SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1079 (45), Friday, June 17, 2005
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TITLE: Mothers Champion Beslan Suspect Kulayev
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: VLADIKAVKAZ - "You should be killed and your body thrown to the pigs!" was the daily curse hurled by mothers of children killed in last September's Beslan school attack and former hostages at the sole surviving hostage-taker, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, when he went on trial in a Vladikavkaz court last month.
Yet as Kulayev's version of events inside the school unfolded, it contradicted in crucial details that put forward by the authorities. As the hearings continued, the women's attitude began to change.
After having heard officials publicly lie about the number of hostages inside the school and make other contradicting statements during the crisis, the mothers said they had no confidence in the prosecutor's version of events, and said they found Kulayev's testimony more plausible. Some even started to show signs of sympathy for the terrorist as he told his story of the storming of Beslan's School No.1, in which more than 330 hostages, including many children, died.
"They've dumped the blame onto this one man, they've found a scapegoat," said a voice from the crowd of relatives and witnesses at the court as a handcuffed Kulayev was dragged past them to a hearing Tuesday.
The relatives say they believe this haggard and gloomy young man, who avoids looking them in the eyes and speaks in stumbling Russian from the defendant's steel cage, is their only hope to learn the truth about what happened to their loved ones. They are even prepared to ask the judge for leniency or a pardon, if Kulayev can tell them the truth.
"We need him to tell the truth and we need for no force to be used against him by interested institutions ... We need to be confident that he won't die of a heart attack or fall down the stairs," said Susanna Dudiyeva, who leads the activist group Committee of Beslan Mothers, in court Tuesday.
At a hearing last week, Kulayev testified that a bomb that had been set up by the hostage-takers - sent into Beslan by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev - detonated on Sept. 3 after Russian snipers shot a gunman who was keeping his foot on the detonators. This contradicted what the authorities said, that a bomb in the school gym, where the more than 1,200 hostages were being held, went off after it fell from a basketball hoop.
The official version had the bomb going off after scotch tape fixing it to the hoop came loose due to heat and humidity in the gym, causing it to fall.
The explosion set off the storming of the building by security services and local vigilantes, in which hundreds of hostages died in a hail of bullets and explosions.
Kulayev also told the court that when the group of 33 gunmen arrived at the school early in the morning of Sept. 1, there were other gunmen inside who opened fire into the crowd of children and parents in the schoolyard. He testified that the gunmen had so many arms and ammunition that they could not have brought them all with them. Kulayev's account tallied with claims by Beslan residents that the terrorists had prepared the raid well in advance and hidden supplies of weapons at the school.
Federal officials have denied that such a weapons cache existed at the school, though several witnesses among the hostages said it did. Kulayev's statements also contradict the official account that there were only 33 gunmen, and that none of them managed to flee the school.
Prosecutors in the trial have reacted calmly to these revelations.
"This is his line of defense," Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel, the lead prosecutor in the case, said last week.
But for those who have lost relatives, Kulayev's testimony appears to fit with their suspicions of a cover-up by the authorities, whom they blame as much as the terrorists for the bloody conclusion to the hostage-taking drama.
"I will claim all the compensation from the state. What use is there in seeking damages from Kulayev?" Alexander Gumetsev, whose daughter was killed in the school, said at the courthouse on Tuesday.
In total, 1,343 people are registered as plaintiffs in the case, in which Kulayev faces life in prison if convicted of all charges.
He has denied all but one charge: participating in an illegal armed formation, the legal term the state uses for rebel fighters in Chechnya.
After survivors and hostages' relatives showed irritation with Kulayev's long hair on the first day of the trial, Kulayev had his head shaved.
During the trial, Kulayev said that his testimony in court was different from what he was reported as saying during the investigation because of his poor knowledge of Russian and that he had signed interrogation protocols without reading them.
Dudiyeva asked him whether he had been beaten during the investigation.
"How come they haven't been beating me? Of course, I was beaten," he said.
What followed was not predicted by anyone.
"If you tell the truth, we are ready to appeal for a pardon for you," Dudiyeva said. "Just tell the truth about what you know."
Prosecutor Maria Semisynova reacted by saying in a mocking tone that maybe Kulayev's status in the trial should be changed from that of defendant to victim.
"Who set up the booby traps and hung the bombs in the gym that exploded and killed your children?" Semisynova said. "Were these people not terrorists?"
Also Tuesday, the plaintiffs announced that they would demand to have Kulayev's court-appointed defense lawyer, Albert Pliyev, changed, citing Pliyev's inertness in defending his client.
In an interview with Izvestia newspaper last week, Pliyev said that he had agreed to take Kulayev's case after being begged to do so by the head of North Ossetian lawyers' association. Other lawyers in the republic have refused to defend Kulayev.
Not all of the relatives and survivors believe that Kulayev deserved any leniency.
Natalya Salamova, whose daughter - a teacher at the school - died in the attack, told the court Thursday that Kulayev should be handed over to the mothers so that they could tear him apart.
During the same court hearing Roza Alikova, who lost two sisters and three nephews in the attack, called for Kulayev's execution, even though capital punishment has been suspended in Russia, Interfax reported.
Another witness and mother of one of the children held hostage, Ella Dzasarova, told the court Thursday that she saw Kulayev run around the gym, shouting curses at hostages and threatening to shoot them, on the first day of the hostage-taking, the agency reported.
Two psychiatrists who offered differing expert opinions in another high-profile North Caucasus court case, the murder trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, said they did not believe that survivors of the Beslan attack were suffering from "Stockholm syndrome," a condition that can occur when hostages come to sympathize with their captors and blame the authorities for their plight.
"For this to happen, people need to put themselves in the place of a hostage-taker, to understand his motives," said Lyubov Vinogradova, a director at the Independent Psychiatric Association.
"This is probably not the case at the Vladikavkaz court."
The Serbsky Institute of Psychiatry's Tamara Pechernikova, a senior psychiatrist who during the Soviet era was involved in the cases of several prominent dissidents, said that the plaintiffs are pursuing the only available and absolutely rational strategy to learn the truth about the drama that affected their lives so tragically.
"Kulayev is the only person whom they believe may tell them something in the court that would allow them to demand punishment of all those guilty in what happened," she said.
"After his sentence is announced - and this will most probably be a long one - these victims will demand more punishment for him," she said.
Staff writer Nabi Abdullaev reported from Moscow.
TITLE: Cop Says
Criminals
Migrants
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A senior police official has laid most of the blame for crimes against foreigners in St. Petersburg at the feet of illegal migrants and careless tourists.
Andrei Stanchenko, head of the city police special task force dealing with crimes involving foreigners, said last week at a meeting of the Russian Tourism Industry Union, or RST, that illegal migration is at the heart of the safety issue in town.
No significant improvement in security is possible without a consistent, strict policy on illegal migrants being developed, he said.
The city has about 1.5 million illegal migrants, who often arrive in large family groups. They bring high hopes, but have no documents and therefore no chance of getting a legal job, Stanchenko said.
"In these circumstances, many get involved in pick pocketing and other types of theft," he said.
Up to 10 pickpockets are detained every day on Nevsky Prospekt alone, he added.
The police say all available officers patrol high-risk areas in the city center, but they admit this is not enough to maintain public safety. More patrolmen are needed, but there is no money to hire them, police officials complain.
The street thieves' victims themselves often failed to take even minimal steps to protect themselves and their possessions, he said.
"For instance, carrying a big wallet in an outer pocket of a summer shirt - in a highly crowded environment - is unwise," he said.
Stanchenko made no mention of crimes committed by people in police uniforms, which are regularly reported by tourists and city residents. The police usually explain such reports by suggesting that the thieves were bogus police.
Foreign victims of crime complain that their ordeal has just begun when they are attacked; they must then go through a tortuous process to get the crime registered.
Staff at most police stations don't speak foreign languages. The tourist center at 14 Sadovaya Ulitsa, where staff assist tourists to obtain official certificates documenting crimes, operates only during business hours. As a result, many crimes remain unreported and are much greater than those given in official statistics.
At a recent meeting on incoming tourism issues organized by the city branch of the RST, several heads of travel agencies reported that more than four dozen of their clients had been unable to register the theft of their belongings.
Valery Fridman, head of travel agency Mir, said establishing a 24-hour emergency service for foreigners in the city is a top priority.
Tourists who fall victim to crime leave St. Petersburg bewildered and tell everyone they know about their bad experience, saying that in Russia there is much theft but little help, even to register crimes, let alone to prevent or fight them.
"Many travelers come here for a very short time; some of them get their wallets stolen just hours before their boat departs," he said.
Although in theory any police office can register crimes against foreigners, in reality, the process is drawn out, primarily because of the language barrier. Some people just don't have the time or courage to face all the bureaucracy and broken English.
"We would even bring our own translator, just please give us a place where an official can accept a statement and give out a certificate," Fridman said.
Alexander Prokhorenko, head of City Hall's external relations and tourism committee, urged the police to roster duty police officers to be at the Sadovaya tourist center 24 hours a day, especially during the peak tourist season.
He also invited travel agencies to officially report all unregistered crimes, if only for the sake of more objective statistics.
In the meantime, Stanchenko said crimes against foreigners account for only 1 percent of all crimes in the city. From 550 to 600 crimes are committed against foreign citizens in the city each year, he said, with 309 crimes against foreigners being registered this year to date.
