SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1138 (4), Friday, January 20, 2006
**************************************************************************


TITLE: State Public Chamber To Open
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Only four of the Public Chamber’s 126 members are independent of the Kremlin, analysts from two major think tanks said as the chamber heads for its first official session on Sunday.
The session will take place in the Kremlin, and President Vladimir Putin will make a speech, said Tatyana Piskaryova, the chamber spokeswoman.
Putin proposed setting up the Public Chamber as a bridge between the state and civil society after the Beslan school attack in 2004. Critics say the chamber will be toothless. It can issue nonbinding advice to the government on domestic policy and legislation and request that federal authorities investigate allegations of breaches of the law.
The four chamber members who are clearly not Kremlin loyalists are lawyer Genry Reznik, pediatrician Leonid Roshal, Moskva magazine editor Leonid Borodin, and the head of the World Wildlife Fund’s Moscow office, Igor Chestin, said Tatyana Stanovaya of the Center for Political Technologies and Vladimir Pribylovsky of Panorama.
The four could raise loud protests if they disagreed with the rest of the chamber, but they would not be able to influence any decisions, the analysts said.
Reznik, the head of the Moscow City Bar Association, is the only member proposed by a human rights group, For Human Rights, while other rights organizations boycotted the chamber altogether.
“Reznik can be called a democrat,” Pribylovsky said.
Reznik, reached on his cell phone, said he would not hesitate to be critical. “I didn’t join the Public Chamber to shout, ‘I agree,’” he said. “I will use my own judgment on the issues that will be considered.”
He identified the chamber’s priorities as civil society, judicial reform and “businesses’ problems.”
Reznik’s clients have included self-exiled businessman Vladimir Gusinsky, German journalist Klaus-Helge Donath, who was sued by a songwriter after he criticized a song praising Putin, and Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky, whose critical reporting about Chechnya has angered authorities. 
Reznik criticized prosecutors’ searches of Yukos-affiliated offices in October 2003 as illegal, and he was a member of a group financed by Boris Berezovsky that hired lawyers in 2001 to assist conscripts who were accused of crimes or were victims of crime.
Roshal is well-known for his assistance to people caught in natural disasters, including in Armenia, Georgia, Egypt, Japan, Afghanistan and India. He flew to Pakistan in October after the earthquake there. Roshal, who heads the Moscow Children’s Clinical and Research Institute of Emergency Surgery and Trauma, also mediated with militants who seized hostages in the Beslan school in 2004 and at Moscow’s Dubrovka theater in 2002. He was not available for comment on Wednesday and Thursday.
Borodin, who served jail time for anti-Soviet activity, has nationalist leanings but is “decent and quite independent,” Pribylovsky said.
Borodin said he joined the chamber in the hope that it would fulfill its stated mission to oversee government agencies and legislation. “What if it does work out?” he said, adding that he could “leave at any moment” if it does not.
Chestin — who promised to focus on environmental and civil society issues — described himself as part of the chamber’s active core that would set the tone for discussions. He said he was optimistic about the chamber’s independence and had been inspired by its protest of the hasty passage of the controversial bill that will restrict nongovernmental organizations.
Putin-appointed members of the then-incomplete Public Chamber in November asked the State Duma to delay the NGO bill until the full chamber could review it in January.
Chamber member Yelena Yershova, the president of the Consortium of Women’s NGOs, promised that the chamber would ask Putin on Sunday for an explanation over why it had not been allowed to weigh in on the legislation. Putin quietly signed the bill into law on Jan. 10, and news of the signing was made public only this week, when a notice was published in the official government newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
In the chamber’s latest appeal, 44 members adopted a resolution Wednesday that called for a crackdown on extremism and nationalism after a young man stabbed worshipers in a Moscow synagogue last week, Interfax reported.
At Sunday’s session, the chamber also plans to elect a governing council and council head, said member Yelena Zelinskaya, vice president of the Media Union, a pro-Kremlin journalists’ group. In addition, the members plan to set up 15 or 16 commissions.
Some of the senior posts could be handed to Kremlin-connected spin doctors Sergei Markov and Vyacheslav Nikonov, Pribylovsky said. Yevgeny Velikhov, head of the Kurchatov nuclear research institute, could become the chamber’s head, Nezavisimaya Gazeta said.
Putin appointed the first 42 members in September, and that group then selected 42 members from national NGOs. The resulting 84 members chose representatives of regional NGOs to complete the chamber on Dec. 23.
None of the four members that the analysts named as independent comes from the final group. Roshal and Borodin were appointed by Putin, and Reznik and Chestin were part of the second group.
Most of the members in the final group are little-known regional business representatives and academics from regional state institutions, Stanovaya and Pribylovsky said. But some are big names, including Alexander Zarubin, a board member of the Renova holding company, which is controlled by Viktor Vekselberg; Sergei Abramov, a partner at leading Russian-based private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partners; and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.
Big business names in the first two groups include billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Vladimir Potanin, as well as prominent businessmen Mavlit Bazhayev, chairman of the fuel and energy group Alliance; and Alexander Shokhin, chairman of the supervisory board of the investment bank Renaissance Capital.
In total, 17 businesspeople are in the chamber, and this is troubling because they make up the largest single group, Stanovaya said. “Businesses go there not to defend public interests but to acquire a status that would add to their weight in their community,” she said.
The second-largest group is 16 academics from research and educational institutions, while the third is 12 representatives of art and culture, including pop diva Alla Pugachyova.

TITLE: Homeless Call For Support
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: With the coldest day of the winter predicted Friday, when temperatures are expected to drop to minus 35 deg C, local charity magazine “Put Domoi” (The Way Home) has staged a performance aimed at drawing attention to the plight of the city’s homeless on Wednesday.
Second-hand shabby clothes were placed out in the snow to form almost 100 human shapes on what became known as the “Road of Life” during the Second World War — the crucial link between the city and the outside world that kept the city fed during the Siege of Leningrad.
“We called it a silent performance,” said Alexei Tyurin, chief editor of Put Domoi, which is largely devoted to and distributed by the homeless. “The main message we want to deliver is that life is a team sport. Poor team work and lack of support means that you have a greater chance of losing.”
Alexei Varsopko, curator of the performance organized by Put Domoi said the items for the performance — enough to clothe almost 100 people — were donated by a local second-hand shop.
“The performance will only last for about an hour, and after that the clothes will be distributed among the needy,” he said. “The Road of Life is the most appropriate place, really. People are dying by the hundreds decades after the siege —isn’t that shameful? I feel that many people here have to learn about sharing, and everyone needs to decide for themselves what they can share to help save another person’s life.”
On Jan. 17 alone twenty-three people were brought to local hospitals suffering from over-exposure to the cold, and eight more people were reported to have suffered severe frost-bite, Interfax reported. 
Statistics on the city’s homeless vary dramatically. The state-run City Homeless Registration Center lists 6,500 homeless individuals in St. Petersburg, while City Hall’s Social Affairs and Labor Committee has reported that there over 25,000 homeless in the city. According to Tyurin’s estimates, however, there are at least 54,000 homeless people living in the city.
“Official records usually include those who used to be registered in the city and then lost [their housing] registration for various reasons,” Tyurin said. “But we have homeless people from other places coming here.”
The city police do not issue figures on the number of homeless people who freeze to death every year in the streets of St. Petersburg, but according to Nochlezhka, a charity providing support to the homeless, over 300 have died in St. Petersburg from exposure since November of last year. Arkady Tyurin said that he has managed to get access to the relevant police files.
“Recently, and only because he’s an acquaintance, a local police officer briefly showed me three thick files containing pictures of the unidentified bodies of people who have frozen to death here,” he said. “There was a photograph, a date and a brief description on each page. And each file was ten to twelve centimeters thick.”
Many homeless people seek refuge in the basements and attics of the city’s apartment buildings, but the installation of code locks and intercom-access is making this more difficult. 
“We had the homeless coming and going in our basement for over five years,” said Nadezhda Kuzmina, who lives on Varshavskaya Ulitsa in the southwest of the city. 
“On one occasion, the local authorities even sent a lorry up here to pack all the rubbish and take it away. But it wasn’t until we placed an intercom on the entrance and several huge locks on the basement door that we got rid of the vagrants,” Kuzmina said. “Well, they just moved to a basement some place on the other side of the street.”
St. Petersburg’s homeless are left with few options. 
Maxim Yegorov, head of Nozhlezhka, said the city’s night shelters can only accommodate around 200 people. Governor Valentina Matviyenko has promised to encourage the opening of shelters in every neighborhood in the city, but progress has been slow, he added.
This week Nozhlezhka opened a new facility for the distribution of free hot food for the homeless in the Vasileostrovsky neighborhood, in addition to the three facilities that it already has. The food is available from buses parked outside Lesnaya, Chernaya Rechka and Prospekt Prosveshcheniya metro stations from 8 p.m. until midnight.

TITLE: Rice Says Russia Fails G8 Democracy Test
AUTHOR: By George Gedda
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Russia’s drift away from democracy is inconsistent with its duties as president of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. 
Rice offered the criticism during an appearance at Georgetown University even as she is attempting to enlist Russian support for strong action against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency. 
“I think it’s very important that Russia understand that certain responsibilities and certain expectations and certain obligations come with being the chair of an organization that is avowedly of industrialized democracies,” she said in response to a question. 
Russia assumed the rotating chairmanship of the G8 on Jan. 1 and will host a summit of the group in St. Petersburg later this year. The Kremlin’s authoritarian streak has strained relations with the West and prompted some members of the U.S. Congress to call for Russia’s suspension from the group. 
Since Vladimir Putin became Russian president in 2000, his government has established a firm grip over all national broadcasters, the parliament has become a rubber-stamp for the Kremlin and popularly elected provincial governors have been replaced with Putin appointees. 
Rice rejected suggestions that Russia is embracing a Soviet-style approach to governance. 
“It is not true,” she said. 
But, she said, Russia, in light of its close institutional ties to the west, must embrace the democratic path. 
“If you’re going to be part of the G8, you better be an industrialized democracy or people are going to have a lot of questions when they show up for the G8 sessions,” she said. 
Rice seemed to reject suggestions that Russia be excluded from the G8. 
She said Russia must maintain links with the democratic west, including its ties to NATO. At the same time, she said, the United States must work with those in Russia who are pushing for democracy. 
“The issue is how to ensure that civil society can continue to operate,” Rice said. 
Non-governmental organizations in Russia suffered a setback recently with approval of a law that imposes new restrictions on them. 
Rice has been pressing for democracy in Russia even though the United States needs Moscow’s support on a variety of crucial issues, including efforts to rein in the nuclear programs of both Iran and North Korea and on non-proliferation issues in general. 
The United States and key European countries have been attempting to bring the Iran issue before the U.N. Security Council but Russia, along with China, have urged continued negotiations with Iran as opposed to confrontation.

