions in the West. 
 The West, he said, fears a renationalization program because of the state takeover of Yukos, a new Cold War because of the disputed election in Ukraine, an end of democracy in Russia because of the cancellation of gubernatorial elections and that reforms are finished because of delays in electricity, gas and banking reform. He then proceeded, with carefully chosen facts and figures, to argue quite persuasively that all of these fears are ungrounded. 
 Even with these fears driving down the market, Russia is in a strong economic position relative to other countries, Browder said. He showed a graph estimating that Russia will have the fourth-highest GDP growth in the world this year and a fiscal balance second to none because of its large budget surplus (and relatively low GDP). 
 The question, then, is why so far it has been left to Browder, as effective as he is, to make Russia's case. Some of Russia's more successful business people are at Davos, but there are fewer of them than in past years and most tend to talk mainly among themselves. They can be spotted in one of the conference center's many cafes during the day or after dinner in the bar of the Sunset Park Hotel, where the Russians traditionally stay. 
 In the 1990s, Davos became the place to be for the Russian political and business elite, which in those days had no qualms about flaunting its fabulous new wealth. 
 History of a sort was made here in 1996 when the future oligarchs decided to work together to get an unpopular Boris Yeltsin re-elected.
 Yeltsin never attended the World Economic Forum and neither has President Vladimir Putin. As in past years, Putin was invited to speak at this year's meeting, where he would have joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and many other world leaders. 
 Instead, he decided to send Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who is to participate in the only two sessions related to Russia this year, both on Friday. With the abrupt cancellation of Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov, a Davos favorite, Zhukov is the only Russian official who will make the trip this year.
 In any case, the Russians are likely to be overshadowed on Friday by new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who will speak to the entire forum that evening.
 Rubin Vardanian, CEO of Troika Dialog, said he was disappointed, that not more Russian government officials had not come but that so few Russian business leaders had come. 
 "Davos is one of the few places where you can really learn something about what the international elite are thinking," he said. For example, the discussions here about how better to help the victims of a disaster such as the tsunami could help Russia in light of its troubles getting aid to the victims in Beslan.
 (Beslan also provided an analogy for Browder, who said the Yukos case was "the economic equivalent of Dubrovka and Beslan. Putin was not willing to negotiate with terrorists and as a result a lot of innocent people got killed.")
 Vardanian also scolded Russians who do come to Davos for not attending more of the sessions unrelated to Russia to learn about experiences in other parts of the world or to participate in discussions on global economic, social and political issues. Thursday's schedule, for instance, included 70 programs, held either in the conference center or over lunch or dinner in a local hotel. 
 Lilia Shevtsova, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center who is participating on several panels, was harsher. "I peek in at some of the panels and there are no Russians," she said. "They are not interested in global issues. They don't schmooze but stay among themselves." 
 Shevtsova was a discussion leader at a dinner Wednesday night at which the participants were asked to reflect on the lessons of World War II on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. About 60 people attended the dinner. She was the only Russian. 
 Anatoly Karachinsky, CEO of the major IT holding company IBS, said more Russian business leaders would have come to Davos this year if the government had decided to play a bigger role. One of the premises of the forum is that it brings together leaders from business and government in an informal setting. Without a solid Russian government presence, business leaders had less of an interest, he said. 
 A frustration expressed by many Russians here, including journalists who work for state-owned news organizations, is that the current political leadership does not seem to understand the importance of promoting Russia and pushing its agenda on the world stage. 
 "Nobody can understand what kind of agenda Russia has," Shevtsova said. "Russians are not coming [to Davos] because they have nothing to say." 
 The job will be left to her, Browder, Vardanian, Vneshtorgbank CEO Andrei Kostin, Severstal chairman Alexei Mordashov and TV Center program host Alexei Pushkov to join Zhukov in leading the discussion at Friday's dinner on the question of "Where is Russia heading?"

TITLE: PACE, Prosecutor General Clash Over Treatment of Yukos
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Europe's top human rights watchdog harshly criticized Moscow's handling of the Yukos affair, prompting Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov on Wednesday to issue a sharp rebuttal and suggest that Yukos executives might face new charges.
 
A member of the British Parliament said some Yukos managers living in Britain have applied for political asylum. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution late Tuesday that accused Russian law enforcement agencies of "intimidating action" and "serious procedural violations" in investigating Yukos.
 "The state's action in these cases goes beyond the mere pursuit of criminal justice, to include such elements as to weaken an outspoken political opponent, to intimidate other wealthy individuals and to regain control of strategic economic assets," PACE said in a 2,000-word resolution.
 PACE said it was concerned by the growing influence of the executive branch on the judiciary and that former Yukos executives were "arbitrarily singled out by the authorities." Ustinov told reporters that PACE's conclusions about violations in the case were "illegitimate" and said people have the right to appeal the actions of law enforcement agencies if they feel aggrieved. "In this case, we are acting according to Russian law," Ustinov said, Interfax reported. 
 He hinted new charges might be filed against senior Yukos executives, without elaborating.
 Malcolm Bruce, a member of the British Parliament, said top Yukos managers in Britain have asked for political asylum. "I have been told by my sources that after a meeting of Yukos managers last year it was decided that they would not return to Russia, and I have been told that they were applying for political asylum in the U.K.," Bruce said by telephone.
 "Other famous Russians have got political asylum, so I can't see why other people wouldn't be able to get it. If you were working for Yukos, would you want to go back to Russia?" said Bruce, who is a member of the British delegation to PACE. 
 He did not identify any of the managers but said a top official in Menatep, the parent company of Yukos, had personally approached him about possible asylum last year.
 Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been held in custody since his arrest in October 2003, and is now on trial on charges of fraud, tax evasion and leading an organized criminal group - accusations he denies and says are politically motivated. 
 His lawyers said this month that the Prosecutor General's Office has opened a criminal case against Khodorkovsky on suspicion of money laundering. Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky's associate, has been in custody since July 2003 on similar charges, and former Yukos security chief Alexei Pichugin has been held since June 2003 on charges of organizing a 2002 double murder. Both say they are innocent.
 The PACE resolution, based on a report made last year by German delegate Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, says Moscow's shortcomings include a lack of timely tests on Pichugin to see whether he had been injected with psychotropic drugs; refusals to give Lebedev an independent medical examination; delays in allowing defense lawyers access to their clients; restrictions on public access to the court proceedings; and refusal of bail to Khodorkovsky.
 The resolution passed 37-18 with one abstention. Russian delegates tried to rewrite the resolution with seven amendments, all of which were voted down. Natalya Narochnitskaya, deputy chairwoman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee and a Rodina deputy, asked why PACE was stepping in now but had done nothing when Khodorkovsky bought Yukos assets for pennies on the dollar. 
 United Russia Deputy Valery Grebennikov called the resolution one-sided. "Any discussion of this issue in the assembly is an attempt to put pressure on the courts," said Grebennikov, according to a transcript of the PACE debate. 
 The resolution also hammered the recent sale of Yukos' main asset, Yuganskneftegaz, and indicated it may have contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.
 "This case is a signal for foreign investors to be very careful with investments in Russia as there is no guarantee for an independent judicial system," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said by e-mail. "Mr. Ustinov is seemingly not willing to accept the decisions taken by a two-third majority of the Parliamentary Assembly."

TITLE: Hollywood Stars Shoot Film About Siege of Leningrad
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A new film called "Leningrad," set during World War II and starring Hollywood stars, U.S.-born Mira Sorvino and Irish-born Gabriel Byrne is being shot in St. Petersburg. 
 
The film is one of the most ambitious attempts to tell the story of wartime St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad, which German and Finnish armies surrounded for almost 900 days, causing at least 700,000 citizens to die, most of them from starvation. The complete breaking of the siege in 1944 was celebrated with a series of events in the city Thursday. The film is produced by a Russian-American team and supported by Russia's state-owned television company, but the budget has not been disclosed. 
 "Leningrad" is to be released no earlier than 2006 in two versions: a Russian and English version will be a two-hour feature film for cinema release; the other Russian version will be televised on Pervy Kanal as an 8-hour series. 
 Leading Russian actors in the film include, Alexander Abdulov, Yevgeny Sidikhin, Valentina Talyzina and Valentin Gaft.
 The film tells the story of a British journalist who is played by Sorvino. She comes to Leningrad on a press tour and decides to stay for the first three deadly months of the siege. She makes friends with a policewoman (played by Olga Sutulova) and two children, and together they struggle to survive.
 "The film shows the realities of war and the siege through the eyes of two ordinary young women, representing the Soviet and British points of view," Alexander Buravsky, the film's director and screenwriter, said Wednesday on the film set on Millionnaya Ulitsa.
 The film portrays historic figures, including Wilhelm von Leeb (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl), commander of the German Army Group North, which besieged Leningrad, Hitler and the city's Communist Party boss Andrei Zhdanov.
 "When writing the script, I was inspired by two books - 'The Blockade Book' by Ales Adamovich, and Daniil Granin and '900 Days: the Siege of Leningrad' by Harrison Salisbury," Buravsky said.
 "I don't think any great feature films have been made about the Siege of Leningrad yet - the only great movie that crosses my mind was the documentary 'Altovaya Sonata' directed by Alexander Sokurov," he said. "That's why I decided to write and direct a new film about the siege."
 Buravsky says the film may not be a hit in Russia, where people are "tired of death, hunger, and our recent painful history," but it will be a revelation to Western audiences, who are not familiar with the history of the siege.

TITLE: The Reunion That Wasn't
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The highly anticipated reunion in St. Petersburg of a British music group that split last summer appears to have been a publicity stunt, although local promoters say confusion sown about the concert is a simple mistake.
 
A press release issued by promoter Jet Set Holding on Jan. 17, said that electronic act Orbital would reform for a concert at the PIK trade and entertainment complex Friday.
 Signed by Jet Set's PR officer Alexander Olnev, it acknowledged that Orbital had stopped performing, but would reform for one concert "by special invitation" from local booking agent Samir Askerov.
 However, Dan Silver of the London-based company Value Added Talent, which represents ex-Orbital member Phil Hartnoll confirmed that the reunion would not take place, writing by e-mail that the gig is simply a DJ set by Hartnoll. Afisha, a local listings magazine, ran a lead article about the reunion last week.
 "Jet Set told us several times that Orbital will perform [in St. Petersburg]," said Afisha deputy editor Stanislav Zelvensky. "Since it is well-known that [Orbital] don't perform anymore, it was stressed that this would be a unique event. I was even given an invitation with the word 'Orbital' printed on it."
 "It's clear that people who do such things are tricksters," he said. "It has happened too many times, mostly with electronic acts." Jet Set's PR officer Olnev said on Thursday it was a mistake on the part of another department of Jet Set Holding, and that it had stopped publicizing any possible reunion. 
 However, Jet Set did not send out a correction. It referred to the act as "Orbital" in its posting to journalists as recently as Monday.
 "I think there's nothing wrong with it," Olnev said. "When we got the information that it will be not the full project, we contacted the management, and the management told us, officially, that Phil Hartnoll comes with a 'technical' musician, and they will perform together," Olnev said. 
 Olnev insisted that the concert which is planned is partly equivalent to an Orbital show.
 "Hartnoll represents Orbital and is the sole owner of the brand 'Orbital.' It will not be a DJ set, it will be a regular [concert] performance."
 Olnev said he did not know that Hartnoll is to play a DJ set. He added that he deals with the band's management via Askerov who acts as a freelance booker for the event, rather than directly.
 Zelvensky of Afisha said such mix-ups are frequent but that disappointed concert-goers never take legal action to remedy them.
 "Ideally, if somebody who bought a ticket sued them for unfair advertizing and made them pay a large fine, setting the precedent, it might end, but as long as this doesn't happen, it's not clear what can be done about it."

