SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times DATE: Issue #1107 (73), Friday, September 23, 2005 ************************************************************************** TITLE: Budget Key To Easing Tourists’ Troubles AUTHOR: By Yuriy Humber and Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Life for foreign tourists could become easier by the end of next year, if the city backs new tourism committee proposals, a city official said Wednesday. The committee’s 2006-2010 program for boosting incoming tourism, based on research by independent American consultants, Boston Consulting Group, or BCG, will “turn the city into a recognizable product that we are able to market,” said Sergei Khudyakov, deputy director of City Tourist Information Center. “Now the implementation of BCG’s advice is simply a question of budget,” Khudyakov said at a roundtable organized by the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce. He added that the committee is at present waiting on funds to be allocated from the city’s 2006 budget. “Already we see support from Governor Valentina Matviyenko and feel we have the strength to carry out the proposals,” Khudyakov said. “[Once the finances are finalized], nearly all the city committees will be involved in carrying out the 2006-2010 program for increasing tourist numbers. It will be a wholesale effort,” Khudyakov said. The committee aims to set up 10 tourist information centers in St. Petersburg, a developed water and yachting tourist infrastructure, and dual language signs in English and Russian in the metro and on street signs. “We will need no more than a year to achieve this,” Khudyakov said. Khudyakov’s expectations sound naÕve when put in the context of the city government’s apparent lack of will on the matter over the last two years following the St. Petersburg’s 300th anniversary. Not only has the administration seemingly been resting on its laurels, it has cut funds which had been previously allocated. Speaking at the most recent meeting on incoming tourism organized by the local branch of the Russian Tourism Industry Union, or RST, Vladimir Salikhov, general director of the St. Petersburg office of Intourist, said City Hall has to change its attitude urgently, otherwise increasing numbers of tourists will be turning their backs on the city. “The decline we are facing now was predictable, and we are all reaping the results of last years’ inertia and idleness,” Salikhov said. “A consistent city policy backed up by substantial funding is a top priority. If nothing is done now, we will be sure to lose the next season. All tour operators have to inform their foreign partners about the next summer season before January.” Salikhov stressed the city needs to acknowledge the importance of the hospitality industry for St. Petersburg. But the government is acting on the contrary. The tourism committee was abolished, and absorbed by the external relations committee, to cut costs, indicating that hospitality industry isn’t even potentially perceived as a major source of revenues. Tour operators feel the government isn’t willing to share the burden of promotion and development programs. The existing programs are largely underfunded. The city government cut its budget for tourism development programs by 80 percent last year, and has not increased it this year. “Less tourists to the city means less revenue to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” said Dan Kearvell, head of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce. Kearvell noted, however, that despite a drop in tourist numbers, new hotels had opened in the city this year, four in the four-star category, which has nearly doubled the number of hotels of that class in St. Petersburg. Each year, 30 million tourists visit London, the capital of the U.K. By comparison, last year St. Petersburg received around 3 million visitors. As for more information centers, the existing two offices are poorly promoted, experts say. At present, two tourist information centers operate in the city, but most people in the tourism industry say they have had little impact. The main Tourist Information Center at 14 Sadovaya Ulitsa, is not in a highly visible location and directions to find it are almost absent. The office on Sadovaya, established five years ago, has also been serving as a Tourist Safety Center since last autumn, and can be contacted instead of police station after a theft or robbery. The center’s staff speak foreign languages, while an English-speaking police officer is very hard to find in town. “It is such a hassle to report a theft that many tourists leave the city without doing so, as they simply don’t have the time to look for a translator and then go to the police to fill out a lot of papers,” said Sergei Korneyev, head of the Northwestern branch of RST. But most foreigners are unaware of the services provided by the Tourist Safety Center. Alexander Ivershen, deputy head of the St. Petersburg police task force investigating crimes involving foreigners, said the center was contacted by only 21 people for that purpose over the past year. “It’s clear that visitors don’t know about its existence,” Ivershen said. The proposals to boost tourism come as St. Petersburg comes to the end of another disappointing high tourist season, with most operators in the industry reporting a 20-30 percent drop in visitors, especially in the middle-class category. The State Hermitage Museum noted a 6.5 percent drop in tourists over the 2004 summer season, while hotels and tour operators had quoted declines of between 15 percent and 60 percent, Dmitry Ruchkin, international projects coordinator of the Russian Tourism Industry Union, said at the Wednesday round table. TITLE: Baltic Leaders Tackle Environmental Threat PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: The leaders of Sweden and Finland joined President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to inaugurate a wastewater treatment plant in St. Petersburg in the latest effort to cut back on the copious pollutants flowing into the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. The $213 million Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant is to treat up to 85 percent of St. Petersburg’s effluent using ultraviolet light. Putin pledged further cooperation in large international environmental projects after Governor Valentina Matviyenko ceremonially turned on the sluices at the facility. “We have made an important step in improving the life of people living in St. Petersburg and the Baltic region,” Putin said, pointing out that city and surrounding Leningrad Oblast is home to 50 million people. “The result of this work demonstrates that we can be very efficient in our common work,” Putin said. Finnish President Tarja Halonen said the Baltic Sea had always connected people in the region. “It is natural that our concern for the Baltic, too, is common. The coastal states have cooperated for decades in order to improve the condition of the Baltic, and great advances have been made,” Halonen said, noting that the treatment plant was one of those advances. “The success we feel today should also serve as a strong incentive for continuation of environmental work. The Baltic Sea is still very polluted,” Halonen said. Authorities say the project, which also includes a facility for burning solid waste left over from the treatment, should significantly cut back on phosphorus, nitrogen and other organic pollutants that clog the Gulf of Finland and leach into the wider Baltic Sea. Construction of the facility started in 1987 but was halted eight years later due to financing problems. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Nordic Investment Bank were among the chief creditors for the project, more than half of whose financing is coming from loans. Environmental groups says some fish caught in certain areas of the Baltic Sea exceed European Union limits on toxins. The sea is highly sensitive to pollution, since there is little exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean. Much harm was done to the Baltic Sea during the last few years, with depleted reserves of codfish and many beaches in the Baltic region becoming unusable, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said. “We must solve the major environmental problems in our region. We owe this to our children and grandchildren,” he said. The three leaders were later expected to discuss Russian-European Union relations, a Kremlin official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with Kremlin practice. Russia’s economic ties with the EU are vibrant, with the bloc accounting for half of Russia’s trade, but relations are frequently strained by EU criticism of Russia’s human rights record and prickly bilateral ties among the new EU members that border Russia. Russia is also a major energy supplier for Europe. The three leaders were also to discuss efforts to reform the United Nations and the Security Council, the official said. Earlier, Halonen attended opening ceremonies for a $63 million Nokian Tires manufacturing plant. Earlier Thursday, Putin unveiled a musical water fountain near the Finlandsky train station and said he would throw a coin into the fountain for luck. When he found that he had no change, a smiling man stepped forward from the crowd and gave him a coin. Putin threw it, thanked the man and shook his hand. Other onlookers also offered Putin coins and he tossed those into the water too, Russia’s Channel One reported. TITLE: Submarine Vets Call For Release of Report AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Russian submarines are aging, state funding is drying up, accidents are getting more frequent and the consequent death toll is rising, but a group