SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1065 (31), Friday, April 29, 2005
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TITLE: Putin
Hailed in
Jerusalem
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - President Vladimir Putin faced down Israeli criticism Thursday, saying Russia's planned sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Syria and supply of nuclear components to Iran does not threaten Israel's security.
Putin spoke on the second day of his historic visit to Israel - the first trip here by a Kremlin leader - before going into a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Addressing Israeli fears that he's affecting the region's balance of power, Putin urged Iran to do more to show the world that it's not trying to build a nuclear weapon.
He also pledged to tackle the growing problem of anti-Semitism in his country, saying "there can be no place for xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of racial or religious intolerance" in the 21st century.
Putin was greeted Thursday morning by the pomp of an official welcoming ceremony, complete with a military honor guard and Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders.
Sharon, whose parents were born in Russia, greeted Putin in Russian and told the visitor he should "feel among brothers," Israel Radio said.
The trip was intended to cement Russia's rapprochement with the Jewish state and boost its profile in the international arena.
But it was shadowed by disagreements with Israel over Russia's aid to Syria and Iran, two of Israel's staunchest enemies. Russia has provided assistance for Iran's nuclear program and has agreed to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Sharon repeatedly has said the missiles pose a danger to Israel and wants Putin to halt the deal.
Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said Thursday that Russia is selling Iran components that can be used to make non-conventional weapons, and that Russia's assistance to Iran is a cause of concern.
Israel accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, though Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in the Hague, Netherlands, that his country will resume its uranium enrichment program - temporarily suspended in November - if talks with European nations this week fail.
The United States announced Wednesday it had authorized the sale of as many as 100 bunker-buster bombs to Israel, which experts saw as a warning to Iran about its nuclear ambitions.
Putin defended the moves in talks with Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who holds a largely ceremonial role, saying that Russia was sensitive to Israel's security concerns. "Regarding Iran, we are working to make sure their nuclear ability is used for peaceful means."
The agreement with Iran requires it to return all its spent nuclear fuel to Russia so it cannot be used for military purposes, Putin said. "I agree that these steps are not enough and we have to get Iran to agree to nuclear inspections," he said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem with Katsav.
"It is necessary for our Iranian partners to reject the creation of nuclear cycle technology and not hinder placing all its nuclear program under complete international control," he said.
Putin also sought to allay concerns about the Syrian arms deal, saying the missiles should pose no threat to Israel. "The missiles we are providing to Syria are short-range anti-aircraft missiles that cannot reach Israeli territory," he said.
Israeli warplanes bombed alleged militant training bases outside Damascus on Oct. 5, 2003, and have buzzed one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's palaces.
Putin, whose country has traditionally supported the Arabs in their conflict with Israel, said he had personally vetoed the sale of longer-range missiles to Syria out of concern for Israel's safety.
Officials who briefed reporters on the Putin-Katzav meeting said Russia already had signed a deal with Syria for missiles with a range of 185 miles. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Putin told Katsav "then I checked and my experts told me that Israel has no way to intercept these missiles so I canceled the deal."
"We are taking the opinions and concerns of our partners into consideration, and not changing the balance of power in the region," Putin said at the news conference. "Israel has no problem here."
Israeli media reported Thursday that Sharon also opposes Russia's plan to sell military equipment to the Palestinians. Palestinian officials have said Russia is interested in selling armored vehicles to their security services for use in riot control. Israel fears the armored vehicles could fall into the hands of militants.
Putin began his visit late Wednesday on a note of controversy, proposing, just before his arrival, that Russia host a Mideast peace conference in the fall, after Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip. Palestinians warmly embraced the idea, but Israel and the United States brushed it aside.
He did not bring up the conference proposal during Thursday's news conference with Katsav, but said the region had a unique opportunity to achieve peace.
"We think there is a chance now to achieve a just Israeli-Palestinian settlement ... much will depend on Israel's willingness and the Palestinians' willingness, first and foremost," Putin said.
Putin was to travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah Friday for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Putin and Katsav unveiled a monument donated by Russia, in memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. The Russian sculpture depicts six nude figures, one a small child, standing in a circle surrounded by barbed wire.
The two men also discussed economic cooperation and signed a vague joint statement urging perseverance in Mideast peace efforts and pledging continued cooperation in fighting terrorism.
TITLE: Reciprocity Plea Over Trophy Art
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Handing over a replica of the famous Praying Boy statute to the Peterhof museum on Thursday, German officials expressed hopes that Russia would change its policy regarding cultural items taken from Germany at the end of World War II and resolve the issue of returning the treasures on a mutual basis.
Russia would only gain from cooperating with Germany in restoring cultural items left untouched for decades in museum storage facilities across the country, they said.
"As a way to solve this problem the two sides signed an agreement in 1992 to return cultural heritage [to both countries]," German Culture Minister Christina Weiss said at the handover ceremony of the Praying Boy statue.
"But negotiations on the matter were stuck and frozen after a new law on returning cultural items, which could not be accepted from a judicial point of view in Germany, was passed in 1998.
"This law makes our work to be more complicated ... as a person and as a culture minister I feel shame for the fact that items of Russian culture were destroyed during the war, but should today's and modern Germany refuse its cultural identity in this case?" the minister said.
The statue of the Praying Boy has gone a long way between Russia and Germany since the 19th century. The original replica, of a 300 BC Greek sculpture, was presented by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV to his sister Charlotte after she married Russian Tsar Nicholas I and wanted to have something in St. Petersburg that would remind her of home.
That replica was destroyed in the war, while the original statue made in 300 BC was taken by the Soviet army from Sansoucci palace in Potsdam in 1945 and returned in 1958 as "a gesture of good will" from the Soviet Union to East Germany.
"This statue is a symbolic element that links our people and our histories. We have common cultural roots and these roots should be visible not only when it's necessary for political or economical reasons," Weiss said.
The idea of exchanging historical items taken from both counties in the war is regarded negatively within certain segments of Russian society, especially among patriotically oriented people.
"See, they didn't give us the real statue, but slip us a fake one," an unidentified Russian businessman said at the ceremony.
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said Russia should open its secret storage facilities so that foreign experts can boost the amount of restoration, which is slowing down due to a shortage of specialists and lack of financing.
The foundation donated the Praying Boy to Peterhof.
"There are thousands of items stored in the museums, but only about 500 of them have been restored in all these years," Lehmann said at the ceremony.
"Foreign experts should be given access to the facilities to examine the works together with Russian specialists to find out what is there and what is not, to form a list of items," he added. "Then they could conduct restorations together."
Weiss criticized Russian officials over delays in returning the Anhalt silver collection. Duke Ernst Anhalt was a member of anti-fascist movements who suffered from two regimes. He was put in Dachau concentration camp for his activity against Adolf Hitler and after the war ended up in a Soviet concentration camp in Siberia, where he died in 1947.
The German government is trying to convince Russian authorities to transfer Anhalt's silver collection, which is in the State Hermitage Museum, to his son, on the grounds that the father was rehabilitated and his property should be returned according to Russian law.
An obstacle to the return lies in the stance of Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky who has said that the State Duma should approve any return of the silver.
Earlier this year he said if the silver was returned "this would be a big loss for the Hermitage."
Lyudmila Narusova, a senator in the Federation Council, said Piotrovsky should become more civilized.
"I love the Hermitage and I know how museum employees treat their items, but in any case they should become more tolerant to this problem," Narusova said in an interview Thursday. "This is a different question. This is not about returning confiscated items, but about giving back the property of a person who was illegally put in jail."
Narusova expressed hopes that the State Duma would change its approach to the whole question of returning confiscated items sometime in the future.
"I believe the State Duma deputies should finally understand that they should quit working with their fists fighting each other and rather work with their brains," she said.
TITLE: Rigged City Elections 'Model for Kremlin'
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Municipal elections in St. Petersburg are being used as a training ground on how to perpetrate mass forgeries that will give victories to Kremlin-backed politicians in regional and federal elections, members of liberal faction Yabloko say.
Mikhail Amosov, head of the faction in the city parliament accused the Kremlin-loyal United Russia of cheating so that it would beat his party at elections for the Akademicheskoye municipal council in the Kalinin district in March 2004 and while preparing for additional elections in the same area scheduled to take place this weekend.
"[The municipal elections in the district] demonstrate an ideal model on how at any price to furnish a result in favor of the party in power in the elections," Amosov said at a briefing organized by Rosbalt news agency on Tuesday.
The main tactic used by district election commissions to get United Russia candidates elected is opening numerous polling stations in local housing committees and schools where votes can be made before election day, Amosov said.
"One of the shining examples of this were the elections for the Svetlanovskoye municipal council in December 2004," Amosov said.
"United Russia got 90 percent of votes during the early voting while Yabloko got only 10 percent. On the official day of elections Yabloko got from 20 percent to 70 percent of votes, while United Russia was practically defeated with just 10 percent."
Municipal election commissions have in effect been buying votes by attracting elderly residents to local housing committees by offering free consultations on the replacement of in-kind benefits with cash payments or giving away free Internet access cards, Amosov said.
"This says about only one thing - they stuff the ballot boxes during the early voting," he said.
While United Russia officially won the elections in Svetlanovskoye, the City Prosecutor's Office has initiated a criminal case against the local election commission after allegations that it rigged the elections in January this year.
