SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1068 (34), Tuesday, May 10, 2005
**************************************************************************


TITLE: WWII Allies, Foes Pay Tributes to Dead
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - World leaders whose countries faced off on the battlefields of World War II paid tribute Monday to the fallen soldiers and millions of civilian dead, joining Russian President Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. 
 
Fighter jets screamed high over the square, streaming smoke in the white, blue and red colors of Russia's flag. Soldiers belted out patriotic wartime songs, and Putin emphasized the Soviet Union's sacrifice in a speech during a pageant that recalled the days of communist might. 
 Flanked by President Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Putin said his country would never forget the debt owed to the millions of Soviet citizens who died to defeat Nazism. 
 He called the Allied triumph over the Nazis a "victory of good over evil." 
 "It obligates us to great responsibility and forces us to deeply recognize on what a ... precipice the world stood at that time, what monstrous consequences violence and moral intolerance, genocide and persecution of others could lead to," he said, speaking from a stage that blocked direct views of Lenin's Mausoleum. 
 The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people during the conflict known here as the Great Patriotic War. Few families were untouched, and May 9, 1945, celebrated in Russia as Victory Day, remains sacred across most of the former Soviet Union. 
 Events in St. Petersburg included military parades on Palace Square and Nevsky Prospekt, concerts and a firework display over the River Neva.
 Bush and Putin put aside their public sniping of recent days over postwar Soviet domination and present-day democratic backsliding in Russia. 
 Continuing the chummy exchanges that marked their discussions and dinner the evening before, the two smiled broadly when Bush arrived for the parade. 
 Putin reserved the seat next to him for Bush - whom he called his guest of "special importance" above all others. Later, Bush remained glued to the Russian leader's side as they strolled, red carnations in hand, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 
 While Russians have often complained that the Soviet role is not fully appreciated in the West, Putin said that "we have never divided the victory between ours and theirs, and we will always remember the help of the allies." 
 Under overcast skies, white-haired veterans bedecked in gleaming medals, some waving red carnations, rode across the cobblestone square in green trucks as the audience cheered. 
 The ceremony, full of Soviet imagery, began with four goose-stepping soldiers dressed in ceremonial green and gold embroidered uniforms carrying a red flag with a hammer and sickle - a replica of the banner of the Red Army's 150th Rifle Division, which was flown from the Reichstag on May 1, 1945, after the building in Berlin was seized. 
 The word "victory" was emblazoned on the Kremlin wall in several languages, including those of the vanquished. 
 Soldiers in modern and World War II-era uniforms - infantrymen with metal helmets and red flags topped by Soviet insignia, sappers with dogs, tank men with black padded helmets - marched in tight formation, the slap of their boots echoing across the cobblestones. 
 Putin thanked the Soviet Union's allies for their role and called for unity among the former Soviet republics - and the world. 
 "I'm convinced that there's no alternative to our fraternity, our friendship with our close neighbors. And Russia is prepared to build such ties with the rest of the world, that are strengthened not only by lessons of the past, but also by aspirations to our common future," he said. 
 Putin also drew a parallel between the war and the present-day threat of terrorism, saying today's generation is "obligated to remain true to the memory of our fathers, obligated to build a world order based on security and justice ... and not to allow a repeat of either cold or hot wars." 
 He celebrated the postwar reconciliation between Russia and Germany. And amid mutual accusations between Russia and the West of meddling in former Soviet republics, he said Russia stands for the right of all nations to choose their own way in the world. 
 "We build our policies on the ideals of freedom and democracy, on the right of every state to independently choose its own path of development," Putin said. 
 He and the other leaders laid red carnations and a huge carpet of red roses at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin Wall to honor soldiers who perished in World War II. They stood silently before the eternal flame burning at the tomb. 
 In a speech before raising a toast to veterans at a Kremlin reception, Putin called World War II "the most tragic event of the last century," the Itar-Tass news agency reported. It was perhaps an effort to quash questions raised in the West last month by his calling the demise of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." 
 Despite the show of unity, the celebrations have also sparked controversy, and thrown a spotlight on the precarious international position of Putin, who faces U.S. criticism on his democratic record and is struggling amid growing Western influence in the former Soviet republics. 
 The celebrations also have raised the ire of Eastern European nations who see World War II's end as the beginning of their domination by Moscow. 
 Tight security measures on Monday closed the heart of the Russian capital to ordinary citizens and anti-aircraft batteries were on alert to protect the Russian capital's airspace. Moscow's security has been a matter of utmost concern amid a rash of attacks by Chechen terrorists over the past three years.
 The leaders of two Baltic nations, Estonia and Lithuania, were staying away, angered by Putin's portrayal of the Soviet Union as a liberator. 
 Ordinary Russians were urged to gather in their homes, parks and public squares to mark the holiday. Even as they were subjecting passers-by to especially stringent document checks, Moscow's normally tough police had special instructions to go light on drunks and treat even juvenile delinquents - known here as hooligans - with a smile. 
 But there were tears, as well. Veterans desperate to join the parade were turned down by security guards manning metal detectors around Red Square. 
 "I was badly wounded in battle, fighting for the Soviet motherland. Don't I deserve the right to be here?" said Pyotr Komarov, 79, who had served in an infantry unit during the war and who traveled from Ukraine to attend Monday's celebration. 
 "I didn't need an invitation to go to the front."

TITLE: Veterans
 In Tallinn Divided
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: TALLINN - Sixty years after May 1945 when Baltic states soldiers fought on either the battling German or Soviet sides, it is as though they are still fighting in the trenches.
 
One side is calling for reconciliation. The other shows no sign of being ready to let the quarrel pass. 
 Olev Soho, 83, joined the German army in 1941 shortly after Soviet troops fled Estonia in the face of the advancing German troops. 
 He believed then he was doing the right thing because in the about a year since the Soviets had taken control of his tiny country it had been ruined, he said.
 "I was serving in a radio transmission unit, providing radio communications," he said Sunday. "Then I got captured in Czechoslovakia in 1945. The Russians treated us all right in captivity, but the Czechs were really evil." 
 He was sitting on a bench among a group of about 500 Estonian veterans who fought against the Soviet Union during the war. On Sunday they recalled their friends who did not came back from the battles.
 "I was sent back home. What did I do? Well ... There was a lot of work to do here, so I have worked all these years since then," Soho said. "The Germans and Russians were very different. Germans did not arrest anyone. They just came here. When the Russians came, they have started arresting everybody, destroying everything around," he said. 
 In 1939, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Estonian population was 1,130,000. By the end of 1945, the population had fallen to 900,000, or about 20 percent fewer than before the war.
 In addition to which, several traditional Estonian minorities, including Germans, Swedes and Jews had either left or had been almost totally destroyed. 
 About 80,000 Estonians from the pre-war population escaped or emigrated and did not return to Estonia, including about 7,000 ethnic Swedes. In addition to this, about 20,000, so-called Baltic Germans, settled in Germany. 
 In 1941, the Soviet regime deported 400 Jews to Siberia, which was 10 percent of the Jewish community in Estonia. From 1941 to 1944 Nazi Germany continued the dirty job started by the Soviets, killing 1,000 Jews living in Estonia and who had not been able to escape. The Nazi regime also killed citizens of other countries in their concentration camps in Estonia, primarily Jews. 
 Critics of ethnic Balts say that they played a large role in the extermination of Jews. The Nazi hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center has recently criticized the Baltic states for being less than helpful as it makes a final push to catch the surviving war criminals.
 From 1940 to 1945 at the least 70,000 Estonians, up to 7 percent of pre-war population, died as victims of the Soviet and German occupations. 
 Largely as a result of World War II, the population of ethnic Estonians has still not reached its pre-war levels. 
 Taivo Kalis, now 65, was still a child as the Germans spent their last days in Tallinn, but memories, which reflect something of his childish naivety, have stuck in his mind.
 "The Germans were guarding a bridge here," Kalis said as he sat on the same bench as Soho. "They had really bad food supply in the end and were always hungry. I remember they kept coming to our house asking to exchange some tools for eggs, bread or milk. The tools were very good, I must say, very useful in the house." 
 "The Soviets were not like that. There were well fed and had American food supplies with them all the time. This American stuff, ham especially, looked quite tasty. I also wanted to try, but they didn't give it to me," Kalis said laughing." 
 "And when they needed something they did not try to set up a swap, like the Germans did; they just came and took it," he said. 
 Estonian politicians, including former president Lennart Meri, gathered at a memorial complex Sunday and laid wreaths in memory of Estonian soldiers who died in the war.
 Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Estonia and Russia must overcome the divisions between them. He called for reconciliation, which the Baltic States have been urging for a while without a positive response from the Kremlin.
 "For the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the end of the last war was not liberation, but marked a period of the start for another occupation. One occupation was replaced by another," Ansip said in an interview after the ceremony Sunday."
 Meri said any war has two finishing points. The first is when the fighting stops, but it is finally finished only when the sides are reconciled. 
 "I think it was the main message of Meri when he was laying flowers today," Ansip said. "In our culture if somebody feels guilty and he says sorry, we say, 'all right.' All of us would answer this. It is not difficult to say 'sorry.'" 
 But for Russian veterans who gathered Monday outside the central library in Tallinn reconciliation was not a word they were willing to consider. It agitated them.
 "After breaking the Siege of Leningrad we were sent to Narva to liberate Estonia, but could not move forward," said Alexander Zhuyev, 92. "We were sent back here after we liberated Vyborg on July 22, 1944, and moved from Tartu to liberate Tallinn," 
 He and a friend were drinking vodka among about 1,000 other Soviet veterans. 
 Zhuyev has lived in Tallinn since 1952 and said he felt comfortable in Estonia until 1992, when the government of Estonia changed and took a harsh stance toward former Soviet troops. 
 "There won't be any reconciliation. They call us as occupiers, but we are not," Zhuyev said. "We are liberators and those who gathered yesterday at the Maarjamae complex are members of the 20nd Nazi division and the forest brothers who were killing Russian people. There won't be any reconciliation with them ever. As for us, it is cold, but we will survive this winter." 
 The forest brothers were Baltic partisans who carried on the struggle against the Soviets after May 1945.
 Karsten Bruggemann, a German who teaches history in Narva an Estonian border town,where 90 percent of the population speaks Russian, said it will take a long time for people in Estonia to acknowledge all sides of their history. 
 Nevertheless it is already young people already prefer to see a balanced picture of the events of the past.
 "I conducted an experiment the other day," Bruggemann said Sunday in an interview. "I gave my students a news story about the war printed in a local Russian-language newspaper with a point of view typical for Russia and asked them to write their own story explaining if this article is one-sided or not. 
 "Almost all of them said they would like history to be presented in a balanced way and only one in 20 said it should look the way the Soviet Union presents it," he said.
 "I have hope that if in Russia, views of the past change, they will also change in Estonia," he said. "All the historians here understand what has happened at that time, but not all of them would say this out loud because they are afraid of being called traitors. 
 "But in Russia there is another extreme. When I read Russian newspapers and watch Russian TV talking about the war, it just gets out of hand," he said.

