SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times DATE: Issue #1097 (63), Friday, August 19, 2005 ************************************************************************** TITLE: Tourist Numbers Fall 30% AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: The number of visitors to St. Petersburg this summer are 30 percent down on last year and experts are predicting a further decline next year, a Russian Tourism Industry Union poll, or RST, has found. The RST polled 115 city tour operators, which reported an average 30-percent decline in foreign and Russian visitors. “The poll’s participants provided very different statistics, with the figures on the drop in foreign tourists varying from 15 percent to 60 percent, but most respondents said the flow has reduced by a third,” Tatyana Demeneva, spokeswoman for the RST in St. Petersburg, said Thursday. The Peter and Paul Fortress Museum independently counted its visitors in May, June, July and suggested the decline is less severe, only 12.8 percent compared to last year. Last year 539,958 people visited the fortress with only 470,600 visiting in the three months this year. But last year, high demand had meant not everybody who wanted to visit had been able to enter. According to City Hall’s tourism committee, some 3 million people, both Russian and foreign, visited the city last year. Experts blame the drop on exorbitant prices, security concerns, the complicated visa process, the lack of a consistent promotion campaign of the city abroad, a shortage of tourist-class accommodation and a poorly developed infrastructure. Eighty percent of respondents said they expect even bleaker business next year. Ten percent predicted the same level as now, while another 10 percent said they were unable to say what the trend would be. Security concerns were mentioned by more than two-thirds of respondents. Not only do foreign visitors regularly get robbed, they then have to go through horrendous hassles trying to register the theft to make claims on their insurance policies. Sergei Korneyev, head of the Northwestern branch of RST, said many thefts and robberies go unreported because of red tape and procrastination. This means optimistic police reports underestimate the true crime levels. “It is difficult to find a police station where officers can speak a foreign language, and it takes time for a translator to come and then for everybody to write up and fill out all the papers,” he said this month during an RST meeting on incoming tourism. “Many foreign travelers aren’t able to report their losses. When they are back at home, they can’t make a legitimate claim to their insurance company. Naturally, it makes their negative experience in the city much worse.” Vladimir Ilyin, director of the German travel agency Olympia Reisen, describes the tourism climate in the city as very unfavorable. “The decline can only be stopped if local tour operators provide a choice of discounted packages for 2006 and begin promoting them in the coming weeks,” he said in written comments on the poll. A weeklong tour to St. Petersburg costs between 1,000 and 1,500 euros (($1,240 to $1,860), he added. This seems exorbitant, especially when one considers the mediocre service often offered in Russia, visitors complain. But RST’s Korneyev disagrees. Reducing prices won’t save the city; what is needed is a well-funded and well-tailored promotion campaign, he said. Robert Lohkamp, a representative of German company Stadt- and Touristikmarketing Bad Ems e.V, said consumer demand in Germany is low. “Most people prefer to save the money, and when they travel, they prefer weekend tours within the EU,” he said. “With budget airlines, it is very easy to fly from Cologne to Barcelona or Stockholm for just 30 euros. In these circumstances, St. Petersburg has to offer something extraordinary to make the trip worth all that money.” Much to the embarrassment of the city, which pretends to the title of Russia’s cultural capital, the RST poll shows that tourists often complain to their local hosts and agents about the lack of events in the city. Foreigners account for the majority of spectators during Mariinsky Theater artistic director Valery Gergiev’s festival “The Stars of the White Nights.” The company’s ballet festival and Yury Temirkanov’s “Arts Square” festival in winter have gained a good reputation abroad. But apparently these events aren’t enough to keep the tourists interested year-round. Everyone asked about the city’s pulling power agree on one thing: the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg next summer is another priceless opportunity to boost tourism and promote the destination, and it is an opportunity that must not be missed. TITLE: Cabinet Gives Nod To Budget AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW — The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft of its 2006 budget, giving the go-ahead for the biggest increase in public spending since the August 1998 economic meltdown. Public spending will increase by around 50 percent next year, as the government seeks to target those less well off, including the country’s senior citizens, who will see their pensions more than double. The move could be aimed at increasing average incomes in a bid to sustain economic growth, some experts said. It may also be linked to winning popular support ahead of the presidential election in 2008. Spending on national security, which includes intelligence, policing and the military, will receive some 1.2 trillion rubles ($41.96 billion). Of that, around half of the budget will go to the military. Organizations responsible to the presidential administration will get a 40 percent boost to their budgets. The anticipated increase in spending comes at a time when global oil prices are hitting record levels, increasing the amount of cash in government coffers. The budget aims to solve the country’s “acute problems, particularly within social sphere,” Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov told the Cabinet on Thursday, the government’s web site said. The draft forecasts budget revenues in 2006 of 5.46 trillion rubles ($191 billion), an increase of about 50 percent. Government spending will rise to 4.27 trillion rubles ($149.3 billion) in 2006. The government expects to spend just less than $100 billion this year. In spite of the increase in spending, the government anticipates a surplus of 776 billion rubles ($27.4 billion), equivalent to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product. The new budget marks a shift in the tight fiscal policies of the past seven years, when authorities kept a firm grip on spending despite the huge influx of petrodollars. Strict budgetary discipline was first introduced after the events of Aug. 18, 1998, when reckless monetary policies coupled with extremely low oil prices forced Russia to default on its sovereign debt. That event sent millions of the country’s citizens into poverty. Fradkov said money would be spent on tripling the real income of state employees, including judges and prosecutors. Pensions and student stipends will also get a boost, according to the draft. The increase in spending comes after years of strong economic growth in Russia, with the economy forecast to grow by 5.9 percent this year. Next year, the economy is expected to grow a further 5.8 percent. Both figures remain below the over 7 percent annual growth rate needed to meet President Vladimir Putin’s pledge made in 2003 to double GDP in the space of a decade. The Cabinet members have long debated whether the goal is achievable, with Fradkov usually insisting it can be done, but liberals like Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref have argued the opposite. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin weighed in on the debate Thursday. “I think doubling GDP is possible,” he said after the Cabinet meeting, Interfax reported. But he said it would only be possible, if real institutional reforms are carried out. But the reforms, including those in the military and judiciary, are being “implemented sluggishly,” Kudrin said. The anticipated loosening of the spending policy received mixed reaction from analysts. With the economy growing and oil revenues pouring generously into the country, strict policies on spending are becoming harder for the population to accept, said Peter Westin, chief economist at Aton brokerage. The increase in spending will be manageable under the current economic conditions, as long as the government continues to put money into its stabilization fund, Westin said. Operating since 2002 to skim excess petrodollars from the economy, the stabilization fund is expected to reach 1.5 trillion rubles by the end of 2005, equivalent to nearly 7.3 percent of GDP, according to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry. Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank, however, warned that the government has become too reliant on oil and has diverted its attention from earlier plans to diversify the economy away from natural-resource exporting sectors. Choosing $40 per barrel as a basis for the 2006 draft budget meant that Russia was becoming increasingly dependent on high world oil prices, he said. “While nobody is talking about the oil prices suddenly dropping to $20 per barrel, the issue is that the requirements for the oil prices are being raised. And the problems would start when the oil prices fail to match the government’s needs,” he said. “The reasons for increasing expenditures are mainly political,” Weafer added, suggesting that rising incomes would be used to create a feel-good factor ahead of the 2008 presidential election. The draft budget must be sent to parliament for approval. The State Duma must pass the budget in four readings, after which it requires approval from the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin’s signature. n President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he was unhappy that Russia's Urals crude oil sells at a discount to benchmark Brent crude, and asked the Cabinet to take measures to reduce the gap. “The price gap is very unfair,” Putin told the Cabinet members, Interfax and Reuters reported. The Urals blend, the most common crude pumped in Russia, typically trades at a discount of around $3 to $5 to the benchmark Brent blend, which is bought and sold in London. The Urals blend has higher sulphur content and density than Brent, which makes it more costly to refine. Putin said that “several approaches are possible” to tackle Urals’ discount to Brent but did not elaborate. TITLE: Chubais: Manevich’s Assassins Are Known AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: The assassins and those who paid them to kill St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Mikhail Manevich in 1997 are known and will soon be brutally punished, Anatoly Chubais, head of national power grid United Energy Systems, said on the eighth anniversary of Manevich’s slaying on Thursday. However, Chubais, who was speaking at the graveside of his former friend, Manevich, in St. Petersburg, refused to name any names or even to say if any of the suspects have been detained. Nor did he give any reason why their names should remain secret. With so much time having passed it is hard to believe that any new evidence has surfaced and his statement suggests the readiness of authorities to tackle those behind the murder has changed. “Eight years ago I swore on the grave of Manevich that the killers would be brought to justice,” said Chubais, who himself was nearly killed in an assassination attempt outside Moscow five months ago. “Now I know that the motive for the assassination was a private hatred based on an unsuccessful blackmail,” Chubais said in the Literatorskiye Mostki cemetery. “Now we know all about those who ordered and carried out the assassination. They will be punished absolutely brutally, but by law. For the past eight years, the work on this case has never ceased.” “The first stage [of this case] will be completed in four or five months and this will clear up everything. The second part would take some more time,” he said. Manevich, the vice-governor responsible for the controversial privatization of state property, was shot through the roof of his car by a sniper at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Ulitsa Rubensteina on August 18, 1997. The vice-governor had been driving his Volvo car to work from his apartment on Ulitsa Rubenshteina. Manevich’s wife, who was also in the car, was injured. The murder was one of a series in the 1990s that roused horror and national attention. As was the case with the slayings of journalists Vladislav Listyev and Dmitry Kholodov and liberal politician Galina Starovoitova, then president Boris Yeltsin said that he would personally supervise the investigation. Only in Starovoitova’s case has anyone been convicted of the assassination, and in her case the person who gave the order for her to be killed was not named. The case, run by the Prosecutor General’s Office has previously mentioned the names of Yury Shutov, a former Legislative Assembly