The City Election Commission agreed with the concerns expressed by Yabloko.
"I understand what they are talking about and agree with their point of view," Dmitry Krasnyansksy, the city election commission deputy head, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
"The local election commissions should really look into the matter because if they don't they could face criminal charges."
But United Russia politicians believe everything is fine.
"They are always accusing everyone of playing dishonest games. This is just the style of Yabloko's behavior. If they didn't do it, it wouldn't be Yabloko," Alexei Ishutin, head of United Russia's Kalininsky District branch, said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"After every election they end up in court," he said. "They just have such a scheme. All the questions should be solved in frames of the existing law, so we are calm in our estimations of the situation."
But Tatyana Dorutina, head of the St. Petersburg League of Voters, said the pro-Kremlin lawmakers continue playing dishonest game even after they are elected by putting pressure on other lawmakers that are not in their sphere of influence.
"People who have been elected to the local councils in a wrong way behave the same way when they work," she said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"There are many cases when such deputies just ignore the votes of their colleagues or even take voting ballots from them.
"At a conference the other day we examined the situation in local councils and came to the conclusion that in some of them, for instance in the [suburban town] Pushkin, deputies that do not belong to the party of power succeed in defending their rights. This is a rare example, but it is a sign that there is still an option to change things for the better if we take matters into our own hands," she said.
The city's municipal elections have been plagued by irregularities leading to them being run again and again with less and less people voting.
TITLE: Alfyorov Wins
Energy Prize
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - St. Petersburg physicist and Nobel prize winner Zhores Alfyorov and German academic Klaus Riedle have won this year's Global Energy Prize, local media reported.
Alfyorov's was awarded for "fundamental research and significant practical contribution to the creation of semi-conductor converters of the energy applied in the solar and electric power industry."
Reidle, who works for Siemens, was awarded for "development and creation of powerful high-temperature gas turbines for steam-gas power installations."
The award, established in 2002, was an initiative of Alfyorov and is intended as Russia's answer to the Nobel prizes. This year it is worth about $1 million, which will be divided equally by the winners.
A total of 152 Russian specialists and 372 specialists from abroad had the right to nominate candidates. Nominations included scientists from the United States, Germany, Japan, Spain, Ukraine, France, Spain, Australia, Britain, China, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and India.
Eighty-nine works were judged, from which a short-list of six was formed and judged by an expert commission.
TITLE: Work Permits Issuing Resumes
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Federal Migration Service said Wednesday that it had resumed issuing work permits to expatriates working for the representative and branch offices of foreign companies, ending a four-month logjam that threatened to leave scores of companies without qualified foreign staff.
A migration service spokeswoman could not say when her office had begun processing work permits again, but a lawyer familiar with the issue said migration officials had started accepting applications last Thursday.
The logjam had prompted widespread concern in the foreign business community. The American Chamber of Commerce in Russia fiercely lobbied Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's office for a resolution. TNK-BP CEO Robert Dudley, in a blistering attack against government policy toward investors at the Russian Economic Forum on April 12, said the work permit problem was making it difficult for foreign companies to bring qualified management to Russia.
Federal Migration Service spokes-woman Olga Karnovich downplayed the problem Wednesday. It was "a glitch due to technical problems, but as far as I know it was brief," she said.
Karnovich refused to elaborate on what technical problems could have caused the glitch.
The migration service stopped issuing permits for expatriate staff at the representative and branch offices of foreign companies after it apparently modified its policy in January to bar firms that are not registered as so-called "legal entities" from receiving the permits.
All foreign workers are required to obtain work permits under the Law on Foreign Workers, which came into force in November 2002. A work permit lasts for one year, and the migration service is required by law to respond to an application for a permit within one month.
But the service had been holding on to the applications. Sergei Melnikov of Your Lawyer, a law firm that specializes in visa and work regulation issues, said he had filed work permit applications for clients in December, but from January, the migration service had refused to accept any more applications, and the ones he had already filed were not being processed.
Melnikov said the migration service began accepting applications again last Thursday. "It's unclear why they resumed, but apparently the issue finally reached the proper authorities in the migration service," he said.
The requirement for the permits was widely perceived as an attempt to stem the flow of illegal workers from impoverished former Soviet republics - not to create a headache for employees of well-established companies.
TITLE: Request to Extradite Chechen Tests Germany
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The case of a Chechen woman who shot and killed three Russian servicemen and a Chechen policeman during the 1994-96 war appears to be developing into a thorn in the side of Russian-German relations, German magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday.
Asya Dombayeva, who has political asylum in Germany, was arrested last Friday after an extradition plea was received in March from Russia.
It came 2 1/2 years after President Vladimir Putin asked Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at a meeting in Oslo to look into the legality of her presence in Germany, the report said.
However, a Karlsruhe court annulled the arrest although Dombayeva must still report to the police each week, the report said.
In a book and an interview on television screened in Germany during the Nord-Ost hostage crisis, Dombayeva had given a detailed account of how she, with her two sons, who fought on the side of the rebels, shot at Russian troops who came after her.
The interview outraged Russians, especially because hundreds of their compatriots were being held hostage by armed Chechens in a Moscow theater at the time.
Karlsruhe prosecutors had investigated whether Dombayeva should be charged over the killings in Germany, but were satisfied by her explanations that she had acted in self-defense, the report said.
Even if a German court recognizes that the extradition warrant is justified, it would still be up to the German government to have the final word on the case.
Last Friday, the Karlsruhe court heard that there are numerous reasons for turning down the extradition request, the report said.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Seoul to Open Mission
MOSCOW (SPT) - Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on Monday signed an order approving the opening of a South Korean consulate in St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reported Monday.
The consulate will cover the Komi, Karelia, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod, Pskov and Nenets regions and St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast.
Fradkov ordered the city administration to allocate rental premises and a construction site for the consulate, the report said.
Poles Erect Memorial
KALININGRAD (SPT) - Polish authorities have announced their intention to open a memorial for victims of a Nazi concentration camp located in the Kaliningrad region, Interfax reported Wednesday.
"By an initiative of the Union of Former Soldiers and Reservation Officers of Voisko Polskoye from Olshtyn town in the Kaliningrad region there will be a ceremony organized in outskirts of Gromovo village on Thursday to lay down a capsule in an area of the future location of the memorial for prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Hochenburg," Interfax cited Yaroslav Chubinsky, the Polish Consul General in the region as saying.
Poles in 1946 found the remains of famous political and public figures in the area where the camp had held prisoners from 1939 to 1945, Chubinsky said.
Negative Police Image
MOSCOW (SPT) - Most Russians rate the work of the police negatively, Interfax reported Tuesday, quoting the results of a public survey conducted this month by the Public Verdict Foundation.
Sixty-nine percent of Russians do not trust the police and are suspicious of them, according to the survey. Seventy-nine percent said they felt unsafe in relation to crimes committed by the police and only 3 percent said there is no such problem as criminal activity by police officers.
The same survey showed 56 percent of Russians do not believe that they can get justice through the courts or prosecutors. Fifty-four percent believe law enforcement bodies use their power to fight their political opponents.
Indians Robbed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Unidentified criminals robbed two Indian students on Wednesday morning, Interfax reported Thursday, quoting the city police.
The robbery took place on Bestuzhevskaya Ulitsa when three people attacked two Indian citizens, one of whom was a student of a medical academy and the other a student of St. Petersburg Military Space Academy, stealing from their mobile phones and cash.
The police have initiated a criminal investigation into the matter.
Two Die in Ship Fire
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A factory worker and a firefighter died in a fire that broke out on a military vessel being built for the Chinese navy, Interfax reported Wednesday, quoting shipbuilder Severnaya Verf.
Another firefighter was delivered to a hospital in critical condition, the report said.
The fire that broke out on the vessel on Wednesday morning was extinguished by afternoon and did not cause any significant damage to the ship, according to the plant's management.
TITLE: Report: Only 10% Of Firms Disclose Stats
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Only one in 10 Russian companies shed light on their remuneration practices for executives and merely one-quarter disclose company ownership structures, the Russian Institute of Directors, or RID, found in its second annual Investments and Corporate Governance report on Russian companies, presented Thursday.
RID, a research organization, used questionnaires and publicly available information to assess the corporate governance practices of 80 private and public companies, spanning energy, telecommunications, steel, transportation and other sectors.
"We studied four topics to which Western investors pay the most attention," RID director Igor Belikov said during the presentation of the report, also supported by Expert ratings agency and the United States Agency for International Development.
The survey found a slight improvement in all areas - shareholder rights, company management and control structures, information disclosure and corporate social responsibility - from last year, when 59 companies listed on the MICEX and RTS exchanges were surveyed.
Greater ownership disclosure is important, in light of the nervousness that prevailed among businesspeople last year, Belikov said. Twenty-six percent of this year's survey participants disclosed information about shareholders controlling more than 5 percent stake in the company, compared to 15 percent of companies surveyed last year.
Existing shortcomings in corporate governance, nevertheless, remain staggering.
Nearly half the surveyed companies, 49 percent, do not demonstrate respect for shareholder rights, the report found. For example, the majority of surveyed companies, 81 percent, had no documents detailing their dividend policy.