of high-ranking St. Petersburg submariners say the main cause of the naval disasters that haunt the country is fear. The statements were made during a conference on the safety of the Russian submarine fleet on Tuesday at the Regional Press Institute. Intimidated and unwillingly following senseless instructions sent by the bosses from the navy headquarters, many submarine captains are afraid to report faults or equipment malfunctions, even if this entails serious risks, the veteran submariners said. “The only proper investigation of a Russian submarine disaster was the case of K-278 — the Komsomolets — and unless this lesson is learnt, the accidents will continue,” said Yevgeny Chernov, a decorated Soviet veteran and retired submariner and a former vice-admiral. “Instead, the results of this investigation are being kept secret. The St. Petersburg submariners have timed their appeal to coincide with the appointment of a new Russian Navy Chief Commander, Vladimir Masorin, who assumed his duties earlier this month. They called for the results of the internal investigation of the sinking of the Komsomolets in the Norwegian Sea in 1989 to be made public. Thirty-eight submariners drowned and four more died in a fire in the Komsomolets disaster. The initial official two-week-long investigation of the accident yielded no results. The naval authorities then organized an internal investigation, and assembled a group of experts from its most experienced officers, who worked on the case for seven years, held nine expert examinations, and identified the responsible parties. But the prosecutor’s office closed the investigation before it could be taken to court and classified the results. The sinking of the submarine could have been prevented, the investigation concluded. “The accident started out as a simple fire, and could have been solved without human losses, had there been an adequate reaction from the captain,” Muratov said. “But, under stress, the captain mismanaged the crisis.” Boris Muratov, a retired 1st rank submarine captain and an expert who investigated the causes of the Komsomolets sinking said the scenarios of all the Russian submarine disasters are very similar. “Captains’ decisions should be driven by logic, not fear, and only stable, independent-thinking officers should qualify for the job,” Muratov said. Yevgeny Chernov concurred. “Officers from naval headquarters set tasks incompetently, and the humble captains go on performing them, regardless of the resources available to them,” Chernov said. “Many leaders simply don’t fit their jobs and can’t cope with the responsibilities their posts involve.” Arkady Yefanov, a decorated Russian veteran, and currently deputy director of the Alexander Marinesco Submariner Museum, is convinced that both the officers and the general public have to learn from the Komsomolets case, the information should be made available to ordinary submariners and it should not be kept in secrecy any longer. “The more people know about it, the greater pressure there will be on the naval commanders to fight corruption and become responsible,” Yefanov said. Muratov believes that the Russian navy faces exactly the same problems as the country in general. “Top-flight officials are covering each other’s mistakes and there are backroom deals; they use every tool available to silence their subordinates,” he said. “This is why it is important to make the results of our investigation public. It would be much harder to resist the response it will draw.” Chernov said that several high-ranking and influential officers who were involved in the case are still in power, and they have no interest in making the report more accessible, as they don’t want their incompetence to be exposed. “I’m even seriously concerned that the document will be destroyed because some of the people are still in power and continue making mistakes,” he added. Yegor Tomko, head of the St. Petersburg Submariner Academy and a decorated Soviet veteran, said those in command often set ridiculous tasks for captains during sea training, without serious consideration of the vessels’ capacities. In Tomko’s opinion, the K-141 Kursk submarine was bound to sink. “Its first compartment contained 28 weapons of different kinds ready to detonate, including the dangerous hydrogen peroxide torpedo,” Tomko said. “It was a crucial mistake to send a heavyweight like the Kursk on training in such a shallow area. There must always be at least sixty meters under its keel during a dive.” Tomko said Russia’s naval rescue service has been destroyed by continued lack of funding. “The country’s researchers and engineers have developed good vessels, but the state never started making them,” he said. “The much-advertised purchase of a couple of British ones is a temporary palliative, because our own industry is stalled, and close to being paralyzed.” At his first news conference this month as new Russian Navy Chief Commander, Masorin promised to maintain a media-friendly policy and a more open attitude. “The navy will have to turn its face to the people, not to the vessels,” Masorin said. “The media, in particular, won’t be denied access to important information, especially when we are talking about an emergency or major accident.” TITLE: Toxic Wire Found in Fighter PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: VILNIUS — Lithuanian officials suspended their work Wednesday on the wreckage of a crashed Russian fighter jet after a slightly radioactive wire was found at the crash site, the lead investigator said. General Vitalijus Vaiksmoras said work would not resume until the Russian authorities had provided more detailed information about any hazardous materials that may have been on the plane. The Su-27 fighter bomber crashed last Thursday in Lithuania while traveling from St. Petersburg to the exclave of Kaliningrad. The pilot is accused of violating Lithuanian airspace. Health Ministry spokesman Albinas Mastauskas said investigators found a wire in the wreckage that emits levels of radiation slightly above normal. “It is not significant radiation and does not pose any threat,” Mastauskas said, adding that such material was not unusual in fighter planes. TITLE: Putin To Host Call-In Show In Near Future AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin will host a televised call-in show in a few days, and he is expected to use the event to readdress speculation that he might stay for a third term and to tout a multibillion-dollar boost to social spending. “The presidential administration is sorting out the last details for the call-in show and will then set a date for it,” a Kremlin spokeswoman said Wednesday, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. “The plans are for the president to answer to the people before the end of this month.” Nezavisimaya Gazeta, citing Kremlin sources, said the show was scheduled for Tuesday. The live shows, which Putin initiated in 2001 as a means to connect with ordinary people, have taken place in December in past years. Putin has also held nearly annual news conferences in the Kremlin each summer at the end of the political year. After Putin was sworn in for a second term in May 2004, the presidential administration decided to hold a news conference with journalists in December and push the call-in show forward to June 2005, the Kremlin spokeswoman said. “But because of Putin’s busy schedule, they had to defer the show to early fall,” she said. Putin used his last call-in show, in December 2003, to announce his bid for re-election. This year, political analysts said, he will probably use the opportunity to speak about whether he wants to remain in power for another term and to discuss his recent announcement to spend an extra 115 billion rubles ($4 billion) on education, health care, housing and agriculture over the next few years. Calls and e-mailed questions have been carefully screened before reaching Putin in past shows. “People will probably ask the president to stay in power and not to leave. He will, of course, reiterate that he is not planning to run because that would be against the Constitution,” said Vladimir Pribylovsky, the president of the Panorama think tank. Yury Korgunyuk, an analyst with the Indem think tank, said Putin would have to address the question of his political future because it was an issue being discussed in the Kremlin. He said that Putin “understands that in politics it is very important to leave on time” and does not want to stay but that many in the Kremlin are interested in a third term for Putin. “The present regime is very unlikely to allow him to retire,” Korgunyuk said. “This regime is relying on Putin’s popularity, and if Putin leaves the Kremlin, it will be the end of the regime. “I’m sure that during the televised show people will directly ask him to stay. This is a way for the Kremlin to sound out public opinion once again,” he said. Putin reiterated to a group of visiting foreign policy experts earlier this month that he would not seek to change the Constitution to remain in office. But he said at a news conference in Finland in August that he would like to stay if the Constitution allowed it. Last Friday, he drew laughter in Washington when a reporter noted that his and U.S. President George W. Bush’s terms would both end in 2008, The New York Times reported. “Are they already firing us?” Putin asked. “We still want to work.” TITLE: Russia Throws Wrench Into EU’s Iran Plans AUTHOR: By Louis Charbonneau PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: VIENNA — A European Union drive to haul Iran before the UN Security Council over its nuclear plans was in jeopardy on Wednesday following stiff opposition from Russia. The EU has circulated a draft resolution calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran’s nuclear program to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions on Tehran. But Russia, which as a veto-wielding member of the council can block any action, warned against antagonizing Iran “While Iran is cooperating with the IAEA, while it is not enriching uranium and observing a moratorium, while IAEA inspectors are working in the country, it would be counterproductive to report this question to the UN Security Council,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “It will lead to an unnecessary politicizing of the situation. Iran is not violating its obligations and its actions do not threaten the nonproliferation regime,” he said in a speech in San Francisco reported by RIA-Novosti. “The Russians are blocking the resolution,” said a diplomat from one of the EU “big three” countries — France, Britain and Germany. “If we don’t get them on board, or at least to abstain, I don’t think our resolution will be voted on.” At a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries on Monday, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada all tried to convince Russia of the need to take Iran to the Security Council for hiding its nuclear fuel program from the IAEA for 18 years. But Moscow refused to budge. “The Russians say that it’s seven against one and they don’t care,” an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Drop in Birth Rate ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) – The birth rate is falling in the city, Pavel Krotin, chief surgeon at the Uventa medical center said in a report for the city’s Labor and Social Policy Committee, Interfax reported. Krotin said that this came after a rise in the birthrate in 2003-2004. “Fewer children are being born because the women giving birth now were themselves born during a demographic decline,” Krotin said. Putin, Church Trusted ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) – President Putin and the Orthodox Church are the two most trusted social institutions in St. Petersburg, according to a recent survey carried out by the city’s Institute For Comprehensive Social Research. Interfax reported that the institute polled 1000 local citizens this year for its “Trust In Social Institutions” project. Valentin Semyonov, the Institute’s director, said that the president has better levels of trust than the church. TITLE: Lenenergo to Accelerate Investments Post Reform PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: St. Petersburg power monopoly Lenenergo said Wednesday it will accelerate its investment program as soon as the company’s reorganization is complete. The company expects higher profits to complement the greater investments, because the finances would allow Lenenergo to “increase [the percentage of] power the monopoly generates and hence decrease [the reliance on] outside energy buying,” the company said in a statement. The monopoly wants to lift the amount set aside for the investment program to above 3.159 billion rubles ($111.4 million), a sum which was initially approved in May this year, the statement said. A decision on investments will be taken by the boards of the restructured companies in October. Reorganization of the power monopoly started this April to divide the company into three businesses: power generating, distribution and network management. The company’s biggest shareholders approved the restructuring, but the minority shareholders, which controlled a total 12.51 stake, voted against the scheme, eventually putting their share up for sale. The move allowed majority shareholders Unified Energy Systems and Finnish company Fortum to increase their share from 49 percent to 56.01 percent and from 30.7 percent to 35.11 percent respectively. In the first half of this year Lenenergo reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 2.701 billion rubles ($95.2 million). According to Russian accounting standards, Lenenergo’s net profit increased 16 times on the same period last year to 774.471 million rubles ($27.3 million). Revenue increased 18.9 percent, the statement said. In forecast for the second half of this year, the company’s management expects net profit to hit 871 million rubles ($30.7 million) and the revenue to reach 33.968 billion rubles ($1.2 billion). n MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia may list the shares of wholesale power-generation companies on foreign stock exchanges while barring companies such as Gazprom from gaining more than 15 percent stakes, Kommersant business daily reported. Russia wants to attract a wider range of investors to the wholesalers set up as the country’s power industry is restructured, Kommersant said, citing deputy head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Anatoly Golomolzin. The service is trying to prevent industrial groups that want sources of cheap energy or fuel suppliers from holding a majority in power-generating companies. The service also wants to prevent groups from gaining control over more than one wholesale company located in the same area where it has control of a regional generator. TITLE: Komatsu Plans to Open Russian Plant AUTHOR: By Yuriy Humber PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Komatsu, Japan’s No. 1 manufacturer of construction equipment, said on Tuesday that it was planning to set up a production facility in Russia. “Komatsu Ltd. has plans to open a machine-building or a component-making facility in Russia,” the company’s Moscow office, Komatsu CIS Co., said in a statement. Earlier on Monday, Bloomberg cited a Komatsu executive as saying that Komatsu was planning to invest 3 billion yen ($27 million) into a Russian plant, most likely near Moscow or St. Petersburg. The plant, which would employ up to 300, would annually produce 600 units of 30-ton escavators, Taizo Kayata, Komatsu’s executive officer in charge of overseas marketing, told the news agency in an interview in Tokyo. The Japanese firm would own up to 66 percent of the assembly facility, with the rest of the shares being controlled by Ivanovo-based Kraneks, a maker of excavators, Bloomberg reported. Anatoly Komov, vice president of Kraneks, said on Monday that his company had been in talks with Komatsu but had not yet received a concrete offer. Kraneks already operates a 50-50 joint venture with Komatsu in Ivanovo, which since 1999 has been producing plates used in hydraulic shovels. Iwao Ohashi, head of the Japan External Trade Organization in Moscow, said Komatsu had been looking at building a new plant in Russia for some time. “Komatsu has supplied a lot of equipment to the coal mining and seaport construction projects in Russia’s Far East since the ‘90s. They also sell a lot of equipment to timber producers,” Ohashi said. Komatsu, the world’s biggest after Caterpillar of the United States, said in a July forecast that it expected annual CIS sales to rise 30 percent to 25 billion yen ($224 million) this financial year compared with the previous year. Sergei Osutin, president of the board at consultancy OSV in St. Petersburg, said the arrival of Komatsu would likely drive prices for construction equipment down as competition tightened. “This is a serious investment amount, so the company must be confident in its sales,” Osutin said. TITLE: City Budget Looks to Spend PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: St. Petersburg hopes to increase its spending and earnings by 20 percent in 2006, according to the proposed city budget figures announced this week. Spending has been earmarked at 153.2 billion rubles ($5.4 billion) and earnings at 144.3 billion rubles ($5.1 billion), resulting in yet another budget deficit, this time of 8.9 billion rubles ($310 million). The draft of the budget, which will be reviewed by the city's Legislative Assembly next month, estimates that St. Petersburg will earn 6.1 billion rubles ($215 million) from investors in city infrastructure development projects, Izvestia reported Wednesday. St. Petersburg’s debt to the federal state will increase by another 5.5 billion rubles next year with the upcoming issue of government bonds, said Vice Governor Mikhail Oseyevsky, business daily Delovoi Petersburg reported Thursday. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Dockers End Strike ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A group of the city’s dockers will sign a collective agreement with the St. Petersburg Sea Port to end the workers’ strike by the end of this month, Alexander Moiseyenko, head of the Dockers’ Union, said Wednesday, Interfax reported. Moiseyenko said the workers will resume normal shifts from October, but added that the negotiations for ways to coordinate future wage rises and bonus pay have not been agreed on. According to the rules of the negotiation, both sides need to agree on a final settlement by the end of the year, otherwise dockers will resume the strike, Moiseyenko said. Elqoteq to Open Plant ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Finnish Elcoteq Network Corporation (ENC) will start production at its telecoms plant in St. Petersburg on Oct. 7 this year, Governor Valentina Matviyenko said Wednesday, Interfax reported. The 100 million euro plant, near Pulkovo airport, will manufacture equipment for the telecommunications sector, employing 1,500 staff, the news agency said. TITLE: Draft ’06 Budget Gets The Nod From Duma PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: MOSCOW — The lower house of parliament Thursday gave preliminary approval to the draft 2006 budget, which will sharply raise government spending using the billions of dollars from oil revenues, passing it on the first of four votes. Revenues are expected to total a record 5.046 trillion rubles ($177.87 billion) and spending 4.27 trillion rubles ($150 billion) — a 40 percent rise in spending from the 2005 budget. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told the lawmakers that when working on the budget, “the government proceeded from strategic priorities of state policy, that is improving the quality of life of the population, getting rid of poverty, supporting high economic growth, improving the quality of economic growth and curbing inflation.” The lower chamber approved the draft by a vote of 337 to 92, with two abstentions. The budget could undergo significant amendment before the fourth and final reading. The budget surplus is expected to be 776 billion rubles ($27.35 billion), equivalent to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product — taking into account that part of the oil revenues are diverted into a rainy day stabilization fund. Kudrin said the key priorities in the budget, which will increase government wages and pensions as well as military spending, were supporting social reforms and national security. Spending on education will rise by 29.5 percent and on health care by 64.6 percent, he said, adding that over the next three years government wages should be doubled. The head of the Audit Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, told parliament that the socially oriented budget was a step forward for Russia, where much of the population lives in poverty despite record oil prices that have fueled economic growth in the world’s second largest oil exporter. “This is the first attempt in recent years to mobilize the budget policy for the resolution of key problems of social development,” he said. The draft budget relies on continued high oil revenues averaging $40 a barrel. TITLE: Foreign Gold Miners Share Mixed Fortunes PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: Britain’s most Russia-focused gold companies offered a mixed picture of their first-half performance Thursday, with one saying pre-tax profit almost doubled and the other swinging to a loss. Highland Gold Mining, which has spearheaded foreign investment in Russian gold, reported a net loss of $6.9 million compared with a profit of $6.5 million in the same 2004 period due to production setbacks at its Siberian mines. The other, Peter Hambro Mining, said first-half pre-tax profit nearly doubled to $8.1 million as it mined more gold at its Pokrovsky site near Russia’s Pacific coast. Charles Kernot, mining analyst at Seymour Pierce, said Highland’s main problems included management troubles, technical setbacks and low exploration activity. “I prefer to put my money into a more proven management team which has not had these sorts of hiccups, which is Peter Hambro. There’s a very stark contrast to be made,” he said. Peter Hambro’s shares steadied after the results, rising 0.31 percent to 808 pence, bringing their year-to-date gain to about 59 percent. Highland stock, down 1.2 percent on Thursday at 203 pence, is ahead by just 5 percent this year. Russia’s gold sector, dominated by Norilsk Nickel’s fast-growing Polyus gold unit, has attracted many foreign miners keen to tap its vast reserves while gold prices are high. Highland — 13.9 percent owned by Canadian gold major Barrick Gold —said first-half revenue from gold sales fell to $28.3 million from $38.2 million mainly due to lower production at its Mnogovershinnoye unit caused by lower grades. In the whole of 2004, Highland produced 199,896 ounces (6.2 tons) of gold. Gold production at its rival Peter Hambro rose 37 percent to 102,178 ounces, reflecting increased processing capacity at Pokrovsky. It reported first-half turnover of $42.3 million, up from $28.2 million. TITLE: Plane Import Duties to Ease PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: Russia, which has long guarded its ailing aerospace industry with high duties on foreign planes, may ease import restrictions on certain Boeing and Airbus models, government officials said Thursday. “We’ve isolated ourselves with import duties from new aircraft. And the old ones we import are rubbish,” Transportation Minister Igor Levitin said during a Cabinet meeting. Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref agreed and urged the government to come up next month with a policy softening restrictions. “You can’t revive the industry at the expense of people’s lives,” he said. The move came weeks after a problem with Russia’s flagship Ilyushin-96-300 passenger plane disrupted a trip by President Vladimir Putin, raising concerns about the safety of domestic passenger jets. The government grounded all Il-96-300 planes for repair work. Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, also present at the meeting, said the move would most likely concern Boeing 787 and Airbus 350 aircraft. “There are certain planes which the [Russian] aerospace sector does not produce. Those need more liberal conditions,” he said. Aeroflot, which has six of the 13 Ilyushin-96-300 planes in use, was forced to cancel some flights to the United States, Canada, Vietnam, China and South Korea to comply with the government decision to ground them. The grounding is one reason behind the flag carrier’s bleak financial outlook for 2005. But it remains difficult for domestic airliners to switch to Western planes because import duties and value-added tax are as high as 40 percent of an aircraft’s purchase prices. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Berezovsky Risks Riga MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian millionaire-in-exile Boris Berezovsky arrived Wednesday Latvia to push an educational project run by U.S. President George W. Bush’s brother, RIA Novosti reported. Berezovsky, wanted by Russia on fraud charges, said he is one of the shareholders of Ignite! Inc., an educational software company run by Neil Bush, the agency said, citing Berezovsky. The millionaire plans to meet with university professors as well as Latvian officials, including the parliamentary speaker and interior minister, he told the agency. Berezovsky won’t be turned over to Russia, the agency reported from Riga, the Latvian capital, citing Latvian officials. Berezovsky is charged with fraud and conspiracy to defraud Russia of 60 billion rubles ($2.1 billion) relating to the supply of 2,322 cars to LogoVAZ, a company he set up, by AvtoVAZ. China a ‘Priority’ Client BEIJING (Bloomberg) — China is Russia’s “number one priority” natural gas customer in Asia as demand soars in the world’s fastest-growing major economy, said Alexander Medvedev, the head of international sales at Russia’s gas monopoly. China and Russia are in energy talks after last month underscoring closer ties with their first joint military exercises. China may secure piped supplies ahead of rivals such as Japan and South Korea, which are competing for oil and gas from Russian fields to reduce reliance on Middle East imports. Gazprom is developing new markets in Asia to maintain export growth forecast at 6.4 percent this year, Medvedev said. Exports may reach 149.5 billion cubic meters, worth as much as $27 billion. The company is in talks about supplying gas to China National Petroleum Corp., Asia’s biggest oil company, and deliveries may start in 2010, Medvedev told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller met in Moscow on Wednesday with Fu Chengyu, the chairman of Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil producer, to discuss potential cooperation. Rosbank’s IPO in May MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Rosbank may sell shares in an initial public offering as early as the end of next year, Andrey Klishas, chief executive of Interros Group, which owns the Russian lender, told the Financial Times. Interros plans to inject another $250 million into the bank before the share sale to meet Russian banking capitalization regulations, Klishas told the newspaper. Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s fifth-wealthiest man, controls Interros. Rosbank handles about 90 percent of the foreign Visa and MasterCard transactions in Russia, the paper said, citing bankers. The shares would first be listed in Russia, Klishas said. Duties on Russia Stay BRUSSELS (Bloomberg) — The European Union may prolong for five more years tariffs on a liquid nitrogen fertilizer from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Algeria to protect producers including Grande Paroisse and Yara International from cheaper imports. The EU on Thursday opened an expiry review of “anti-dumping” duties of as much as 26.17 euros ($32) a metric ton on solutions of urea and ammonium nitrate. The measures were due to expire this week and will now stay in place during the probe, which can last as long as 15 months. The investigation “will determine whether the expiry of the measures would be likely, or unlikely, to lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury,” the Brussels-based European Commission said in the Official Journal. TITLE: A New Nameless Period in Russian History AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie TEXT: Back in New York after a whirlwind eight days in Moscow and St. Petersburg, I tried to sort out my impressions. I had gone to Russia with a simple question — how bad were things getting? But simple questions never have easy answers. And this time there were some additional complications. Unless some slick magazine is picking up the tab for fancy hotels, I usually rent the same one-room apartment on Malaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa and within a few days am swimming freely in Russian life. But on this most recent trip I was leading a small group of family members, which meant that my attention was constantly minced by questions and requests. So, back in Manhattan, I couldn’t be sure if my impressions