TITLE: Talisman or Skills Kept Local Ace Flying
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Ukrainian navy pilot Alexei Mazurenko was walking along the streets of besieged Leningrad when he saw an old woman begging. 
 
The woman reminded the officer of his mother who was in German-occupied Ukraine. Mazurenko gave her his officer's entire ration of food.
 The woman burst into tears and wanting to thank the pilot gave him a mascot - a little clay god - saying that the talisman had kept her father and brother alive during World War I and keep Mazurenko safe in any battle.
 "You will be able to fight as hard as you can, but no bullet will ever kill you," the woman said.
 Whether it was the mascot or simply Mazurenko's excellent skills, he fought many battles in the sky but was never even wounded.
 He became a Soviet air ace, and was twice awarded the highest Soviet military title, Hero of the Soviet Union. His biography was put in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and stories about him have appeared in numerous books.
 "The woman's words were prophetic," said Anna Krotova, Mazurenko's great-granddaughter. 
 "My great grandfather never had any mercy on himself or his airplane in terrible air battles. He managed to land the plane when it was riddled with bullets, and once even had to catapult out, but he came away from all those fights unharmed." 
 Mazurenko's descendants remember him as a very modest man, who rarely spoke of his heroic past. He died in 2004. 
 He had been eager to fly in the 1930s and said he was two years older than he really was so that he would be admitted into the air force. 
 "Only once, when we were celebrating his birthday in 1997, did he suddenly began to talk about all the difficult times he had been through," Krotova said. "We hurried to switch on the video camera and record his words." 
 Mazurenko's war started on June 22, 1941, when Hitler's armies attacked the Soviet Union. That day the squadron he served in took off to bomb enemy ships and troops near a German navy base.
 The Germans were so surprised by the attack that they didn't fight back and all Soviet airplanes successfully fulfilled their mission and came back home safely, he said.
 Early in the war Mazurenko flew ground-attack bombers targeting columns of tanks and navy transports carrying weapons and troops. It wasn't easy because Soviet bombers lacked fighters to escort them. 
 "Fascist Messerschmitts swiftly dropped from behind the clouds, pursued bombers that could not outmaneuver them, attacked them and often shot them down," Mazurenko said on the videotape.
 Later when Mazurenko had shifted into flying low-level attacks in an Ilyushin-2 Sturmovik that he almost lost his life. 
 During an attack on tanks anti-aircraft shells damaged Mazurenko's aircraft, and it began to dive to one side. Mazurenko gripped the steering wheel with his hands and knees so that the plane would not crash. He managed to stay aloft for 20 minutes, just enough time for him to reach his airfield.
 Pilots of attack aircrafts provided invaluable help to the submarines of the Baltic Fleet, which the German navy would not let into the Baltic from besieged Leningrad. When Soviet surface-attack aircraft appeared in the sky, enemy ships had to hurriedly leave their positions and submarines would have their way free.
 During 315 military missions flown, Mazurenko destroyed 11 ships, 10 tanks, 115 automobiles, 18 armored cars, 10 guns, and hundreds of enemy soldiers.
 For his prowess, Mazurenko was awarded with his first Hero of the Soviet Union title on Oct. 23, 1942, and the second in November 1944.
 Mazurenko remembered several cases of Soviet pilots sacrificing their lives.
 Once when Mazurenko's squadron went to bomb an enemy ship convoy in the Gulf of Finland, the enemy's anti-aircraft fire hit a plane flown by Soviet Major Kashtankin. The plane caught fire and it was clear he would not make it back to the airfield. Kashtankin aimed the burning plane at one of the ships and crashed into it.
 Mazurenko's last bombing raid was on May 8, 1945, when two enemy transport ships were destroyed.
 Krotova said Mazurenko believed that the mascot the old woman had given to him saved his life many times. 
 Once Mazurenko swapped aircraft with another pilot. It turned out that this happened on the day when the Germans had organized a hunt for Mazurenko's plane because they were deeply irritated by his successes. Mazurenko's plane was shot down, but he wasn't in it.
 Mazurenko, who fought and later lived in Leningrad, which has since been renamed St. Petersburg was born to a Ukrainian family in 1919. His mother Milanya was from a family of rich peasants, whom the Bolsheviks condemned as kulaks, took their possessions and exiled to Siberia.
 After the war Mazurenko taught at Pushkin Navy College. When he retired from his military career he worked as a director of the Ararat plant, and later as a head of Dzerzhinsky Culture House. In 1997 he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of St. Petersburg.

TITLE: Award for Pole Criticized
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Monday criticized the honors bestowed on the former Polish head of state Wojciech Jaruzelski during celebrations in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. 
 
Jaruzelski was among six former heads of state who received a medal of honor from President Vladimir Putin, CTK news agency reported. 
 "Jaruzelski is - despite his merit in defeating Nazism - a different symbol for our citizens," Klaus said in a statement. 
 "As Poland's Defense minister he was a symbol of the [Soviet-led] invasion into Czechoslovakia which included the Polish army," Klaus said in reference to military action against the liberal reforms of Alexander Dubcek known as the "Prague Spring" in 1968. 
 Klaus also mentioned Jaruzelski's role as Poland's Communist Party general secretary in crushing the Polish human rights movement known as Solidarity led by Lech Walesa. 


TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Monument to Tiddlers
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A monument to kolushka fish, or tittlebat, opened in Kronshtadt on Sunday, after a joint decision by World War II veterans and authorities, Interfax reported. 
 Called "The Blockade Tittlebat," the memorial pays tribute to the small fish that saved hundreds of local people from starvation during the Siege of Leningrad.
 "These tiddlers, which a decent fisherman wouldn't even bother taking for their pets, played an important role in the history of Kronshtadt," a local administration spokesman told Interfax. 
 "Tittlebat were the only means of survival during the hardest days of the [1941-1944] siege when the food supply had gone."
 The monument was installed by the Blue Bridge over Kronshtadt's Obvodny canal.
 
 
<b>Warning on Park Visits 
 </b>

PETROZAVODSK (SPT) - Local authorities have issued a warning advising people against visiting parks in Petrozavodsk because of a high risk of tick attacks, Interfax reported.
 All city parks and green areas, especially in the center of town, are being treated with chemicals this week in an effort to protect people from bites. Ticks are typically active from spring until early autumn, and the first attacks have just been registered in Karelia. 
 Last week, about 30 locals have already suffered from ticks' bites and asked for medical assistance. All of them were bitten in the parks. No cases of tick-borne encephalitis have been registered yet.
 
 
<b>Center for Veterans
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A daytime center for World War II veterans will open Tuesday on Vasilyevsky Island, Interfax reported.
 Alexander Isayev, head of Vasileostrovsky district, was quoted by the agency as saying that the center can accommodate up to 24 people daily. 
 Veterans will be getting 21-day packages that entitles them to have breakfast and lunch at the center as well as attend a cultural program, including excursions around the city and its suburbs. All services will be provided free of charge.
 Private sponsors from Germany installed a modern kitchen, washing machines, musical center and TV in the center, Isayev added.
 Vasileostrovsky district boasts more than 18,500 war veterans.
 