lawmaker, and of former State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Shevchenko and some high ranking officials in the city police, according to reports in the local media. The city prosecutor’s office has repeatedly confirmed that the motive for the murder was linked to the professional activity of the vice-governor, leading the media to speculate that he had stopped somebody from taking over the St. Petersburg Sea Port. “I have spoken to an investigator who is looking for the killers and complained that they have not yet been found,” Delovoi Peterburg quoted Manevich’s mother, Neta, as saying on Thursday. “He answered, ‘And why do you think that those who are guilty have not been punished. They are already punished.’” TITLE: Russia, China Joint Exercises Kick Off on Pacific Coast AUTHOR: By Burt Herman PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: VLADIVOSTOK — Russia and China kicked off their first-ever joint military exercises Thursday as top commanders from both countries issued repeated assurances that the war games are not intended as a threat to anyone. The top generals started the exercises at a meeting at the Pacific Fleet headquarters in the Far East port of Vladivostok. The two nations in coming days will practice coordinating a joint force that will stage a mock invasion next week on China’s Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea — using air, sea and land forces to simulate a mission stabilizing a restive country. Under the premise of the drills, which have been named “Peace Mission 2005,” the forces have a UN mandate. The war games are the result of strengthening ties meant to counter U.S. dominance of world affairs, as well as Russian worries over a series of uprisings in several former Soviet republics that have led to the overthrow of unpopular regimes. “The exercises are the logical continuation of the first signs of cooperation between Russia and China in the struggle against ‘orange revolutions,’ separatism and the dominant influence of the U.S. in the Euroasiatic sphere,” Gazeta.ru wrote in a news analysis Thursday. Orange was the color adopted by supporters of last year’s revolution in Ukraine, which along with Georgia and Kyrgyzstan saw the ouster of their governments. In an inauguration ceremony for the exercises, the commanders of the general staffs of Russia and China laid wreaths at a World War II memorial in Vladivostok. The drills are beginning just days after commemorations across Asia of the 60th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the Pacific. The exercises “are being run under the goals and principles of the UN, and are not directed against a third country and don’t concern the interests of other countries,” Chinese General Liang Guanglie said. “The goal is peaceful,” said General Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the armed forces General Staff. Liang denied the moves to strengthen ties between Beijing and Moscow would lead to some kind of military union or the two countries fighting together against any common foe. Beijing’s main military focus is believed to be on Taiwan. TITLE: Four Killed in Two Mi-8 Crashes PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: Two helicopters crashed in separate incidents Thursday in Russia, killing four people and injuring five others, officials said. A civilian Mi-8 helicopter slammed into cargo suspended under a Ka-32 helicopter near the Siberian oil center of Nefteyugansk, said Timur Khikmatov, a spokesman for Russia’s transport ministry. Four of six people on board the Mi-8 were killed and two others were injured, he said. In the second crash near the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, a military Mi-8 carrying parachutists ran into trouble at an altitude of 1,200 meters when its tail propeller malfunctioned. Eight parachutists bailed out safely and the pilot then crash landed the helicopter, the Air Force said in a statement. Three crew members here rushed to the hospital with injuries. Interfax reported that the Air Force suspended all military Mi-8 helicopter flights following the crash, but Air Force chief General Vladimir Mikhailov said later that flights had resumed after technical checkups. The Air Force uses several hundred Mi-8s. The helicopter, which can carry 24 people and be used as a gunship, was first designed in the 1960s, and thousands have been manufactured and been widely exported. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Activist Arrested ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Alexander Vtulkin, a radical activist with the Russian Republic organization, for whom international and federal search warrants were issued after he threatened to kill St. Petersburg governor, Valentina Matviyenko, was arrested Wednesday evening at Vitebsky railway, Interfax reported Thursday. A criminal case was opened in autumn of 2004 over threats to harm Matviyenko. The case was later changed to one of inciting national, racial and religious hatred. Charity Auction ST.PETERSBURG (SPT) — A charity auction to benefit the city orphanage House of Mercy will be held in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Friday. The lots will be the best pictures drawn by the child residents of the house, which will benefit from the event. The house aims to rehabilitate children who have suffered difficulties at home. After spending a year in the orphanage the child returns to their own family, goes to a foster family or is sent to a normal orphanage. TITLE: Politician Charged With Race Crimes AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Yury Belyayev, head of the Party of Liberty, has been charged with inciting national, racial and religious hatred after prosecutors handed the results of a criminal investigation to the city court on Monday, local media reported. The City Prosecutor’s Office could not be reached for comment. The charges relate to articles Belyayev wrote for newspaper “Nash Narodny Nablyudatel” in 2004, which is distributed nationwide and on the web. The leader of the Party of Liberty, who until 1993 was a member of the St. Petersburg police department, was convicted in February 1996 of inciting national hatred and organizing mass public disorder. He was sentenced to a year in prison, but was released in the courtroom because of an amnesty marking the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. That year, Belyayev participated in the gubernatorial elections in St. Petersburg, but dropped his candidacy in favor of Vladimir Yakovlev, who was later elected governor. On Wednesday he called the charges “political persecution.” “They are prosecuting me on political grounds,” Belyayev said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “They have searched my apartment four times trying to find weapons, but didn’t find anything. I told them I don’t keep weapons at home. Then after they couldn’t find anything, they started searching though the web and have found some silliness that they think they could use against me. “This case just doesn’t make sense to me. I will speak to the court and this case will easily fall apart,” he said, without naming who was allegedly persecuting him. “They pressure everyone now, nationalists or democrats, it doesn’t matter. Some people are glad about this, but I say to them that today they came for me, but in the future they will come for them,” he added. Ruslan Linkov, head of the Democratic Russia party, said the charges against Belyayev are a clear sign of a change in the work of St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office, but the authorities should go further to amend the Criminal Code so that the punishment for nationalistic statements are tougher. The code allows for jail sentences of up to three years, while Linkov believes that such crimes should be punished with sentences of up to 10 years. Together with human rights advocates from Citizen’s Watch, Linkov has initiated several investigations conducted by the City Prosecutor’s Office over publications that allegedly incite racial hatred. “I am glad to see that this case was finally handed over to the court,” Linkov said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “The bad thing is that time is running out so that Belyayev’s case could be closed because the statute of limitations for such crimes will expire. It’s two or three years according to the current legislation.” TITLE: New U.S. Envoy Sees Ties Strengthen AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: The Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, in 1957 had a powerful effect on the life of Mary Kruger, the new U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg. “When Sputnik was launched, people in the United States were both surprised and fearful of the Soviet Union, which made me very interested in this country,” she said Wednesday in an interview. Soon afterward, she stunned her family and friends by choosing Russian as a foreign language at school. “At that point I didn’t know I wanted to be a diplomat because I didn’t know what a diplomat did but I felt that I wanted to do something that would bring the people of our countries closer together,” she said. Today a career diplomat with over 30 years of international experience under her belt, Kruger is still pursuing that goal set in her childhood. She arrived last month in St. Petersburg after serving in Russia, Ukraine and Latin America to succeed outgoing U.S. Consul General Morris Hughes. Kruger’s assignment covers not only St. Petersburg, but the whole of the Northwestern region. She will work with Russian and American citizens living in such places as Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Novgorod and Pskov. Kruger said she was very happy to be coming to St. Petersburg, where there is a solid foundation of good relations between Russia and the U.S. “Among the things that we can be proud of and continue to work on are assistance to American citizens who live in this area or are visiting here,” she said. “But we also want to assist Russians who wish to get visas to the U.S. Recently we have been making some improvements in the way we process visa applicants so that the time one has to wait to get an interview is now very short: in the summer season it is only a day or two.” A native of Seattle, Washington, Kruger first visited the city on the Neva in the late 1960s to continue Russian studies at the then Leningrad State University. She made many friends and has kept in touch with them over the years. In 1970 she graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in Russian Language and Literature, and began working for the U.S. government, coming to the U.S.S.R. with a visiting exhibition of U.S. technological achievements. In 1995-1997, Kruger was consul for press and culture in St. Petersburg. An avid admirer of the arts, Kruger then joined the World Club of Petersburgers, presided over by Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum. “Those were very interesting years, and when the opportunity came up for me to possibly return as Consul General, I was delighted,” Kruger said. “When I first visited the Soviet Union, there were very few contacts between our countries, and now there are so many, and that’s healthy. I am pleased to have been able to see the positive developments.” In Kruger’s opinion, the greatest diplomatic achievements in relations between Russia and the U.S. have included collaboration in halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons and combating terrorism as well as strengthening of cultural ties. Kruger perceives her new post as highly challenging. “This is one of the cultural capitals of the world, and a very important city economically, politically, and there are so many dimensions making it interesting,” she said. As an old joke has it, a good diplomat is a person who sends you to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the journey. Kruger believes that there is truth in the joke. “The essence of diplomacy is finding ways for different countries and different people to work together productively,” she said. “And when sometimes countries or people have different interests we have to find a way to bring them together. So it does help to be skilled in the way we express ourselves and act.” The Russian connection in Kruger’s life has revealed itself in the most whimsical forms. During a posting to Brazil, Kruger took part in the famous carnival in Rio de Janiero. As a member of a group that represented Russians, she paraded through the resort city dressed in a sumptuous and heavy boyar traditional Russian costume. Kruger enjoys tennis, skiing and swimming and is an eager theatergoer. Her mascot is a vivacious and alert chocolate-colored dog, a former stray found in the streets of Brasilia and named after internationally acclaimed soccer player Pele. TITLE: Reprieve for Starovoitova Pair PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: The St. Petersburg city court on Wednesday sent the criminal case against two suspects charged over their alleged role in the assassination of State Duma lawmaker Galina Starovoitova in 1998 back to the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office saying that the charge against one defendant was incorrectly laid. Maya Shvedkova, lawyer for suspect Pavel Stekhnovsky, had argued in court that the prosecutor’s office broke the European Convention on Extradition by charging her client with a more serious one than that used to gain Stekhnovsky’s extradition from Belgium last year. “Belgium extradited Stekhnovsky on the grounds that he was an accomplice, but later he faced charges of killing Starovoitova,” Interfax quoted Shvedkova as aying. “According to the international law on grounds for an extradition, Stekhnovsky can be convicted only of actions for which he was extradited.” Ruslan Linkov, the slain deputy’s assistant who was injured in the assassination, said the decision was right. “Now they won’t have an opportunity to say that their rights, written in the European Convention, are violated in some way or other,” Linkov said Wednesday in a telephone interview. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: 42 Bombs Dug Up ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Forty-two World War II bombs were dug up on a building site in the city’s Primorsky district this week and were taken to a military range to be destroyed, Interfax reported Wednesday. The bombs were unexpectedly found at 7 Baikonyrskaya Ulitsa by builders. The first six bombs were found on Aug. 12. Assassin’s Son: ‘Victim’ MOSCOW (SPT) — The son of Leonid Nikolayev, who murdered city party boss Sergei Kirov in 1934, has been recognized as a victim of political repression, Interfax cited deputy chief prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying Wednesday. Marx Draule appealed for the recognition on the ground that his parents, Nikolayev and Milda Draule, were convicted without evidence. Draule’s mother, who was jailed as an accomplice and shot by firing squad, was rehabilitated in 1991. “In February 2005 the Prosecutor General’s Office received the appeal from Marx Draule, who grew up in an orphanage, to find out if he was Nikolayev’s son,” Interfax quoted Fridinsky as saying. After investigating, the office confirmed Draule’s parentage. Fake Textbooks Held MOSCOW (SPT) — The police have confiscated more than 100,000 copies of counterfeit textbooks from warehouses and two printing houses in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Wednesday. The seizures halted the activities of a criminal group that was producing the textbooks, the report said. The police’s economic security department valued the forgeries at 10 million rubles ($350,000), Interfax said. As a result of the group’s activities, the state suffered losses of several hundred thousand rubles per month, it added. Tourist Alarm Buttons? MOSCOW (AFP) — In the wake of a rash of pickpocketing, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko is considering providing portable safety devices to tourists, Izvestia reported Wednesday. An official at the Matviyenko’s office told the newspaper that starting next year, visitors may be able to rent a wireless device from local police that would summon an armed patrol at the touch of a button. A program designed to ensure the safety of tourists visiting the former Imperial capital during between 2006-2008 foresees the installation of video cameras in the most frequented tourist spots, and the instruction of useful phrases in foreign languages to the local police. Foreign tourists — most frequently from Finland, the U. S. and France — have been the victim of 557 robberies in St. Petersburg in the first seven months of 2005, city police told Izvestia. Belarus Bans Aid MINSK (Reuters) — Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday banned foreign assistance for political gatherings and campaigns deemed against the national interest. Opposition leaders immediately said the measure was aimed at crippling any possible rival who might emerge to challenge Lukashenko in next year’s presidential election. TITLE: Glencore Buys Into Fast-Paced Russneft AUTHOR: By Tom Miles and Dmitry Zhdannikov PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: Swiss-based oil trader Glencore has bought into Russia's Russneft, the fastest-growing player in the world's No. 2 crude exporter, branching out of its core trading business to invest in a company it helped create. "Glencore through its subsidiaries has entered into the Russian upstream market with its strategic partner Russneft, with ownership in a diversified portfolio of oil producing assets," Glencore's web site said. It was not immediately clear when the information was posted on Glencore's site. Glencore said that in February this year it bought between 39.8 percent and 49 percent in Varyoganneft in western Siberia and the Ulyanovskneft and Nafta-Ulyanovsk units in the Volga region — some of Russneft's biggest oil production units. Traders said the move was a change of tack by Glencore, which has never before admitted to investing in Russneft. The three subsidiaries jointly produce around 2.35 million tons of oil per year (50,000 barrels per day) and employ around 3,900 people — about one-third of the total at Russneft. Russneft was founded less than three years ago by former Slavneft head Mikhail Gutseriyev, who set it up with business partners and Glencore. After a meteoric rise, Russneft now has 25 production firms and 600 million tons of oil reserves (4.4 billion barrels) and is poised to enter the top 10 of Russian producers. Its annual results, released on Wednesday and calculated to Russian accounting standards, showed a fivefold leap in net profit to 4.74 billion rubles ($166 million) in 2004, and a fourfold hike in sales to 27.5 billion rubles. They also revealed that the firm had secured a loan from BNP Paribas on the strength of a sales contract with Glencore Energy UK, helping it to double debt to almost $1 billion. A trading source with a Western major said it was clear that recent acquisitions by Russneft were backed by Glencore. "So it looks logical, but strange on the other hand because Glencore has so far avoided taking equity stakes in Russian firms and was happy with its strong trading positions," the trading source said. "So it could well be a change in their strategy, but it could well be just a technical move. They could have just taken those shares as collateral and will return them to Gutseriyev when he pays back the money to banks." After roaring out of nowhere to become Russia's No. 10 oil producer by output in just over 2 1/2 years, Russneft says it will double production again this year to reach 400,000 barrels per day, the company said last month. TITLE: Tax Chief’s Book Urges Minimum Taxes PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: MOSCOW — One of the authors of a new textbook that encourages budding lawyers to be aggressive in minimizing taxes for corporate clients is none other than the head of the Federal Tax Service, Anatoly Serdyukov, Vedomosti reported Thursday. The book — entitled “Tax and Taxation” — urges companies to take advantage of tax minimization schemes and is critical of the government for shutting down several tax havens in December 2003. One section in the 752-page book says the goal of tax planning is to “pay the minimum of what is required.” The new book, which is recommended by the Ministry of Education for use in university classrooms, goes on sale after the much-publicized demise of oil major Yukos under huge back-tax claims. Last year, tax authorities fined Yukos $27.5 billion, in part because the company had reduced its tax bills by setting up subsidiaries in low-tax Russian regions. Those tax professionals who are too coy about using tax optimization schemes “will find themselves in a weaker position compared to other market participants,” the book says. The textbook’s cover includes the names of three authors led by Serdyukov. However, it was not clear which parts of the book — if any — were written or even overseen by Serdyukov. “Tax and Taxation” was published this year in St. Petersburg with a print run of 3,500. TITLE: Sea Port Dockers To Hold Strike ‘Indefinitely’ AUTHOR: By Ali Nassor PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: Locked in a 10-year dispute over rights, dockers at St. Petersburg Sea Port will begin an indefinite strike starting August 30, in the process causing million-dollar losses to a metals firm that represents one of the port’s core shareholders. “We will start by ceasing to handle cargo from Novolipetsk Metal Factory,” Alexander Petrov, deputy head of the Russian Trade Union’s port committee said Wednesday at a press briefing. Novolipetsk Metal Factory acts as the local representative of Danish firm Jyst Stalindustry, which controls 51 percent of the St Petersburg Sea Port, Russia’s second-largest port. The remaining shares belong to the city government (29 percent) and federal authorities (20 percent). The factory could not be reached for comment on Thursday. The dockers will initiate the strike, the second in a month, over the refusal by the port authorities to extend their three-year working contract, which expired last month. Irina Krikun, spokeswoman for the port, said the dockers’ demanded conditions were “impossible to meet in the market economy as they owe their origin from the Soviet era.” Krikun added over the telephone that the dockers had already rejected a new contract draft. The dock workers can earn about $1,000 a month — three times the official average salary for St. Petersburg — and enjoy benefits that are to the detriment of the port’s financial situation, Krikun said. Mikhail Popov, a lawyer for the dockers’ union dismissed the accusation as groundless, saying the new conditions set by their employers infringe on workers’ rights since, among other things, they offered more working hours for lower wages and provide legal loopholes that could lead to loss of basic benefits. However, Sergei Ashcheulov, an independent shipping expert, believes the conflict “acts out a war between the past and the present,” in which workers “want former working conditions while enjoying the fruits of a modern market economy. “Should the dockers win out, it will be good news to other dockers elsewhere in Russia and a challenge to port authorities and other cargo dealers,” Ashcheulov said. “Strikes will be used as a short cut to settle differences.” This is the first time in Russia that dockers have declared an indefinite strike. Unlike in Novorossiisk, Russia’s largest port, St. Petersburg holds the national record for the regularity of its strikes. Even so, Ashcheulov said their past strikes were limited to “go-slow” or short working schedules and were usually resolved in a compromise. The regular disputes may have been exacerbated by constant ownership changes at the Sea Port and the changing nature of the shipping business in Russia, Krukin said. She admitted that the indefinite strike would cause massive losses to the port. “I can not fathom the extent of the damage not only to the port but also to other business organizations using the services,” Krukin said. Partial strikes, such as dockers’ refusal to work overtime, have already accounted for monthly losses of about $1.5 million, she said. TITLE: Skanska Divides Up Business AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Swedish construction concern Skanska AB sold its St. Petersburg subsidiary Skanska Stroi for an undisclosed sum, business daily Delovoi Petersburg reported this week. However, both companies said Thursday they will continue operations in St. Petersburg and Russia. The subsidiary was bought out by its general director Kari Molsa through his Finnish-registered venture Hansastroi. Igor Gorsky, director of Kommercheskaya Nedvizhimost Bekar, citing a source close to the deal, said the buyer paid not more than $500,000 for Skanska Stroi, due to the company’s small operation volume and contract portfolio. The Swedish firm said the deal suited both parties as Skanska looks to change its corporate strategy for Russia. “Since 2004 Skanska decided to concentrate its business in Russia and to focus on residential real estate in St. Petersburg and construction services in Moscow,” Anna Wenner, press officer at Skanska AB, said Thursday in a telephone interview. “[In terms of] Skanska’s total sales, Russia represents only a small part and always did,” making Skanka-Stroi a non-core business, Wenner said. She added, however, that Skanska AB retains its other St. Petersburg subsidiary — Petersburgstroi-Skanska — and intends to develop its business with new investments. Skanska Stroi has a contract portfolio worth 100 million euros ($122.3 million), with projects in St. Petersburg and other regions, Molsa said Thursday via telephone. Some of the current projects will continue to be run in cooperation with Skanska until their completion, but from this week the company will operate independently under the brand Hansa Stroi, he said. “Our goal is to develop the company further and find partners, who will strengthen the personnel and management of this [now] Russian-Finnish company,” Molsa said. He added that the