SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1042 (8), Tuesday, February 8, 2005
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TITLE: Maskhadov Follows Truce With Call for Talks
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov on Monday followed up his declaration of a cease-fire with a call for the Kremlin to start peace talks and for the international community to play a part in settling the conflict. Nothing seems likely to come from Maskhadov's appeals, but his forces still stand to gain from halting their attacks. 
 
The cease-fire allows his forces to rest and regroup during the winter, when conditions are most difficult. It also would allow the rebels to restore a chain of command if radical warlord Shamil Basayev is indeed dead, as security officials in Abkhazia have claimed.
 The pro-Moscow government in Chechnya has rebuffed Maskhadov's call for peace talks, and the Kremlin has so far remained silent. This, too, plays into Maskhadov's hand, by allowing him to take the lead in the international propaganda war. 
 Maskhadov was quoted in the Monday issue of Kommersant as saying that the one-month truce, which he announced early Thursday and which appeared to be holding, should ultimately lead to peace talks with the Kremlin. "If not, the bloodshed will likely continue for a long time, but we will surrender moral responsibility for the continuation of this madness," he said. 
 Maskhadov also vowed to hand over Basayev - who has organized a series of terrorist attacks - to an international tribunal if he and the Kremlin negotiate an end to the conflict in Chechnya. 
 The Kavkaz Center web site posted a new statement by Maskhadov on Monday evening in which he calls on Russia to stop the bloodshed, saying the rebels are open for "real political dialogue with the Kremlin without any preliminary conditions."
 He also called the United States, United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union to "abandon the roles of extras and to get actively involved in the plan that we are proposing for settling the military and political conflict between Russia and Ichkeria."
 Maskhadov told Kommersant that he has already appointed a team, headed by his ally Umar Khambiyev, whom he described as his "chief representative abroad," to negotiate with the Kremlin.
 The Russian leadership has repeatedly rejected Maskhadov's calls for peace talks in the past, casting doubt on how much real control he wields over Basayev and other rebel commanders. 
 A spokeswoman for the presidential administration, who refused to give her name, said late Monday that although Putin has not made any public mention of Maskhadov's proposal, this does not mean that it is not being discussed in the Kremlin. 
 The only response from federal authorities was an announcement last Thursday by the Prosecutor General's Office that Maskhadov was being charged with complicity in organizing the hostage-taking raid on the Beslan school on Sept. 1. More than 330 people, half of them children, died in the raid, for which Basayev assumed responsibility.
 Unlike the Kremlin, Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration responded to Maskhadov's initiative by saying it was ready to talk to anyone but Maskhadov and Basayev, and urged their fighters to lay down their arms. 
 "We are ready to talk to anyone who will approach us from the criminal circles and gangs, and we are ready to do whatever depends on us to make these people return to a normal peaceful life," Chechen President Alu Alkhanov told journalists Saturday.
 Hundreds of former rebels have responded to earlier amnesties, with many of them later joining local police units notorious for their brutality and corruption.
 Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's deputy prime minister, said the rebel leaders were negotiating from a position of weakness. "Neither Maskhadov nor Basayev has the strength to conduct any actions in the Chechen republic," Kadyrov said in an interview on NTV television Monday.
 Taus Dzabrailov, head of Chechnya's State Council, said Maskhadov is stalling for time. 
 Leonid Syukiyainen, an analyst with the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said Maskhadov realizes that his latest call for peace talks will most likely go unanswered. Yet, he is pushing the idea as a way to help repair the damage done to the rebels' cause by the Beslan raid. 
 "Maskhadov's proposal is nothing more than an effort to demonstrate to many inside Chechnya and outside Russia that it is Moscow that is resisting peace talks," Syukiyainen said.
 He said unless the Kremlin breaks its silence and at least repeats its earlier demands that Maskhadov order his forces to surrender and hand over terrorists, including Basayev, Maskhadov will win the war for the attention, if not the sympathy, of the international community.
 Basayev's death has been reported by security officials in Abkhazia, who cite his relatives living in the separatist republic of Georgia. When asked by Kommersant to confirm Basayev's death, Maskhadov would only note that reports of Basayev's death had surfaced five or six times over the past six years.
 Basayev, according to the Chechen rebel web site, has supported Maskhadov's cease-fire order.
 Maskhadov's cease-fire declaration won instant praise from the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and award-winning Chechnya commentator Anna Politkovskaya, who called on Moscow to begin talks with Maskhadov. 
 "ACPC calls on Russian authorities to consider Maskhadov's call for peace and begin talks on a negotiated settlement," the committee said in a statement circulated Friday.

TITLE: Baltics' War
 Of Words
 Heats Up
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A confrontation between the Baltic States and Eastern European countries, and Russia on how the significance of the end of the World War II should be interpreted intensified last week with harsh statements made by Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
 
"On May 9, Russian people will place a Caspian roach on a newspaper, drink vodka, sing folk songs, and recall how they had heroically conquered the Baltic area," RIA-Novosti cited her saying Friday.
 The Russian Foreign Ministry made a quick and stinging response.
 "This public expression by the head of the Latvian state is deeply regretful," it said in a statement issued Thursday. "It is hard to comment on a disdainful, insulting approach to people that defended the world from fascism. It's a shame that the announcements of the president of Latvia in relation to World War II are more and more assuming the character of a domestic squabble. This has become a norm in recent times."
 Another step outside the limits that Russian political elite accepts is a book "The History of Latvia in 20th Century," recently written by Antonijs Zunda, the Latvian president's history adviser. The book puts the role played by the Soviet Union in an extremely bad light, according to Pravda.ru information web site. 
 Among other things the book describes a Nazi extermination camp in the Riga suburb of Salaspils as "a police prison and educational labor facility." Pravda.ru referred to the camp where more than 100,000 people are believed to have been executed as the "Latvian Auschwitz."
 Moscow denies Baltic claims that the Soviet Union invaded the Baltic States, then sovereign states, in 1940. After Nazi Germany occupied them in 1941 to 1945, many Balts fought against the Soviet Union because it had persecuted many citizens during its administration. Moscow portrays its ejection of the Nazis as a liberation, while the Baltic States say they were not free until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990.
 Speaking at a Moscow news conference last Wednesday, Zunda said: "In May 1945, Latvia did not restore its sovereignty and was drawn into another totalitarian regime," Interfax reported. 
 He noted, however, "Our president knows and recognizes the Russian people's special role in the destruction of fascism." the Kremlin-controlled news agency RIA-Novosti quoted an anonymous expert saying Latvia "is wasting its time" by confronting Russia.
 "[This might be] a trite move aimed at exacerbating the situation to the maximum to achieve the results most acceptable to it," he was quoted saying.
 Asked if Vike-Freiberga's statements could lead to the cancellation of the invitation for the Latvian president to participate in 60th anniversary Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 9, the expert said this is not possible.
 "It would be inappropriate," he said.
 The heads of state of all three Baltic States have been invited to the celebrations, but Vike-Freiberga is the only president to accept the invitation to date. The three states became members of the European Union last May.
 The expert said Russia had in December provided Latvia and Estonia with draft political declarations on relations with each other. However, they had made no response.
 Without such declarations being signed, there is little chance of relations between Russia and the Baltic States being normalized, he said.
 Valery Kalabugin, a political analyst based in Estonia, however, saw Russia as provoking continual confrontation the Baltic States. This is because the Kremlin has not forsaken the idea of one day regaining control over Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, he said. 
 "The Russian authorities are following a pattern of offering something sweet and then following it up by doing something unpleasant," Kalabugin said Friday in a telephone interview from Tallinn. "The Victory Day celebrations, are in themselves quite good, but Moscow's invitations [to the Baltic states] were followed by an offer to sign a declaration, which is clearly provocative."
 The Baltic States expect Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, to acknowledge and apologize for the damage the Soviets did between 1940 and 1941 and 1945 and 1990 when they occupied the Baltic States; they expect Russia to do what Germany has done over crimes committed by Hitler's regime, Kalabugin said.
 However, all that the draft declarations prepared by the Russian Foreign Ministry offer is to forget the past, dashing the hopes of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to get an apology. The draft declaration reads: "Expressing deep sympathy to the victims of social disorders and wars, Russia and [a space is left for the name of a Baltic State signing the document] believe it is most important that scientists of the both countries have conducted wide examinations of the past events of a common character, which demand an objective evaluation, pointing out by this that historic events should not be an obstacle to realizing the principles of ... democracy, or hinder the development of relations between the two countries." 
 Estonian President Arnold Ruutel seemed to share some sympathy for this type of approach at a ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of the Tartu border treaty between Estonia and the Soviet Union in 1920. 
 He had earlier said Estonia is ready to sign a border deal agreed with Russia in 1999, that would leave in Russia some districts annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and added to the Pskov and Leningrad regions.
 "[The draft border agreement of 1999] reflects the reality that was formed during 50 years of occupation of Estonia," Interfax quoted him saying. "The Tartu treaty fixed the eastern border of Estonia for decades until the secret deal between Stalin who ruled the Soviet Union and fascist Germany, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, that determined the fate of many independent nations and borders."
 "We have to be aware of these facts, but at the same time [we should] look into future," he said.
 Meanwhile, setting off another potential source of confrontation, European Parliament deputies from Eastern Europe demanded that a ban on Communist symbols, including the hammer and sickle, be introduced if the European Union outlaws Nazi symbols such as the swastika, Reuters reported Friday.
 Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Slovakian members of the parliament said such an approach to Communist symbols would be fully justified because of killings and torture suffered by people in the former Soviet Union or in countries under Moscow's domination. The lawmakers sent their request to Franco Frettini, the EU justice, freedom and security commissioner.
 It would not be appropriate to include Soviet-era symbols in the ban because some are still used by legal Communist parties in the West, Reuters cited Frettini's press service as saying Friday.

TITLE: United Russia Candidate to Govern Nenets
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Alexei Barinov, a United Russia party member and former LUKoil official, won the runoff in the country's last direct gubernatorial election in the Nenets autonomous district, according to a preliminary vote count released Monday.
 
With about 90 percent of the ballots counted in Sunday's election in this sparsely populated, oil-rich district on the Barents Sea, Barinov had 50 percent of the vote, ahead of his rival Igor Koshin, a former United Russia member, who gained 30 percent of the vote, Interfax cited local election officials as saying.
 The election marks the end of direct gubernatorial elections in the country. Under a law that came into force Jan. 1, President Vladimir Putin will nominate governors for approval by regional legislatures.
 The runoff election followed a first round of voting last month that saw a Kremlin-backed candidate, Alexander Shmakov, pushed into third place. 
 The region's outgoing governor, Vladimir Butov, was ruled out of running for a third term after being given a three-year suspended sentence in December on charges of beating a traffic policeman. 
 Butov insisted that the case was politically motivated and aimed at hindering his reelection bid. 
 Alexei Titkov, a regional politics expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that Barinov would be friendlier to national and international oil companies active in the district than Koshin, his runoff rival. In his two terms in office, Butov had several run-ins with oil companies. 
 LUKoil, Rosneft, ConocoPhillips, France's Total and Finland's Fortum are engaged in oil and gas projects in the district.
 Barinov worked as top executive at two LUKoil affiliates in the region from 1995 to 2000 and the company could have backed his election bid, Titkov said.
 Barinov said during his campaign that he was against a merger of the district with any neighboring region. That policy could run counter to the wishes of the Kremlin, which generally favors incorporating smaller regions into larger ones, Titkov said. But Barinov could yet drop his opposition to a merger after the election, Titkov said.
 In a blow to United Russia, the party was placed second to the Communists in elections to the district's 20-seat legislature that also took place Sunday, local elections officials said.
 The Communist Party won 27 percent of the vote, ahead of United Russia with 23.5 percent, according to preliminary results, Interfax reported.
 The Communists' election victory - their first since their comprehensive defeat by United Russia in December 2003 elections to the State Duma - is unlikely to indicate a new trend, Titkov said, because the district is very small. About 60 percent of the Nenets district's 30,000 voters, or 18,000 people, took part in the elections, Interfax reported, indicating a margin of victory of a little more than 600 votes.
 "What matters in the regions that are so small is the personality of a politician, not his political affiliation," Titkov said. The people voted more for the Communists' local leader, Leonid Sablin, than for his party, Titkov said.

TITLE: Komi to Fund the Release Of
 'Virtual Museum of Gulags'
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The government of the Komi region is to fund the release of 1,000 compact discs containing "The Virtual Museum of Gulags," an electronic collection of materials about the network of prison camps in which millions were jailed in the Soviet era. 
 
