SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1127 (93), Friday, December 2, 2005
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TITLE: NGO Law Defended By Kremlin
AUTHOR: By Meg Clothier
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday brushed off sharp international criticism of a draft law aimed at tightening state control over non-governmental organizations, saying what it did at home was its own affair. 
Last month parliament backed a bill that would bar foreign human rights groups, green organisations and medical charities from working in Russia. It would force local non-profit groups to re-register and make it harder for them to take foreign cash. 
U.S. officials said Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns would use a trip to Moscow this week to discuss the legislation. 
“This is our internal right,” Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Kamynin, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, as saying. 
“Passing laws is the sovereign right of every state.” 
He added that close allies of Washington had similar laws to the one Russia is planning, although it was not clear to which countries he was referring. 
U.S. President George W. Bush has already personally raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin. 
NGOs, defending their work in Russia, have said the bill reflects unfounded Russian suspicions that foreign intelligence agencies could exploit them to stir up dissent, triggering a revolution like those in ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia. 
Russia’s Kommersant daily quoted a source in Washington as saying the State Department was fed up with Russia’s attitude. 
“If previously we pretended that Russia was our partner and the Kremlin pretended to cooperate with us, now the Russians don’t want to play even that game,” the source said. 
Putin has already voiced distrust of foreign-funded NGOs, saying: “He who pays the piper pays the tune.” Last week he backed the bill, saying it would not undermine civil liberties. 
His 5-1/2 years in the Kremlin have been marked by greater centralisation of power and tighter media control. The influence of the security and military establishment has also grown.

TITLE: Number Of HIV PatientsRockets
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As the city marked World AIDS Day with a large public awareness meeting on Thursday, health authorities said that the number of HIV cases in the country has rocketed over the last five years, with 100 Russians contracting the virus every day. 
At the meeting at the Moskovsky Cultural Center close to the Elektrosila metro station on Moskovsky Prospekt, demonstrators handed out leaflets in an attempt to raise awareness.
The number of HIV infections per 100,000 people has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 121 in 2001 to 231 by the end of this year, the Federal Service for the Supervision of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare said in a statement this week.
According to statistics for the whole of Russia, almost 50 percent of cases result from sexual contract. In St. Petersburg, however, the picture is different. Galina Volkova, an official with the St. Petersburg Center For AIDS Prevention, said 80 percent of new HIV cases registered in 2005 result from intravenous drug use. 
“The problem is becoming more localized,” Volkova said. “[In 2004] only 65 percent of new registered cases were intravenous drug addicts.” 
Volkova also said that more people are coming forward to be tested now that the Russian government has dramatically increased funding for treatment of HIV-positive patients.
President Vladimir Putin announced in late September that the 2006 federal AIDS budget would be 20 to 30 times higher than this year’s. 
Russia has increased funding for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs from 130 million rubles ($4.5 million) in 2004 — enough to treat just 600 patients — to 3 billion rubles ($140 million).
At 130 million rubles, the 2005 budget allocated about $0.45 for each HIV-positive person in Russia. But next year treatment will be available to all infected Russians, according to the government.
Aza Rakhmanova, the chief HIV and AIDS specialist on the City Hall’s Health Committee, said there is additional local funding available in St. Petersburg, and the city intends to provide treatment to all patients.
“But a lot of money has to be invested in public awareness programs,” Rakhmanova said. “Widespread discrimination is not acceptable and not excusable. HIV-positive people must be integrated into society, not rejected by it.”
Until this year, the Russian state concentrated most of its efforts and funding on treatment, rather than on prevention, but the situation has begun to change.
Sociological research carried out by the Russian Center For Public Opinion Research ahead of World AIDS Day, shows that both tolerance and awareness in Russian society have risen in comparison with last year. But the picture is still far from optimistic.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they wouldn’t mind having an HIV-positive person as a neighbor. Thirty three percent of respondents said they wouldn’t mind working with an HIV-positive person. By comparison, last year only 20 percent of respondents said they would be comfortable with an HIV-positive colleague.
But the stigma that Russia’s HIV patients confront in society dies hard.
The first child born with HIV in St. Petersburg was due to start school this year. Schools refused to accept the child until the city government intervened. Children of HIV-positive parents, even if proved HIV-negative, are routinely denied access to many public facilities such as swimming pools, sports clubs or health centers, said Yevgeny Voronin, chief doctor with the Republican Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Ust-Izhora, outside St. Petersburg. 
The adoption of an HIV-positive child in Russia is rare. Over the 18 years which have passed since the first HIV cases were registered in Russia, only five HIV-positive children have been adopted, said Voronin. Of the five adopted HIV-positive children, only one baby was adopted by a Russian, while the other four were adopted by foreigners, he added. 
“Society is still poorly informed about the disease,” Voronin said. “People are driven by fear that is based on prejudice. As a result, HIV-positive children are isolated and confined to hospitals. This lack of communication is dangerous for their physical and mental development.”
Even when taken to hospital after a medical problem or accident, they are often neglected. According to this year’s report compiled by the Moscow Helsinki Group, on one occasion, doctors at the city’s Alexandrovskaya Hospital wouldn’t approach an HIV-positive patient for two days because they all were too scared. 
Since 2002, between 3,000 and 4,500 new cases have been registered annually in St. Petersburg. According to official statistics, 27,602 HIV cases were registered in the city between January 1987 and October 2005.

TITLE: New City Policy on Strays Ignored
AUTHOR: By Yelena Andreyeva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Over two months after City Hall adopted a new strategy for the humane treatment of stray animals, and despite Governor Valentina Matviyenko having announced that “the city authorities will strictly follow European regulations on the treatment of homeless animals,” stray cats and dogs continue to be exterminated every day. 
The city’s new policy and humanitarian initiatives in the treatment of homeless animals were discussed last week by City Hall and Legislative 
Assembly representatives as well as local celebrities, including the singers Tatyana Bulanova, Lyudmila Senchina and Marina Kapuro, and specialists from charity organizations at a round table organized by Sputnik radio station and the Business News Information Agency.  
According to Yury Andreyev, St. Petersburg’s chief veterinary surgeon, of a total of 250,000 dogs in the city, 10,000 are homeless, though other estimates given at the round table put the second figure as high as 20,000.
The new city strategy on stray animals, adopted by City Hall on Sept. 20, envisages the sterilization of animals as the main method for controlling St. Petersburg’s stray animal population, rather than extermination. 
Many, however, claim that little has changed since the introduction of the new policy. 
“There are many state organizations that have an interest in the trapping and killing of stray animals,” said Yelena Bobrova of the Baltic Care for Animals charity organization (BCA), adding that between 4,000 and 6,000 dogs are killed every year by various local authorities, with financing for their collection and culling coming from City Hall.
Having drawn on the positive results of a similar program run in Moscow, the new policy has been given a trial run in Kronshtadt in recent months. “Over 130 animals were sterilized and vaccinated, and then reintroduced into the city environment,” Andreyev said. 
“The citizens of Kronshtadt approved of the results of the experiment, and we’ll be continuing it in other regions of St. Petersburg,” he said.
According to Bobrova, however, over 50 percent of the animals sterilized in Kronshtadt were later killed by older sanitation programs that have yet to be phased out. As a result, “a lot of money and effort was wasted,” Bobrova said. 
Experts speaking at the round table said that sterilization was the most cost effective and humane of the methods available. Yury Mikityuk, a veterinary surgeon with Baltic Care for Animals, has sterilized 200 strays, and the organization itself has carried out 100 sterilization operations every month for the past three years. Mikityuk said that with the introduction of a specialized mobile operating theater in December, the organization should be able to sterilize about 500 animals per month. 
“With just a little help, attention and support from city government officials, the problem of stray animals can be solved in about two years,” Mikityuk said.

TITLE: Capital Changes Phone Code
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: From Thursday, Moscow telephone numbers beginning with 095 changed to 495 as part of changes in area codes across the country, and numbers starting with 0 in another 18 regions, including the Moscow region, also now start with 4.
In the Kaliningrad region, the area code 011 changed to 401.
Both the old and new area codes will work during a transition period from Dec. 1 through Jan. 31, 2006. 
The changes are part of Russia’s efforts to adapt its telecommunications standards to those in Europe. The next step will be transferring emergency phone services (including 01 for fire, 02 for police and 03 for medical assistance) to a single emergency number, 112. These two changes will free up the prefix 0 for use on long distance and international calls, a change that could come into effect as early as next year. Long distance calls, which currently use the prefix 8, would then switch to 0, while international calls would use the prefix 00, instead of 810.
All of the changes are scheduled for completion by 2008, a spokeswoman for the IT and Communications Ministry said.
Yekaterina Khaustova, a spokeswoman for MGTS, which runs Moscow’s telephone network, said that the city’s existing 499 numbers would stay the same. An extra 160,000 numbers with the 499 prefix were introduced in 2003 as part of a switch to digital exchanges. Khaustova said the plan was to transfer all Moscow phone numbers to digital exchanges by 2012.

TITLE: White Days Program Unveiled
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A new “White Days” program aimed at luring tourists to St. Petersburg during its long winter months was announced Thursday at the Hermitage Theater. 
The 2005-2006 program was presented by the city’s leading hotels and cultural institutions with the support of City Hall. 
This year, besides the traditional international Arts Square Winter Festival this month and the Mariinsky Ballet Festival in March, a new Gogol festival in December and Shrovetide Week in February, will both take place at the Mariinsky Theater.
New exhibitions at the State Hermitage Museum, a special program commemorating the founding of the Russian Museum, and a number of concerts in honor of conductor Yury Temirkanov and of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic are some of the coming attractions. 
An ice sculpture festival at the Peter and Paul Fortress will take place and a copy of the Empress Anna’s Ice Palace will be erected at Palace Square.
Launched three years ago, “White Days” is marketed as the winter alternative to St. Petersburg summertime “White Nights” season.