"More than 70 percent of the crimes involve citizens of CIS countries staying in the city illegally," Stanchenko said.
Leonid Flit, general director of travel agency Nika, regretted that the police can't afford to have more police on Nevsky Prospekt and other hot spots.
"The presence of policemen would of itself prevent many thefts," he said. "If it means having one policeman for every 100 meters then that is what should be done."
While the tourism industry proposes introducing minor palliative measures, such as extending the hours of the tourist center, the city administration is discussing vague but ambitious projects.
Ulvi Strelchuk, deputy head of City Hall's law and security committee, said "a tourist police may be created in the city, as a special task force within the city police."
The issue is under discussion, she said, but declined to elaborate on how much it would cost to create a tourist police force, how it would be funded, how many members it would have, who would train it or even when a decision on it might be taken.
Procrastination is already costing the city. Tourism is in decline is St. Petersburg, with hotels reporting free rooms even in the summer months. Experts forecast a 40 percent decline in foreign tourists and a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in the number of Russian visitors this season due to increased prices for accommodation and services.
A recent poll conducted by experts from the EU-funded TACIS project of tour operators from Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and Baltic and Scandinavian countries revealed a consistent pattern of complaints. Respondents expressed concern about high accommodation costs, a lack of cheap flights, and the bureaucratic visa process as major drawbacks. But all described the destination as otherwise very attractive.
In a letter to The St. Petersburg Times, U.S. tourist Peggy Hora said she very much enjoyed the sights of the city, but was displeased by exorbitant prices and poor service.
The tourist called local taxis "outrageous."
"I felt constantly ripped off by them," Hora wrote. "The only bargain in town was the delightful musical performance at the Philharmonia."
The St. Petersburg Shostakovich and Glinka philharmonic halls count among the very few local artistic organizations that don't charge "foreigner prices," unlike, for instance, the State Hermitage Museum or the Mariinsky Theater.
TITLE: Alcoholics Anonymous Helps Drop Drink
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Ten years ago Vladimir had reached a dead end.
He fed his alcohol addiction with a liter of vodka every day. A butcher by profession, he kept getting fired and losing the income he needed to support his wife and three children.
Born in a village where many people drank heavily, Vladimir was caught by the same habit.
"I couldn't live a day without a liter of vodka," he said.
"I couldn't communicate with people and was angry," he added.
He drank when he was in a good mood and when he was in a bad mood. When he became stressed, he drank alcohol to wind down.
By 1995, Vladimir's marriage was on the rocks. His father had died of alcoholism and it looked a dead certainty that he would follow him down the same road to the grave.
Completely desperate, Vladimir visited some Alcoholics Anonymous classes. He has never touched alcohol since.
"What helped me was the example of the others. I met people who quit drinking, and I understood that I could do it too," he said Wednesday at a news conference on the eve of AA's annual White Nights forum in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
The organization, which came to Russia in 1987, now unites tens of thousands of people across Russia. In St. Petersburg alone there are several thousand people receiving help from AA.
"St. Petersburg has 20 AA groups where groups of four people to 60 people with drinking problems meet regularly," AA member Alexander said at the news conference.
Members reveal only their first names because anonymity is one of the principles of the organization.
Svetlana, 40, another AA member, began drinking seven years ago after she had a family crisis. AA groups had helped her a lot, she said.
Svetlana, who has two university degrees and good jobs, said she had not expected to become a problem drinker. She never drank vodka, but started with light alcohol drinks like gin and tonic, beer and wine.
"Then I needed to have two bottles of wine or 1.5 liters of beer a day. I didn't care what was happening to my children, how I looked, and was just looking for money for alcohol. It was terrible," she said.
AA meetings became a place where Svetlana could come and share her stress and negative emotions, and where people would understand her, she said.
Alcoholics Anonymous found another member, Maria, 28, in a psychiatric hospital. Although she was a mother, Maria had such serious problem with alcohol that she sometimes forgot to pick up her child from the nursery school and didn't work.
"An AA member was the only person who came to visit me in the hospital," she said.
Visiting patients with alcohol problems is the last of 12 steps that AA members follow to overcome their problem.
The 12-step program begins with a member admitting he or she is an alcoholic. Other steps include making a list of people who they have harmed and making good for the harm they have caused.
The organization also has a list of concrete steps that are supposed to help people quit drinking.
One key principle is "never to take the first shot of alcohol." The program says that it's not right when a person with alcohol addiction thinks that as long as they do not take the third or the fifth shot that they won't get drunk; they should not start drinking at all.
Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in 1935 in Akron, Ohio. Its founders were surgeon Robert Smith and stock exchange broker Bill Wilson. Today AA unites about 3 million people around the world. At least 110 groups work in 150 countries.
In Russia there are 300 AA groups operating, which AA members say is not enough for a country with such a big alcohol problem.
Russia has about 8 million male alcoholics and 2 million female alcoholics. About 500,000 people with alcohol addiction are aged under 15, according to AA statistics.
The White Nights AA forum will take place in the Pervomaisky House of Culture and will include a concert, dances and a night excursion around the city.
The contact person is Sergei, tel. 924-12-24
TITLE: Estonian Lawmakers
Delay Ratification
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TALLINN, Estonia - Estonian lawmakers on Wednesday postponed the ratification of a long-awaited border treaty with Russia after a main opposition party demanded the document recognize the five-decade Soviet occupation of the Baltic country.
The delay could strain Estonia-Russia relations, which had been improving after the respective governments signed the border treaty in March.
The treaty was set to come before a parliamentary vote Wednesday, but ratification was postponed after the right-leaning Res Publica party threatened to boycott the vote.
The Party, which controls 28 seats in the 101-seat Riigikogu, demanded a preamble be added to the treaty stating that Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union from World War II until 1991. The treaty needs a minimum of 68 votes to pass.
Such a preamble would likely irritate Moscow, which has been reluctant to discuss the Soviet occupation. Russia has said Estonia must ratify the treaty first.
Riigikogu spokesman Gunnar Paal said the bill will be returned to parliament's foreign affairs committee for possible changes or additions. A new vote would take place Monday at the earliest, he said.
The nationalistic Pro Patria Union, another opposition party with seven seats, has also demanded the preamble.
Government leaders from Estonia and Russia signed the border treaty in Moscow on May 18.
Russia balked at signing a planned border treaty with Estonia's Baltic neighbor, Latvia, in May because Latvia insisted on attaching a similar statement.
Lawmakers hope that a ratified border treaty with Russia will ease often frigid relations between Tallinn and Moscow.
TITLE: Hand Grenade Explodes in Court
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A hand-grenade that exploded just after former policeman Andrei Lapin, 42, was sentenced in St. Petersburg's Primorsky district court on Wednesday killed one person and injured 12 others.
The dead man, Alexander Skel, had protected judge Vladimir Kazakov from a grenade Lapin detonated. Skel was part of an escort that was to take the convicts to jail, Fontanka.ru reported.
The defendants were at large during the trial, and are believed to have brought the grenade to the courtroom, which has no metal detector.
Lapin's hand was blown off.
The injured included Kazakov, the court secretary, the defendants' lawyers, and other members of the escort.
The three defendants, all former policemen, were convicted of exceeding their authority, NTV reported. All three received long sentences ranging up to six years, Fontanka.ru reported.
St. Petersburg prosecutors have opened a criminal case of infringing on the life of a law enforcement officer.
Prosecutors said charges such as murder or causing severe injury leading to death could be laid later.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Hazing Trial Begins
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Kronshtadt garrison military court has begun hearing the case of 12 marines who deserted from their military district after being hazed by senior officers, Interfax reported.
The investigation identified the two offenders, who have both served in the garrison for 1.5 years. A forensic examination found that seven marines had bruises and various injuries. Ten marines have been officially recognized as victims after the investigation.
Twelve marines deserted from their military garrison in Lomonosov on the night of April 6 to submit a protest letter to the military prosecutor's office. The marines said they routinely suffered from hazing and extortion.
Finnair to Plug Region
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Finnair has announced an ambitious plan to become St. Petersburg's strategic partner to boost tourism in the Northwest region, Interfax reported Thursday.
Suila Keilo, the Finnish air carrier's general manager, discussed tourism development plans on Wednesday, with Lyubov Sovershayeva, deputy presidential representative in the region.
"St. Petersburg is a pearl, but we shouldn't forget about the region's charming smaller cities like Vologda, Novgorod and Pskov," Interfax quoted Sovershayeva as saying. A new tourist route called the Silver Ring is being developed to embrace cultural heritage sites of the region. "The project requires substantial investments, including, possibly, Finnish investment," she said.
Officials to Face Judge
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Court cases have been launched against six senior police officials who are accused of violation of internal discipline, Interfax reported.
This year, the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office discovered and put under control 3,700 crimes that had been concealed. The prosecutor's office started criminal cases against 41 police officials, including six heads of departments.
For instance, Admiralteisky district prosecutor's office started a case against the head of a police station, accusing him of exceeding his authority. Between December 2004 and March 2005, the official had decided not to open 131 criminal cases. His decisions were later overruled by the prosecutor's office.
City Eyes Monuments
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Valentina Matviyenko expressed her support for control of monuments of national importance located in the city to be handed over by the federal authorities to the city, Interfax reported.