seemed so fragmentary because of my state of mind when in Russia or because that was in fact the state of Russia at the moment, a society still in bits and pieces that have yet to cohere into a new pattern. The Bolsheviks felt they had the right and obligation to create a new society, with a new flag, national anthem, wedding ceremonies, calendar and currency, not to mention social relations — and went at it with a will. But contemporary Russians have to create a new society only because the old one collapsed around their ears. It was not a task they sought. It’s easier to go back to the past than invent new rituals, which always seem gawky, too obviously manufactured, like the Day of Russia, the public holiday commemorating parliament’s declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union. So, people get married in churches rather than concoct capitalist equivalents of Soviet-era wedding palaces. A ceremonial changing of the guard has been reinstated at the Kremlin that synthesizes several elements from the past. St. Petersburg’s fancy Palkin restaurant makes a point of trying to pick up from its pre-revolutionary past; in fine print in the upper right-hand corner of its front page, Kommersant notes that the paper “has been publishing since 1909. Due to reasons beyond the editorial board’s control, no issues appeared between 1917 and 1990.” Economically and culturally, Russia seems to be emerging from a long, deep coma. Perhaps the current period should be referred to as post-comaism. The new period of Russian history has no name. Its true nature has yet either to be formed or revealed. Even the decade and a half since the fall of the Soviet Union has yet to find a tag that sticks, like thaw or perestroika, used to describe Khrushchev’s and Gorbachev’s periods of rule respectively. The intelligentsia hasn’t been doing its job. Perhaps the reason is that the intelligentsia no longer has a clear and obvious role to play. The relationship between the powers that be and the intelligentsia is something like a tug of war — a certain level of tension must be maintained for the match to have any meaning. Societies will be quite manageable if the masses are kept pleasantly busy with entertainment and the intelligentsia is allowed its thin newspapers and fat journals. Fines and fees can enforce policy better than prisons. What would have been the point of making an international cause celebre by jailing Yury Samodurov, the director of the Sakharov Museum, who was convicted in March of inciting religious and ethnic hatred by mounting the controversial art show “Caution! Religion”? Clearly it was better just to order him to pay a fine rather than sentence him to a jail term. International public opinion was not outraged over a $3,600 fine. And the chill was felt where it was meant to be — locally. Money as oppressor and liberator is changing the face of Moscow. Friends who live on Malaya Bronnaya Ulitsa recently bought the apartment across the hall and transformed their space into something that would incite envy in Paris or New York, but the street itself has gone from being one of the city center’s charmingly tranquil lanes to being gridlocked with cars standing nose to tail. I didn’t even bother trying to explain to my traveling companions that not that long ago Moscow’s streets were not impacted with limousines and BMWs, the main vehicles being khaki military trucks with stenciled numbers and muddy tires. Under the Soviet system, goods were scarce but time was abundant. Now it’s just the other way around. Russia may be starting capitalism at an early, primitive phase, but it is entering consumerism at its most developed. On the one hand, the main sources of income driving the economy are raw materials; on the other, what is purchased is absolutely the latest. In Soviet times, the men in the Kremlin were bad Marxists who believed more in political power than in economic forces. That hasn’t changed today. The Mikhail Khodorkovsky affair is a reminder that the power of money has its limits. But the economic forces now at work, accelerated and magnified by the latest in technology, are powerful, irresistible and probably uncontrollable. Spin and hype are replacing propaganda and the big lie. In the early 1970s, a Soviet journalist took me out on his balcony and whispered a confession: After years of writing lies, he decided to treat himself to an hour of truth. He would lock himself in his room, write whatever he felt, then immediately burn the pages in a metal wastebasket. “But the fear ran so deep in me that when I lifted up my pen, I could not bring myself to write a single word.” It’s impossible to imagine any such confessions from those now putting their skills in the service of the new masters. Big money is being poured into Russia Today, an English-language, state-funded satellite television station that is intended to hype the positive side of Russian life so that foreign investors will believe what they are told and that their money will be safer than that of Russia’s richest men. The city of St. Petersburg has recently hired the Boston Consulting Group to work on a brand strategy for the city. St. Petersburg needs an image and slogan if it is to compete with other world cultural capitals for its share of tourist revenue. The world is finally being unified — by logos, not ideology. Is that Russia’s future — gradually losing its essential flavor in an increasingly homogenous world, preserving just enough of its local color to make it worth visiting? My traveling companions caught a whiff of that on Red Square and in Cafe Pushkin. Russia’s future, a guessing game for two centuries, is still murky. Any number of scenarios can be imagined, few of them particularly uplifting: a middle-class Bulgaria with 11 time zones and nuclear weapons; a disintegrating Yugoslavia with a French touchiness about lost grandeur. Though Russia’s future is being created now, its real shape will not be apparent at least until the presidential elections in 2008, though nothing may be clear enough until 2022, when the first generation born after the fall of communism turns 30. By then, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, former President Boris Yeltsin and President Vladimir Putin will no doubt be seen as transitional figures, creatures of the Soviet Union which Gorbachev wanted to reform, Yeltsin to destroy and Putin to mourn. After a week in New York, I was still searching my memories for the one moment, incident or remark that illuminates everything. One image comes close: We’re dining at a fashionable, pricey restaurant that everyone agrees could be anywhere, except that my friend, a Russian businessman, is paying, quite literally under the table, an associate of his with a small stack of hundred dollar bills. I liked the image — Russia adopting the international style, complete with attitudinal waiters, while surreptitiously maintaining its time-hallowed, corrupt ways. But it seemed too perfect and obvious. I keep shuffling the images: from the celestial a capella singing and golden icons flickering in candlelight in the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in Sergiyev Posad to dark-skinned young men from the Caucasus region being stopped on the street by police, the mutual hatred palpable. But then it came to me. What mattered most was what wasn’t there. For all people’s anxiety and indignation, never once did I catch the old smell of fear in the air. Richard Lourie is the author of the novel “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.” He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. TITLE: Competence? Not a Requirement for Governors AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina TEXT: A year ago President Vladimir Putin abolished gubernatorial elections. Let’s take a look at what we were promised and what results we have actually got. One of the arguments in favor of abolishing gubernatorial elections was that the people did not have a damned clue who they ought to elect. But Putin was supposed to put everything right. What he would put right became clear after Sergei Darkin was reappointed Primorye governor. (Any lingering doubts disappeared with the appointment of Oleg Kozhemyko as governor of the Koryaksky autonomous district in the Far East.) What was even more interesting than the appointment itself was the reason for it. Darkin is not on good terms with Konstantin Pulikovsky, Putin’s envoy to the Far East Federal District, and when Darkin was asked whether he was afraid of not being appointed, he replied on television that he could come to an agreement with anyone in the Kremlin apart from Pulikovsky. It would be hard to imagine a more open hint that all it takes to get appointed is handing money over to someone. But it turned out that public demand is no reason to dismiss a governor. Mustafa Batdyev, president of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, has had to deal with locals storming his office on two occasions, the first time last November, by people who believed that seven relatives had been shot at Batdyev’s son-in-law’s dacha during a business meeting, and the second time in June, by Abazins protesting a regional parliament decision to transfer 1,000 hectares of land from their villages to the city of Ust-Dzhegut. In North Ossetia, shortly after the Beslan tragedy in September last year, people assembled in front of the presidential palace in Vladikavkaz, demanding the resignation of then-President Alexander Dzasokhov for his management of the hostage crisis. The Kremlin has forced the two most influential people in North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov and his rival, State Duma Deputy Arsen Fadzayev, of the Union of Right Forces, to get