Only 9 percent disclose information about the remuneration of each board member and top executive and slightly less than half, 40 percent, do not in any way regulate the flow of insider information, according to RID.
"A significant increase in the cost of attracting capital [occurs] when there is a threat of insider trading," the report said. While a bill to regulate insider trading is being drafted it is not yet law.
"Very few companies understand corporate governance the same way Western investors understand it," Gleb Davidyuk, managing partner of Mint Capital, a private equity investment fund, said during the presentation.
Standard & Poor's analyst Oleg Shvyrkov, speaking on the sidelines of the RID presentation, said the report's findings agreed with those of S&P.
The booming telecommunications sector is the most transparent, Svyrkov said, while the oil and gas sector is the least transparent because, among other reasons, it is less dependent on attracting cheap capital.
TITLE: Khodorkovsky Verdict Is Postponed
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Meshchansky district court postponed its much-anticipated verdict in the trial of Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev by three weeks on Wednesday, sparing President Vladimir Putin from having to face any uncomfortable questions when he hosts world leaders for Victory Day festivities.
A short note announcing the delay until May 16 was posted on a courthouse door Wednesday morning. No advance notice was given to Khodorkovsky's and Lebedev's lawyers or the swarms of local and international journalists who showed up outside the court.
Supporters of the two businessmen, who face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of multiple fraud and tax evasion charges, said they had no doubt that the postponement was an attempt to strike the trial off the agenda of the May 9 gathering of international leaders, who will be in town to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
"I think there is a direct link here. If the verdict were to be delivered today or tomorrow, it would have been an international scandal," Sergei Mitrokhin, a leader of the liberal Yabloko party, told reporters.
The delay also might defuse tensions for Putin during a visit to Israel, where three of Khodorkovsky's partners have sought refuge from criminal charges in Russia. Putin arrived in Israel for a two-day visit on Wednesday evening.
The verdict will be the climax of the state's two-year legal onslaught against Khodorkovsky, his business partners and Yukos, once the country's largest oil company. The state tore Yukos apart by effectively renationalizing its main production unit on back tax claims late last year.
The case dealt a body blow to investor confidence, as Russian and foreign businessmen worried about how far the state would go in its back tax investigations.
Mitrokhin said that if the verdict had been delivered Wednesday, it probably would have been milder than the 10 years sought by the prosecution so as to minimize the Kremlin's exposure to renewed criticism from the West.
"By May 16, all the leaders attending the celebrations will have gone home, and then the authorities will pronounce their sentence," Mitrokhin said.
Khodorkovsky's father Boris said the delay appeared to be an attempt to quell interest in the case. He speculated that authorities might be hoping that a postponement or two would lead to fewer journalists and supporters at the verdict.
"It seems to me that it was done to make sure that fewer people come. See how many there are today?" he told dozens of reporters crowded around him.
Across the street from the court, about 200 young protesters carried banners reading "While Trying to Strangle Freedom, You Risk Suffocating in Its Absence!" and "Khodorkovsky, Go Home!"
Activists from Yabloko, the liberal Union of Right Forces party and the Sovest human rights group chanted, "Independence for judges, freedom for Khodorkovsky." Some carried yellow and green balloons - Yukos' corporate colors - while others waved party flags.
Chess champion turned liberal politician Garry Kasparov said he feared Khodorkovsky would get the maximum sentence. "I don't believe that Khodorkovsky can be freed for as long as Putin is in power," he said.
Khodorkovsky's and Lebedev's lawyers were much less vocal in assessing the reasons for the delay. Khodorkovsky's chief defense lawyer, Genrikh Padva, said delays in verdicts were not uncommon and in this case might be purely technical. For instance, the three judges might not have been able to prepare the verdict on time due to the sheer size of the case.
Russian law does not oblige courts to explain delays in issuing verdicts, and the court offered no explanation Wednesday.
A former Yukos security department employee, Alexei Pichugin, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on double murder charges last month.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Coca-Cola Invests $35 M
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) - Coca-Cola HBC will spend $35 million in the next 18 months adding a new production line and building warehouses at its plant in St. Petersburg, Interfax said.
Dimitrios Makavos, general director of the company's Russian unit, made the announcement at a conference on British investment in St. Petersburg, the news service said.
Athens-based HBC is 24 percent owned by Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest soft-drink maker. Coca-Cola and its Greek unit have linked to acquire three Eastern European juice and water companies this year, adding new products to reduce their dependence on sodas.
They paid $501 million this month for Russia's second-largest juice company, Multon.
Chernobyl Leaking
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - The sarcophagus covering the Chernobyl atomic power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, is leaking radiation and may cause a disaster similar to the one in 1986 if repairs aren't made, the U.K.'s Independent reported, citing a leading Russian scientist.
If the sarcophagus collapses, "irradiated particles will shoot 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) into the air and will be spread by the wind,'' the newspaper cited Alexei Yablokov, president of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, as saying.
There are cracks throughout the concrete and metal cover that was used to contain the Soviet-built reactor in Ukraine after it exploded and spewed radiation over much of northern Europe, Yablokov said, according to the newspaper.
Most of the reactor's fuel remains inside the protective shell, where spontaneous nuclear reactions are going on, the Independent cited Yablokov as saying.
Layout Gets Green Light
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - City authorities approved Tuesday the project layout of the site of the Baltic Pearl residential, commercial and recreational complex, which will be built by Shanghai Industrial and Investment company.
The 200 hectare site will be located in the Krasnoselsky district, southwest of the city, the city press office said. The site currently has no residential or public housing or any infrastructure.
The Chinese investor will build 1.62 million square meters of housing for 35,000 residents, among other facilities.
The $1.25 billion project is expected to be completed by 2010.
Stations Crowd the Dead
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - A memorial park to honor the heroes of Stalingrad, where Soviet troops halted the Nazi Army's advance in 1942, is crowded with illegal filling stations and car washes that take up half of the site, the federal government said.
Of the park's 360 hectares (890 acres), 183 hectares have been appropriated for uses unconnected to the site's memorial purpose, the Natural Resources Ministry said Thursday in an e-mailed statement. The park at the Mamaev Kurgan, or Tatar Mound, has the world's tallest free-standing statue.
"We didn't expect to see gasoline stations literally standing where blood was shed,'' Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Natural Resources Inspectorate, said Thursday.
"We are fully committed to submit the case to prosecutors before Victory Day on May 9," Mitvol said.
TITLE: British-American Clinic Sold To Rival
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The last foreign-managed clinic in St. Petersburg, British American Family Practice, has been swallowed by larger rival American Medical Clinic for an undisclosed amount, heads of both clinics announced Thursday.
According to the American Medical Clinic (AMC), owned by Adamant holding, the transaction could make it the largest player in a highly lucrative, yet limited market for Class A medical services. Competitors, however, say the deal could be seen as more or less a minor acquisition aimed at regaining the clinic's slipping client share.
"There are limited expat and tourist numbers in St. Petersburg, and it'd make little sense to compete for them alone [without targeting Russian clients]. The most optimal choice was a merger," Yefim Danilevich, head of AMC, said Thursday at a news conference.
"We have a good team of Russian staff and patients, but without any disrespect to domestic medicine, I would like to bring in more foreign clients, and this begins with inviting [BAFP's] foreign doctors and management to our clinic," he said.
The clinic's clientele are 40 percent to 60 percent foreign, depending on the tourist season. The percentage is much higher at British American Family Practice (BAFP), where "the client base may not be as large, but loyal and deeply involved with the expat community, unlike [other market players] Medem and Euromed, which focus on Russian clients," one industry insider said Thursday.
The acquisition of BAFP coincides with AMC's $2.5 million expansion, funded by Adamant holding, to add another 1,000 square meters of hospital space, Danilevich said.
"However, we will not concentrate on attaining huge patient flows, but instead look to provide an individual approach, to which I think the foreign personnel can contribute," Danilevich said.
With AMC's acquisition of the BAFP there will be only three luxury-class medical centers left in the city, since from May 1 BAFP will cease to operate, transferring all "key personnel" and equipment to AMC's premises at Moika 78.
In addition to the five doctors who will join AMC's staff of 40, the head of BAFP, Kurt Stahl, said he felt that "most of our clients will transfer with us."
Stahl himself will move to AMC as a consultant and "pursue other business interests" alongside. BAFP occupied a self-estimated 10 percent share in the city's Class A medical services market. Amalgamated into AMC's self-estimated 30 percent of the Class A medical services market, the medical center on the Moika could bank on up to 800 patients a month with an average person spending about $550 at the up-market center.
A general examination alone will cost a person 3,000 rubles ($108) at Euromed, 50 euros ($65) at Medem, and 40 euros ($51) at AMC.
Danilevich said a Class A clinic in the city could count on an annual turnover of between $4 million and $6 million, with about 2,000 patients a month using such facilities in the city. However, rival Medem medical center said it alone treats about 170 patients a day at its new facility opened last year and expects the figure to rise to 250 to 300 patients in 2005 "due to development of new medical departments."
Alexander Strelnikov, a doctor at Medem, said that the amalgamation of BAFP by the American Clinic will little change the market's proportions.
"British-American Clinic was a tiny clinic focusing on family practice, gynecology and pediatric services. The merger of these two clinics can affect such areas as staff, equipment and patients," he said.