 
<b>Fireworks Finale
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A colourful pyrotechnic show called "The Symphony of Courage" over the River Neva was to crown the Victory Day festivities on Monday, Interfax reported. 
 Set to a selection of classical tunes, including Dmitry Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, the show covered the waterways between the Hermitage and Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island with fireworks, sumptuous sets and animated pictures projected on the water. 
 The music, provided by local Radio Klassika, was to be broadcast in central St. Petersburg. 
 The show was prepared by local specialists from the "Pyrotechnical Courtyards of Peterhof."
 
 
<b>Ghost Town Created
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The atmosphere of a ghost town was created in the forts of Kronshtadt for a new mystical film "Ugly Swans," Interfax reported.
 "Ugly Swans" is a Russian-French co-production, loosely based on a science fiction novel of the same name by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. 
 "The film requires a setting with a mystical and enigmatic flair," the agency is quoting Mila Kudryashova, the project's spokeswoman, as saying.
 The film is about an ethereal town and its boarding school for talented children, where the teachers are whimsical creatures resembling extraterrestrials rather than humans. The town survives horrendous unexplainable floods, and the phenomenon is studied by countless experts, special agents and the security services.
 Shooting begins Saturday with "Ugly Swans" scheduled to premiere in spring of 2006 at a major international film festival.

TITLE: Bush Puts Differences Aside on Victory Day
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - It was awkward theater for U.S. President George W. Bush, given a seat of honor Monday in a reviewing stand next to Lenin's tomb to watch goose-stepping soldiers and flags adorned with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle that recalled days of communist might. 
 
Russia's 60th anniversary celebration of its World War II victory with other Allied forces over Nazi Germany offered only a one-sided, rosy picture of the U.S.S.R.'s war legacy, and has been accompanied by increased nostalgia for the Soviet Union's wartime tyrant, Josef Stalin. 
 That poses some difficulty for a U.S. president who has made democracy's spread the singular foreign-policy cause of his second term. Nonetheless, as President Vladimir Putin's grand World War II victory party went forward, Bush allowed him his day in the global spotlight. The two put aside their public sniping of recent days over postwar Soviet domination and present-day democratic backsliding in Russia. 
 White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Bush was totally comfortable amid the trappings of communist power. It demonstrates &quot;how far we've come in the world,&quot; Bartlett said. Ten years ago, then-President Bill Clinton came to Moscow on the 50th anniversary of VE Day but boycotted the military parade to protest Moscow's brutal military campaign in Chechnya. 
 Continuing the chummy exchanges that marked their discussions and dinner the evening before, the two smiled broadly when Bush arrived for the parade. As Bush lowered his umbrella, despite the rain, for a snapshot, Putin laughingly did the same. Putin reserved the seat next to him for Bush - whom he called his guest of &quot;special importance&quot; above all others. Later, Bush remained glued to the Russian leader's side as they strolled, red carnations in hand, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 
 Bush said he decided to attend to honor the war's staggering cost in Soviet lives; nearly 27 million soldiers and citizens in the Soviet Union died before victory was secured. 
 &quot;The people of Russia suffered incredible hardship, and yet the Russian spirit never died out,&quot; Bush said. 
 Though the triumph over Hitler is treasured here as an unvarnished achievement, others see it differently. Bush has been trying to get Putin to acknowledge some of the darker wartime actions by the Soviet Union, such as its postwar occupation of the neighboring Baltic nations. Before coming to Moscow, Bush travelled to Latvia to deliver that message pointedly and in person. 
 Quietly continuing his campaign for democratic progress in Russia and beyond, Bush met privately with local civil society leaders before the parade. Causing open irritation from Putin, Bush has also expressed concerns about Putin's commitment to democracy at home. 
 The evening at Putin's dacha produced a happy picture of the two presidents - with Bush and Putin trading jokes, waving happily at reporters from Putin's prized 1956 Volga and extending their evening far beyond its allotted time. Bush even complimented Putin on a speech that had raised eyebrows in Washington last month when the Russian leader said the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. 
 &quot;Russia is a great nation, and I'm looking forward to working together on big problems,&quot; Bush told his host.

TITLE: Lame Duck CIS Gathers in Moscow
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Sunday urged other leaders in a 12-nation ex-Soviet bloc to preserve the troubled Commonwealth of Independent States, as Ukraine's president said there was little use for the organization without major reform. 
 
At a summit, Putin said the grouping of 12 out of the 15 former Soviet republics had a key role in combating the spread of terrorism, extremism and xenophobia and fostering peace. 
 &quot;For all of us it is obvious that Nazism, extremism and terrorism are threats feeding on a single ideological source, a terrible threat, against which we are obliged to defend our unique and peaceful commonwealth,&quot; Putin said. 
 &quot;The new generation of our citizens should know the truth about the events of those days. To know that truth means having an internal immunity to the propaganda of extremism and xenophobia, national and religious incitement,&quot; he said, adding that the CIS could help with such work. 
 The meeting convened amid growing questions about the viability of the CIS, which brings reformist leaders together with entrenched Soviet-era autocrats following the popular uprisings against regimes in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. 
 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said after the summit there was &quot;little use&quot; at present for the CIS but its members still needed an organization that would focus on economic integration and avoid interfering in the politics of its members. 
 Yushchenko said he raised his concerns with other CIS leaders and although he insisted that Ukraine was not leaving the CIS, he warned that his patience for reform was not infinite. 


TITLE: Pyongyang Sends Congratulations
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea -North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Monday sent a congratulatory message to President Vladimir Putin as he hosted celebrations in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. 
 
&quot;Sixty years ago, the Russian people defended the motherland and made a big contribution to achieving world peace and security by waging a heroic fight to destroy fascism, shouldering the heavy burden of the Second World War,&quot; Kim wrote in his message, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. 
 &quot;We highly appreciate the Russian people's great merits and historic feats,&quot; the agency quoted Kim as saying. 
 Kim also wrote that he believed North Korea-Russia relations &quot;will continue to grow in scope and develop in the future.&quot; Russia remains a key ally of the North, but since the fall of the Soviet Union it has ceded its role as Pyongyang's main benefactor to China. 
 Kim's note echoed sentiments in a message carried by KCNA from Kim Yong Nam, who heads the North's legislature and is the country's ceremonial head of state. 


TITLE: Yellow Taxi Parks $12M in City
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A Moscow-based transportation company New Yellow Taxi has signed a deal with the St. Petersburg city government to introduce a European-standard taxi service in the city.
 
Governor Valentina Matviyenko said drivers hired by the company will speak English and some German, will be courteous and charge passengers only according to taxi meters.
 &quot;They will at least be able to understand what tourists are talking about and where they want to go,&quot; Matviyenko said at a ceremony to present the new cabs on Palace Square on Thursday.
 &quot;Tourists and city residents should know how much they should have to pay for a ride and pay according to a meter without having to haggle with a driver, which puts them at a disadvantage,&quot; the governor said.
 The lack of such a service is a bugbear for foreigners who don't speak Russian in St. Petersburg. 
 &quot;The taxi sharks are terrible,&quot; an anonymous visitor wrote to The St. Petersburg Times last month. &quot;They only add to the reputation of St. Petersburg being a terrible place to be for a foreign tourist. One was asking 85 euros or $100 just to get to the city center from Pulkovo [airport].&quot;
 On the other hand many foreigners and locals like the efficient and cheap service provided by gypsy cabs, who are private drivers who pay no taxes but negotiate each ride on the curb.
 New Yellow Taxi is starting with 60 new Volga cabs and intends to invest $12 million in the next few years to buy several hundred more cars to operate in St. Petersburg.
 However, it has no intention yet of operating from Pulkovo International Airport, which foreigners find one of the most vexing places to hail a cab.
 Mikhail Barinov, head of St. Petersburg branch of New Yellow Taxi said it is too dangerous to penetrate the business of transportation services at the city's main airport.
 &quot;I wouldn't have wanted to comment on this matter,&quot; Barinov said Thursday in an interview. &quot;It is physically dangerous when you do anything in this country.&quot; 
 &quot;The taxi services market collapsed with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but this niche was quickly occupied,&quot; he said. &quot;The civilized norms of doing business [at the airport] should be introduced step-by-step and it will take a few years.&quot; 
 However, some New Yellow Taxi drivers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the company would work from the international airport if City Hall will organize official taxi ranks.
 &quot;I don't care where I go,&quot; said one driver. &quot;If they send me to the airport I will work at the airport. What's wrong with that?&quot; 
 He said he had been hired from municipal transportation company Passazhiravotrans to work for New Yellow Taxi.
 In January in Moscow there were signs that taxi operation at Sheremetyevo airport appeared to be rather dangerous for a new transportation business.
 &quot;I'm deeply convinced that a private initiative at on the taxi market is impossible presently,&quot; Vladimir Blank, the head of City Hall's committee on economic development, industrial policy and trade, said at a meeting of the St. Petersburg International Business Association, or Spiba, in February.
 &quot;I can give you one example. In Moscow we made a tender for taxi services at Sheremetyevo [airport]. The director general of the company that won the tender was found dead the next day,&quot; Blank said.
 Felix Naiman, 30, head of MosCab, was found dead near the entrance to his apartment in southern Moscow on Jan. 11, a week after his company, which controlled 19 percent of the Moscow transportation market, won a city tender.
 &quot;That's the way it is because there's very high criminality in the transportation market,&quot; Blank said. &quot;In this market only large operators will survive and they will be able to resist such things. There is a very high demand for that.&quot;
 According to City Hall authorities St. Petersburg, with its population of 4.5 million residents, needs between 2,000 and 6,000 taxis.
 Officially the city has only 500 taxis.
 Taxi drivers managed by New Yellow Taxi will have a salary of 6,000 to 15,000 rubles (from $214 to $535) a month with expectations that they will rise as the business becomes more stable, the management of the company said.
 Governor Matviyenko expressed her hopes that this attempt to restore a comfortable and safe taxi business in the city, which has been absent in St. Petersburg for more than a decade, will be successful.
 According to an agreement with City Hall, the company must perform daily examinations of drivers just before they go on to the city streets. This practice was observed in Soviet times, but was widely dropped after it collapsed, the city authorities said.
 &quot;Today we have done another step in creating a civilized market of taxi services. St. Petersburg residents have started getting out of the habit of using taxi services, [but] people should feel safe when they take a ride,&quot; Matviyenko said.