the people there to keep quiet. Mamsurov’s reward for this was being made North Ossetian president, but the result was that a man who could have become the natural leader for his people came to power as a faithful servant of the Kremlin. Thus another principle became clear: If the people have an outstanding leader, then he has to be sidelined. Nowhere is this principle more evident than in the Caucasus region, where strong leaders of ethnic groups are systematically set against the president. All this brings a dual benefit: The head of the republic pays money in order to stay in his post, and local leaders lose their authority. Being unable to govern a republic, consequently, is not reason for dismissal. The Beslan hostage-taking was prepared in Ingushetia, where Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev is thought to live. Just what Ingush President Amurat Zyazikov actually controls is unclear, as on June 22, rebel fighters briefly took control of the capital, Magas. But all that Zyazikov got for this was a medal for services to the fatherland. But it can’t be said that regional leaders have never been dismissed at all. For example, Saratov Governor Dmitry Ayatskov had a powerful enemy in the shape of the deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin. So he “disappeared” from his post amid a scandal, and criminal charges were brought against his wife. And so a year has passed, and the conclusion we can draw is that the only grounds for dismissal of a regional head are a carefully conducted palace coup — or if someone has paid a bigger bribe to take up the post. Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio. TITLE: Tank warfare AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: “God save Putin and his generation,/ God save Putin from our contempt/ Putin is the power, it dictates the laws/ Putin is you, Putin is millions,” sang Alexei Nikonov of the local punk band PTVP at the “Red Concert” on Sunday. The gig was put together by PTVP with two other underground acts, S.O.K. and 2H Company, to protest against Kremlin policies. “Bozhe Khrani Putina,” or “God Save Putin,” which echoes “God Save the Queen,” The Sex Pistols’ 1977 punk anthem, was one of several political songs such as “Ulitsy Dlya Rabochikh” (“streets for the workers”) performed at Red Club. The show roughly coincided with “Anti-Capitalism 2005,” a left-wing protest campaign held on Saturday in Moscow and several other Russian cities, Nikonov said. “I knew about the protests, of course,” Nikonov said. “The thing is that I simply don’t like to shout slogans. I think the best thing is to express [your view] in a song, so we simply played the songs. There were only very few songs about love. Most of what we played were socially conscious songs.” Despite this radical stance, Nikonov said he does not want PTVP to take part in other political events, such as the “St. Petersburg Maidan” stadium concert in March, which was eventually canceled. The Ukrainian word “maidan” (square) has taken on a political meaning in Russian after protests on Kiev’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) last year led to the rerunning of flawed presidential elections. In a restaged second round run-off, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko won over Russia-backed Viktor Yanukovich, then Ukraine’s prime minister. “Some political group emailed us to say that they were promoting an anti-Putin concert and were ready to pay us for taking part,” Nikonov said. “But I don’t like any kinds of political groups and associations. My personal position is that I have contempt for this regime and I speak out about it. But I don’t want to do it for the money, to sing at some ‘maidans.’ The people [in Kiev] sang at the Maidan but now they don’t know anymore who they should sing with.” Nikonov was referring to the recent ousting of Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Timoshenko’s government, and said that a musical band should stay away from any kind of political group. “I know that any group becomes mafia-like sooner or later. I am an anarchist/individualist in this respect.” For years PTVP was one of the very few politically-conscious bands in Russia, but now Nikonov said there have appeared quite a few younger bands whose music touches on social issues. “Something happened in the past six months. So many bands have appeared and it seems that the people have been driven to the brink. It’s all too much.” Nikonov cited such younger bands Sandinistas, Blitzkrik, Engage at Will and Distress. “They mostly play hardcore, very hard-edged, and many of them have the right social lyrics,” he said. “The only thing is that they do it in a form that is not too accessible for street kids. They accuse me constantly of writing songs that are of a ‘hit-like’ nature, which is a fact. “I do this intentionally because for a guy from the street it could be difficult to comprehend a certain avant-garde form of a musical work. It’s easier for him to sing a song, and then understand how gnarly guitars sound and how the guys in the band are anarcho-punks.” PTVP’s full name means “Last Tanks in Paris,” a play on the title of a 1972 Bernardo Bertolucci film, as well as a reference to the French student uprising of 1968 and the suppressed “Prague Spring” of the same year. Formed in Vyborg, northwest of St. Petersburg, in 1995, the band, which moved here last year, also features Yegor Nedviga on bass, Dmitry Chirkov on guitar and Denis Krivtsov on drums. Nikonov is contemptuous about the readiness that Russian rock musicians showed this year to submit to the official overtures when a secret meeting between top government officials and rock musicians took place in Moscow. In the meeting, Vladislav Surkov, a deputy head of the presidential administration, assisted by Akvarium’s Boris Grebenshchikov, met rockers Zemfira Ramazanova and Sergei Shnurov. Critics of the Kremlin have seen the meeting as an attempt to prevent rock bands from taking part in possible street protests, as happened in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine last year. Young people and rock musicians played an important role in the Ukrainian protests. In July, Ramazanova performed at the Kremlin-backed pro-government youth movement Nashi’s summer camp at Lake Seliger. “I don’t know why they all subscribed to it, they went through all that before,” said Nikonov, whose song “Zvyozdy” (“stars”) contains lines “I hate Russian rock” and “All the stars are lying.” “Maybe it’s because they appeared so recently that they don’t understand what they are doing.” Nikonov describes PTVP’s Orwellian titled album “2084,” released last year, as a “love album,” but said that the follow-up will be overtly politically influenced by Beslan, the 2004 terrorist attack on a Russian school that resulted in more than 300 dead, something that Nikonov mostly attributes to the authorities’ mishandling of the situation. Tentatively called “Vam!” (“you!”), it will feature a song based on Vladimir Mayakovsky’s 1915 anti-war poem. In the poem, Mayakovsky hotly rebuffed philistines having a good time at home while soldiers were being killed on the front. To bring the poem up to date, Nikonov made a couple of changes. The Silver Age poet Igor Severyanin, whom Mayakovsky attacks, was changed into the flag-waving chanson singer and State Duma member Alexander Rozenbaum, while Poruchik (a lieutenant in the pre-1917 Russian army) Petrov was changed into Kontraktnik (contract soldier) Petrov. Nikonov explained the line “Putin is you, Putin is millions” in the song “God Save Putin,” which he is also planning to include in PTVP’s next album, by the strong support that Putin has received in elections. “It’s because they voted for Putin themselves, and what is happening now?” he said. “In January there will be further reforms of the communal services, and people will have to pay the full price for them,” Nkonov said, alluding to Putin’s unpopular social reform program. “There will be riots, I tell you.” PTVP performs at Moloko at 8 p.m. on Friday. Alexei Nikonov recite his new book of poetry “Tekhnika Bystrogo Pisma” (“speed painting technique”) at GEZ-21 at 8 p.m. on Saturday. www.nehardcore.narod.ru TITLE: A class act AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Moscow’s Maly Drama Theater, which is performing on tour in St. Petersburg this week, is a rare theatrical company which nurtures Russian theatrical traditions without becoming dull and old-fashioned. Highly talented ensemble casts and a deep respect for the playwright are the troupe’s signature style. “Our Ranevskaya is not a drug-addict, although she does take medicines,” Yury Solomin, the company’s artistic director, said, summing up his approach by referring to the distressed heroine of Anton Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” Solomin said he would rather be slagged off for refraining from modern interpretations of classic plays than let that kind of experiment appear on the theater’s venerable stage. The troupe is appearing in St. Petersburg after a five-year absence and is showing four recent productions at the city’s Bolshoi Drama Theater. Sergei Zhenovach’s version of Alexander Griboyedov’s classic social satire “Woe From Wit” can be seen on Friday, while Vladimir Beilis’s take on Alexander Ostrovsky’s “Even a Wise Man Stumbles” shows on Sunday and Monday, followed by Yury Solomin’s interpretation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Maly’s visit ends with Sergei Zhenovach’s production of Moliere’s “The Imaginary Invalid,” shown on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 30. “Chekhov was a doctor, and if he wanted Ranevskaya to be addicted to drugs, he would have said so directly,” Solomin explains. “One troupe produced a rendition of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ under the title ‘Why Konstantin Shot Himself.’ Twisting the subject like that is barbaric.” Similar claims about authentic Russian theater can often be misleading, especially for the uninitiated audience. A theater newcomer can easily end up seeing a boring and stiff traditional show, where the brand “traditional” only serves as a feeble shield to cover director’s embarrassing lack of ideas. But this is not the case with Maly. “After the performance, you leave the theater in a good mood and with a happy heart: it turns out that it is possible to stage [these plays] like that, without major creative breakthroughs but [also] without a single false note,” wrote theater reviewer Marina Davydova in a recent article in “Izvestia” newspaper. Plays by Chekhov and Ostrovsky dominate the company’s repertoire, and for that reason the theater is often criticized for ignoring contemporary playwrights. But the troupe maintains its credo in every respect. “Contemporary language can be heard on the street and on television,” Solomin responds, adding ironically that tickets to certain films should be prescribed by a doctor rather than sold to the general public. “The classical works that we stage can tell you everything about life, and the things that do matter in life. As for excessive fantasizing, this is another medical matter.” As an artistic director, Solomin is convinced that the author’s concept and vision of the work shouldn’t be too freely played with because of the risk of complete distortion. Directors working with the company, and Zhenovach, in particular, feel the same way. “The Russian theater emerged from great literature, and emotionally demanding texts by Chekhov, Tolstoy and Ostrovsky aren’t very easy to perform,” Solomin said. “Fedya Protasov [in Leo Tolstoy’s “The Live Corpse”] can’t simply be shown as a bomzh [hobo]. You have to show where this man came from. But, naturally, it is much easier to perform a banal faceless bomzh.” Maly Theater actors, age and gender notwithstanding, don’t undress on stage and avoid obscene forms of speaking, even when working in shows for other companies. This is said to be the free and deliberate choice of the actors. The troupe’s artistic director feels that these self-imposed taboos don’t hamper creativity. “I am convinced you can easily express yourself without talking dirty and doing the Full Monty,” Solomin said. Unlike many companies choosing the “traditional” approach and classical repertoire, the Maly boasts a enviably balanced troupe, with actors of various ages equally present. Most of the new blood comes from the Moscow’s renowned Shchepkin Theater School. The youngsters perform alongside the company’s most venerable stars. The veterans retire when they feel like it, and aren’t automatically disposed of, when they reach a certain age. “Instead of inviting a number of guest stars for single-role arrangements, we make every effort to raise and train younger artists,” Solomin said. “It is a more difficult and painstaking way to do it but in the long run, it is much more rewarding.” The Maly Theater performs at the Bolshoi Drama Theater this week. See listings (pages ix-xii). TITLE: Chernov’s choice AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov TEXT: Moloko, one of the city's best underground rock clubs, is being forced to vacate its current premises after a long legal struggle with KUGI (the City Property Committee) in October. The club's management wants to make its last month a memorable one with concerts by some Moloko stalwarts including the groups Tequilajazzz and Markscheider Kunst. “Three years of struggling with KUGI has ended in a compromise and we are finally leaving the place. They promised not to force us out before we find a new location, and actually to help us to find it,” said Moloko’s director Yury Ugryumov. “They’ve fullfilled this promise.” Moloko’s month-long goodbye starts Friday with a concert by Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe, or PTVP, a leading local punk band (see article starting on page i) and finishes on Oct. 22 with the Afro-rock band Markscheider Kunst. “The choice of Markscheider Kunst is not coincidental, because it was them who played at the club’s opening eight years ago,” Ugryumov said. There will be no concert on Oct. 23, but the club will be open for those wishing to say farewell. “It will be an open-door day, to finish off the beer and say goodbye,” Ugryumov said. Ugryumov said that Moloko’s new location would be also in a basement and be about the same size, but a little closer to Ploshchad Vosstaniya than Moloko is now. An advantage of the new location is that that nobody lives in the building. However, the new rooms require serious renovation. “Speaking very optimistically, it won't open until February or March,” Ugryumov said. Moloko opened in Nov. 1996 and in a way became a successor to TaMtAm, the pioneering alternative rock club managed by musician Seva Gakkel that had folded earlier that year. Every worthwhile local band has played at Moloko as well as touring acts from the rest of Russia and abroad. Iva Nova, the local all-women folk-punk band that released a DVD called “Zhivaya!” (Live!) earlier this month, will perform at GEZ-21 on Friday. With singer Vera Ogaryova and bass player Lena Novikova on a maternity leave, the band now features Nastya Postnikova of Baobaby on vocals and Katya Grigoryeva on bass. Dva Samaliota will perform at Griboyedov, the club that the band manages, before embarking on a European tour encompassing Germany, Austria and The Netherlands. Dva Samaliota perform on Saturday. Keyboard player Mikhail Ogorodov will pay tribute to Robert Moog, the creator of the synthesiser who died on Aug. 21, aged 71. Moog (pronounced like “vogue”) developed the instrument in the early 1960s adding color to rock and jazz music that came after. “I will play electronic music using Moogs,” Ogorodov said. “Moog as the inventor of this synthesizer was very important to me, just as to every musician who use Moogs in their work.” Ogorodov will perform at GEZ-21 on Monday. TITLE: Merkel in Talks To Take Power AUTHOR: By Noah Barkin PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: BERLIN — Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats and Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats meet Thursday for the first time since inconclusive elections to try resolve disputes over who should run Germany. Burning issues blocking a “grand coalition” between the two sides are Schroeder’s insistence on remaining chancellor despite being edged by the Christian Democrats (CDU) at the polls and Merkel’s refusal to do a deal without getting the top post. Markets fear a “grand coalition” with the SPD would doom Merkel’s plans to push through aggressive reforms of Germany’s labor market, including breaking the power of unions to set wages across whole sectors, and the tax system. As neither Schroeder’s center-left alliance nor Merkel’s center-right alternative won a parliamentary majority, the conservatives must join the SPD or each must convince the other’s partner, the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP), to switch camps. A leading CDU member said he would prefer a coalition with the liberal FDP and environmentalist Greens to a “grand coalition” with the SPD. The new parliament must convene by Oct. 18 at the latest, by which time any would-be chancellor would hope to have a coalition in place. TITLE: Sharapova Bounces Back at China Open AUTHOR: By Alastair Himmer PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: BEIJING — World No. 1 Maria Sharapova produced a lackluster 6-0 5-7 6-2 victory over Israel’s Shahar Peer on Thursday to reach the China Open quarter-finals. By contrast, Wimbledon champion Venus Williams blew past Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3 6-1 in the evening session despite an injury scare over her left knee. A group of Chinese models in skimpy tennis skirts and sporting blonde Sharapova wigs failed to inspire the top seed her first match in two weeks. The Russian teenager closed out a flawless first set with a vicious forehand down the line after 28 minutes but was punished for some sloppy play in the second. Sharapova, who last month became the first Russian woman to top the world rankings, was broken three times as the 48th-ranked Peer leveled the second-round match in Beijing. But she quickly recovered and the 18-year-old comfortably took the deciding set to win her first match since a tough loss to Kim Clijsters in the U.S. Open semi-finals. “I played really well in the first set but then I just got too comfortable,” said Sharapova, bidding for her fourth title of 2005. “I wasn’t physically tired but mentally I was coasting. I just had to get myself together mentally and fight for it.” The leggy Russian, who has won four of her 10 career titles in Asia, will play Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe, a 6-2 6-4 winner over American Jill Craybas, in the last eight. Third seed Williams was never threatened by Llagostera Vives, although she was forced to take an injury time-out at 4-1 in the second set for treatment on her knee. The former world No. 1 appeared to suffer no ill effects as she polished off the last two games before dancing a jig of delight. She next plays Poland’s Marta Domachowska, who thrashed China’s Zheng Jie 6-3 6-1. Both Williams and Sharapova received first-round byes. Venus’s younger sister Serena Williams was stunned 6-2 7-6 by China’s Sun Tiantian on Wednesday. Sun, who won an Olympic doubles gold in Athens last year, next plays Maria Kirilenko after the Russian’s 6-1 7-6 win over Japan’s Aiko Nakamura. TITLE: Americans Helped