"It is unlikely the AMC will benefit in terms of equipment and technical improvement ... it will not really change the market," Strelnikov said.
Alexei Lazutin, commercial director of Euromed, said the market share of the three major Class A clinics were roughly the same, and ACM's acquisition was probably aimed at bolstering a flagging client share.
The acquisition does prove that the operational level of the elite medical care market has become higher and required the pooling of AMC and BAFP resources, he said.
Nikolai Devyatkin contributed to this report.
TITLE: Made-in-Russia Toyotas Ready to Drive by 2007
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Toyota cars assembled in St. Petersburg will roll off the production line by the second half of 2007, as the Japanese automaker hopes to capitalize on the booming auto market in Russia, the company's senior managing director said Tuesday.
In the largest direct foreign investment project in the St. Petersburg area, Toyota will start construction of a $144 million assembly plant in the town of Shushari, southwest of the city. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will hold a 20-percent stake in the project, the bank said in a statement.
The assembly plant will start with an annual output capacity of 20,000 Camry business-class saloon models, with the figure likely to rise to 50,000 in two to three years.
Tokuichi Uranishi, senior managing director of Toyota said that provided "the market continues at the pace it has shown in recent years, we could extend the long-term annual capacity to 200,000 units."
Last year the company sold 7.5 million cars worldwide, 47,000 of which were sold in Russia. The number of Toyotas sold in Russia since the beginning of the year is already 30 percent up on the same period last year, Uranishi said.
Speaking in St. Petersburg at the signing of a memorandum between the automaker, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, Uranishi said Toyota Motors Co. will produce only the Camry saloon in Russia, with no other models planned at the moment.
"Now more people in Russia own a Corolla, but Camry also enjoys popularity," Uranishi said. In 2004 Toyota sold just less than 10,000 Camry cars, as opposed to 12,973 Corollas.
The choice of model met with a lot of surprise from Gairat Salimov, auto market analyst at Troika Dialog, who said that the Russian market will be hard pushed to swallow 20,000 Camry vehicles by 2007, although it could be "feasible, if optimistic."
Apart from a possibility of exporting Russian-assembled Camrys to Europe, Toyota could be banking on a price drop, Salimov said. Even without taking account of cheaper labor costs in Russia, the current bottom price for a Camry, $30,000, would fall to just over $22,000 once the import costs are taken out of the equation.
So far, the automaker is not promising lower prices or a bigger range. Much will depend on favorable economic conditions in Russia, and vitally - who makes Toyota's car components and where, Uranishi said.
Toyota is researching and negotiating cooperation with several Russian parts manufacturers, yet the 220 hectare territory for the St. Petersburg assembly plant also leaves plenty of room for international Toyota partner companies that could supply parts should local suppliers not meet Toyota's requirements.
"We are sure that Toyota will have a positive affect on the industry of car components production in Russia ... [but] the prospective plans of Toyota will also be important for global component manufacturers interested in coming to Russia," Uranishi said.
In addition, Uranishi said he hoped the Russian government would "take special care of the customs situation" and continue with its recent plans to abolish tariffs on the import of vehicle components.
Gref did not see the likely arrival of international car parts companies as a negative factor for Russia. Instead he argued it was "logical" and "a necessary step for the near future.
"The domestic auto industry is of an older model. Either we will have to replace it or upgrade it," Gref said. "But the coming of such carmakers as Toyota will lift the auto industry in Russia, since the people who will be working there will be Russians."
Industry analysts see Toyota's move to St. Petersburg as part of a larger strategy all global automakers are pursuing: to shift assembly plants to Eastern Europe where labor costs and utilities are cheaper and production is close to the intended consumers.
"The next step across from Eastern Europe is Russia," Salimov said. "It may be more expensive than China, but the delivery of cars [from China] to the European market would be a logistical nightmare and time-consuming: about 3 months."
In fact, the geographical issue was highlighted by Matviyenko. She said the Japanese automaker chose St. Petersburg exactly because of the city's positioning near the Baltic ports and its direct highway and rail link to Moscow.
With the city accounting for 17 percent of Russia's car sales, it also had a ready consumer market, and among the first of Toyota's customers would be the city authorities, Matviyenko said.
"And as soon as Toyota starts production here, all of the city administration will switch to buying their cars, I can assure you of that," she said.
TITLE: Scania Sets Long-Distance Expansion Goal
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Scania-Piter, the 100-percent Russian subsidiary of Swedish auto maker Scania, will almost double the production of large 50-seater buses in 2005, the company said Wednesday.
The bus manufacturer made a presentation of a new intercity Scania Omni Line model, which the company hopes will capitalize on Russia's growing market for long-distance passenger routes.
For inner-city routes, the Swedish manufacturer has also developed the Scania Omni Link model with a capacity of up to 122 sitting and standing passengers.
"Scania-Piter was founded in 2002 and that year we manufactured and sold only 26 buses," said Natalia Solovyova, the company's PR manager. "By 2003 we produced and sold 94 [buses] and in 2004 - 151 buses."
The company targets an increase in production to 250 vehicles by the end of the year.
Some in the transport industry see the rapid success of the Swedish manufacturer as due to a lack of other foreign competition. The price of vehicles made by Russian bus manufacturers makes them more affordable, but the quality lags far behind international standards.
"Scania buses are several times more expensive than the Russian ones, but they break down very seldom, even on Russian roads," says Yuri Gornostayev, director of bus park N 2.
As a comparison, while Scania Omni Line costs 210,000 euros ($270,000) and Omni Link - 165,000 euros ($212,000), "the price of a large-class Liaz bus manufactured by Russian Buses holding may be between $56,000 and $80,000 dollars," Gornostayev said. The variation depends on what engine is installed.
Scania's competitors in Russia are domestic manufacturers: Russian Buses, Mars, Nefas, Volzhanin and Golaz.
"We've got a foothold in Russia since opening a factory in St. Petersburg," Solovyova said. "Other foreign manufacturers have to export their vehicles and that makes their prices higher due to customs tax."
Leonid Meschaninov, a bus driver for a travel agency, agreed that the popularity of Scania with transport firms in the city was based mainly on reliability.
However, "if you do need to change or repair something - the cost will rip the shirt off your back," he said.
TITLE: Zero-Sum Game on the Caspian
TEXT: A possible deployment of American troops to Azerbaijan has been a topic of contention for years, not only between Baku and Moscow, but also between Russia and the United States. Journalists took up the subject again after an unexpected visit by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Baku on April 12. Although the parties have not revealed the content of their discussion, the Azeri and Russian media have claimed that the United States is getting ready to send American troops to Azerbaijan.
The potential deployment of American troops to Azerbaijan is not a new idea. Since September 11, 2001, as a part of the war against terrorism, the U.S. has increased its attention to the region and indicated that it would strengthen its presence in the Caspian Basin.
In particular, the South Caucasus became a geopolitical battlefield for the United States and other regional powers that seek to expand their influence. This resulted in the formation of quasi-alliances between states, such as Armenia-Iran-Russia and Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey. Moreover, the close proximity of Azerbaijan and Georgia to Iran and other parts of the Middle East, as well as ongoing major energy projects in the region, contributed to the increased strategic importance of the South Caucasus to U.S. national security.
When it comes to stationing American troops in the region, Azerbaijan has acted cautiously to avoid offending its northern and southern neighbors. It has tried to downplay reports about U.S. long-term objectives in Azerbaijan and has committed itself to a balanced foreign policy.
Over the past few years, however, analysts, military experts and ordinary citizens have voiced different opinions on the issue of American troops on Azerbaijani soil. Some have been critical of the idea, saying it will jeopardize Azerbaijan's relations with Russia and Iran, while others, mostly in Azerbaijan, have supported it, arguing that this will secure Azerbaijan's strategic and military position in the region and help to strengthen its independent development.
Those who have argued against it - even against the idea of temporary rapid deployment forces - have claimed that an American presence in the South Caucasus will undermine Russia's strategic role in the region and will make its "southern tier" more vulnerable to external threats.
According to this argument, the main "external threat" in this case is the United States itself. Indeed, the root of this argument lies in the all-or-nothing approach that some in Russia still hold with respect to the region, which they often call Russia's "near abroad." It also raises questions about Russia's current strategic role in the South Caucasus. How much influence does Russia have in the region, and how long it is likely to last? Is there any way Russia could preserve its strategic interests in the region with an American military presence? Or is it simply not an option for Russia's advocates of an all-or-nothing view of the situation?
The more hard-line Russia's position becomes, the more difficult it is for Moscow to accept subsequent setbacks. For example, despite Russia's strong opposition to NATO's expansion in the 1990s, NATO completed several successful rounds of enlargement, the last of which included the three former Soviet Republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. While there is no question that NATO's expansion has affected Russia's position in Central and Eastern Europe, it is actually the EU enlargement that has dealt a greater blow to Russia's economic interests in Europe. However, the real question is what would have been different had NATO not expanded? Would Moscow's role and its influence in Central and Eastern Europe be stronger than it is today? Perhaps, but with or without NATO, Russia could not have altered the continuing global trends that even today work against its geopolitical position in the South Caucasus.