TITLE: Ex-U.K. Minister Talks On HIV/AIDs in Russia
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Chris Smith, a member of the British House of Lords, visited St. Petersburg to take part in a series of discussions organized by the British Council on HIV and AIDS. The St. Petersburg Times spoke to Lord Smith, a former British Camber Minister who was diagnosed as being HIV positive 18 years ago, about the threat that the disease poses to Russia and the U.K. 

What is the main purpose of your visit?
Primarily, I came to take part in an event organized by the British Council entitled Cafe Scientifique, focusing on the socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS. During the discussion I met with a few local experts who are already very active on the HIV issue and we had a very lively discussion. 

How would you describe the situation surrounding HIV in Russia?
There is some impact of HIV here. One of the very interesting differences between Russia and Western Europe is that the great majority of people living with HIV in Russia are under the age of 30, whereas in the U.K. most of them are over the age of 30. It’s an interesting age profile difference. Still, here in Russia you have a very advanced medical structure, you have some first-class experts and doctors, and now, quite recently, President [Vladimir] Putin made a speech in which he said he was going to dramatically increase the resources to tackle HIV. You’ve got a very good conjunction of circumstances, of knowledge, the experts and the money. So, over the next few years you can make real progress here in Russia in combating the HIV issue. 

You mean prevention or treatment?
I mean both. One of the important things is to invest in education to try and prevent as much as possible the spread of HIV. Particularly in mother to baby transmission, where it is now possible to reduce the risk virtually to zero. We were told yesterday that St. Petersburg has done really well in that respect in comparison with the rest of Russia. 
But there’s also investment required in treatment, because for many people it is now possible to live with HIV for many years. It is possible to lead an entirely useful, worthwhile  life, to make a major contribution to society. HIV is a treatable  disease, provided that the right combination of drugs is used, the right treatments are available, and the treatment  is accessible to anyone who needs it. There is some availability of drugs for HIV treatment in Russia, but it’s not universal. 
The aim of the new investment which has been announced is to try and make sure that it is available to everyone. I hope that is what will become possible over the next few years. With the resources that are available in Russia, it ought to be possible to achieve quite rapid results.
What are the major socio-economic impacts of HIV in Russia?
This is where the age profile of the infection in Russia is so interesting, because it’s a very economically active part of the population that is affected by HIV in Russia. If nothing is done, then there will be over time a danger of quite a serious economic effect, because of the loss of manpower, loss of skills and loss of economically active people. When I was in South Africa recently, I had a fascinating discussion with one of the large mining companies, who said that the reason they were making HIV treatment available to all their workforce on an anonymous basis, absolutely free, was because it was cheaper and economically better for them to keep existing workers alive, active and well by treating them, than it was to see them get very ill and have to train someone new to take their place. What is true on a small company scale is true on a nation-wide scale as well. Because it is now possible to treat people and keep them well, it makes absolute economic sense for a country to invest in treatment. 

So what needs to be done, for example, here in St. Petersburg?
Yesterday we talked to some of the doctors and professors who are leading the work on HIV in St. Petersburg, and we asked them what is needed, what the priorities are. They said there are four things: treatment available to everyone who needs it, mother-to-baby transmissions, social support for people affected by HIV and, lastly, general education work with the population as a whole to explain the realities of HIV to people. 

What about the attitude of the public to those infected with HIV? Does it also need to be changed?
It’s very important – not only in Russia, but in the U.K. as well. Because of the way HIV started, and in particular, because of the fact that when it started it was a fatal disease, and there were no medical answers to it, a lot of fear, ignorance and prejudice developed  around the early years of HIV. Some of that is still there. This stigma and prejudice really does two things. Firstly, it makes life even more difficult for people who have HIV. They have two diseases: the virus they’re affected by and the prejudice that comes with it. But secondly, it also makes politicians and public officials more reluctant to engage with the subject. 

What advice would you give to people in Russia living with HIV?
Firstly, don’t give up hope. There’s life with HIV. It’s perfectly possible to live, to work, to enjoy life and to regard it as a treatable, livable condition. One of the reasons I decided to say something publicly about myself a year or so ago was, specifically, to try and demonstrate to people that it is possible to work and live and make a contribution to society. I would say to people who have HIV, say to yourself: I am going to live through this. It is possible for you to do so.

TITLE: Paper Leaks Damning Report
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A leaked version of the North Ossetian parliamentary report on Beslan has revealed that it was much more critical of federal authorities than the inquiry chairman’s summary of its findings.
The leaked report, a copy of which was posted on liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s web site, described federal authorities’ response to the Sept. 1-3, 2004, attack and hostage crisis as “inept” and called on them to stop portraying conflict in the North Caucasus as part of the global terrorist threat. 
It also hinted strongly that the Sept. 3 storming of the school by federal forces was set off by shelling of the building from outside, a conclusion that contradicts prosecutors’ explanation that a bomb planted by the attackers detonated accidentally.
Copies of the report were not available at the North Ossetian legislature on Tuesday when inquiry chairman Stanislav Kesayev, the legislature’s deputy speaker, presented a summary of its findings to lawmakers, victims’ relatives and reporters.
Novaya Gazeta’s news editor, Nugzar Mikeladze, said Wednesday that the newspaper had obtained the leaked report from an official working in the North Ossetian legislature, whom he declined to identify.
Kesayev could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and his aide in Vladikavkaz said that he was out of town and was not answering his cell phone.
Differences between the North Ossetian report and federal prosecutors’ version of events begin with the report’s chronology of events, which stated that tanks shelled the school at 2 p.m. on Sept. 3, while the hostage rescue operation was still going on. Federal officials claim that the shelling took place at 9 p.m. that day, after the surviving hostages had been taken away from the smoldering school.
The report also strongly contested claims by Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov that the North Ossetian branches of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service had been repeatedly warned in August 2004 of preparations for terrorist attacks in the republic. The report said it found no evidence of any such warnings, and cited FSB director Nikolai Patrushev as saying at a federal parliamentary hearing last October that the authorities had no prior warning of the attack.
“It raises a question about the credibility of the information, or about the improper execution of one’s duty,” the report said. “If this information was known to the Prosecutor General’s Office, why did it not inform the appropriate security agencies in accordance with the law?”
In September, Kolesnikov, sent by President Vladimir Putin to oversee the official investigation into the attack, accused Kesayev of wishing to “earn political capital from blood and our pain,” and said the North Ossetian inquiry “lacked authority.”
The inquiry’s report blamed the authorities for failing to intercept the armed group of rebels on its way to Beslan, but did not single out any official or agency. It also criticized failures in the chain of command at the Beslan crisis headquarters, where seven North Ossetian officials were put in charge of rescue operations by Putin on Sept. 1, several hours after the hostages were seized.
Appointing as negotiators regional security officials rather than higher-ranking officers, such as the two deputy directors of the FSB present in Beslan, led the attackers to believe that none of their demands would be met, the report said. It was this half-hearted approach that led the terrorists to stop giving water to the hostages, the report said.
The authorities’ insistence on sticking to the figure of 354 hostages in the school, after it had become clear that the real number was more than 1,000, led to inadequate preparations for the storming of the school, the report said. Only later was a more realistic estimate of the number of hostages given, the report said. It also said sticking to the low figure also could have led to fewer rescuers, ambulances and medics being available, and could have led to the death toll being higher, the report said.

TITLE: Banks Still Unable To Satisfy Demand For Microfinancing
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The total value of microloans offered by financial institutions doubled last year,  Mikhail Mamuta, director of the Russian Microfinance Center, said Thursday at a conference in St. Petersburg. The total volume of microloans taken by individual entrepreneurs is close to $1 billion, though just five years ago it did not exceed $100 million a year, he said.
This year over 100 entrepreneurs and 40 microfinance organizations took part in the tender for Global Microentrepreneurship Awards organized by the United Nations Development Program, Citigroup foundation, and the Russian Microfinance Center. 
Ercan Murat, resident representative of the UNDP, stressed the importance of microfinancing in eliminating poverty and hunger by making health services, houses and education available for more people and reminded participants that “over the past ten years the UNDP was deeply involved in supporting economic reforms in Russia.”
By the end of last year Russia had 950,000 small companies employing 8.3 million people (about 17 percent of the work force), said Anatoly Aksakov, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee for credit organizations and financial markets.
 Aksakov estimated demand for microloans at $3 billion, but said only 10 percent of that found a supplier. Among the reasons he indicated the “non-systematic development” of the microfinance sector and the high risks when banks lend to clients without collateral.
“Large banks are more interested in large loans than in smaller ones because operational expenses are the same but there are greater profits,” Aksakov said.
Since private banks are not satisfying the growing demand for microloans, Aksakov continued, the state should establish a special bank for their development, with high capitalization and access to large financial resources including those from the “stabilization fund.”
However Sergei Zimin, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade responsible for supporting individual entrepreneurship, said this scheme does not always work.
“We have had a bad experience using state funds for the support of small companies in St. Petersburg. A large part of the loans were not returned. The funds suffered from a lack transparency,” Zimin said.
As a result of this experience the city government has started working directly with banks, subsidizing 30 percent of the collateral when small companies take out a short-term loan. However, during the three months the program has been in force only 25 out of the 300 companies who applied received loans, he said.
Sergei Suchkov, member of the directors’ board at Vneshtorgbank banking retail department, said that small business will prosper only with sufficient funds, which in turn could result from “more intense cooperation between banks and state bodies, banks, and infrastructure supporting small-size companies.”