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: R.E.M. Show Canceled 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A much-hyped concert to have been given by R.E.M. at the Ice Palace on Thursday was abruptly canceled earlier in the day after the band's equipment got stuck at the Estonian border, the band announced on its official web site.
 "After a great night in Tallinn and an all-night journey to St. Petersburg in wintry conditions, R.E.M greatly regrets having to cancel the show tonight in St. Petersburg," the band said in a statement posted at remhq.com 
 "Lengthy delays at the Estonia/Russia border caused our trucks, crew, and gear to arrive too late to mount the show." 
 The cancellation, the band's first in ten years, was a described as "major disappointment."
 
 
<b>Kursk Father Called In
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Roman Kolesnikov, the father of Dmitry Kolesnikov, who died when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in 2000, has insisted that further investigation be made into the tragedy, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 Kolesnikov was summoned by the prosecutor's office of the Leningrad Military Office that day, after an appeal was made to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights, saying Russian authorities had refused to continue the investigation. 
 Prosecutors said he had not made any attempt in a Russian court to have his plea heard, NTV reported Tuesday, a claim Kolesnikov rejects.
 
 
<b>Nuclear Storage Vault
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The pilot stage of a vault to store spent fuel from nuclear-powered submaries on the Saida inlet of the Kolsky Peninsula will be completed this year, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 The vault is being funded by Germany.
 Rostislav Rimdenok, chief engineer of the submarine workshop Nerpa, said that the entire complex will take 3 1/2 years to build.
 
 
<b>Change of Culture
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The new head of the city's culture committee, Nikolai Burov, wants to change the attitude of bureaucrats in the cultural sector, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 "Over time, I want to change the way the culture committee works, to influence the manners of the St. Petersburg bureaucrat - to promote my colleagues to serve the artists," Burov was quoted as saying.
 His priorities are to modernize libraries, boost security for children attending artistic and musical schools and to form a development concept for the city's Leningrad Zoo, the report said.

TITLE: Gaidar: Government 
 Hinders Economy
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The main obstacle to the development of the Russian economy is the entanglement of government in all areas of business, former prime minister Yegor Gaidar said Thursday.
 
&quot;Economic growth in Europe started when the hands of the rulers were kept out of the economy,&quot; Gaidar said at a presentation organized by Open Russia, an organization set up by allies of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos head who is in custody on what many see as selective use of the justice system.
 &quot;In the 16th and 17th centuries it was quite popular for a king to imprison a rich person and demand that he buy his freedom or that he sign an obligation not to cooperate with a range of opponents or that he followed certain rules to get released,&quot; he said. &quot;When the head of the king was chopped off and all these type of actions ended, that was a start of the development of capitalism in Europe.&quot;
 Known for initiating the &quot;shock therapy&quot; economic reforms at the beginning of 1990s, Gaidar told St. Petersburg based economists his views on the problems of Russian economic development that he details in his new book &quot;Long Time. Russia In the World. Strategic Perspectives of Russia's Development.&quot;
 Gaidar has been working on the book in the 12 years since he left the government in 1992, finishing it recently while working as head of the Institute of the Transitional Period Economy.
 St. Petersburg was the last of a series of cities Gaidar visited to talk about his book.
 Yuly Rybakov, former State Duma lawmaker and St. Petersburg-based human rights advocate, said Thursday that Gaidar was not getting involved in politics or the Khodorkovsky case.
 &quot;Open Russia is Khodorkovsky's organization, which was set up to promote liberal views to young people,&quot; Rybakov said. &quot;Unfortunately, no one else in Russia is busy with that sort of goal at the moment.&quot; 
 Gaidar said he was not interested in participating in politics again since leading the Cabinet in 1991 to 1992.
 &quot;I'm not going to get busy with public politics and not going to work for the government. My stint there was enough,&quot; Gaidar said in a press release that he distributed answering the questions he is most frequently asked.
 &quot;I have already headed the government of a country that had 30,000 nuclear deposits that were not manageable and I don't want to go though anything like that again,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;Now we work and actively assist the Central Bank and the Russian government. I have never supported the organizers of the [liberal] Committee 2008, but treat them with sympathy because I understand that democratic forces need perestroika, but I won't be involved in active political life,&quot; Gaidar added.
 Saying he was generally happy with the way the government is conducting economic policy, Gaidar had one key demand - not to spend the stabilization fund accumulated by the Kremlin as a result of high oil prices, which totals about $100 billion and could be spent on social programs if oil prices plummet.
 That already happened in Soviet times when Gaidar worked at the Institute of Systems Research of U.S.S.R, which warned Communist leaders to be careful about the economy because oil prices could drop significantly.
 &quot;At that time they said that cars would never run on water,&quot; he said. &quot;Two years later oil prices dropped 83 percent,&quot; Gaidar said.
 &quot;While oil prices are high it is necessary to form a deposit that may be useful when the natural resources export trade fares poorly,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;I would agree on spending the stabilization fund on something if I heard an explanation how the Russian economy would survive and what [budget] salaries would be paid when the oil price is not $30, but $10 a barrel,&quot; Gaidar said.

TITLE: Cyprus Consulate Seeking Visitor Rise
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Cyprus opened its St. Petersburg Consulate General in the building formerly used as the visa department for the Finnish Consulate at 27 Ulitsa Furshtadskaya this month.
 
Consul general Demetris Samuel said the 220 square meter office had been modified to fit the consulate's needs.
 &quot;We made the main entrance off Ulitsa Furshtadskaya,&quot; he said Thursday. &quot;The entrance to the visa department of the Finnish Consulate used to be from the backyard.&quot;
 Samuel has been in the city since late 2003, when he arrived to prepare for the introduction of a visa requirement for Russians wanting to visit the republic, the Greek part of divided Mediterranean island. The requirement was related to Cyprus's becoming a member of the European Union, which it joined on May 1 last year.
 Since February 2004, when the consulate began issuing visas from a temporary office, to the end of 2004 about 8,500 visas were issued, he said.
 On average, 50 to 60 people visit the consulate a day; in winter numbers can be as low as 10 to 15 people a day while in summer as many as 130 people can apply for visas in one day.
 About 90 percent of applicants are tourists, with businessmen making up most of the remainder. About 140,000 Russians make the trip to the balmy and investment-friendly island each year.
 Samuel said Russians account for a substantial number of tourists traveling to the republic, and bring significant profits to the country. 
 This year, the consulate is planning &quot;to increase the number of its customers.&quot;
 The smooth issuing of visas has encouraged more tourism agencies to send clients to the island, he said.
 The Cyprus Tourism Organization will increase the number of advertisements in Russian media and the number of direct flights to Cyprus from St. Petersburg in spring to fall will go up from two flights a week to four flights a week.
 &quot;In May we are also organizing a Cyprus Culture Week, which is to raise awareness about Cyprus,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Uproar Over Border Deal
 In Estonia Irks Pskov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Less than a week after the Estonian government confirmed its intention to sign a border treaty negotiated with Russia in 1999, but not yet signed or ratified, people on both sides were arguing about where it should be.
 
Over 500 representatives of Estonia's Setu ethnic minority gathered outside the Estonian parliament and the Russian embassy in Tallinn on Wednesday to object to the agreement. Their posters said &quot;No to the Border of the U.S.S.R.&quot; and &quot;We Want the Border of the Tartu Treaty&quot; protesters. 
 They were referring to the 1920 Tartu Treaty border used before 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic State. Some 50 villages where Setu people live and which were in Estonia were incorporated into the Pskov region and Leningrad Oblast and remain there to this day.
 &quot;We protest that the prepared border agreement is based on the divisions of the former Soviet Union, but not according the borders established under the a peace treaty signed in Tartu,&quot; Interfax cited Ilmar Vananurm, an organizer of the protest and a member of Counsel of Elders of Setu community as saying Wednesday.
 &quot;Because of the consensual policy of the government, the Setu community is split in two,&quot; Interfax quoted Ilmar Vananurm, one of the organizers of the protest and a member of Setu Council of Elders, as saying Wednesday. &quot;We have lost part of our territory.&quot;
 The Pskov region government was quick to hit back the protesters.
 &quot;We are not going to get involved in this provocation and hope that the claims made by the participants at today's protest in Tallinn against signing the border agreement are not the official position of Estonian government,&quot; Interfax cited an anonymous Pskov official as saying Wednesday.
 &quot;There is constructive economic and cultural cooperation [between the Pskov region and the parts of Estonia next to the border],&quot; he said. &quot;We would like to develop it farther; we want to cooperate actively and believe that the border agreement will soon be signed.&quot;
 Interfax said the Setu people were first mentioned in official documents of 1838 when about 16,000 of them lived in the Pechora district.
 Vananur said the Setu community plans to organize a similar meeting next Wednesday on the anniversary of the signing of the Tartu Treaty.

TITLE: Four Hunger
 Strikers Fall Ill
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Four of 10 men who helped clean up the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster and who began a hunger strike 16 days ago in the St. Petersburg suburb of Sestroretsk seeking higher compensation, had been hospitalized by Thursday.
 
&quot;One of them, who had pneumonia, has been sent home,&quot; Sergei Kulish, the group's leader, said Thursday. &quot;Three others, including one, who was hospitalized today, are still in the hospital.&quot;
 The three have heart and blood complaints and one has complications related to diabetes. Doctors recommended some of the remaining strikers to be hospitalized too, but they refused, he said.
 &quot;We spend most of the time lying on beds and mattresses,&quot; Kulish said.
 The strike could end Friday, if federal and local officials fulfill the demands of the strikers, but it will otherwise continue, he said.
 The 10 men, who became invalids after being exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation during the Chernobyl clean up. Their benefits have not been increased in line with rising costs since 1997, they say.
 Most of the group began a hunger strike in December, but broke it off after receiving promises from officials. They complain that the promises have not been kept.
 The Supreme Court, which considered raising Chernobyl liquidators' compensation on Jan. 18, decided to seek amendments before taking any action.
 About 47,000 Chernobyl liquidators do not receive the compensation they deserve and need to survive, Kulish said.

TITLE: Illarionov Ditches Davos Forum
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Andrei Illarionov, the outspoken presidential adviser who was demoted after lambasting Kremlin policies, has now launched a broadside at the World Economic Forum.
 