The emotional and sometimes unreasonable arguments made by Russia's hardliners undermine the country's real strategic interests in the CIS, especially in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Azerbaijan and Russia have shared a common history for more than 200 years and managed to coexist peacefully since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite periodic tensions during the Yeltsin era, the two states have normalized and improved their relations since President Vladimir Putin came to office in 2000.
Moscow's fear that Azerbaijan would turn its back on Russia, as the Baltic States did in the early 1990s, has proven to be unjustified. There are nearly 2 million ethnic Azeris living in Russia, and Russian is one of the most widely spoken languages in Azerbaijan. In short, Azerbaijan and Russia are neighbors and will have to live side by side no matter what.
American and Russian military bases are already operating in Kyrgyzstan, and American military instructors are present in Georgia and Uzbekistan. The deployment of U.S. rapid forces to Azerbaijan or even the eventual accession of Azerbaijan into NATO should not be viewed as an end to the Azerbaijan-Russian partnership. Baku and Moscow share social, political and economic interests that will continue to develop as long as their national interests are mutually respected.
However, it is important to note that Azerbaijan's balanced and pro-Western orientation is not likely to change.
Thus, Russia would gain more if it re-evaluates its position in the CIS and overcomes its decade old phobia of encirclement. With this mentality, more setbacks and disappointments are unavoidable.
Instead of continuing to play a zero-sum game, it would be better for Russian policy makers to develop a clear-cut strategy in which there is common ground for cooperation, not conflict. Today, Moscow and Washington are far from effective collaboration and if current trends continue, their interests will not coincide anytime in the near future.
Taleh Ziyadov is a graduate fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: A Deputy Prosecutor's Political Schizophrenia
TEXT: Employees of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office must be familiar with split-personality syndrome. What else can people think if they see two letters dealing with the same matter, written within two months of each other and signed by deputy city prosecutor Alexander Korsunov, but with diametrically opposed conclusions.
Copies of the two letters from the City Prosecutor's Office are lying on the desk in front of me as I write. Both are responses to requests by city human-rights advocates for criminal cases to be opened against nationalistic newspapers for allegedly inciting ethnic hatred in the Northwest region and refer specifically to an article printed in both papers titled: "Jewish Joy, Russian Tears."
One letter is about the official warning to the editors of newspapers Za Russkoye Delo and Rus Pravoslavnaya stating that they have printed articles "promoting extremist activity" and reflect "pressure on different groups in society, discriminated by the editor in chief in accordance with different nationalities and religious beliefs," comparing people practicing the Orthodox religion to those of Jewish nationality.
"The nature of this material is intended to incite national hatred and intolerance, as well as denigrate the self-respect of people of Jewish nationality," the deputy prosecutor concludes in the letter signed March 4.
But in a letter dated April 15, Korsunov presents a different point of view, suggesting the papers are the most law-abiding examples of the national media and that all they have done is make a study of the relations between different nationalities.
"The articles contain guidelines on how Jewish people behave toward people of other nationalities, which is an attempt to look into this behavior and how it corresponds to the Criminal Code, to draw readers' attention to differences between various beliefs and their historical influence on the development of political situations in the world," Korsunov wrote.
This sounds really weird to me because a little over a month ago the same Korsunov issued an official warning to the same newspapers over exactly the same article.
After I had read the second letter I had a strong desire to forward both of them to the board of medical examination at some local mental institution.
There is a popular saying that in Russia the left hand does not know what the right hand does, but in this case it seems that the left part of the brain does not know what has the right part has done, which is even worse.
My consternation is not with Korsunov personally, because individuals do not really play a big role in the law enforcement system unless they are in the top ranks.
The contradictions can best be explained by understanding that both letters are the result of the collective thinking of city prosecutors. They have been, reportedly, under heavy pressure from certain political groups in Moscow that favor racist publications. If that were not true, the only place where such papers could be found would be in litterbins.
But the papers are in circulation and, as can be seen from the second letter from the city prosecutor's office, are solidly supported by officials. The St. Petersburg-based human-rights advocates who originally filed complaints to the City Prosecutor's Office with a request that criminal cases be opened against the papers were not even allowed to see the official warnings to the newspapers.
According to a statement from the prosecutor general, "you have no right to read though the official warning issued to the editors of Rus Pravoslavnaya and Za Russkoye Delo because the following documents do not directly affect your rights and freedoms," the letter said.
I have a feeling the prosecutors can barely wait until the tens of thousands of skinheads across the country start to affect the rights and freedoms of every single person in Russia, especially after their ideologists come to power.
TITLE: Rock around the Kremlin
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The ill-famed, much-discussed meeting between Russian rockers and the deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov, seen as the Kremlin's gray cardinal, originated from a conversation he had with Boris Grebenshchikov, the musician revealed to The St. Petersburg Times last week.
Grebenshchikov, who is premiering his band Akvarium's new album with a pair of concerts this week, said that he personally chose the musicians for the meeting that took place in a Moscow hotel early last month.
"I asked everybody I know to come," he said about the meeting to which Leningrad's Sergei Shnurov, Zemfira Ramazanova, Chaif's Vladimir Shakhrin and Vyacheslav Butusov of Nautilus Pompilius fame were present, among others.
Critics of the Kremlin have seen the meeting as an attempt to prevent rock bands from taking part in possible street protests, as happened in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine last year. In Kiev, massive street protests led to a rerunning of presidential elections resulting in the victory of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Young people and rock musicians played an important role in the Ukrainian protests.
But Grebenshchikov claimed the meeting with Surkov was not political, and that the musicians were simply offered the possibility of a state-backed rock venue where stars could meet and exchange ideas about how to improve the cultural situation and help younger bands from the provinces.
Grebenshchikov said he first met Surkov, whom he describes as "clever" and "decent," at an Akvarium concert in Moscow two or three years ago, and the two have occasionally met to "drink some fine wine" and have "non-political" conversations.
"We have spoken about different things that have nothing to do with politics during a period of about one and a half or two years," he said.
"In the end I understood that [Surkov and some other Kremlin officials] are the same kind of people as me, absolutely. With good taste and everything else."
The idea of having a meeting between rockers and the Kremlin administration stemmed from one such conversation, according to Grebenshchikov.
"These are people who are also sick and tired of 'Fabrika Zvyozd' (Star Factory)," a pop talent show whose participants dominate Russian television, said Grebenshchikov about Surkov.
"These are people who grew up listening to Akvarium."
According to Grebenshchikov, the subject under discussion at the now-famous meeting was how to increase rock music's presence in the Russian media, and to establish a "national rock center," the equivalent of the now-defunct Leningrad Rock Club.
"It's like a grand lodge in the freemasons," he said.
"Say we get a thousand songs from every corner of Russia and put them in a bag, somebody listens to them and says, 'twenty of them are worth listening to'.
"Then Shakhrin, Shnurov, Zemfira, me, about ten people gather, when they have time, and say, 'This one is not bad. Let's try to finance the group to come to Moscow and record the song.' And probably do a video."
"Dozens of people write to me, 'Boris Borisovich, help us, please,' but how can I help? I have no connections to the radio, to the television, I am not a welcome guest there much."
Grebenshchikov did not sound very happy with how the meeting went, however, saying that the rockers started asking Surkov for personal material favors, while saying that they would "not be put under the Kremlin's yoke" at the same time.
"The idea was that we can get together and make what we like, but nobody seemed to understand this simple message clearly. Well, probably Shnurov pondered this."
"I especially 'liked' the position of the band BI-2, who first asked how much they would be paid," he said.
However, Grebenshchikov has admitted in press reports that "the administration has its own interest" in meeting with rock musicians.
"Because Surkov has been a professional politician for a very long time, he thinks about very many things simultaneously; I haven't got the courage to define what he thinks about in reality.
"But at the meeting ... I was monitoring which side would say what. Generally, everybody said what I expected, more or less. The rockers were defiant, while Slava [Surkov] tried to explain to them that he didn't want anything from them and wasn't asking them to join any movement. He said it five or six times, but I'm not really sure if they all understood him."
Although the musicians who took part in the meeting, including Shnurov, kept silent about the meeting for several weeks before the news leaked into the press, Grebenshchikov said that they were not asked to keep the discussion secret. Even now, versions of what was discussed differ depending on who talks about it.
"I can explain why," said Grebenshchikov. "Because people who speak about it in the press try to play up their part in it."
Although Grebenshchikov was critical of Russian politics, especially toward the Chechen war policy, both in his songs and past interviews, he now says that the current political system does not need to be overhauled.
"If a new political group comes in four years, it will break what went before and redo everything according to its needs," he said.
"We witnessed it through the 1990s. As a result, more and more thieves get richer, while the country gets poorer and poorer. Any new gang will steal again what the former gang has already robbed for itself."
Grebenshchikov said that real democracy in Russia will only be possible in the distant future.
"All changes are possible when an existing power settles down and without turning totalitarian and without closing itself down like North Korea. There can't be a well-balanced democracy in Russia for 200 or 300 years at least because you can't remake people that fast."
"During the past 15 years people were stripped of their last meat and blood, leaving only bones. And I'd like this situation to change. I have no idea how. I simply know that this constant change of bandits in power affects people's spirits badly. Whoever comes to power, let him stay there for a while until he starts to close the borders and rob people more than usual. I think that if nobody touches [Russian] politics for some dozens of years, people will feel better, gradually."