city’s construction market was growing and gave “a good platform for the future.” Lev Kaplan, vice-president of the St. Petersburg Union of Construction Companies, saw the deal as possibly linked to a “systematic crisis” in real estate construction and sales. Skanska was not the only company under pressure, Kaplan said. Construction firm Stroimontazh “decreased operations twofold, while many others switched to [working in] other regions,” he said. In St. Petersburg, 35 percent of new residential construction remains unsold and the general construction volume decreased sevenfold, Kaplan said. Gorsky disagreed with such figures, saying the residential real estate market “grows slowly, but steadily — at an annual rate of 12 percent to 15 percent. “Compared to the 68 percent rise in 2003 the current growth rate looks like a recession. But, compared to any European country the figures are absolutely normal,” Gorsky said. “Scanska AB sold Scanska Stroi to enforce business specialization. Kari Molsa, with his contacts and experience, sees an attractive potential for contractor business in Russia,” he said. Gorsky added that the two companies are likely to cooperate on projects, as Petersburgstroi-Skanska often conducts tenders in which Hansa Stroi is able to participate. TITLE: Oblast Devises Plan How to Tax ‘Fairly’ AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: The Leningrad Oblast has turned creative in regard to income tax payments. The region plans to collect the tax not through the workplace, but through a person’s place of residence, the Oblast Governor Valery Serdyukov said Tuesday in a statement. Currently, areas of the Oblast where there is a high concentration of large companies earn higher budget revenues to spend on utilities and general improvements, putting mainly residential parts at a disadvantage. The Oblast authorities propose that “combined with local government reform, [collecting tax through a person’s place of residence] will provide a more effective way of allocating the municipal budget,” the statement said. Tax analysts say the move could cause more contention than solutions, not least because it would lure money Oblast citizens working in St. Petersburg currently leave in the city across the regional border. “Regional authorities want to get access to cash flows from personal income taxes currently paid to the St. Petersburg budget by Oblast citizens working in the city,” said Sergei Lebedev, tax department consultant at Ernst & Young. “Companies are forced by the Tax Code, and ordered by the finance minister, to indicate in the tax payment the code of the municipal district where the company is registered, not where their staff is registered. Therefore, the federal treasury cannot allocate the income tax to the municipal authorities at the employee’s place of residence,” Lebedev said. The analyst agreed that the Oblast’s planned reform would make the distribution of personal income tax “more logical” and fairer. However, he said that “within the existing legal framework [the scheme] is impossible.” Sergei Osutin, general director of OSV Consulting, believes the legislature could be adapted to the tax reform, “once there is a political will.” That “will” may not prove to be the problem. Interfax news agency quoted the presidential envoy to the Northwest region, Ilya Klebanov as “support[ing] the governor’s offer to collect taxes at the place of residence.” However, the change in tax payments could create another set of difficulties, Osutin said. “At the moment, a company’s salaries and taxes are handled by their accountants through the bank. If every single employee were to pay the tax for himself, it would only increase the turnover and commission profits of Sberbank and produce large lines at Sberbank offices,” Osutin said. The expert doubted the feasibility of transferring the responsibility for tax payment from the shoulders of specialists onto ordinary people. “Many people will not manage to carry the money as far as the Sberbank office,” Osutin said. The situation could grow yet more convoluted with individuals that work at several companies or are entitled to tax benefits. Back tax claims too will prove complicated to negotiate, he added. The Oblast’s eagerness for tax reform may well be connected with the region’s projected budget deficit, forecast to run into 1.2 billion rubles ($42.2 million) this year and 1 billion rubles ($35.1 million) next year, according to the region’s committee for economic development. With tax payments representing a significant part of the budget, the Oblast will experiment with several schemes in 2006 to avoid a possible deficit, Regnum news agency said this week. Meanwhile, the Oblast authorities have already suggested the scheme to the federal powers as something that could transfer to other regions. Experts, however, remain wary of tax innovations. Under the proposed scheme, the volume of collected taxes is likely to decrease, Osutin said. TITLE: Beer Giants Pick Up Last Independents AUTHOR: By Yuriy Humber PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Consolidation of Russia’s beer market has entered its final phase of acquisitions. This week, Heineken snapped up Cyprus-registered Ivan Taranov Brewery (PIT) for an undisclosed sum, while Vedomosti reported that beer giants Efes and SABMiller launched rival bids for one of Russia’s last independents, the Krasny Vostok brewery. Should the Vostok deal — worth close to $1 billion on industry insider estimates — be completed within a month, as Vedomosti predicts, 90 percent of the country’s market will be controlled by foreign brewers: the Anglo-Danish-owned Baltic Beverages Holding, Belgian-owned Sun Interbrew, the Dutch beer giant Heineken, Turkish Efes and the U.S.-South Africa holding SABMiller. Analysts say that the only independent player of any significance that is likely to compete with the top five will be Moscow-based Ochakovo brewery, which holds about 6.6 percent of the market. “Vostok is one of the local players – along with VINAP, Barnaul Brewery and Pivoindustria Primoriya — that we expect to be consolidated by multinationals over the next year. We believe Ochakovo is the only major brewer that is likely to remain independent in the short term,” Aton brokerage said Thursday in a research note. Heineken signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of PIT this week, picking up its three breweries in Kaliningrad, Novotroitsk and Khabarovsk, while increasing market share to 14 percent, the company said Wednesday. The purchase, estimated by Aton to be worth $400 million, will be particularly important for Heineken’s distribution, as the Dutch brewer will also gain PIT’s Severnye Vetry Distribution that runs 23 companies across Russia, the firm said. The acquisition “improves our competitive position in Russia, further extends Heineken’s network of regional production and distribution units spread over Russia and enriches our broad portfolio of brands with more growing brands,” Jean FranÍois van Boxmeer, member of the Executive Board of Heineken, said Wednesday in a statement. PIT, controlled by Detroit Brewing, has about 3.4 percent of the country’s market, producing Three Bears and Doctor Diesel beers as well as an eponymous brand and Coors and Gosser under license. The brewery put itself up for auction last month, with the asking price starting at $400 million. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Yevroset Rings Short MOSCOW (SPT) — Yevroset, Russia's largest retailer of cell phones, is buying phones at retail outlets of its competitors, amid concerns over a possible cell phone shortage, Gazeta.ru newspaper reported Thursday. Yevroset declined to comment, but the retailer's competitor Svyaznoi and other retailers confirmed Yevroset has been buying phones from them this week, Gazeta.ru said. The news comes after analysts warned of cell phone shortages and price increases, because of unusually high consumer demand this summer and the seizure of illegally smuggled phones by the Interior Ministry. Authorities have seized approximately 100,000 illegally imported cell phones and other electronic goods with an estimated value of $10 million, the Interior Ministry announced earlier this week. TITLE: Youth Against Youth AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky TEXT: Politicians and the media have suddenly realized that there are young people in Russia. Not a week goes by without some announcement of a new endeavor that has been cooked up by the opposition or supporters of the current regime to attract and educate Russia’s youth. We hear how the National Bolshevik activists are on trial after taking over the presidential administration reception office last December. Or about the pro-Kremlin group Nashi’s extended summer camp on the shores of Lake Seliger. Or how local authorities threatened to break up another political summer camp, this time set up by the Youth Left Front in the Krasnodar region, by force if necessary. Or how the Red Youth Vangard blocked the street in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Special OMON troops were called in. The media and the public reveled in the gory details of the ensuing melee, the injuries and broken bones. The number of political events involving young people has increased noticeably, but not because the number of politically engaged young people has increased. The events have simply and unexpectedly attracted more attention. This in turn has encouraged the youth to become more active. It was not that long ago when politicians were not particularly interested in young people or their problems. Russians between the ages of 18 and 28 do not vote for the most part. This generation, which grew up in a time when gerrymandering was the norm and lies were considered to be in good taste, does not see any point in participating in the imitation of democracy. More often than not, young people are just busy doing their thing: studying, looking for work, improving their lives and staying as far away from politics as possible. The politicized minority frequently joins more radical movements that fall on the far right or the far left of the political spectrum. But the thing that they all have in common is that they do not go to the polls on election day. Politicians prefer to cater to tried-and-true constituencies, people who were raised during the Soviet era and taught to vote in single-candidate elections that they knew were basically pointless. They are used to casting their ballots for goodness knows who. The older generations are the ones targeted by propaganda experts. They are the ones who guarantee a sufficient voter turnout, and many in their ranks appear to have few questions about the precise results of this routine procedure. Tallying up the votes is the job of the officials in the election commission, after all. Yet suddenly, the powers that be appear to have sensed that this once-reliable system is not so reliable after all. What has changed? Earlier this year, the formerly submissive and uncomplaining old folks rebelled. They began blocking traffic and taking over government buildings when the government converted their benefits into cash payments. Not only were state officials unable to calm them down, but Communist opposition leaders were unable to reason with the angry crowds, either. At roughly the same time, a wave of regime change swept through a few of Russia’s neighbors. These coups d’etat were wrongfully dubbed revolutions. Of course, all of these coups were associated in one way or another with disputed election results and young people played a deciding role. However, it is not certain whether the young men and women who marched on government buildings in Ukraine or Kyrgyzstan actually voted in the elections they were refuting. You don’t have to cast a ballot to understand that election results have been faked. And the public was firmly convinced that election officials had at the very least toyed with the results. This conviction was based on years of bitter experience. Only radical political change could make people change their minds about election results. But what people think is one thing and how events unfold is another. Even if everyone is convinced that elections are being conducted dishonestly, this knowledge does not prevent average voters from peacefully accepting the results and recognizing the authorities who come to power as legitimate. A real crisis arises only when the ruling elite is itself divided. Politicians’ recent interest in Russia’s youth is inversely related to their interest in elections. The opposition has split into two groups: those who are willing to go to the polls and have already made their peace with defeat, and those who are ready to take to the streets and address disputed issues there. But the liberal elite that is fed up with President Vladimir Putin is not about to go and take a blow from a police truncheon themselves. Only the radical youth — whether they are on the far left or right is unimportant — will be hitting the streets in protest. No matter who wins the battle for political power in Russia, they will not be sharing it with these young people anyway. Those in the Kremlin understand this all perfectly well, and they formed Nashi according to this very principle. When a bunch of policemen beat up some kid protesting on the street, the regime has done something wrong. But when two gangs of young radicals brawl in the street, it’s a minor riot. The authorities have no choice but to step in and reestablish order. Nashi activists have been promised that if they do a good job “taking care” of other youth organizations like the National Bolshevik Party, they will be given the whole country as a reward for a dirty job well done, so to speak. But this is unlikely to ever happen. The grown-ups who run the country have no intention of giving anything to anyone. They have kids of their own, after all, who would never stoop to fighting in the street. Boris Kagarlitsky is director of the Institute for Global Studies. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. TITLE: Indifference Kills Soldiers in Peacetime AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev TEXT: Military casualties in wars are regrettable, but deaths must be expected. For instance, in Iraq almost 2,000 U.S. soldiers have died since the war started in March 2003. But when hundreds of servicemen die in peacetime this goes beyond any sort of understanding. A total of 561 soldiers have died in the Russian army since January this year, according to the statistics released by the Defense Ministry this week. You might think this refers to victims of the fighting in Chechnya? If you did, you would be wrong. Officially, only 14 servicemen lost their lives in Chechnya in the first six months of 2005. In that time many more soldiers — 32 — committed suicide. Thirty others died in accidents and 34 died as a result of violating the rules on operating military equipment. In July, 116 servicemen died. The Defense Ministry did not give a cause of death for most of the casualties. Judging by reports coming from the Soldiers’ Mothers Committees it is conceivable that this big crowd of young men was simply beaten to death by their colleagues. I have no idea what Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov thinks of the statistics, but if I were him I would have at least said something to the mothers that received their sons back from the army in coffins. He really should take some public action to deal with the problem. The Kremlin does not like the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, but in my view they do a very useful job. In fact, they do what the Military Prosecutor’s Office should be doing — collecting evidence of abuses from servicemen that allows those responsible to be punished. Otherwise, who would punish the officer, who, according to one of the letters of complaint sent recently by a number of soldiers from their military base to the committee, regularly humiliates his subordinates? “If anyone dares to raise a hand against me, I’ll put him in a prison cell. In any case, I can kill any of you and make it look as if it were suicide,” servicemen cited the officer as saying. The soldiers say that, among other offenses, the officer sexually abused them, beat naked servicemen, attempted to force them to eat cigarette butts and stole their money. This sounds dreadful and resembles the abuses committed by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Details are posted on the web site www.ucsmr.ru/fieldmail/fieldmail03112003.htm This summer the government allocated about $20 million to raise the patriotic spirit of the population. I would imagine that part of this money is supposed to brush up the image of the army. If so, in the light of the deaths and abuses, it is a complete waste of money. It’s hard to respect an army in which servicemen die for no reason or are humiliated in the ways the recruits complain of. If the Kremlin was really interested in improving the army’s image, it should have used part of the money to hire extra staff for the Military Prosecutor’s Office. At the moment it appears to be too busy to look into violations of the kind I have described above. If they did investigate, there would be many fewer soldiers’ deaths, many lives would be saved and mothers wouldn’t fear sending their sons to do military service. Patriotic feelings should be developed by changing lives for the better, by creating a standard of living that people are proud of. Unfortunately, as it is the army invokes feelings of regret rather than respect. The statistics show why mothers can’t sleep at night out of fear for their children. TITLE: Reel revival AUTHOR: By Kim Murphy PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times TEXT: MOSCOW — It’s a typical Moscow night. Our hero, Anton, has just drunk a glassful of warm, thick pig’s blood (an unpleasant but necessary preparation for hunting vampires). Then he gets stopped by one of the beefy policemen who are the scourge of every Muscovite who has ever ventured into the streets fueled by a shot of something strong – and that would be quite a few. Roughed up by the arrogant officer demanding his documents, Anton delicately upchucks. With a horrified response — “What are these kids drinking these days?” — the officer sends Anton along on his mission against the forces of darkness. Then the question is, who really is the hero? Anton, the morally compromised watchman of light? Or the wise, pleasure-seeking creatures of the night he pledged to keep in check? Which one would you choose? Stylishly shot, brooding, ambiguous and Russian to the core, the 2004 fantasy-action film “Nochnoi Dozor” has helped ignite a cinema renaissance that is reviving the nation’s legendary film production facilities and challenging Hollywood’s supremacy in the Russian movie market. A decade ago, the post-Soviet film industry was all but officially pronounced dead. The famous Mosfilm studios, once home to such directors as Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, had packs of stray dogs running in the nearly empty halls. Then, last summer, “Nochnoi Dozor” opened simultaneously on an unprecedented 325 screens and earned more money in Russia than “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “Troy” and “The Day After Tomorrow.” It outdrew the American film with which it is most often compared, “Matrix Revolutions,” by more than a third. It apparently wasn’t a fluke. In February, an improbable historical adventure set during the 1877 Russo-Turkish War, “Turetsky Gambit,” broke box office records, bringing in $19.2 million and edging out the latest “Star Wars” installment as well as “Alexander.” Not bad for a war most Americans have never heard of. The figures aren’t big compared with domestic receipts of American blockbusters, which just get started at $100 million. What is unexpected is that these films are out-earning American blockbusters in Russia. Receipts were negligible for domestic productions just a few years ago. The phenomenon has come on the heels of a wave of movie house construction across the country and is as much a story of marketing as movie production. Audiences in places as disparate as Russia, Poland, Hungary and Turkey are beginning to signal an occasional preference for domestic fare, cast with familiar faces in recognizable locales, over films from Hollywood. Whether the films have international legs will become apparent this year, when “Nochnoi Dozor,” which has earned $16.3 million in Russia, is scheduled to hit the United States in the first major American release of a Russian motion picture. Fox Searchlight Pictures has also optioned the sequel, “Nochnoi Dozor 2: Chalk of Fate,” which director Timur Bekmambetov is shepherding through postproduction. He plans to shoot the final part of the trilogy in English, in the United States. “American films since the silent era have dominated the world market. They just made more, and bigger, and better,” said Anna Franklin, a longtime critic and expert on East European film based in Moscow. “But they always made most of their money in the U.S., and foreign sales were just icing on the cake. All that changed in the ’70s, when American budgets started getting so high they absolutely had to make money on the international markets to meet the budget.” The growing domestic sales figures in Russia and elsewhere represent a change, if slight, in the substantial European market share the U.S. has locked in over the last decade. That domination is the result of years of aggressive marketing and distribution agreements along with the commercial appeal of U.S. films. “There’s been a real backlash,” Franklin said. “People are bored and tired of all these American films. People in Turkey, in Poland and in a lot of countries have started producing their own domestic blockbusters, and these blockbusters are beating the American films at the box office.” The Russian share of the box office in Russia and neighboring Ukraine more than doubled from 2003 to 2004 to 11.6 percent, with hits that included “Antikiller 2” and “72 Meters,” a patriotic submarine drama that plays out less ignominiously for the government than did the real-life story of the 118 sailors who died aboard the Kursk in 2000. The Russian share so far this year is even bigger, at 18 percent. In the Czech Republic, domestic films took 24 percent of the box office last year. Although “Return of the King” led the pack, four Czech films finished in the top 10. In Turkey this year, domestic films have captured 60 percent of theater admissions. Six of the 10 most popular films are domestic. “Gora,” the top Turkish film of 2004, generated $18 million. The figures are perhaps most significant here in Russia because of the earnings potential they represent — an estimated 300 million people speak Russian as a first or second language — and because they signal a great comeback. After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, a world-renowned cinema industry that had produced such masterpieces as Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin,” Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and Sergei Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace” with 100 percent state support suddenly found itself cut off at the knees, without financial resources. Many of the 2,000-odd state-run theaters across the country fell into sordid disrepair, and some were converted into auto dealerships. Filmgoers, revolted by the condition of most movie houses, turned to television or pirated videos of American films. One of the strongest moviegoing markets in the world — Russians went to the cinema three times as often as Americans on average — had evaporated. American movies predominated at the surviving theaters, averaging nearly 80 releases a year through the late 1990s. Mosfilm, a grande dame of the filmmaking world, spun into a steep decline, its 40 hectares in the heart of Moscow eventually overgrown with weeds and its soundstages vacant. “There were empty corridors … inhabited by packs of stray dogs,” said Karen Shakhnazarov, director of this year’s “The Rider Named Death” and the man who, as director of Mosfilm since 1998, is credited with bringing the state-owned studio back. “It was a totally mystical sight.” Russian “art” films continued to be made. Nikita Mikhalkov’s 1994 film, “Burnt by the Sun,” won a best foreign film Oscar. But virtually no one in Russia saw them until they came out on video. The turnaround began in 1995, when Kodak, against all odds, opened a glitzy theater in the heart of the capital, the first truly modern movie house in Russia. It had snack bars, even Dolby stereo. Tickets reached $15 and more, and people lined up to buy them. Since then, a cinema building boom has continued unabated. New multiplexes have sprouted up in the sprawling shopping malls on Moscow’s periphery and in the regions, from Novosibirsk to Nizhny Novgorod. Today there are 713 screens in 420 cinemas across Russia, and there may be four times that many built in the next two years. Ticket sales have leaped from $18 million in 1999 to $268 million last year. To be sure, Hollywood has raked in the biggest share of the box office. The Russian market grew from a paltry $10 million in 1999 for U.S. filmmakers to more than $215 million last year. Since 2003, Russia has been one of the top 15 markets in the world for American films. Television drama is making a comeback as well. Last year, 3,000 hours were produced. In fact, “Nochnoi Dozor” and “Turetsky Gambit” were originally made as TV miniseries by powerful, state-owned First Channel, then transferred to the big screen when the cinema boom hit. The sound production for “Nochnoi Dozor” was done in Los Angeles, but the bulk of postproduction and special effects on that and “Turetsky Gambit” was completed in modernized facilities at Mosfilm, which has enjoyed a renaissance of its own. “When I became the director of the studio, we were 20 or 30 years behind the rest of the world in terms of technology and equipment. But there was nowhere to take money from,” Shakhnazarov said. “No one was lining up to give us a bank loan. No one even believed that restoration