TITLE: Italian Entrepreneur Killed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — A prominent Italian businessman was stabbed to death in Moscow on Wednesday in an apparent robbery, a city prosecutor’s spokeswoman said. 
Pier Paolo Antinori’s body was found in his car near his Moscow home Wednesday afternoon, said Svetlana Petrenko, with the Moscow city prosecutor’s office. 
Preliminary information indicated that two people attacked Antinori, 52, and took two cases filled with money, Petrenko said. 
He died of blood loss after being stabbed in the leg, she said. 
His driver survived the attack, though it was unclear if he was wounded. 
Petrenko said Antinori was a well-known importer of Italian shoes.

TITLE: Activists Speak Out on Racism
AUTHOR: By Maria Danilova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW —  A group of leading human rights activists on Wednesday claimed Russian authorities are condoning racism and xenophobia among the population for political reasons, but said the rise in hate crimes and aggressive nationalism could backfire on them. 
Hate crimes against dark-skinned foreigners and others with a non-Slavic appearance have been growing in number in Russia, and a knife attack at a Moscow synagogue last week left eight people injured. 
Rights activists say hate groups are emboldened by authorities’ mild approach to prosecuting hate crimes and complain that Nazi and other extremist literature is sold freely. 
Alla Gerber, head of the Holocaust Foundation, claimed officials are purposely allowing nationalist sentiments to spread in order to capitalize on them. 
On the one hand, Russian leaders are appealing to already nationalist voters, she said. One the other hand, they seek to scare liberal-minded voters with the so-called neo-Nazi threat and portray themselves as the only forces capable of preventing nationalists from seizing power. 
“For those normal people it is necessary to show how scary it all is and that authorities are able to deal with that (nationalist) monster,” Gerber told a news conference. 
Thousands of activists of right-wing parties were able to march unimpeded through Moscow shouting nationalist slogans on a national holiday late last year, while a small anti-fascist rally was broken up by riot police shortly afterward. 
President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the problem of anti-Semitism in Russia, but a group of nationalist Russian lawmakers last year escaped prosecution despite calling for the banning of all Jewish organizations, arguing that they foment ethnic hatred.

TITLE: Minister Defends NGO Bill
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister defended a new law on non-governmental organizations widely criticized as restrictive, saying Thursday it has been inspired by legislation in France and other democracies. 
The NGO law “to a large extent has borrowed the French legislative experience,” Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy. 
“Our law is quite similar to the French one [regarding] foreign funding of NGOs, although the French law is somewhat harsher,” Lavrov told reporters, adding that “an Israeli law is even tougher than the French one.” 
In a letter to eight rights advocates who wrote to him last month to protest that the law impinged on NGOs’ capacity to work effectively, Lavrov said Wednesday that the legislation would not bring any “dramatic changes” to NGO activities. 
Critics see the NGO law as part of a Kremlin campaign to increase control over society and stem dissent. The U.S. and European governments have strongly criticized it; German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised concern over the bill as recently as Monday during a Kremlin meeting with President Vladimir Putin. 
The legislation provides for a new agency to oversee the registration, financing and activities of Russia’s more than 400,000 NGOs, about 2,000 of which are involved in human rights. 
It also allows the registering agency to ban the financing of specific recipients if they are judged to threaten the country’s national security or “morals,” and to require foreign and domestic organizations to report in detail on how much money they have received and from whom. 
Lavrov said the arguments set out by the rights advocates were “in large part inspired by a not entirely objective understanding of the situation in the given sphere in the legislation of leading Western democratic states,” and argued that the United States had even more stringent bureaucratic requirements. 
Oleg Orlov, the director of the Memorial human rights center and one of the NGO leaders Lavrov addressed in his letter, said that he appreciated the fact that the foreign minister was willing to respond in such a detailed way. 
“Nonetheless, Lavrov’s answer was absolutely beside the point we made,” Orlov said. “Our main reason for turning to him was his claim that the bill had taken into account all the reservations voiced by the Council of Europe and did not contradict Council of Europe legislation.” 
Putin signed the bill into law on Jan. 10 but the Kremlin remained silent until Tuesday, when the Russian government newspaper published it. The president’s office normally announces Putin’s signing shortly after the fact. 
The NGO bill reflected the Kremlin’s fears of a repeat of the mass protests that brought opposition leaders to power in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, rights activists said. 
Douste-Blazy said that in talks with Lavrov on Thursday he raised the issue of Belarus’ presidential election set for March and emphasized the need to make sure the vote proceeds in a fully transparent way without violations. 
Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by the West, has intensified his crackdown on dissent and independent media in an apparent bid to stifle any opposition to his re-election bid. Russia has a union agreement with Belarus, envisaging close political, economic and military ties.

TITLE: Ex-Deputy in Search of Buried Treasure
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Everyone dreams about finding a long-lost cache of diamonds and antiques — until they reach the age of about ten. But one such dream remains dear to a local researcher and ex-deputy of the State Duma, Konstantin Sevenard.
Sevenard, a great-grandson of the legendary Russian ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, a favorite of Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II, has been trying to get permission to begin excavations in the courtyard of Kshesinskaya’s former mansion on the Petrograd Side, which is now home to the Russian Political History Museum.
The ballerina’s stubborn descendant claims to have established the whereabouts of a stash of treasures hidden by Kshesinskaya and her husband, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich Romanov. 
“I know exactly where the treasure is, and I am ready to conduct the excavations,” Sevenard told reporters at a press conference this week. “Besides precious family relics, the booty contains a golden comb found by the poet Nikolai Gumilyov during an archeological expedition to the White Sea in 1904.”
Sevenard maintains that Gumilyov passed the comb on to Nicholas II and the tsar, in turn, presented his beloved Matilda with this golden relic.
Sevenard said neither he nor any of his relatives are claiming possession of the treasures.
“Our family is prepared to donate the valuables to a museum,” he said.
Sevenard needs official permission to get the excavations underway, but his evidence has been consistently refuted by the Culture Ministry and the relevant authorities.
In a telephone interview on Thursday, Yevgeny Artyomov, the director of the Russian Political History Museum, described Sevenard’s statements as fantasy.
“Kshesinskaya, who left Russia in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution, couldn’t possibly have hidden these treasures deep underground amidst such turbulence,” he said. “As for his generous donation [of the treasure to a museum] ... if anything is discovered on the territory of a state museum, it’s state property anyway.”

TITLE: Court: Billionaire Must Return Villa
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Moscow Arbitration Court on Tuesday invalidated billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s purchase of a former state-owned villa near Moscow, indicating that a similar acquisition of a nearby villa by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov could likely also be reversed.
The court has said it would consider Kasyanov’s villa acquisition on Feb. 2, Interfax reported.
Investigations into the purchases of the luxurious estates just outside Moscow at cut-rate prices began after Kasyanov last year voiced criticism of the Kremlin and announced that he might run for president in 2008.
A spokeswoman for Alfa Group, of which Fridman is a co-owner, declined to comment on the verdict Wednesday. Kasyanov has denied any wrongdoing and has said the case was an effort to discredit him.
Fridman has one month to appeal the ruling. 
The villa he bought is in a gated community called Sosnovka-3.
The Federal Property Management Agency, the plaintiff in both cases, successfully argued in court Tuesday that the auction to sell the property Fridman bought was illegal because it was not properly announced and the bidders were related companies.
Kasyanov bought his villa at Sosnovka-1 from a company that acquired it at a similar auction, according to State Duma Deputy and muckraking journalist Alexander Khinshtein, who was the first to investigate the deal.
The auction took place in January 2004 when Kasyanov still was prime minister, Khinshtein said.
President Vladimir Putin fired Kasyanov in February of that year. Kasyanov purchased the residence in August 2004.
The Kasyanov property’s estimated cost was $27 million, but Kasyanov paid just 11 million rubles ($370,000) because it had been leased out to another company until 2044, news reports said last year. But Kasyanov most likely acquired the lease rights in February 2005, Izvestia reported.