Matviyenko discussed the matter this week with President Vladimir Putin, the agency said.
"The monuments in question don't include the headquarters of federal organizations," Interfax quoted Matviyenko as saying.
"We can't tolerate the situation when buildings are falling to pieces and the city has no right to allocate money for the repairs."
Order Official Charged
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The former general director of the state-owned enterprise that provided supplies for City Hall has been accused of mismanagement and abuse of power, and a criminal case has been launched against him, Interfax reported.
The police said the official was signing deals with commercial structures that he himself controlled.
The deals were deliberately never fulfilled, increasing the company's debts and moving it toward bankruptcy. The criminal scheme resulted in the city budget losing more than 100 million rubles ($3.5 million).
TITLE: IKEA Starts Work On $500M Mega Project
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Swedish retailer IKEA started construction work on a $500 million investment project that includes setting up two family shopping centers and a further furniture store in the city.
By the side of the existing IKEA store in Dybenko, the company will build a MEGA retail and entertainment center and add another MEGA complex and IKEA in the Parnas area of the city, the company said Thursday.
Construction of the three projects will be complete by 2006.
Lennart Dahlgren, CEO of IKEA Russia, said that the company will invest $400 million into the project, with the rest of the financing to arrive from some of the retail centers' anchor tenants.
IKEA will remain the main owner and operator of the centers. Dahlgren said he expected a return on investment within eight years.
The company hopes to attract between 20 million and 30 million visitors to each of the two MEGA centers during their first year of opening.
Since IKEA opened its first Mega center in the Moscow region in 2002, the annual visitor numbers have reached about 50 million people, making it the company's most-attended retail center in the world.
Dahlgren expects the success to continue in St. Petersburg. "St. Petersburg is the fourth-biggest city in Europe. Megas shouldn't have difficulties with buyers here," he said.
Mega Dybenko will be the larger of the two St. Petersburg centers, occupying 145,000 square meters. Mega Parnas will take up 120,000 meters.
Each shopping center will accommodate more than 200 tenants, 50 percent of which have already been determined, IKEA said. Own brand IKEA furniture stores, Auchan supermarkets, DIY chain OBI and electronics chain M-Video will make up the anchor tenants.
Patrick Langue, head of Auchan in Russia, said the supermarket chain will invest $20 million into setting up their shops' production capacity. Auchan has leased 24,000 square meter and 20,000 square meter areas for its stores.
Oleg Spivak, commercial department director of Becar, sees the expansion by the Swedish retail giant as positive news for the city as it will broaden the number of retailers represented on the St. Petersburg market and tighten competition.
The view was not shared by Viktoria Kulibanova, development manager at Astera real estate agency, who attracts tenants for the Raduga retail center being built by Vinci Construction near the city's Park Pobedy area.
"Many shopping centers in the city are of rather low quality. Foreign affiliated retailers have the advantage of strong corporate philosophy and business concepts," Kulibanova said. "But even this doesn't guarantee market success. It will be rather hard for Mega to attract buyers to such a remote district."
Tenants often prefer shopping areas in the city center or in districts with active building activity.
Closeness to metro stations is also very important, Kulibanova said.
IKEA's Dahlgren said the company was interested in central locations for its new shops, but good relations with the Leningrad Oblast authorities has so far kept the focus outside of the city perimeter.
Meanwhile, Spivak thinks the out-of-town sites suit IKEA's marketing strategy, besides being more realistic because of the kind of space a large retail center requires.
"It's impossible to locate such huge shopping areas in the city center," Spivak said. "IKEA is middle-class oriented, while the city center is occupied mostly by expensive boutiques.
"The remoteness of the location is not a problem. Even in Moscow, Mega is far from the Rublyovskoye highway. When St. Petersburg gets the ring road highway, the construction of [out-of-town] shopping centers will dramatically increase," Spivak said.
Vice governor of the Leningrad Oblast, Grigory Dvas, said that IKEA's projects will make significant additions to the regional budget - about $7 million. The regional authorities are still discussing the possibility of offering IKEA an exemption from property taxes.
TITLE: Putin Opts for Champion
Firms to Get Recognition
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin affirmed what the economists have noted happening for some time - Russia has effectively abandoned its policy of stimulating economic growth through the fostering of small and medium-sized business and will instead support several champion industries to achieve global recognition.
Aside from the energy sector, Russia will bank on IT technologies and defense manufacturers to win recognition on a world scale, much like the hi-tech revolution of post-war Japan.
"We have to transfer to a more innovative way of [running] the economy," Putin said Tuesday at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.
Making a repeat assurance to businesses over the gung-ho actions of the country's tax authorities, Putin admitted that "a state's superfluous meddling in the country's economy can seriously hamper entrepreneurship.
"However, the state cannot be left on the sidelines. There exist such economic spheres in which the government's involvement is more than correct and has a due place. These [spheres] include infrastructure monopolies and the defense [industry]," Putin said.
The president said that the fallout from high oil prices and mounting gold reserves will be fed into appointed sectors to diversify the country's economic-industrial base.
Chris Weafer, chief analyst at Alfa Bank, noted that the government has been earmarking key industries such as raw materials, defense and aviation for some time.
The country desperately needed to divert some of its petrodollars to heavy manufacturing since this was the main stumbling block to furthering Russia's investment attractiveness, Weafer said.
"Russia has a very strong fiscal policy and we could see a credit ratings agency moving it up a category in the near future," Weafer said, adding that that the most likely candidate would be Moody's agency, "which already has Russian on a very favorable watch."
"However, the heart of the economy is the manufacturing-industrial base and that is where investment and progress is lacking," he said. "Yes, Coca Cola, Ikea, Toyota, firms in the consumer sector have all come in, but that is not enough.
"That investment is not going to substitute for the fall off in investment in the core, strategies industries, particularly those that the government itself now seems to be targeting," Weafer said.
A key issue at the forum was Russia's development of the Arctic region, with several keynote speakers stressing the area's economic value.
"The Arctic region plays a highly important role [for Russia] and also we are interested in global cooperation with the international community to develop that part of the world steadily," Putin said.
The country's natural resource giants Gazprom and LUKoil have several projects in the Arctic region.
The gas monopoly intends to choose Western partners this year for a joint venture to develop the Shtokman deposit in the Barents Sea, as well as a separate liquid natural gas plant at Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea.
Meanwhile, LUKoil has marked its northern Naryanmarneftegaz unit, recently in the center of controversy over a $1.46 million back tax bill, as a base for a joint venture with ConocoPhillips called Rusco.
TITLE: Tele2 Begins Expansion Into Oblast
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Swedish-owned Tele2, Russia's fourth-largest mobile operator, started its expansion into the regions, intending to double its network coverage by the end of the year, the company said Wednesday.
Although the company will remain mainly a urban-based operator, Tele2 plans to establish itself in "key towns" around the Leningrad Oblast, with 10 settlements to receive network coverage by the end of this month, said Sergei Sukharev, the head of Tele2 in St. Petersburg.
Analysts see the move as late in coming and somewhat misdirected, but a logical step to ensure the network's subscriber growth.
"Our network coverage will increase by 50 percent to 100 percent in terms of the number of base stations by the end of 2005," Sukharev said at a press briefing. He would not reveal the amount of investment Tele2 would put into the project or the number of base stations the network has in operation.
Konstantin Ankilov, analyst with iKS Consulting, estimates the operator's spending on base stations in the Oblast at $3 million to $5 million. Tele2 uses Siemens base stations and it is unlikely that the operator will place more than one or two base stations per town, Ankilov said.
In comparison, the country's second-largest operator, VimpelCom, spent $137 million to set up 900 base stations in the Northwest region, bringing the total number of stations close to 1,000, said Yevgenia Aleshko, press secretary at VimpelCom's St. Petersburg office.
"Tele2's network is rather sparse in its coverage; it's effective only if you happen to stand in the right place," said Yelena Sayapina, analyst with ACM consulting. She noted that Tele2's strategy to cover the region is a pragmatic step, but as yet ill-directed.
"[Small towns in the oblast] are not where the customers are. They need to cover dachas and highways. This should be a priority considering some people work in the city and live in the oblast - and they want to talk while they are in the car, in transit," Sayapina said.
For the moment, Tele2 is keeping their regional expansion low-key, insisting that it is just one of several new developments by the operator that should not, however, interfere with their core business strategy.
"The emphasis remains on [offering] the lowest prices and on the city, but we are starting to move to the regions, looking to cover the subway to a certain degree, among other things," Sukharev said.
Tele2 has installed base stations at six subway stations in St. Petersburg, picking the transfer stations first. The company may consider covering further stations, but is wary of excessive spending for a "prestigious, yet not very practical place to have a conversation," Sukharev said.
Ankilov disagreed with Tele2's caution, saying that the low-cost operator's client base are much more likely to be subway-users than car-owners.
"If anything, expanding in the subway would take away one of the disadvantages that Tele2 has, being a network with rather patchy coverage," Ankilov said.
According to ACM statistics, Tele2 holds a 5 percent share of the St. Petersburg market with 300,000 subscribers. The figure is ahead of Skylink's 2 percent (100,000 subscribers), but lagging far behind MegaFon's 42 percent, MTS's 32 percent, and VimpelCom's 19 percent.