Unhappy that he could not speak at the session of his choice at the prestigious gathering in Davos, Switzerland, Illarionov scrapped his plans to attend the forum, which opened Wednesday.
 A regular in Davos, Illarionov decided to boycott the forum this year in protest of its &quot;policy of censorship,&quot; according to a statement released by his office Tuesday.
 &quot;The refusal to have a debate at the World Economic Forum is an unprecedented case,&quot; he said in the statement.
 The decision not to attend was made at the last minute, a source close to Illarionov said.
 One of the most colorful figures in President Vladimir Putin's administration, Illarionov has been a vocal opponent of the Kyoto protocol on global warming, which Moscow ratified last year after months of hesitation.
 Following Illarionov's public outburst against the Kremlin's legal assault on Yukos last month, he was stripped of his post as Russia's representative to the Group of Eight. In Davos, Illarionov planned to revisit the subject of Kyoto as a panelist. 
 However, organizers did not schedule him for the particular panel discussion at which he wanted to speak.
 &quot;A ban from participating in a discussion - expressing a position shared by thousands of scientists and specialists in the field across the globe - is nothing but the introduction of censorship,&quot; he said.
 Illarionov has repeatedly bashed the scientific and economic assumptions behind Kyoto, claiming the treaty will strangle growth by limiting industrial emissions believed to cause global warming.
 Illarionov was offered to speak at a panel discussion called &quot;Climate Change: How Will Business Meet the Challenge?&quot; Mark Adams, the spokesman for the Davos forum, said by phone Tuesday.
 However, Illarionov said that he only wanted to participate in the panel where his main opponent on Kyoto, Sir David King, would appear. King is an adviser to the British government.
 Adams said that Illarionov's scheduling on a different panel was not done intentionally.
 &quot;Unfortunately people can't choose which section [of the forum] they are in. If you imagine that there are 25 heads of state or governments alone... we can't give the choice to everyone to be in every session they want,&quot; Adams said.
 &quot;We can't stop him from talking about climate change, and we offered him a chance at a key session about climate change and business.&quot;
 Forum organizers have always been happy to cooperate with Illarionov and look forward to seeing him among future participants, Adams said.

TITLE: Pacific Pipeline Gets Branch
 That Goes South to China
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Crude pipeline monopoly Transneft has begun project work for a massive pipeline to the Pacific coast, including a branch to China that had been in doubt, Interfax quoted Transneft's head as saying. 
 
&quot;We have begun project work for the Far East project with a branch to China,&quot; Transneft chief Semyon Vainshtok was quoted as telling President Vladimir Putin during a meeting Wednesday. 
 The government approved the construction of an 80 million-ton-per-year (1.6 million-barrel-per-day) link to the Pacific coast starting at the end of December, one of the country's priority energy projects, rejecting a proposed route through China. 
 The cost of building the 4,000-kilometer pipeline has been estimated at $15 billion to $18 billion.
 &quot;The first stretch will be built from Taishet to Skovorodino,&quot; which is 60 kilometers from the border with China, Vainshtok told Putin, according to a statement on Transneft's web site. The pipeline &quot;will be further extended to Nakhodka.&quot;
 For months, China and Japan had been vying to determine the terminal of the proposed pipeline from Siberian oil fields. A link to the Pacific would allow oil sales to Japan, South Korea, the United States and China.
 China, however, lobbied for a route for the pipeline to its northwestern oil production center of Daqing. The country, which last year overtook Japan as the world's second-largest consumer of oil, pushed for a dedicated pipeline to help secure energy to maintain its economic expansion, the fastest of any major world economy.
 The Pacific route still faces major hurdles, as there are no guarantees that there will be enough capacity to fill the pipeline. Also, Russia has made no public commitments to sell the oil to Japan. 
 Environmentalists are reportedly rallying to pressure the Japanese banks likely to back the project.
 Currently, China receives all its Russian oil by rail, which is significantly more expensive than piping it. This year Russia has promised to increase its annual shipments of oil to China by rail to 300,000 bpd next year. 
 Transneft has until May to present a feasibility study for the pipeline.
 <i>(Reuters, Bloomberg, SPT) </i>

TITLE: Court Recieves
 JTI Tax Appeal
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Moscow Arbitration Court adjourned until Feb. 1 an appeal hearing by Japan Tobacco Inc. against an $85 million bill for back taxes, Interfax reported Wednesday. 
 
Tax authorities slapped the sales unit of Japan Tobacco's Russian branch with the claim for 2000 tax arrears, interest and penalties in June 2004. 
 The company, which unveiled the case last week, had been due to challenge it in court Wednesday. 
 Interfax reported Moscow's Arbitration Court of Appeal No. 9 put off the hearing due to technical reasons. Japan Tobacco was not available for comment. 
 The Moscow office of the world's No. 3 cigarette maker say the claim is &quot;based on an erroneous interpretation of well-accepted business practices.&quot;
 The dispute comes at a time when Western investors, unnerved by a legal attack on oil firm Yukos, are watching whether the government is planning a nationwide hunt for back taxes that would further hurt Russia's investment climate. <i>(Reuters, SPT) </i>

TITLE: Borodin: Belarus to Get Ruble
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia and Belarus will establish a common economic zone by 2006, Pavel Borodin, secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union, said Wednesday. 
 
Closer ties will benefit both countries, whose annual trade volume is $17 billion, second only to Russia's $25 billion bilateral trade with Germany, Borodin said.
 &quot;Now is the time to gather up the stones we threw around at the end of the '80s,&quot; Borodin said, musing that the European Union's shared borders, common currency and unified legal system were &quot;copied from us.&quot;
 Belarus already gets 95 percent of its energy from Russia, he said, and &quot;a common legal and regulatory environment&quot; would only encourage more common business.
 Discussions over a monetary union between the two countries began in 1993, but talks stalled as Russian economic reforms outpaced changes in Belarus. 
 Alexei Titkov, regional politics analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said a renewal of ties is part of Russia's trend of distancing itself from the West and making foreign relations with CIS countries more of a priority.
 However, Titkov remained highly doubtful about the proposed 2006 integration date. Russia's wish to have a single monetary authority to retain control over inflation and other financial indicators is still opposed by Belarus, Titkov said.
 The next meeting on the issue is due to be held Friday in Grodno, Belarus. 


TITLE: Blank Vows Not To 
 Hike Taxes in City
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The St. Petersburg city government will not raise taxes unless some unforeseen negative factors develop, Vladimir Blank, head of City Hall's committee for economic development, industrial policy and trade, said Wednesday.
 
Speaking at a St. Petersburg International Business Association for North-Western Russia (SPIBA) meeting, he said that the city budget revenues had grown by more than 20 percent in 2004.
 &quot;The most important thing for you to know is that we will maintain the same tax rates for 2005 and the following year,&quot; Blank said.
 The higher budget revenues were due to more effective management of city property, more efficient tax collection and a rise in economic competitiveness, he said.
 Holding tax rates at the same levels would allow businesses to predict their expenditures accurately, making the city more attractive to investors than if the rates would vary, Blank said.
 &quot;The city already has some of the best economic indicators among the country's regions, but investors want something more,&quot; he added. &quot;They want stability and the guarantee of what is the right people, the right man - in our case it is the right woman [Governor Valentina Matviyenko].&quot;
 Last year a law on tax concessions was adopted by the Legislative Assembly and signed by Matviyenko on Dec. 16. It came into effect on Jan. 1.
 This law provides some investors with a right to get tax concessions related to the two main taxes paid by businesses, income tax and profit tax.
 He said City Hall is also bringing many of its service fees under control, or at least, stating how long a particular fee for a service will be valid.
 &quot;We will do all we can to create a better climate for investors in the city.&quot; 
 The city intends to simplify construction regulations and to clean up the inspection services, which are plagued by corruption, Blank said.
 A tax expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers said outlining the city's priorities when it comes to dealing with investors would also be helpful in promoting investors' interest. 
 &quot;[Their] initiative would be most successful if they would be able to determine who those investors are and what they can do for them and clearly explain that to potential investors without falling into the trap of unnecessary bureaucracy,&quot; said Natalia Shcherbakova, a senior tax manager.
 Lowering the taxes for some companies, not just keeping them at the same levels would also be logical, she said. 
 Natalya Kudryavtseva, executive director of SPIBA, said the association appreciated Blank's efforts to speak to businesses and to listen to their advice. This helped the city government develop the right investment policies. 
 &quot;Blank relies on our assistance in the preparation of city's normative acts regulating land plots' price, which is necessary to adopt to consist with the recent changes to the Land Code and will make the process more transparent,&quot; she said.

TITLE: Retail Chain Lenta Plans $100M Expansion
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Rapid expansion is the key to succeeding on the city's food retail market, says the president of food retailer Lenta, a company that plans to open four new stores in St. Petersburg this year.
 
Lenta will invest $100 million into store development this year, Oleg Zherebtsov, the founder and president of the cash &amp; carry retail chain, said Wednesday at a news conference. 
 &quot;We need to make bold moves if we want to upstage the competition,&quot; he said, adding the company hopes for a 20 percent share of the St. Petersburg market by the end of 2006, up from its 12 percent share. Financial director Sergei Yushchenko said the investment will almost double the $56 million invested last year. &quot;This year we decided to invest all the company profits into development,&quot; he said. 
 The decision was made possible by the $30-million loan Lenta obtained from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD, Yushchenko said. &quot;The loan served as guarantee for the company's investment program.&quot; 
 Lenta's development director Vladimir Senkin said that unlike state banks, the EBRD was content to lend the money with the buildings that are to be built in the future, not premises already built, acting as collateral. 
 Zherebtsov said the first store is set to open in May on Moskovskoye Shosse. 
 &quot;It takes about six months now to get through all the paperwork,&quot; he said. &quot;Registering a new store is 10 to 20 times harder here than in the U.S.&quot; However, cooperation with the city government has been improving, Zherebtsov said. 
 Lenta stores carry about 4,200 food items and 8,000 to 10,000 non-food items, a number which is much smaller than the selection offered by city supermarket chains such as Ramstore or O'Kei that have up to a 35,000-item selection. 
 Senkin said the company plans to expand the stores' fresh-food section next year, but will otherwise maitain its limited assortment. &quot;Lenta is not aiming to have such a wide selection, counting rather on fast turnover of goods [for volumes],&quot;Senkin said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Gas-Station Site Tender
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Sixty-one sites for gas stations are to be put up for auction in March, Interfax quoted Natalya Sheludko, spokeswoman for Vice Governor Alexander Vakhmistrov, as saying Wednesday. 
 
Speaking after a meeting between Vakhmistrov and the Oil Club, which represents the oil-products industry in St. Petersburg, she said the largest lot would include 30 sites. It is expected the lot will be bought by a large vertically integrated oil company, she said.
 Other lots will cover 10, five and one site, she said.
 
 
<b>Pulkovo Leasing Deal
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Pulkovo, the St. Petersburg-based airline company, signed a deal with American International Lease Finance Corp on Wednesday for the lease of two Boeing-737-500 aircrafts, Interfax reported citing the company's press service. The cost of the deal was not disclosed.
 
The company plans to use the planes on its European flights starting in June. A deal for the lease of two more Boeing aircrafts is also to be signed this year, Pulkovo's press release said. 
 The company, which owns both the St. Petersburg airport and the airline, currently has a 46-plane park and has been aiming to renew its fleet. 
 
 
<b>SNC-Lavalin Transit 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Canadian engineering company SNC-Laval is working on a $360 million project to build a rapid transit service in southwest St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing Ati Minchev, vice president of the company.
 
"If we begin revising plans for the line in March and get a permit toward the end of 2005 we could have it finished at the end of 2009," he said.
 The first part of the 22-kilometer line will extend from Sosnovaya Polyana to metro station Obukhovo passing through stations Kupchino and Prospekt Veteranov on the way, said Vitaly Zaitzev, depuy head of the city town planning and architecture committee. 
 The city government last July rejected a similar $527-million project by Canadian company Bombardier Transportation, saying the city couldn't afford it. 
 
 
<b>50,000th Ford Vehicle
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Ford Motor Co. plant at Vsevolozhsk in the Leningrad Oblast produced its 50,000th vehicle on Tuesday, Interfax reported, citing a company press release.
 