TITLE: Foreign Minister Urges Caution Over Iran
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday called for a cautious approach to the mounting crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, saying the nations involved must focus on preventing nuclear proliferation. 
“The most important thing is not to focus on aspects that cause sensations, such as when the issue reaches the United Nations, when the Security Council makes a decision,” Lavrov said after talks with French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. 
“The most important thing is to pursue the main task: to do everything possible to prevent a violation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” he said. 
“If we focus on that task and don’t use the situation to resolve political tasks unrelated to the nonproliferation program, we will achieve success,” Lavrov said. He added that “in this situation it is essential not to harm the global community, the nuclear nonproliferation regime.” 
Douste-Blazy said international efforts to deal with the Iranian nuclear program should display “firmness, unity and speed,” saying that an emergency board meeting early next month of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, should pave the way for further action. 
“It’s necessary to show the Iranians that they should suspend dangerous nuclear activities,” Douste-Blazy said. 
Lavrov said Russia “will heed IAEA assessments during this ... meeting and hope that others will do the same.” 
International pressure is mounting on Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, and the United States and key European nations have pushed for a referral of the issue to the UN Security Council, where Russia is a veto-wielding member. 
The council could impose sanctions against Iran, which defied the international community last week by removing UN seals from its main enrichment facility. Iran’s president accused the West on Wednesday of acting like the “lord of the world” in denying his country peaceful use of the atom. 
Lavrov said earlier this month that he wouldn’t rule out referral to the council, but he indicated Tuesday that Moscow was not yet ready to support the move and also sharply criticized the idea of sanctions. 
On Wednesday, European Union diplomat Javier Solana said Russia earlier this week had proposed a delay in confronting Iran at the Security Council, suggesting that the council first hold less formal discussions instead of consideration based on referral by the IAEA. 
Russian Foreign Ministry officials could not be reached for comment Thursday, and Lavrov did not mention any specific proposal in comments to reporters alongside Douste-Blazy following their meeting. 
Russia has close ties with Tehran and is building the country’s first nuclear power reactor, but has been moving closer to the Western position on Iran and is reluctant to let the issue cause a major rift in its relations with the United States and Europe. 
Despite growing frustration with Tehran’s defiance of international concerns that it may be pursuing nuclear weapons, Moscow appears to be seeking to slow the pace of action against Iran and avert a Security Council vote on sanctions. 
President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Tehran might still agree to Moscow’s offer to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, a step backed by the United States and EU as a way to resolve the deadlock, and Iranian officials have said they are still considering the proposal. 
“The Iranian government is looking attentively at the proposal, but it needs time,” Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, Gholamreza Ansari, said Wednesday. An Iranian delegation is expected to travel to Russia for talks on the initiative around Feb. 16. 
France has emphasized the need for international unity in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Wednesday that European nations are seeking the “greatest possible consensus” on the issue.

TITLE: EU Defends Stance on Rights
AUTHOR: By Aoife White
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BRUSSELS — The European Union executive insisted Thursday that increasing trade and anti-terror cooperation with China and Russia did not mean it had gone soft on human rights. 
Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization, complained Wednesday that the EU was doing little to stop reported Chinese repression of ethnic minorities, executions of prisoners or its censorship of the Internet. 
Emma Udwin, spokeswoman at the European Commission, said human rights reform in China was happening “slower than we had hoped.” 
Udwin added that the 25-nation bloc remains pro-active in pushing for reform in its relations with other countries. 
On Russia, Udwin insisted that the EU and Russia hold twice-yearly meetings to discuss human rights or media freedom. 
“It is simply not the case that we shy away from raising concerns about human rights,” she said.

TITLE: MBA Brand Targets Regions
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The International Management Institute of St. Petersburg (IMISP) is set to target students from all over Russia in its ambitious attempt to become the first MBA institution of federal importance. 
To accommodate such an initiative a brand new program was developed specifically to attract potential students from the Russian regions, Viktor Dorogostaysky, Marketing Director of IMISP said Thursday in an interview. 
The modular course, which starts in February and requires only brief contact then long periods of self-study,  is not unique in its essence. But nobody on the Russian market has had the ambition or means to become a recognizable pan-Russian MBA brand, Dorogostaysky said.
“We went to our target audience and managed to enroll people that had never heard of us before,” he added.
As its first step IMISP will target the Ural and Volga regions, where, according to Dorogostaysky, they plan to capture around 20 percent of the market.
According to Begin, which specialises in HR market research, the IMISP’s expectations are “adequate.”
However Evgeny Kovalev, a leading marketing specialist at the Moscow International Higher School of Business, questioned the seriousness of such estimates, saying that “nobody ever measured market volumes in regard to MBAs.”
He said they also run the same programs. 
“IMISP is only at the stage of planning it, but we’ve worked with the same format from 1997, and have students from all over Russia, including Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Perm, Tumen and other regions.”
But recruiters say the Russian market outside Moscow and St. Petersburg is not ready for the expansion of MBA schools. 
Large production enterprises are currently being bought by investors from Moscow, who set up their own management to solve problems at companies which are often making a loss, said Irina Posokhova of EMG Professionals recruitment company. 
“These managers might have MBAs and all sorts of qualifications, but they don’t have anything to do with locals,” added Posokhova.
Foreign companies are also unlikely to use locals to make up their management, said Olga Andreyeva, Business Development Manager at Coleman Services.
As for Russian companies situated outside Moscow and Petersburg, “it’s people themselves that matter, not the presence of diplomas or medals, as strong professionals are worth their weight in gold there,” said Andreyeva. 
“Very often Russian companies regard MBA graduates with prejudice. [The companies] believe such people know only how to theorize, but are reluctant to work hard,” Andreyeva added. 
Even if people do get MBA degrees, they tend to move immediately.
 “As soon as people get MBAs, they rush to Moscow or Petersburg to realize their potential,” Posokhova said.
In spite of the limited popularity of MBA graduates among Russian companies, the qualification still attracts many people. According to statistics from Begin, in Russia almost 100 percent of MBA students, or those people considering enrolling in such programs, said they will obtain all the knowledge necessary to advance their careers.
As for the salary expectations, the majority think that after graduation their salary will be 25-50 percent higher, the research showed.

TITLE: Offshore Gain In IT Growth
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: One of the Northwest’s leading IT companies Digital Design increased its annual revenue by 40 percent last year, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Experts saw the figure as solid but indicated a lack of qualified labor as a barrier to IT market growth.
In 2005 Digital Design earned $6.5 million and attracted 40 new clients, including JTI, Vena, Heineken, Russian Diesel and Neste.
“Offshore projects were the company’s most profitable last year,” said Maria Druzhinina, PR manager at Digital Design. Such projects provided 20 percent of the revenue. DocsVision software sales exceeded 2004 results by 200 percent earning $1 million, she said.
DocsVision became very popular with state bodies (ministry for economic development and trade, ministry for industry and power, ministry for regional development, State Duma), Russian Railway and other large companies, Druzhinina said.
In 2006 Digital Design also expects a 40 percent growth in revenue.
“A market study conducted by RUSSOFT in 2005 showed that software exports from Russia grew by 35 percent in 2004 and by 40 percent in 2005. Thus Digital Design growth rates fully reflect what is happening in the industry,” said Valentin Makarov, president of software developers association RUSSOFT.
“In recent years the rate of Russian IT market growth has remained consistent. The software outsourcing and offshore programming industry showed very dynamic growth, with companies growing at 30 percent to 50 percent a year in terms of personnel and revenue,” said Julia Rovinskaya, director of marketing at Auriga software outsourcing firm.
Since the IT market is not limited by country borders, the problem of further growth is not from a lack of large clients but rather of a qualified workforce, Zavileisky said.
Rovinskaya agreed. 
“The labor market in St. Petersburg is ‘overheated’ and similar to Moscow in terms of wages. It remains one of the most important problems, which needs to be solved if IT companies are to grow to their potential in 2006,” she said.

TITLE: Kaliningrad Gets New Status
AUTHOR: By Arina Sharipova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin signed into law Jan.10 the bill “On a Special Economic Zone in the Kaliningrad Region,” which grants new but sizeable investment into the exclave with unique tax breaks.
The law, which will come into effect from April 1, means new residents who invest 150 million rubles ($5.3 million) in the region’s production over three years will be exempt over a period of six years from paying tax on profit (24 percent) and on property (up to 2.2 percent). In addition, over the following six years investors will receive a 50 percent discount on profit tax, the presidential press service said.
For active participants in the zone the current regime will remain unchanged for the next ten years: they are free from paying import duty and VAT when importing goods and from paying duty when sending them on to Russia provided 30 percent has been processed (15 percent for electronics). 
A member of the inter-departmental working group for the development of the Kaliningrad Region in the president’s administration, Grigory Bunatyan, explained that tax concessions will in principle change the region’s model of development, which will turn into a customs-free zone for large investors to the territory. 
Regional officials also expect the arrival of big new investors. According to the region’s governor, Georgy Boosa, the law will allow the development not only of the economy but also of the social sphere.
The law was appreciated by regional business. Amongst other things it cancels quotas and auctions for the duty-free import of certain goods (for example, meat), and includes a complete list of goods that can’t be imported without paying duty. 
The director at the meat processing firm Miratorg, Alexander Nikitin, said that earlier investors didn’t know how much raw material one could import, how the possibility to get concessions depended on the results of auctions, and that it is now clear on what goods one must or must not pay duty.
Yet experts are certain that offshore projects from the Kaliningrad region won’t work. Firstly, in article seven of the new law is written a new convincing mechanism of control of investors, said a jurist at Pepeliav, Goldspat and Partners, Vadim Zaripov. 
Secondly, the concessions on profit tax will come into effect only on that profit received from the realization of investment projects followed closely by three organs — the FNC, the federal agency for the management of special economic zones and the regional administration. 
Therefore to open a shoe factory in the region and use it to export oil, thus minimizing one’s tax payments, won’t work, said Zaripov. 
An official from the duma committee for political economy Valery Draganov explained that for a defined amount of capital the sum invested does not include the free transfer of cars, equipment and means of transportation of companies already registered in the Kaliningrad region.
“So by oneself one must create all the infrastructure needed for investment,” the deputy said. 
Head of the center for growth poles at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ economic institute, Natalia Smorodinskaya, is convinced that “a scheme to avoid paying taxes will be created in the region. A partner at the law firm John Tiner and Partners, Valery Tutikhin, was also convinced that the creative jurist can always circumvent the limits of the law.