Asked about the clampdown on the press during President Vladimir Putin's rule, Grebenshchikov said freedom of the press did not prevent the massive economic crimes of the 1990s.
"So I don't need freedom of the press, it will be bought by somebody in any case," he said.
Grebenshchikov, who in the 1980s was a leading figure in Russia's dissident, underground rock scene, added that he does not see that many differences between the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia.
"There's always somebody on top, there's always somebody at the bottom who is dissatisfied about those on top, and it doesn't matter what the political system is called; money is practically in the same hands anyway," he said.
Grebenshchikov said he would be hosting his own weekly radio show on the state-owned Radio Rossii as a result of his conversations with Surkov.
Comparing the program to the BBC's John Peel Show, he said it would concentrate on "the music that I love and that nobody would hear on the radio without me because it's simply not played," mentioning Mary Hopkin, the Incredible String Band, System of a Down and Japanese musician Nobukazu Takemura.
Grebenshchikov has flirted with the authorities before.
In October 2003, Grebenshchikov was seen in the company of Putin-backed Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov during Gryzlov's election campaign. Grebenshchikov was shown drinking tea with Gryzlov on state-controlled television channels ORT and RTR during prime time.
Grebenshchikov, who used to stay away from political campaigning, commented that Gryzlov did not talk to him about the campaign at the time.
The following month, Grebenshchikov was awarded the Order of Merit of the Motherland medal for his "great contribution to development of the art of music." St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, formerly a Soviet cultural official, was booed when she arrived at Grebenshchikov's 50th birthday concert in November 2003 to decorate him with the honor.
His contacts with the people in power notwithstanding, Grebenshchikov denied he has had any relationship with the authorities.
"I have no relationship with the authorities," he said. "And I doubt I will have any because relations with the authorities are possible when you want something from them. But I don't want anything from them."
Akvarium's new album, released earlier this month, is called "Zoom Zoom Zoom" and is described in its news release as "positive."
Akvarium performs at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Music Hall, 4 Alexandrovsky Park, M: Gorkovskaya. Tel, 233 0924. www.aquarium.ru
TITLE: CHERNOV'S CHOICE
TEXT: DJ Tafa who is playing in the city this week and is advertised as a member of the "Panjabi MC Project" has nothing to do with the popular British artist responsible for the massive bhangra hit "Mundian to Bach Ke," said Panjabi MC's British agent.
Posters for a rave event called the Buddha Beat Party, taking place at Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa on Sunday, link headliner DJ Tafa to the "Panjabi MC Project."
However, a Google search produced only a few links for "DJ Tafa" with the "Panjabi MC Project" and all were in Russian. "There is this Panjabi MC Project, under the aegis of this famous Panjabi," said a press officer for the event by phone this week. "They work as a whole group; one performs in one city, and another in the other. They perform music together in a group."
But the London-based representative for Panjabi MC said this is not true.
"There is no such thing as the Panjabi MC Project," wrote Rekha Sagoo of Naked Management, Panjabi MC's agent, in response to an inquiry from The St. Petersburg Times this week.
"We have no shows booked in Russia in the next month or so. I believe this is a fake team going around and I would appreciate it if you could mention this in your newspaper," Sagoo wrote.
The event's press materials say that DJ Tafa is in reality the ambassador of Senegal in Moscow, who combines his diplomatic career with a musical one.
The affair is latest in line of showbiz cons that have hit the city this year. In March, British hip-hop band Phi-Life Cypher was advertised as a live version of Damon Albarn's Gorillaz, while a DJ set by Paul Hartnoll, formerly of Orbital, in February was misrepresented as a reunion of the now-defunct British electronic band.
SKIF9, or the Ninth Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival, the city's largest alternative music event, was even more of a mess than it usually is, with an unsuitable new venue (a partly destroyed Soviet-era cinema) and many scheduled bands failing to perform due to extremely poor organization. To add to the mess, a club stage which had a separate entrance was closed Saturday by the police after a fight. The all-girl folk punk band Iva Nova was a casualty and failed to play a new set of songs prepared specially for the festival. Drummer Katya Fyodorova said the band will now unveil the set at Moloko on May 7. Fyodorova's project, FIGS, a quartet of drummers, was also given no chance to perform at SKIF.
Art-rock collective NOM will premier new songs at the alternative music club Stary Dom on Friday. Andrei Kagadeyev said the band's new album, "Boleye Moshchny" (Stronger), features Alexander Liver, the group's part-time vocalist who lives in France. Kagadeyev said the album will be different from NOM's previous albums because they hired a new producer, Moscow-based electronic musician Alexei Prokhorov.
Meanwhile, Stary Dom closes after Animal Jazz's gig on Saturday to be replaced by a different enterprise to be called Carousel.
- By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: A place in the sun
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As sunshine and warm temperatures have been rare these days, my friend and I decided to escape the cold and unfriendly weather by getting some culinary sunshine at the recently opened Italian restaurant Solntse, or Sun, on Ulitsa Lomonosova.
After we were seated at one of the tables in one corner of the dining hall, the rain and snow outside were soon forgotten. I do not know whether the interior was designed because of the restaurant's name or whether the name was chosen after the style of the dining hall - in any case guests dining at Solntse will have the feeling that the room is bathed in bright sunshine, no matter what ghastly weather St. Petersburg's capricious climate produces.
The walls are painted in pastel yellow, and the seats and tables are covered in white cloths. Long chocolate-brown and white curtains are elegantly draped around the large windows and alongside the walls.
Yet the first clouds were not long in coming.
Solntse boasts a wide selection of wine and we decided to order a glass each. Since the wine card only lists the sorts of wine available without any description of their characteristics, I decided to turn to our young waiter for help. When I asked whether he could recommend some fruity red wine, he told us that they only have dry wines. "That's fine with me," I said. "I would like to have something fruity and not too strong in taste."
He seemed at a loss for an answer and disappeared in the kitchen. "We do not have such wine," he said when he came back.
Could he tell me what Chilean wines they had? Well, they are all ... really good. Really good. Hmm. I decided not to bother our waiter more and went for a glass of Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot (120 rubles, $4.29). My friend decided to take the house wine (90 rubles, $ 3.21), which was also supposed to be "really good."
Generally, the service at Solntse isn't bad if one overlooks the inexperience of its staff. We waited for our drinks to arrive and watched some of the waiters as they carried plates with trembling hands, fixing their eyes on the culinary delicacies and clearly anxious not to drop them. The restaurant seemed overstaffed because some waiters were standing around casually, obviously bored without much to do.
Two glasses of red wine were placed in front of our plates, and I rued my selection - the Merlot proved to be too rich for my taste. My friend was not happy with his choice of house wine either and called it "sour."
As we are both lovers of Italian cuisine, we were pleased to find out that "Solntse" not only offers traditional pasta and pizza but also boasts a wide range of fish and meat dishes as well as a broad selection of Italian starters. Although I go for Caprese, the classical Italian tomato and Mozzarella salad, I finally opted for asparagus with Parmesan in cream sauce (149 rubles, $ 5.32). It was a good choice because the vegetables were fresh and not a bit woody. They were voluptuously complemented by the Parmesan cheese but the dish could have done with less vinaigrette dressing. My friend, who had chosen the avocado and prawn salad in yogurt sauce (136 rubles, $ 4.86), was fully satisfied with it, declaring it a "successful combination."
We both liked the Italian Focaccia bread (30 rubles, $1.07) we had ordered with our starters, which was very crispy with a well-seasoned cheese topping.
After this quite successful first round, we found our appetites whetted and impatiently waited for the soups we had ordered. I had selected a bowl of pumpkin cream soup (120 rubles, $4.29), while my friend settled on cream soup made with salmon and saffron (148 rubles, $5.29). Both soups fell short of our expectations. The pumpkin soup tasted more of butter than anything else and my friend tried in vain to improve the boring cream soup by adding lots of salt and pepper.
Nevertheless we were both quite full after we had finished our soups, and I wondered how to find space for my salmon steak on pasta with seafood (220 rubles, $7.86), served with steamed vegetables (78 rubles, $2.79). The fish had slightly too much fat for my taste and the pasta seemed to drown in the cream sauce. My friend had no reasons for complaint and enjoyed his beef steak (240 rubles, $8.57), garnished with a baked potato (38 rubles, $1.36).
After the meal, I could not immediately make up my mind whether the evening was a success. Perhaps this ambiguity stemmed from the feeling that the restaurant itself has not yet made up its mind as to which category of eatery it would like to be assigned. Its plush interior gives the impression of a high-end restaurant although its prices are surprisingly moderate. Some dishes score top marks, but the soups and my main course could be improved. The staff is friendly and keen to satisfy but has too little training to do so. Solntse, which opened earlier this year, seems to be headed in the right direction. With small improvements, it could find its place in the sun.
TITLE: The real McCoy
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In case the hype passed you by, the recently released "Turkish Gambit," adapted from the Boris Akunin novel of the same name and featuring the enigmatic, stuttering detective Erast Fandorin, went on to become one of the highest grossing films in Russian cinema history.