The CD-ROM, jointly created and produced by the St. Petersburg branch of human rights group Memorial and Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was released last December. It had its first regional presentation last week at the National Museum of the Komi Republic.
 "Representatives of the Komi government approached us after the presentation saying they were so impressed they will fund an extra edition to distribute in schools across the region," said Memorial spokeswoman Tatyana Kosinova said Monday.
 The first CD in a series to be called "The Virtual Museum of Gulags" offers an overview of the collections of 29 museums from throughout Russia. The list includes, the Perm-36 Gulag Camp Museum, the Pechora Museum of Repentance, the Kolyma Museum, the Labor Museum of Novy Bor Collective Farm, Sosnogorsk School No. 3 Museum, the Occupation Museum in Riga, Latvia, and the Igarka Museum of Permafrost.
 Memorial's researchers have found more than 300 museums across Russia that have either full exhibitions, ongoing displays or temporary projects devoted to the gulag. 
 Irina Flige, head of Memorial's historical branch, said work on producing further CDs in the series will be continued to create a fuller, more comprehensive map of country's repressive system of gulags.
 Kosinova said a German-language and English-language versions of the CD will be issued spring. Also in spring, a Russian-English-German online version of the museum will be available at http://www.gulag.net.ru. 
 Memorial will continue regional presentation of the CD at sites where the researchers gathered materials for the electronic collection.
 The next regional presentation of the "The Virtual Museum of Gulags" is scheduled for March 20 in Perm-36, the only intact gulag camp surviving in Russia, which operated from 1946 until 1987. During that time it housed "enemies of the people" and common criminals. 
 Russian human rights advocates are convinced that the legacy of gulags can't be overcome until a federal program to sponsor projects like gulag museums, television documentaries, lectures and research is created, and the state acknowledges the crimes and apologized for them.
 "We'll never overcome our past if we don't learn to face it," Flige said.

TITLE: Fate of Stalin
 Statue Not
 Yet Certain
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Doubts have been raised over when and if a statue of World War II Allied leaders Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Theodore Roosevelt will be unveiled near Yalta, a spokeswoman for sculptor Zurab Tsereteli said.
 
"The statue is still in St. Petersburg because it needs more work," said Irina Turayeva, spokeswoman for Tsereteli, who is Russia's best known and most controversial sculptor.
 It was not yet known when the statue, made at the city's StatueSculptura foundry, would be finished or where it would be erected, she added.
 "It will depend on what the Crimean authorities decide," she said in a telephone interview from Moscow.
 As the 60th anniversary of the meeting of the "Big Three" began on Friday, the thought of a statue to Stalin being erected in Crimea, now part of Ukraine and home to Crimean Tatars whose ancestors Stalin deported under horrific conditions in 1944, caused protests from Crimean Tatar politicians
 The statue was to be installed in front of the Livada Palace in conjuction with the anniversary. The Allied leaders met there in February of 1945 to discuss the post-war division of the world.
 Tsereteli made the statue, which features one of the first sculptures of Stalin made since Krushchev condemned Stalin in the mid-1950s, at the request of the Yalta city administration.
 "The statue portrays a real event that took place in the Livada Palace," Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Tsereteli as saying.
 "I chose the moment when Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill sat in their armchairs to be photographed," he said. "Therefore, the statue is a reminder of that well-known picture."
 However, Tsereteli said that in the statue the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain do not merely smile at each other as in the photograph, but also have their own characters. He has his own view of Stalin because his grandfather was a victim of Stalin's purges in 1937, but the statue reflects an historical event of great importance, he said.
 Crimean officials consider the scandal around the statue overblown, while many war veterans and communists support the statue, NTV reported.
 Alexander Kapitonov, a veteran of the World War II who guarded the conference participants in 1945, said that at that time everybody understood that "the future of the world was being solved."
 "Those were the three smartest men, who won the war," he said on NTV.

TITLE: Site for U.S. Consulate Sought
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The U.S. consulate general in St. Petersburg hopes to find a new site for its mission before August, spokesman Jeffrey Murray said Friday.
 
The consulate is seeking a site, preferably downtown, but away from roads of about 4 hectares. An existing building could be used or a new one built, he said.
 The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, discussed the issue with Governor Valentina Matviyenko in the city on Thursday. She said she would assist in any way she could, but the government department responsible for dealing with the embassy is the Foreign Ministry.
 Murray said new security requirements in response to the threat of terrorism have made a move essential. The building housing consulate on Ulitsa Furshtadskaya is located right next to a road, and is considered dangerous, he said.

TITLE: Citizens Protest At
 Channel 5 Coverage
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: About two dozen protesters on Monday started what was to be a week-long demonstration against city-owned Channel 5 for ignoring other protests over benefits.
 Late Monday, Alla Manilova, head of City Hall's media committee, agreed to meet the protesters Tuesday in the hope that the action could be curtailed, Interfax reported.
 On Monday afternoon, Nika Strizhak, who presented a live program from an open air studio on City Hall's television station, squirmed in front of a poster saying, "Get Rid of Censorship on Channel 5."
 The protesters were assembled by St. Petersburg Citizens' Resistance movement in front of the studio in Malaya Sadovaya Ulitsa.
 Mainly members of Yabloko, National Bolshevik Party and Communists, who have recently been active opponents of the Kremlin's policy, they said the channel misrepresents news.
 "They practice corruption of facts by reporting fewer people taking part in protests than are on the streets, said Yelena Tatarinova, a Yabloko party representative, in a telephone interview from the picket.
 "They say pensioners are happy; everybody got their pensions and they say all this while we receive from 30 to 100 phone calls every day from people, some of whom have not yet got their pensions even for December," she said. 
 At noon, shortly after the picket started, the protesters erected a tent "as a sign of revolution and protest," but it was dismantled a few minutes later after a police request, Tatarinova said.
 "We tried to hand out leaflets, but representatives from the Central District administration showed up and banned us from doing it," she added. "We told them we're going to meet in court next time, because it is not campaigning to distribute leaflets - people have a right to do that wherever they want, according to the law," she said.
 The demonstrators said they are disturbed that taxpayers' money is used tofinance Channel 5. In return, they are given unreliable information.
 City officials denied the allegation. 
 "None of the joint-stock ventures engaged in broadcasting in St. Petersburg, including the main city television channel," operates at taxpayers' expense," the media committee said in a statement.
 "Despite the main shareholder of Channel 5 being the city of St. Petersburg, this company does not receive subsidies from the city or federal budgets," the statement continued. "There is no financing in the city budget scheduled for Channel 5. In other words, Channel 5 ... does not exist in expense of taxpayers," the statement said.
 The city is this year scheduled to spend 43.5 million rubles ($1.5 million) on financing television, including 2.5 million rubles to support television and radio, 8 million rubles to provide broadcasts of the most important city events and 33 million rubles for socially significant projects. 
 The budget does not specify which media outlets will get the money, but according to Yabloko, Channel 5 is very likely to be one of the main recipients.
 "The [budget] item about the most important city events is obviously going to them, because who else in the city is busy with that?" Boris Vishnevsky, an analyst with Yabloko, said Monday in a telephone interview.
 "But this is the most important issue," he said. "The most important issue is that it is not City Hall, but St. Petersburg citizens who own 60 percent of Channel 5 shares. And all they get from this asset, which belongs to them, is lies."
 Recently Channel 5 has developed a practice of acting only in favor of City Hall, Vishnevksy said, adding that Yabloko had recently been banned from taking part in a political program on Channel 5. 
 The party intends to go to court over this, he said.

TITLE: Lottery Firm
 Says Using
 Image Legal
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A company that organizes a nationwide sports lottery, Chestnaya Igra, say its use of an image of famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky is legal.
 
The company is being sued by the writer's great grandson, Dmitry Dostoevsky, who says the use of his ancestor's image on lottery tickets is unauthorized and insulting. 
 The writer had a long struggle to give up a gambling addiction, which is the subject of his novel "The Gambler."
 The lottery is organized by the Russian Voluntary Society "Sports Russia." Some of the profits help fund construction projects aimed at boosting the country's ailing sports industry. Lottery tickets costing 50 rubles bear the images of Russia's finest, including scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky, and Tsar Alexander I. 
 Chestnaya Igra's press secretary Natalya Starodubtseva said in a statement that the use of Vasily Perov's 1872 portrait of Dostoevsky is legal. 
 "According to Article 15 of the copyright law, the portrait has become public property, and thus can be freely used by anybody," Starodubtseva said. 
 Chestnaya Igra's management was unaware of Dostoevsky suing them, she added.
 Moscow lawyer Sergei Voronov, who represents Dmitry Dostoevsky, said the argument is not about copyright, but that Chestnaya Igra's use of the writer's image violates both the Constitution and the Civil Code. 
 "It is illegal to use anybody's name or image for commercial purposes without their permission or permission from their legitimate representative," Voronov said. 
 But Chestnaya Igra disagrees. The company says the print of Dostoevsky's image, as well as portraits of other cultural figures, serves educational purposes.
 "Lottery participants not only get a chance of winning a major prize but also can read a short biographical note about their famous compatriots on the back of the ticket," Starodubtseva said. 
 The note about Dostoevsky doesn't say the writer had a history of gambling, she said.

TITLE: Finnish Consulate Issues
 Schengen Visas for Austria
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Finnish Consulate General this month began issuing visas to Austria.
 
Now businessmen or individual tourists, wanting to visit Austria, will be able to receive Schengen visas to that country from the Finnish Consulate Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
 However, firms which organize tours to Austria will still need to take their applications to the Austrian Embassy in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, Austria has only an honorary consulate, which is not authorized to issue visas.
 Martti Ruokokoski, Finnish consul and head of the visa section at the consulate general, said the new service will be convenient for people who want to go to Austria.
 He was confident the Finnish Consulate, which opened in new premises in December, would cope with the Austrian visa applications. "If needed, we'll hire more people to do that work," he said.
 The Finnish consulate's employees who process visa applications for Austria all speak German, the official language of Austria, and will be able to deal with documents in German, Ruokokoski said. 
 The Finnish consulate already issues more visas each year than do all the other foreign consulates in St. Petersburg. Last year it issued 213,000 visas, he said.
 The Finnish consulate is the first in St. Petersburg to introduce a service offering visas for other countries. In some countries, where Finland doesn't have consulates Austria also provides services for issuing Finnish visas, he said.
 Michael Hatzl, vice consul at Austrian Embassy in Moscow, said the decision to issue Austrian visas in St. Petersburg's Finnish consulate was made under an agreement between the two countries, according to which the Austrian diplomatic mission in Oman issues visas to Finland.
 Ruokokoski said he did not yet know how many people would be applying for Austrian visas in Northwest Russia. The consulate already has 10 clients, but a big increase is expected when the ski season starts in Austria.
 Hatzl said that last year 67,000 people from Russia received visas to Austria. While it was difficult to say how many people from Northwest Russia would travel to the Alpine country, the new service would be very helpful for travelers.
 Tatyana Schwarzkopf, assistant to the Austrian honorary consul in St. Petersburg, said the new service would be "of great convenience" for people in northwest Russia and St. Petersburg.
 "Traditionally many people from St. Petersburg go to Austria because we have very good cultural and business connections with that country," Schwarzkopf said.
 Ruokokoski said the Finnish consulate's offices in Petrozavodsk and Murmansk will not issue Austrian visas.

TITLE: Six Old People Killed in Blaze
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Six people died when a fire that broke out in an old people's home for former prisoners in the town of Lodeinoye Polye in the Leningrad Oblast on Sunday.
 
The fire began about 1:30 a.m. in a room containing seven residents, most of whom were invalids aged over 70 years. They were barely able to move unaided. 
 Emilia Ryzhova, director of the home, said Sunday in a telephone interview that investigators suspected that the fire had been started by residents who had been smoking and drinking alcohol.
 Although fire brigades arrived very quickly, five people died in the room from smoke poisoning, one died later in the hospital. 
 Another person remains in intensive care.
 About 80 percent of the home's residents are former repeat offenders, who spent many years in prisons, but some residents have never been to prison.
 The state-operated home is not always able to control the residents, Interfax quoted the press center of the Leningrad Oblast government as saying.
 The home houses 326 people. The building was constructed 20 years ago and has high fire-safety standards. This contributed to the fire being extinguished quickly.