The plant produced a total of 28,059 Ford Focus cars in 2004, 13,000 more than in the previous year. It was officially opened in summer 2002, the report said.
 Ford plans to sell up to 60,000 vehicles in Russia this year, and about 32,000 of them are to be made in Russia. This would be well over last year's 39,241 and 2003's 20,712 sale volumes, the report said.
 
 
<b>High-Speed Railroad
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Transportation and Commmunications Ministry is completing work on a high-speed railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 
Deputy Minister of Transport Alexander Misharin said that the reconstruction of the track is two-thirds complete. The rail road, which will allow trains to travel at up to 200 kilometers an hour, will be finished in 2007, he said. 
 
 
<b>23% More Revenue
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - City budget revenues were 23 percent higher last year than in 2003, RBC agency reported Tuesday, citing the press service of Governor Valentina Matviyenko.
 
As reported earlier by The St. Petersburg Times reported, revenue totaled 93.3 billion rubles ($3.3 billion). A surplus of 1.2 billion rubles was achieved.
 The biggest item of revenue growth was income from tariffs on fuel and oil products, which grew 14 times. 
 The largest expenditure items were state sector wages, benefits, construction and reconstruction, the RBC report said.
 
 
<b>Housing Fees Up 15%
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The fees for provision of household services and utilities in the city rose by more than 15 percent this month, the Agency for Business News reported Tuesday. 
 
The provision of cold water and wastewater removal rose 23.3 percent to 105.85 rubles per person per month. The provision of hot water rose 20.4 percent to 120.15 rubles per person per month. Telephone and electricity fees both rose by more than 30 percent. 
 
 
<b>2,000 FAS Claims
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT)- Over 2,000 advertising law violation claims were reviewed by the Federal Anti-monopoly Service in 2004, said FAS Director Oleg Kolomiychenko at Wednesday's news conference, as cited by Interfax.
 
As a result, FAS filed over 100 administrative cases and made 43 decisions to remove the violations, Kolomiychenko said.
 The lack of a certificate and licensing number on a product and beer advertising violations were the most common complaints, he said.
 Among the cases under FAS revision, Kolomiychenko named the permit obtained by a company to install advertising on road signs.

TITLE: Kremlin Must Respond to Ugly Nationalism
TEXT: This week a group of State Duma deputies have made it again clear that the lower chamber of parliament is aping the Nazi brownshirts and the Bolsheviks' red nationalism. 
 
Twenty lawmakers belonging to the Rodina, Communist and Liberal Democratic factions have sent a request to the Prosecutor General's Office demanding that all Jewish religious organizations be banned from operating in Russia, saying &quot;the Jewish religion is anti-Christian, inhumane, and involves ritual killings.&quot; 
 Surprisingly enough, this letter was filed by lawmakers in response to a series of lawsuits and court cases initiated by the prosecutor's office in relation to extremist organizations and publications that allegedly broke the law by promoting national hatred. 
 &quot;We would allow ourselves to assure you, Mr. Prosecutor General [Vladimir Ustinov], that there are a large number of well-known facts in sources throughout the world in relation to these questions, on the grounds of which it is possible to come out with a direct conclusion: the negative evaluations made by Russian patriots in relation to typical Jewish qualities and actions against non-Jewish people is a reality and, in fact, such actions are not occurring by chance, but are decreed as part of Judaism and have been practiced for 2,000 years. For this reason, all the sayings and publications against Jews that patriots are accused of is actually self-defense. Sometimes it is incorrectly expressed, but it is, in essence, justified,&quot; says the request, published in Rus Pravoslavnaya, or Orthodox Russia, newspaper.
 Although on Tuesday the group withdrew the letter without any explanations, the fact is still quite revealing - elected representatives have publicly asked the authorities to carry out a racist demand.
 Six years ago, the State Duma was colored even more red, but this was resisted by a minority of democratically oriented factions, which were still represented at that time. Such words then generated little response from officials and were most likely interpreted as just another incidence of evil minds appearing on the pages of one of the numerous nationalistic papers that have few readers among the general public. But now the picture is very different, and, even more surprising - there are signs that the Kremlin has finally started getting the message. 
 On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin admitted that extremism &quot;is a serious problem of today.&quot; In his address to students, Putin said the community and the state should join forces to resist extremism and even indirectly suggested that skinheads should be beaten up - at least that's the way I understood these words: 
 &quot;Any action should be equal in force to any reaction. If you see that extremists choose new forms of some sort, they must be resisted by an activity of the same kind,&quot; Putin said. 
 I have been waiting for such words for a long time, maybe for too long. 
 Extremist movements have got completely out of hand in Russia in the five years since Putin came to power. This has resulted in the election of an extremely nationalistic Duma and in the widespread popularity of skinhead movements. One result of this is a constant growth in hate crimes against non-Russians, including murders. 
 There are about 50,000 skinheads in Russia, compared to about 70,000 in the rest of the world, including Europe, the United States and other countries, according to statistics presented Friday in a report by the International Bureau for Human Rights in Moscow. Their numbers in Russia may be even higher, considering that there are more than 10 hard-line extremist organizations operating in the country, said Sergei Charny, one of the report's authors. The best known are Russkoye Natsionalnoye Yedinstvo, or RNYe, and Slavyansky Soyuz, which has chosen a revealing abbreviation to identify its ideology - SS. 
 Putin's statement in relation to the problem sounds absolutely right, but the time for words passed quite a long time ago and it is time to do more than just talk. 
 If the Kremlin has finally understood how serious this issue is, it has to take action itself. The first step should be to make the police take hate crimes more seriously-they persist in dismissing obvious examples as mere hooliganism. It is crucial that they begin callign these crimes by their right name.

TITLE: A Happy New Year for Putin's Russia?
TEXT: Whether we look at politics, economics or the structure of the state, the main thrust in 2004 was to strengthen the president and the government in pursuit of so-called authoritarian modernization. Authoritarian modernization, as President Vladimir Putin is implementing it, aims to reinforce the state and speed up economic development. Yet these perhaps noble goals are being pursued in very contradictory ways.
 
So what are the main components of Putin's policy?
 In 2004, the authorities continued to clamp down on freedom of speech and apply significant political pressure to the media. As a result, not a single live political television program is left on Russia's airwaves, and serious discussion of topics like the terrorist attack in Beslan or the Yuganskneftegaz auction is explicitly prohibited.
 Russians have also been increasingly deprived of their freedom to make political choices. The authorities have created intolerable conditions for political parties, made absurd membership demands and insisted that every member of every political party be registered with various government organizations - and that these members give their passport details and home addresses to the authorities. The state has effectively banned live political debates that would help voters evaluate various candidates' points of view. Finally, the government has done away with direct election of governors. The minimum requirements for fair elections - political party financing that is independent of the presidential administration, independent media and an independent judicial system - no longer exist in Russia.
 On a similar note, the authorities in 2004 continued passing laws that stomp out even the first signs of civil protest and marginalize any political opposition. These laws, as mentioned above, encourage censorship and do not allow independent political and civil organizations to function properly. The movement to limit freedom of speech on one hand and the activities of these organizations on the other encourages the depoliticization of the public discourse and results in the brainwashing of the public. Television programs now increasingly show the fuzzy political stereotypes of Russia's remote past.
 While smothering any outside criticism or influence, the authorities in 2004 have increasingly rejected the notion of the division of power. The president has made the parliament, the judiciary, the entire executive branch and even the business community beholden to his influence and put them under his administration's strict control. All outside monitoring or checks and balances are out of the question. This means state security organizations, law enforcement agencies and the secret service can completely abandon any pretence of transparency. It furthermore demands that power be centralized as much as possible, which is undermining federalism.
 In 2004, for the first time in the past 20 years, the authorities used threats, both real and fictional, to create states of emergency whenever possible and declare their political opponents enemies, &quot;fifth columns&quot; or traitors. At the same time, they constantly alluded to mysterious unnamed foreign powers threatening Russia. These external threats are one of the justifications for the government's imperialist policy in the near-abroad.
 In the economic sphere, the government has set up clannish, pseudo-state-owned absolute control over business and private initiative. At the same time, the authorities have maintained Russia's semi-criminal oligarchic economic system with the same extremely unstable and completely nontransparent property rights that have existed since the mid-1990s. This system allows the state to persecute businesspeople and selectively apply methods of legal and political repression to redistribute property. This is exactly what happened with Yukos and the fraudulent sale of its main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz.
 Meanwhile, the government has also implemented a series of measures to limit the influx of foreign investment. The authorities seem convinced that their political independence can only be protected by means of economic isolation.
 Yet the Russian government in 2004 strove to create an image of Russia abroad as a modern nation and a worthy partner for developed countries. They have also permitted a handful of government officials and individuals in the presidential administration to express disagreement with the president's general line. As proof of the pluralism within the government, these critics were allowed to keep their jobs.
 These goals and actions make up Putin's brand of authoritarianism in today's multipolar world. The Russian bureaucracy, commonly blamed for all the nation's woes, is in truth only sincerely, if perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, carrying out the president's decrees and making his political plans a reality.
 The president and his men believe that they will be able to keep Russia safe and whole using these methods. They think they will be able to create a modern economy and launch an economic breakthrough based on Russian resources in advanced and highly competitive technologies. Finally, they are convinced they will succeed in creating an up-to-date and efficient military and strong intelligence organizations. It will never happen with such a policy. 
 Yet 2004, the year when the authoritarian system began to function in all its glory, demonstrated that the system has not been able to address any of the problems confronting Russia today. On the contrary, matters have gotten worse on almost all fronts: the economy and business, social and domestic politics and security and foreign policy. All in all, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the quality of life declined in 2004. Russia now ranks 105th out of 111 countries.
 Furthermore, last year demonstrated beyond a doubt that the political direction implemented by Putin has led to serious internal instability, accompanied by obvious failures in both domestic and foreign policy, a disoriented elite and a lack of ideas and people who can come up with and implement good ideas. The paralyzing atmosphere of insecurity and fear has intensified. Authoritarianism has come into irreconcilable conflict with 21st-century modernization.
 Similar tendencies brought the Soviet Union crashing down only recently. The artificial restoration and reinforcement of these tendencies is creating the preconditions for continuing this process of collapse. The authorities do not see such possible consequences. 
 Yet the elements of the policy of the current administration are not mistakes or misunderstandings. These are not bureaucrats abusing the system or individual incidences of excess on the path to a &quot;stronger state.&quot; They are part of a conscious and thought-out political plan.
 Thus, the bottom line for 2004 was increased authoritarianism and demodernization. Russia could get out of this mess by abiding consistently by its own constitution. The only force capable of making the clique in power do so is the people.
 Am I optimistic? Yes, but not this year.
 
 <i>Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the Yabloko party, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Take five
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A new work by a British composer living in St. Petersburg, written for an obscure 18th century stringed instrument rediscovered by a Russian violin-maker, will premiere Sunday in the Kolonny Zal of the Herzen Pedagogical University at 4 p.m.
 