With its tagline, "The games are over. Now it's the real Fandorin in the real deal," "The State Counselor" is boldly declaring itself to be the real McCoy, and "Turkish Gambit" merely an upstart usurper to the Fandorin throne - a clever piece of marketing, since both films were made by the same studio.
Whereas "Gambit" was an action movie played out on the sweeping panoramas of the battlefield, "The State Counselor" is a court intrigue, set largely in the interior and deriving most of its thrills from effective character interaction rather than explosions. Even so, it is obvious that on all but the most superficial levels "The State Counselor" is a far superior film.
Much of its success is down to a highly talented all-star cast, a "Who's Who?" of Russian stars past and present, including Oleg Menshikov in the lead role of the detective Erast Fandorin.
Housewives' favorite Menshikov is a huge star coasting on his last big successes "East-West" in 1999 and "The Barber of Siberia" in 1998.
"The State Counselor" might just be the ticket. Like Hercule Poirot, his Fandorin is pale, fastidious and immaculately turned out. Like Sherlock Holmes, he seems permanently distracted and sports a healthy gamut of eccentricities, including a mild stutter and an endearing obsession with counting (which is developed into a motif for the film).
Menshikov makes a strong mark early in the film, where, surrounded by bumbling bureaucrats and plodding policemen, he comes across as a streak of lightning, a bundle of pure energy, barely waiting for the director to say "cut" before striding out of the scene. But no sooner has he earned our undivided attention than, in broad daylight and beneath the detective's very nose, the film is stolen out from under him.
The perpetrator of this crime is Nikita Mikhalkov, Russia's one-man cinema industry, who plays Pozharsky, a senior official designated to help Fandorin solve the case.
In a performance of stunning authority, Mikhalkov dominates literally every scene, generating menace and humor in equal measure, often at the same time. From the moment Mikhalkov enters, Menshikov becomes a pale wallflower and, like the rest of the cast, can only stand well clear of Mikhalkov and act around him.
Unkind critics have hinted that Mikhalkov's performance is not so much acting as it is an accurate self-portrait. If this is true, then rarely has an actor been so in touch with his dark side.
The plot of "The State Counselor" has Fandorin on the trail of a terrorist cell led by Grin, played by St. Petersburg actor Konstantin Khabensky. A new star in the cinematic firmament, Khabensky's appearance follows his success in cult fantasy hit "Nochnoi Dozor" (2004). His casting as a terrorist, out to undermine the reliable and cozy world of Menshikov and Mikhalkov, could be a startlingly apt metaphor for the Russian cinema industry if his stock continues to rise.
As satisfying as "The State Counselor" is, at times you can't help thinking that it might be better suited to the small screen. (The film is backed by state television channel ORT and will reportedly be broadcast in expanded espisodes after its cinema run.)
Indeed, no big-screen film would use its hero so sparingly. Fandorin has less and less impact on events as the story progresses, eventually becoming a virtual bystander to the main events. In an extraordinary choice by the filmmakers, in the climactic scene of the movie, which doesn't disappoint, the detective is literally nowhere to be seen.
But the major criticism is reserved for the woefully ill-judged closing sequence, where a blaring rock song, seemingly obligatory in Russian films these days, destroys the bittersweet final moments of the film.
If you leave before the song starts, you'll be left with the memory of one of the most entertaining Russian films in years. If this Fandorin returns for future installments, it remains to be seen whether he can hold up a movie by himself, but on the strength of this outing my money is on Menshikov.
TITLE: Fatal attraction
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: There are more than 300 museums in St. Petersburg, but few are as fascinating, bizarre and downright grisly as the Museum of Forensic Medicine. Located on the outskirts of the city, here you will encounter mummified corpses, anatomical displays and models describing fatal accidents and murders.
The museum at the State Medical Mechnikov Academy is not for the squeamish. Visitors are given an intensive lesson on the history of forensic medicine and the chance to explore one of the last taboos - death and the transitory nature of human existence.
The museum has always been an inseparable part of the department of forensic medicine, founded in 1916.
"As it is impossible to teach forensic medicine without visual exhibits, the department has constantly collected preparations for educational purposes," Professor Yevgeny Mishin, the department's chairman, said. "When our department moved to the 26th pavilion in 1971, we had more space at our disposal and began to exhibit these items."
The then head of the department, Professor Dementyeva, was one of the promoters of the development of the museum. Books for the library were gathered, print and photographic materials collected and specific exhibits were developed under her supervision.
"Dementyeva had the idea of building little boxes with models depicting victims of accidents or murder. While I was in charge of the interior, Dementyeva made the models of wax," Mishin said.
"Though these models were primarily for educational purposes, they were also displayed at an exhibition in Berlin."
In 2001, the museum participated in the "Modern Art in a Traditional Museum" annual event organized by the Pro Arte Institute in which some of St. Petersburg's venerable museums host newly minted art displays.
The project "Approaching," an installation by the Russian "necro-realists" Vladimir Kustov and Yevgeny Yufit, together with the museum, won first prize in a competition for the best among the year's displays.
"It was amazing how many people visited our place during the festival," Mishin said. "After this event, Kustov and I decided to establish a thanatology center within the museum, which would be accessible to a broad public."
The thanatology center is the first of its kind in Russia and - according to Mishin - the world devoted to the study of death as a science. Its main goal is to establish a thanatological database to unite scientists, historians, musicians, artists and all those working with the theme of death and to make visitors aware of the transitory nature of human lives.
"Death is usually conceived of as something bad and evil, and people do not want to think about it. But only if you understand death can you evaluate the value of life. To make people understand this is one of the tasks of our center," Mishin said. "We move forward, closer and closer towards death. When we are young, we tend to dismiss any thoughts about death, but with each minute gone, with each hour gone, our lives get shorter and shorter."
The center includes a vast historical section, numerous documents, films, music and a library. But the museum takes particular pride in its collection of works of modern art.
"In contrast to other scientific forensic museums, we present modern art devoted to this topic. Since 2001, we have had eight exhibitions and installations. Most works are by Kustov," Mishin said.
Visitors are also welcome at times when the center does is not running an exhibition. Although Mishin and his colleagues often sacrifice their spare time to hold guided tours - there are no employees specifically in charge of the museum - they show great enthusiasm to initiate interested laypersons in the secrets of forensic medicine.
"Our profession is extremely fascinating. Sometimes it feels like being a detective who is trying to decipher all the signs a corpse makes," Mishin said. "Of course, there are dark sides to this job as well. After so many years it is still hard for me to examine the corpses of children and young people."
More positively, forensic medicine contributes to the solving of crimes.
"Corpses do not lie - it is the examiner who might misread one of the signs," Mishin explained.
"One recent example is the case of an elderly woman who has been accused of suffocating her son. She has been in prison for four years now. But the last examination of the corpse showed that her son's death was caused by an accident. He hit his head on the floor and died. We hope that after the result of this examination she will be set free."
The museum can only exhibit corpses that are officially given to the museum and are either unidentified or not requested by relatives.
"Once, a young mother gave birth to a stillborn baby. The baby was terribly disfigured. When the young woman saw the child, she suffered a shock and did not want to look at it anymore. We preserved the corpse and put it on display in the museum," Mishin said.
Since the space of the museum is limited, not all exhibits can be shown to the visitors and it is impossible to run permanent exhibitions. Another problem is funding.
"We do not get funds, but it is great to see how many people support our museum by contributing books and documents. Sometimes, relatives of past professors and scientists also give us whole archives. And we have an agreement with artists exhibiting at our center to leave one exhibit with the museum," Mishin said. "I am convinced that over the years our center will grow into a valuable place for keeping these items for our descendants."
The Museum of Forensic Medicine,
47 Piskarevsky Prospekt, State Medical Mechnikov Academy (Pavilion 26). Tel: (812) 543 15 20. E-mail: defm@mail.ru. The museum is open daily (except for Saturdays and Sundays).
Visits by appointmnet only.
To get to the museum, take minivan-taxi No. 51 from Ploshchad Vosstaniya.
TITLE: A right royal bike ride
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Six British aristocrats are in Russia to take an unprecedented motorbike ride across the country from the Far East to its western borders. Participants in the White Nights Ride, which is to leave from Vladivostok on Monday and finish in St. Petersburg on June 12, will cover over 6,000 miles during their journey on brand-new BMW motorbikes.
The rally may seem like an entertaining, if extreme, jaunt (and indeed it is), but its main goal is to raise money for two charities: the Charities Aid Foundation Russia and the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign.
Charities Aid Foundation Russia is the largest British charity operating in the country and currently spends about $8 million annually on social projects.
The brains behind the White Nights Ride is Lord Nicolas Fairfax of Cameron, who has traveled in Russia for more than 20 years in his capacity as a lawyer specializing in marine insurance. Lord Fairfax wanted to combine his knowledge of Russia and love of motorcycling to raise money for the British charities that aid Russian causes.
His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, a member of the British royal family whose charitable works in Russia have made him a familiar face and regular visitor in St. Petersburg, was invited to be the patron of the venture and is also hoping to ride with the group on parts of its transcontinental trek.
Participants in the ambitious ride from Russia's Pacific coast through Siberia to the banks of Neva River include Prince Nicholas von Preussen, artist Lady Rose Cecil, investment banker Tim von Halle and businessman Viktor Emery.