TITLE: Celebrations a Must for Arctic Convoy Veterans
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Hundreds of British war veterans who served on the perilous Arctic convoys from 1941-1945, which brought essential supplies and equipment to the North Russian ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk, are looking forward to celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war with Russian veterans in those ports and in St. Petersburg.
 The veterans were guests of honor at the Russian Winter Festival in London on Saturday. However, amid the joy at the Alexandrov Red Army Choir's performance and reminiscing about their time in Russia and Russian friends, there was a sense of bitterness among the veterans that the British government still refuses to issue an Artic Star medal for those who served on the Russian convoys.
 "They seem to say by implication that it wasn't a very worthy theater of war," said veteran Ted Begley, 83, from North London. "I can only think that [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair or his advisors were never there to see it, because thousands of my friends died on that convoy, they suffered hardship, they were bombed and torpedoed." 
 Speaking at a reception for the veterans, London Mayor Ken Livingstone told the veterans that he had grown up with his father's tales about the convoys and that it was "shameful that the contribution made [by them] has never been recognized" by the British government.
 Russia has already twice recognized the courage of the veterans who braved treacherous conditions and constant German attacks to keep the supply routes of the Arctic Sea open, by awarding medals on the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the end of the war.
 The convoys began in August 1941 after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, and at least 3,000 British men and women died on them. 
 The food, arms and military equipment and vehicles that the ships delivered to the Red Army were crucial in the battle against the Nazis.
 Bill Linskey, 84, from Newcastle, was 22 when he worked in Archangelsk in 1941 unloading tanks, and still speaks excellent Russian. He will spend the May anniversary in Murmansk and said that such occasions are very important for both Russian and British veterans.
 The veteran's agency of the British Defense Ministry states on its website that "service in the convoys to Russia during the Second World War was recognized by the award of the Atlantic Star" and that there are no plans to issue a new medal or change the qualifying regulations. 
 The Atlantic Star medal was issued for those who had served in the Atlantic for six months or more. Many men on the much shorter Arctic convoys were not eligible. 
 A convoy trip usually lasted two weeks, depending on the weather. 
 "Many men did one or two trips, came back and were then sent to the Far East, so they didn't qualify," said Gordon Long, Trustee of the Russian Convoy Club, UK, an Arctic veterans club.

TITLE: State Duma
 Condemns
 Anti-Semites
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The State Duma adopted a declaration Friday sharply condemning a letter that urged prosecutors to outlaw all Jewish organizations in Russia, but the nationalist and Communist factions whose members had signed the letter were absent or voted against the declaration. 
 
In a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted the declaration saying that the "clear anti-Semitic intent" of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews "prompts indignation and sharp condemnation."
 Last month's letter, whose signatories included 20 Duma deputies from the Communist, LDPR and Rodina factions, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist." 
 The letter drew disgust and criticism from Jewish and human rights groups. President Vladimir Putin, speaking during events marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, acknowledged that anti-Semitism and xenophobia had surfaced in Russia - an issue the Kremlin had long failed to confront directly. 
 The Duma declaration reflected the Kremlin's eagerness to be seen as intolerant of anti-Semitism: Almost all the votes in favor came from lawmakers in the dominant, pro-Kremlin United Russia party and from the handful of independent lawmakers.
 Votes against the declaration came from the Communists and the ultranationalist LDPR. The Rodina faction is boycotting Duma sessions in a protest over the monetization of benefits.

TITLE: Tymoshenko Becomes Ukraine's Prime Minister
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV - Parliament confirmed Yulia Tymoshenko as Ukraine's new prime minister Friday and gave the firebrand of the Orange Revolution the go-ahead to set the country on a new, westward course.
 
In unanimous votes, Tymoshenko won confirmation as prime minister and won support for her government's program aimed at fighting poverty, tackling corruption and preparing Ukraine for European Union membership. 
 After the tally showing she had received 373 votes, far more than the 226 votes needed, the 44-year-old politician smiled broadly, then immediately walked over and hugged new President Viktor Yushchenko.
 "People are waiting for a new government that will be honest and will resolve all the problems they have lived with for 14 years," said Yushchenko, who came to parliament to seek support for Tymoshenko, whom he called his "political partner, political friend." 
 Following the confirmation, she began announcing positions in her Cabinet, which was formed 24 hours later than expected as the diverse group of allies who helped Yushchenko win the presidency haggled for key posts.
 Before the vote, Tymoshenko laid out the broad goals of her government's program, called "Toward the People," saying it would emphasize justice for every aspect of Ukrainian life. 
 Tymoshenko also said Kiev must create a constructive relationship with its main trading partner, Russia. 
 "Russia for us is a first and top-priority partner," she said, adding later, "but our path lies in Europe." 
 The opposition leaders who jumped to Yushchenko's side to fight against the election fraud emerged the big winners. The Socialists won a handful of key posts, including the powerful Interior Ministry and governor posts in the strategically important Black Sea port region of Odessa and the eastern Poltava region.
 Anatoliy Kinakh, a former prime minister who often appeared alongside Yushchenko during the protests, was named first deputy prime minister. 
 Other key appointments included Borys Tarasyuk, a former foreign minister who has pushed for Ukraine's entry to the EU, named foreign minister, and Anatoliy Gritsenko, who briefly studied at a U.S. military academy, named defense minister.
 Tymoshenko's ally, Oleksandr Turchinov, was tapped to head Ukraine's secret service. He immediately quieted speculation that the powerful agency might be set loose on members of the former government.

TITLE: Metro Dead
 Remembered
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Moscow - Hundreds of people gathered at the Avtozavodskaya metro station Sunday morning to honor the memory of 41 people killed by the bomb that ripped through a metro car there exactly one year ago.
 
Many placed flowers near a plaque containing the names of those killed.
 About 800 people, mostly survivors and relatives of those killed, gathered near the memorial plaque.
 Prosecutors said in a statement Friday that they had identified all those killed in the blast, in which more than 140 people were injured. Investigators named the 42nd person killed, who they believe was the suicide bomber, as Anzhor Izhayev, a native of Karachayevo-Cherkessia aged 21 or 22.

TITLE: JTI Vows to Fight On Over $79M Tax Bill
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Moscow Arbitration Court upheld Thursday the $79-million back tax claim against the Russian subsidiary of Japan Tobacco Inc.
 The case comes on the wave of increased attention from the federal tax authorities to companies that employ tax minimization schemes.
 
Tax authorities slapped the bill on the world's No. 3 cigarette maker Japan Tobacco International, or JTI, at the end of last year, for what they maintain were unpaid taxes for 2000. According to division No. 41 of the Tax Ministry, the debt comes from the difference in official company numbers and those used internally between JTI Marketing & Sales joint-venture and Petro, its St. Petersburg-based tobacco factory, business daily Kommersant reported Friday.
 In an earlier statement to The St. Petersburg Times, JTI said it considered the claim to be based on "an erroneous interpretation of well-accepted business practices." After the appeal's rejection Thursday the company said it would take the case to the next arbitration level.
 "We intend to present our arguments vigorously and protect the company's interests at the Appeal Court, where we expect our case to be heard fairly and objectively," JTI's corporate affairs department said in a statement Friday. A date for the Appeal Court hearing has not yet been set.
 The tax assessment is the country's largest claim against a tobacco company, as tax minimization practices continue to catch the attention of state officials. 
 Last year the country's No. 2 mobile provider, and the first Russian company to list shares on the NYSE, Vimpelcom received a $158 million back tax claim for 2001, which was later reduced nine-fold and settled by the company.
 The JTI charges are very similar to those faced by Vimpelcom, Vasily Dermanov, associate professor and chief operating officer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia, said in an interview Monday.
 "The company implemented a tax optimization scheme, where it used the regional differences in tax levels and structures to coordinate transfers between branches in order to reduce tax payments," Dermanov said. "Every major international company employs such schemes."
 "The problem is that it has to be done correctly, and rules of the game are often unclear," Dermanov said, adding that in Russia there are little or no precedents for dealing with similar cases and the rules are yet to be settled.
 "Tax authorities are just beginning to deal with large companies, and we see that the gaps in legislature, which have long been polished in the West, need to be filled," Dermanov said.
 The country's largest tobacco-manufacturer Philip Morris, which has a plant in the Leningrad Oblast, said it was not familiar with the schemes used by other companies and could not comment on the case, the press office said Monday.
 Meanwhile, analysts saw the state's ground for the case as ambiguous.
 "Unless the taxation errors are really obvious and upfront, the [tax claim] usually belongs to the "moral" or political spheres in which every side has its own position," Dermanov said.
 Sergei Shelekhov, head of the Russian Tobacco Manufacturers Association, said the tax services should have done a better job getting through the ambiguities of legislature before slapping the company with the bill.
 "Such court decisions worsen the investment climate in Russia," he said in a statement Friday.
 Political or not, the decision by the arbitration court leaves just one more possibility for the company to refute the claim. "A decision by the Appeal Court is more or less final," said Igor Shikov, corporate tax attorney at law firm CMS Hasche Sigle.

TITLE: Cheaper Wireless Scheme In City
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg-based Grad Telecom has launched a joint hi-tech project with Mostkom that promises to deliver wireless connections that are more suited to domestic conditions and cheaper than those offered by international companies.
 
Last week Grad Telecom signed the contract with Mostkom, a subsidiary of the Ryazan State Instrument-Making Enterprise, to distribute the firm's wireless systems in the city and the Leningrad Oblast.
 Going under the name MOST - Multi-purpose Optical Systems for Telecommunications - the system operates by using light to transmit data through space, similar to the way fiber optics use fiber cable.
 The technology, also known as free space optics (FSO) or "optical wireless," contrasts with other wireless systems in that it is license-free, easy to use, and offers very high-speed connections.
 "One of the main advantages of FSO is its immunity to radio frequency interference or saturation," said Anastasiya Yevdokimova, press agent in charge of marketing Grad Telecom.
 "In addition, voice, data, and video can be transmitted at bandwidths of up to 2.5 gigabytes at a distance of up to 4 kilometers, a factor that is especially important for Russia's large territory," Yevdokimova said. 
 FSO systems were first developed in the 1960s for secure communications by military. 
 Recent advancements in FSO-based technology, like MOST, have attracted commercial telecom operators as well.
 Grad Telecom and Mostkom believe they can capture a good share of the wireless market because of price and Russia-adapted product specifics, said Sergei Petrovich, representative of Mostkom.
 Director of mobile industry journal Sotaweek, Denis Kuznov, agreed with Mostkom's assess-ment.
 "Mostcom will be able to compete successfully with other producers on the telecommunications market since they take better account of Russian reality," Kuznov said.
 The main international players on the FSO technology market - Canon, MRV Communications, and Lucent - could not provide a comment Monday.
 A representative of Katharsis did, however, say Monday that he could see little reason to worry over Grad Telecom's launch.
 "It is a free market," the representative said over the telephone.

TITLE: Delta Exits CTC With Big Profit
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Investment fund Delta Private Equity Partners sold its stake in entertainment network CTC Media for an estimated $40 million to an unnamed Western financial institution, the fund announced Monday.
 
Although the buyer was said to be "a very significant, U.S.-based multi-national, first-time venturing into Russia," the name would not be revealed until the financial institution in question had a chance to prepare its shareholders, Yekaterina Pantelyushina, communications officer at Delta Equity Partners, said Monday.
 The positive news, Pantelyushina said, was that Russia's successful companies have become increasingly attractive to respected international investors. 
 "Our investments have also helped to bring major players onto the Russian market," she said. "The current buyer approached us [first] and offered a good amount. I'd say the sale benefits both us and CTC."
 The buy-out of Delta's 5 percent minority stake in CTC Media took place late last week, yielding Delta an announced "four times our original investment," which was $10 million in 1996. 
 The tempo of growth on the Russian media market has made it one of the most profitable domestic sectors.
 "The media market in Russia has been growing at over 30 percent annually. The TV advertising sector alone has increased from $270 million in 2000 to $1.4 billion in 2004," Kirill Dmitriyev, managing director of Delta said in a company statement. 
 "We shall continue to look for prospective companies in this sector such as National Cable Network (NCN), a leading cable network operator, in which we invested last autumn," Dmitriyev added. 
 CTC Media broadcasts to nearly all major cities in Russia, covering over a thousand towns across the country. The network's main shareholders are Alfa Group and Baring Vostok Capital Partners, among others. Delta held a minority ownership position in CTC Media since 1996, seeing its market share rise from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent within the last three years.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Gold Reserves Dip
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Russia's foreign currency and gold reserves fell to $124.9 billion two days after reaching a record $128.3 billion on Jan. 28, the central bank said in a statement on its web site.
 The reserves probably dipped after Russia repaid early its $3.3 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund on Jan. 31, said Sergei Suverov, head of research at Gazprombank in Moscow.
 The current level of reserves "gives enough guarantees to the stability of the market," Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Sharonov said Monday in an address to the State Duma.
 
 
<b>More Gas For Finland
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Gazprom, the world's biggest natural-gas producer, agreed to boost deliveries of the fuel to Finland by 15 percent by 2008.
 Alexander Medvedev, director general of Gazprom's export arm Gazexport, and Antero Jaennes, chief executive of Fortum's venture Gasum, agreed to extend the delivery contract to 2025, Gazprom said in an e-mailed statement. The agreement was due to expire in 2014.
 Gazprom plans to sell Finland 6 billion cubic meters of gas a year by 2008, up from 5.2 billion planned for this year. Finland bought 4.95 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2004.
 Fortum owns 31 percent of Gasum, Gazprom holds 25 percent, the Finnish government 24 percent and E.ON AG's Ruhrgas 20 percent.
 