TITLE: Toyota to Pour $1 Billion Into Russian Factory
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Japanese auto giant Toyota on Tuesday laid the foundation stone of its new assembly plant just outside of St. Petersburg, vowing to reach an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles "soon" after production starts in 2007.
Toyota plans to invest 4 billion rubles ($140.5 million) in the facility, becoming the first Japanese car manufacturer to build a Russian assembly plant.
President Vladimir Putin, who attended the ceremony along with St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko and other Russian and Japanese officials, said that he was sure that "the production of St. Petersburg's Toyota will find a wide audience."
"I see it as a sign of trust from businessmen in the opportunities and the potential in the Russian economy," he said.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who also attended the high-profile event, called Toyota's arrival to the Russian market "a symbol of expansion of Russian-Japanese economic relations." "If this project is successful, other Japanese businesses will keep coming to Russia," he said.
The plant, partly financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will have the initial capacity to produce annually 50,000 cars, the company's popular Camry model among them, but production numbers are expected to grow. Construction is set to begin next year, after reinforcement of the soil is completed.
"Soon we plan to expand the production to 200,000 units a year. The personnel would increase then by a total of 3,000 people," said Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota's board. However, Okuda did not specify how soon the production would reach that level.
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said that Toyota could invest $250 million into the plant over two years and a total of $1 billion long term, The Associated Press said.
Toyota also plans to open another production enterprise in the country, Okuda said. But he added that it was too early to speak about a possible new Russian facility in detail.
Last year, the sales of new foreign cars grew by more than 80 percent to 350,000 cars, and that number is expected to rise another 40 percent in 2005.
TITLE: FSB Raids Banks and Bourse
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Federal Security Bureau agents raided the offices of St. Petersburg's stock exchange and some of the city's banks on Wednesday and Thursday as a part of money laundering investigation.
Valery Kuznetsov, a spokesman for the regional branch of the Federal Security Service, FSB, said investigators were targeting a fraud ring or people that had been involved in illegally claiming value added tax rebates and then transferring the money abroad.
In comments to NTV, Kuznetsov said that several city bank accounts had been seized, along with millions in rubles and foreign currency. He added that among the FSB targets had been the St. Petersburg Futures Exchange bourse and several banks, including the Northwestern Investment and Industrial Bank and East Bridge Bank.
Interfax news agency reported that the FSB has launched a criminal case against the fraud ring under article 172 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal banking activities).
The FSB press-service also said that the federal service detained armored cars with armed guards, who had been part of the money trafficking operations, Interfax said.
The accounts of those suspected of involvement in the fraudulent activity have been frozen by the federal service. During the course of the investigation, the FSB confiscated 100 million rubles ($3.5 million) and several million in foreign currency from the accounts.
More than 20 people involved in the case were taken in by the FSB for questioning, Interfax said. The FSB press-service could not be reached for a comment on Thursday.
In contrast to the federal services report, general director of St. Petersburg Futures Stock Exchange Yevgeny Antifeyev said that the stock exchange had not been raided at all.
"The FSB indeed carried out raids on Wednesday in the building where our office is located. But it raided different commercial organizations - not us," Antifeyev said.
Antifeyev said he was surprised to hear the stock exchange mentioned in media reports. Despite the publicity, he said the stock exchange worked as normal on Thursday, though it did suffer "indirect damage" from the misinformation.
Meanwhile, Valery Kalachyov, chairman of the East Bridge Bank's board, said in his official statement distributed by the bank that police had no pretensions to the activities of the bank's St. Petersburg branch.
Kalachyov confirmed that the bank's documents had been seized by the federal services, but noted that they all concerned the activities of a small group of the bank's clients.
FSB demanded information on three companies that bank with the St. Petersburg branch of East Bridge Bank, Kalachyov said. Employees of the branch gave testimony in regards to opening those accounts. However, none of the bank's employees were detained and no criminal cases brought against them, Kalachyov said.
He said the bank had cooperated with the federal investigation throughout the proceedings.
President of the city's Northwest Investment and Industrial Bank, Alexander Mirtskhulava, said Thursday in a telephone interview that the FSB had carried out searches in the city's branch of the bank on Wednesday.
He said that about 25 masked men had surrounded the bank on Wednesday, which caused him to invite them in.
The FSB produced a warrant for the seizing of one of the bank's accounts. But, since the account had been closed at the end of last year there was nothing to take, Mirtskhulava said.
The FSB then showed Mirtskhulava a search warrant and forbade the bank's president to use the telephone. All the employees of the bank were told to leave their work places and were gathered in one room, Mirtskhulava said.
"In general, the FSB was trying to accuse the bank of illegal banking activities - making secret deals with some of the clients," Mirtskhulava said.
Later, the FSB named 10 people the service alleged to be the bank's clients, and whose activities it wanted to investigate for alleged money laundering. However, some of the mentioned people had never been the clients of the Investment and Industrial Bank; several others had had their accounts closed in 2003 and 2004, Mirtskhulava said.
In the process of the raid, the FSB took cash from several money safes that did not belong to the persons it had named as under investigation, Mirtskhulava said.
Mirtskhulava said he, personally, was always "afraid of keeping clients that might be running money laundering schemes through the bank."
TITLE: Pit Product Snapped Up By Finnish Atria Group
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Leading Scandinavian meat producer and processor, Atria Group, has entered the Russian market by purchasing one of St. Petersburg's largest meat processors Pit Product, the firm said Thursday.
The Finnish company would not reveal how much the deal was worth or how big a share in Pit Product it had bought. Market analysts value the city-based company at $20 million, not including debt obligations, and say the financial injection from the Finns is likely to boost Pit Product's market share and spark a steady regional expansion.
The head of Atria Group, Seppo Paatelainen, said that the Finnish company will not introduce its own brand onto the Russia market, but will instead work with Pit Product in promoting "a well-recognized local brand," following Atria's business strategy in the Baltics, Sweden, and other European countries.
"As well as a high level of technical development and a broad product range, we are a major exporter of fresh meat. I think the Russian market suffers from an uneven supply of raw meat, and we can help Pit Product [in that area] as well as investing money and know-how to develop the business," Paatelainen said at a press briefing.
Atria plans to pour 20 million to 30 million euros ($24.1 million to $36.2 million) into the St. Petersburg producer in the next few years to support brand promotion and improve Pit Product's processing facilities.
The first major joint project on the agenda will be a logistics center in the St. Petersburg area.
"The space for the logistics center has been chosen, and construction will start this fall, to be completed sometime next year," said Gleb Ognyannikov, director of Trigon Capital and a representative of Pit Product's shareholder group.
He would not reveal the center's location, but said the project was projected to cost between $7 million and $12 million.
Ognyannikov added that a logistics center was vital to setting up a steady supply of fresh meat and processed meat that major grocery retail chains demand when working with meat processors.
Although Pit Product only supplies about 40 percent of its produce to supermarket chains, mainly to economy class outlets Pyatyorochka, Nakhodka and Kopeika, the company hopes to raise that number, and is currently in negotiations with Metro Cash & Carry, among others.
"Atria's purchase of Pit Product's shares, though rather a conservative step, is a good sign in a market that has become very fragmented of late," Musheg Mamikonyan, president of the Meat Union, said Thursday in a telephone interview.
"For the last two years the Russian meat market has grown and it has been the regional players, rather than the national, that have fared best," Mamikonyan said. He estimated Pit Product holds a 1 percent share in Russia's meat market, weighing in at 2,275,000 metric tons in 2004.
Pit Product estimates its market share in St. Petersburg to be 20 percent, level with Krandshatsky meat processing plant. It rates Parnas meat processor as another competitor. With support from Atria, Pit Product aims to gain a 30 percent market share.
TITLE: EY Law to Make Key Changes Post Merger
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: EY Law CIS made a number of significant staff changes at its practices in St. Petersburg as it prepares to split from parent company Ernst & Young, the firm said Wednesday.
From July 1, EY Law CIS will be subsumed by international legal firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, creating what will be one of the largest legal practices in the region.
Ralf Wagener will take over as the office managing partner for Ernst & Young in St. Petersburg practice.
He will succeed Olga Litvinova, who departs to head the DLA Piper's new office in the city. Wagener will also become head of Ernst & Young's local assurance and business advisory services practice, replacing Alexander Svistich who will return to Ernst & Young's practice in Kiev.
Wagener has worked with Ernst & Young Germany in Berlin and has over 15 years experience in the professional services market, Ernst & Young said.
Ernst & Young's tax practice in St. Petersburg will be led by Dmitry Babiner. Andrei Shamshurin will head the transaction advisory practice. Among other major changes, Ruslan Vasutin, currently a senior manager with EY Law, will be promoted to partner of DLA Piper.
Both the spun-off legal practice EY Law and Ernst & Young said that the changes were mutually beneficial and simply mirrored a global process.
"Ernst & Young does not render legal services in the U.S. and many European countries, and the move that we are now undertaking - the separation of our legal practice from the firm's network - has already happened recently in many countries in Europe, where some of our other practices are either following or planning to follow the same route," said Doug Gardner, managing partner for Ernst & Young CIS.
Other market players note that the process of separating the tax, auditing and consultancy firm Ernst & Young from the legal division EY Law will be a positive step for both companies, but the latter's success will much depend on its positioning on the legal market.