TITLE: Small Business Faced With Permanent Crisis
AUTHOR: Marcel Bard
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Entrepreneurs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) exist in a permanent state of alert, the head of the city’s Russian Association of Small Business (OPORA) said on Tuesday.
“Due to ongoing problems associated with opening and maintaining small business in Russia, managers of SMEs are in a kind of permanent crisis, without knowing when, if at all, the risks associated with their working environment are going to decline to a more normal level,” said Sergei Borisov, the OPORA head. A situation in which business would not always be under threat of closure would be a huge step forward, he added.
As for the main reasons for the current problems, he named administrative barriers, tax instability, limited access to real estate, and, most importantly, the competition with larger enterprises.
“Large enterprises are generally given preference by regional and federal governments, because they are seen as more capable of helping the economy.” Thus they acquire monopoly status, leaving SMEs with no chance to participate. 
To get an idea of how weak SMEs are in Russia one only needs to look at the statistics. The Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade from St.Petersburg‘s administration said that 42 percent of the city’s employees work in SMEs, which are responsible for 27 percent of economic output. This figure is about a third smaller than the 58 percent share in the U.K., where they account for 51.3 percent of the economic turnover. 99.9 percent of all firms in the UK are SMEs, whereas in Russia that figure is 94 percent. 
OPORA, which is the only business association financed by private members only, holds four meetings a year with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and with the Ministry of Finance. Through this cooperation it could aspire for some kind of success.
“There was a case when 60 plots of real estate were going from the state straight into the hands of a big enterprise, without any form of negotiations,” Oleg Ashikhmin said.
“In the end, thanks to our protesting, the properties were auctioned off and changed owners. Such cases however are rare, and do not get at the root of the problems and change circumstances in which SMEs must operate.”
At the round table one Russian business man who wanted to stay anonymous, said that in 90 percent of cases the authorities refuse to refund him the VAT for his exported goods, adding that “this is not a civilized country.” He said that he only got back VAT after 6 to 12 months and never without going to an arbitrary court.
By comparison, Tina Sommer, a U.K. businesswoman, said she manages “to get back VAT within two weeks.”
The audience erupted into a spontaneous round of applause after hearing that in the U.K. small businesses with a turnover of less than $100,000 do not have to register for VAT at all.
 “SMEs don’t have the luxury of a [permanent] voice in the Kremlin or on administrative levels, and therefore face big bureaucratic problems,” said the Russia Director from the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, Neil Cooper. According to Tina Sommer, head of the Federation of Small Business (FSB) in the U.K., the FSB is a totally independent organisation with 190,000 members, and two permanent representatives in the U.K. government’s Small Business Council.
“The FSB shows that there is strength in numbers,” she said.
The main question the conference raised is whether the U.K. model can work in Russia, i.e. is it possible to gain political ground through the expansion of private business associations.
“The best support that the Russian government can give to SMEs in Russia is to not interfere,”  said Olga Litvinova from DLAPiperRudnick. However, seeing how it finances its own SME business association, namely Delovaya Rossiya, the Kremlin seems to be reluctant for independent SMEs to gain strength in Russia.

TITLE: Private Funds To Revitalise Stagnant Pension Reforms
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In a bid to revitalize stagnant pension reforms, the government is drafting new legislation to give private funds a greater role in managing billions of dollars in pension contributions, a government official said Wednesday.
“We are preparing amendments to the law on investing pension savings as the volume of pension money is set to soon exceed the investment capacity in state bonds,” Yekaterina Tyurina, head of the pension reform division at the Finance Ministry, said by telephone. The changes would affect the contributions individuals make privately to the pension fund in order to increase their own state pension down the road.
The government introduced measures three years ago to encourage Russian citizens born after 1967 to independently add to their pension.
Despite being given the choice of 55 private managing companies, the majority of investors saw their savings land by default in a management company run by state-controlled Vneshekonombank as they failed to designate a company themselves.
As of last month, VEB managed a total of 170 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) in savings culled from individual contributions, while private funds only held 6 billion rubles.
Private funds attributed the slow uptake to a lack of trust in domestic financial institutions and a lack of information from the government.
VEB by law can only invest in government bonds. In 2010, the amount of savings compiled through private contributions will overtake the amount of government bonds available by 200 billion rubles, reaching 1.4 trillion rubles, Tyurina said.
“We are looking at other investment instruments such as corporate bonds and equity and foreign securities,” she said.
She added that legislation drafted by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Federal Service for Financial Markets would be submitted to the government and the State Duma early next year and would be adopted by the end of the year.
“We expect to call a new tender to select managing companies in 2007 and requirements will be stricter,” she said. 
VEB did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
Private managing companies welcomed the government’s plans, though not without caution, as it has yet to work out the mechanisms for new investment schemes.
“It is an absolute necessity and shows the government intends to shed its guardian function,” said Vadim Soskov, vice president of Aton Management, which manages 98 million rubles in pension savings. 
“We are ready to take part in a new tender, but would like to know the mechanisms and criteria for selection,” he added.
The government’s move to liberalize pension savings “will attract domestic and foreign institutional money to the stock market and increase its capitalization,” Soskov said.

TITLE: Native Tongue No Longer Enough
AUTHOR: By Adrian Carnegie
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: When Peter, from New Zealand, arrived in Moscow several years ago, he was “brimming with excitement” at the idea of starting his stint as an English teacher. Before he left his homeland, a language school had promised him a full-time job, full visa support and a place to live. 
“Needless to say, I was more than a little disappointed to be informed on arrival that the school presently had no work for me, the visa I was given was for a student, and I was handed a copy of the newspaper Iz Ruk v Ruki to search for an apartment,” he said.
These days in Moscow there is no shortage of English-speaking expatriates who could be tapped to fill English language teaching positions. However, with the current terms on offer, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the schools to attract native speakers with extensive work experience in the field, although that is what clients are now demanding. 
Moscow-based expat English teachers — who like Peter agreed to be interviewed for this article on condition that their surnames and place of employment be withheld from publication — said most schools were unable or unwilling to guarantee the high salaries and long-term career opportunities that serious teachers would expect to receive. And, as Peter found, it is difficult to know which schools to trust when being recruited from abroad.
Geraldine, from Britain, said she was under no illusions when she arrived in Moscow eight months ago. “Nobody is foolish enough to believe that English teaching is going to make you rich, or that it can be seen as providing huge career opportunities,” she said. 
“I had always wanted to come to Russia, and teaching English gave me a great opportunity to live here and immerse myself into the culture.” 
Gone are the days when almost anyone who spoke English fluently could walk into a school and get hired as a teacher. Both individual students and corporate clients have been complaining about a lack of professionalism and experience among untrained foreign-language teachers, and they now demand higher standards from schools. 
As a result, all schools now demand qualifications of some kind, such as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) or TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate. 
“I walked into a job without being asked for any particular qualifications, but that just won’t happen these days,” said James, a Moscow-based English teacher with 10 years’ experience. 
Yelena Lubimova, senior student coordinator at Lingua, said her company demanded a minimum of a year’s experience “to ensure professionalism.” 
All schools contacted for this article said that knowledge of Russian was of little importance, although 50 percent of teachers said they understood the language. Almost every school offered some form of Russian classes for those with zero knowledge. 
As the idea of coming to Russia for the first time can be daunting, many new teachers seek support from their employers. 
BKC and English First — which are the two biggest schools in Moscow, each with about 100 full-time teachers on contracts plus 50 freelancers — offer packages that spare teachers the headache of organizing everything for themselves.
BKC’s web site, for example, promises visa support, airport transfer, airfare reimbursement of $500 to $800 once a year, shared accommodation or a $300 reimbursement for rent, a net monthly salary of $600 to $675, 25 days of paid vacation, reimbursement of monthly travel expenses, free access to e-mail and medical insurance.

TITLE: Tailor-Made Finns Look To Improve Russian Managers
AUTHOR: Yevgenya Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Relations between Finnish and Russian managers have been targeted for improvement by one of Finland’s leading management training companies, which announced its intention to open a St. Petersburg branch on Tuesday. 
Funded by the Finnish government, the Finnish International Trade Institute, or FINTRA, wants to bring its tailor-made management programs to Russia in an attempt to improve mutual understanding and overcome prejudice in relationships between Russian and Finnish mangers, the company said.
FINTRA will contribute to the emergence of new Finnish enterprises, said Juhani Vaananen, the Consul General of Finland on Tuesday, speaking at the press conference in relation to the opening.
“Some of our competitors have already strengthened their position in St. Petersburg and we [Finland] have to boost our activities,” said Vaananen.
“Our programs will help Russians to become more open in business, Finns will learn flexibility, both will find how to understand each other better,” said Alla Vinnik, managing director of FINTRA-Russia in an emailed statement.
One of the main human resource issues voiced by Finnish companies operating here is their mistrust of Russian personnel, Vinnik said. They complain of the lack of transparency in Russian business practice, that workers are reluctant to accept criticism, to take responsibility, and possess an inadequate business culture. According to Vinnik, Russian companies are themselves unhappy about the time it takes Finns to make a decision. Moreover, in terms of business culture, a study commissioned by the St. Petersburg Finnish-Russian Chamber of Trade in November found that cultural differences were a major problem for only three percent of the 299 companies surveyed.
Nevertheless, analysts agree that the problem of training personnel is one of the burning issues for Finns as they expand their operations in Russia, which is already the country’s second trading partner, according to the Statistical Office of Finland. By the end of 2004 exports to Russia totaled 5318 million euros, accounting for 13.2 percent of all Russian imports. The managing director of FINTRA, Leena Masalin, said that the company has “ambitious” plans to become the number one company for people wishing to advance their business education. 
However, there are  several organizations that do offer similar programs to FINTRA, said Lidia Trevish, the PR manager for Begin Group education and personnel market research agency. Among these are HOCK Accounting Training, Concept Trainings and programs in the city’s business schools, such as the Stockholm School of Economics and the Open Business School (a part of the Open University).
Although similar services to FINTRA do exist, some experts opine that there are no direct competitors to FINTRA on the St. Petersburg market. 
“FINTRA differs from other companies in the way they’ve explicitly and consistently positioned their services,” Andrei Davydov, managing partner at St. Petersburg-based Alfa Personnel Consultancy Group, said Tuesday.
FINTRA said its turnover last year amounted to more than 7 million euros. 
“This is very high for a consultancy firm at the level of FINTRA,” said Davydov.