 
<b>Prices Outlook Gloomy
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Russian consumer prices rose a faster-than-expected 2.6 percent in January from December, led by service costs, raising concerns the government may not be able to cut the inflation rate to its target of 8.5 percent this year.
 Consumer-price growth gained from 1.8 percent in January 2004 and 1.1 percent a month in December, the Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement from Moscow. The median estimate by seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 2.3 percent. The annual inflation rate was 12.7 percent in January. 
 "The government's forecast already doesn't look very realistic," said Natalia Orlova, the chief economist at Alfa Bank in Moscow, speaking before release. "It's very important whether inflation will slow in March and April, as it typically does."
 Orlova forecast prices to rise 2.4 percent in January.
 Russia is trying to cap the inflation rate to within 10 percent to improve living standards and keep the economy growing. Last year, Russia recorded the lowest inflation rate since 1997, when the rate fell to 11 percent from 12 percent in 2003 and down from a high of 2,333 percent at the end of 1992.
 "Nevertheless, the government's basic forecast is 8.5 percent" in 2005, Deputy Economics Minister Andrei Sharonov said Monday.
 
 
<b>Fertilizer Link-Up
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Yara International, the world's biggest fertilizer maker, agreed to buy 30 percent of Minudobreniya of Russia to expand in Eastern Europe and Asia.
 Yara will provide Minudobreniya, also known as Rossosh, with new technology and upgrade its plant, the Oslo-based company said in a statement to the Oslo exchange Monday. It didn't give any financial details of the agreement.
 "Rossosh will be especially important for the development of Yara's market position in key Asian markets such as China, Thailand and Indonesia," the company said.

TITLE: Rosneft Saddled With a $1.4Bln Liability
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Rosneft is facing the recall of an additional $900 million guaranteed by Yuganskneftegaz this week, Group Menatep said Friday. The money is part of a Menatep loan to Yukos underpinned by a Yugansk guarantee.
 
Already groaning under billions of dollars of debt, Rosneft was last week slapped with a demand to pay off a $540 million loan to Yugansk from a group of Western banks, who feared their money was going up in smoke amid the uncertainty of how the Yugansk purchase was made.
 State-owned Rosneft, which acquired Yugansk for $9.3 billion under the murkiest of circumstances, is quickly discovering that the former Yukos production facility is a ticking time bomb of legal liability.
 &quot;We currently anticipate that we will serve the notice to Rosneft for immediate payment of the loan next week,&quot; Tim Osborne, managing director of Menatep, Yukos' parent company, told Reuters on Friday. 
 &quot;Rosneft bought Yugansk with all its obligations and I think they have no other choice but to pay up,&quot; he said. &quot;If they default, we will fight them where the rule of law exists under the international arbitration clauses of the credit.&quot;
 Yugansk was auctioned off in December as the state sought to recoup part of Yukos' multibillion-dollar tax debt. The company's key production unit went to a shadowy shell company, Baikal Finance Group, which was almost instantly bought up by Rosneft. 
 The opacity of the deal is widely believed to have been intended to shield the end buyer from legal action taken by Yukos in a U.S. court.
 Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov seemed unfazed by the company's looming financial problems and increasing criticism over how the Yugansk acquisition was financed.
 &quot;The funds to pay for the purchase of 76.79 percent of Yugansk were received from a consortium of Russian banks. Additionally, we also sold some of our assets,&quot; Bogdanchikov said at a news conference Saturday in Yugansk's hometown, Nefteyugansk, Interfax reported.
 To date, no Russian bank - including the rumored financier of the deal, Vneshekonombank - has confirmed any loans to Rosneft for Yugansk.
 Bogdanchikov told Interfax he could not disclose the names of the banks because of confidentiality agreements, but said no foreign lenders were involved.
 Even Rosneft's sale of assets could cause unforeseen problems for the oil company, however.
 In December, Rosneft sold its share in joint Arctic projects to Gazprom for $1.7 billion. That sale may have violated the terms of Rosneft's issue of $150 million in eurobonds in 2001, when it promised not to sell more than $300 million in assets and not to exceed a debt-to-assets ratio of 75 percent, Vedomosti reported Friday, citing analysts.
 Rosneft's debt already appears so big that it poses the threat of a technical bankruptcy. Its total debt now equals 286 percent of its assets, the paper said.
 The business daily took the unusual step Friday of publishing a front-page editorial demanding that the authorities provide clarity on the Yugansk purchase. If no answers to questions posed to Rosneft and Federal Property Fund officials are received within seven days, the paper said it would take the government to court for violating freedom of information rules.
 The paper complained about confusing and contradictory official statements in relation to the origins of funds used to buy Yugansk. Under media laws, officials are obliged to answer questions within seven business days or explain why the information cannot be provided.
 &quot;Bureaucrats have seven days to either comply with the law or violate it. The latter is not going to add any more transparency to what President Vladimir Putin called the 'absolutely free market-style' sale of Yukos' main production unit,&quot; Vedomosti said.
 &quot;Meanwhile, [Vedomosti] has the right to protect the interests of the readers in court,&quot; the newspaper said.

TITLE: Kudrin Sees GDP, Oil Prices Falling
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: LONDON - Russia is predicting its economy will slow this year mainly because it expects oil prices to fall, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday.
 
Kudrin reiterated the government's forecast that the economy will grow 5.8 percent this year after expanding 7.1 percent in 2004, according to preliminary government estimates.
 &quot;Economic growth is linked to better economic policy, the fundamentals, but also to the oil price,&quot; Kudrin told reporters at the Russian Embassy in London after a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrial nations. &quot;The oil price in 2005 will be lower&quot; and &quot;as far as the fundamentals are concerned, I am convinced they will improve,&quot; he said.
 Russia's economic slowdown in the second half of last year has prompted concern a tax campaign against Yukos and President Vladimir Putin's push to put the energy industry under greater state control, may hurt investment and stall growth. Russia, the world's second-biggest oil producer, has benefited from an increase in oil prices since its 1998 debt default. Standard &amp; Poor's raised the nation's credit rating to investment grade last month, saying the government's improved ability to pay its foreign debt outweighs &quot;the serious and growing political risk.&quot;
 The government's growth forecasts have not taken into account the S&amp;P upgrade, Kudrin said. 
 Kudrin also said Russia was hoping to come closer to its entry into the World Trade Organization this year, which will create &quot;positive expectations&quot; for investors.
 &quot;I am more optimistic than some experts and I know that we will accomplish what we planned&quot; in economic reform this year, Kudrin said. &quot;In countries like Russia, growth also is linked to structural reform and that is why for 2005 we have an ambitious reform program.&quot;
 Russia is seeking to join the 148-member WTO to attract more investment, boost trade and shift away from oil as a main source of revenue.
 <i>(Bloomberg, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: Foreigners Can Buy Svyazinvest
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The privatization auction of the government's controlling stake in national telecom holding Svyazinvest will be open to foreigners and likely include long-distance monopoly Rostelecom, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov said Friday.
 
&quot;We don't intend to impose any limitations [on foreign participation in the sale],&quot; Sharonov told reporters in Moscow. 
 Svyazinvest's 51 percent of Rostelecom will be included in the sale, he said. &quot;So far it is supposed that it will not be taken out of Svyazinvest.&quot; 
 Government officials said earlier this week that all ministries had agreed on the text of a presidential decree to privatize Svyazinvest, and 75 percent minus one share in the company was likely to be sold in the second half of the year. 
 Svyazinvest can only be privatized after the president signs a decree.<i>
 (Reuters, Bloomberg) </i>

TITLE: A Brief History of Russian Federalism
TEXT: When I think of federalism, I recall the Federalist Papers and picture the political campaign waged by the authors of the U.S. Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay argued that within the union, states could each benefit from a synergy unattainable by means of individual effort. Then I look at modern Russia, which is drifting away from its federal political structure toward a de facto unitary state. President Vladimir Putin is making every effort to convince the political elite and ordinary Russians that federalism in its current state is ill-formed, ineffective and counterproductive. Recent opinion polls indicate that the people, in fact, support their president in his decision to end direct elections of regional leaders and to eliminate single-mandate State Duma districts.
 
The problem with Russian federalism is that the country has never had an efficient federal structure. Essentially, current relations between Moscow and the regions are grounded in the only experiences with federal arrangements Russians ever had, namely Soviet-era ethno-federalism and the asymmetrical federalism of President Boris Yeltsin's administration.
 During the Soviet era, the ethnic republics enjoyed relative regional autonomy in terms of day-to-day operations but remained under the total control of the party and state apparatus. As with any centrally controlled structure, Soviet-style federalism was plagued with tremendous information asymmetries. During their years in power, the regional elites excelled in bargaining with the central authorities and obtaining personal benefits in return for loyalty. This arrangement was extremely inefficient for both the center and the regions. And when Mikhail Gorbachev loosened the grip of central command, the leaders of ethnic republics went shopping for independence on the wave of mass support from their constituencies.
 While on paper Russia had a federal structure during the Soviet period, it was in fact a unitary framework with regions that were formally autonomous but subordinated to central party control. When all hell broke loose, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the wave of independence reached the newly independent Russian Federation, Yeltsin had no choice but to offer regional leaders as much autonomy as they could stomach. In the early 1990s, the federal center was weak and lacked the resources to breed loyal subjects in all 89 regions of the country. In an attempt to keep the country together, Moscow and the regions reached a compromise in the form of bilateral power-sharing agreements. Thanks to these agreements, the amount of regional autonomy correlated directly with the amount of power in the hands of regional leaders. To a large extent, this was the solution that prevented the breakdown of Russia.
 This asymmetry in relations between the center and the regions in the 1990s is largely responsible for the current dismay with which many Russians think of federalism. For the first 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, regional leaders governed with scarce resources and soft budgetary constraints. For the most part, they tried to bargain with the center for funding and made unsecured loans to finance both regional and federal programs. As a result, many social responsibilities were left without funding, and regions became financially insolvent. Not all regional leaders were equally successful in this bargaining game. Some, like Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiyev, or the leader of Bashkortostan, Murtaza Rakhimov, managed to strike much better deals with Yeltsin in return for their personal loyalty and support. Others, mostly the leaders of resource-poor regions, had to struggle for every ruble of federal transfers. 
 Gradually, the Yeltsin-era regional leaders grew strong vis-a-vis the central government. After 1995, direct elections gave the governors an alternative source of popular legitimacy. When talking to the Kremlin, they could use the mandate of the people in addition to the art of bargaining. The financial crisis of 1998 sparked an economic recovery, which, in turn, increased the resources under governors' control. The system of federal relations became very unstable. The Kremlin started to experience additional costs from monitoring the newly powerful governors. 
 Finally, in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy of Beslan, the president decided to reduce these liabilities by abolishing the institute of direct gubernatorial elections. This policy choice came as no surprise to the governors themselves. They knew that Putin does not like to approach issues gradually. Governors knew that if presented with a choice between targeting the corruption surrounding gubernatorial elections or abolishing them altogether, Putin was likely to choose the most radical and painless policy.
 Could Russia be governed as a unitary state? The answer is a definitive no. First, the sheer size of the country calls for some degree of regional autonomy. This autonomy should not be limited to everyday management but should give regions enough room to maneuver in domestic policy matters within constitutional boundaries. Regional leaders should be elected by direct popular vote. Supporters of centralization argue that elections are corrupt. However, even an incomplete electoral contract with a regional leader serves the interests of the people better than a hierarchical system of bureaucratic subordination.
 Second, economic diversity among the regions also demands a significant degree of fiscal federalism and the ability for the regions to control their fiscal base. Right now, the regions bear huge responsibilities for funding federal social programs but have hardly any say in how the taxes are distributed between the regions and the center. Should social problems similar to the current benefits protests arise in the future, regional leaders will have no other option but to transfer all responsibility to the federal government and the president. According to a number of recent opinion polls, the majority of Russians consider governors safeguards against the center's attempts to extract and redistribute regional resources. The appointment of regional leaders will eliminate these safeguards and increase the hostility between the center and the regions. Appointed governors will have no incentives to foster horizontal competition and create favorable conditions for business and labor. The only incentive they will have is to serve their master well.
 Third, there is the issue of nationalism. The nature of popular mobilization is such that protest driven by nationalist sentiments spreads much faster then dissent based on social factors. In a unitary state, any nationalist grievances immediately expand to the global level, as the central government is the only source of public authority. Russia is home to hundreds of different ethnic groups with a multitude of interfering interests. Popularly elected and legitimate regional leaders address many of these conflicts far better than federal authorities.
 Finally, decentralization has increasingly become a global trend among large and diverse nations around the world. Successful federations, including the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Australia, encourage local independence and responsibility. Not so successful unions, such as India, Brazil and Mexico, continue to struggle with inefficient centralization mechanisms.
 However strong the centralization trend might appear, the history of Russian federalism is hardly over. Many of the current policy choices are made in an ad hoc manner, without broad societal discussion and consent. The power vertical, so cherished by the administration, will begin to buckle under the weight of corruption, popular dissent and administrative inefficiencies. Then the authorities will realize that central control is not the best governing option. For now, the rules of the game have changed. But the game itself is far from over.
 