TITLE: Baltika to Merge Units
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Russia’s biggest brewer Baltika has disclosed terms of an upcoming merger with Pikra, Vena and Yarpivo breweries. As the core shareholder of the merging companies Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) had proposed simplifying its ownership structure in spring 2005.
“Due to the merger the company will become stronger, which is especially important with growing competition in the fast consolidating Russian beer market,” Anton Artemiev, president of Baltika, said in a statement released Wednesday.
According to the statement, the merger should improve the distribution and efficiency of all four companies. The exchange of technology and cost savings will already save $60 million to $80 million in the first operational year after the merger.
In 2005 about $20 million was economized as a result of cooperation between the companies. Baltika will use a significant part of those resources for development, the statement said.
Senior analyst at Troika Dialog brokerage Victoria Grankina said that the synergetic effect, indicated in the press release, is “a realistic figure considering the addition of three quality assets to Baltika.”
Gains relating to the merger would be seen as soon as next year, she said, suggesting that Baltika could cross-brew and save on distribution costs.
Another benefit will come from the strengthening of market position in the regions where Baltika has not been leader, like Siberia, Grankina said.
“International companies like Sun Interbrew and Heineken enjoy strong presence in Russia. With 10 plants Baltika will become more competitive,” Grankina said.
At the moment Baltika has plants in St. Petersburg, Tula, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Khabarovsk.
Yelena Borodenko, consumer goods and retail analyst at Alfa Bank, indicated economies of scale as the main advantage of the merger.
“Marketing and logistics expenses will decrease while Baltika market share could increase from its present level of 25.5 percent up to 40 percent,” she said.
“At the moment the assets are separated, which affects Baltika’s efficiency. Marketing expenses are high because Baltika advertisements increase the sales of other companies,” Borodenko said.
During the merger Pikra, Vena and Yarpivo shareholders could sell their shares or exchange for Baltika shares. Baltika shareholders could also sell their stakes. According to the statement, BBH will not sell its own stake.
Deloitte & Touche and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. international investment bank audited the market prices of the merging companies. One Baltika ordinary share costs $32.6, and one preference share costs $25.75. Total Baltika share capital is about $4.17 billion. Pikra share capital is $86.8 million, Vena - $774 million, Yarpivo - $601 million.
Borodenko agreed that the core shareholder is unlikely to sell its stake so as “not to threaten the fund market.”
“BBH made this clear in September and at that time equity quotations reacted positively to the news,” Borodenko said.
“We do not have all the necessary information at our disposal to say if equities are priced correctly. However considering share prices in relation to existing production facilities the prices look rather high,” said Alexei Yazykov, consumer goods analyst at Aton.
“The merger is especially advantageous for major stakeholders — mainly for BBH — since they consolidate their assets losing practically nothing except possibly a few minor shareholders,” Yazykov said.
Yazykov said Baltika has “large potential for growth, flexibility and brand portfolio optimization.”
“Its dominant market position will allow good interaction with distributors and retailers,” he said.
The merger will be completed by the end of 2006, the statement said.

TITLE: Extreme Cold Forces Gazprom To Cut Europe’s Gas
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s extreme cold spell forced cuts in gas supplies to Europe, hitting Gazprom’s exports for the second time this month.
Italy, Hungary and Serbia all reported drops in natural gas supplies from Russia on Wednesday as Gazprom struggled to handle increased demand amid this week’s low temperatures.
While Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov said that Ukraine had reduced onward gas supplies to Europe at Russia’s request, Gazprom also started to cut supplies to domestic power stations to ensure that other needs, such as heating Russian homes, were met.
“The situation is very tense,” said Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov. “We are doing the maximum to make sure transport and supply agreements are met.
“We are meeting all our contractual obligations in full,” he said.
As Gazprom executives gathered for an emergency meeting Wednesday, Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola called the heads of his country’s biggest energy companies — Eni, Enel and Edison — for crisis talks Thursday on how to avert gas shortages there.
National utility giant Unified Energy Systems and the European countries affected by the shortages said they could cope for now. But even though analysts said the cutbacks were understandable given the severe cold spell, they served to further underline Europe’s fears about dependency on Russian gas.
Gazprom has been struggling to regain its reputation as a reliable supplier of energy to Europe after a price standoff with Ukraine over the New Year’s holiday led to a reduction in supplies to Europe for the first time in decades.
Russia’s price dispute with Ukraine prompted debate in Europe, where 25 percent of gas imports come from Russia, about diversifying supplies. 
“They could have done without this,” said Stephen O’Sullivan, co-head of research at United Financial Group, referring to European gas consumers. “If the Ukraine thing hadn’t happened, people would not have been too concerned. This reminds people that Russian gas is not a stable source.
“It’s like, just when it’s safe to come back in the water, here comes another shark to get you,” he said. “This magnifies the effect. Many people are realizing that they can’t depend so much on one source.”
In an echo of the suspicion between Russia and Ukraine during their earlier dispute, Gazprom’s Kupriyanov refused to comment on Plachkov’s assertion that volumes in the Ukraine pipeline had been cut in accordance with an agreement with Gazprom. 
Plachkov told reporters in Kiev earlier Wednesday that Ukraine had cut supplies through the pipeline by 40 million cubic meters per day in an agreement with Gazprom to meet needs in eastern Ukraine, where temperatures had sharply dropped. He said, however, that gas from Gazprom storage facilities would compensate for the shortfall, Interfax reported.
Italy’s Eni said in an e-mailed statement that its gas imports from Russia fell 5.4 percent over the 24-hour period beginning 6 a.m. Tuesday. Gazprom did not supply 4 million cubic meters out of the 74 million it had requested over that time, an amount that represented 1 percent of Italy’s demand, the statement said. “This amount is not serious,” an Eni spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
Other countries, however, were hit worse. Hungary’s MOL said supplies had been cut by as much as 20 percent. A company spokesman said industrial users would have to switch to alternate supplies if the cuts continued. For now, he said, they had enough reserve supplies, while domestic consumer needs could be fully met.
“Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia could be much worse affected. They have hardly any gas storage facilities,” said the spokesman, Denis Mohorovic.
A spokesman for Serbia’s Srbija Gas said Gazprom had said its supplies would be cut by 25 percent, Reuters reported.
In Russia, UES spokeswoman Tatyana Milyayeva said that many of the electricity giant’s power stations had been informed that gas supplies could be reduced by as much as 50 percent. “Many power stations in the Moscow region are already receiving reduced supplies,” she said.
The cutbacks were in line with a pre-agreed plan with Gazprom under which the power stations would switch to alternate fuel sources in case of extremely cold weather, she said.
In the Moscow region alone, UES stores 400,000 tons of diesel, and across Russia, the company has enough alternate supplies to keep power stations going, Milyayeva said. According to UES’s calculations, the gas cutbacks would only last for three days. “Temperatures are already rising in Siberia,” she said.
Kupriyanov said the reduced supplies to power stations were in line with an emergency plan designed to cope with such cold weather spells, under which supplies to major industrial customers are cut to ensure essential supplies are maintained and the industrial users switch to other fuels.
Kupriyanov insisted that Gazprom was meeting all its commitments to Europe. “It is possible that some of our partners are getting less than they would like,” he said. 
Some analysts pointed out that in such bad weather Gazprom could hardly be expected to act otherwise. “This is a totally bona fide reason for cutting gas supplies,” said Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. “This is not comparable to what happened two weeks ago.”
But others said the reduction in supplies again highlighted the danger of being too reliant on Russian gas. “This is a technical blip which again exposes what you might call a bit of vulnerability,” said Daniel Simmons, an expert on natural gas at the International Energy Agency in Paris. “The Ukraine situation was different, but this again points to the same thing that people need to think about.”
The IEA has long called for Europe to diversify its energy sources, as it “will import even more gas from Russia” as demand grows, Simmons said. The IEA predicts Europe’s Russian gas imports will grow by 25 percent to 150 bcm per year by 2030.
The cuts to Europe could hardly have come at a worse time for Gazprom. Its deputy CEO, Alexander Medvedev, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that Gazprom wanted to supply 20 percent of the gas on the British market by 2015, and was also considering buying a major British company such as Scottish Power.

TITLE: New Cross-Border Push To Fight Counterfeit Drugs
AUTHOR: By Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Pharmaceutical companies and officials from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on Wednesday pledged to work together to fight counterfeit medicines and called for closer cooperation.
Human health “doesn’t have borders,” Viktor Dmitriyev, chairman of the CIS intergovernmental commission on standardization, registration and quality control of medical products, told a news conference. He also called for CIS countries to streamline their pharmaceutical regulations.
Last year, 47 different types of counterfeit medicines were found to be circulating in Russia, slightly down from 2004, when 60 types of fakes were discovered, according to Roszdravnadzor, a federal health care oversight agency.
Russia’s lax intellectual rights protection is among the major sticking points slowing the country’s negotiations to join the WTO. Up to eight percent of medicines circulating on the country’s pharmaceuticals market are counterfeit, said David Melik-Guseynov, head of market research at Pharmexpert. 
Russia’s pharmaceuticals market reached $6.5 billion in 2005, according to industry consultancy Remedium.
Tougher punishments for counterfeiters and the introduction of common pharmaceutical market standards across the CIS should hamper the spread of fakes, industry experts said. 
Pharmaceutical markets across the CIS have developed in a similar way and are dominated by lower-priced generic drugs, said Aydar Ishmukhametov, Remedium board chairman.