of Mosfilm was a viable task.” The studio head turned to the one asset he had, the amazing library of Russian classics gathering dust. Many of them, especially old comedies, still had earnings potential on TV. “All the money we were getting from selling these movies to television we would invest in renovation of the fleet. We were buying cameras, lights — we didn’t have anything. We tried to purchase top-of-the-line, and implement only the breakthrough and innovative technology in our work,” he said. “Gradually, step by step, we started seeing new movies getting made at the film studios.” Today, Mosfilm is turning a profit. Russian film managers hope to lure American crews to Moscow and organize Russian-American coproductions. Shooting is underway on the first full coproduction, Roland Joffe’s “Captivity.” The psychological thriller is being filmed on a Mosfilm soundstage with an American cast and a Russian production company, Ramco, which has partnered with producer Mark Damon’s Foresight Unlimited. “The barrier for attracting important American and international production to Russia had been a formidable one,” Damon said. “I realized that in order to break this down, we would have to come to Russia with a very strong director, a strong project, a strong cast, and once they saw that a film of this level, this kind of talent, was shooting in Russia, all the barriers would come down. “And in fact, they have. I have received so many proposals from all over Hollywood: ‘Are you interested in shooting in Russia?’” The shooting has not been without hitches. The Russian boom operator couldn’t understand the dialogue well enough to position the mike; the camera, bought for Russian productions, which do not shoot direct sound, had to be outfitted with a makeshift noise shield; the set itself had to be designed by e-mail while Joffe was still in New York. “I would say that some of the problems we’ve had would probably negate the budget saving [of shooting in Russia],” Joffe said. “We’ve had to bring in a few more skilled people than we thought we would have to. “But I think that’s a good thing rather than a bad thing. Because it’s only when you work out some of the teething problems that the studio can actually get itself together.” “Nochnoi Dozor” and “Turetsky Gambit” producers Konstantin Ernst and Anatoly Maximov at First Channel credit Mosfilm’s upgraded facilities for their ability to deliver films that look much like high-tech Hollywood productions for a fraction of the expense. “Nochnoi Dozor” cost just $4.2 million. “Turetsky Gambit” was shot for $3.5 million. Its huge, “Gladiator”-like battle scenes were filmed with a few extras multiplied many times over by computer imagery. Yet the budgets for promoting the films may have reached $7 million each, say Russian cinema insiders. The big opening weekends were attributed largely to a U.S.-style marketing strategy that encompassed print, billboard and television advertising along with gimmicks like T-shirts and coffee table books. Another key part of the equation was a deal with Russia’s infamous DVD pirates that provided rights to legal production of “Nochnoi Dozor” DVDs at a discount in exchange for delaying the DVD release for four weeks after the theatrical one. (In Russia, pirated DVDs often go on sale the day the movie opens.) As a result, the movie has sold more than 1 million legal copies on DVD, perhaps four times the usual rate for a U.S. blockbuster in Russia. The promotional campaign wasn’t hurt by the fact that First Channel was able to deliver free news and entertainment program tie-ins. Or that after years of heading the nation’s premier television outlet, Ernst and Maximov knew exactly what kinds of films would appeal to their target audiences. In fact, Maximov said he was surprised to see a U.S. audience respond so enthusiastically to the intense, morally nuanced “Night Watch” when it showed at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this year. (The film also screened at the Los Angeles festival in June.) Its portrayal of a millenniums-long contest for supremacy between the forces of darkness and light is told not only in an exotic Moscow setting but with a distinctly Russian point of view, as Maximov sees it. “In this film, the light ones are standing for repression, for self-control, for not letting themselves go,” Maximov said. “And the dark ones are free. They’re the ones who are doing what they want to do and urging others to do what they want to do. They’re saying, ‘Guys, you won’t have another life. Take your chance. Do it.’ “America at its core stands for this principle of individual freedom, that the meaning of human life is the realization of personal freedom. Somehow, you feel the light ones represent Russia,” he added. “In the end, the movie glorifies repression and questions the idea of freedom — not a very American message.” Still, Fox is betting that Americans will watch it. In an e-mail interview, Fox Searchlight President Peter Rice said, “The groundbreaking combination of mythic storytelling and awe-inspiring visual FX makes ‘Nochnoi Dozor’ an audacious, original movie experience that will be enjoyed by audiences around the world, regardless of language.” TITLE: Chernov’s choice AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov TEXT: Sceptic Jazz, a German band that describes its style as “garage-trashpunk,” promises to be a good option this weekend, judging by the five-song EP it released available from its website. The three-piece band formed in East Berlin in August 2004. The band’s biography decribes them as “three well-dressed and handsome men, who have as their motto: ‘First dies the audience, then the band,’ [who] would give their [right arm] for a good cocktail evening, consisting of one [part] Blues, Trash, Punk, Garage and last but not least a big part of neurotic lyrics.” Sceptic Jazz will perform at Manhattan on Saturday. Alternatively, leading local punk band P.T.V.P., or Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe (Last Tanks in Paris), also perform on the same night. The band made its debut in Paris earlier this month, performing a trio of gigs there. “We played at two small concerts at a small bar and one at a club called Nirvana on the Champs Elysees. One concert was great, one shameful and one just normal,” said Alexei Nikonov, vocalist with the band. “I like it there, the French are very friendly.” The idea of bringing the band to the city that gave its name to the band came from Andrei Tropillo, a St. Petersburg record producer and label owner known as a strong supporter of P.T.V.P. According to Nikonov, P.T.V.P. has recently made a demo for its forthcoming album that it is planning to record in September. Tentatively called “Vam!” (You!) after a song that Nikonov wrote to a 1915 anti-war poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky, the album will be featured in the concert. “We wanted to hold the new songs until the album is out, but we have no strength left to hold them any long, so we’ll play new stuff,” Nikonov said this week. “We’ll play 40 or 41 songs, but as the songs are short, it will take 1 1/2 or two hours.” P.T.V.P. perform at Moloko on Saturday. Big concerts for the autumn will start with Patti Smith performing at the Music Hall on Sept. 2. The punk legend who is now on tour in Europe will be backed by her long-time band including guitarist Lenny Kaye, who has played with Smith since 1973. From St. Petersburg, Smith will go to Moscow to perform at the B2 club on Sept. 3. The Tiger Lillies has confirmed its one-off concert at PORT on Sept. 11. The cabaret-punk operatic trio last came to St. Petersburg in September 2003 to record “Huinya,” its controversial collaboration with Leningrad. Since then The Tiger Lillies have released “Punch and Judy,” “Death and the Bible” and appeared in the London Meltdown Festival concert “Stand Bravely Brothers — A Tribute to Bertholt Brecht” in June. This year’s Meltdown festival was curated by Patti Smith. Other shows that have recently been announced include Laibach (PORT, Sept. 9), Korn (Ice Palace, Sept. 20) and Kiss (Ice Palace, Nov. 11). TITLE: Avant-garde unveiled AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: A new exhibition running in the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum until Sept. 12, “ARCHIVazhny Avant-garde,” unveils hidden treasures of Russian art, which had spent decades locked in well-guarded Soviet archives. The show, assembled from the collection of the federal State Archive of Art and Literature, displays an array of original masterpieces, which until now have been inaccessible — not only to the general public but even to many art historians and experts. “People normally visit archives to read but there is an incredible amount of visual art [stored there],” said Yevgenia Petrova, deputy director of the museum. “We are displaying Marc Chagall’s letters with miniature sketches incorporated in them for the first time.” Albums of collages by prominent futurist poet and artist Alexei Kruchenykh compiled in 1918-1927 are just one highlight of the show. One of the ideologists of Futurism in Russia, Kruchenykh produced over 100 albums containing collages made of newspaper clippings, sketches and photographs, to which he added comments. If published, the albums would offer a compelling illustrated history of the Russian avant-garde. Vladimir Tatlin’s most acclaimed project, the famous spiral model of a grandiose asymmetrical constructivist tower, also known as the Monument to the Third International, is at the heart of the exhibition. The model was first shown in Moscow in 1920 during the Eighth Soviet Congress, and the tower — 1 1/2 times higher than the Eiffel Tower — was intended to house the headquarters of spin doctors from Soviet propaganda forces and their administrative offices. The giant utopian pile was never erected, and it is widely believed that it was not designed to be built, but rather was an expression of ideology in an architectural form. The State Archive of Art and Literature, located in Moscow, holds the world’s largest collection of artifacts and memorabilia documenting the evolution of 20th century art in all its diversity, be it literature, music, theater, visual art or filmmaking. The archive boasts an enviable collection of Tatlin’s works, surpassed only by the Russian Museum. After the artist’s death in 1953, several of his paintings, sketches and drawings remained in his studio, abandoned and neglected, with nobody left to take care of them. Tatlin’s friend, sculptor Svetlana Lebedeva, approached the archive asking it to collect and preserve his legacy from decay and destruction. The archive was established in 1941, when it absorbed the vast collection of the Russian state museum of literature. Since that time, it has been receiving from artistic unions across the country not only works of art but also documents about decisions made concerning them and critical opinions expressed about them. Soviet culture bosses denounced the avant-garde and kept them as far from the public eye as possible. In communist times, even experts did not dream of getting access to the hidden treasures. The sketches, collages, photographs and paintings were meant to be eternally confined to the archives without the slightest chance of them going on display. “The fate of these artifacts would have been tragic, if it wasn’t for the archive’s staff, who noticed the brilliant and valuable works, who preserved them and saved them from neglect,” said Vladimir Kozlov, head of the federal archives. The exhibition juxtaposes art and politics. Many Russian avant-garde artists hailed the Bolshevik Revolution with romantic enthusiasm, indulging in a naive belief in equality, Bolshevik-style. Inspired by communist ideas, the artists strove to visualize the myths, devoting their talents to creating propaganda posters, porcelain and palaces: posters by Gustav Klutsis, designs of architect Yakov Chernikhov — and notably his project of the Palace of Communism — or poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky are among the most vivid examples. These illusions didn’t last long, and the fate of most of the artists featured in this exhibition was tragic. Klutsis was executed in 1938 as a “Latvian spy” after a case was fabricated against him. Mayakovsky committed suicide in 1930, and dozens more went into exile. www.rusmuseum.ru TITLE: Together in harmony AUTHOR: By Uilleam Blacker PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: This week St. Petersburg is celebrating an art form not readily associated with Russia — barbershop singing. Concert halls and streets will for six days resound to the jovial harmonies of this distinctly American style of singing at the Sixth International Barbershop Harmony Festival. The festival began Thursday with a gala concert at the St. Petersburg Conservatory’s Glazunov Concert Hall, and will feature choirs and quartets not only from the home of barbershop singing, the U.S., but also from all corners of Russia. Tatyana Vanchakova of the St. Petersburg House of Folk Arts, says Russians are attracted