TITLE: Terror’s Stealth Weapon: Women
AUTHOR: By Mia Bloom
TEXT: Sajida Rishawi shocked the world when she appeared on Jordanian television and admitted her role in the plot to blow up a wedding at a hotel in Amman on Nov. 9. Her monotone speech and lack of emotion sparked an instant debate regarding the growing role of female terrorists and suicide bombers.
The stereotype exploited by terrorists is that women are gentle, submissive and nonviolent. Women evade most terrorist profiles because they are perceived as wives and mothers, victims of war-torn societies, not bombers. But terrorist organizations are increasingly employing women to carry out the most deadly attacks. 
Based on my study of suicide bombings in Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Israel and the occupied territories, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq, 34 percent of attacks since 1985 have been carried out by women.
The use of the least-likely suspect is an obvious tactical adaptation for a terrorist group under scrutiny. Female operatives not only better penetrate a crowd of civilians because women are assumed to be noncombatants, they get more publicity than their male counterparts. And using women can mobilize greater numbers of operatives by shaming men into participating. "I am going to fight instead of the sleeping Arab armies who are watching Palestinian girls fighting alone," said Ayat Akras in the martyrdom video she taped before she blew herself up in Israel in 2002. 
In the past, women’s primary contribution to suicide terrorism was to give birth to fighters, to raise them in a revolutionary environment and to praise them after their deaths. Women are now taking a leading role of their own — using their bodies as human detonators for the explosive material strapped around their waists. To complicate the notions of femininity and motherhood, the explosive device is often disguised under a bomber’s clothing to make her appear pregnant and thus even further beyond suspicion. Female suicide bombers have transformed the revolutionary womb into an exploding one. 
Initially, only secular groups employed women. Islamist organizations such as Islamic Jihad refused female operatives. A Palestinian suicide volunteer named Dareen abu Aisheh blew herself up in 2002 on behalf of a secular organization after having being turned away by her first choice, Hamas, according to her relatives. That changed after the second war in Chechnya, when in 2002 the so-called “black widows” took a leading role in bombing Russian concert halls, hotels and trains. 
Women have now been used in suicide bombings throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Pakistan and Colombia. 
Al-Qaida, the last holdout, initiated a special web site in August 2004, calling on women to persuade their men to take up the jihad. The pretty pink web site, which included beauty tips, did not call on women to become bombers. Nevertheless, women affiliated with al-Qaida began blowing themselves up within the year.
Why? Like male suicide bombers, their motives vary. Contrary to popular perception, they are not unbalanced sociopaths, nor are they poor, uneducated religious fanatics. According to their suicide videos and interviews with those who knew them, the women are most often driven by the desire to avenge the deaths of relatives, to redeem the family name, to escape a sheltered life or to equalize patriarchal societies.
Arab feminists argue that women want to show that they are as dedicated to the cause as their brothers, sons and fathers. 
What is so compelling about why women become suicide bombers is that so many claimed to have been raped or sexually abused by enemy forces, according to interviews with those who knew them. Once dishonored, they are no longer marriageable. Joining a terrorist group is one of the few remaining options for women who, according to the strict honor code followed in some Islamic societies, must otherwise be executed by their own families. With their deaths they reinvent themselves as martyrs, redeeming the family name and recouping lost honor.
An opposition Egyptian newspaper, Al Shaab, carried a 2002 article arguing that a Palestinian female suicide bomber had “blown herself up, and with her exploded all the myths about women’s meekness, submissiveness and enslavement.” 
However, although many of the bombers have been eager martyrs, there is evidence that some have been manipulated or used as pawns by men. The Chechen women who helped take over the Dubrovka theater in 2002 did not control the detonators for their explosive devices, according to surviving hostages. Reem Riyashi, Hamas’ first female bomber and a mother of two, was reportedly coerced to become a shahida, or female martyr, in 2004 by her husband and her lover, who together decided that the extramarital affair brought such shame that only martyrdom could resolve it, according to the Israeli security services. Although women have perpetrated over a third of the Tamil Tigers’ suicide attacks in Sri Lanka and have separate combat units, few women command and none lead.
It becomes clear that perpetrating violence has done little to help women level the playing field in societies that consider their deaths more valuable than their lives. But in death, they serve another grim purpose: prompting security services around the world to subject women, including pregnant women, to humiliating and sometimes invasive searches — thus feeding the resentments that lead to more terror.

Mia Bloom is the author of “Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror.”  This comment first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

TITLE: Basic Decency as a Form of Heroism
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: In 1937, the Soviet Union celebrated test pilot Valery Chkalov’s record-setting, nonstop flight from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, via the North Pole. A few months ago, Russia discovered a new hero in Major Valery Troyanov, the Air Force pilot who got lost on a flight from a base in the Leningrad region to a second base in the Kaliningrad region. Disoriented, Troyanov flew around over Lithuania until his Su-27 fighter jet ran out of fuel, at which point he ejected safely before the jet crashed in a field. 
Last Friday, the military released details of its investigation into the crash. Troyanov was found guilty of failing to follow proper procedure after he became disoriented, and was demoted from first class pilot to second class pilot.
My first reaction upon hearing the news was to laugh. During the tense aftermath of the crash, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had warned the Lithuanians to study up on international law. Lithuanian authorities detained Troyanov on suspicion of purposely violating the NATO country’s airspace. Ivanov declared that the pilot had done nothing wrong and didn’t rule out the possibility of awarding him a medal for his efforts. 
Television coverage of Troyanov’s return to Russia after his release in early October showed a hero’s welcome. An anchor on Channel One opined that the only thing Troyanov was guilty of was steering his stricken jet clear of population centers, such as the village of Ploksciai, near the crash site.
More importantly, Air Force chief Vladimir Mikhailov was the only person involved in this convoluted tale who showed any backbone. 
Apart from some wry remarks at NATO’s expense and a rather tepid formal statement to the effect that Troyanov would not be grounded, Mikhailov did not rally to the pilot’s defense. Meanwhile, state-owned television and the Defense Ministry leadership were reviling the Lithuanians. 
And now a military investigation has found that Troyanov was guilty of violating flight rules — not a particularly shocking verdict. But you and I know that investigations like these have been known to reach the most unlikely conclusions. 
Moscow police determined that the elderly pedestrian struck and killed by a car driven by Alexander Ivanov, the defense minister’s son, was somehow guilty of her own death. Investigators concluded that the 32 Chechen fighters who attacked School No. 1 in Beslan had all managed to fit into a single army truck along with food, weapons, explosives and enough ammunition for an extended firefight with federal troops. After a much-hyped ballistic missile launch went awry back in August, then-Navy chief Vladimir Kuroyedov brazenly declared in the presence of his president that no launch had in fact been planned.
What would it have cost the Troyanov investigation commission and the head of the Air Force to follow this precedent and let the pilot off the hook? Nothing but their professionalism and patriotism. 
There are two brands of patriotism: the genuine article and the kind that’s just for show. 
When state-owned television crafts the image of Russia as a superpower with the world’s greatest air force that has been unfairly abused by the Poles, the Georgians and the Lithuanians, this is affected patriotism. 
Real patriotism is when you realize that if you make heroes of the Troyanovs rather than the Chkalovs, all your pilots will soon be flying like Troyanov.
If you lionize a pilot who ditched a $10 million plane — even if the plane’s navigational system, in the estimate of one independent expert, was on par with that of a Parisian taxi — how can you talk about modern warfare? After all, modern warfare involves high-precision weapons. Troyanov didn’t even know what country he was flying over.
Mikhailov’s comments on the Troyanov affair were nothing more than what was demanded by basic professional decency. But in our current situation, basic decency is becoming a form of heroism.

Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

TITLE: Rescue mission
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Not far from Beslan, the city of Vladikavkaz is struggling to maintain its opera and ballet company — with the help of friends from St. Petersburg.
Shows start at 5 p.m. at the Vladikavkaz Opera and Ballet Theater in southern Russia. They take place only on the weekend. These arrangements ensure that both musicians and theatergoers can get home safely before darkness falls.
Artistic and social life has nearly come to a standstill in the capital of  North Ossetia, which borders war-torn Chechnya, after years of social unrest and violence. The Vladikavkaz Opera found itself on the verge of being completely shut down last summer. But then, Larisa Gergieva, head of the Mariinsky Theater’s Academy For Young Singers in St. Petersburg, took up an offer to become the opera’s artistic director. Her decision rescued the company.
Gergieva, sister of the Mariinsky Theater’s artistic director Valery Gergiev, feels close to Vladikavkaz not just  because of her Ossetian roots. The company is almost her alma mater: the Vladikavkaz Opera gave Larisa Gergieva her first job as piano accompanist.
“North Ossetia probably has been through more blasts, hostage crises and terrorist attacks than any other place in Russia,” Gergieva said. “It is painful for us to go there and see this gorgeous place becoming deserted and gloomy. In the evening these cordial people put up shutters, lock themselves in their homes and go to sleep early because depression and despair have taken root in that land.”
The Mariinsky nurtures revival plans for the Vladikavkaz Theater, which currently gives three shows a week and seats 800 people.
During the New Year holidays, the Mariinsky’s soloists and directors will take the stage in Vladikavkaz to perform a fairy tale opera, which they will put on specially for Ossetian children. 
“The Snow Queen” written by local composer Sergei Banevich and based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen, had been running at the Mariinsky under the title “The Story of Kay and Gerda” from 1996 until 2003, when part of the sets for the show perished in a massive fire at the Mariinsky’s warehouse.
The opera tells the story of a girl, Gerda, who rescues her brother, Kay, whose heart is turned to ice after being kidnapped by the evil Snow Queen.
The surviving sets and costumes have already been sent to Vladikavkaz, and the soloists are looking forward to the performance. Many soloists of the Mariinsky’s Academy For Young Singers have already sung in Vladikavkaz.
Over the past decade, artistic connections between St. Petersburg and the troubled region have been largely maintained through the Mariinsky Theater. Gergiev ran a classical music festival called “For Peace in The Caucasus” in Vladikavkaz for several years and the Mariinsky Theater company has performed there on tour for more than seven years. Gergiev also organized an impressive series of concerts in London, Paris, Rome and Russian cities to raise funds for the victims of Beslan, which is in North Ossetia. The Academy’s most recent trip to Vladikavkaz was to perform Tchaikovsky’s “Yevgeny Onegin” early last month.
Many critics acknowledge that the Gergiev siblings have ably aided the revival of the Vladikavkas Opera without forcing the Mariinsky’s musicians and singers into their endeavor.
“The Mariinsky’s help is much needed in Vladikavkaz, and considering the Gergievs’ Ossetian origin, these efforts are more than appropriate,” said Gulyara Sadykh-zade, a classical music critic for the Russian daily Gazeta. “The troupe’s soloists have a chance to demonstrate their personal qualities as well as their professional skills.”
Indeed, it appears that Vladikavkaz is becoming a favorite destination for many of the Academy’s soloists, who compete for a trip to Ossetia, refuse to get paid for their performances and would happily prefer the trip to a lucrative engagement in Western Europe.
“I absolutely love performing in Vladikavkaz because I have never experienced such an overwhelmingly emotional and warm reception anywhere else,” Mariinsky Academy tenor Daniil Shtoda said. “All of your senses are constantly aware of how much these people need you. The audience can’t hold their tears, and everything you do on stage takes on a new, deeper meaning.”
Academy soloist Natalya Shatimchenko said the performances she has given in Vladikavkaz have been among the most rewarding for her. 
“They are rewarding not simply because of the very warm and emotional reception,” she said. “You really feel you are making a difference. You brighten up a day in the life of people who have long been living in despair.” Gergieva doesn’t have to campaign among the young singers to awake their compassion.
“You look into the audience and see faces awaiting and anticipating a miracle,” Mariinsky Academy soprano Yekaterina Solovyova said. “We go there to experience that precious feeling.” 
To raise funds to mount “The Snow Queen,” the Mariinsky is organizing a charity concert in the Astoria hotel on Thursday, with some of its brightest soloists.
Yekaterina Zemtsova, the Astoria’s head of public relations, said sales of the $210 tickets have been going very well.
After “The Snow Queen,” the Vladikavkaz Opera is looking forward to performing a new version of Bizet’s “Carmen,” staged by mezzo-soprano Yelena Obraztsova, the premiere of Paul Abraham’s operetta “Ball Im Savoy” staged by Gergieva, a spring festival named “Be A Guest Of Larisa Gergieva” and premieres of Verdi’s “Aida” and “La Traviata.”
Gergieva said the Vladikavkaz Opera also badly needs new musical instruments. “Even the most trained ear would shrink from the squeaking of their clapped-out, horrendously-out-of-tune, instruments,” Shtoda said, referring to rehearsals for “Yevgeny Onegin” this year.
Mariinsky Theater guest conductor Tugan Sokhiyev spent several hours with each musician tuning their instruments.
“In less than a week, the conductor performed a miracle: the musicians in the orchestra achieved a great rapport between them,” Shtoda said. “It is no rival to the Berlin Philharmonic but the musicians fully deserved the ovation they received.”
Shtoda compares the Mariinsky’s activities in Vladikavkaz to a rescue mission.
“Yes, the troupe is almost in ruins, and new productions are only being mounted and performed by guest artists,” he said. “But as long as it helps to bring back hope, artistic skill and the taste and desire for art, it doesn’t matter that it comes from outsiders.”
The reputations of the Mariinsky Theater and Gergievs are helping the Vladikavkaz Opera get back on its feet. 
“I approach colleagues and friends, asking for contributions and nobody has refused me yet: some companies donate costumes, some give sets for free temporary use, and some soloists perform for free,” Gergieva said. “Every little bit helps.”

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: A motley group of personalities from Mexico City, called Los de Abajo, will bring so-called “Tropipunk” music, a blend of punk and Latin, to the city this week.
The band, which is sometimes described as “revolutionary,” took its name from “Los de Abajo,” a 1911 novel by Mexican author Mariano Azuela. The book’s title literally means “Those From Below” but is usually translated as “The Underdogs.”
Now on a European tour in support of its third, most recent album “Lda V the Lunatics,” Los de Abajo formed in 1992 and first found the international limelight when it sent its demos to David Byrne’s label Luaka Bop. An ardent fan of Latin music, the former Talking Heads frontman signed the band and put out two of their albums.
“They were already a pretty exciting combination of rock energy, salsa, reggae and cumbia,” Byrne was quoted on Los de Abajo’s web site as saying.
“The group is a bit of an anomaly in the Mexican alterno-Latin scene, as they don't really come out of being a punk band or a reggae/ska band ... they come out of political commitment and activism.
“So, although they do play at the same clubs as the other groups like Molotov, El Gran Silencio and Furia, their roots are different.”
However, for its third album Los de Abajo moved to Peter Gabriel’s Real World label.
The band, which supports the notorious Zapatista rebels in Mexico, even has a slogan: “Liberty — the power to be who you want to be.”
Its manifesto reads: “I don't want to be Superman, or some guy on the cover of the latest glossy magazine. I want to be me, the way that I am, and not have to be discriminated against for the color of my skin, or my accent or my body structure.” Check the band's web site for the rest of it.
Los de Abajo perform at Platforma on Saturday. 
World music from a different part of the globe will be performed by Djivan Gasparyan, Armenia’s best known duduk player. Gasparyan, whose first international release was “Music From Armenia” on Brian Eno's Opal label in 1989, will play the traditional flute-like instrument at the Shostakovich Philharmonic on Thursday.
It has been confimed that The Rolling Stones will play a stadium concert in St. Petersburg next summer. In a statement posted on the band’s official web site this week, the aging rockers said they would bring “the most exciting and powerful rock ‘n’ roll show in the world” to St. Petersburg’s soccer venue, Petrovsky Stadium, on June 13.
The Stones will roll in to St. Petersburg on the way from Gothenburg, Sweden to Brno, Czech Republic, as part of a 30-plus-date European tour. The Petersburg show is the band’s only Russian date. 
When guitarist Keith Richards turns 62 later this month The Rolling Stones will have a combined age of 246.

TITLE: Going, going, gone
AUTHOR: By Romilly Eveleigh
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Auction houses in London mount more and more sales of Russian art and artefacts each autumn, with at least six held this week alone. 
It has now become something of a tradition during the end of November and beginning of December that London’s auction houses open their arms to embrace to the entire spectrum of Russian art. 
Driven by a new generation of wealthy collectors, the field has gained a reputation as being one of the most in-demand areas of the market. The major salerooms have taken note by expanding their departments significantly over the past couple of years and putting on increasingly elaborate events.
A newcomer to the market this year was Bonhams, which held its first dedicated showcase of Russian art on Monday. In all, six specialist sales were held in the British capital over the past five days, including a sale of Russian  (and Greek) icons held at Christie’s on Tuesday.
Each came with a slightly different title — “Important Russian Pictures,” “The Russian Sale” or “Russian Works of Art” — yet all offered pieces by a similar roster of the most popular national names: artists such as Ivan Aivazovsky and Isaak Levitan from the 19th century, early 20th-century modernists such as Vladimir Baranov-Rossine and Nikolai Roerich, and a handful of Soviet-era and even contemporary figures. 
Given that upwards of 1,000 objects went under the hammer in such a short space of time, the question on most people’s minds was not how many records would be set, but whether the market was ready for the sheer volume of works on sale. Would pieces simply be snapped up on sight, or would collectors be more discriminating in their tastes? The answer, it seems, tended towards the latter. At Bonhams and MacDougall’s, only around half of the allocated lots found bidders — a sign, perhaps, that too many had been aggressively, or optimistically, overpriced. The results were propped up, however, with a strong showing for the top few items.
Where representative examples of a famous artist’s work did come up, however, traders dug deep into their pockets. On Monday afternoon at Bonhams, one Russian buyer paid £260,000 for a landscape by Ivan Shishkin — a one-meter-tall woodland scene from one of the most prolific stages of the artist’s career. Over at MacDougall’s, a 1910 painting by “Knave of Diamonds” member Mikhail Larionov soared past the top estimate of £350,000 to reach the lofty sum of £455,000. “In the Dukhan, Imaginary Journey to Turkey” is precisely the type of bright, primitive composition for which Larionov is known, and its excellent condition and early date clearly made it an attractive proposition.
Part of the reason that there is so much Russian art available now is because the more established collectors, as well as the descendents of the artists’ families, have been taking note of such rising prices, said Sotheby’s expert Joanna Vickery last week. “People who own Russian paintings in the West think that it is a very good time to sell, and that’s bringing more pieces onto the market,” she stated. Whether or not this will lead to a saturation point, once most of the prominent works are rooted out and discovered, remains to be seen. 
“What surprises me is the market is getting stronger, even now, and there is still such a lot of interest, particularly for major names,” Vickery added. Seascape painter Aivazovsky is currently one of the most sought-after in the field. It is believed that he produced over 6,000 canvases during his lifetime. As long as they keep turning up, the market for Russian art may well have mileage in it for a good while yet.