TITLE: Critical condition
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Russian rock music makes compromises with the state while show business is mired in corruption, says outspoken music critic Artyom Troitsky.
Russian pop singers lip-syncing during long concerts that are always on primetime TV are not even remotely as popular as they might seem judging from the frequency with which they appear. 
In reality such concerts are shown for bribes paid by non-music companies to TV bosses so that their logos can appear in the background. Allegedly as much as $150,000 per show passes hands.
This is just one of the dirty secrets of the Russian music industry revealed in Artyom Troitsky’s new book, “Ya Vvedu Vas v Mir Pop” (I’ll Introduce You to the World of Pop). The title is something of a pun, as “pop” in Russian also means “of bottoms” as part of the human body.
The book is in reality an almost unedited transcript of lectures that the outspoken journalist, perhaps Russia’s best-known music critic, gave at the journalism department of Moscow State University between 2003 and 2005. 
The lectures were taped and transcribed by the project’s manager Ilya Stechkin who is credited as the book’s “producer.”
“I didn’t write this book, I just recited it during a number of lectures,” said Troitsky, 50, speaking to The St. Petersburg Times this week. 
“I didn’t really want to publish it, but the other people did; I am often approached by different publishers — to provide them with some material. Sometimes they suggest some novels about [popular singer] Alla Pugachyova, something dealing with showbiz. Even more often they offer big money for tell-all memoirs.
“But here I thought that of course the book is not a memoir, not a novel about showbiz, but a rather interesting, coherent and fun book.”
Although the theme of the original lectures was music journalism, Troitsky is more than just a music journalist. A jack-of-all-trades, he has experience in many aspects of the music industry. 
Troitsky is critical about the state of music journalism and reckons its drawbacks mirror the drawbacks in Russian music itself.
“One can probably formulate a law that truly interesting, energetic and active music journalism can exist only in those countries where they have an energetic and active music scene,” he said.
“Just as in Russia the music scene is, in my view, absolutely rotten and inert and isn’t the slightest bit interesting,  music journalism feeds off, on one hand, foreign music, and, on the other hand, local journalists invent something to give a phenomenon some imaginary qualities.”
Troitsky attributes what he sees as a decline in rock music to international trends. But he also rues the lack of support for non-commercial art that would help non-mainstream music thrive.
“In the 1980s music attracted all kinds of talented people; designers, artists, authors, actors and so on were involved in music and it drew in some interesting characters like Kirill Miller, Sergei Kuryokhin or Pyotr Mamonov. But if I were 18 now, I would not even look in the direction of music, because it’s a strictly dreary part of human creative activity,” he said.
In his journalism class Troitsky often invited representatives of the music industry and related fields such as musicians, journalists, PR agents, radio and television people, promoters, producers and the heads of record labels. In his conversations with them, such people were frequently unusually sincere, making the book full of lively dialogues, discussion and sometimes even arguments.
Troitsky also draws on experiences he has had in his numerous roles. As well as being in charge of special projects at Independent Media Sanoma Magazines (the Moscow-based publisher of magazines and newspapers including The St. Petersburg Times), Troitsky hosts two late night music shows on Ekho Moskvy radio. His favorite show is “FM Dostoevsky” which is devoted to new releases of all kinds of alternative music. He also promotes concerts by Western indie artists with promoter Caviar Lounge and puts out licensed albums by such artists as Franz Ferdinand on his label Zakat, which is a sub-label of the Moscow-based record company Soyuz. Troitsky even finds time to run a web site, Diversant Daily, where he writes about social and political issues, rather than music.
Troitsky’s high profile means that he is also seen as a celebrity in his own right; glossy advertising supplements want you to know the kind of watch he wears, while film directors want him to appear in their movies (his most recent cameo role was in the blockbuster “Day Watch.”)
Troitsky’s first article, which happened to be about the British hard rock band Deep Purple, was published in 1975 but later he also wrote for samizdat music publications and promoted unofficial gigs by semi-banned bands such as Akvarium and Kino in the early 1980s.
Some of his experiences of this time are documented in two English-language books Troitsky wrote about Soviet rock music; “Back in the U.S.S.R. The True Story of Rock in Russia” (1987) and “Tusovka. Who’s Who in the New Soviet Rock Culture” (1990, both Omnibus Press, London.)
Recently Troitsky’s interests have broadened toward politics. Close to the end of the new book there is an account of a class about music and politics to which Troitsky invited liberal politician Irina Khakamada and musician Alexander “Chacha” Ivanov of the Moscow punk band NAIVE. Troitsky says that he prefers to write about politics, rather than music, because politics has something to do with “life and death.” 
His most recent article, published on his web site this week, was “The Golden Diamond of Russia,” a satirical piece about a fictional award that goes to President Putin, oligarch Roman Abramovich and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
“I write more about politics [than music] — I find it more amusing, but I find family life even more amusing,” he said.
Russian rock has traveled a long way from the time it helped to overthrow the Soviet regime in the 1980s. The same musicians, most notably Boris Grebenshchikov of Akvarium, now cooperate with the state. Grebenshchikov appeared on television with Boris Gryzlov of the pro-Kremlin party United Russia during the pre-election campaign for the State Duma in 2004, and he helped to organize the infamous meeting between the Kremlin’s gray cardinal Vyacheslav Surkov with musicians such as Sergei Shnurov of the popular ska-punk band Leningrad and singer Zemfira last year.
“It’s Grebenshchikov who went this way but this road is not universal,” said Troitsky.
“He conforms absolutely, but even if not everybody cooperates with the presidential administration, absolutely every musician is a conformist. In this sense I absolutely admire such absolutely cynical guys as Sergei Shnurov, who is subversive and friends with the presidential administration at the same time. That’s what I call a ‘real rocker.’ The rest are more sluggish.”
Such conformism is a typical Russian trait, according to Troitsky.
“I think it’s a Russian peculiarity; regardless of their talent, radicalism and aesthetic leanings our people have, firstly, always been frightened of the boss, secondly, depended on the boss and, thirdly, expected the boss to help them. It’s the Russian way; in reality everything depends on the boss. And rock musicians are not an exception in this sense.”
According to Troitsky, there are no signs of any potential rock protest movement.
“I would be very happy if it happens, but on the other hand, if you ask me, whether I see this movement starting to boil, I can honestly say, ‘No, I don’t see it yet.’ Because the few acts such as Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe, don’t affect matters.”
Troitsky’s opinions seem to remain influential, even if they deal with politics rather than music.
After Troitsky criticized Russian rock musicians for taking part in the meeting with Surkov on his web site last year, the pro-Kremlin web publications Dni.ru and Kompromat.ru promptly responded with articles claiming that Troitsky’s oppositional sentiments are financed by the self-exiled Menatep shareholder Leonid Nevzlin, a Kremlin opponent wanted in Russia on charges of fraud and tax evasion. 
“[They wrote] that I am paid by Nevzlin, Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and so on,” said Troitsky. “Unfortunately, nobody pays me anything, although I wouldn’t object. I’m not even acquainted with Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin or Berezovsky. I never met them in my life.”

“Ya Vvedu Vas v Mir Pop” by Artyom Troitsky is available from local book stores. www.diversant-daily.ru

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Promoters continue to unveil plans to bring foreign acts to perform in Russia in 2006.
This week, forthcoming concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg by John Cale were announced. According to promoter Greenwave Music, the ex-Velvet Undergound singer/viola player will perform at as-yet-unannounced venues on May 10 and 11. 
Wales-born, New York-based Cale is continuing to promote his 2005 album “Black Acetate,” performing with what was described by The Wire magazine as a “straightforward rock trio.” 
According to the web publication Pop Matters, “Black Acetate,” is a “fine avant-rock record, a set of stomping tunes packed with off-kilter interjections.” Cale most recently performed in St. Petersburg as a solo artist in 1999.
More light was thrown on Alexander Balanescu’s concert due in March or April. While the Bucharest-born violinist performed solo at the SKIF festival last year, this year will see a fully-fledged performance by his group, the Balanescu Quartet.
In his career Balanescu has collaborated with John Lurie, Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and Jack de Johnette, among others, according to his web site. He has also supported the Pet Shop Boys and recorded the music of David Byrne, Kraftwerk and the Yellow Magic Orchestra.
More art rock will arrive in April in the form of The California Guitar Trio, the band formed in 1991 by Paul Richards from the U.S., Bert Lams from Belgium and Hideyo Moriya from Japan who first met in England at one of Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft Courses in 1987.
Also, according to local promoter SP Concert, Nick Cave as well as Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band will perform in the city some time in the autumn. Rumor also has it that the U.S. nu-metal/rapcore band Linkin Park and British punk popsters Chumbawamba will also make it to the city this year.
A concert appearance by Chumbawamba was last year cancelled at short notice when venue Platforma club failed to produce the payment it was supposed to have sent well in advance.
The British pop singer Chris Rea will perform what is possibly the city’s most expensive concert so far this year at the Ice Palace on March 11. Tickets cost between 1,100 and 10,000 rubles ($39-$352).
The popular dance music festival Stereoleto that normally takes place on four Saturdays in summer, will be cut down to three, with the fourth night exported to Moscow. The festival’s promoters decided to move the event because at around the same time in June a summit by the heads of state of the G8 group of industrialized nations is due to be held in St. Petersburg. The Stereoleto event will probably be headlined by disco-punk dancefloor project LCD Sound System, promoter Light Music said. 
This week’s potentially interesting concerts include Skafandr at Fish Fabrique, NOM at Griboyedov and I Drug Moi Gruzovik at Platforma (all Saturday). See Gigs listing (page x).