By Home Advantage AUTHOR: By Doug Ferguson PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: GAINESVILLE, Virginia — Michael Campbell stopped at nothing to help win the Presidents Cup. Surrounded by his International team, he performed the “Haka” dance, a ritual from his Maori ancestry in New England aimed at challenging an opponent. “Didn’t work,” Campbell said. “We lost.” That was in 2000, but the year doesn’t seem to matter. Most players on the International team compete primarily on the PGA Tour, so they’re used to American golf courses. They have homes in the United States and don’t have to cross several time zones. But put them on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, and a big advantage goes to the United States. The Americans have never lost in three previous Presidents Cup matches at RTJ, and twice it hasn’t even been close. They won the inaugural tournament 20-12 in 1994, then held off the International team two years later when Fred Couples made a 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole of the final match for a 16 1/2 -15 1/2 victory. Then came 2000 and the Haka. The Americans built a 14-6 lead going into the Sunday singles, and won 21 1/2 -10 1/2. So, what’s the problem? “I’m not sure,” Stuart Appleby said. “I don’t think there’s enough to say it’s a home-course advantage because we really all play the same courses week in and week out. I don’t think there’s much here except the crowd is going to be a bit more in favor of the U.S.” The International team will try to end that streak when the sixth Presidents Cup began Thursday on a familiar venue with two familiar faces — Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player return as captains, after both teams wound up sharing the cup two years ago in South Africa when the matches ended in a tie at 17. The matches were to begin after opening ceremonies, with an appetizing start — two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Adam Scott against Tiger Woods and Fred Couples. That will be the first of six alternate-shot matches, followed by five better-ball matches Friday. Those sessions will be repeated in one long Saturday, setting up the 12 singles matches Sunday. Only twice has the Presidents Cup been played overseas — a 20 1/2 -11 1/2 victory for the International team in Australia in 1998, and the tie in South Africa two years ago. Phil Mickelson should be delighted to be back at RTJ. Lefty went 4-1-0 five years ago during the American rout, then set a dubious record at Fancourt in South Africa by becoming the first American to go 0-5. “After my performance in ‘03, I want to come back with a strong one this year.” Mickelson, like some of the International players, has no explanation for U.S. success at RTJ. “We’ve had a good record here, and really, we don’t have a great reason why,” he said. TITLE: Soccer Coach Freed After Kidnapping Ordeal PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: RIO DE JANEIRO — Cruz Azul coach Ruben Omar Romano, who was finally freed after a two-month kidnap ordeal on Wednesday, was the latest footballing victim of a Latin American scourge. Romano, who was born in Argentina but has spent most of his career in Mexico, was leaving a training session on July 19 when he found his way blocked by two stolen SUV’s containing eight heavily-armed kidnappers. According to Mexican media, an assault rifle was fired to scare him and he was then beaten before being dragged off. Almost nothing more was heard until Wednesday when Romano was been freed following lengthy investigations. Police had gathered enough information to raid the hide-out in the crime-ridden residential neighbourhood of Iztapalapa in Mexico City, freeing Romano and make about half a dozen arrests. Although there was a happy ending, as there has been in every other high profile case so far, the trend has alarmed footballers, coaches and their relatives around the region. Romano, 47, is the second football-related victim in Mexico, which has one of the world’s highest kidnapping rates. The other was Alvaro Campos, father of former Mexico goalkeeper Jorge Campos, who was held for one week before being released in 1999. Footballers’ families have already become regular targets for kidnappers in Argentina and Brazil. Two members of the current Argentina team have had relatives abducted. One of midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme’s brothers, Christian, was snatched in 2002 and released after a reported $160,000 was paid. Defender Gabriel Milito’s father was another victim in 2002 and released for a reported $30,000 ransom. Leonardo Astrada, a former Argentine international and until recently the coach of River Plate, also had his father kidnapped in 2003 when he was a player for the same team. In neighbouring Brazil, kidnappers have targeted the players’ mothers. The highest profile case involved Marina de Souza, the mother of Brazilian international forward Robinho, who spent 40 days in captivity last year. De Souza was snatched by armed men who invaded a barbecue in the Santos neighbourhood of Praia Grande in November. Robinho, who played for Brazilian champions at the time, said that safety was one of his reasons for moving to Real Madrid in July. This was followed by a spate of kidnappings early this year involving the mothers of Luis Fabiano, who played for Porto at the time and is now with Sevilla, Rogerio (Sporting Lisbon), Grafite (Sao Paulo) and Marinho (Corinthians). All were released unharmed. The situation prompted players at Corinthians, Brazil’s richest club, to appeal to the media to stop speculating on how much they were earning. “We’d like to request that our salaries are no longer published,” they said in a statement. “Given the increasing number of kidnappings involving the relatives of players, we believe that this type of information could make us more likely targets.” TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Iraq Attacks Continue UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iraq expects insurgents to step up attempts to disrupt next month’s constitutional referendum and believes the next three months are critical for the country’s future as a democratic nation, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday. In a speech to the U.N. Security Council, Zebari said the international community has a “moral obligation” to help Iraq win the battle against foreign extremists and “thugs” from Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime because the country is fighting “to protect the freedoms of the rest of the civilized world.” Gaza Attacks Predicted JERUSALEM (The New York Times) — The director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Wednesday that armed Palestinian factions were increasingly likely to initiate attacks from the West Bank rather than from the Gaza Strip after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Yuval Diskin also said that he viewed the Palestinian Authority’s ability to impose order as “negligible at best.” The overall level of violence has dropped sharply since the Israelis and Palestinians announced a truce in February. Still, shooting exchanges are common, and Diskin said Palestinian groups were continuing to arm themselves, with an emphasis on the West Bank now that Israel is gone from Gaza. EC Acts on Bird Flu n LONDON (AFP) — The European Commission is proposing an international donors’ conference on bird flu to help Asian countries fight the disease and prevent a pandemic, the Financial Times reported. Brussels also wants the World Health Organisation and United Nations agencies to be involved. A strain of bird flu, H5N1, has killed 63 people in Southeast Asia since 2003, the majority of them in Vietnam. Health experts say a major and quick-spreading pandemic internationally could kill millions. Bible Condensed LONDON (AFP) — A Church of England vicar unveiled Wednesday his self-styled “100-Minute Bible,” an ultra-condensed edition of the Christian holy book which claims to neatly summarise every teaching from the Creation to the Revelation.The book is meant for those who do not have the time to read the original in full. “This is a book for adults and has been written in a style to encourage readers to keep turning the pages, but without resorting to any literary gimmicks,” said Len Budd of publishers, 100 Minute Press. Pilot Saves Plane LOS ANGELES (The New York Times) — A JetBlue airliner whose front landing gear became stuck at a 90-degree angle after takeoff landed safely Wednesday night after circling the skies over Los Angeles for nearly three hours. Many of the 140 passengers watched live coverage of their plight on television monitors onboard. The pilot brought the plane down on the rear wheels and slowly lowered the nose gear. The tires erupted in white smoke and the wheels gave off sparks and flames as the plane skidded down a remote runway lined with emergency vehicles. Passengers erupted in cheers when the plane stopped safely at Los Angeles International Airport at 6:18 p.m. TV Host To Shoot Up AMSTERDAM (AP) — A television presenter on a new Dutch talk show “Spuiten & Slikken,” or the “Shoot Up and Swallow” show, will take heroin and other illegal drugs on air in a program intended to reach young audiences, producers said Wednesday. Even in the liberal Netherlands, where marijuana is sold and used openly, the proposed action by presenter Filemon Wesselink was met with dismay by the governing center-right Christian Democrat party. “This is dangerous and it sets a bad example,” party spokesman Pieter Heerma said. “It’s not our intention to create an outcry. We just want to talk about subjects that are part of young people’s lives,” said Ingrid Timmer, a spokeswoman for the show’s producer BNN.