TITLE: Mobile Numbers to Stay Same After Network Switch
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: By fall this year, mobile phone subscribers will be able to switch from one network to another without losing their number, the IT and Communications Ministry said Friday.
 
In an effort to further stimulate competition on the mobile phone market, last week the ministry began work on the introduction of a mobile number portability service (MNP).
 How the service will operate - and how it will affect mobile phone networks - will be decided by a cross-industry team, Interfax reported Friday.
 As well as top managers of GSM mobile networks themselves, team members will include representatives of landline monopoly Svyazinvest, cellphone industry association Sotel, and several academics, the agency said.
 &quot;We are planning to develop a trial zone where it will be possible to research the technical aspects associated with providing this kind of service. The zone should also aid in developing corrections and recommendations to existing laws that cover the communications field,&quot; the ministry said in a statement, Interfax reported.
 The MNP service should be available to Russian users no later than fall this year, IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman said in a recent statement.
 &quot;The ability to keep the original number will stimulate competition in the market, as users will not be held back by the inconvenience,&quot; Reiman said.
 The ministry and mobile phone networks could not be reached for comment Monday because of a national holiday.
 At the moment, a mobile phone subscriber loses their original number when switching from one mobile plan to another. The complication, which can result in a loss of valuable business and social contacts, impedes many consumers from taking the decisions to switch networks, the minister said.
 MNP is widely used in other countries. It is available in Western Europe, the U.S., Australia and South Korea.
 Keeping a more competitive environment in the mobile phone market is increasingly important, considering the record pace of cellphone sales in the country, making it one of the most profitable domestic business segments.
 According to a survey conducted by ROMIR Monitoring agency in April, every second Russian owns a mobile phone. Mobile phone users make up 47 percent of the country's population, while in February last year subscribers constituted only a quarter of the population had done, the survey said.
 The average saturation rate for mobile phones grew by about 20 percent per quarter, while in cities where population tops 1 million the number of subscribers exceeds 59 percent, the survey said.
 The growth of mobile phone subscribers has been a fairly recent phenomenon, according to the survey. Of 1,600 people questioned, only 24 percent said that they owned a cellphone for more than three years, while 36 percent had owned a mobile phone for less than a year.
 The longest subscribers tended to be highly qualified professionals in the 35 to 44 year old age category, whereas as most recent phone owners were students, clerks and managers, the Romir survey said.
 
 o MOSCOW (Reuters) - No. 2 mobile phone operator VimpelCom will focus on so-called &quot;active&quot; subscribers and start releasing quarterly customer updates, CEO Alexander Izosimov said Thursday.
 Izosimov said in an interview that 88 percent of the company's estimated 30.75 million subscribers were active, as they had used their phones at least once every three months.
 Like many mobile operators around the world, Russian operators usually release subscriber numbers that include customers who have ceased to use the service, often because they switched networks.
 But the quality of clients is coming under greater scrutiny. For VimpelCom, the cutoff point for clients who have not used the service is six months.

TITLE: Oblast Wins Eco-Funding
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Leningrad Oblast has won European Union funding worth 403,000 euros ($517,000) to help finance a five-year environmental protection program, the regional government said Friday.
 
The oblast got the funding ahead of several other regions from the union's &quot;Life in the 3rd [world] countries&quot; program, which allocates financing for natural reserves conservation programs.
 The tender award will also allow the oblast to include its natural reserves on the international protection zones network, the region's press service said Friday in a statement. The inclusion will raise the status of nature protection within the region and facilitate the participation of Russia's northwest territories in other international ecological programs, the statement said.
 The money and the recognition from the European Union will also help to speed up the process of upgrading state-run Rakoviye Ozera (Lobster Lakes), the center in charge of all the regional natural reserve programs, the statement said.
 &quot;Making [Rakoviye Ozera] into a technologically updated facility will significantly aid the preservation process,&quot; Interfax reported the oblast officials as saying.
 The oblast government is planning to hold a tender to pick a team to take charge of its environmental protection program.
 The team, which will include environmental and business experts, will conduct a SWOT-assessment (a Western marketing tactic that determines a projects' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), as specified by international standards. The assessment will, however, be &quot; adapted to regional levels and practices,&quot; oblast officials said.
 According to oblast statistics, natural reserve zones make up as much as six percent of the total oblast territory. Leningrad Oblast has two large game reserves, the Nizhnesvirsky and Mishenskoye Boloto, and 22 regional parks.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Vodka Brand Revived
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Liviz, one of the largest vodka manufacturers in the country, has revived the production of its Leningradskaya vodka brand, producing the first 60,000 bottles in time for the Victory Day celebrations, the company said last week.
 "Leningradskaya, which was first manufactured soon after the war's end, will be enjoyed equally by those who remember it, as well as by those who will try it for the first time," Interfax quoted Liviz general director Yury Nikulin as saying Thursday.
 Leningrasdakya is made from high-quality spirit alcohol with additional herbal flavorings, the company said.
 The first party of 60,000 bottles makes up about 1.5 percent of Liviz's total vodka manufacturing volumes, however, the company plans to grow the brand's production share depending on demand, the company said, Interfax reported.
 Leningradsakya bottle labels are designed to resemble old newspaper collages, featuring "retro" articles - those telling about the life of the Leningrad zoo, about the city's first trolley bus, about sport victories and "new" films, the company said.
 According to the company, Liviz produced over 3 million decaliters of vodka last year, increasing manufacturing volumes by 10 percent.
 
<b>Airport Gets Rail Link
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Transportation Minister Igor Levitin on Thursday unveiled a $100 million plan for a rail link from the city center to Sheremetyevo Airport.
 Under the plan, the new airport express will be ready by 2007. Sheremetyevo's operating company will set up a subsidiary, to be called AeroExpress, offering 75 percent less one share to investors and retaining a blocking minority.
 An existing rail line would first be extended from Savyolovsky Station to an underground terminal at Sheremetyevo's Terminal 2, with a link to Leningradsky Station to follow.
 
 
<b>Services Expand in April
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - The country's services industries expanded in April at the fastest pace in eight months as consumer demand rose, Moscow Narodny Bank's index of industry managers showed.
 The index, known as the Services PMI, rose to 58.9 in April from 58.3 in March, the biggest monthly gain since August, the bank said in a statement las week. 
 According to the index, a figure above 50 indicates growth, below that a contraction.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Alcoa to Invest $37M
 </b>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alcoa Inc. said Monday it would invest $37 million in its recently acquired Belaya Kalitva fabricating facility in Russia to improve heat-treated plate and sheet output for a variety of markets. 
 Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, said it had now started the process to supply North American automotive companies with forged specialty wheels produced at the plant. 
 Alcoa said the investment is part of more than $80 million in capital and technology investments planned for the Belaya Kalitva and Samara facilities in Russia this year.
 
 
<b>New Project for Gold
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - London-listed gold firm Trans-Siberian Gold plc is looking at new projects to expand its portfolio in Russia, bolstered by backing from the world's second biggest gold miner to move it from exploration into production. 
 Trans-Siberian managing director Jocelyn Waller said the company's recent agreement with AngloGold Ashanti that raised the gold giant's equity stake in the business to 29.9 percent would enable a smooth run into gold production by the fourth quarter of next year. 
 "The Anglogold deal is an endorsement for what we want to do - the important thing is that now this company is on track to become a good-sized producer over the next two years," Waller said. The company has a total resource base of some 3.7 million ounces of gold with licenses in resource-rich regions of Russia and expects future output to reach at least 225,000 ounces per year. 
 "We are also looking at other Russian companies that we might be able to acquire which have licenses or production," Waller said.
 
<b>Emerging Debt
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - Emerging sovereign debt traded with a firm tone on Monday as the general backdrop for the sector appears stable now that U.S. interest rates are expected to continue their steady incline. 
 Following Friday's strong U.S. employment data for April, and the implications for steady global economic growth, emerging debt markets may just be taking a short pause after a strong short-cover position rally. 
 "We have had a huge rally with the EMBI+ moving from 405 down to 370 in a week against a backdrop of GM's downgrade and lingering growth concerns," said James Croft, emerging markets debt trader at Commerzbank in London. 
 "There is no U.S. data today, it is a holiday in Russia and no significant events over the weekend. So it is quiet and people are looking for direction," he added.
 