"At the moment, EY Law prices more competitively, generally 10 percent below such firms as Coudert Brothers, Baker & McKenzie, and Salans ... whereas DLA Piper tends to be in the high-end price category," said Glen Kolleeny, partner at Salans law firm in St. Petersburg. "[EY Law] run the risk of losing that niche in the market if they raise prices [to the level of DLA Piper]."
Charles Keefe, New York partner at Coudert Brothers sees the changes at EY Law as a positive sign. The merger with DLA Piper, one of the largest legal firms in the world, will bring EY Law CIS much depth and consultancy expertise from around the world.
"It'll also work to bring in the referrals. DLA Piper offices in London, or the U.S. can now say to clients who have Russian branches: hey, we have a large operation there too, why don't you use them?"
DLA Piper employs over 2,800 lawyers across 50 offices and 18 countries, and provides a broad range of legal services.
For the moment, neither EY Law nor DLA Piper have disclosed the pricing strategy of the legal practice in details.
"DLA's pricing policy will be based on the market realities, taking into consideration the quality and experience of resources, as well as the specifity of the products it will offer," said Olga Litvinova, head of St Petersburg office of EY Law CIS.
TITLE: BMW Revs Against Rivals
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The popularity of BMW in Russia will ensure a sales growth in 2005 of close to 40 percent, despite increased competition in the premium car segment, St. Petersburg dealers of the German automaker said Wednesday.
Although BMW has often attracted a kind of "cool," gangster-like image in Russian movies and music videos, a string of rival car brands, most notably Lexus, have rapidly increased in popularity.
According to an ISM Holding report, 406,000 foreign brand cars were sold in Russia in 2004. BMW outperformed rivals in the premium class market with 4,807 vehicles sold. Meanwhile, Audi sold 4,100 cars, Mercedes - 4,000, and Lexus 3,559.
Alexander Kompas, deputy director of Axel Motors, a BMW dealer in the city, said that the market value for BMW cars in St. Petersburg was about 50 million euros, with 420 cars sold. He expected this year's sales growth to be about 35 percent.
Meanwhile, Eurosib Service, part of the Eurosib Holding that owns another BMW dealership called Eurosib Lakhta, said Wednesday that its sales volume rose by 38 percent last year to 273 autos. This beat the company's sales target of 210 cars and Eurosib Service expects the trend to continue in 2005, said Vitaly Dmitriyev, managing director of Eurosib Services.
According to the ISM report, however, BMW sales face mounting pressure from Lexus and Mercedes. Lexus doubled its sales in 2004, the report said.
"Rapid growth in Lexus sales has an objective reason. Two years ago there wasn't a Lexus dealer [in the city]," Kompas said.
He believed the spur for Lexus sales also lay in the pricing. A Lexus is priced in dollars, while other manufacturers set prices in euros.
"If the prices for a Lexus and a BMW were equal, buyers would prefer the German manufacturer. Besides, the brands have different images," Kompas said.
This year BMW will expand its model range in Russia by introducing the BMW M5 and the BMW M6 models, a new off-road vehicle and diesel-powered cars.
TITLE: Chaos on Demand
TEXT: While President Vladimir Putin steadily builds his vertical of power, his constituents seem to be experiencing a major shift in attitude away from a sense of stability and order toward feelings of anarchy and turmoil.
According to an opinion poll conducted last month by the Levada Center, 43 percent of Russians think the country is headed toward anarchy. In 2004, only 2 percent shared similar feelings. This dramatic shift has occurred in the course of a single year. It appears to have very little to do with ordinary Russians' reactions to social and economic factors, and a lot to do with an intentional strategy to foment fears of chaos.
Fear for the future is a familiar feeling for the majority of Russians. Back in the early 1990s, most families lived hand to mouth and could barely make ends meet. The transformation of the entire political, social and economic system was so dramatic that people had few expectations of stability.
Yet much has happened since. Russia now has a popular president, a monolithic and extremely predictable legislature and, more importantly, a government with cash to spend.
How can it be that in a country that is not engaged in a major military conflict and is experiencing robust economic growth and a budget surplus, almost half the population apparently feels that tomorrow will bring more chaos?
The same poll provided a partial answer to this riddle. It revealed that the number of Russians who thought Putin would bring more democracy to the country has decreased from 55 percent in 2004 to 12 percent in 2005. But the number of people who think that Russia is moving toward an authoritarian regime remains unchanged at 8 percent. Hence, Russians apparently no longer see the democracy-autocracy dilemma as the main driver of social and political debate.
From the "democratic" 1990s, many Russians took away a very negative impression of democracy as a system of governance. It did not pay the bills and left many in poverty. Current policymakers have apparently decided to transform democracy into an elegant slogan, fit for target audiences abroad.
Yet for domestic consumption, the architects of current policy have stressed in many recent policy proposals, speeches and interviews the imperative to unite behind the president and his party and prevent the country from falling apart. The president himself has frequently made the "collapse story" the starting point of major policy speeches and addresses. The United Russia faction in the State Duma echoes his words. The cleavage between order and anarchy has begun to dominate social discourse. And according to the Levada poll, issues of stability and order have grabbed the attention of 63 percent of Russians, compared with a mere 16 percent a year earlier.
However, the elimination of actual social disorder and instability is not the aim of the government's campaign. Instead, the state wants to instill a sense of instability and chaos in order to open new avenues for controlling society. The administration seems to see this as its only option for staying in power.
And so far, the strategy appears to be working very well. According to the poll, 43 percent of Russians already fear anarchy and chaos.
This strategy is as elegant as it is unsustainable. Decision-makers may think that they have discovered a magic wand to keep society in line, but in reality they have opened a Pandora's box.
The state is walking a fine line between a feeling of chaos and actual anarchy. By no means does the Kremlin want to see Russia collapse. On the contrary, it is doing everything it can to centralize and streamline the control mechanisms at all levels of power. However, the fear that Russia is headed toward chaos could be exploited by any political party or movement and used to gain widespread and destabilizing popularity.
The system of delegative democracy, which best characterizes the current political regime in Russia, only functions well when the state is able to capitalize on people's expectations and constantly provide tangible material benefits. In other words, people delegate a wide range of powers to the president with expectations of immediate and significant rewards.
When expectations exceed the capacity of the state, people withdraw their support for the president. Democracy might not pay the bills and put bread on the table, but neither does fear. Recent opinion polls, such as one by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Demoscope Polling Organization, indicate that Russians have already begun to feel the gap between their expectations and the actual performance of the state. Few are confident that the president and the government are capable of addressing daunting issues like terrorism, inflation and social protection. If this gap is growing despite a positive economic outlook, it is hard to imagine what would happen in a time of economic contraction.
And economic expectations are on the rise. By and large, people have better lives now than they did in the early and mid-1990s. People buy more food, purchase durable goods, take out consumer loans and sign up for credit cards. Consumer culture is spreading fast in Russia, and international financial institutions have become major players on the market. Experts concur that the coming year will see a rapid expansion of consumer finance services from Moscow and St. Petersburg into the regions. The same fate awaits the mortgage market.
People who have loans to pay off do not want to hear words like anarchy and chaos. If things do go south economically, and if the state offers people a nebulous sense of order instead of a paycheck, it is not hard to imagine how the public expression of economic discontent and panic could rapidly escalate out of the Kremlin's control.
Finally, by introducing the elements of fear and chaos, policymakers once again expand the agenda the country has to deal with. The state needs to implement important national projects, such as the structural reform of the economy, health care and education reform and the reform of social services. Its poor performance record thus far indicates that the capacity of the state to deal with pressing issues is very limited. Another agenda item might very well break the back of this government. And this would not bode well for stability.
Alexei Sitnikov is a senior research associate for the Institute for Open Economy in Moscow. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Russian Market Attractive, But Mainly to Outsiders
TEXT: There is a well-known joke that says Russians can only make one good thing - children. The business press in Austria showed in an analysis of the Russian retail trade that this joke is up to date. European experts suggested that the Austrian businesses engaged in food production should treat Russia as a market filled with opportunities that will develop in the near future.
The reasoning was pretty simple. Food production in Russia, despite its huge potential, is significantly underdeveloped. In its current condition the domestic food industry is not able to satisfy growing demands, to fill shelves in new retail stores with quality products. The stores are growing like mushrooms after the rain in the biggest Russian cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg.
Conditions for investing in Russia are extremely hard for foreign businesses, but the retail trade in Russia is quite attractive. Among the millions of people, 1.3 percent of Moscow's population whose incomes qualify them as members of the middle class want high quality food products, according to the Austrian media. High quality food products made in Russia are not popular on shelves of supermarkets of big cities. The Western business press has noted that food production in Russia is growing at just 4 percent annually, which is far behind the rate at which demand is growing.
"Russia has no stable foreign policy, is not a member of the WTO and has relatively high import duties. The worst is, of course, the bureaucracy, according to exporters' reports. Import licenses are necessary for numerous products, such as alcohol or meat. In order to obtain them [a businessman] has to make a long trip through different government institutions. Russia has protectionist policies for many products ... but protectionism has achieved little, according to the Moscow-based Institute for the Economy in Transition: the trade deficit is growing in spite of it," Austrian daily Die Presse wrote.
This promising market is good news for the European food production industry, but at the same time this is quite a serious problem that the Russian government should think about if the authorities really want the country to become a developed nation some day.