by the dramatic liveliness of the style. “It’s a very theatrical form of singing, and each song is like a small spectacle in its own right,” she said. “The singers illustrate the songs with very dramatic and emotional gestures, and I think this makes it attractive for Russians.” The festival provides an ideal chance for Russians and Americans and anyone in between to enjoy this unique music in a fun atmosphere, whether just listening or actively taking part, U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg Mary Kruger said. “This festival celebrates a uniquely American singing style that has caught the imagination of many groups of wonderfully talented Russian musicians,” Kruger said. Barbershop singing began in the late 19th century in the U.S., when tonsorial parlors and minstrel shows provided a showcase for this potent and catchy hybrid of European hymn singing and Africa-American musical traditions. The form’s golden age came in the early 20th century when quartets were one of the main attractions of the vaudeville stage. Barbershop singing generally features four male singers (lead, bass, tenor and baritone), who sing in close harmony and without musical accompaniment. Key to the style is the theatrical gestures of the singers, which add special drama to the performance. New England became the homeland of barbershop singing, and it was there that in 1938 the fantastically named Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, or SPEBSQSA, was formed. From humble beginnings with just 26 members, the society has surpassed anything those early enthusiasts could have dreamed off. It now has more than 34,000 members in branches all over the globe. Russia has shown that it is not immune to the infectious enthusiasm and catchy melodies of barbershop singing. The first Russian quartet, The Quiet Dons, was formed in 1988 at the height of the glasnost era in Rostov-on-Don. The group went on to achieve great success, even performing at Carnegie Hall during the group’s 1990 U.S. tour. The Quiet Dons were not a unique phenomenon for long and today barbershop quartets can be found even in the most remote corners of Russia. This years festival features the finest in Russian barbershop talent, including the Chorus Quartet from Perm in Siberia, the Summertime Quartet from Petrozavodsk, the male quartet Don from Novocherkassk, the Skai quartet all the way from farflung Yakutia, the Anima Ensemble from Pavlovsk, and St. Petersburg’s Phoenix and Petersburg choirs. Distinguished guests from across the Atlantic include Pennsylvania’s renowned Brothers in Harmony chorus, the all-female Verdugo Hills Showtime Chorus and the Gotcha! Quartet. The festival’s chief conductor is Gregory Lyne, director of music education and services for SPEBSQSA. The Barbershop Harmony festival has a tradition of not only providing entertainment to the public, but also of getting the audience directly involved in the music. This year is no exception. For those who have been bitten by the barbershop bug and would like to give their vocal chords a stretch, the festival has organized master classes in barbershop singing. Participants will be guided by the expert hand of Lyne. “This style of singing, and of course the language itself, are foreign to Russian artists, but they nevertheless strive to achieve a pure performance, to get as close to the original American version as possible — that is one of the aims of the festival, and at the masterclasses Lyne and other guest musicians can show them exactly how it is done,” said Vanchakova. Would-be singers, as well as those satisfied with merely listening to the festival performances, should inquire at the St. Petersburg House of Culture and Leisure, 2 Pereulok Antonenko, for tickets and invitations to the workshops. “We are delighted that the festival has become a summer tradition in St. Petersburg bringing American performers to this splendid city to harmonize in song and in friendship with their Russian colleagues,” Kruger said. TITLE: Wooden heart AUTHOR: By Paul Abesky PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: The Russian North was not only a bustling trading zone in pre-industrial times, but also developed its own architectural forms based on wood. Its decline thereafter helped preserve them. The Russian North abounds with some of the rarest surviving monuments of wooden architecture in Europe. Imposing and evocative, sturdy and efficient, the extant buildings encompass the full range of construction types, from spare residential dwellings and windmills to ornate churches. Timber was the predominant building material in the thickly forested northern regions of the country. The natural deterioration of logs meant that they had to be continuously replaced, keeping the structures a living part of the environment. Today, most of the dispersed masterworks are accessible only to an intrepid traveler, but special open-air museums provide a comprehensive picture of the local architectural tradition. These museums now serve as protected depositories of structures brought from across the region. Suzdal, Kizhi, Arkhangelsk, and other cities feature such preserves of wooden architecture. Wood has long been a treasured construction material. Valued for its flexibility and natural grace, timber has sustained vernacular architecture from Norway to Japan. The material’s seismic resistance has made it a vital building component in such earthquake-prone areas as Turkey, Portugal, and the West Coast of the United States. The abundance of wood in the Russian North also determined its enduring appeal there. The region was a bustling economic and trading zone in the pre-industrial period, and the expanding influence of the mercantile city of Novgorod brought with it a dynamic architectural and artistic practice. When this cultural and economic tide receded, the North turned into a backwater, and this very remoteness and isolation spared the distinct architecture that flourished there. Although ravaged by fires and neglect, multiple examples still dot the landscape. One of the best places to view fragments of this tradition is at the Arkhangelsk State Museum of Wooden Architecture and Folk Art, located near the village of Malye Korely 25 kilometers east of Arkhangelsk. It features more than 100 salvaged buildings, transported from the riverbanks of Mezen, Dvina, Onega, and Pinega. The museum is the result of collaboration between ethnographers, engineers, and architectural historians. Once a building is selected, it is dismantled and brought to Malye Korely, where it is overhauled, rebuilt, and maintained. The first structure arrived in 1968 and the museum opened to the public five years later. “The purpose of the museum is to save all that can be saved,” said Alla Ivanova, a senior curator at the museum. “Its other goal is to study the regional heritage, which includes not only architecture but also ethnography, folklore, art, and population settlements.” Unlike a similar museum in Kizhi, Karelia, organized around parish churches and pogost, or an enclosed cemetery, which were previously situated around the site, Malye Korely is more of an artificial preserve. Prior to the founding of the museum, the place was simply a picturesque wooded spot near Arkhangelsk. This simulated quality of the museum is a concern for the curators, who are searching for ways to reinvigorate the venue. “The monuments are pulled from their natural setting before being assembled here,” Ivanova said. “It’s essential to make the museum more vibrant, to fill it with life. That is why one of our initiatives is to create what we call ‘living interiors’ by turning some of the buildings into functioning workshops for local craftsmen. As for the churches, they are being consecrated so that services can at least be held there on Sundays.” The museum is located on a sprawling, sloping area of 140 hectares bisected by a ravine. It is organized in four sectors, each presenting the building heritage of distinct districts. Among the highlights of the Mezen sector are two unique wooden windmills, the upper frame of which could be manually rotated to catch the wind. The Kargopol sector features an archaic peasant house brought from the village of Gar. Its windows are positioned high above the ground to cope with the accumulations of snow. This building represents the so-called “smoked” or “black” house. The stove lacked a chimney, and smoke went up to the vaulted ceiling, settled around the projecting high ledge, and exited through a narrow opening above the stove. This arrangement resulted in a blackened interior but provided additional heating during the harsh winters. But wooden churches provide the most memorable part of visiting the museum. They exemplify the pinnacle of local woodwork craftsmanship. Using elaborate joinery, the soaring structures are built without the use of nails. In the Dvina sector of the museum the Church of St. George from the village of Vershina is a superb example of a “shatyor” or tent-roof church. The structure is based around an octagonal form that emerges from the ground and culminates in an elongated conical roof. The western porch features barrel-shaped vaulting, and on the other sides the building is adjoined by a refectory and an enclosed gallery. The Church of St. George raises perhaps the most intriguing question about the legacy of wooden architecture. It concerns the long-debated interplay between wooden construction with subsequent innovations in stone architecture. The 16th-century Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye near Moscow is crowned with a similar type of tent roof made of brick, the form of which may derive from earlier wooden prototypes. Church authorities turned against the tent-roof design, starting to discourage such elements by the mid-17th century, but the form continued to be used for attached bell towers. Scholars still disagree about the relation of the stone variant to the designs of wooden tower churches. But one thing is clear: the tradition of wooden architecture in Russia is one of the most inspired and lasting accomplishments of Russian culture in the North. Paul Abelsky traveled to Arkhangelsk as a guest of Barents Press International and the Nordic Journalist Center. TITLE: Loveable Latin AUTHOR: By Olga Kapralova PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: There are two explanations for the word “Nagual.” In books by Carlos Castaneda about Native American Shamanism we find it interpreted as “sorcerer.” In Aztec mythology it means “the god of sun and happiness.” A cafe with this mysterious name, which opened in May, offers its guests a wide variety of Latin-American dishes. At the entrance you are met by a smiling Latino guy who is wearing a small beige sombrero. The cafe seats only 45 people and it is very light and cozy. The din of others’ rowdy conversations will not drown out your conversation. In the evening, this place is a good option for a romantic date. Couples in the cafe sometimes order just coffee (60 rubles, $2.10), others order margarita cocktails (170 rubles, $6). Nagual offers six soups. The price varies from 190 rubles ($6.60) to 290 rubles ($10.20). All hot dishes are offered in two variants — seafood or meat — and are priced from 420 rubles ($14.70) to 830 rubles ($29). There are two kinds of dishes for couples (in Spanish, plato para dos), priced from 830 rubles, $29 to 850 rubles, $29.8. Both of them are rather large meals. Nagual also offers a business lunch from 390 rubles ($13.70). The menu is very easy to use — it is bilingual in Spanish and Russian or in Spanish and English. Our Latin waiter was very friendly, and he tried his best to help us choose: he will explain to the unititiated what such things as nachos and tortillas are. We were in the mood for something light, so we decided to order salads and desserts. We chose a salad with shrimp, chicken and avocado (in Spanish, Camorones con pollo, 230 rubles, $8) and a salad of crab meat in cheese (in Spanish, Congrejo en queso tierno, 300 rubles, $10.50). Both salads were beautifully presented. We expected to find some pieces of crab or shrimp meat in them, but could not identify this in the homogeneous white mass. These salads not only looked great, but were also very healthy. The drinks list is vast. We chose the strawberry margarita (190 rubles, $6.60) that our waiter recommended and found it to be excellent. The fried ice cream (210 rubles, $7.40) on the menu caught our eye and we decided to try it. Decorated with kiwis and cowberry jam, it was unusual and unforgettable. Warm on the outside, it was cold inside and the cowberry gave it something special. We also ordered the cheesecake (220 rubles, $7.70) that our waiter told us was the tastiest dessert in the house, but we liked the fried ice cream better. Nagual is a good option for business negotiations. It’s quiet, the staff are polite and soothing Latin songs play in the background. At this place you can impress your business partner with your knowledge of Latin cuisine, you can smoke cigars and, of course, drink tequilla or jeres when you sign the contract. It’s