 
<b>Reserves Hit Record
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - The Central Bank added $2.8 billion to its foreign currency and gold reserves in the week to April 29, increasing its reserves to a record $144.1 billion as the price of oil remained high.
 The reserves rose from $141.3 billion as of April 22 and $137.4 billion as of April 1, the bank said in a statement. 
 
<b>
 Inflation Slows in April
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Consumer prices rose 1.1 percent in April, slowing from the 1.3 percent rise in March, the State Statistics Service said in a press release.
 The ruble's strength helped keep inflation from accelerating at a time when food prices are advancing.

TITLE: Tales of the 'Foreign King' From Russia's Wild East
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An office at the Marble Palace, investment dinners being held by ex-KGB chiefs, and champagne flowing freely - this is how Ton Goossens remembers doing business in Russia in the early '90s.
 
A printer by profession in his native Holland, Goossens came to Russia in 1990 as a man chasing an opportunity and ended up with a reception worthy of Khlestakov in Gogol's play &quot;The Government Inspector.&quot;
 &quot;In the eyes of the Russians - and I didn't know it at the time - I was a foreign king,&quot; Goossens said. &quot;[In fact] I came to St. Petersburg without big money ... and then started a printing business: making postcards, posters, and special calendars.&quot;
 By the end of the '80s, St. Petersburg's (then Leningrad's) cultural monuments and museums had sunk into disrepair and decay, with funding having vanished as irretrievably as the Soviet Union itself.
 To solve this problem, in 1989 the influential Leningrad Culture Fund (which boasted Raisa Gorbachev, wife of then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, as its vice-president) ordered a series of photographs of the city to be taken from a hot air balloon. The picturesque slides of Leningrad, then a militarily important city where aerial photography had hitherto been banned, were to be printed to attract foreign investments for local culture projects.
 Although Goosens had arrived in St. Petersburg to initiate a different project, a chance meeting teamed him with Vladimir Kalinin, then head of the state-owned Petropol publishing house, and together they took on the printing order.
 &quot;We distributed postcards and so on in five-star hotels and other major hotels where foreigners stayed,&quot; Goossens said. &quot;We launched our products at a marathon 24-hour [fund-raising] event at the Mariinsky Theater.&quot;
 Kalinin's &quot;lucky position [meant] total cooperation with the Leningrad Culture Fund,&quot; which led to the publishing team procuring an office at the Marble Palace - an 18th century building built for empress Catherine the Great that is now a branch of the State Russian Museum.
 Such top-class office space brought Goossens into contact with directors of museums, palaces, and factories, &quot;all [of whom] were old Communist leaders ... connected in this cultural business.&quot;
 An indoor &quot;investment picnic&quot; at Peterhof when summer weather soured was no problem.
 &quot;I sat in Catherine the Great's chair, eating grapes,&quot; Goosens recalls. 
 Neither was a party at Smolny Hotel, then the accommodation of choice for KGB and Party bosses.
 In March 1991, Goosens was invited to a party at Smolny Hotel, hosted by the then-head of the Communist Party.
 &quot;It was Room 601, I'll never forget it. Its interior ... you could not believe.&quot; Goossens laughs. &quot;A big table, vodka, cognac, everything was perfect. [Former Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev had stayed in that room.&quot;
 Business never sounded so appetizing to Goossens but despite the glamour, he had differences with his business partner that he was not able to resolve and ended his role in the venture.
 Undeterred, Goossens looked for other opportunities, and with the country's atmosphere then resembling the Wild West, there were plenty of them. 
 A contact, Andrei Nadirov (brother of current Deputy Minister of Culture and Mass Communication Leonid Nadirov,) suggested exports: namely, metals.
 Exporting goods was a favorable business in the early '90s, with no tax and easy-to-bribe customs only bothering you with &quot;some paperwork, but that's all,&quot; Goossens said.
 In an atmosphere of &quot;everything is possible&quot; some foreigners made a mint.
 &quot;There was an old Swiss guy called Zimmerly, about 65, [who was] completely involved in the metal business. After a year or so, he had a permanent room at the Astoria Hotel ... and two women just to undress him,&quot; Goossens said.
 Zimmerly had managed to obtain 800 tons of copper for export and then disappeared, Goossens claims.
 &quot;People phoned me asking about Zimmerly or his Russian partner. If [the latter] is alive, I don't know, but Zimmerly vanished. Earlier, he told me he had cheated the Russians for more than $1 million,&quot; Goossens said.
 After this experience, Goossens felt he must return to what he knew best: printing. 
 Paying $2.50 for a flight to Tobolsk, Goossens went with another two Russian partners went to meet the director of the local oil company, Chemical Neftprodukt, he said.
 The company needed printing machines and with his Dutch connection, Goossens said he felt confident his new business team could set up a profitable venture.
 Since the oil firm exported to Asia, it could pay Goossens in foreign currency, which could then buy printing equipment Goossens and his partners would use to set up their own publishing house.
 But the &quot;perfect&quot; business plan was foiled by betrayal. Once the ordered equipment arrived from Holland, one of the partners took what she claimed was her share and left to set up a separate company, Goossens said.
 Yet another business idea, this time for a printing business, was scuppered. With it Goossens carried massive financial losses - just at the time when his Russian wife - a beauty queen (Miss Tobolsk) - had given birth to their first child.
 The general director of Grand Hotel Europe, Thomas Noll, who has known Goossens for 3 years, says that Russian business favors an alchemical mix of patience, doggedness, and illogical flexibility from foreigners who engage in it.
 &quot;As many foreigners in the city know, if you want to stay here and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, you have to fight your way through the jungle. If one business goes down, another gets started,&quot; Noll said.
 &quot;Survival&quot; in Russia since 1990 means having &quot;great creativity,&quot; Noll said. 
 To that Adrian Terris, founder of Yellow Pages in St. Petersburg, adds a good dose of versatility and &quot;a pioneering spirit,&quot; which he says Goossens has in abundance.
 &quot;[Goossens is] one of the few who stuck out the '98 crisis rather than packing up and returning back to a rather comfortable Dutch lifestyle,&quot; said Terris, now the CEO for YPI Ltd. in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
 &quot;He plays his piano, sings in Dutch, toasts in Russian, converses in English and does business in German. His songs are as strong as his heart,&quot; Terris said. 
 For much of the last decade, Goossens worked as a consultant or an organizer of finances for Dutch vegetable suppliers, foreign construction companies, and other investors interested in the Russian market.
 Constant reinventing himself has been tough, and has earned Goossens &quot;just survival money, not on the level that I call my level,&quot; he said. 
 Then in 2000, the one-time Dutch printer had an idea.
 The European Union's TACIS commission wanted someone to print an &quot;Investment Guide for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast.&quot; 
 Goossens won the contract and assiduously set himself to the task. He collected articles on investment points from local tax practices to logistics written by the region's top businesspeople.
 The guide proved to be &quot;an excellent bible for investors,&quot; Noll said, and very attractive to foreign businesses. Its popularity led Goossens to publish an updated version last year under the banner of Goossen's non-profit business association, The Schengen Club.
 When he arrived, many hoped &quot;the foreign king&quot; would help attract foreign capital to Russia. It seems, unlike Khlestakov, Goossens has fulfilled the promise of the welcome he received.

TITLE: Veterans' Discounts Often Miss Target
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russian businesses from airlines to clothing boutiques showed their gratitude to veterans by offering discounts to mark the end of World War II.
 
Often, however, the goodwill seemed to miss its intended beneficiaries. 
 When the Hugo Boss shop in Yekaterinburg offered a 10 percent discount on its luxury threads, local veterans fumed, calling the offer &quot;deranged,&quot; local news service UralPolit.ru reported.
 Suits at the shop average 20,000 rubles ($720), which means a typical war veteran would need to spend more than three months' worth of pensions to take advantage of the sale.
 Other offers were equally unlikely to find many buyers. Erisson televisions advertised 34-inch TV sets at a discounted veterans' price of 13,350 rubles ($490).
 Even Aeroflot's &quot;free flights&quot; for vets to European and Russian destinations came with a string attached: The traveler still had to pay taxes and airport charges. An Aeroflot flight to London, for example, would involve extra fees of about 2,300 rubles.
 Aeroflot estimates that last year 5,000 veterans flew with the program, which in the past only included Russian destinations. All those eligible who asked for tickets received them, an Aeroflot spokeswoman said, and each traveler was allowed one companion to accompany them for free.
 At least keeping in touch with old friends proved less costly for veterans.
 Long-distance carrier Rostelecom offered 10 free minutes to anywhere in the CIS and Baltics to all Moscow veterans from their home phones on May 9.
 In addition, the Federal Tariff Service decreed that all operators had to offer a discount on intercity calls over the holiday.
 No. 3 mobile provider MegaFon went as far as turning its service centers into call shops and inviting veterans to make free calls to anywhere in the world on Victory Day.
 Another sizeable discount available to all came from St. Petersburg-based Zebra Telecom.
 From May 8 to May 10, the alternative long-distance operator was taking 60 percent off calls from Moscow and St. Petersburg to anywhere in Russia and to other Hero Cities within the CIS - Kiev, Odessa, Kerch, Sevastopol, Brest and Minsk.
 While for veterans from Irkutsk and Angarsk, Electrosvyaz, a local branch of the regional phone company, offered a hi-tech option.
 Tech-savvy veterans had a chance to link up with comrades living in other Siberian cities for 10 minutes of free video conferencing.