More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Kremlin has not taken a single noticeable step to boost development of the country's farming industry.
According to Agriculture Ministry statistics, there were about 264,000 private farms officially registered in the country by the end of 2004. That is just 1.1 percent more than at the end of 1999. Last year, these farms, the only ones that operate on a commercial basis, produced goods worth 52.5 trillion rubles ($1.8 trillion), including 12.5 trillion rubles of meat and milk products. The figures seem pretty big, but the fact is that this is just 4 percent of the total agricultural output in Russia, a shameful amount for a country with such significant potential agricultural resources.
It seems the government is comfortable sitting with an open oil and gas tap, feeding the federal budget with income from the export of natural resources. It is easy money that does not demand any changes in legislation, any public debate or well thought out reforms. Billions of dollars just keep flowing into the reserves of the Central Bank, assuring the country a more or less stable existence.
It would not be difficult to cover the shortage in quality products on the food market or other markets in the country at the expense of exports from abroad. It does not seem to be hard, especially taking into account that bureaucratic barriers do not stop foreign businesses.
They know full well that the costs of getting approvals from the authorities, including huge bribes that need to be paid to obtain necessary licenses or frayed nerves from dealing with government institutions, will be fully compensated by relatively big incomes from sales.
It's a very positive thing that foreign business have an interest and intention to go to Russia with their products, but at the same time the Russian government's failure to give its population an opportunity to learn to produce something with their own hands is very negative. It is good to make children, but hands should also be taught to do something other than just to open and close the oil tap.
TITLE: Elements of Style
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As a scholar who has devoted her career to studying fashion, Olga Vainshtein always had a natural curiousity about dandies. But her interest took off after she unwittingly married one. During a recent interview in a Moscow cafe, Vainshtein described her style-conscious husband, Shakespeare scholar Aidyn Dzhebrailov.
"After we were married, I observed how carefully he would get dressed in the morning," she said. "We'd go shopping for clothes together. I'd see something I thought was fine, but Aidyn would say, 'That's for the collective farm. That's garbage.' And this is how I began to discover the world of a male taste that is very different from female taste."
Vainshtein - a senior researcher at the Russian State University of the Humanities, or RSUH - recently finished a book titled "Dandy: Fashion, Literature, Lifestyle." The monumental book is the first cultural history of men's fashion to be written in Russian. But even before Moscow's NLO publishing house released the book in April, Vainshtein had impeccable credentials as a scholar of style. In 2003, she edited a book called "Fragrances and Scents in Culture," and she also serves on the advisory board of the British quarterly journal Fashion Theory.
Part of the impetus for "Dandy" came from Vainshtein's course on European Romanticism at RSUH, in which her lectures on English dandies are especially popular with students. A self-described Anglophile, Vainshtein devotes much of the book to the history of dandyism in England - from George "Beau" Brummel's breakthroughs in hygiene and irony to the downfall of dandyism after Oscar Wilde gave it a homosexual subtext. But since those examples have been studied extensively in the West, English-speaking readers are more likely to pick up the book to learn about dandyism in Russia. And Vainshtein doesn't let them down.
One of the themes that Vainshtein explores is the role of fashion in Russia's "East or West?" identity crisis. At many times in Russian history, she writes, clothing could be taken to signify the political stance of its wearer. For instance, when Paul I ascended the throne in 1796, he feared that the European fashions introduced by his great-grandfather, Peter the Great, might herald a democratic revolution. The mercurial new tsar ordered his imperial policemen to cut the latest French designs off of fops as they promenaded down Nevsky Prospekt, sending them scurrying home half-naked.
There were echoes of this in the Soviet period too. Vainshtein describes how a subculture of stilyagi, or hipsters, emerged in the wake of World War II, thanks to the greater access of Western culture - namely, jazz and Hollywood movies. Stilyagi were a fixture of the postwar urban landscape, but the frequency of their flanerie down Ulitsa Gorkogo (now Tverskaya Ulitsa) depended on the ebb and flow of official tolerance.
Vainshtein outs many prominent historical figures as dandies. The notorious fast living of Pushkin and Lermontov makes their weakness for clothes no surprise. But did you know that novelist Ivan Goncharov was a snazzy dresser too? Vainshtein informs us that the author of "Oblomov" regularly wore a dickey, worsted twill boots with lacquered toes and a watch chain that tinkled with charms. And philosopher Pyotr Chaadayev, it turns out, impressed the teenage Pushkin not just with his ideas but with his fabulous outfits as well. "The key to the extravagance of [Chaadayev's] dress was its daring lack of extravagance," Vainshtein writes, quoting semiotician Yury Lotman, and the pro-Western thinker comes off as a prototype of Karl Lagerfeld.
But she also traces the history of dandyism in Russia. Of course, a cultural history needs more than celebrity anecdotes to be convincing, and Vainshtein's book gives due attention to the propagation of fashion trends throughout the Russian public. Like their Western counterparts, middle-class Russians copied the trends they saw in high fashion. But according to Vainshtein, bourgeois Russians had a different sensibility than their Western counterparts. "Russian dandies frequently used their dress to demonstrate their material wealth and went overboard with expensive accessories," she writes.
For many readers, this might be reminiscent of the conspicuous consumers of the 1990s. The similarities are striking indeed. Vainshtein continues: "A feature that has long defined Russia's fashion victims is that they try too hard, their efforts are too obvious and this makes them stick out of the crowd. ... Having acquired decent clothing, they feel restricted in it, fearing that a superfluous movement could spoil their attire. In their desire to 'out-French' the French, they instantly reveal their status as 'followers,' while true dandies can afford to deviate from the strict demands of fashion to suit their personal taste and freedom."
Speaking last month, Vainshtein said that the Russian tendency to dress up "is a reaction to the lack of freedom, both ideological and economic." She explained that both the tsarist-era Table of Ranks and the conservative mores of Soviet society dictated strict codes for what people could wear, and extravagant dressing was a reaction to that. Today, simple economics inspire Russians to dress up. "It's a complex of compensation," she said. "People who can't afford a nice apartment or an expensive vacation place the burden of their social expectations on their clothing."
For precisely this reason, Vainshtein believes that dandyism has never truly flourished in Russia. Because of the great symbolic value placed on clothing, Russians can't dress with the carefree abandon of classic dandies - they're afraid of staining their dreams of prosperity. To illustrate this point, Vainshtein offers the example of poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who wore fancy clothes even during the poverty of the Civil War.
"He was dressed very fashionably in a time when people were dressed very poorly," writes Vainshtein, quoting critic Mikhail Bakhtin. "[And] it seemed that he constantly felt that he was dressed like a dandy, like a dandy! But a dandy doesn't feel how he's dressed. That is the hallmark of a dandy - he wears his clothes as if they mean nothing to him. But I could tell [Mayakovsky] kept thinking about his flared greatcoat, and how fashionably he was dressed, and what a figure he had. I didn't like it at all."
The situation isn't much better in contemporary Russia. Vainshtein lists a number of present-day paragons of male elegance, including U.S. Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley and British art historian Steven Calloway - but no Russians make the list. In Russia, "institutions of fashion are poorly formed," she explained last week.
Although the recent appearance of a Russian edition of Esquire would seem to indicate that Russian men are becoming more interested in style, Vainshtein countered that the magazine is competing for the same men who read GQ and other glossy rags, a group which by her estimate is very small. "In Russia, most people think a metrosexual is someone who has sex in the metro," Vainshtein said, giggling. The author is quick to note, however, that metrosexuality is not dandyism but a commercialized perversion of it. She writes of dandyism as "games free people play," while perceiving metrosexuals as captives of consumerism. Metrosexuals look to the media for cues about what to wear, whereas a dandy would decide such matters for himself, Vainshtein said. In other words, metrosexuality is a product of advanced capitalism, not a direction for the development of dandyism.
"The future of dandyism is about being 'cool,'" she said, switching to English for the final word. The front and back covers of "Dandy" eloquently communicate her vision for the future. The front depicts Brummel, the granddaddy of dandies, while the back shows what Vainshtein sees as his ideological heir: a London hairdresser in a white leather jacket, torn jeans and fingerless Lycra gloves.
"People questioned my choice of this image for the back," Vainshtein said. "They were expecting a man in white tie, but that's just a standard uniform. The closest thing to a dandy today is a man who feels free from within and can make daring combinations."
"Dandy: Fashion, Literature, Lifestyle" (Dendi: Moda, Literatura, Stil Zhizny) is published by NLO.
TITLE: CHERNOV'S CHOICE
TEXT: This June saw a new yet disappointing local music tendency. Decent Western artists come to town but their fans have no chance to hear their music, as they perform at reclusive, elitist and very expensive events.
Last week's "secret" concert was that by British Sea Power, the new acclaimed British band compared to Joy Division and The Smiths.
For some reason, the band whose fans should mainly be young people, played at the Jet Set Beach on the beach of the Gulf of Finland in Komarovo, the extra summertime location for the elitist local nightclub, with tickets costing 1,000 rubles ($36), a hefty sum for Russia considering the difference in Russian and Western wages.
According to an onlooker, the public drove up in Mercedes and consisted mostly of middle-aged, suit-wearing "New Russians" and their very young girlfriends. Neither seemed to like the band very much; some quickly left as the music did not help to enjoy the meal.