 <i>Alexei Sitnikov is senior researcher at the Institute of Open Economy in Moscow. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Making Welfare Affordable Means Giving It Only to Those Most Needy
TEXT: The imbroglio over the replacement of in-kind benefits with cash has revealed an extremely important problem for the country.
 
As a result of the unsuccessful introduction of the reform, the government failed to achieve one of its main intentions - to significantly reduce expenditure on social policies. In itself, there is nothing wrong with that intention. The budget expenses at all levels on welfare are unacceptably high. For instance, in the Kaliningrad region, according to the local administration they account for 58 percent of the budget. And this is despite the fact that the lion's share of special discounts that transport companies give to those with in-kind benefits are covered by the transport companies themselves. The federal and municipal budgets pay the companies only a faction of what it costs them to transport the beneficiaries.
 In other regions the situation is not much better. As a result the whole country has been turned into a welfare office. And this is wrong because there is no money left for the development of infrastructure - utilities, telephone connections and roads. In turn, transport fleets are rapidly falling into disrepair. And it turns out that the right of pensioners and veterans to ride for free is only half paid for and that by exercising this right people make things more difficult in such a way that the standard of transport gets even worse. In several small cities and towns the buses have stopped running altogether and if they are still going then it is not very often. The same goes for all the other sectors in which benefits were provided at no charge.
 A vicious circle has been formed. People are right to demand the preservation of their benefits that they need to survive at even an absolutely basic level. But because almost all disposable income that the government has is spent on this, nothing is left over to finance infrastructure which in its turn services the entities that then provide the benefits. There is no money left for economic development in general. As a result, the economy and, as a consequence, budget revenues grow only slowly. More and more independent specialists are noticing a fall in production in a whole range of sectors in which the regional economies and budgets depend on produce other than raw materials.
 The alarm bells have already rung: in two regions in northwest Russia - in the Karelia and Vologda regions - the budgets fell in face value this year. And in a range of other regions the growth was lower than the rate of inflation, meaning that in effect those budgets have also lowered. And this is occurring during a time of high oil prices that are extremely favorable for Russia. What will happen when the price of oil begins to fall, as it inevitably will?
 The reason for the worsening situation is the extremely ineffective policies of the government, and specifically those in the welfare sector. The authorities are trying to use the methods of Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov - to throw money at the problem and to finance all benefits without discriminating who is getting them. But, in contrast to wealthy Moscow, which can afford to retain all this and invest in infrastructure, other administrative regions' coffers won't stretch that far.
 To resolve this problem, attitudes to welfare policies will have to change. Help needs to be dispersed not according to formal entitlement, but only go to those who really need it, in other words, to the poor. If truth were told: far from all pensioners and veterans, or even invalids, really are poor.
 For instance, in St. Petersburg only 40 percent of pensioners have incomes lower than the official minimum living standard for pensioners. This minimum is, of course, rather low. If St. Petersburg pensioners' incomes were judged against the 3,000-ruble minimum living standard, then 93 percent would be below that level. The majority of pensioners also work, however, and often live with their families - with people who earn decent incomes. If this was taken into account, only 41 percent earn less than the 3,000 rubles. This means that if the authorities were to switch to supporting only the truly poor beneficiaries, then they would need only half the money they are spending now to cover pensions. The same is true for other layers of society who receive benefits. To introduce the new policy what is needed above all is to study the real material status of the population. Expert Severo-Zapad magazine has already undertaken an attempt to do this. The results were extremely interesting. I will talk about this in my next comment.
 
 <i>Vladimir Gryaznevich is a political analyst with Expert Severo-Zapad magazine. His comment was first broadcast on Ekho Moskvy in St. Petersburg on Friday. </i>

TITLE: Criminal World

TEXT: Another day, another accomplice in the construction of the Bush Regime's torture chambers revealed. Nothing new there; the perp walk of top Bushists colluding in torture could stretch a mile. But the remarkable thing about the latest case is that it exposes an even greater depth of official criminality than hitherto suspected - no mean feat, given the rap sheet of this crew.
 
The new man on the hot seat is Judge Michael Chertoff, nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff was hip-deep in creating - and covering up - the infamous White House &quot;torture memos&quot;: carefully detailed guidelines from the desk of President George W. Bush that instigated a global system of documented torture, rape and murder.
 Before Bush elevated him to the federal bench, Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division, where he was frequently consulted by the CIA and the White House on ways to weasel around the very clear U.S. laws against torture, The New York Times reports. Bush and his legal staff, then headed by Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales, were openly concerned with &quot;avoiding prosecution for war crimes&quot; under some future administration that might lack the Bushists' finely nuanced view of ramming phosphorous lightsticks up a kidnapped detainee's rectum, or other enlightened methods employed in the administration's crusade to defend civilization from barbarity. 
 Throughout 2002 and 2003, the CIA sent Chertoff urgent questions asking whether various &quot;interrogation protocols&quot; could get their agents sent to the hoosegow. The questions themselves are revelatory of the tainted mindset at CIA headquarters - officially known as the George H.W. Bush Center for Intelligence. Beyond methods we already know were used - such as &quot;water-boarding&quot; and &quot;rendering&quot; detainees to foreign torturers - the Bush Center boys sought legal cover for such additional refinements as &quot;death threats against family members&quot; and &quot;mind-altering drugs or psychological procedures designed to profoundly disrupt a detainee's personality.&quot; 
 However, the Justice Department could only offer advice; final approval of interrogation techniques - including the Bush Center's requests - rested solely with the Bush White House. As one senior intelligence official told The New York Times: &quot;Nothing that was done was not explicitly authorized&quot; by the Oval Office. Thus the chain of responsibility is clearly established for the reams of evidence on torture, rape and murder in the Bush gulag - cases documented by the FBI and the Pentagon's own investigators, as well as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Red Crescent, Human Rights Watch and others.
 Eventually, Chertoff referred all torture questions to the authority of the &quot;smoking gun&quot; memo drawn up by Bush's office in August 2002. In this, the White House essentially defined &quot;torture&quot; out of existence; practically any interrogation method could be used, Bush said, as long as it didn't cause &quot;organ failure or imminent death.&quot; But even here Bush left an escape hatch for atrocity, ruling that an interrogator who killed or permanently maimed a prisoner could still be shielded from prosecution, as long as he claimed he hadn't intended to murder or maim when he commenced the beating.
 But Chertoff's involvement in Bush's chamber of horrors goes beyond an advisory capacity. He was also instrumental in the earliest cover-up of Bush's torture system: the trial of John Walker Lindh, the &quot;American Taliban&quot; captured in Afghanistan, the Nation reports. In June 2002, Lindh was due to testify about the methods used to extract his confession of terrorist collusion: days of beating, drugging, denial of medical treatment, and other abuses. These were of course standard procedures used - by presidential order - from the very beginning of the &quot;war on terror.&quot; To stop Lindh from exposing this wide-ranging criminal regimen, Chertoff, overseeing the prosecution, suddenly offered Lindh a deal: The feds would drop all the most serious charges in exchange for a lighter sentence - and a gag order preventing Lindh from telling anyone about his brutal treatment. Lindh, facing life imprisonment or execution, took the deal. Once again, Bush skirts were kept clean. And the torture system was kept safe for its expansion into Iraq, where thousands of innocent people fell into its maw.
 The August 2002 torture authorization was in force until January 2005, when it was ostentatiously replaced by a somewhat broader definition of torture just before Gonzales' confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate. But another 2002 memo - detailing specific, Bush-approved &quot;coercive methods&quot; - remains classified. Is it still in force? Nobody knows.
 In any event, the Bushists' PR shuffle on torture is meaningless. Gonzales has already declared to the Senate that interrogators in the CIA's secret gulag aren't bound by the new &quot;restrictions&quot; anyway. What's more, he's also asserted - again openly, to the Senate - that Bush has the right to break any law or restriction he pleases &quot;while acting in his capacity as commander-in-chief.&quot; Thus whatever the Leader orders - even torture and murder - cannot be a crime.
 This is no hypothetical case, as Gonzales pretended to the Senate. In a series of executive orders beginning in October 2001, Bush has declared his peremptory right to capture, imprison, indefinitely detain or even assassinate anyone in the world whom he arbitrarily and secretly designates an &quot;enemy&quot; - without any legal process at all, the Washington Post reports. Thousands of such &quot;enemies&quot; have been plunged into the CIA's unrestricted prisons, The Guardian reports; and as Bush himself bragged in his 2003 State of the Union speech, &quot;many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem.&quot; They were simply killed, in secret, at Bush's order.
 This is thug law, a death-cult of blood and domination - the true religion of the Bushists and their mirror-image crimelords in al-Qaida.
 
 <i>For annotational references, see Opinion at www.sptimesrussia.com </i>

TITLE: Employers Grow Reluctant to Up Salaries for MBA Graduates
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As more and more MBA holders flood the limited local labor market, offers from city employers are not meeting job seekers' expectations, experts say.
 
Although MBA holders are in demand, Natalya Dyachenko, executive director of recruitment agency Boyden St. Petersburg, points out that an MBA degree has the status of a desirable - bu not essential - job requirement.
 &quot;The number of schools offering this education is currently very high, so MBA degrees are not a unique feature anymore,&quot; Dyachenko said. &quot;Employers are paying much greater attention to the quality of the degree - where it was obtained, what reputation and image the school has.&quot;
 If several years ago mainly Western companies were looking for staff with an MBA, these days more Russian companies, especially those oriented towards strategic development, are getting interested, Dyachenko added.
 At the same time, Yulia Kirsanova, account manager at Coleman Services St. Petersburg, said that locally real demand for MBA holders is only starting to emerge. It is practical skills that are still valued above everything else. In terms of employment opportunities, the St. Petersburg market offers less than Moscow and many professionals make the move to the capital as a natural step after MBA graduation.
 &quot;From an employer's point of view, this education is often not more than an additional advantage, not exactly a sign of professional competence,&quot; Kirsanova said. But the degree does become more significant when mid- to top-level management positions are concerned, Kirsanova added.
 
 <strong>
STUDENTS' VIEW
 </strong>The worth and necessity of an MBA degree in terms of job opportunities may be disputed, but for current MBA students one thing is certain - a business degree can be made to serve one's goal.
 
Vladimir Zheleznov, director of Nefab's branch in St. Petersburg, is currently enrolled in an MBA program with the International Business Institute and Stockholm University. He felt that an MBA was one of the best possible investments in his career and was convinced that a business degree could serve the professional development of many young people. 
 &quot;Working within such international companies as Ford Motors and Nefab, and dealing closely with foreign managers, I came to the conclusion that it is I who is responsible for my personal and professional development,&quot; Zheleznov said. &quot;In our fast-changing world it is not enough just to fulfill your duties to be in charge. Self-assessment, self-development and education become crucial as well.&quot;
 MBA student Inna Shestukhina, a client service specialist at the local branch of a major western bank, has accumulated 10 years of experience in western companies. For Shestukhina getting an MBA was a matter of principle.
 &quot;My experience, practical skills and familiarity with the European style of doing business are now backed up by the theoretical knowledge - so it has become complete,&quot; she said. &quot;And the MBA allows me to connect the knowledge that I already have in economics, finance and banking with practical experience in these fields.&quot;
 <strong>
JUST ANOTHER ECONOMICS DEGREE?
 </strong>The principle of MBA education, Shestukhina stresses, is to teach students through analysis of concrete case studies.
 
&quot;In this respect, it is often more useful than a purely theoretical knowledge of economics,&quot; she said. &quot;MBA graduates are capable of seeing the whole picture: trace tendencies, make parallels and structure the information they get.&quot; 
 Zheleznov said an MBA program gives him modern practices, skills and tools, which he can apply immediately in real situations. &quot;I can use its principles not only in finance but in purchasing, human resources, production sectors, and so on,&quot; he added.
 Vyacheslav Zasukhin, marketing director of Melikonpolar company, is already an MBA graduate with a success story. &quot;The MBA diploma illustrates my diverse range of proficiency in various spheres of business,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;I left the banking sector for the construction business in 2002, started as a chief economist at Melikonpolar. Last year I was promoted as the company's marketing director.&quot;
 
 <strong>
MBA MISCONCEPTIONS
 </strong>Not all aspiring young businesspeople seeking career advancement, should be looking for an MBA diploma, experts warn. 
 &quot;An MBA is most useful in such fields as strategic and general management,&quot; Boyden's Dyachenko said.
 