Peter Dyson's &quot;Quintot&quot; features five movements and is designed for five quintons - a hybrid stringed musical instrument that emerged in France and was largely in use during the 18th-century. A cross between the violin and the viola, the quinton has the body of a violin and the sloping shoulders of the viola. It has five strings in contrast to the modern instrument's conventional four.
 The composer is fascinated by the rich tone that the quinton produces. 
 &quot;It has the advantages of both instruments: the tone of viola and the range of violin,&quot; Dyson explains. &quot;The quinton has the size and tonal qualities of a viola but the fifth string matches the top E string of a violin, thus producing an instrument of greater range and flexibility than either of its forebears.&quot;
 Dyson's 15-minute opus will be part of a concert by St. Petersburg's Klassika State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Roman Leontyev, comprising works by Astor Piazzolla, Alfred Schnittke and Carl Weber. The performance is the sixth in a concert series organized by the New Music Initiative of St. Petersburg, a collective of composers and musicians interested in new classical music. The group was established last year by Dyson, Leontyev and British composer Marcus Heathcock. 
 The quinton that will be used in the concert has been made by Petersburg master violin-maker Alexander Rabinovich, who reproduced techniques used by early Italian violin-makers.
 &quot;If you ask the master how long it takes to make a violin, a mischievous smile crosses his face as he replies 'thirty years of study and one week to make,'&quot; Dyson said of his friend Rabinovich.
 Dyson compares entering the violin-maker's studio with stepping into Aladdin's Cave - both contain equally precious treasures. 
 Rabinovich's workshop is captivating and magical: the room is interwoven with wires, instruments hanging from them like ripening fruit, while shelves full of bottles containing coloured substances remind one of an alchemist's den.
 &quot;To hold a Rabinovich violin in your hand is to feel this magic,&quot; Dyson said. 
 During his research into the original design of musical instruments, Rabinovich came to the conclusion that there is no pattern. Rather, in his opinion, the sound of each instrument is dependent on itself, with perhaps one rule: maximum solidity at minimal weight.
 The violin-maker noticed that some Italian instruments, even though they were often made so carelessly that musicians feel uncomfortable playing them, nevertheless possess beautiful voices. 
 Rabinovich believes the secret lies in techniques of treating the wood the Italians developed and used in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Russian master sought to rediscover their long-lost methods.
 &quot;The main secret is in the method used for grinding the wood, which gave a special structure to the material,&quot; Rabinovich said. &quot;The capillary tubes of the wood become hollow after this special processing. They start to act as resonators. Each of them answers to a certain frequency, to the sound of a certain pitch. My task is to free the natural capillaries from everything which might prevent them from resounding and then strengthen them with special polymeric substances.&quot;
 The Italian masters used amber from the slopes of Mount Etna, obtaining an elastic yet solid and chemically-neutral polymer. Working with Baltic amber, Rabinovich has reproduced the same process in the laboratory. He buys his wood - maple, fir-tree, pine and ebony - in southern Europe. Ultra-violet lamps replace grey St. Petersburg skies to replicate the warmth of the Italian sun.
 Rabinovich applied such techniques when making the reproduction quintons for which Dyson has written his new work. For Dyson, the premier of &quot;Quintot&quot; on Sunday is simply the latest step in a long and unusual journey to becoming an accomplished composer.
 In 1996, at the age of 47, Dyson started on that journey by quitting his job as a civil servant, divorcing his wife and selling his home in Essex, U.K., to move to Russia. He came to St. Petersburg to study with composer Boris Tishchenko, who is widely recognized as having been Dmitry Shostakovich's favorite pupil. 
 Since then, St. Petersburg has been a constant source of inspiration for Dyson, with Russia serving as the backdrop for many of his compositions. In December 2001, Olympia CD, a British label that specializes in Russian classical music, released Dyson's first album of original works. 
 In March 2002, the Murmansk State Chamber Orchestra gave a series of world premiere performances of Dyson's concerto grosso for violin, viola, cello and strings, called &quot;After Winter, There Always Comes Spring&quot; in Murmansk and several other towns in northwest Russia. Inspired by the composer's reflections on the first winter he spent in St. Petersburg, the work paints a &quot;wintry violence&quot; through harsh, grating rhythms and rioting harmonies.
 The concerto enjoyed its St. Petersburg premiere in February of 2004, performed by the Klassika orchestra and conducted by Leontyev.
 Dyson's music often reflects his personal experience of living in Russia. 
 &quot;Sometimes, this comes to me in the form of visual impressions such as the stark outline of St. Petersburg buildings in the bright sunshine against a cold, winter sky,&quot; Dyson recounts. &quot;Sometimes, it comes from the poetry of Anna Akhmatova.&quot;
 Another work, &quot;Missa Brevis. I Heard A Seagull Crying in the Wind,&quot; was influenced by the tragedy of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in August 2001, killing all 118 of its crew.
 Dyson first tried his hand at composing at the age of 16. 
 &quot;I just wanted to see if I could do it,&quot; he said, remembering the classical concerts that he attended while going to school in Wales. &quot;It was then when I decided that what I want to do in life is to write music.&quot;
 But when Dyson considered entering the Royal Academy of Music in 1969, it turned out that, at that time, the academy did not offer a major in composition. All students had to major in an instrument, and Dyson wasn't interested in this. So he found other ways to follow his dream.
 Seeking financial security, Dyson took a job in the civil service. He felt he wouldn't have been able to make a living writing music. 
 Dyson received his first exposure to Russian classical music aged 17, and one of the first recordings he came across was that of Dmitry Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto. Those initial impressions were overwhelming and they remain vivid for him to this day.
 The composer describes his latest work for the quinton as somewhat &quot;backward-looking,&quot; in that it looks toward the 20th century musical idiom.
 &quot;The piece is written in contemporary classical style, and some people may find there some influences of Shostakovich and Paul Hindemith,&quot; Dyson said.
 The piece is written for five quintons, but it has proved quite a challenge to get five musicians together to learn the new instrument. 
 With this in mind, Dyson has also written an arrangement of the work for one quinton and a string orchestra. It is this arrangement which will receive its world premiere at the forthcoming concert at Herzen University.
 
 <i>
&quot;Quintot&quot; at The Russian State Herzen Pedagogical University. 48, Moika Embankment, Building 4. Tel. 312-9663. </i>

TITLE: CHERNOV'S CHOICE
TEXT: The sensational local reunion of <strong>Orbital,</strong> advertized in local media to take place at the opening of the PIK trade and entertainment complex on Friday will not take place after all. The U.K. electronic duo, who split after a farewell concert in London last July, has no immediate plans to reform.
 
As The St. Petersburg Times has discovered, the whole thing is a local promoter's &quot;exaggeration&quot; of a DJ set by Phil Hartnoll, a former member of Orbital. See article, page 2.
 <strong>Les Hurlements d'Leo, </strong>probably the best-loved French band in Russia after Manu Chao (whose former group Manu Negro the younger French musicians acknowledge as a drastic influence), is paying its fourth visit to the city to play two concerts at Platforma.
 The band first came to St. Petersburg in May 2001 at the invitation of Tequilajazzz, whom they had met at the Fu kuoka Live Summit festival in Japan, where they became such a huge local hit that they return every year. Dubbed locally as &quot;France's Leningrad,&quot; after the popular local band that blends ska, punk, pop, urban folk and drinking soul, Les Hurlements d'Leo performs a similar amalgam, mixing French <i>chanson,</i> punk, gypsy music, Latin, ska, dub and <i>java,</i> a French post-war dancehall style. As with Leningrad, it is the kind of music that is almost perfect for partying and drinking.
 The band is also loved for its easy-going style, which allows them to play free, impromptu concerts such as the one they gave at the first location of the grungy basement bar Cynic during their first visit. The band came to St. Petersburg from Moscow, where apart from a club performance they were reported to have performed at a birthday party for an unknown but important person, who also booked the local band La Minor and the Red Army Choir.
 Starting out as a quartet of guitars, double bass and drums in Bordeaux in 1995, the band has expanded and now features eight members on vocals, guitars, keyboards, saxophone, double bass, violin, trumpet, accordion and drums and percussion.
 Having taken its name from a song by the French alt-rock band VRP, Les Hurlements d'Leo released its debut album, &quot;Le Cafe des Jours Heureux,&quot; in 1999. Its most recent album, &quot;Kaleidoscope,&quot; was released in Feb. 2004.
 Les Hurlements d'Leo will perform at Platforma on Saturday. The concert will be followed by a dance party, with the band's members spinning records, according to a news release from the venue.
 Popular local band <strong>Billy's Band</strong> will perform a second show at Estrada Theater shortly. Last December the trio, whose music is heavily influenced by Tom Waits, paid tribute to the U.S. troubadour with a musical/drama performance &quot;Being Tom Waits.&quot; On Friday, Billy's Band will perform its second production called &quot;Blues is in My Head.&quot;
 &quot;While 'Being Tom Waits' is 90 percent English-language, this one is mainly our own Russian-language blues,&quot; said singer and double bass player Vadim &quot;Billy&quot; Novik.
 
 <i><strong>- By Sergey Chernov
 </strong></i>

TITLE: Olympic champion
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Nobody gave Greece much of a chance at Euro 2004, but the heroic team downed the giants of European soccer to become unlikely champions. A few weeks later, Athens hosted the Olympic Games without a hitch, despite widespread predictions that nothing would be ready in time.
 
Likewise, an undistinguished Russian cafe on Dekabristov has emerged as a Greek restaurant to trump its more glitzy rivals, notably the vast and shiny Oliva Greek taverna up the road on Bolshaya Morskaya.
 Before describing its merits, it's worth noting that Olimpos remains a modest venue and for those who care about the exact difference in definition between a &quot;restaurant&quot; and a &quot;cafe,&quot; it has to be said that Olimpos falls squarely into the latter category. No host will greet you and no server will seat you. The service will be functional: on a recent visit, night lights (not candles) which had burned down were not replaced for new guests; ashtrays took a while to be cleared and replaced; uncertainty lingered about whether the food would be served at all and whether courses would be served at the same time (they were).
 Olimpos seats possibly 25 people at a stretch in one street-side room with a bar. It is decorated in the requisite sky blue and off-white tones, with various pots, urns and plants dotted about. There's a warming coal-effect heater at the end of the room, set into a stone fireplace. Smart-looking placemats have been ingeniously formed from unfolded navy blue serviettes with frayed handkerchiefs on top.
 The cafe's full name translates as Olympus: National Greek &amp; European Cuisine, which in practice means a menu divided equally between Greek classics and a bog standard Russian menu. Its janus-faced nature also extends to the music which alternated between raucous Russian pop and upbeat Greekish - in other words Turkish - dance music. 
 Predictable starters, ranging in price from between 55 rubles ($2) to 120 rubles ($4.30), included stuffed vine leaves, Greek salads and dips.
 The Greek salad for 120 rubles ($4.30) was a dinner-plate full of green lettuce, pitted black olives, diced yellow pepper, sliced tomato and red onion rings, combined with feta cheese. The chef hadn't skimped on the feta which was probably gleaned from a deli jar of feta cubes preserved in oil. No extra olive oil dressed the salad, which seemed to be moistened only by the brine from the canned olives; however, sprinkled with dried herbs, the salad was far from bland and, with a nod to Russian tradition which mandates that a salad be a filling meal in itself, absolutely satisfying.
 Meanwhile, vine leaves stuffed with rice and laced with hints of aromatic mutton for 100 rubles ($3.60) also proved weighty enough to qualify as a light meal. The six pin-cushion sized packets were served with a salad garnish and minty yogurt sauce, and decorated with tiny, jewel-like billberries. The salty-sweet tang of the vine leaves and soothing sauce lingered pleasantly in the mouth, whetting the appetite for the next course. 
 These range from mousaka for 120 rubles ($4.30) to a kebab of sturgeon, salmon and bacon for 290 rubles ($10). Mousaka, a sort of pie, is sometimes a difficult dish to pull off: it can be either too dry or too soggy. Olimpos' version benefitted from using gamy minced mutton (rather than often flavorless lamb) which was layered with juicy eggplant and potato slices and topped with an aromatic grilled cheese topping. The large slice stood up to the dryness test - literally: when it's too wet a portion can spread out on the plate; just right and it rests in place.
 Olimpos' shashlyks (kebabs) also get high marks. Its mutton version for 190 rubles ($6.80) was eight large chunks of spiced, well-grilled meat served with a cold pepper salsa. Both mains were served with a regrettably olive oil-free salad garnish of Chinese leaves, yellow pepper and shredded carrot, with flat-leaf parsley and yet more billberries added for presentation.
 This simple but winning dinner was accompanied by Bochkarov beer which, while on this occasion was a bit stale, is an absolute bargain at just 45 rubles ($1.60) for 0.5 liters.
 The quality and quantity of Olimpus' Greco-Russian fare offers super value for money in unfussy surroundings. A new entrant on the city's budget dining scene, the cafe has made a Greek mountain out of a Russian molehill and deserves all the laurels it can get.