TITLE: The Cost Of Putin's Repression
TEXT: Morality aside, President Vladimir Putin's gradual strangling of democracy in Russia provides a valuable case study in the relationship between freedom and competent governance. So far, as freedom dwindles, competence seems to be losing also. That may have implications for U.S. policy.
 
History does not suggest a one-for-one correlation between democracy and economic growth. Singapore has restricted political freedom yet built a world-class economy; democratic India is growing quickly now, but for many years it embraced self-defeating economic policies.
 Yet it is not surprising that societies that tolerate criticism of the powerful generally self-correct more readily and advance more quickly - a lesson that Russia seems ready to reteach the world. &quot;It is becoming evident,&quot; says Yegor Gaidar, &quot;that those who invented the system of checks and balances were not the stupidest in the world.&quot;
 Gaidar, a former prime minister and one of the world's clearer thinkers, has been at times cautiously supportive of Putin, at times moderately critical. But on a recent visit to Washington he was notably gloomy, not only about the decline of democracy but also about the practical consequences.
 Though &quot;he was never a very great believer in democracy,&quot; Putin came to power in 2000 with a sound economic policy and a pragmatic foreign policy, Gaidar said, and in his first term he accomplished some significant reforms. He did so in a Russia that still enjoyed some checks and balances: media and a business establishment not controlled by the Kremlin; regional authorities with their own bases of support; a parliament with a viable opposition.
 These were &quot;more or less entirely eliminated, step by step, through the end of 2003,&quot; Gaidar said. So when Putin recently proposed a reform of social programs, there was no one to raise questions: not in Duma committee, not on television, not in any chamber of commerce. The reforms, as it happens, were badly needed but stupidly designed, which became clear only when angry protests broke out across the country. Then Putin retreated.
 Now the government is unlikely to try again, and other needed reforms also are on hold - &quot;a textbook example of how to misuse a window of opportunity,&quot; Gaidar said. Macroeconomic policy, well managed in Putin's first term, is untethered. One foreign policy mistake has followed another. Senior advisers privately complain of drift and uncertainty.
 As long as oil prices remain high, none of these problems is likely to threaten Putin's regime, Gaidar said. The country is a major exporter of oil and gas, and the revenue is enough to paper over almost any mistake.
 But those same soaring prices may ultimately be the undoing of the one-party state that Putin is recreating. Economic development in other sectors is stunted, corruption increases, bureaucratic malfeasance is tolerated and then rewarded. Or, as Gaidar says, &quot;oil prices are strongly negatively correlated to the IQ of the leadership.&quot;
 If and when those prices do fall, Russians will find that the state can no longer fulfill its promises - to military officers, retirees, teachers and so on - and that independent businesses from other sectors are too weak to fill the gap. It is a familiar arc to Gaidar, who has studied the decline of the Soviet economy from the late 1970s, when the Communist cadres of the late Brezhnev era believed high oil prices would last forever, to Gorbachev's ignominious dissolution of a bankrupt state in 1991.
 Putin last week called that collapse &quot;the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,&quot; and added: &quot;The old ideals were destroyed.&quot; But it is perhaps less striking that the KGB veteran would mourn the ideals of the gulag state than that he would seemingly forget its hapless incompetence.
 If Putin the can-do tough guy turns out to fulfill only half of that promise, there will be cause for the United States to worry - about the security of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal, for example, or the reliability of the thousands of missiles that could still destroy this country and the world.
 And there is reason to worry on behalf of Russia's neighbors too because in foreign policy one mistake can trigger the next. The nostalgia for empire that Putin expresses and stokes among his people triggers interventions - in Georgia, in Ukraine - that end in humiliation, deepening popular resentments, which then provoke the leadership into further disastrous interventions.
 That rising nationalism, Gaidar said, &quot;is the most serious danger for Russia - and the world.&quot;
 
 <i>Fred Hiatt is the editor of the Washington Post's editorial page, where this comment first appeared. </i>

TITLE: Proposed Tax Changes May Hit in 2005
TEXT: Tax laws in Russia never quite stay still. The Tax Code has been amended more than 70 times through new laws or wordings and this year the surgery is being performed on profits tax.
 
Several new profits tax regulations passed a second State Duma reading on April 22. Although the draft law is planned to come into force only from the start of 2006, some proposed amendments will have a retroactive effect already this year. However, the retroactive effect may be given only to amendments that in no way restrict rights of the taxpayers.
 
 <strong>
REORGANIZATIONS
 </strong>The most important changes pertain to taxation in cases when there is a reorganization of Russian legal entities. The draft law emphasizes the point that reorganization is tax neutral for profits tax purposes: reorganization shall not result in profits or losses either for reorganizing entities or their shareholders. 
 
The draft law clarifies that when there is a reorganization, the tax value of the property obtained by the surviving entity through legal succession is equal to the respective tax value of assets used by the old entity. Then, in the process of a merger, shareholders of the old entity convert their share into shares of the surviving company. For profits tax purposes the value of the converted shares is considered equal to the tax value of the obtained shares.
 Thus, the proposals directly restrict &quot;step-up&quot; tax planning for reorganizations. Therefore, no profit or loss may occur in the hands of the shareholders of the reorganizing company. The surviving entity will not be able to get a higher tax basis so as to claim tax relief from a depreciation of received assets.
 The initial draft of the law prohibited carrying forward of losses incurred by reorganized companies. However, this provision was excluded from the second reading of the draft law. This factor will help Russian businesses to consider mergers as a possible option for restructuring of their operations.
 
 <strong>
IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS
 </strong>The proposals also touch upon profits tax issues in regards to in-kind contributions to charter capital of legal entities. Such contributions are confirmed as tax free for profits tax purposes for both investee and investor. In this case the investee obtaining the contribution is not entitled to re-assess its tax value and shall use the value based on the tax accounting data of the investor.
 
In addition, the value of such in-kind contribution will need to be supported by the respective source documents, otherwise it shall have a &quot;zero&quot; value.
 These tricky provisions may have a serious effect on the current practice of foreign investment through in-kind charter capital contribution allowing investors to obtain customs duty and VAT concessions. In practice tax authorities may scrutinize the presented source documents supporting foreign investments seeking to challenge the tax basis and value of the contribution for depreciation in the hands of the Russian investee.
 
 <strong>
LEASE AND LEASING EFFECT
 </strong>Among other draft law proposals is the introduction of a new type of assets subject to tax depreciation, namely capital investments in leased property made by the tenant and approved by the landlord. Such improvements will be allowed to depreciate by landlord only where the tenant is compensated for the respective expenses. Otherwise the tenant is entitled to depreciate the improvements for the period of lease.
 
This should resolve a hot issue currently practiced in the real estate market as to who may claim corporate tax relief for capital expenditures in a leased asset.
 Some further changes are proposed for leasing structures. The law aims to confirm that double deduction of both depreciation charge of a leased asset and a leasing fee may not be claimed by a lessee in case the lessee accounts for the leased asset in its books.
 The draft law further provides taxpayers with a right to deduct capital investment expenses and expenses made for modernization, technical improvement and similar purposes. This deduction is limited to 10 percent of the original asset cost (subject to the investment in a particular tax year).
 This tax incentive will be very useful for development-stage enterprises that incur a substantial amount of capital expenditures and seek tax relief for these expenditures in the short term.
 
 <strong>
THINCAP NEWS
 </strong>The draft law tightens the rules for deduction of interest paid under loans extended by a foreign company that directly or indirectly owns more that 20 percent in the charter capital of the Russian borrower (so-called &quot;thin capitalization rules&quot;).
 
Currently the deduction of interest is restricted with respect to loans meeting the above criteria and applies only to debt due to foreign, not Russian, lenders. The draft law expands the criteria for applicability of thin capitalization rules to include loans and debt also from Russian legal entities affiliated with the foreign shareholder of the Russian borrower.
 Finally, we note another major amendment proposed to the Tax Code. The draft law allows carrying forward losses in 2006 within 50 percent of the profits tax base against the current 30 percent. Though the date for the passing of this draft law has not been set, it has a good chance of being enacted before the year's end. This suggests that, practically speaking, investors should already start considering the proposed tax law changes to plan ahead.
 
 <i>Ruslan Vasutin is a senior manager and Pavel Loguinov a senior associate at EY Law in St. Petersburg. They contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: For Whom the Drum Rolls
TEXT: You hear the banging of drums everywhere: on the streets, where military bands are endlessly rehearsing, and on radio and television, as one uplifting war-related program follows another. 
 