&quot;Where a deep, particular knowledge is required, then a specialist's diploma - be it in a financial or a technical field - is best,&quot; she said. An MBA in itself is not job-specific course.
 Neither does an MBA automatically guarantee a salary increase or greater self-value on the labor market. 
 &quot;Unfortunately, many managers still don't realize that a business degree doesn't guarantee them a plum job if they don't have good practical experience,&quot; Kirsanova said. &quot;In any case, the absence of an MBA has not stopped many top managers having successful careers.
 &quot;It's just that having that degree will always be a positive point in a highly competitive job market,&quot; she said.
 Business education can only demonstrate its greatest benefit when supported by substantial practical experience, Dyachenko notes. 
 &quot;Then [an MBA] serves to systemize it, arming a person with more tools to solve specific managerial goals,&quot; she said.

TITLE: Cutting the Costs of MBA
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The price for MBA courses has rocketed by more than 50 percent in the last two years, and current increases per term touch 20 percent on average. While analysts claim an as yet unstable MBA market, demand for business degrees drives on unrelenting.
 
&quot;With the market still in the process of formation, the main players can define their policy and set the price,&quot; said Olga Naumova, head of marketing for MBA programs at the Management Faculty of the St. Petersburg State University. 
 With surging demand for MBAs in Russia, Naumova sees the schools allowed a carte blanche to continue their price hitch of 20 percent a term for the foreseeable future.
 &quot;Three-four years ago even $5,000 per course would have scared off some students. Now, a $10,000 price tag wouldn't frighten anyone,&quot; Sergei Fyodorov, director of Open Business School said Friday.
 At the moment, business schools divide into different price segments. &quot;Though it's still hard to state that certain schools are working in elite price segments, while others fall into the so-called second echelon, schools are beginning to separate into different price categories.&quot;
 According to Fyodorov, price discrepancies between schools arise from the difference in teaching staff, course structure (day course, part-time, or correspondence course), program methodology (what teaching formats are selected, how studies develop, what the school provides and so on).
 &quot;One has to understand what the price of a course consist of,&quot; Naumova says. &quot;The market mechanism of setting the price depends on the real-life situation [in the street].&quot;
 Yet, the most important price factor remains to be the brand tag of the business school, Fyodorov said. &quot;A student, having chosen an MBA school, finds himself in a circle of similar people - similar professionals.&quot; As much of value are the contacts one makes, the image schools project (See article on networking, page iii,) and vitally - whether the school's degree is accepted abroad. 
 Current students, however, say they notice the rising MBA costs, but the fact hardly bothers them. 
 Sergei Votyakov, general director of retail chain StingRay and a student at the International Management Institute St. Petersburg, says he paid attention to the school format, not the price.
 &quot;As they say, demand gives birth to supply. Even though prices for MBA courses go up each year, it doesn't affect the number of interested students.&quot;
 The opinion is shared by Olga Ataeva, commercial director for finance magazine Nashi Dengi and student at the Open Business School. For Ataeva, the choice of school was decided by the offer of a modular course at the OBS.

TITLE: MBAs Teaching How to Make Friends and Influence People
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Being in the right business network is key to work success, favorable career moves and discovery of new opportunities. This is especially true in a country like Russia, where &quot;Who you know&quot; still dominates its bespectacled sibling &quot;What you know&quot;.
 
And for those people who did not have the golden youth luxury of rich, well-connected parents, MBA programs open the gates to a business sphere where students can form their own elites.
 &quot;When potential students are making a choice about which MBA program to go for, they are looking not only at the learning aspect. Most importantly [they look] for new connections,&quot; says Irina Moiseyenko, marketing director at the International Banking Institute.
 &quot;It's common for people to find new employment through their school friends. For example, a guy from our MBA program headed a bank and he took two of his study-buddies with him to fill management positions. Another person started a firm and hired most of his staff from the alumni pool,&quot; she says.
 Many of Moiseyenko's fellow graduates hold management positions in banks and financial institutions. A good deal leave to work in Germany, France, Sweden, &quot;but we stay in touch and can always help each other,&quot; she adds.
 Fellow students certainly make a difference to the program, not only in terms of atmosphere but also future opportunities, Irina Sergeyeva, acting PR director at the Stockholm School of Economics tells The St. Petersburg Times.
 &quot;The basics of business education are the same everywhere - the same books, same cases, same facts. Of course the reasons for choosing a particular program vary from person to person, but for most businesspeople who come to us, the close network they acquire over the course of the program is a top priority,&quot; Sergeyeva says. 
 Most MBA graduates agree that although learning the academics of business skills is a formal reason for MBA enrollment, an equally worthwhile reason is meeting long-term professional contacts, sometimes even one's future business partners.
 Sergei Kotirev worked as a manager in an investment company before completing an MBA degree. &quot;I had an idea of starting my own business, but could not master the courage and the basics necessary to start up,&quot; he says. 
 Kotirev shared his vision with a group member during one of the five-day MBA study sessions at the SSE.
 &quot;That person gave me my first client. I got an order; after that I registered my firm and started working [there],&quot; Kotirev, who runs Internet agency Yumi Studia, says.
 &quot;Since graduating [in 2001], many of my group-mates have become clients, and I too have become a client of theirs in other services,&quot; he says.
 Statistics agree: most people with an MBA either own a business or hold managerial positions in large companies. The average age of an MBA graduate is 30; by that age most students have already picked up considerable business experience and defined what they want from their professional life.
 &quot;Interacting with such people, all of whom are bright and distinctive individuals, makes you more self-confident. As you learn from each other, you see that problems can be solved,&quot; Kotirev says. When issues at work arise, having a group of like-minded people who you can connect to certainly helps.
 &quot;We meet up all the time, go for drinks, chat about work. Since many of us face very similar problems, together we can discuss ways of solving them,&quot; Kotirev says. &quot;It always helps when there are people who share your views and can offer knowledgeable feedback. Such contacts are priceless,&quot; he says.
 Upon graduation half of the people in Kotirev's group made a sharp career change, in part due to opportunities they found out about from their peers. Most of the business schools that offer an MBA have a job posting board online or even a career office that aims to match alumni needs to lucrative work positions. For example, the Open Business School and the Higher School of Economics (Finec) will publish such announcements on their Internet forums.
 Other schools foster networks by making contact information readily available to graduates. 
 &quot;By the time I went for my MBA I had already completed a business program,&quot; a marketing director at a media company tells The St. Petersburg Times.
 Declining to be named, the director says she decided on an MBA degree specifically because of networking opportunities, and she explains her decision in terms of practicality.
 &quot;Not all business skills or academic knowledge can be practiced in one's particular position or in a real-life business environment. In the end, what's really useful are the contacts. I can always find the person in charge of making decisions for a particular company through my school's network,&quot; she says.
 All MBA schools have graduate networks that form alumni communities of some form or another. Some are defined by industry or skills specialization; others by the rigor of the selection process and tuition fees.
 MBA schools occupy different niches in the business life of a city. &quot;An MBA degree may not say much about the personal qualities of a person, but it automatically presents somebody you can do business with,&quot; Kotirev says. 
 Seeing the name of his school written on someone's resume, Kotirev says, immediately provides an additional reference: &quot;It establishes a basis for trust.&quot; 


TITLE: Russian For Beginners
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: What makes foreign diplomats, BBC and Spiegel journalists and high profile businesspeople from all over Russia come to one St. Petersburg school?
 
Bypassing prominent language centers in Moscow, many international organizations put their faith in a small school on Ligovsky Prospekt to teach Russian to their employees.
 Stanislav Chernyshov, director of the Extra-Class language center, has devoted most of his teaching career to bringing the Russian language closer to foreigners. Explaining his success with Extra-Class, Chernyshov said: &quot;I understand what students from abroad are looking for.&quot;
 &quot;In contrast to pupils or students at a university, these people are highly motivated to learn a new language. They know exactly what they are looking for and are willing to spend time and money on a good language school,&quot; Chernyshov said.
 Geraldine Norman, executive editor of the Hermitage Magazine, and a former student of Chernyshov, explained why she wanted to brush up her Russian. 
 &quot;It is not an absolute necessity to know Russian - many people here speak English. But knowing Russian gives you an enormous advantage to understand people's mentality. You are not so obviously foreign and can better interact with locals,&quot; she said.
 Chernyshov founded Extra-Class three years ago to offer specialist Russian language courses for foreign businesspeople.
 A former graduate from the St. Petersburg State University, Chernyshov developed his view of how a second language should be taught during more than 12 years of teaching.
 &quot;Learning a new language does not mean filling in grammar exercises and quoting grammar rules by heart. First and foremost, it is important to know how to react in specific everyday situations, be able to talk to people and express yourself,&quot; Chernyshov said, taking a subtle sideswipe at Soviet teaching methods.
 Since good teaching material is as important as good tutors, Chernyshov wrote his own course book for beginners, &quot;Poekhali&quot; (&quot;Let's Go&quot;), which was published three years ago.
 For Chernyshov, &quot;Poekhali&quot; focuses on modern Russian life and does not confront students with the former Soviet world. While identifying in the books the Russia that students daily encounter, they are also asked their opinions about it.
 Establishing his own business, however, did not go that smoothly at first, Chernyshov recollects. Without his passion for teaching and commitment to the project, he says he would have given up long ago. 
 &quot;When we founded the school three years ago, all government benefits for educational institutions were cut. In former times, educational institutions only had to pay one tenth of the rent. Now we have to pay all the costs,&quot; he said.
 There were other obstacles. 
 &quot;In Russia, we have quite an inflexible banking system. If, for example, we want to offer a student a discount, it takes many extra documents and explanations to the bank to do that,&quot; Chernyshov said. 
 &quot;I do know a bit about how things like that work in the rest of the world and I have the impression it is much easier elsewhere.&quot;
 Since it was founded, the school has had to move twice and will soon move a third time. Nevertheless, students keep finding their way to Extra-Class.
 The school has its own web site, and recommendations by former students have given it a good reputation.
 Diplomats, journalists, and foreign businesspeople have all taken &quot;extra classes&quot; at Chernyshov's language school.
 Simon Evans, from the British Embassy in Moscow, said he gained valuable training at the school. 
 &quot;Extra-Class provided me with focused material which I needed for my job and I was taught both ordinary and more formal language. That covered what I needed, basically,&quot; Evans said.
 For Norman, the decision to take lessons at the school was finalized by Chernyshov's enthusiasm. 
 &quot;He takes great pains to make lessons interesting. For instance, he creates situations, he encourages his students to tell their own stories and prepares material that is of interest to them,&quot; she said.
 Another student, Kalle Kaub who works for the BBC in Moscow, wrote the following in the school's guestbook after graduating from the course. 
 &quot;It's quite apparent that teaching is not just bread and butter to Stanislav, but a mission and passion,&quot; Kaub wrote.
 Following the success of the school, Chernyshov hopes to develop his activities further. 
 &quot;'Poekhali 2' will soon be published&quot; he said. &quot;And I am thinking of offering courses for specific purposes, like, for instance, Norwegian for businesspeople. But I do not have any particular plans to enlarge my school. Quality is more important than quantity and I stick to this motto for the future.&quot;

TITLE: A Funky Way to Learn Business
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As well as providing bsiness education, the Stockholm School of Economics says it aims to contribute to the development of business in Russia. And recently, that has meant going into textbook publishing.
 &quot;We consider book-publishing to be one of the best ways of promoting our values and ideology,&quot; said Margarita Adaeva-Datskaya, Stockholm School of Economics Russia vice-president and creator of the publishing project. 
 