TITLE: On the money
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A new exhibition recounts a competition held to give the Russian ruble a sense of identity.
If you leave aside economics and address only its design, Russia’s national currency — the ruble — hasn’t got an international visual identity like its U.S. or European counterparts, the dollar and the euro. 
Both tradable currencies have an easily recognizable symbol — $  and Ÿ — and Russia, feeling insecure as usual, has often gone through the anxiety of thinking its currency needs one too. 
The “Sign of the Ruble” exhibition at Zero Gallery explains one serious (although failed) attempt to obtain such a symbol. The show retells quite an old story. It can be traced to the end of 1999, when a club of Moscow designers, “Portfelio,” and the prominent publishing house Kommersant, announced a national competition to develop the ruble symbol. 
As a result, nearly 1,000 designs from 65 Russian cities and abroad were submitted, and these form the new show. 
Among contributors are schoolboys, students, artists, blue-collar workers and white-collar employees. Interestingly, according to the information made available to publicize the “Sign of the Ruble” exhibition, not one remembered the ruble symbol in use in Tsarist Russia — which is also on display. 
In the end, a trustworthy jury selected 12 finalists, from which six were the most repeated forms and six were approved by experts. 
“The ruble symbol should be absolutely neutral in religious, ideological and sexual senses. It shouldn’t call to mind negative associations. It should be easy to remember, simple and clear in composition; easily reproducible (including by hand),” Leonid Feygin, a jury member, said, explaining the competition’s selection criteria. 
Unfortunately, this very rigorous analytical enterprise, as well as the experts’ opinions and comments, remained nothing more than an engaging sociological curiosity.
In the end, the Russian Central Bank didn’t even consider the idea of replacing the present Cyrillic “RR” (meaning Russian ruble) which is used by number crunchers like accountants. However, “it is not a sign. It is just double ‘p’ in the international [Latin alphabet] context,” designer Dmitry Perishkov argued. The sign shouldn’t be based on language, he said. It is at first a visual abstract figure.  
One of the reasons given for holding the current show, six years since the original competition, is that according to Perishkov, one of the organizers, a new attempt was made to revive the idea, and a proposal was forwarded to the President Vladimir Putin’s Cabinet three weeks ago. 

The  “Sign of the Ruble” runs though Nov. 30 at Zero Gallery, Corpus Ye (E) Business Center ZeitWerkHaus, 44 Dostoevskogo Ulitsa. 
Tel: 334 1004. www.zonazero.ru

TITLE: Masterpiece theater
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: From his correspondence it is clear that the outstanding Russian artist Valentin Serov (1865-1911) preferred Moscow to St. Petersburg and this prejudice is reflected today in the fact that the best of his oeuvre resides in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery.
The State Russian Museum has however mounted an exhibition in its Benois wing to celebrate 140 years since Serov’s birth from its collection of his work.
On one hand, the clear disadvantage of the show is the lack of several important Tretyakov possessions such as Serov’s early masterpieces “Girl with Peaches” and “Girl in the Sunlight.” These works are important not only for any consideration of Serov, but of Russian art in general. Several other works, notably portraits, are also absent. Without them it is difficult to mount an exhibition that reflects the caliber and significance of the artist.  
On the other hand, the Russian Museum is more able to fully display its own Serov works, which are usually held in storage.
The exhibition includes 23 paintings, 105 drawings, 23 engravings and a sculpture. Graphic art dominates — drawings, watercolors, pastels and engravings — and this makes the exhibition a very rare opportunity for viewers to familiarize themselves with this aspect of the master’s work, which for strict safe-keeping reasons (such work is delicate) cannot be part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. 
Such watercolor exhibits as the “Anointing of Nicholas II” from the Coronation Album, a picture of Emperor Alexander III with Copenhagen harbor in the background, and a portrait of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna  have never been displayed before. Many portraits have not been shown for more than 14 years. 
As in oil painting, Serov experimented in different genres. Drawings and engravings of landscapes, illustrations for the Ivan Krylov fables, theater sketches, and drawings of animals are all presented at the show. But portraiture remains the dominant genre.
Serov’s “smart portraits” made him the most significant and in-demand portraitist in Russia in the 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century. One of Serov’s most famous oil portraits, the “Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova” is on display. But Serov also used graphic media to produce a multitude of amazing caricatures of actors, artists, and writers. 
Behind the quite traditional and indifferent chronological arrangement of the exhibition stands the remarkable social and artistic trajectory of the artist’s career. Serov is connected with almost all the key figures and events of 1880s-1910s. 
Ilya Repin was his first teacher, protÎgÎ and friend. He studied under the influential educationalist Pavel Chistyakov at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. For a long time Serov was affiliated with the well-known artist’s colony Abramtsevo outside Moscow. The Russian countryside inspired such exciting etchings in the show as “October” and “Peasant Woman with Horse.”
Although Serov exhibited at several of the exhibitions held by the group of artists known as the Peredvizhniki, or “Wanderers” in the beginning of 1890s, in artistic terms he belonged more to the “art for art’s sake” paradigm of Sergei Diaghilev’s “World of Art” group, which Serov joined from its inception. 
Serov’s approach to art is open-minded. Unlike the Peredvizhniki, he avoided social commentary and looked toward formal experiments with color, light, and composition. His readiness to explore new styles and techniques helped Serov evolve from luminous, sunny, impressionistic works to very modernist ones: the flat, assembled and decorative pieces of his later career.  
Serov’s fruitful cooperation with Diaghilev in the “World of Art” included the impresario’s “Russian Seasons.” (A sketch for the famous poster for the great ballerina Anna Pavlova is included at the show.) But the most important work Serov did for Diaghilev and, actually, the highlight of the whole current exhibition, is a marvelous curtain (or at least its central fragment) for the ballet “Scheherazade.”
The opposite of the sweet luxury of another of Diaghilev’s famous collaborators, Leo Bakst, Serov’s curtain resembles austere “Persian frescoes,” as the artist put it. Made in 1911, this grandiose curtain symbolically ends the exhibition as in a show. It fell in the year of the artist’s sudden death.  

Valentin Serov, at the Benois Wing of the Russian Museum, runs though March 13. www.rusmuseum.ru

TITLE: The vanishing act
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Born in Odessa in 1894 and vanishing in 1939 at the end of the Great Terror, Isaac Babel, inarguably the greatest Russian short-story writer of the 20th century, was famed for his endless revisions. One anecdote has it that a friend of Babel’s dropped by and saw a large stack of typescript on Babel’s desk. “You’ve finally written your novel!” said Babel’s friend. “Nonsense,” said Babel, “it’s just 30 odd drafts of a story.” His subjects were the operatic criminals of Odessa and the campaigns of the Red Cavalry during the Civil War. His style was super compressed, his imagery fresh, violent and gorgeous — a sort of Soviet expressionism: “The Nevsky Prospekt flowed into the distance like the Milky Way. Dead horses lay along it like milestones. Their legs, pointing upward, supported the descending sky.” 
A meticulous craftsman, Babel would have cringed at the writing in Jerome Charyn’s “Savage Shorthand: The Life and Death of Isaac Babel,” which, from the very first paragraph of the introduction, is slack and lazy as evidenced by its mixed metaphors: “Babel is dangerous; he disturbs our dreams. He’s cruel and tender, like some kind of crazy witch. Each of his best stories — ‘The King’ or ‘Di Grasso’ or ‘Guy de Maupassant’ — is like a land mine and a lesson in writing; it explodes page after page with a wonder that’s so hard to pin down. The structure of the stories is a very strange glass: We learn from Babel but cannot copy him.” Wait a second, let me get this straight. Is he a witch or a land mine or a glass?
And even when Charyn decides to stick to a single metaphor, the one he chooses elicits no admiration, arouses no interest. For example, the mustache of Semyon Budyonny, the Cossack cavalry commander under whom Babel served, is familiar to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with Soviet history. A well-wrought metaphor describing that mustache would win a smile of recognition from those who have read about the man and summon up an image for those who have not. Charyn says of Budyonny that he was “famous for his mustache, which bloomed near his nose like a pair of horizontal trees.”
Sometimes Charyn’s carelessness produces unintended grotesquely comical images, such as the one of Babel charging across Poland “in his Cossack guise, with a sword clattering between his legs.” Babel may well have been as out of place with the Cossacks as Woody Allen with the Hells Angels, but I’m sure he knew you wore your sword on the side.
Not only does Charyn write poorly, quite often he simply does not know what he’s talking about, or seems not to because of sloppiness. Quoting from the opening of Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoir “Hope Against Hope,” he writes: “Thus begins Nadezhda Mandelstam’s own journey with her husband, Osip, through Stalin’s endless gulag.” A reader unfamiliar with that book might well think them both arrested. Charyn also has Cossacks wearing “bowler hats and colorful blankets” — perhaps they leaked into this text from something he was writing about Peruvian Indians. 
At one point Charyn asks: “So who the hell was Isaac Babel, and what can we reliably say about him? Very little.” This is, of course, an unfortunate admission from an author who is almost a quarter of the way into a book subtitled “The Life and Death of Isaac Babel.” Babel, in this reading, is a creature of camouflage, masks and myth: someone whose realest life was his interior, artistic one. But that hardly explains the merry and erotic Babel who had more than his share of adventures in love. It is in fact in attempting to catch and delineate someone so unlike the flesh-and-blood man that Charyn goes from the slipshod to the bloated and abstract. He writes, in one of the worst sentences I have ever read, that Babel “suffered from mytholepsy, the maddening need to narratize oneself.”
What’s most maddening is that every once in a great while Charyn will suddenly start writing well — with care and concision, vividly and with feeling. Babel’s arrival at the maternity hospital to see his newborn daughter is nicely described by the baby’s mother, his last love Antonina Pirozhkova, in her memoir “At His Side: The Last Years of Isaac Babel”: He is “carrying so many boxes of chocolate that he has to steady the top of the stack with his chin.” Although Charyn has the nerve to state that Babel never comes alive in Pirozhkova’s memoir, it is in fact this loving, cinematic image of Babel that finally moves Charyn to good writing: “the comical Babel, the gallant Babel, the magnanimous writer-schlemiel who hands out chocolates to every doctor and nurse in sight ... this man with a morbid sense of responsibility. Babel was his own haunted house.” 
It quickly becomes apparent that the reader will learn precious little about Babel’s life, times, art, loves and death from this book. There is, however, one other element Charyn introduces that holds out a certain promise: Babel’s effect on American writers and Babel as seen through the prism of American culture. It all begins with critic Lionel Trilling’s famous introduction to the first English translation of Babel’s “Collected Stories,” which opens with Trilling describing his disturbing first encounter with Babel’s “Red Cavalry” tales in 1929 (I was a little surprised to be reminded how early, and how quickly, Babel had become famous abroad.) But nothing much pans out here either. Trilling is nicely described in all his silveriness and tweediness, as a “lord of enlightenment and reason in the late 1950s, when literature still ruled the earth,” but we don’t really learn what Trilling’s introduction meant to American perceptions of Babel or how Babel affected later American writers like James Salter, who spoke eloquently of Babel’s influence in a Paris Review Writers-at-Work interview. Other comparisons — Steven Spielberg’s movie “Minority Report” and the photographs of Diane Arbus — while initially intriguing, don’t prove especially enlightening. 
You don’t have to be Russian or know Russian to write intelligently about Babel. One problem with Charyn’s approach is that he’s lost in some space where “literature still ruled the earth.” This keeps him from knowing whom to identify with. On one page he speaks of “wanderers like myself who’d traveled from their own ‘Odessa’ on some rocking horse of words” and three pages later he says “I reconnoiter on the rue Chauvelot like a Cossack commander.” Soon he’ll be sprouting mustaches like horizontal trees and narratizing himself.