TITLE: Night shopping
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Night Salesman&quot; (&quot;Nochnoi Prodavets&quot;), the debut feature from director Valery Rozhnov now showing in St. Petersburg cinemas, is a mixture of thriller and dark comedy with frequent references to Russian and Western detective films and crime comedies, particularly to films by Quentin Tarantino and to the 2003 Russian hit &quot;Boomer.&quot; 
 
Shot in a single location - a Moscow 24-hour shop - on an amazingly low budget, the film has style, and, although it is unlikely to be acclaimed for its artistic achievement, &quot;The Night Salesman&quot; is certain to provide enjoyable and relaxing, but also involving, viewing. 
 With a plot featuring characters stuck in a particular place and faced with the necessity of fighting a maniac the film brings nothing new to world cinema. But the commonplace tradition of having a small girl (generally looking amazingly weak and fragile) strike the final blow on the maniac's head and save everyone from evil has undergone a twist.
 The protagonist in &quot;The Night Salesman,&quot; a young and poor student played by Pavel Barshak (from 2003's &quot;The Stroll&quot; / &quot;Progulka&quot;), is working the night shift at a 24-hour store and, in this movie, it is he that assumes the role normally reserved for the defenseless girl. 
 The action covers the student's first eventful night on the job. Immediately, he finds himself seduced by the shop-owner's sexy wife (played by Ingeborga Dapkunaite), even though he's frightened to death of her husband, played by Vyacheslav Razbegayev (last seen in 2004's &quot;Countdown&quot; / &quot;Lichny Nomer&quot;). 
 The shop-owner's significant contribution to the film consists mainly of a monologue at the start of the film, written in the best traditions of the highly acclaimed contemporary Russian playwright Yevgeny Grishkovets.
 In it he explains that whatever happens, the shop must remain open - otherwise, someone who may have walked miles to get to the only 24-hour shop in the area might crack, &quot;but we can't crack our customers.&quot; 
 The shop-owner also sets two boundaries within which the plot develops - the salesman can't leave the shop (because he can't close it) and no-one can smoke inside.
 As his shift progresses, the student is put through a number of comic horror experiences, while heavy rain pours down outside. He meets a thoughtful but hard-boiled night policeman (played by Andrei Krasko), who is investigating the case of a local serial killer. While our hero gets it on with the boss's wife (who, by the way, had popped in looking for the security guard, nicknamed Casanova, who turned out to be on sick leave), he's disrupted by the day salesman (who, it turns out, is into S&amp;M, or rather, making use of handcuffs and knives during sex). In next to no time the student has a corpse on his hands and he and the boss's wife have to deal with it. 
 In the meantime, the store is visited by various shoppers (only lonely men, for some reason), among whom the viewer will recognize Russian film star Konstantin Murzenko (&quot;Brother 2&quot;) and &quot;Boomer&quot; star Alexei Merzlikin (still driving the stolen BMW with his three friends and partners in crime.) 
 In fact, the reappearance of the beamer from &quot;Boomer&quot; is one of the most powerful and unexpected moments of the film, supported by Sergei Shnurov's musical refrain from the cult movie. Shnurov, along with St. Petersburg-based Billy's Band, has also contributed to the soundtrack of &quot;The Night Salesman.&quot;
 Still, not everything is what it seems and the film has a twist in the end. But &quot;The Night Salesman&quot; would do better without it - the twist is rather artificial, as if it was put in at the very last moment, just for the sake of it.
 In spite of a good initial idea and some remarkable acting, &quot;The Night Salesman&quot; could certainly do with a larger number of comic details - it the tiny directorial touches which can turn a typical situation-comedy into a cult film (and something worth watching many times to discover more layers). In addition, fewer close-ups would not harm the cinematography of &quot;The Night Salesman.&quot;
 The film, however, is in no way pretentious nor does it claim to be any more significant than it is. It certainly offers a pleasant, relaxing and amusing night out at the movies, which is refreshing in the often disappointing realm of contemporary Russian cinema.

TITLE: The give-me generation
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: He whispered the songs in my ear like poems. And it felt good, safe, like being in a bomb shelter,&quot; writes Irina Denezhkina in her intriguing collection of short stories &quot;Give Me&quot; to be published in the U.S. in February. Already an acclaimed international bestselling author at just 23 years old, Denezhkina latest book chronicles contemporary Russian adolescent life. 
 
Before Denezhkina, a native of Yekaterinburg, was nominated for Russia's National Bestseller prize, she shared her stories with fellow journalism students at Urals Region State University. Her stories were discovered by Stanislav Zelvensky, an art critic in St. Petersburg, on the literary web site www.prosa.ru, and later picked up for publication in English by publishing giant Simon and Schuster.
 The semi-autobiographical stories are set in Russia and are about the hedonistic lifestyles of the country's urban youth. Her complex characters include punks, rappers, drunken hooligans, and students. They attend parties, listen to hip hop, use drugs, have random sex, and are violent. The confessional prose of this post-Socialist, capitalist, MTV-craving society is immaculately stylized. Slang turns into poetry; chat-room abbreviations become romantic; and lines taken from lyrics of popular songs prove the resilience of youth.
 Denezhkina's teenage characters' troubles revolve around their sexual desires, describing their everyday lives with no judgment, and employing a language all their own. 
 &quot;Rabbit pulled his raincoat tighter around him and looked up. He knew he would never forgive his girl. That was why he was crying. He couldn't help himself. He was a romantic idiot and a man with principles,&quot; says the narrator in &quot;My Beautiful Ann.&quot;
 The first story in the collection, &quot;Give Me,&quot; is told in the first person and chronicles a female university student's romantic adventure. She dates a punk rocker who wants to be on MTV and a rapper who calls himself &quot;Nigger.&quot; Only one young man stands out: a young Chechen war veteran who is haunted by the deaths of his friends. Men are washed up or drift close to shore as the main character sits on the beach never quite certain of what she truly wants.
 &quot;Vasya and the Green Men&quot; is a darkly humored, grim, and violent exercise in magical realism. It is about Vasya, a young boy with a shaved head (due to lice), teeth knocked out, and a tennis ball for one eye, who challenges the evil green men. They live out by the rubbish tip, eating tramps and raping tramp-women. Vasya, dressed in his father's baggy trousers and a pair of Nazi underpants, takes on the green monsters. It is a tale of abuse from the green men and a reminder of a bleak, oppressive world.
 &quot;Lyoka the Rottweiler&quot; is about a suicidal teenager on New Year's Eve. She is interrupted from jumping out the window by a security guard and his dog who spot her from downstairs. It is a wry tale of fate, secret crushes, and life affirming parties. 
 In &quot;Remote Feelings&quot; the author changes point of view toward the end. This adds a unique mood to the piece which deals with unrequited feelings. The shift serves to distance the audience.
 The best and longest story in the collection is &quot;Song for Lovers.&quot; The yearning, romantic characters are quite believable with all their faults. The author captures the attitudes of various characters by switching perspective and jumping between different characters. This style is perhaps used to evoke the abrupt cuts and fragmentary story lines of music videos. 
 Denezhkina's narrative ends with an awkward self- awareness of modern post-Marxist courtship dances and heartbreaks. Perspective shifts among so many different characters throughout the collection leaves the reader wanting more from the ambitious young writer.
 Denezhkina's meteoric rise to fame mirrors young American novelist J.T. Leroy. Both novelists choose to ally themselves with a subset of their audience by their unconventional styles and universal themes of desperate longing.
 Denezhkina's liberating reflections, enthusiastic prose, and cynical humor is thoroughly engaging. Despite having no central theme to connect the stories, &quot;Give Me&quot; leaves no doubt that Denezhikina is a talent to be taken seriously. Her stories tell it like it is for Russia's new give me generation.
 
 <i>
Heather Kristin is an writer based in New York. </i>

TITLE: On the waterfront
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Flying on a clear day over a land of flashing lakes, forests and tiny farms, you can understand why Norway's 4.5 million people prefer to spread out. Water from the tap actually tastes good. The air is fresh. People still wave to each other on village roads. Neat, well-kept houses are left unlocked at night. In short, Norway is an excellent place to shed the stress induced by city living.
 