also good for those who study Spanish — you can enjoy food and improve your language skills at the same time. All the staff speak Spanish. The menu is in Spanish and all popular songs are in Spanish. Buen provecho! Nagual 7 Prospekt Dobrolyubova. Tel. 232 8809 www.nagual.spb.ru Open noon until 6 a.m. Menu in Russian, English and Spanish Major credit cards accepted. Lunch for two with margaritas 1,270 rubles ($44.70) TITLE: Israeli Soldiers Surround Gaza Synagogue AUTHOR: By Ramit Plushnick-Masti PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: KFAR DAROM, Gaza Strip — Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind rolls of barbed wire in the synagogue of this hardline Jewish settlement Thursday, as security forces dragged screaming residents out of nearby homes and a religious school. Thousands of soldiers had entered the settlement at dawn, beginning the second day of forcible removal of Gaza’s settlers, and quickly encircled the heavily fortified synagogue and two nearby buildings. After failed attempts to negotiate a peaceful surrender, troops began moving into homes. In the small settlement of Netzer Hazani, black plumes of smoke rose as settlers set fire to barricades at the gate of their settlement to keep soldiers from evacuating them. Hundreds of troops poured into Netzer Hazani anyway. Residents shouted at the soldiers, who used megaphones to order the settlers back into their homes. Most complied, though several emerged later to try to block an army bulldozer from clearing a path for troops. On Wednesday, the first day of forced evacuation, there had been relatively little violence. In all, 11 of 21 Gaza settlements stood empty Thursday. In Kfar Darom, the fiercest resistance was expected at the synagogue, where hundreds of protesters on the roof barricaded themselves behind rows of barbed wire. Soldiers put protective goggles over their eyes as they took up positions. A huge military bulldozer cleared cement barriers, normally used to protect the community from Palestinian fire. Lines of buses waited at the entrance of the settlement, prepared to take people away. Kfar Darom has about 500 residents who have been joined by hundreds of outsiders — many of them extremist teenagers from the West Bank — to resist. Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, the Gaza commander, said he wanted to wrap up the operation by the end of the day. “If there are understandings, that would be good. If there are not, we will move the people out anyway,” he said. Just a few yards outside Kfar Darom, dozens of Palestinians stood on the roofs of their houses watching the evacuation. “For the first time in the last few years I’m standing here without any fear that Israelis will shoot at me because their battle today is against themselves,” said Mohammed Bashir, a Palestinian farmer. Officials also hoped to complete the evacuation of Neve Dekalim, Gaza’s largest settlement. Police said about 100 of 480 families remained in Neve Dekalim. About 1,500 outside “reinforcements” — most of them teenage activists from outside the settlement — remained holed up in the synagogue. Sharon proposed his “disengagement plan” two years ago to ease Israel’s security burden and help preserve Israel’s Jewish character by placing Gaza’s 1.3 million Palestinians outside the country’s boundaries. The Palestinian Authority and the United States want the pullout to be the beginning of the “road map” peace process, meant to bring about an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Greek Crash ‘Peculiar’ ATHENS (Reuters) — Cyprus’ president said Wednesday the weekend crash of a Cypriot airliner was “peculiar” with only one precedent, indirectly suggesting a link to U.S. golfer Payne Stewart’s similar plane death six years ago. President Tassos Papadopoulos did not name the 1999 Learjet crash that killed Stewart and five others as the precedent in question, but Greek authorities have consistently highlighted it as their only known close comparison to Sunday’s crash. The fate of Helios Airways’ Boeing 737, which crashed near Athens killing all 121 on board after apparently losing cabin pressure or oxygen, continues to perplex investigators. Ecuadoran Boat Sinks BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Up to 104 people drowned when an Ecuadoran motorboat packed with illegal migrants sank in the Pacific Ocean off Colombia, officials said. The boat was headed for Central America, carrying 113 people hoping to enter the United States, when it sank Friday, according to Armando Elizalde, captain of the Ecuadoran port of Manta. A fishing boat rescued nine people, seven men and two women, found clinging to a crate and buoys off Colombia, on Sunday, he said. Sunni Leaders Object BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Lawmakers tried to reach compromises with Sunni Arab leaders Thursday in the country’s draft constitution, one day after synchronized bombings at a bus station and nearby hospital killed up to 43 people in the capital. Government officials said Thursday that the bombings were an attempt to target Shiites and stoke civil war between religious groups in the country. “They targeted an area that has a population of people from southern Shiite provinces, and their message was that their government is unable to protect you from us,” government spokesman Laith Kubba said. “They want a reaction against Sunnis to therefore deepen the sectarian crisis in the country.” Scotland Yard Criticized LONDON (AFP) — London’s Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair faced growing calls to resign over the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man, as reports emerged that he tried to stop an inquiry into the killing. Supporters of Jean Charles de Menezes said Blair must go if he deliberately gave misleading information about the death of the 27-year-old. Adding to the sense of error, the Daily Mirror tabloid said a senior London police officer in charge of surveillance had ordered her men to take the electrician alive before he entered Stockwell station in south London. Public confidence in the police was undermined this week after leaked documents contradicted earlier claims about the shooting. Colombia Crash Prone MACHIQUES, Venezuela (AP) — French specialists joined an investigation into the crash of an airliner that killed 160, while Colombia grounded the airline that offered the charter flight to vacationers from the French Caribbean island of Martinique. The West Caribbean Airways’ MD-82 crashed in Venezuela Tuesday while bringing the passengers home to Martinique after a weeklong trip to Panama. TITLE: Pope Arrives for World Youth Celebration AUTHOR: By David McHugh PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: COLOGNE, Germany — Hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world jammed into Cologne on Thursday for the Roman Catholic Church’s 20th World Youth Day, singing and praying together as they awaited the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI. About 325,000 flag-waving and hymn-singing pilgrims had arrived by Wednesday, organizers said, with up to a million people from 184 countries expected by the time Benedict celebrates a closing Mass on Sunday. They filed through Cologne’s giant cathedral and overflowed into streets and squares, many of them waving the flags of their countries and singing in Spanish, French, German, English, Polish and Romanian as they celebrated their faith together. As he boarded his plane in Rome Thursday morning, Benedict said he was “very moved” to be going to Germany. “It’s a very extraordinary event, people from all over the world are coming in search of the truth,” he told reporters. It’s the first homecoming to his native country for Benedict since his April 19 election. He was born in Marktl Am Inn in the state of Bavaria and served as archbishop of Munich. Major themes of the trip will include his effort to evangelize a largely secular Europe, whose Christian heritage he has stressed in his writings and speeches. He will also reach out to Jews by visiting Cologne’s synagogue, rebuilt after being destroyed by the Nazis. He also plans to meet with Muslim leaders. Most youth here have known only one pope — the charismatic John Paul II, who died April 2 after serving 27 years — and were curious to see how his successor, a former theology professor and Vatican doctrine official elected April 19, would connect with the faithful. Many made their plans to come while John Paul was still alive and had hoped to see him. Alexandra Di Lallo, an 18-year-old pilgrim from St. Raymond parish in Candiac outside Montreal, Canada, said she was eager to see the new pope but sad that John Paul would not be there. “Of course there’s a bit of disappointment because John Paul was the only pope I had ever known,” she said. “We don’t know this pope and we’re waiting to see what he’s like. ... It’s excellent that this pope is continuing his legacy.” Big portraits of both John Paul II and Benedict were hung on buildings overlooking the square in front of the city’s massive cathedral where the new pope will address the crowd Thursday. Several hundred Poles waving their red-and-white flags gathered under the John Paul portrait to sing his favorite song, “The Barge.” A half-dozen French young people began chanting, “John Paul II, we love you,” in English, and the chant was taken up by dozens of others near the portrait. TITLE: Latvia Draw Adds to Russia’s ’06 Struggle AUTHOR: By Kevin O’Flynn PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: RIGA, Latvia — Russia huffed and puffed to an unimpressive 1-1 draw against Latvia in Riga on Wednesday, drastically reducing its already slim chances of qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Germany as it failed to impress against a motivated Baltic side. The game, partly overshadowed by tense political relations between the two former Soviet nations, sparked more passion off the field than on. On the field, Latvia always looked the more dangerous side and will be unhappy to have only come up with a draw. Russia remains in third place in Group 3, five points behind group leader Portugal. It will almost certainly have to beat Slovakia away and Portugal at home to have even a remote chance of getting second place and a playoff spot. “We didn’t play very well, especially in the first half,” said Russia coach Yury Syomin, who before the game had lost six players through injury and suspension. His voice almost gone from shouting at his players, Syomin added that the team lost the ball too many times. “I think it was a fair result. Both teams really wanted to win, and ... it doesn’t help one team or the other.” Many Russian fans were looking for more than just a football victory. “We’ve waited for this all our lives,” said one inebriated fan, Sergei Bezrukov, 31, a Russian railway worker who has lived all his life in Latvia. Other Russian fans walked round in shirts emblazoned with the letters “U.S.S.R.,” which did nothing to endear them to the Latvia fans. Small sections of the crowd booed each other’s anthems before the start of the game. The Latvians scored first — even before the game had started — with fans holding up a poster with insults directed at President Vladimir Putin, enraging Russian fans. The Russian fans evened the score by holding up nationalist flags and booing loudly during the Latvian anthem. Russia fell apart within a few minutes of the start of the game as Latvia exploited an at-times hapless Russian defense with swift counterattacks. Vitalis Astafjevs hit a stunning volley in the sixth minute, then Latvia almost doubled its lead with the comedy goal of the season, as the teenage CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev rushed out to challenge Dynamo Kiev striker Maris Verpakovskis, only for the ball to roll past him. Akinfeyev simply stopped running, assuming that the ball would go out of play, and Verpakovskis managed to steer the ball toward the goal from the narrowest of angles. But Dmitry Sennikov came to the rescue just in time to clear the ball off the line. Russia looked lost midway through the first half, with Latvia creating many more chances with its swift counterattacks than Russia could with its attempts at patient build-ups. It was only the will of FC Zenit St. Petersburg striker Andrei Arshavin — who, following a pass from Dmitry Khokhlov, battled through the defense to hit a shot that rebounded off Latvian goalkeeper Aleksandrs Kolinko — that kept Russia in the game. He continued his run to knock the parry in. In the second half, Latvia again outshone Russia, although neither of the teams ought to pose a threat, should they manage to qualify for next year’s World Cup finals. By the end, Russia was reduced to clumsy fouls to stop the Latvian side, which was still attacking swiftly on the break. It was only in the last five minutes that the Russian team managed to seriously threaten the Latvian goal. Alexander Kerzhakov hit the crossbar with a cross-cum-shot and then sank to the ground, his head in his hands. Russia’s World Cup chances may have been lost at that moment.