Richard Lourie is the author of the novel “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”

TITLE: Germany Stands Firm On Ransom
AUTHOR: By David Rising
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BERLIN — German leaders said Thursday they still have had no contact with the kidnappers of a German woman seized in Iraq and Chancellor Angela Merkel said considering paying a ransom was “not up for discussion” at this time. 
Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver were taken last Friday, and were pictured in a videotape blindfolded on a floor, with militants — one armed with a rocket propelled grenade — standing beside them.
The militants are reportedly demanding that Germany cease its dealings with Iraq’s government or they will kill the hostages. Germany was an ardent opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has refused to send troops there, but has been training Iraqi soldiers and police outside the country.
Merkel indicated in a speech Wednesday that Germany will not change its Iraq policy, stressing that the country “will not let ourselves be blackmailed” over Osthoff’s abduction.
On Thursday, Merkel told reporters that the government was “doing all it can to save her life and that of her companion.”
Asked if Germany would consider paying a ransom, Merkel said that was “not up for discussion at all now.”
“At the moment it is about very elementary questions ... First, we are interested in finding out how to make contact” with the kidnappers, Merkel said.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met Thursday with a special crisis group of 18 ministry staffers who have been working around the clock on the case.
Osthoff is the first German kidnapped in Iraq, and Steinmeier said his team was in contact with other countries whose citizens have been taken, naming Italy and France. The German ambassador in Baghdad met Wednesday with Sunni religious leaders to try to enlist their help.
“Through the night we were not able to put together any substantial new revelations,” Steinmeier said.
Osthoff, a humanitarian aid worker who had studied archaeology, had been working on the renovation of a historic building in Mosul, according to local officials. It has been speculated that she was perhaps taken because of her work there, but Steinmeier said there was no confirmation of that.
“I consider that a possibility, but not the unalterable conclusion,” he said.
In an interview with Germany’s Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper printed Thursday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani condemned the kidnapping and pledged he would do what he could to secure her release.
“I deeply abhor this act of terror, and give my deepest sympathy and solidarity to the family and friends of those kidnapped,” Talabani was quoted as saying.
“We will work with the German government in every conceivable way to release Susanne Osthoff from captivity as a hostage.”
Meanwhile Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said the incident shows that Germany is not immune to terrorism.
“It would be fatal to think, simply because we were not militarily involved in the Iraq war, that we’re on the safe side,” Bosbach told the Netzeitung newspaper.
“Therefore we must not diminish our efforts in the fight against international terrorism.”

TITLE: EU Grants Free-Market Status to Ukraine
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV, Ukraine — The European Union agreed Thursday to recognize Ukraine as a free-market economy, a status this ex-Soviet republic sought in order to give it an economic and political foothold in the union it wants to join. 
The prized status, which must still be formalized, presents a major victory for Ukraine’s pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko, and also for Ukrainian businesses seeking to trade with Western Europe. Among other benefits gained from market-economy status, it allows Ukraine to defend itself against European accusations of illegally dumping products cheaply on the EU markets, which can result in costly punitive duties.
“The future of Ukraine is in Europe, and now we are building that future with concrete steps,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said while announcing the move after a brief EU-Ukraine summit in the Ukrainian capital.
Yushchenko said the technical steps regarding market-economy status that still need to be completed would be made quickly.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called Thursday’s move a result of the reforms which Ukraine has pushed through since last year’s Orange Revolution mass protests.
Yushchenko came to power pledging to nudge this poor nation of 47 million closer to the West, but had received largely a lukewarm reception from the enlargement-weary EU.
“Today, we got a clear political decision regarding the granting of market-economy status to Ukraine. The changing of status causes a chain of changes in our relationship,” Yushchenko said after the talks.
The summit was the ninth between the EU and Ukraine, and Yushchenko called it the most successful. Lawmakers in Ukraine’s fractious parliament, however, were divided Thursday over what had been achieved.
“It’s just promise and enticements to involve Ukraine in chaos. Ukraine is not a country with a market economy and will not be able to be competitive,” said Communist Party lawmaker Petro Tsybenko. The EU is already Ukraine’s No. 1 trade partner, with 32 percent of Ukrainian exports going to EU countries, 31 percent to Russia and other former Soviet republics and 24 percent to Asia, said Tomas Fiala, managing director of the Kiev-based Dragon Capital investment house. In comparison, Ukraine’s neighbor Poland, already an EU member, sends almost 80 percent of its exports to the EU.
“The potential for growth is very high — Ukraine just needs access,” Fiala said. “It won’t happen in a day but this is a very important step.”
The EU-Ukraine summit also resulted in accords on cooperation in the fields of energy, aviation and satellite technology. While the summit took place, several thousand people gathered Thursday in downtown Kiev to protest against the meetings and Ukraine’s goal to join the EU and NATO.

TITLE: Manuscript Fetches $1.72M
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — A working manuscript of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Grosse Fuge” has been sold for $1.72 million to an anonymous buyer, Sotheby’s auctioneers said. 
Sotheby’s described the manuscript, discovered in a Pennsylvania seminary library, as “an astounding and important discovery” and possibly the most substantial manuscript of a Beethoven work to come up for sale in more than a century.
The buyer, who bid by telephone, paid $1.95 million, including the buyers’ premium, Sotheby’s said. It declined to say where the buyer was based.
“The manuscript was only known from a brief description in a catalogue in 1890 and it has never before been seen or described by Beethoven scholars,” said Stephen Roe, head of Sotheby’s manuscript department.
“Its rediscovery will allow a complete reassessment of this extraordinary music.”
The 80-page manuscript is a piano duet version (opus 134) of the last movement of Beethoven’s string quartet in B flat (opus 130), which was first performed in 1826, a year before his death.
The “Grosse Fuge,” composed as part of a commission from Prince Nikolay Golitsyn of St. Petersburg, was originally published as the finale of the string quartet.
Because players found the music so difficult the publisher asked for a simpler version, and the “Grosse Fuge” was then published separately (opus 133).
The piano manuscript was rediscovered earlier this year by librarian Heather Carbo at the Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., just outside Philadelphia’s city limits.
The manuscript is full of clues to Beethoven’s composition process. It is written in brown and black ink, sometimes over pencil and includes later annotations in pencil and red crayon. There is evidence of deletions, corrections, deep erasures, smudged alterations and several pages pasted over the original.
“The extent of Beethoven’s working and reworking on the manuscript suggests that the composer accorded it great significance and leads to the suggestion that he may have given the four-hand version equal standing with the better-known quartet version,” Sotheby’s catalogue said.
University of Pennsylvania musicologist Jeffrey Kallberg, who authenticated the manuscript, said it was in pristine condition because it has not been touched or moved for so many decades.
“It’s a very important discovery,” he said. “This was a controversial and not understood work because it was so ahead of its time. It sounds like it was written by a dissonant 20th century composer.”
The manuscript was last mentioned in an 1890 auction catalogue from Berlin. The buyer is not documented, but seminary officials believe it was industrialist and composer William Howard Doane.
His daughter, Marguerite Treat Doane, in 1950 donated a collection of documents, including musical manuscripts that likely included the Beethoven, to pay for the construction of a chapel.
“In all the Beethoven literature, it’s described as lost,” said Roe. “There are lots of alterations, changes, revisions that no one has ever seen.”
It was the second major musical discovery at the seminary, which is part of Eastern University.
Manuscripts by Mozart, Haydn, Strauss, Meyerbeer and Spohr, also given by Doane, were found in a safe in 1990. 
The proceeds from the sale of the “Grosse Fuge” will be used to pay the seminary’s debts, build up the scholarship program and expand programs, the school said.