The journey is a challenge in many different ways. Nobody has yet attempted to ride motorbikes on the planned route, which takes in Khabarovsk, Chita, Ulan Ude, Irkutsk, Angarsk, Sheliykov, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Perm, possibly Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Vladimir, Moscow, Tver and Velikiy Novgorod before blazing into St. Petersburg in early June.
Few stops on the route will provide the luxury accommodation one might expect lords and ladies to demand and the group will be traveling with tents and sleeping bags. Between Khabarovsk and Chita there isn't even a reliably paved road.
Olga Alexeyeva, director of CAF in Russia, is hoping to change the way charity is perceived by Russians after more people get to know about the active, fun-loving attitude the British have toward raising money to give away.
"Everybody here thinks that charity is when a mournful-looking man with a pale face hands a piece of bread to a starving homeless child, tears dropping," she said. "It doesn't have to be like that, and it really becomes what you make it. The rally shows that it is totally possible to have a lot of fun while helping others."
The rally's organizers are expecting to raise about $1 million, and about $850,000 has already been collected. The money will be spent on a number of charitable health-related, social and cultural projects encountered in places along the route.
Roza Khatskelevich, director of the St. Petersburg Non-Governmental Organizations Development Center, the rally's regional partner, said that, sadly, donors haven't yet been very generous locally and so very limited funds are available for the city's humanitarian initiatives. But there is a great number of options to choose from, and donations don't have to be huge.
The Alexander Bershadsky Music School only needs a new piano. Another struggling arts organization in St. Petersburg is the "Upsala" children's circus.
"When I first came across this circus several years ago, it was a cute group of amateur enthusiasts, basically some children doing very basic exercises," Khatskelevich said. "Now, they have developed into bright professional artists."
Donors and sponsors can also help a particular medical patient or disabled person who needs expensive treatment or an operation, Khatskelevich said.
"And, very importantly, the money can be given directly to the recipients, hand in hand," she added.
Not a penny from the money raised will be spent on expenses incurred by the journey. The British aristocrats are meeting the costs of the journey themselves apart from the bikes which have been donated by the rally's sponsor BMW, and the airfare from Moscow to Vladivostok which was donated courtesy of Aeroflot.
For more information, visit: www.cafrussia.ru, and www.ndc.org.ru. For regular updates about the riders check out the White Nights Ride English-language site at www.whitenightsride.org.uk
TITLE: Denmark's toy town
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: COPENHAGEN, Denmark - My Danish friends had told me that the famed statue of the Little Mermaid, a symbol of Copenhagen, would probably not impress me as much as I might have expected.
"Most people think it's a big sculpture, but it's unexpectedly small," they said carefully.
However, when I visited it I discovered that in this case at least, size doesn't matter.
The sophisticated figure of the Mermaid - the heroine of a poetic but gruesome fairytale by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen - who was thoughtfully gazing at the water in the last beams of a sunset, completely justified the romantic expectations of the public.
People stood in a line to take a picture in front of the statue and climbed on the big stones to reach her.
The sculpture of the Mermaid was created by sculptor Edvard Eriksen in 1913.
The Mermaid is just one of the highlights of this romantic city, which, with its clean streets, multi-hued historic buildings, and flood of bikers, produces the impression of a toy town.
Bikes in Copenhagen seem to be an inseparable part of life. People ride bikes to work, to restaurants, and when they shop for groceries. Their children also go with them, sitting on the back seat of a parent's bicycle, in a brand-new carriage attached to the front of a bike, or even riding their own smaller bikes. Shopping sticks out of baskets fixed to the handlebars.
Meeting the needs of its citizens, Copenhagen streets accommodate bikers with dedicated lanes, places to park, and rights of way.
Many say Copenhageners switched to bikes because most of the city center is a pedestrian zone, making cars inconvenient. Others say it could be because cars are extremely expensive to buy in Denmark and the taxes are prohibitive.
Whatever the reason, bikes obviously contribute to the cleanliness of Copenhagen's air.
AUSSIE PRINCESS
In 1167 the warrior-bishop Absalon fortified the place by building a castle and the city considers this as the date of its foundation and Absalon its founder. A monument to Absalon stands in the center of the city next to Copenhagen's main shopping street, Stroget.
The name of the city - Kobenhavn in Danish - means "market port."
One of the old sights of Copenhagen is Kastellet (The Citadel), which was raised by King Christian IV in 1616 and still stands as a fortress very close to the location of the Little Mermaid. The place is lovely and has an incredibly quiet atmosphere.
The Danish royal family has lived in the palace of Amalienborg in Copenhagen since 1794 - at least for the most of the year.
The palace is located on an eight-sided square with other nobles' palaces lining it and a round church crowned with a dome called the Marble Church (or Frederiks Church) as the centerpiece.
Today's royal family headed by Queen Margarethe II and Prince Consort Henrik attracts lots of positive attention. When their elder son Crown Prince Frederik married Australian-born Mary Donaldson it made headlines around the world.
Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik, heirs to the throne, are expecting their first child by the end of October.
Reuters news agency reported a statement from Amalienborg Palace that said the royal couple, who got married last May, were "happy to announce" that they were expecting a child "by the end of October this year."
The princess was a real estate agent from Tasmania until a fairytale romance with Frederik that began when they met in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympics.
Now she is in line to become the first Australian-born woman to be a queen, a prospect which has whipped up royal fervor in her homeland where republican sentiment is usually strong.
WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL
In Copenhagen it is definitely worth taking a boat tour along the city's canals and along the waterfront. That's where one can see the major sights of Copenhagen, such as the multicolored houses in New Harbor, the new Modern Opera House, the Mermaid, and the new, impressive and huge public library made in the shape of a black diamond.
An excursion on foot along Langelinie (the Longline) is also recommended. The walk begins on Esplanden, just beyond Frihedsmuseet (the Liberty Museum) beside Anders Bundgaards' impressive Gefion Fountain. A little further one comes to the Langelinie Pavilion where there is an excellent restaurant, and on the top floor resides the Royal Danish Yacht Club.
Copenhagen's City Hall, which stands like a proud castle in the very center of the city, is also worth attention, not only from outside but also for its fine interior architecture. The building's largest room or main hall is used as a polling station at elections and also hosts large official occasions.
Stroget, the longest pedestrianized street in Europe, starts at City Hall Square. Aside from its wonderful architecture, Stroget is a fine place for shopping, and one can find anything in the big department stores such as Magasin, Illum, Daells and Illums Bolighus, and in other smaller shops.
However, Copenhagen people say the prices at Stroget are higher than in other stores located further from the center, although H&M clothing stores offer their usual good quality and acceptable prices even in the center.
Close to Stroget there is Rundetaarn - the Round Tower - which was built in 1637 to unite the three most important facilities of an astronomical observatory, a students' church and the university library. The tower's spiral walkway is said to be unique in European architecture. The 209 meter-long spiral winds seven and a half times around the tower's hollow core.
Denmark is governed from Christiansborg Palace, where the offices of the Queen and the government, the Parliament and Supreme Court are located.
Copenhagen, of course, is famous for its association with Andersen, author of eternal tales such as "The Little Mermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling.
Although Andersen's grave is in Copenhagen, his museum is located in the town of Odense where the writer was born to the family of a poor cobbler 200 years ago.
This year Denmark has mounted a series of events commemorating the anniversary of the author's birth.
For more information see www.woco.dk
TITLE: World's Largest Airliner Flies
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BLAGNAC, France - Cheered by tens of thousands of onlookers, the world's largest jetliner touched down Wednesday with puffs of smoke from its 22 outsize wheels, ending the historic maiden flight for a plane that Airbus hopes will carry it to market dominance.
The A380's four-hour flight removed any doubt that the behemoth capable of carrying as many as 840 passengers is airworthy. But it did little to convince skeptics like U.S. rival Boeing Co. that the plane will prove profitable.
About 30,000 people watched the takeoff and landing, police said, many from just outside the airport perimeter, where whole families spent the night awaiting European aviation's biggest spectacle since the supersonic Concorde's first flight in 1969.
Applause reverberated across the airfield and adjacent Airbus headquarters in this town outside the southwestern city of Toulouse as test pilots Claude Lelaie and Jacques Rosay emerged from the big white plane.
Flying the plane was as easy as "riding a bicycle," Rosay said. Engineer Fernando Alonso said the crew enjoyed an "extremely comfortable" flight.
But the hats stayed on in Seattle, home to a sizable part of Boeing's operations. Boeing spokesman Jim Condelles said,"We just don't see a market for 1,250 of these airplanes over the next 20 years."
Condelles was referring to Airbus' global market forecast for very large jets. If Airbus is right, it could enjoy a near-monopoly in that market while Boeing scrambles to produce a competitor.
There are fears that Airbus sales could suffer from decisions by big airports not to strengthen runways and put in the bigger boarding gates needed to handle the A380. But others are preparing for the huge plane, and Werner said he expected holdouts to follow suit when airlines begin flying the superjumbo in mid-2006.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Crash Driver Found
TOKYO (AFP) - Rescuers crawling through the last pieces of a massive train wreck in Japan found the body of the young driver accused of negligence over the crash that claimed more than 100 lives.