TITLE: The return of Socialist Realism
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Socialist Realism, the state-mandated standard that ruled the country’s artistic life for 50 years, passed into history during the dying days of the Soviet Union. But the curious body of work produced under the totalitarian yoke is finding a new following. Once considered worthless propaganda, Socialist Realism is now the subject of museum collections in the U.S. and China. 
A St. Petersburg-based entrepreneur from China who has collected Soviet Socialist Realist art in the post-Soviet era is planning to showcase his collection by giving it to the city of Shanghai for a new museum. 
Chinese businessman Fan Jianxiang has for the last 12 years been investing a large part of his restaurant-business fortune into a collection of 20th century Russian paintings produced under the Socialist Realist yoke.
Fan’s interest in art began when working as an interpreter in Vladivostok in the early 1990s. At that time, Fan said, Chinese cuisine was not well represented in Russia and he saw a business opportunity. An accomplished chef, Fan established with Russian partners the first in a series of “Eastern Tea House” Chinese restaurants in Vladisvostok in 1997. 
“Later my friend Sui Chao invited me to St. Petersburg and now there are three restaurants in the city,” Fan said. Fan also has a restaurant in Yekaterinburg and is considering opening one in Riga, Latvia.
But Fan’s true passion remains collecting works of Socialist Realism. 
The genre, which had been imposed on the Soviet art world by the Communist totalitarian regime from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s, was — in the absence of that regime — deeply unloved in 1990s Russia.
“The attitude to it was awful. Pictures were even destroyed,” said Fan.
Prices for Socialist Realist canvasses were low and nobody was producing fakes, so Fan was able to amass his collection. Throughout this time, Fan sought a way of to improve ties between Russia and his native China through art. 
“Now comes the second spring of Russian-Chinese relations,” Fan said. He said that Russia and China are very close to each other, not only geographically, but spiritually. 
“Chinese art possesses spirituality, an appeal to human feelings, a philosophical attitude to life. And Russian art also pays much attention to these. The attention to man, the imagery of art — all these are in both Russian and Chinese Art.” 
Fan said Russia has not only given him commercial success and a passion for art, but also a life filled with love. 
“Fate threw us together on this immense land when, after the Soviet Union, a new Russia was forming. We met, made friends and fell in love. Evidence of that is the portrait of [my wife] drawn by the Russian artist Koncharenko,” Fan said.
The portrait of Fan’s wife, Zeng Jianhua, was the first of  his collection. Now Fan has  more than 400 separate works of painting, graphic art and sculpture. 
Although based on the discredited, Soviet-mandated genre of Socialist Realism, observers who know Fan’s taste see a connection to a broader tradition of Russian realism in the collection.
“It’s not simply the number of the pictures which Fan Jianxiang likes. They belong to a particular trend in art, founded by Russian masters of realistic painting of the 19th century,” the general consul of Russia in Shanghai Andrei Krivtsov said. 
“One can follow the stages of the development of this school from the middle until the end of the last century,” Krivtsov added.
Albert Charkin, the president of St. Petersburg Union of Artists is also impressed by the collection. 
“The collection possesses not only topical unity, but also high-level art,” said Charkin, who is also the principal of the Academy of Fine Arts, where Fan is a post-graduate student writing a thesis. 
“There is an accent on works of a historic character, which reveals the heroic history of Russia, its revolutionary past, and selfless struggle with invaders during World War II,” Charkin said. 
Fan recently organized a trip to China for Charkin, Vladimir Pesikov, deputy rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, and painter Yury Kaluta. 
The Russian visitors fondly remember their trip to China.
“When I asked if I could see the Russian Orthodox church in Shanghai, my hosts found it,” Charkin said. 
“But there was just the building used as a night cafe. Fan’s wife promised us, and Fan agreed, that they will see to it that the building is redeemed and the parish is revived,” Charkin added. “This makes me deeply respect such people.”

TITLE: Less blood, more money, still not enough sense
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The long-awaited sequel to Russian fantasy hit ‘Night Watch.’
The mystic thriller “Dnevnoi Dozor” or “Day Watch,” the sequel to “Night Watch” (2004) has broken all box-office records in the history of Russian cinema, if figures from its distributor are to be believed.
The new film has outpaced the returns of “Company 9” (“9 Rota”), the Russian blockbuster that set records just a few month ago, and easily outperformed such hits as “The Lord of the Rings: Brotherhood of the Ring” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which respectively grossed just over $7 million and $5.5 million in box office receipts.
The success of “Day Watch” can perhaps be attributed to the zombification of the cinema-going public audience into a “must-see” state by an aggressive but clever promotional effort that resulted in the film taking in $26 million in its first 15 days.
Seemingly every city street, and even ATMs, were used to advertise “Day Watch,” as well as frequent reminders aired on Channel 1, not incidentally the production company behind it.
Released on New Year’s Day, the film attracted crowds hankering for entertainment during the long winter holidays.
“Day Watch” and its predecessor “Night Watch” are the first two films in an ambitious trilogy by former TV advertising guru Timur Bekmambetov. The films are based on books by popular Russian fantasy writer Sergei Lukyanenko.
Set in contemporary Moscow, the films range ill-defined “forces of light” in a stand-off against “forces of darkness” battling for the spirit of mankind. In this episode, one of the forces of light Anton Gorodetsky, played by Konstantin Khabensky, searches for the “chalk of fate,” a device with magic powers to reverse time. He consequently saves humanity from apocalypse.
The film’s $4.2 million budget was spent on special effects and a big-name cast.  
Russian movie-goers will recognize almost everyone who took part in the film such as Vladimir Menshov, the director of “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” which won Best Foreign-language Film at the Oscars in 1980, Zhanna Friske, an ex-member of girl-band Blestyaschie in the middle of a successful career as solo artist, and other members of the Russian showbiz world.
Surprisingly, the sequel is better than the original film with less of the raw violence that earned “Night Watch” headlines in the West such as “From Russia with Blood.” 
The new film incorporates a love story and some comedy elements. Aside from its visual flair and its somewhat improved script, “Day Watch,” however, remains a dubious achievement.
Although the film consists entirely of action, it fails to deliver any tension on screen. The story lacks logic and the characters’ motivation is often unclear. Viewers who haven’t seen “Night Watch” will find it even harder to make sense of the story. 
An episode where the “forces of darkness,” who sometimes materialize as vampires, try to kill Gorodetsky, “forces of light” decide to confuse their enemies. But they can’t find a better solution than to hide Gorodetsky’s soul in the body of Olga, a fellow “force of light” and the film’s female lead. The ruse results in some cheap gender-swap comedy. 
In an attempt to study the complex subject of spirituality, the filmmakers get about as deep as Beavis and Butthead.
The A-list stars perform with indifference, regardless whether they are trying to joke, promote a product in one of the film’s endless product-placement scenes, or disclose the death of a mother to her child. 
Ultimately “Day Watch” is one big colorful advert for the new technical and marketing abilities of the Russian cinema industry today. 
The approach has already started to pay off. “Day Watch” will be released internationally by Fox Searchlight, a major American distributor. Hollywood will also fund “Dusk Watch,” the final part of the trilogy. 
Some believe this major breakthrough is the first step toward a new era in the country’s movie industry. When they have earned enough money with such movies, Russian filmmakers may come back to producing films for the sake of films themselves, rather than thinking solely about their commercial possibilities.

TITLE: Directory enquiries
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A big new show at the Manezh. 
The Central Manezh Exhibition Hall runs an annual art show, “Petersburg 2005,” which is considered by its curator Larisa Skobkina (without irony) to be “the most serious and representative review of the St Petersburg contemporary art.” 
During the past 12 years, and despite heavy criticism, the purpose and principle of the festival remain the same: to exhibit the output of St. Petersburg artists by displaying a single work from each of them produced during the past year. 
The current show comprises nearly 500 works made in a variety of different media. Skobkina likes to compare the show to a “directory” akin to The Yellow Pages. As with any compendium, the organizers try to include as many local artists as possible without taking any responsibility for the content of what is presented. 
It is also questionable how “representative” the show really is: there are almost no artists that represented the St. Petersburg scene at the two main international contemporary art events held in Russia last year, the Moscow art biennale (with “The Human Project”) and  ART-Moscow (with the project “Piterskiye”).
Fortunately, in addition to the tedious and predictable main display, “Petersburg 2005” includes two bonus events. 
One of them is “Genre Photography” which features a fresh selection of portraiture. 
The other offers the most intriguing part of the show since it features visual art produced by musicians from prominent contemporary local bands such as Leningrad, Akvarium, Piknik, Korol i Shut, DDT, NOM, and so on. Among the gems are paintings by notorious Leningrad frontman Sergei Shnurov and Boris Grebenshchikov, the everlasting leader of St. Petersburg rock legends Akvarium. 

“Petersburg 2005” runs through Jan. 25. The show features a number of concerts, poetry meetings, film screenings, and roundtables. The full list of events is at www.manege.spb.ru