"What idea of the Russian public did they get?" said a fan, who managed to catch the sound check but had no chance to get into the show which took place last Saturday.
An upscale fashion event featuring Brian Ferry was reported to be a failure by the local media. Called "Haute Couture Gala Reception" and held in Kostantinovsky Palace, a former imperial palace in Strelna that has been turned into the city residence of President Vladimir Putin. The reception was oriented for the superrich with invitations costing the sensational 36,000 rubles ($1,286).
Afisha magazine reported last week that none of the celebrities (the news release listed Catherine Denueve, Stella McCartney, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix and Brian Eno, who was in the city but left for his home in Britain three days before the event) arrived, except for Ferry who was to provide the music.
The only celebrities spotted in the public were domestic: Senator Lyudmila Narusova, widow of late St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and the once heavily hyped pop singer Detsl from Moscow. Afisha reported that because of many delays and cold weather the majority of the public cleft before Ferry climbed on stage early in the morning. Whether it was a flop or not is academic -the promoters got their money.
The massive, stadium events continue with The Prodigy who will come as promised after their Russian tour was postponed in April due to the illness of member Keith Flint. The Prodigy will play at the Ice Palace on Saturday. Marilyn Manson will follow by playing the same venue Monday.
The Junists, a Belgian quartet that has been compared to The Tiger Lillies for singer /accordion player Matthieu Ha's falsetto vocals, will perform at Platforma on Thursday, Fish Fabrique on June 24 and GEZ-21 on June 25.
Apologizes go to vocalist Jennifer Davis, whose last name was misspelled last week. Her new soul-funk band, J.D. and the Blenders, will perform its second public concert at Griboyedov on Saturday. For other musical events see gigs.
By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: High Dining
TEXT: Sitting at a table on the 6th floor terrace of the Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, you see the old town up close and personal.
Charming crumbling rooftops. The shiny golden cupola of St. Isaac's Cathedral just across the street make for an unbeatable view, even if the city weather is at its moody best as it was when we visited.
When we arrived at our table, our waiter Alexei was prompt to offer us a menu.
The list featured a tempting selection of starters. My dining companion opted for beetroot jelly with fillet of Iceland herring and laredo apple, placed on toasted black Russian bread with round potatoes served with dill-mustard sauce (225 rubles, $7.90).
This very light yet filling starter is an interesting example of juxtaposing traditional Russian ingredients with a European approach and presentation. In most Russian eateries, herring and beetroot are typically covered with a substantial layer of mayonnaise, making for a rather heavy dish.
But our airy, semi-transparent beetroot jelly with smooth, thin slices of herring was perfectly suited to the dill-mustard sauce, exposing the essence of the dish yet saving you from the fat part.
I almost ordered duck pate filled with cherries and served with pears poached in red-wine sauce (360 rubles, $12.60) but then reconsidered, opting for a soup as I couldn't resist the sound of it.
My game solyanka, garnished with bear, elk and wild boar meat (285 rubles, $10) was excellent. With a distinct and rich game flavor, the dish wasn't at all heavy. No floating oil drops - an inevitable feature of cheap solyankas - were spotted.
The restaurant's soup selection is appealing and diverse, including, for instance, borshch with seafood, crepes and mushrooms flavored with fresh coriander and sour cream foam (300 rubles $10.50) or mushroom cream soup with crayfish tails and leek (285 rubles, $10).
We stretched our legs, smiling at the sun and enjoying the view. "We are lucky with the weather today, aren't we," my dining companion winked at me. I wish she hadn't. A few moments later, my napkin soared up in the air under a strong and sudden gust of wind.
Dried old leaves waltzed onto the terrace. The clouds were turning darker by the second. The weather was turning dramatic.
We struggled to stay out as long as we could. We didn't want to give up. I caught the breadbasket four times, my napkin four times and butter knife once. After my first miss, when the butter knife finally fell on the floor, we felt it was the time to move inside.
As we were walking away, the weather waved us goodbye. When we looked back at a suspicious sharp sound behind us, our fears were confirmed: a glass was swept off a table in the far corner and shattered on the floor.
Ten minutes later, we were still digesting the marvels of the weather.
The promising look of our main courses diverted our thoughts. My pork fillet - two tender pieces sprinkled with herbs and stuffed with olives and sundried tomatoes - was soaked in rich chanterelle mushroom sauce with a slight bitter note (840 rubles, $29.40). It was served with creamy almond potato puree.
My dining companion, a big fish lover and much into healthy eating, had trouble choosing between sea bass, sturgeon and Norwegian salmon, but was happy with her choice of sturgeon (750 rubles, $26.30).
The dish was mild and delicately cooked. Smooth sturgeon roulade poached in salted bouillon was served with spinach and filling mushroom-potato puree. The desserts were hard to resist, and we opted to share a mascarpone (270 rubles, $9.45).
When the dessert arrived, the sun was shining again and new guests were heading straight outside, but we were too comfortable to move back.
Served in a large martini glass, the dessert - smooth and not overly sweet - was topped with forest berries. Rich biscuit soaked in cognac and coffee punch was generously covered with thick mousse to a terrific result.
But my dining companion puffed her cheeks at her cappuccino (150 rubles, $5.25), which she said was watery. "The foam is too rich, but the coffee itself is too bland, lacking in flavor and character," she said, with displeasure, pushing her cup away.
In the meantime, we noticed the terrace was a popular coffee spot: when we got up to leave, all the tables inside were occupied with coffee-drinkers showing no signs of discontent.
TITLE: Drummer mourned
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Pierre Moerlen, the French drummer extraordinaire best known for his work with the legendary prog-rock band Gong, established strong links to St. Petersburg in the past few years. He performed at the local SKIF Festival with a group of Russian musicians in 2001 as Pierre Moerlen's Gong and recorded an album in a St. Petersburg studio the following year. After a series of delays the album, "Pentanine," was released last year. Moerlen was considering a Russian tour when he suddenly died last month.
Moerlen first came to Russia in April 2001 at the invitation of city musician Alexei Plyusnin, the then art director of SKIF, or Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival, the city's main improv and experimental music annual event in April. He would perform at the festival with a group of local musicians picked by Plyusnin, who was to have played bass.
"Moerlen sent music by e-mail, notes and midi files which you could listen to, and we actually met Moerlen in a rehearsal studio," said Mikhail Ogorodov, the keyboard player who played with Moerlen at the festival and produced his Russian album.
"Honestly, I was scared - until the moment he entered the studio and said 'I'm Pierre, what's your name?'"
In the course of two weeks of rehearsals, the lineup, which included ex-Akvarium guitarist Alexei Zubarev, went through several changes. Bassist Plyusnin, who wanted to turn the concert into a free improvisation performance, had to leave and two conservatory students playing xylophone and vibraphone, the instruments providing the main melody lines in Moerlen's music, were brought in.
"[Moerlen] would take part in any project, but he came specifically to play his own program," said Ogorodov, who said the concert was affected by the notoriously chaotic organization of SKIF.
"It was scheduled for 10 p.m., but we entered the stage at 12:30 a.m.," he said.
"What we rehearsed was one thing, but on stage we were not even given a chance to tune in, so the sound was raw. Of course, the public raved, but it couldn't have done anything else because the music is tuneful, accessible, and pleasant to the ear."
Moerlen seemed to have found a kindred spirit in Ogorodov, who boasts an impressive knowledge of prog-rock and jazz-rock music history. He was also enthusiastic about the interest the Russian musicians he played with showed for the music.
"I've just noticed that in the East there's a strong interest in the kind of music I do," said Moerlen in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times in April 2001.
"I see it in the people who play - Misha [Ogorodov], for instance, he has got all my albums and quite a lot people know my music. And that's pleasing, of course. I've played with a band before with musicians who didn't really like my music that much and it can be difficult - here it's not the case. They really like it."
Having received an offer to record an album after the concert, Moerlen jumped on it, Ogorodov said, though the recording sessions did not start until the next year. "The SKIF treated him improperly, they didn't pay him the money they had promised, he grew nervous, he was all trembling and incapable of doing anything," he said.
"Pentanine" was recorded in a city recording studio in a Lutheran church on Vasilyevsky Island with a new group of musicians picked by Ogorodov in May and June 2002.
As Zubarev was then busy composing soundtracks to television series, Arkady Kuznetsov brought in Ritmo Caliente on guitar and Alexei Pleshchunov on bass. The album, recorded with engineer Vadim "Dess" Sergeyev, was financed with a $12,000 advance from the Moscow-based label Misteriya Zvuka.
For the album, Moerlen contributed 12 compositions while Ogorodov composed some soundscapes that go between the numbers as hidden tracks. "All the numbers are very rhythmical and dynamic, while in Gong's music there was always something electronic, atmospheric. I suggested it to him and he agreed at once.
"The process went very fast, [Moerlen] recorded all the drum parts in three days, he was surprised that it went very smoothly because usually it takes a long time to tune in drums, for instance," he said.
"We had it mastered at Mosfilm studios [in Moscow], gave it to the company and were waiting for its release for a very, very long time. I had the impression that they wanted to sell it to the West quickly before it was released in Russia, but they didn't have the proper license and rights to do it."
Moerlen's recording sessions for the album that was finally released in September 2004 proved to be his last.
"He was there, we were here, he kept asking us when the record would be released, when would we go on tour. He wanted us to play together, we exchanged e-mails," Ogorodov said.