TITLE: Vancouver Conquers Colorado Complex
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Brendan Morrison helped get the Colorado Avalanche out of the Vancouver Canucks’ heads. 
Morrison scored the go-ahead goal on a breakaway late in the second period, sparking the Canucks to a 5-2 win over Colorado on Wednesday night that ended a long stretch of lopsided losses to the Avalanche. 
Since beating Colorado on Oct. 22, Vancouver had been outscored 21-10 in four straight losses to the Avalanche, including a 6-2 defeat in Denver on Sunday. 
“It’s more of a mental test against these guys,” Morrison said. “We know we can beat them and play with them and it was just a matter of going out and doing it and we did it.” 
Jarkko Ruutu added a deflection goal 5:25 into the third and Markus Naslund scored his 15th of the season with 5:53 left as the Canucks moved three points ahead of the Avalanche atop the Northwest Division. 
Josh Green and Henrik Sedin also scored, and Alex Auld made 30 saves as Vancouver improved to 11-1 at home — the only loss coming against Colorado. 
“We showed ourselves if we are committed and play the right way, we can beat them,” Naslund said. 
Joe Sakic and Alex Tanguay scored for Colorado, which had its three-game winning streak snapped despite 39 saves from David Aebischer, who started after winning in Edmonton the night before. 
“We knew they would come out flying,” Sakic said. 
“They had the jump and we didn’t. They deserved it tonight. They played a lot better than we did.” 
After losing two straight games last weekend and giving up the first goal in 10 of their last 12 games, the Canucks held a players-only meeting Tuesday. 
It didn’t seem to help early on. For the second straight game against the Canucks, the Avalanche scored on their first shot. 
It took 11 seconds Sunday. This time it was 1:52 in before Sami Salo deflected Sakic’s wrist shot into his own net. 
Unlike Sunday, however, when Colorado added three more in the first period, the Canucks responded with the next two, matching their total from the opening period of all four losses to the Avalanche. 
“We’re so used to it now, it doesn’t really faze us,” Morrison said of giving up the first goal. 
“Ideally, did we want to score first? Yeah, but that’s the way it went and we weren’t going to sit there and hang our heads tonight. We were going to go out and try to initiate and play our game.” 
Green, recalled from Manitoba of the American Hockey League for the fifth time in November earlier in the day, tied it on a breakaway at 11:22. Sedin gave the Canucks the lead 1:30 later, jamming a 4-on-3 power-play rebound past Aebischer. 
The Canucks outshot Colorado 14-3 over the final 14 minutes of the first and 13-6 in the second, but Aebischer kept it close, robbing Trevor Linden with a sprawling breakaway save and stuffing Todd Bertuzzi and Sedin in tight. 
That allowed Tanguay to tie it 2-all when Auld kicked Rob Blake’s long shot right to him alone at the other side of the net for a tap-in. 
Aebsicher came up big again as the Avalanche killed off consecutive 5-on-3 power plays after Tanguay’s goal, but was left alone for the third time in the game when Karlis Skrastins and Brett Clark collided trying to play Naslund’s long pass. 
Morrison picked up the loose puck at the blue line and beat him with a deke to his backhand, giving him a goal in two straight games after going 12 without one. 
“Defensively we were chasing tonight, but at 2-2 it was fluke play with a collision that turned out to be the deciding play,” Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. 
“That third goal turned out to be a pivotal goal and they went from there.”

TITLE: Handball Contest Kicks Off
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: The 17th Women’s World Handball Championship is being held in St. Petersburg, starting Monday and concluding Dec. 18th. It is the first time that all stages of the competition will take place in one city. 
During the two weeks of the competition, 24 national teams from Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, China, Croatia, Uruguay, Norway, Hungary, Slovenia, Angola, Korea, Australia, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Germany, France, Ukraine, Romania, Macedonia, Argentina and Cameroon will compete at three city stadia:  the Ice Palace, SKK, and two arenas at Yubileiny.
Russian handball teams have historically been among the strongest in the world. 
The Soviet women’s team was world champion in 1982 in Hungary, in 1986 in the Netherlands, and in 1990 in South Korea. 
At the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 the Soviet team won the gold medal. Playing under the Unified Team banner of post-Soviet states in Barcelona in 1992, the women’s handball team successfully defended the title.
But nine years later, the Russian team only managed to take 7th place at the World Championship held in Croatia in 2003 and did not qualify for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. The Dutch team defeated the Southern Koreans in the Olympic final.
With a home advantage at this year’s Women’s World Handball Championship, the Russian team is hoping for a comeback. 
Coach Yevgeny Trefilov used his right as coach of the host team to place Russia advantageously in a group comprising Japan, the Netherlands, China, Croatia and Uruguay during the group stage of the competition.

TITLE: "Soccer Granny" To Welcome Fans
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: FRANKFURT — Kaiserslautern has appointed a World Cup granny to boost the city’s image at next year’s tournament. 
Elsa, who admits to being just shy of 70 years old, appears on a new poster for Kaiserslautern, lipstick in hand and with her hair in curlers, amid the slogan: “When the world comes, I’ll be there.” 
Kaiserslautern is one of 12 venue cities for the tournament, which Germany is hosting from June 9 to July 9. 
While other cities are pushing their football history or business credentials in the build-up to the tournament, Kaiserslautern, a small city in the south west of Germany, wants to promote itself as a friendly host. 
According to the city’s World Cup website, Elsa is just a regular grandmother who happens to have been present at the World Cup final in Munich in 1974 and wants to work for Kaiserslautern. 
“She’s the ideal hostess,” said the city’s Lord Mayor Bernhard J. Deubig.

TITLE: Old Trafford Remembers Best With Emotional Tributes
AUTHOR: By Pete Oliver
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MANCHESTER, England — George Best bewitched Old Trafford once again on Wednesday when thousands of fans, together with former team mates and opponents, gathered for an emotional goodbye to soccer’s first superstar. 
Tears flowed freely as Manchester United fans, young and old, celebrated the life of the man who emerged from the back streets of Belfast to become one of sport’s biggest icons. 
The former European Footballer of the Year died in hospital last Friday aged 59 after suffering multiple organ failure. He had for years struggled with alcoholism. 
At Manchester United on Wednesday, Best’s 1968 European Cup-winning team mates formed a guard of honor in his memory ahead of the League Cup match with West Bromwich Albion. 
Members of the West Bromwich Albion side against whom Best made his debut in 1963 also lined up on the pitch in an unprecedented send off. 
During his lavish career Best combined mercurial talent with pop star looks. It was a combination that vaulted him to the pinnacle of celebrity in London’s Swinging Sixties. 
However, his love of a champagne and playboy lifestyle slid into alcoholism, bankruptcy, a prison sentence for drink-driving and, eventually, a controversial liver transplant. 
Despite that transplant and numerous sessions of treatment for alcoholism, Best was unable to shake the disease and in the end it claimed him. 
Wednesday’s tribute, however, was a testament to the warmth with which he is regarded at Manchester United and throughout Britain. 
His peripatetic career saw him turn out in the twilight of his career for clubs in North America, Scotland and the lower leagues in England but his heart always belonged at United whom he joined as a shy, skinny 15-year-old in 1961. 
Tributes to Best have included a minute’s silence at Premier League matches last weekend — with some crowds preferring the European method of a minute’s applause instead — and a permanent memorial is planned at Old Trafford. 
United manager Alex Ferguson and former captain Bryan Robson, now manager of West Bromwich, laid wreaths on the pitch to begin Wednesday’s ceremony. 
A makeshift shrine appeared outside Old Trafford as Best’s health deteriorated in his final days. It has since mushroomed, with scarves, replica shirts from several clubs, including arch rivals Manchester City and Liverpool, and flowers covering a vast area outside the famous ground. 
Thousands of fans filed past the area before Wednesday’s game in a sombre, reflective mood. 
The match programmes included a commemorative poster of Best, which most of the 68,000 crowd held aloft during the impeccably respected silence. 
The current crop of United players then played their part by comfortably beating West Bromwich Albion 3-1. 
“It was a fantastic night, the greatest tribute that could possibly have been given,” said Ferguson. 
“It was all organised properly and that made it a special evening. The fans were fantastic and really helped us through. I really wanted to win.” 
Robson said: “George Best was one of the best players the world has ever seen and it is a fitting occasion that they gave him for the player and the person that George was. 
“It was a fantastic send-off for him but I did not expect anything different at Manchester United.” 
A minute’s applause will precede Saturday’s Premier League encounter with Portsmouth, by which time Best’s funeral will have taken place at Stormont Castle in Belfast earlier in the day. 
Up to half a million people are expected to turn out to pay their respects at the funeral, making it the biggest in Britain since the Queen Mother was laid to rest three years ago. 
Some of soccer’s best-known names are expected to fly in for a ceremony that will be relayed on TV screens across the world and to thousands of mourners gathered outside Northern Ireland’s grandiose parliament buildings. 
Best will be buried beside his mother Ann in his family’s plot.