TITLE: Russian Winter Festival Staged in Nelson’s Shadow
AUTHOR: By Robin Stringer
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Snow started falling just as the loudspeakers boomed the countdown for the Russian New Year. Lasers projected “S Novim Godom”, and as the Russian national anthem blasted forth the thousands gathered raised their plastic glasses and embraced one another. It was about as close as you could get, culturally speaking, to being in Russia. 
The snow was produced by machines, and Nelson would no doubt have raised an enquiring eyebrow at the Cyrillic greetings laser-projected onto his column at the site of the second Russian Winter Festival on London’s Trafalgar Square on Jan. 14. The event is now a major symbol of cordial and productive English-Russian relations, as well as the considerable and rising cultural, economic and political Russian influence in the British capital.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon, an eclectic mix of Russian folk acts and bands took to the stage between the famous resting Lions to entertain the sea of dark leather and winter hats which flooded the square. They cheered “Rah!” en masse and applauded whenever the acts drew breath, while the Brits in attendance sampled the delights of Baltika beer imported from St. Petersburg and entered into the festive spirit. Those tired of the crowds tried borsch, bliny and pirozhki at stalls set up to encircle the crowd. 
The Ergyron ensemble showcased their traditional indigenous song, and dance inspired by Chukchi and Yup’ik folk tales from the extreme north-east of Russia. Malenky Jigit, from Ossetia, performed their energetic folk dances, before Natisk changed the pace to hard rock. The tempo shifted once more with musical ensemble Yamarka’s classical dance and more contemporary numbers. 
Baltika, Russia’s most popular beer and the second largest brewer in Europe after Heinken, participated as one of the key sponsors of the event. It ran two bars, where queues were at least ten people deep and over 15,000 bottles of its amber nectar were sampled. 
The St Petersburg-based company has been exporting to the UK for two years and their brand is now sold at five hundred outlets across the U.K. Having sold 6.8 million liters of its beer in the U.K. in 2005, the brewery is planning to double that figure in 2006.
Given that some put the number of Russians now living in Britain as high as 300,000, Baltika could probably make profits just selling to the Russian faithful. However, the brewer’s focus is on making Baltika an international brand and catching the wave of increasing Western interest in their country of origin, leading them to participate in numerous high profile events around the world. 
Anne Morrow from Edinburgh, Baltika’s brand–manager in the U.K., feels that the cultural appreciation shared between Britain and Russia is mutual.
“Russia is becoming more appealing to British consumers. Russian and British cultures are becoming better linked — the place is fascinating to the British.”
Baltika’s Export Director, St Petersburg native Dmitry Kistev, feels there is a confluence between his home city and London. “I spend several months in London. I love the architecture. In St Petersburg we celebrate the old, historic buildings; it is the same here”, he said.
The afternoon acts were drawn to a close by legendary Russian Folk artist Nadezhda Kadysheva and her flamboyant folk ensemble Zolotoe Koltso. Their vivacious renditions of classics, such as “Kalinka”, whipped up a frenzy — and an optimistic few who had spent the entire afternoon by the Baltika bar bravely tried to mimic the gymnastic dancing. 
The festival was well received by the predominantly Russian crowds, who are well known for their cultural and national pride. Andrei Platonov, 25, from St Petersburg, came to London to study five years ago, and now works here as a commercial lawyer. 
“We should mix together like this as much as possible. We were apart for 70 years. I love London because it is the most tolerant city in the world,” Platonov said.
His friend, Anton, 18, also from St. Petersburg, feels there are cultural ties which go beyond the attraction of a strong economy, jobs, and the Sherlock Holmes museum: “Our countries share a love of the arts — music and literature especially. The British here today, even though they do not understand the words to the songs, are still enjoying it. It’s great that we are celebrating Russian culture together.” 
The evening kicked off with a set by legendary St. Petersburg rock veterans DDT. Yuri Schevchuk, the band’s front man gave a characteristically emotive and energetic performance. They were followed by Brothers Grim and Ivan Kupala. Some guests were screaming the lyrics; others were just drinking beer at the “Baltika–St.Petersburg” and “Baltika-Moscow” bars.
During a break in performances, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, appeared with his Moscow counterpart Yuri Luzhkov. Livingstone heaped praise upon Luzhkov, “Moscow has been transformed by his leadership and I hope I can achieve half as much as he has in London”, and invited him and his wife to be his guests at the London 2012 Olympics. Livingstone also said he had presented Luzhkov with a recently retired London Routemaster bus, though it is unknown where the Moscow mayor intends to keep it. 
Russian influence is increasingly visible throughout London. There are at least forty shops, restaurants and cafes serving Russian food and vodka to be found all over the city. Venues such as Borsch n’ Tears in Knightsbridge, famed for its beautiful waitresses and energetic folk music, are doing much to develop the fashion for all things Russian in the city. In Farringdon, at Potemkin, a mix of traditional Russian and modern European dishes are served amid a stylish interior comprising embossed Russian emblems and alcoves with pottery reminiscent of rooms in the Hermitage.
In West London, Queensway market, a cavernous layout of shop units, now includes several stores selling Russian goods. In one, Seda Garrelyan, 45, from Armenia, has thousands of Russian films for rent and sale. Rarely is a word of English heard in her shop. Opposite, another sells Russian books. There is also a cafÎ, Samovar, which offers borsch, solyanka, beetroot salads and sausages. 
Around the corner, Boris Gofman, 47, runs Kalinka, a shop selling imported products ranging from condensed milk, sour cream and black bread to salted meats, dried fish, and “Borzhomi”, Georgian mineral water. “Our customers are generally Russian-speaking. The products come from Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. Our shop is a place where people can escape back to that food, language and people.”
Besides shops and cafÎs, determined, hard-working and thirsty young Russians are making their mark in Universities like LSE and the London Business School. In Vine Street, Tower Hill, bars are often flooded in the early evening with the new generation of successful Russian lawyers, bankers and accountants who now work in London.
Then, of course, there are the oligarchs. 
The most flamboyant and certainly richest of them all, with a fortune estimated at $28 billion, Roman Abramovich, 38, epitomizes the new breed of ludicrously rich Russians making the most of an alternative base in London. He has bought a $49 million  Belgravia mansion and an estate in Sussex, as well as Chelsea Football Club, on which he has spent $614 million since 2003. He divides his time between London and Moscow, and still serves as the governor of Chukotka — home, incidentally, to the Ergyron ensemble.  
In 2004, he was outbid on a mansion in Kensington Park Gardens by another oligarch, Leonard Blavatnik, 47, who paid $72 million. Blavatnik emigrated to America in 1978 but returned to Russia in the post-Soviet era, making his fortune in oil, gas and metals. In 2003 he formed the third largest oil company in Russia, TNK-BP. Then there is Britain’s richest refugee, Boris Berezovsky, 57, once adored in Moscow, where he was involved in the oil and car sectors and owned broadcast and print media. He fell out of favour with President Vladimir Putin in 2000 and was granted asylum in Britain. He is thought to be worth at least $2.6 billion, and owns properties in Belgravia, Chelsea and Kensington — as well as a $17.5 million estate in Surrey. Others, such as former Yukos chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was sent to a Siberian penal colony for tax evasion and fraud after openly opposing the President, were less fortunate.
Executives at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) continue to encourage the super-rich to leave the risks of what some spectators see as efforts by Putin to re-nationalise industries by buying back stakes in private oil and metal companies, and consolidate their fortunes by selling shares in London. In the first six months of 2005, Russian companies brought £1.4 billion to London. The Guardian estimates as many as 50 Russian companies could float in London in 2006, which could be worth up to £15 billion. The LSE remains more attractive for companies of dubious ownership rights, as the post-Enron and Worldcom scandals New York Stock Exchange is considered more stringent. Perhaps more importantly, the British tax laws are less punitive to the super-rich.  
More recently, a new geo-political Russian influence on Britain has appeared. Abramovich, who took control of oil company Sibneft from former business partner Berezovsky when he fled for the UK, put power back into the state’s hands by selling the company to Kremlin-controlled Gazprom just before Christmas last year, netting about $13 billion from the transaction, the largest in the history of post-Soviet Russia. While Abramovich now has a yet larger personal fortune to play with, President Putin gained a stronger hold over Russia’s increasingly important natural resources.  
Gazprom, one of the festival’s sponsors, showed just how much power Russia could come to hold over Europe at the beginning of January when it cut gas supplies to the Ukraine, and thus most of Europe. As a result, the nuclear power debate was re-kindled in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. Gas in the North Sea is set to run out in the next five years, and some fear dependency on a new Russian energy superpower.
Back in London, however, the oligarchs are just examples from the top of a very loaded pile. Russian men in Versace leather jackets accompanied by insanely attractive women in Dolce & Gabanna jeans carrying Louis Vuitton purses are now a common feature in Bond Street’s luxury boutiques. Last year, the Harvey Nichols department store recruited Russian-speaking sales staff to help serve the elite shopping teams of glamorous Slavic bombshells who devour Gucci and Prada wares at the store. Spokesman Richard Gray said “The Russians are to this decade what the Japanese were to the Nineties and the Arabs were to the Eighties.”
Whether as a haven for the rich or a world of opportunity for the ambitious, London is becoming ever more magnetic for Russians. Russian influence on London, from those here, as well as those back in the resource-rich Motherland, looks certain to grow. Perhaps S Novim Godom projected onto Nelson’s Column is not such an unusual idea after all. 
For Russian businesses, performers and artists taking part in the Russian Winter Festival in London, however, participation in cultural events in foreign countries isn’t limited to the British capital. “We’re already exporting to 38 countries,” said Dmitry Kistev from Baltika. “And now we have the chance to present Russia in events throughout the world.”

TITLE: Abu Hamza Incitement Trial Begins
AUTHOR: By Tariq Panja
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri took the stand in his defense Thursday as British prosecutors wrapped up their case against the former Muslim preacher charged with inciting hatred and murder against non-Muslims. 
The Egyptian-born al-Masri, 47, faces life in prison if convicted of inciting murder and stirring racial hatred in speeches recorded on nine video and audio tapes made for supporters, some of whom prayed at the Finsbury Park mosque.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Jurors have listened to tapes during the trial, and on Thursday were told by London Metropolitan Police Detective Keith Asman how “The Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad” was seized from al-Masri’s west London home.
The book is an alleged terrorism manual that describes desirable terrorist targets, such as London’s Big Ben, and how to carry out assassinations.
Defense attorney Edward Fitzgerald said al-Masri would give evidence in his defense, but pleaded with the jury not to be influenced by images of al-Masri, who he said had been demonized in the British media with repeated pictures of the one-eyed, hook-handed preacher.
Hamza is “the most frequently ridiculed figure” in the country, Fitzgerald said of al-Masri, who says he lost his eye and hands fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, was a head preacher at London’s Finsbury Park mosque in north London, a mosque that has been linked to terrorist suspects including alleged Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
In some of the recordings jurors have listened to during the trial, prosecutors have said al-Masri encouraged followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims. He also allegedly told followers that Jews “control the West and must be removed from the Earth.”
Al-Masri also referred to Jews as “blasphemous, traitors and dirty” and said their behavior was “why Hitler was sent into the world,” prosecutors said.
Al-Masri is wanted in the United States on an 11-count indictment from 2004 that charges him with conspiring to provide material support to the al-Qaida terror network by establishing a training camp in Oregon; conspiring to take hostages in Yemen and facilitating training in Afghanistan.
Under British law, the charges he faces in the United Kingdom take precedence over the U.S. case and he cannot be tried in the United States until a verdict has been reached.