You get the impression that you'll hear a drum roll when you turn on the iron. And the racket stops only to allow yet another top official to deliver yet another rousing speech about our great victory in World War II and the need to rebuff anyone who belittles the historic significance of the Soviet people's heroic deeds. 
 Great pains have been taken to assure veterans that their heroism has not been forgotten. Take Volgograd Governor Nikolai Maksyuta, who clearly never bothered to read the statement published under his name in local newspapers in which he congratulated veterans on the 62nd anniversary of &quot;the crushing defeat of Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.&quot; 
 A general who led our soldiers to their death during the storming of Grozny waxed eloquent about the lessons the military had learned from the Great Patriotic War. Young careerists from the Kremlin-funded pro-Putin youth organization Nashi, or Us, held a meeting ostensibly to celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany but in fact calculated to show the Kremlin that its money is being well spent. All of this reeks of a profound, cynical indifference regarding both the victory in World War II and the men and women who took part in it.
 The authorities could have marked the anniversary in an appropriate manner. There are about 1 million World War II veterans in Russia today and, for many, this will obviously be their last major victory celebration. They endured incredible hardship during the war and their lives afterward weren't exactly a picnic either. They have been hardest hit by the changes in Russia since the early 1990s. 
 So rather than all the militaristic pomp and circumstance it might have been a good idea to spend this money on improving these people's lives. According to the newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti, more than 60 percent of them never received housing from the state. Now that the country has a little money to spend, it might be time to provide them with suitable apartments.
 For those who served during the war, the word &quot;Moscow&quot; holds great meaning as the symbol of the motherland. Yet many veterans have never even visited the city and are now prevented from visiting by poverty, illness and international borders. Perhaps the government should have put its resources into bringing to the capital every veteran who could make the trip - rather than a select group of just 500.
 Everyone agrees on the importance of Victory Day. This unanimity presented the Kremlin with the chance to unify a nation riven by material inequality and political differences. 
 But the leadership squandered all of these opportunities. The only prospect that caught the fancy of the Kremlin's spin doctors was holding a high-level mini-summit over the holiday weekend. Their thinking was simple. Foreign leaders were reluctant to decline an invitation to attend the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, and in his capacity as host, President Vladimir Putin would occupy center stage. The nation's heroism is nothing more than a convenient excuse allowing Putin to pull off a huge public relations coup.
 Suddenly the main task for Russia's diplomats was to guarantee that all of these presidents and prime ministers made the trip to Moscow. Sensing how important their attendance was to the Kremlin, a number of foreign leaders used it as a bargaining chip. When the leaders of two Baltic countries decided not to attend, a move interpreted by Russian officials as an attempt to revise the historical significance of the victory in World War II, people began discussing seriously what would in different circumstances have been seen as vulgar stupidity or mere tactlessness. 
 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made his attendance contingent on progress in ongoing negotiations over the future of Russia's military bases in that country. Putin's guest of honor, U.S. President George W. Bush, clearly didn't want to look like an extra on the set of the Putin show. He wanted to dispel the impression that anyone who declined the Kremlin's invitation was an outcast. In addition to Moscow, he therefore visited Latvia, where he met with the leaders of the Baltic states, and Georgia, where I assume he will make a statement intended to bring Putin back down to earth. 
 Thus Victory Day, appropriated for Putin's private use, became a tool for settling international scores.
 The Russian people, veterans included, had no place in the festivities. This was made abundantly clear not long ago by Nikolai Kulikov, a Moscow city government liaison with law enforcement agencies. &quot;Our hope is that the weather will be conducive to traveling out of the city and that the majority of Moscow residents will leave for their dachas.&quot; Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov later attempted to correct Kulikov's tactless statement by asserting that millions of Muscovites would join in the festivities. Never mind that they'll only be able to &quot;join in&quot; on the outskirts of the city. Metro stations in the city center were closed on May 9, and road traffic within the Boulevard Ring was severely restricted. The organizers have also made it as difficult as possible for people to reach the Bolshoi Theater, a traditional meeting place for war veterans. On May 8, Putin met with a group of heavily vetted veterans; those without special passes were be turned away. On May 9, Pushkinskaya was the closest working metro station to the Bolshoi Theater, meaning that vets in their 80s had to walk about two kilometers to meet up with their comrades-in-arms.
 This is not simply a matter of bureaucratic incompetence in the mayor's office and the presidential administration. The Victory Day celebration plans clearly demonstrated the Kremlin's desire to exclude the people from this most popular of holidays. And they seem to have succeeded. Russians were indignant when the Latvian president made a scornful remark about veterans here celebrating Victory Day by setting out dried fish and vodka on a sheet of newspaper. Well, that's exactly what's going to happen because, as it turns out, the leadership of this country treats its veterans with equal disdain. Masking this disdain with speeches and drum rolls doesn't change a thing.
 
 <i>Alexander Golts, deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhenedelny Zhurnal, contributed this comment to The St. PetersburgTimes. </i>

TITLE: A System Dedicated to Preserving Power Is Prone to External Threats
TEXT: One of the reasons for Russia's troubles is that we have difficulty learning the lessons of our own history. We don't learn from mistakes, even when they are our own.
 
On the eve of the 60th anniversary victory celebration, pollster Public Opinion conducted a survey of citizens views' of the role of Stalin in the victory over Nazi Germany. More than half of respondents (58 percent) said that Stalin contributed a great deal to the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. In addition, 40 percent said his contribution was positive and only 11 percent evaluated his role as negative.
 And those who gave these answers were not irresponsible young people, but nothing other than adults. Sixty-eight percent of respondents aged over 55 years said that Stalin's role was positive. That is the most active part of the electorate; they are the people who decide to a large degree who will be elected president or as deputies. This makes it only too clear why we live so badly - our lives are to a great extent determined by people who don't want to learn the lessons of the past. As a result, we keep going round in vicious circles. 
 The true role of Stalin in the Great Patriotic War was explained by Soviet scientists 40 years ago. Strange as it may seem, almost everything was said openly then. In 1966 official Soviet historian Alexander Nekrich wrote a book called &quot;June 22, 1941&quot; about the reasons for the defeats of Soviet troops and the incredible losses at the beginning of the war. The book was not printed in the Soviet Union, but the manuscript was in wide circulation among professional and official circles, including for example at the Communist Party's Institute of Marxism-Leninism.
 And do you know why party historians reproached Nekrich at the time of his famous evaluation at the end of the Krushchev thaw? You wouldn't believe it, but the stenogram reproduced on the Internet says not for &quot;underrating achievements of the party and government,&quot; but quite the opposite - for simplifying his negative role, for not taking account of all the ills that were visited on the country by the regime created by Stalin.
 For instance, Professor Grigory Deborin, editor of the first volume of &quot;The History of the Great Patriotic War,&quot; and his colleges said something like the following: There is no need to mistake Stalin's shortcomings. He was told of the upcoming attack by all sides, but he was so irrational and obstinate that he did not want to believe it. He deliberately made the Soviet Army unmanageable before the war by destroying about 80 percent of is officers.
 Stalin was not so irrational, at least not at that time, to distrust clear information from the intelligence services. To put it bluntly, Germany's attack threatened his power, which was the thing he most valued in life. It also doesn't make sense to say that he did not want a strong army - it was one of his instruments of repression.
 This was not about those things, the party historians said, but rather that the administrative system was effective only at maintaining his personal power and was unable to serve the interests of the country, specifically to react to external threats. For instance, Stalin did not receive reports directly from intelligence offices, but rather summaries, interpretations of their reports by the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff. Its head, Marshal Fyodor Golikov admitted later that information he passed on from Richard Sorge and others was presented as &quot;unrealiable information&quot; since the system was pressured to present facts in a way that suited Stalin. The system was set up in accordance with Stalin's concept of &quot;not provoking the enemy into mounting premature attacks on the Soviet Union.&quot; In other words, Stalin was being given disinformation.
 His machine of government worked similarly in other situations. And that, historians say was not due to the thoughtlessness of the party and the government but an objective defect created by Stalin.
 If we had studied the lessons of history then we would not tolerate the current attempts to restore the Stalinist system of power. The main evil in the system is not that it shores up the personal power of President Vladimir Putin, but that it is incapable of serving the interests of the country. It is where ineffective reforms stem from, whether they are the replacement of in-kind benefits with cash, pension reform or the reforms of the health system that are only just beginning. This is not to mention the Yukos affair, the decay of the justice system and general, monstrously overgrown corruption. All these events correspond to those that happened in the '30s under Stalin - there are objective results of the actions of mechanisms used by the authorities. The results could also be very destructive for the country - if things outside the country suddenly become difficult, as they did toward the end of the '30s.
 Stalin lost his war with Hitler. Putin cold lose Russia if, for instance, world oil prices fall sharply. All that remains is to hope that, like our fathers and grandfathers who beat Germany in spite of Stalin, that we will not permit a socio-economic crash - despite all the efforts of the regime to make a crash probable if oil prices fall.
 
 <i>Vladimir Gryaznevich is a political analyst with Expert Severo-Zapad magazine. His comment was first broadcast on Ekho Moskvy in St. Petersburg on Friday. </i>

TITLE: Russia Tops Group E as Czechs Stumble
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: INNSBRUCK, Austria - U.S. captain Mike Modano had a goal and an assist to help the Americans snap Sweden's four-game winning streak with a 5-1 victory Sunday night at the hockey world championships. 
 