"I got an e-mail from him on April 28. I was about to go to visit him [in France], but on May 6 or 7 I got a call from [engineer] Sergeyev who said he had come across the news on the web that he suddenly died."
Moerlen's death at 52 was probably drugs-related, Ogorodov said.
"His main problem was that he liked drugs very much, which was in a way pushing him to his untimely demise," Ogorodov said. "When he returned [in 2002] he would tell very many interesting stories about himself and his work. He could give detailed accounts about the things that were happening in the mid-1970s and totally forget what was yesterday."
"He had a difficult fate as a musician. Once he had a conflict with a manager who called and faxed every label so that nobody would work with him. He had to sell his house in England, tour a lot and work on musicals. He probably turned to drugs because of the hardships.
"Now you can see people remembering him and writing what a great drummer died on the web. But where were they when he needed their support?"
Moerlen brought a multi-channel master tape of his unreleased music from the early 1980s to St. Petersburg in 2002. "He brought it simply as a gift and said, 'Here, it's from me to you, it can be remixed and used somehow in the future,'" Ogorodov said.
"He has always had some ideas for the future [in Russia], because he liked it here, he liked to work with us, we understand each other well in spite of the language barrier.
"When I mentioned to him that his remarkable 1979 album 'Time Is the Key' was very popular in Russia, he said, 'Russians have good ears and good hearts.'"
Moerlen was born on Oct. 23, 1952, in Colmar, Alsace, France, studied classical percussion, and played with various bands and for musical theater productions until he joined Gong, then based in France south of Paris near Sens, in January 1973.
Moerlen appeared on and co-composed the band's classical albums "Angel's Egg" and "You," both released in 1974 and formed Pierre Moerlen's Gong in 1978. He recorded and toured with Mike Oldfield in the late 1970s and early 1980s and toured with Brand X in the late 1990s. Moerlen died on May 3.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong "Pentanine" is available on Misteriya Zvuka.
www.planetgong.co.uk.
TITLE: Acting older
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Molodyozhny Theater began celebrating its 25th anniversary on Thursday and performances of its best productions will run until next Thursday.
"It's an old Russian tradition to celebrate holidays over several days," said Semyon Spivak, the chief director of the theater for 15 years who celebrated his 55th birthday Tuesday. "It's wonderful that the theater management agreed and found money to do so. It's a very interesting experiment."
The Molodozhny was established by Vladimir Malishitsky in 1980 and immediately won audiences' hearts. The theater became the youth stage for experimental theater forms. The theater company consisted of professional as well as amateur actors.
It often invites new young directors, and many famous directors made their first steps at the Molodozhny.
"The theater has a unique space with old theater traditions, the Izmailovsky Garden, which is so fine in the magic period of the White Nights," manager Natalya Dyachenko said.
Each performance will end in the garden, where the actors and musicians will gather. Some of the performers will take part in a theater tennis competition.
An exhibition in the Summer Theater of the garden presents the works of stage artists whose creative works are linked to the Molodyozhny. A chamber orchestra will play live and people will be able to leave for a river tour from the garden.
The theater is making its final performances of "Tango," by Polish playwriter Slavomir Mrozek, which it has produced since 1988.
"The artists have grown up," Spivak said. "Of course, we'll miss it. There is an idea to introduce new actors, but I think the performance is connected to specific people so it's impossible to do the same production with other actors. Maybe some day if a new idea appears it will come back." The theater will make its last premiere of this season, devoted to the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Volodin play "Five Evenings."
But it's not the only first-night. In autumn we'll see the premiere of Chekhov's "Three Sisters." Another idea is "Don Quixote" by Bulgakov. "A year ago I thought that I understood the idea of this play. It's very difficult," said Spivak. "Real art should be between the classic and avant-garde. I think our theater and these productions are between these two trends."
TITLE: Feast of Flicks
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: White Nights and dark theaters may seem an odd combination, but to St. Petersburg film lovers it is a golden opportunity.
The 13th annual Festival of Festivals international film festival, hosted by Lenfilm Studios, will run Thursday to June 29 at Dom Kino, Rodina, Molodyozhny, Druzhba, and Svet theaters. The festivities will offer St. Petersburgers the chance to appreciate what the rest of the film world is talking about.
"People can come, see a great film, and meet the director," explained Alexander Mamontov, programming director for the festival.
Over 40 international films will be shown under the heading "Festival of Festivals," and over two dozen countries will be represented from five continents. Eighteen recent Russian flicks, including Alexei Balabanov's latest "Zhmurki" (Dead Man's Bluff) and "Nochnoi Dovor" (The Graveyard Shift) directed by Valery Rozhnov, will also be shown. Many of the films have just premiered at the Cannes film festival and are being rushed to Russia's cultural capital.
Continuing the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Festival of Festivals will screen seven films, five Russian and two German, looking at the end of the war. "Downfall," the controversial German film starring Bruno Ganz about Hitler's last days in the bunker, some of which was shot in St. Petersburg, is certain to intrigue as much as entertain audiences.
The festival will feature 18 shorts as well as a retrospective look at Lenfilm directors Grigory Kozintsev and Iosif Kheifits. This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of both men. Their films and documentaries about them will be screened and attendees will be given a special treat: a virtually unseen documentary titled "Kozintsev's Apartment" by Alexander Sokurov, the acclaimed director of "Russian Ark," will be shown.
In cooperation with the Lithuanian Consulate of St. Petersburg, eight Lithuanian films will be featured under the heading, "Films of the CIS and Baltics." Every film is under 40 minutes and each offers an opportunity to see some of the finest examples of Lithuanian film, Mamontov said.
Though enjoying its status as an internationally recognized film festival, with the attendance of stars such as U.S. actress Meryl Streep and, this year, Belgian director Frederic Fonteyne, the festival had a rocky start.
"In the early '90s there was a lack of Russian distributors. We would show a film and that would be it. No one would be able to see it again in Russia," festival organizer Sergei Grigorov said. "After three or four years, though, things changed." When the Festival of Festivals began, Mamontov recalled, the only international films shown were American B movies.
"No one watched these movies except in Russia," Mamontov added.
Aside from the films there will be a roundtable discussion for directors and producers titled "Aspects and Problems of Cooperation and Co-production in the European Film Community." Mamontov hopes that the festival will achieve not only a greater appreciation of world-class cinema, but will enhance their ability to be produced.
With luck, a director's eye will be captivated and more international film projects will be coming to St. Petersburg.
TITLE: Roddick Rises to No. 2 Wimbledon Seed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON - Andy Roddick jumped to the No. 2 seeding for Wimbledon on Wednesday, the first time just one American man was seeded in the top 16 at the event, and he could face No. 1 Roger Federer in a rematch of last year's final.
While Federer's seeding matched his ATP Tour standing, Roddick was pushed two spots higher than his ranking, ahead of 2002 Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt and French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
Hewitt was seeded No. 3, with Nadal - who has little experience on grass - at No. 4.
Federer beat Roddick 4-6 7-5 7-6 (3) 6-4 for the 2004 title, the Swiss star's second straight at the All England Club. He has four Grand Slam championships; Roddick has one, at the 2003 U.S. Open.
The seedings matched the rankings for the top eight women, led by No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. She was followed by defending champion Maria Sharapova, Amelie Mauresmo, and 2002-03 champion Serena Williams, who was upset by Sharapova in the 2004 final. There are seven Russians in the top 13 women.
Andre Agassi, the 1992 Wimbledon champion and owner of eight major titles, pulled out Tuesday because of an injury. The 35-year-old American is ranked sixth in the world.
His withdrawal means that after Roddick, the highest-seeded U.S. man is No. 24 Taylor Dent. It's the first time that there weren't at least two Americans in the top 16 since Wimbledon first had at least that many men seeded, in 1968. The tournament doubled the number of seeded players to 32 in 2001.
"It is worrisome to me," U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said in a conference call Wednesday.
"Clearly, with the exception of Roddick, the other guys who have been knocking on the door of becoming top-20 players ... have not gotten there."
Last weekend, Federer won the Wimbledon grass-court tuneup at Halle, Germany, for the third straight year. He's won 29 straight matches on grass; his last loss on the surface was in June 2002 against Mario Ancic in the first round at Wimbledon.
Roddick won the Queen's Club title in London for the third consecutive year on Sunday. He said he thought Hewitt would get the No. 2 seeding.
"You know, either way, I don't think either one of us can be too upset," Roddick said a few days before the seedings were announced. "Common knowledge is that you're going to have to beat the best players somewhere along the way."
Ninth-ranked Alicia Molik withdrew Wednesday, citing an inner ear infection. Jennifer Capriati, ranked 27th, missed the French Open because of an injury and was not included in the final entry list for Wimbledon.
Venus Williams, the 2000-01 Wimbledon champion, was seeded 14th, two spots above her current WTA Tour ranking. She lost to Karolina Sprem in the second round of the grass-court major last year, when the chair umpire awarded Sprem an extra point, and lost to 15-year-old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva in the third round of the French Open last month.
Serena Williams missed the French Open after struggling with an ankle strain since May. As usual, neither sister played in a Wimbledon tuneup on grass.
Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament that doesn't strictly adhere to the world rankings to determine its seedings. The All England Club takes a player's grass-court experience and record into account.