The publishing project got under way in 2000 with the publication of a jovially titled &quot;Funky Business&quot; by Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale. Besides the authors being professors at the business school, Adaeva-Datskaya said the book was selected because of its readable style despite the serious content.
 &quot;It reflected our attitudes towards what we consider to be important in the best possible way,&quot; Adaeva-Datskaya said.
 In 2004 arrived the next book by the same authors called &quot;Karaoke capitalism. Managing for Mankind.&quot; The ideas of the previous book were developed, but by 2004 the tone had changed. The authors' former optimism and swagger, impertinence almost, had disappeared, replaced with a ruthless plunge for creativity. 
 &quot;In the world of karaoke capitalism there is endless choice. But it costs ... Benchmarking and best practices will merely get you in the middle. Don't imitate - innovate!&quot; Nordstrom and Ridderstrale write in &quot;Karaoke Capitalism.&quot; 
 After publishing a number of books, the SSE set up a whole publishing series. According to Adaeva-Datskaya, the general message of the series was the idea that business is an arena for people who believe in themselves and are ready to invest themselves and their energy for the sake of influencing and changing the lives of others. In addition, one could do all the above with pleasure and trust in people.
 &quot;Business is a pleasure that can bring profit in all of its meanings to all participants,&quot; Adaeva-Datskaya said.
 Among titles the school has published last year were Richard Branson's autobiography, &quot;Loosing my virginity,&quot; an Arie de Geus' guide-book to growth, learning and longevity in business &quot;The Living Company,&quot; and &quot;Netocrace: the New Power Elite and Life After Capitalism&quot; by Alexander Bard and Jan Soderqvist.
 Most recently in 2005 the SSE published the latest book by Jesper Kunde, the Danish marketing guru and author of the international bestseller &quot;Corporate Religion,&quot; called &quot;The Brand is the Company Driver in the New Value Economy.&quot;
 Authors of the books SSE has published often come to the school to read lectures or give workshops to MBA students, says Irina Sergeyeva, spokesperson for the SSE in Russia.
 The publishing business is certainly an advertising boon for the school. According to SSE statistics, about 40 percent of their MBA students learned about the school through its books.

TITLE: Which MBA Course? Ask a Consultant
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Why did you need an MBA in general and why did you choose a western course?</strong>
 At the time [1996] I was working in marketing, and business education was mainly represented by various short-term specialized courses (in marketing, finance, human resources, and so on), with which I was not satisfied.
 Normally, they would be organised by different companies. They showed different approaches and were taught by teachers - the professionalism of whom was often arguable. I decided to get a fundamental education in management and that's why I wanted to go through a western-standard educational program, that is, an MBA.
 To my mind, a western course gives you an opportunity to get a result proven by many years of experience. Good western education (and by that I mean primarily courses with experienced teachers) doesn't force you to think only one way. It gives you an opportunity to choose the means and methods by yourself - from the multiple choices that exist for any real case.
 But this is only possible if you have managerial and professional experience.
 That's why most MBA schools, including Leti Lovanium where I studied, only accept people who have already worked in business and can draw on their knowledge of real-life situations.
 I chose Leti Lovanium because it was one of the few schools that offered a total immersion in education - I could do a full-time MBA program and for the whole year devote myself to business education.
 
 n <strong>What did your MBA course consist of?
 </strong>
We had about 20 courses per year and every one of them consisted of lectures and a practical case study (or even several case studies) connected to the topic of the lecture - all taken from real life and real companies.
 
A team of three to four students had to offer their option on how to solve the business problem and to defend it in front of the teacher.
 Apart from that, throughout the course the team carried out a real project for which an existing company had paid. In that project we had to demonstrate everything we had learned during the course, applying it to that particular case. We had to choose adequate methods and principles.
 The crux of the project was a feasibility study for the creation of a particular business center. We had to define the market niche for that business center, define what kind of services it would have to provide, what price policy it should follow, and so on.
 Upon completion, it was given to the company that had ordered it and our study was implemented.
 
 n <strong>How did an MBA course change your career?
 </strong>
First of all, I got a general knowledge of all aspects of business and gained an opportunity to choose the sector that I was most interested in.
 
My choice was management consulting, that is, helping businesses work more effectively, coping with internal and external obstacles. After I graduated from Leti Lovanium, I began working in that sector, and even now the good business education allows me to gain new knowledge and skills during the process of work.
 Secondly, I managed to make quite a few business contacts. The students with whom I studied now occupy high managerial positions. One of them is head of the Russian office of Lloyd Register, another the sales director for SELA clothes retail chain. Yet another has become the leading specialist on quality for British-American Tobacco in Russia. Many of the graduates work in the consulting sector, like me.
 
 n <strong>Why did you do other business courses as well?
 </strong>
I had done a course of Business English at the International Management Institute St. Petersburg (IMISP) even before my MBA course. That was my first experience of international business.
 
I also got the chance to compare the MBA programs offered from within. In comparison to Letin Lovanium, IMISP offered part-time MBA courses and their program seemed to be more Russia-oriented and Russian in general (including the teachers.)
 As for the American business program, that was a project called Community Connections aimed at educating and giving experience of interaction between small and medium-sized businesses and official authority structures.
 It gave me significant experience and improved my qualification, because I saw a real-life example of how the world's leading consulting companies operate.

TITLE: MBAs: Home Vs. Away
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: You can travel in a stretch-limousine or a small two-seater - both will take you to your destination, but the driving experience is likely to differ: it's luxury versus practical make-do. Business education in Russia, when compared to its equivalent in the West, fares much the same way: apart from the name, the content and appearance are quite different. 
 
&quot;It's like comparing a Mercedes to a Lada,&quot; Vyacheslav Davidenko, manager of MBA Consult, says.
 In practice, Russian MBA programs often do not match their European counterparts because Russian reality demands its own conditions. 
 &quot;Firstly, MBA programs in the West cost ten times more than in Russia,&quot; Davidenko says. &quot;That means Western business schools have more financial means at their disposal: they are able to invest into infrastructure and courses, train their professors and invite business people to read lectures.
 &quot;Western schools systematically work with recruitment agencies to develop their image, to name but a few examples,&quot; Davidenko says.
 In terms of content, Western MBA programs set great store in interactive methods and students taking an active part in the teaching process. Case studies, group discussions and business games occupy the bulk of the teaching time at Western business schools. Meanwhile a summer 2004 survey conducted by Begin Group found that, at most, domestic MBA programs allow just 25 percent of their time for interactive teaching.
 Of course, such a low percentage may stem from a shortage of qualified, well-trained MBA teachers in Russia. To be an outstanding business school teachers one needs to be not only a great lecturer but also have practical experience in running a business and excellent knowledge of the business environment. The number of such teachers in Russia seems pretty low, say industry experts.
 &quot;Many schools sign up business people as lecturers, in many cases former students just for that reason,&quot; Anna Rubalskaya, head of educational organizations relationship department at Begin Group, says about the shortage.
 &quot;On the one hand, these people have practical experience and skills; on the other, they are familiar with the teaching methods and needs of MBA students. Today, a great number of business schools fall back on this solution as cover,&quot; Rubalskaya says. 
 Still, experts are convinced that the current development of MBA programs at Russian business schools is positive. Already about 15 percent to 20 percent of MBA programs in Russia are accredited to Western business school standards such as the AACSB, AMBA, or EQUIS, Rubalskaya says, adding that the trend is on the rise.
 &quot;I do not doubt that in 20 years there will be Russian schools in the international top five,&quot; Davidenko says.

TITLE: Mixing Business, Study and
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The climb to the top for an entrepreneur or manager can often be thorny and tough. And completing a Master of Business Administration degree is certainly one of the thornier parts of the journey.
 An MBA program at St. Petersburg's International Banking Institute (IBI) runs on three weekday evenings, the whole of Saturday and, sometimes, even Sunday. 
 What little free time there is gets used for completing assignments and preparing course work. In other words, doing an MBA is no picnic, and the double-burden is often underestimated by students.
 Lyudmila Sladovskaya, a student at the IBI, combines her MBA course with a job as financial director at a local company. 
 &quot;I decided to do an MBA because it is an internationally recognized certificate and it trains people in specific fields in a considerably short time,&quot; Sladovskaya says. &quot;Time is valuable, and business develops fast. To stay on the fast track, it is necessary to be up-to-date and flexible.&quot;
 Since finishing a similar program in 2000, head of IBI Tatyana Lebedeva knows what is expected of her students. &quot;Like some of my students, I first approached the workload a bit too lightly. It took me some time to learn how to combine work and studies effectively,&quot; she says.
 
 <strong>
WORK LOAD - SHOCK LOAD! 
 </strong>Not all students realize what signing up for an intensive course can mean for their work and private life. Lebedeva recalls the experiences of ex-students. 
 
&quot;Two of my former graduates were employed at a bank - one as the vice president and the other as the head of the treasury chamber. When they started the MBA course, they thought they had an advantage over the others due to their professional experience. But soon they came to realize that they had to work just as hard as their colleagues,&quot; Lebedeva says.
 &quot;Still, looking back, those two students found that doing an MBA was a good exercise for their brains and helped them become better organized and more structured at work.&quot;
 The fact that the all classes are held in English, the lingua franca of business life, also causes some uneasiness and further stress for students. Presentations, exams, work projects - a good command of English is absolutely necessary. 
 &quot;We do not refuse students who have not sufficient knowledge of English. But we recommend them to take additional English lessons - otherwise it will be difficult to pass the written exams,&quot; Lebedeva said.
 
 <strong>
TIME MANAGEMENT
 </strong>To reduce stress, time management becomes more important than ever when studying for an MBA degree. MBA students live to a strict timetable, with almost no room for leisure time. Students need to learn to plan ahead and organize work and studies.
 
&quot;You have to learn [to determine] what is more important and what is less important. Students have to concentrate just on the main things, which is not easy at the beginning,&quot; Tobias Hertel, a student from Germany, says. 
 
 <strong>
CLASS ATMOSPHERE
 </strong>Another stress-reducing factor is the relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, which helps students to deal with the course more easily. Being part of a team is motivating and more fun than sitting alone at home, buried in books. 
 
&quot;Usually, our students join the course individually. During the first class, students introduce themselves and get to know each other. In a short time we notice that they start to spend lunches together, discuss subjects during breaks and sometimes even meet outside of the course,&quot; Lebedeva says.
 &quot;A relaxed and stress-free atmosphere in the classroom also increases the students' motivation and enthusiasm,&quot; she advises. 
 
 <strong>
MBA TIME, MY TIME
 </strong>Without doubt, doing an MBA also affects private life. 
 
&quot;It is important to have support from your family and from your partner. They have to be aware that your private life is a bit neglected [during the course of studying] for an MBA,&quot; Hertel says. &quot;But, on the other hand, it is just for one year and there is an end in sight.&quot;
 
 <strong>
WHAT'S MY GOAL?
 </strong>Last but not least, future students need to get as much information about the course as possible once they have decided to embark on an education program. Not all MBA degrees are the same.
 
Different courses focus on particular business areas to train students to a more expert level. For IBI, for example, an ideal student is one with a background in finance and banking.
 &quot;If students overlook the fact that an MBA is not just a general business course, they will have difficulties in catching up with the others,&quot; Sladovskaya says.
 &quot;To finish an MBA successfully, students have to know what they want and what they are looking for. It is difficult to combine studies and work but it is possible, if you set yourself this goal in life.&quot;

TITLE: RECRUITERS
TEXT: <style text>INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE OF ST. PETERSBURG (IMISP)
 
<style text>
 
<style text>50, 9-ya Liniya. Tel.: 325-1919
 E-mail: marketing@imisp.ru
 http://www.imisp.ru 
 This MBA project was designed by the IMISP faculty in collaboration with leading specialists from Italy's Luigi Bocconi University and was approved by the EU, which has also provided financial assistance.
 
<style text>Applications for an MBA are accepted until April 12, 2005 and the program begins on April 25, 2005.
 Students must be permanent residents of the Russian Federation or hold valid visas throughout the period of study. The program takes two years to complete. The school offers a part-time program that allows working managers to study. 
 Cost: $11,500-16,000 (dependent on results of entry tests). Payments can be made in five instalments.
 
 
<style text>THE OPEN BUSINESS SCHOOL IN ST. PETERSBURG
 
<style text>
 
<style text>6 Inzhenernaya Ul. Tel.: 325-9401, 
 313-4040
 E-mail: info@ou.ru
 http://www.obs.ru
 The Open Business School offers two MBA programs via distance learning: The Open University Business School (U.K.) MBA program which is well suited for English-speaking employees of Russian offices of foreign companies, and the MBA of the International Institute of Management LINK (Moscow). 
 The latter is suited to those who prefer to study business in Russian. MBA OUBS costs $15,000 to $ 15,500, and MBA LINK costs $9,700. Both programs are designed to suit managers with different priorities who want to work and learn at the same time. 
 
<style text>MBA (OUBS) has been accredited by EQUIS and by AMBA. In September 2004 the Open University Business School MBA program received AACSB accreditation. 
 The program consists of two stages: basics of management (either in English or Russian) and strategy plus elective modules (only in English). Classes are taught in English by Open University professors. 
 Starting with basics of management in Russian you may choose to complete your studies in Russian with MBA LINK or in English with MBA OUBS. 
 