While Oslo is a charming capital, the best way to catch the country's pulse is to explore the regions. From Oslo, take a 40-minute flight or a five-hour train to the southern city of Kristiansand. The city is compact, vibrant, bright with flowers and perfect for strolling from beach to cafe to rocky lake.
 Begin your day with a cup of coffee, which is almost the national drink, at one of the sidewalk cafes before sunbathing on the waterfront's sandy beach. If salt water isn't your thing, wander up Holdergsgate or Kronprinsensgate streets to Baneheia, a park bigger than the town itself. Follow the sound of children's laughter and the wooden arrows for Ravnedalen to a clear lake lined with smooth boulders, where you can stretch out, dive, barbecue or pick raspberries. The lake is litter-free and well-tended, apparently a theme throughout the country. The sound of traffic is subdued thanks to several tunnels that run below the park rather than cutting through it - Norway's oil-rich government usually builds under and through, rather than up and over.
 To explore the many islands that spread out from the city, rent a boat from Hartmanns Marina (Tel. 347-812-0720) for about $60 per day. Boaters are required to fly their national flag and the waters are dotted with miniature Norwegian flags - a blue and white cross on a red background. Before setting out from the city, pick up fillets from the marina's fish market and an aluminum grill set. By dinnertime, the islands are dotted with boaters drinking beer and grilling fatty steaks.
 After returning to the marina, stop by Mammamia across from the fish market for dessert. About $5 will get you a generous serving of locally made ice cream in a crispy cone.
 The best way to explore the vastness of the countryside is by car, and both Avis (Tel. 47-3807-0090) and Hertz (Tel. 47-3802-2288) have offices in Kristiansand. The most direct route to Bergen, known as the gateway to the fjord region, runs northwest through the mountains. Take route 9 from the city and watch how quickly farms and miniature villages take the city's place. After about an hour, the road enters the Setesdal region and follows the Otra River valley for several hours. The world's only species of freshwater salmon, which got trapped inland during the last ice age, lives where the river widens to lake-size between Byglandsfjord and Ose. Winding higher between the mountains, past hotels and turf-topped cabins, the road is smooth and lacks even the hint of a pothole or frost heave because hydropower has made this region rich enough to tend lovingly to its roads.
 Turn west onto E134 at Haukeligrend and follow the most popular stretch of the road above the tree line through tunnels and past rocky peaks. In July and the winter skiing season (when the roads are clear enough of snow to pass), the region's hotels are packed with tourists.
 After a particularly long tunnel, the valley of Roldal opens up, with green fields sloping down to a lake that reflects the snow-capped mountains. Before descending into the valley, turn off just after the gas station to pick up some brown goat cheese from the local dairy. The store also houses a small cafe where you can fuel up on coffee and cheese-filled<i> lefse</i> (potato pancakes).
 Down in the valley, turn left and head toward the wooden church's silver steeple. Built in the early 1200s, it is typical of a Norwegian village church of the time, and its wooden walls are covered with 16th-century paintings. But the church's centerpiece is a medieval crucifix, which drew pilgrims with its healing powers well into the Protestant period.
 At the village of Josendal, continue north on route 13 to Odda, where you can catch sight of the Sorfjord. Follow route 550 up the left side of the fjord on a thin strip of land between water and mountain. The road is lined with orchards, and farmers sell their fruit to passersby on little roadside tables - just choose your fruit and leave the payment in a jar. Occasionally visible between the mountain peaks is the Folgefonna glacier, which feeds the waterfalls that rush down to the salty fjord every few kilometers.
 Although the village of Utne is little more than a few houses clinging to the mountainside, it links the road to Bergen with Kvann-dal, on the other side of Hardangerfjord, by ferry. From Kvann-dal the road begins as a ledge on the edge of the mountains and gradually widens to take in inlets and sleepy villages. The first part of route 7 is dotted with two-lane tunnels, leaving the original one-lane road to crumble on the cliff side. After an hour, the road turns inland and the E16 from Oslo will bring you into Bergen.
 Bergen is a town born of fish and trade, traditions still visible today in the bustling fish market and Bryggen, houses from the Hanseatic league listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The postcard-perfect row of bright wooden houses was built in 1360, when the German merchants set up shop, pushing out the locals and dominating trade for the next 400 years.
 Across from Bryggen is the fish market, where tables are piled high with fresh and smoked seafood, including crabs, mussels, oysters, mackerel, salmon and whale. Norway hunts one species of whale, the minke, and the dark, almost black, meat on sale here is either smoked for about $50 per kilo or fresh for about $30 per kilo. Bypass the fishy open-face sandwiches for sale and aim for the fish and chips stand, where for $12 you can pick out a hunk of fresh cod for frying.
 Before heading back to Oslo by train or plane, act like a Norwegian and stop by a cafe for your fifth cup of coffee, slowly read the morning paper, and leave with a smile.

TITLE: World Leaders Mark Auschwitz Liberation
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KRAKOW - Leaders from 30 countries gathered Thursday to remember the victims of the Holocaust on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.
 
Maj. Anatoly Shapiro, who commanded the unit that captured the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, greeted leaders and survivors at a Holocaust forum in Krakow ahead of the main ceremony at the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.
 &quot;I would like to say to all the people on the earth, unite and do not permit this evil that was committed,&quot; the elderly Shapiro said in a recorded video greeting that played in Krakow's Slovacki theater. &quot;This should never be repeated, ever.&quot;
 The forum began with applause for Shapiro, who lives in the United States, and three other Soviet army veterans who helped liberate Auschwitz. They received medals from Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski.
 Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kwasniewski and Israeli President Moshe Katsav were to join survivors at the rail siding at the nearby Birkenau camp, where Nazi doctors carried out the &quot;selection&quot; of new arrivals. That meant choosing those deemed able to be worked to death from the majority who were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
 Newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko addressed a youth gathering, and members of the audience stood and applauded as he entered the hall.
 Vice President Dick Cheney is representing the United States. Germany's President Horst Koehler was to attend but was not scheduled to speak - an acknowledgment of Germany's role as the perpetrator of the Holocaust. Beforehand he was to address a youth forum called Let My People Live.
 Some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews from across Europe, died in gas chambers or of disease, starvation, abuse and exhaustion at Auschwitz and Birkenau - the most notorious of the death camps set up by Adolf Hitler to carry out his &quot;final solution,&quot; the murder of Europe's Jewish population.
 Soviet troops reached the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, finding some 7,000 survivors, many barely alive. The retreating Nazis had driven most of the prisoners who still had strength to walk out into the snow on a &quot;death march&quot; toward camps further west.
 Six million Jews died in the Nazi camps, along with several million others, including Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents of the Nazis.<strong>
 </strong>Survivors at the commemoration stressed that each new generation needs to be educated about the Holocaust.
 Russian Jews expressed hope that Putin, too, would address the issue of anti-Semitism. &quot;Today there are 70,000 skinheads in Russia, I'd like him to talk about that, and law enforcement organs don't allow proper investigations into cases of incitement of racial hatred, and today people with a different skin color or nationality are killed,&quot; said Alla Gerber, head of Russia's Holocaust Foundation.
 Earlier this month, a group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called for an investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.


TITLE: At Least 11Dead in L.A. Suicide Attempt
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GLENDALE, California - A suicidal man parked his SUV on the railroad tracks and set off a crash of two commuter trains Wednesday that hurled passengers down the aisles and turned rail cars into smoking, twisted heaps of steel, authorities said. At least 11 people were killed and more than 200 injured.
 
The SUV driver got out at the last moment and survived.
 The collision took place just before daybreak on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Dozens of the injured were in critical condition, and more than 120 people were sent to hospitals. The crash occurred at about 6 a.m. in an industrial area of Glendale, a suburb north of Los Angeles. One train was headed for Los Angeles' Union Station from Moorpark, a western suburb. The other train was outbound from Union Station to the San Fernando Valley.
 
 <strong>
MARRIAGE DRAMA</strong>
 Authorities said Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, of Compton, parked his sport utility vehicle on the tracks and got out before a Metrolink train smashed into the Jeep Grand Cherokee. 
 The train then derailed and collided with another train going in the opposite direction. That train also jumped the tracks.
 
Alvarez was arrested and expected to be booked for investigation of a &quot;homicide-related offense,&quot; the police said. Alvarez had also slashed his wrists and stabbed himself, but the injuries were not life-threatening. Authorities said Alvarez had a criminal record that involved drugs.
 Alvarez's sister-in-law, Maricela Amaya, told Telemundo TV that he had separated from his wife, Carmelita, three months ago. 
 She said the wife got a court order to keep him away, but he had tried to see his wife and son. She said he had also threatened suicide in front of his son.
 According to the request for a temporary restraining order, which was granted Dec. 14, Carmelita Alvarez said her husband &quot;threatened to take our kid away and to hurt my family members.&quot;

TITLE: Rice Inaugurated as Secretary of State
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice took over Thursday as America's 66th secretary of state to confront an agenda laden with difficult and explosive foreign policy problems.
 
At the very top is a grinding war in Iraq that has taken the lives of more than 1,400 U.S. troops.
 Rice, a one-time Stanford academic and analyst of the now-defunct Soviet Union, is the first black woman to hold the job of secretary of state. 
 During Senate confirmation hearings last week in which she was peppered with 390 oral and written questions, Rice was strongly challenged on Iraq and the war. The Senate voted 85-13 to confirm her Wednesday. In history, only Henry Clay, who was confirmed as secretary of state in 1825 by a vote of 27-14, drew more opposition. 
 Rice gave no indication that she would recommend any change in U.S. strategy designed to overcome insurgents and steer Iraq toward democracy.
 However, she did acknowledge problems, citing desertions and poor leadership among the Iraqi security forces that are supposed to take charge of pacifying the country.
 Rice did not hint at changes in diplomatic efforts to stop nuclear weapons development in Iran and North Korea.
 However, on the Middle East, she seized on the election of Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian leader as the kind of opening that would impel her to take on an active and personal role in trying to promote negotiations with Israel.
 Rice was sworn in Wednesday night at the White House. Her designated replacement as national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, held the Bible. U.S. President George W. Bush planned to attend a ceremonial swearing-in Friday at the State Department.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Zhao to be Buried
 </b>

BEIJING (AFP) - The funeral of purged Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang will take place on Saturday, his family and the government said.
 Security has been intensified to prevent mourners attending the ceremony. Witnesses said China has detained dozens of people before the event, some of whom have been severely beaten.
 Zhao, who was premier and head of the ruling communist party in the 1980s, died aged 85 in a Beijing hospital on Jan. 17.
 He was purged for opposing the military crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in which hundreds were killed.
 
 
<b>39 U.S. Troops Die 
 </b>

BAGHDAD (AFP/AP) - A U.S. military helicopter crashed in western Iraq Wednesday, killing 31 U.S. military personnel while six other U.S. soldiers died elsewhere in the deadliest day for American forces in the 22-month-old war.
 On Thursday, eleven Iraqis and one U.S. Marine were killed as insurgents clashed with American troops and blew up a school slated to serve as a polling center. Another U.S. soldier died in an accident.
 U.S. President George W. Bush, meanwhile, urged Iraqis to brave death threats and vote in national elections on Sunday, but violence continued to plague the country as 30 Iraqis were killed across the country, including 15 in a truck bomb targeting a Kurdish political party in northern Iraq.
 
 
<b>Sharon Lauds Abbas
 </b>

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday he is "very satisfied" with Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to restore calm and that he is eager to resume negotiations with the Palestinian leader.
 "There is no doubt Abu Mazen has started to work," Sharon was quoted as saying in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot. Abbas is widely known as Abu Mazen. "I am very satisfied with what I am hearing is happening on the Palestinian side and I am very interested in advancing processes with him."
 
 
<b>Blair Opens Davos 
 </b>

DAVOS (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the forum's annual meeting of business and political leaders in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos on Wednesday with an impassioned pledge to champion the drive against climate change and poverty during his presidency of the Group of Eight industralized countries this year.
 Developing and implementing technological solutions to cut pollution would also boost economies, and the G8 should help the Chinese and Indian economies to achieve low-pollution growth, Blair told the meeting.

TITLE: Safin Triumphs Over Ailing Federer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MELBOURNE, Australia - Marat Safin ended top-ranked Roger Federer's 26-match winning streak in a classic Australian Open semifinal, outlasting the defending champion 5-7 6-4 5-7 7-6 (6) 9-7 in a dazzling 4 1/2-hour match. 
 