Mike Knuble added a goal and an assist, and Yan Stastny, Erik Cole and Brian Gionta also found the net for the United States, which tied Canada in the Group F standings at five points apiece. 
 In a matchup of undefeated teams, Russia edged the Czech Republic 2-1 in Vienna to take the lead in Group E. 
 Also, two-time defending champion Canada tied Finland 3-3 and Slovakia beat Switzerland 3-1. 
 U.S. goalie Rick DiPietro made the play of the game at Innsbruck's Olympiahalle, setting up Stastny with a cross-ice pass for a short-handed goal that made it 2-0 at 6:21 in the second period. Stastny skated in all alone and beat Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist. 
 &quot;I took a quick peek. Originally I was going to threw it out and ice it to kill some time,&quot; DiPietro said. &quot;But then I saw Yan out there. He made a great job on the breakaway. It was a big game for us. To put on a performance like this was a big confidence boost for our guys.&quot; 
 It was the second goal of the tournament for Stastny, a world championship rookie and the son of former National Hockey League all-star Peter Stastny of Slovakia. 
 &quot;The way [DiPietro] handles the puck, it's like having a third defenseman out there, making a cross-ice pass like that and hit a guy in the stride like he did,&quot; Stastny said. 
 Johan Franzen scored a late goal for Sweden, roofing an angled shot past DiPietro to spoil the American goalie's shutout bid. 
 In Vienna, Ilya Kovalchuk and Andrei Semin scored for Russia, which had not defeated the Czechs since 2002 in the worlds. 
 &quot;It was our big wish to win this game. We expected it to be tough and asked our players to concentrate on defense mainly,&quot; Russia coach Vladimir Krikunov said. 
 David Vyborny scored for the Czechs, converting a pass from Jaromir Jagr for a 1-0 lead at 16:32 in the opening period. 
 The win moved the undefeated Russians into the top spot in Group E, tying the Czechs at six points apiece. 
 In the early Group F game, Rick Nash and Patrick Marleau scored 51 seconds apart midway through the third period, helping Canada earn a point against Finland. 
 Finland took a 2-0 lead on goals by Niklas Hagman and Jukka Hentunen before Wade Redden cut the lead in half with 50 seconds to go in the second period. Finland restored its two-goal advantage when Tomi Kallio beat goalie Roberto Luongo with a wrister 6:19 into the third period. 
 Slovakia simply overwhelmed the Swiss, overcoming an early power-play goal by Ivo Ruthemann by outshooting their foes 41-18. Miroslav Satan, Marian Hossa and Zigmund Palffy scored for Slovakia. 
 Earlier, Denmark rallied from two goals down in the opening period to edge Austria 4-3 in a relegation-round game in Innsbruck.

TITLE: Zenit Woes Probed By RFU Panel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A commission formed by the Russian Football Union to investigate FC Zenit St. Petersburg's complaint against referee Igor Yegorov meets Thursday.
 
The RFU formed the special panel after what Zenit says was biased officiating by Yegorov in a match against 2004 Premier League champion Lokomotiv Moskva.
 The April 30 match ended 1:1 but Zenit was denied at least one clear penalty and its players were booked disproportionately harshly, Zenit general director Ilya Cherkasov has said.
 The RFU commission includes Zenit trainer Vladimir Borovichka, CSKA Moskva trainer Nikolai Latysh, regional soccer official Eduard Lokomov and reserve referee Sergei Lapochkin, reported Zenit's website, www.fc-zenit.ru. The commission has the power to fine Yegorov. 
 Newly elected RFU president Valery Mutko headed Zenit from 1997 to 2003. His first months in office have been marked by the replacement of longtime Russian national coach Georgy Yartsev, and the launch of high-level probes into fan violence and doping allegations.
 Mutko has called for openness and transparency, vowing to fight corruption in Russian soccer. &quot;I want to present a new image of our sport to the world. I want people to respect our great nation for what we do on a pitch and not for what's going on behind the scenes,&quot; he said when he was elected in January. 
 Past champions from Moscow have often been accused by Zenit fans of influencing games to prevent St. Petersburg's only top-flight team from winning the championship.
 At a news conference after the Lokomotiv match, Zenit coach Vlastimil Petrzela stunned fans by saying he felt Zenit &quot;will never be champion.&quot; 
 Czech Petrzela, among the first foreign coaches to work in Russian soccer, has led the team to increasing international and domestic success in the past two years.
 Petrzela later told local media he couldn't remember saying those words, but insisted decisions made in the Lokomotiv match should be reviewed.
 With more than two weeks between Zenit's last match and its next, the St. Petersburg team has time to prepare for what is shaping up to be a bruising summer in its 2005 championship campaign.
 Last Thursday Zenit and Torpedo Moskva drew 1:1 in a clash that left both teams level with FC Moskva on 14 points at the top of the table. 
 The Moscow teams have played one match less than Zenit and it is unlikely to remain joint-leader as it sits out next weekend's matches.
 Playing at Petrovsky Stadium, Czech international Pavel Mares put Zenit ahead after 48 minutes but Igor Semshov equalized for Torpedo after half-time.
 Zenit is next set to play away to Shinnik Yaroslavl on May 21.
 n German engineering giant Siemens AG confirmed plans to sponsor the Russian Premier League to raise its profile in the country. The company gains the right to display its logo on the sidelines of 16 stadiums and on television during commercial breaks, Bloomberg reported.

TITLE: Teenager Nadal Battles to Face French Open Destiny
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROME - Maybe it's all the bananas and cola Rafael Nadal chugs down during changeovers that keeps him going, chasing down ball after ball in 17 straight clay-court victories. 
 
Nadal won his toughest test to date Sunday, taking his third straight clay-court title by edging French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria 6-4 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6 of Argentina at the Rome Masters in a match that lasted more than five hours. 
 Nadal appeared exhausted and debilitated from blisters to his playing hand when he fell behind 0-3 in the fifth set. 
 Somehow, the 18-year-old Spaniard found the energy to rally for yet another victory, just as he fought back from first-set losses in his previous two matches. 
 &quot;This was the toughest match of my life,&quot; Nadal said. &quot;I want to thank the fans, without whom I would have lost.&quot; 
 The match, which began in bright sunlight and concluded 5 hours, 14 minutes later in darkness, was a repeat of Nadal's victory over Coria in the Monte Carlo Masters final last month. 
 &quot;I thought that sooner or later he would give up, or at least ease up,&quot; Coria said. &quot;But he kept responding with incredible shots, shots that few people would have been able to come up with.&quot;
 Nadal ate a bowl of pasta as he answered questions in the post-match press conference, but he would not acknowledge his fatigue, joking that he only felt tired &quot;in the toes&quot; after the fourth set. 
 Coria was not in a joking mood. 
 &quot;It's a little unsatisfying to run for five hours and lose by two points,&quot; he said. &quot;But I lost to a great player who played a great match.&quot; 
 A week after Monte Carlo, Nadal also won in Barcelona, part of his tour-best 31-2 record on clay this season. 
 Nadal's fifth title of the season drew him even with top-ranked Roger Federer for most on tour. His only loss in a final this year came against Federer in March at the Masters Series event in Key Biscayne, Florida, where he squandered a two-set lead. 
 &quot;Federer is still No. 1, but I'm getting closer,&quot; said Nadal, who moved within 10 points of Federer in the season-long points race. 
 Nadal is the first teenager to win five titles in a season since Andre Agassi won six in 1988. 
 &quot;When you look at the history of the game, players that show themselves to be champions at this early stage of their careers tend to go on to have big careers,&quot; said four-time Grand Slam winner Jim Courier, who was in town to play the seniors event at Foro Italico. 
 Nadal, who is left-handed, had a trainer come out to re-tape a blister on his left index finger after winning the third set. Nadal also played with the blister in his last two matches. 
 After falling behind 2-0 in the fourth set, Nadal called for the trainer again. This time, another bandage was placed on a blister that developed on a different part of his left hand. 
 After a lackluster fourth set, Nadal was treated again before starting the fifth. 
 When Nadal broke serve to make it 1-3 in the fifth set, he made his first fist pump in what seemed like an hour, raising his bandaged hand stoically. 
 Upon taking a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak, Nadal found the energy for a leaping fist pump. 
 Coria fought back, however, and Nadal couldn't finish the match off until his fourth match point, falling to the clay with joy as Coria's volley sailed long. 
 Nadal won 190 points to Coria's 188, with both players breaking serve nine times. 
 While he was playing in Rome for the first time, most of the crowd rooted for Nadal. A small group of flag-waving Argentine fans tried to even things out with vocal support for Coria from the upper deck. 
 Nadal's victory in this $2.7 million clay-court tuneup for the French Open, which begins May 23, will likely make him a big favorite in Paris. 
 Nadal, who turns 19 next month, is the youngest winner in Rome since Jimmy Arias took the title when he was 18 years, 9 months in 1983. 
 Bjorn Borg holds the record for youngest champion in Rome, taking the title when he was 17 in 1974, shortly before he won his first French Open.