<style text>THE STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS IN RUSSIA
 
<style text>
 
<style text>2 Shvedsky Per. Tel.: 320-4800
 E-mail: office@sseru.org
 http://www.sseru.org
 EMBA - General Management 
 EMBA - Strategic Marketing 
 
<style text>These are two-year programs consisting of 15 modules. Each module is taught over five days, running from Friday to Tuesday. 
 Teachers are professors from the Stockholm School of Economics and other international business schools, for example Insead, LBS. All courses are taught in English. Examinations are taken at the end of each semester. A master's thesis is due at the end of the second year.
 Entrance requirements are a completed post-secondary education program in any major specialism and adequate experience in business (minimum 3 years). The admission procedure includes testing and an interview in English.
 Cost: 16,000 euros
 
 
<style text>INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL <br> OF MANAGEMENT - ISM, <br> ST. PETERSBURG CAMPUS OF THE VLERICK LEUVEN GENT MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
 
<style text>
 
<style text>16 Birgevaya liniya. Tel.: 331-7544
 E-mail: mail@ism-nw.ru 
 http:// www.ism-nw.ru
 The ISM MBA program is an international postgraduate degree program in general business management. It has been offered since 1990. The program has modular structure and thus can be studied in two forms - a one year, full-time format and a 2-3 year part-time format. The program is conducted entirely in English by a highly professional international faculty in partnership with Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. The school has more then 500 alumni worldwide.
 
<style text>The admissions procedure includes a test and an interview. For applicants who have passed the GMAT, the test is not required. References supporting the application are optional, but are carefully considered.
 Cost: 6,000 euros for full-time and 7,200 euros for part-time. 
 
 
<style text>NORTHWESTERN OFFICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN ST. PETERSBURG
 
<style text>
 
<style text>26/28 Mirgorodskaya Ul. Tel.: 277-5287
 E-mail: mail@interun.spb.ru
 http://www.interun.spb.ru
 This two-year MBA program is accredited by the European Council for Business Education. It includes active forms of education, including case studies, group discussion, round tables, and internships. It has famous professors from Moscow and St. Petersburg. The course boasts great for the general development of personal-management skills.
 Both full-time and part-time studies are offered.
 Cost: $6,000 for a two-year program; $3,200 for six-month program (for students with a degree in economics).
 
<style text>
 
<style text>HIGHER ECONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
<style text>
 
<style text>34, Nab. canal Griboedova
 Tel: 310-38-62, 312-87-37, 110-56-51
 E-mail: dir@mipk.spb.ru
 http://www.hes.spb.ru
 Two-year MBA program No. 8220; Management of the Enterprise No. 8221. These are focused on the training of top-managers and middle-level managers.
 
<style text>The program is provided in partnership with the Higher International School of Commerce of Metz, France, which is a member of the ESIDEC group.
 Graduates that speak French, have an opportunity to be trained in France for a one-month period.
 The program begins on Oct. 1 and includes four or five lectures per week in the evenings as well as on Saturdays.
 Cost: approximately 8,000 euros.
 A two-year MBA program "Marketing" is focused on the training of top-managers and middle-level managers, who are working in the marketing field. Modules for specialization include complex marketing courses of approximately 250 academic hours in total.
 The program is provided in partnership with University of Applied Science Anhalt (Bernburg, Germany).
 Graduates who speak German have an opportunity to be trained in Germany for a one-month period.
 The program begins on March 14 and includes four or five lectures a week in the evenings as well as on Saturdays.
 Cost: 7,000 euros
 
 
<style text>SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, <br> ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
 
<style text>
 
<style text>3 Volkhovsky Pr., office 210. Tel.: 323-8444, 323-8448
 E-mail:mba@som.pu.ru
 http://www.som.pu.ru
 This is a two-year program consisting of four semesters and an internship. Offered in full-time and part-time forms. English-language study is part of the program.
 
<style text>Admission requirements include completed post-secondary education, a minimum of two years work experience in business and an official letter from the student's company giving permission to attend day sessions.
 All graduates receive the diploma from the St. Petersburg State University.
 Applications for MBA 2005 accepted until April 1.
 Cost: from $12,500 to $13,500, depending on level of English-language proficiency.
 
 
<style text>INTERNATIONAL BANKING INSTITUTE 
 
<style text>
 
<style text>58, Nevsky prospect, Office 400
 Tel: (812)571-53-09
 E-mail: mba@ibi.metrocom.ru
 www.ipc.ibi.edu.ru
 MBA programs have been conducted jointly by the International Banking Institute and Stockholm University School of Business since 1994 with help from the Swedish Government. The programs are accredited by one of the most famous accreditation bodies EQUIS ( www.efmd.be).
 
<style text>Executive MBA Banking and Finance - 1.5 years.
 MBA Financial Management - 2.5 years
 MBA Bank Management - 2.5 years
 MBA Corporate Finance - 2.5 years
 Programs are run on a part-time basis.
 Classes are 3 times a week (6.30- 9.30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. on Saturdays). The language of study is English and Russian.There is a one month pre-diploma training session in Stockholm. 
 Cost: EMBA - 7,800 euros; MBA - 9,750 euros.
 Graduates are awarded two diplomas: the MBA Diploma of Stockholm University School of Business and the MBA Diploma of IBI.
 
 
<style text>AMERICAN COUNCILS FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION: ACTR/ACCELS U.S. EDUCATIONAL ADVISING CENTER
 
 46 Fontanka Embankment, 
 Fourth Floor
 Tel: +7 (812) 571-4593
 E-Mail: eic@americancouncils.spb.ru
 Website: www.americancouncils.spb.ru<br> American Councils for International Education has been a leader in educational exchanges linking the United States and Russia for three decades. 
 The U.S. Educational Advising Center, funded by the Department of State, offers a full array of resources, free consultations, regular seminars, and GMAT preparation for anyone applying to MBA programs in the United States. 
 An Advice Center is open to the public Tues-Fri. 12 p.m.-8 p.m. and Saturdays 12 p.m.-6 p.m.
 
<style text>
 
<style text>BRITISH COUNCIL <br> ST. PETERSBURG
 
 Fontanka 46. Tel: 118 5060
 E-mail: bc.stpetersburg@britishcouncil.ru 
 http://www.britishcouncil.ru
 
<style text>All information on Education in the U.K., library and U.K. web resources, teaching centre and examination service, arts and science projects.
 
<style text>We provide access to education and creative ideas from Great Britain and build long term relationships between Great Britain and Russia.
 
<style text>
 
<style text>DAAD INFORMATION CENTER ST. PETERSBURG
 
<style text>
 
<style text>Russian State Pedagogical University nab.reki Moiki 48, korp 14, room 312
 Tel: 007-812-5712400
 E-mail: daad@herzen.spb.ru
 www.daad.spb.ru
 www.daad.de
 The German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD, a joint establishment of the German higher education institutions - is responsible for promoting international academic cooperation.
 
<style text>DAAD supports worldwide network exchange of international students, graduates, lectures and professors in over a hundred different programs.
 Running a worldwide network of regional offices and study informational centers, the DAAD will guide and advise you on your path to Germany.
 The DAAD Information Center in St. Petersburg is locatied at the Herzen University offers a free and comprehensive service to all those interested in study and research in Germany. 
 We provide information and counseling on graduate and postgraduate courses at German universities, admission requirements, scholarships etc. 
 Working days: Wednesdays at 11 a.m.-1 p.m. or Thursdays at 5-7 p.m. 



TITLE: Patriots Win 3rd Superbowl in 4 Years
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JACKSONVILLE, Florida - The Patriots became a full-fledged dynasty with their third Super Bowl victory in four years on Sunday night, beating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21. 
 
New England claimed a spot alongside the Green Bay Packers of the 1960s, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the '70s, the San Francisco 49ers of the '80s and the Dallas Cowboys of the '90s. 
 &quot;We're champions now. That's it,&quot; safety Rodney Harrison said. &quot;I don't know about dynasty.&quot; 
 New England becomes just the seventh franchise to claim back-to-back titles. The Cowboys are the only other team to win the championship three times over a four-year period. 
 Typically, the Patriots didn't leave themselves much room. All three of their Super Bowls have been decided by three points - the previous two on last-second field goals by Adam Vinatieri. By comparison, only two of the first 35 Super Bowls were within field goal range at the end. 
 But what they lack in style, the Patriots more than make up with their steely determination to do whatever it takes to win. When the Eagles jumped to a 7-0 lead, New England responded with a touchdown of its own late in the first half. 
 When Philadelphia tied the game at 14 late in the third quarter, the Patriots marched right down the field for Corey Dillon's 2-yard touchdown. And, in a fitting bit of synergy, Vinatieri booted a 22-yard field goal with 8:40 remaining that provided the margin of victory. 
 Donovan McNabb threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with 1:48 remaining, but the Patriots recovered the onside kick and ran off all but the final 46 seconds. When Harrison picked off McNabb's last pass at the Philly 28, it was time to party. 
 &quot;This is the best ever,&quot; offensive tackle Matt Light said. &quot;We have more heart than anyone in the world. This is unbelievable. I love this confetti.&quot; 
 The Eagles got a huge lift from Terrell Owens, who defied his doctor to play in his first Super Bowl. Just 6 1/2 weeks after surgery, T.O. had nine catches for 122 yards. Not bad for a guy who was playing with two screws and a metal plate in his right ankle. 
 But Owens was outshined by New England's Deion Branch, who claimed the MVP award with 11 catches - tying a Super Bowl record - for 133 yards. 
 It wasn't a flawless game by any means. McNabb (30-of-51 for 397 yards) threw three interceptions, was sacked four times and had a fumble overturned by replay. Tom Brady botched a handoff with Kevin Faulk, leading to a fumble deep in Philly territory. 
 For the most part, though, the Patriots followed a familiar routine - run the ball (28 carries, 112 yards), limit mistakes in the passing game (Brady was 23-of-33 for 236 yards, with no interceptions) and rely heavily on their defense (the Eagles managed just 45 yards on the ground). 
 The loss extended Philly's excruciating championship drought. The city's last football title came in 1960. The last title of any kind came 22 years ago, when the 76ers won the NBA championship. 
 &quot;I was proud of the effort,&quot; coach Andy Reid said. &quot;But we came up just short.&quot; 
 Now, it's time to start sorting out the historical significance of another Patriots' Super Bowl title. They have won nine straight postseason games, equaling Vince Lombardi's Green Bay teams. And coach Bill Belichick improved his playoff record to 10-1, one-upping the great Lombardi. 
 &quot;As I give you the Lombardi Trophy, I suspect that coach Lombardi would have a deep admiration for how your team played today,&quot; NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue told Belichick after the game. 
 The Patriots had a bumpy road to their latest championship, and in many ways the Super Bowl mirrored those struggles. But, as always, New England found a way to persevere. 
 Maybe it's their versatility: For the second year in a row, linebacker Mike Vrabel caught a touchdown pass. He's got five receptions in his career - all TDs. 
 Even though the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1981 - after three straight conference championship flops - their sparkling season ended in disappointment before a sea of mostly green jerseys in the crowd of 78,125. 
 &quot;We were too sloppy to win,&quot; Owens said. &quot;It was great to get back, but we made too many mistakes. We could have won and that hurts.&quot; 


TITLE: U.S. Skaters Take Top Four
 Spots in World Speedskating
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick finished one/two overall Sunday at the World Allround Speedskating Championships in Moscow and helped the United States make the first sweep of the top four spots in the 1,500 meters since the Soviet Union did it in 1956. 
 
Davis became the fourth American to win the all-around title, joining Eric Heiden (1977-79), Eric Flame (1988) and Hedrick (2004).
 Davis finished with 150.777 points and defending champion Hedrick followed at 150.916. Sven Kramer of the Netherlands was third.
 Anni Friesinger of Germany completed her sweep of the championship races, winning the 1,500 and 5,000 a day after taking the 500 and 3,000. It was her third overall title.
 In the 1,500, Davis was timed in 1.46.60 to beat Hedrick by 1.10 seconds. KC Boutiette was third in 1:48.79, finishing 0.19 of a second ahead of teammate Derek Parra.
 Friesinger was timed in 1:57.35 to win the 1,500 and 7:04.61 in the 5,000, totaling 161.557 points. She became the sixth female skater to win all four of her races in a single championships meet.
 Cindy Klassen of Canada finished second overall with 163.214 points. Claudia Pechstein of Germany was third with 163.418.
 o
 <strong>Ski jumping</strong> Norway's Roar Ljoekelsoey won a World Cup event with two of the day's longest jumps for his second victory this season in Sapporo, Japan.
 Risto Jussilainen of Finland was second and Thomas Morgenstern of Austria was third.
 Ljoekelsoey had jumps of 137.5 and 137 meters on the Okurayama Hill for 292.1 points and moved into second place in the standings.
 Jussilainen combined the day's longest jump of 139 meters with a first jump of 122 meters to finish with 262.8 points. Morgenstern had 243.1 points.