Safin, seeded fourth and trying to regain the No. 1 ranking he held briefly after winning the 2000 U.S. Open, overcame an unusually jittery Federer, who hadn't dropped a set in five previous matches here, including a quarterfinal domination of Andre Agassi. 
 Federer received treatment for elbow and back pain in the fifth set, then saved six match points before Safin broke him with a forehand into an open court as Federer watched from his knees. The 4-hour, 28-minute match ended Friday at 12:25 a.m. local time. 
 Safin next meets the winner of Friday night's semifinal between second-ranked Andy Roddick and No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt. 
 The women's final will put seventh-seeded Serena Williams against top-ranked Lindsay Davenport (see story, page 11). 
 Safin against Federer was pure crowd-pleasing tennis between two of the game's most gifted all-around players. Every point was a struggle as they punished weak shots and swapped stinging groundstrokes and drop volleys. 
 &quot;It's like a brain fight against ... Roger Federer,&quot; Safin said. &quot;I think we played the best we could and I couldn't give any more than that.&quot; 
 Safin was exhausted going into last year's final - which he lost to Federer - after six matches that averaged three hours. Demonstrating the skills that took him to No. 1 after his only Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows, he was much fresher this time - and he needed to be. 
 While serving at 5-6, he mis-hit a forehand, then sent a backhand long to give Federer the first set. Frustrated, the mercurial Russian tossed his racket high in the air and missed the catch. 
 Federer then lost his first set of the tournament, showing the first real signs of tension in 11 days. Serving at 1-1 in the second set, he smacked an overhead wide, then hit a backhand into the net for the only break. Safin held serve the rest of the way. 
 Usually unflappable, Federer committed an uncharacteristic 14 errors in the set to just five for Safin. Clearly frustrated, he shouted at himself after missing opportunities and began charging the net more frequently than usual. 
 As in the first set, Federer broke with Safin serving at 5-6 in the fourth set. Safin smashed his second racket of the tournament after one error, and sent a forehand way long. 
 The last time they met in a tiebreaker, Federer prevailed 20-18 at the Masters Cup. This time, Safin turned the tables. He trailed 5-2 before running off the next three points. Federer made a stunning drop shot from the baseline to pull ahead again to 6-5 and serve for the match. Safin then won the next three points to force a deciding fifth set. 
 Federer called in trainer Paul Ness, who massaged his right forearm and elbow. Three games later, Ness returned to stretch out his back as he lay on the court. 
 Safin took a 4-2 lead in the deciding set as Federer committed his seventh double fault on break point. Federer got back on serve by saving two match points at Safin served 5-3, then broke to get back on serve. Federer fended off another match point in the next game, another two while serving at 6-7 and a sixth at 7-8 before Safin finished it.

TITLE: All Talk, No Play At NHL
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TORONTO, Canada - Players and owners from the dormant National Hockey League have made another bid to end their labour dispute, as a new poll warned fans were being turned off in droves by the 133-day lockout. 
 
The talks, seen as a last ditch effort to save the 2004-5 season, took place at a secret location in Toronto. 
 Neither side offered details of the discussions, but both said further talks would take place in the near future. 
 &quot;The meeting has concluded for the day and we will meet again this week,&quot; NHL executive vice president Bill Daly said. &quot;We have no further comment at this time.&quot; 
 &quot;After meeting today, we have agreed to continue discussions and will not be making any further comment at this time,&quot; NHL Players Association senior director Ted Saskin said. 
 Two days of talks between the 30 team league and the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) folded in acrimony last week, all but dashing hopes that a meaningful season could be salvaged. 
 Owners led by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman are adamant that a salary cap is the only way to solve the sport's financial woes, but players under union chief Bob Goodenow have warned they will never accept such a deal. 
 Reports said the league could be trying to soften player opposition to a salary cap by providing incentives in other areas with some kind of revenue sharing and luxury tax system. 
 No major North American professional sports league has ever lost a full season to a labour dispute. Even two world wars could not prevent the awarding of the Stanley Cup - the only time the sport's holy grail remained on the shelf at the end of the season was during a Spanish flu epidemic in 1919. 
 As the meetings opened in Toronto, there was a dire warning for the league that even in its Canadian heartland, where hockey enjoys almost religious significance, fans are alienated by the dispute. Seventy-seven percent of fans questioned in a survey for the Fan 590 sports radio station and Macleans magazine, said they didn't miss watching hockey on television. 
 In the United States, where 24 of the NHL's 30 franchises are located, the sport has a much smaller footprint, dwarfed by the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). 
 Many publications and television highlight shows south of the border have barely registered there is no hockey - despite the fact that the season should have started in October.

TITLE: Serena Into All-American Final
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MELBOURNE, Australia - Serena Williams simply refused to be outplayed by Maria Sharapova this time. 
 
At her best under pressure, the seventh-seeded Williams fended off three match points and beat Sharapova of Russia 2-6 7-5 8-6 on Thursday to put her into the final of the Australian Open. 
 &quot;I thought, 'OK, I could do this,'&quot; Williams said. &quot;Two times in a row back from match point down ... this is such a special court for me.&quot; 
 Williams, who avenged her loss to Sharapova in the Wimbledon final and stretched her winning streak at the Australian Open to 13 matches, will face top-ranked Lindsay Davenport for the championship. 
 Davenport looked lethargic after playing more than four hours the previous day, but rallied to hold off No. 19 Nathalie Dechy of France 2-6 7-6 (5) 6-4. 
 Williams, seeking her seventh Grand Slam title but first since 2003 after a series of injuries, blamed her loss to Sharapova at Wimbledon last year on nerves. She came out tight again Thursday, spraying balls all over. 
 Even Williams couldn't seem to believe her inaccuracy, testing her swing after mistakes, shaking her head and even laughing. In the first game of the second set, a ballboy bounced a ball at Williams that she smacked into the stands in frustration after losing a point. 
 &quot;I was battling Maria and myself,&quot; she said. 
 She quickly rebounded, and pounded the fastest serve of the women's tournament at 124 mph - but not without a few more close calls along the way. 
 The 17-year-old Sharapova, who also beat Williams in the season-ending WTA Championships, served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and again at 5-4 in the third. 
 With her powerful forehand finally under control, Williams saved three match points in the third set, then broke to even the match at 5-5. She saved three break points while serving at 7-6 as both players grunted on every hit and pumped their fists on every winner. 
 After smacking a forehand down the line to finish off the match, Williams leapt three times in the air as she approached the net, shook Sharapova's hand, then crouched and pumped her fist as the crowd roared. 
 &quot;I think it definitely lived up to expectations,&quot; Williams said of her showdown with Sharapova. &quot;It was a lot of fun ... I can't believe it's over, I feel like I should still be playing.&quot;
 The third set lasted 66 minutes, and the crowd cheered and groaned on every point, seemingly not wanting the match to end. &quot;I played from my heart. I didn't take my chances. That's what this game is all about,&quot; Sharapova said. 
 Still, she was upbeat. 
 &quot;There's nothing negative - I'm 17 years old and I've made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open,&quot; she said. &quot;Of course I'm sad, it's a tough one to lose. But I've got a long way ahead of me.&quot; 
 Davenport is healthy after a bout of bronchitis just before the Australian Open, where she won her last Grand Slam title in 2000. But she was tight after a 2 1/2-hour quarterfinal victory that was followed by more than 1 1/2 hours in a doubles match that put her and partner Corina Morariu in the finals. 
 It showed. She finished with 48 winners and 52 enforced errors - but only 11 in the final set as she finally loosened up. 
 &quot;It's been a long two days. I woke up this morning, I just felt pretty tight all over,&quot; she said. &quot;It wasn't my greatest day playing tennis - but I'll take it.&quot; 
 Davenport said it was ironic that she made it to the final. 
 &quot;This whole tournament has been such an awkward and different experience,&quot; she said. &quot;At the U.S. Open, I was playing so well and felt like everything was going my way, not a problem. And get to the semis, a little injury comes up, and don't make it through. Here, I feel like I'm not playing that well, I'm struggling through all these matches, and I'm in the finals.&quot;
 Dechy, seeded 19th, was in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time after failing to get past the fourth round in 36 previous majors. The 25-year-old Frenchwoman was only two points from winning the match at 5-4 in the tiebreaker, before Davenport won three consecutive points to force it into a deciding third set.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Spurs Sign Finn
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur have signed a pre-contract agreement with Finland international Teemu Tainio, the Premier League club announced on Thursday. 
 The 25-year-old midfielder, who has played 150 games for Auxerre since joining them in 1997, will link up with Tottenham in July when his contract with the French club ends. 
 "We are delighted that we have been able to secure Teemu now and do not have to wait until the summer," Tottenham's sporting director Frank Arnesen told the London club's website. 
 
 
<b>FA Sorry For DVD Slip
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - The Football Association has apologised after a DVD which claimed to feature the greatest post-war England internationals did not include a single black player. 
 The DVD, entitled "The Pride of the Nation" has been included in a welcome pack for newcomers to the "englandfans" official members' club. 
 Sven Goran Eriksson introduces a retrospective look at the leading footballers to have worn an England shirt over the past 40 years. 
 But while the initial list given to video producers Octagon is understood to have included black players, none of them made the final cut as the running time was reduced to 30 minutes. 
 Many of the remaining 17 players would not be controversial choices, including Bobby Moore, Gary Lineker, Sir Bobby Charlton, Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson, David Beckham and Terry Butcher. 
 However, Martin Peters, Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce and Steven Gerrard were also included, while black players such as Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Paul Ince, John Barnes, Ashley Cole and Viv Anderson were not. 
 
 
<b>Sonics Sink Lakers
 </b>

NEW YORK (AP) - On a big night for long-range shooters all over the NBA, Vladimir Radmanovic scored all but two of his 26 points on eight 3-pointers to lead the visiting Seattle SuperSonics over the Los Angeles Lakers 104-93 on Tuesday.
 "One time, I think he was in the parking lot and I had my hand right in front of him, but he just pulled up and shot the ball. He had a great night," Lakers guard Caron Butler said.
 The Phoenix Suns tied a team record with 16 3-pointers and finished with its highest point total of the season in a 133-118 victory over the New York Knicks.
 
 
<b>Mets Buy Mientkiewicz
 </b>

NEW YORK (AFP) - The New York Mets, who failed to land power-hitting first baseman Carlos Delgado, completed a deal with Boston for first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz. 
 Just a day after Delgado decided to sign with the Florida Marlins, the Mets nabbed Mientkiewicz for minor league prospect Ian Bladergroen. 
 Mientkiewicz, 30, had a difficult 2004 campaign, getting dealt to Boston at the non-waiver trade deadline. He batted .215 with a homer and 10 RBI in 49 games for the world champion Red Sox after hitting .246 with five homers and 25 RBI in 78 games with the Minnesota Twins. 
 A career .272 hitter with 44 homers and 276 RBI in 692 games over seven years with Minnesota and Boston, Mientkiewicz was slated to split time in Boston - a scenario that did not appeal to him. 
 The departure of Mientkiewicz leaves Kevin Millar as Boston's starting first baseman. 
 
 
<b>Ref Admits Match Fixing
 </b>

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German referee Robert Hoyzer said on Thursday that allegations made against him regarding match-fixing were essentially true. 
 "The allegations against me which have been raised in public are in essence true," Hoyzer said in a statement released by his lawyers. 
 "I deeply regret my behaviour and apologise to the German Football Association (DFB), my refereeing colleagues and all football fans." 
 The DFB announced on Saturday that Hoyzer was under suspicion of rigging a Cup match after betting on the result. The DFB has since widened its investigation to look at five more matches, four of them refereed by Hoyzer. 
 Public prosecutors in Berlin also announced on Thursday that they were looking into the case. 
 
 
<b>Semak Looks Forward
 </b>

PARIS (AP) - New signing Sergei Semak is confident he can help turn around Paris Saint-Germain's flagging fortunes.
 The Russia striker, who was officially presented Tuesday after joining on a six-month loan from CSKA Moscow, is expected to be a boost for coach Vahid Halilhodzic, whose team is in ninth place in the French league and hasn't scored a goal in three matches.
 "Ninth place is a worry," Semak said. "But things can go very quickly in football. We have a lot of games left and it's up to us to make the effort to rise up."
 
 
<b>Aussies Best Windies
 </b>

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - Brett Lee captured four wickets and smashed 38 runs in a fine allround performance to steer Australia to a 73-run win over West Indies in their triangular series one-day international at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday.
 Lee dismissed West Indian openers Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle in successive balls in his first spell then removed Brian Lara and Courtney Browne, also in successive balls, in his second spell as the tourists collapsed to be all out for 196 in the 45th over.
 Lee also played a major role in helping Australia recover from a poor start to pile on 269 for eight from their 50 overs.