TITLE: Iraq Suicide Bombers Wreak Bloody Havoc
AUTHOR: By Sinan Salaheddin
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two near-simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, according to police and hospital officials. 
The blasts occurred as the mother of abducted American reporter Jill Carroll appealed for her daughter’s release after her captors threatened to kill her if U.S. authorities don’t release all Iraqi women in military custody by Friday night.
Iraqi authorities said six of the eight detained Iraqi women are expected to be released by the U.S. military next week, but not as part of a bid to free Carroll, who was seized in Baghdad on Jan. 7. American officials declined to comment.
A foreign assessment team also released a report saying it found numerous violations and reports of fraud during the Dec. 15 parliamentary election but it did not question the final result. The International Mission for Iraqi Elections praised the ability to stage elections during a raging war and said there was an “urgent need ... for a formation of a government of true national unity.”
Iraq’s election commission prepared to announce final election results possibly as early as Friday, and the Interior Ministry said the number of troops and police on the streets would be sharply increased ahead of the announcement.
The bombings occurred on Baghdad’s Saadoun Street, the first targeting a coffee shop that killed 16 people and wounded 21, said police Lt. Bilal Mohammed. Police gave conflicting accounts as to what caused the blast, ranging from a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt to a rigged cigarette cart with artillery shells placed inside.
Seconds later, a blast caused by a planted bomb rocked a nearby restaurant, killing at least seven more people and injuring five, including two women, Mohammed added.
Alaa Abid Ali, a medic at Baghdad’s Kindi Hospital, said at least 14 bodies were received at his hospital while nine were taken to Ibn al-Nafis Hospital.
The blasts shattered nearby shop windows and destroyed several cars. Wooden tables and chairs were strewn over the bloodstained pavement on which rescue workers treated some of the wounded. Two men wailed above the dead bodies of two men covered with bloodstained blankets outside the coffee shop.
The appeal by Carroll’s mother, Mary Beth Carroll, was made on CNN one day ahead of the kidnappers’ deadline for their demands to be met.
Carroll told CNN that video images gave her hope that her daughter is alive but also have “shaken us about her fate.”
“I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world,” she said.
Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday showed the first video images of her since her capture. The report said the 20-second video gave authorities until Friday night to free the Iraqi women or they would kill the reporter.
New images showing the journalist surrounded by armed and masked hostage-takers were aired Thursday by Al-Jazeera. The 20 seconds of silent video also showed her talking to the camera. An editor from Al-Jazeera said it was from the same video the station had earlier aired part of.
The U.S. military has said eight Iraqi women are in military detention. An Iraqi government commission reviewing detainee cases recommended to U.S. authorities on Monday that six of them be released.
Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said the six women would be released next week but “not as part of any swap with any kidnappers.”
“I insisted that the Americans should bring their files and release them and they will be freed next week along with other detainees,” Ali told Associated Press Television News. He did not elaborate on who the other detainees were.
U.S. officials refused to comment Wednesday on whether any of the women were set to be released. 
An official from a prominent Sunni political organization called for Carroll’s release and denounced all kidnappings. 
“We condemn the abductions of innocent civilians and journalists and call for the immediate release of the American reporter and all innocent people who have nothing to do with the (U.S.-led) occupation,” said Harith al-Obeidi of the Conference for Iraq’s People. 
French journalist and former hostage Florence Aubenas, who was released in June after being held hostage for 157 days, also called on Carroll’s hostage-takers to release her. 
“She came to this country to do her job as a journalist and not anything else,” Aubenas told Al-Jazeera. 
Iraqi Accordance Front head Adnan al-Dulami, a Sunni Arab leader whom Carroll had been attempting to interview before she was taken, called the kidnapping un-Islamic, the Christian Science Monitor reported on its web site. 
U.S. President Bush ignored shouted questions Wednesday about what his administration is doing to find Carroll. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said her safe return was a priority for the administration but refused to say more. 
David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor, told a news conference that Carroll’s work has demonstrated she is respectful of Arab culture and people, and the newspaper has shown it treats different cultures and viewpoints fairly.

TITLE: U.S. Claims Strike Killed Al-Qaida No. 2
AUTHOR: By Munir Ahmad
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network’s No. 2 leader were among four top operatives believed killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan last week, Pakistani security officials said Thursday. 
The three security officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media, said the al-Qaida figures were believed to have been in Damadola village near the Afghan border at the time of Friday’s attack but their bodies have not been recovered. The attack also killed 18 civilians.
The officials said the operatives included Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 52, who the U.S. Justice Department calls an explosives and poisons expert. The Egyptian also has distributed training manuals with recipes for chemical and biological weapons and trained hundreds of fighters at a terrorist camp near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad before the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
Umar is suspected of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 U.S. sailors in the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, according to Mohamed Salah, a Cairo expert on Islamic extremists.
The Justice Department’s web site says the exact whereabouts of Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, are unknown but that he may be living in Pakistan. It offers $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
According to the Pakistani officials, the other militants possibly killed included Abu Obaidah al-Masri, the al-Qaida chief responsible for attacks on U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, across the border from the strike site; and Abdul Rehman al-Maghribi, a Moroccan and relative of al-Zawahri, possibly son-in-law to Osama bin Laden’s top aide.
One of the officials said al-Maghribi was involved in public relations for al-Qaida and helped distribute statements, CDs and videos publicizing the group. In particular, al-Maghribi had contacts with Arab journalists and kept them abreast of al-Qaida news, he said.
Some of the officials also said a fourth man, Khalid Habib, the al-Qaida operations chief along the Afghan-Pakistan border, was believed to be dead. The officials said Habib had planned assassination attacks on Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and is associated with Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a top al-Qaida figure arrested in northwestern Pakistan in May.
Pentagon officials said they had no information on the reported identities of the dead, and CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said the agency could not comment.
Pakistani authorities previously said four or five foreign militants were killed in the airstrike, which officials say targeted — but missed — al-Zawahri. The strike has angered many in the Islamic country, prompting street protests over the weekend.
About 1,000 protesters also marched through the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, chanting “Death to America” and “Jihad, Jihad.”
Pakistan maintains it was not given advance word of the airstrike, which was reportedly carried out by unmanned Predator drones flying from Afghanistan, and has condemned the killing of innocent civilians.
Provincial authorities said al-Qaida sympathizers took the bodies of the foreign militants believed to have been killed to bury them in the mountains near the Afghan border, thereby preventing their identification.
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the bodies may have been taken by a local pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, who also is being hunted by authorities. Authorities believe he and another prominent pro-Taliban cleric survived the attack last Friday.

TITLE: Italy Sets Date For Iraq Pullout
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROME — Italy will conclude its mission in Iraq by the end of the year, the defense minister said Thursday in the first clear timetable for Rome to withdraw its troops. 
Defense Minister Antonio Martino said in an address to a parliamentary committee that the mission “will be considered concluded at the end of the year having definitively completed its mission.”

TITLE: Osama Bin Laden Tape Offers U.S. Truce and Threats
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice on the tape said heightened security measures in the United States are not the reason there have been no attacks there since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings. 
Instead, the reason is “because there are operations that need preparations, and you will see them,” he said.
“Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land,” he said. “We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term. ... So we can build Iraq and Afghanistan ... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war.”
The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by the Arabic broadcaster.

TITLE: Russia Glides Toward Dominance on Ice
AUTHOR: By Pritha Sarkar
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LYON, France — Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin captured their fifth successive European pairs title with an exhilarating display of acrobatic jumps and synchronized footwork on Wednesday.
The Russian duo beat Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy by 7.79 points. Twice former champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia finished third.
Totmyanina and Marinin established themselves as clear favorites for the Olympic pairs crown at next month’s Turin Games with a combined total of 195.87.
Their victory also extended Russia’s winning streak in the discipline to 11 years.
Having carried forward a lead of 1.97 points from Tuesday’s short program, Totmyanina and Marinin were the only couple among the medal contenders who appeared to perform a near-flawless free skate.
They opened their four-minute free program with triple Salchows before five more jumps and throws followed to the thundering beats of Romeo and Juliet.
The Russians also executed three imaginative lifts to perfection to ensure their European swansong ended on a winning note.
The Chicago-based pair, who will retire from competition after the Olympics, finished their routine with their arms draped around each other before acknowledging a large contingent of Russian fans.
“We didn’t skate 100 percent but it was good enough to win our fifth European title in a row and we’re happy about that,” Marinin told reporters.
Totmyanina added the pair had made an error but they improvised to avoid being penalized.
“We made a small mistake but it was better to do it here rather than at the Olympics,” said Totmyanina, who spent a night in hospital two weeks ago with gall bladder problems.
“I’m looking forward to the Olympics and provided our health is alright, we’ll be ready.”
Ukrainian-born Savchenko, who recently acquired German citizenship, and Szolkowy won their first medal at a major competition after leapfrogging Petrova and Tikhonov with the final performance of the day.
Savchenko put her hands down on the ice twice as she struggled to hold her balance after stumbled landings, but despite the errors, the German duo earned 188.08.
Petrova and Tikhonov paid the price for a mistake early in their routine and were awarded 187.04.
Tikhonov’s over-rotation on a triple Salchow effectively ended any hopes of ending Totmyanina and Marinin’s domination of the discipline.
Irina Slutskaya glided closer to a record seventh European women’s title by seizing a commanding lead over fellow Russian Yelena Sokolova with an enthralling short program earlier in the day.
Slutskaya, aiming to eclipse the record of six European titles she shares with Germany’s Katarina Witt and Norway’s Sonja Henie, executed a series of soaring jumps and artistic spins to outclass her rivals with a segment score of 66.43 points.
The world champion took a lead of 5.55 points over perennial underachiever Sokolova into Thursday’s free skate.

TITLE: City Name Irks Hacks
AUTHOR: By Nancy Armour
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Turin or Torino? It’s the Olympic version of “You say tomato, I say toma-h-to.” 
The city in northern Italy that’s hosting the Winter Olympics next month is “Torino” to the locals and the NBC television network in the U.S. For most of us non-Italians, it’s always been Turin. 
“I believe readers are seeing it on television with the NBC logo, it says ‘Torino,’ the Olympic Games,” Ron Fritz, sports editor at The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, said Tuesday. “And then they see it in the paper, ‘Turin,’ and they’re thinking we got it wrong.” 
The explanation for the different versions is simple. 
“Turin is the English translation of the Italian word Torino,” said Clara Orban, a professor of Italian at DePaul University. “Standard practice in the United States is if a city name has been translated differently, go with the English translation.” 
That’s what The Associated Press is doing. Its policy is to use the English version of foreign cities. It’s Rome, not Roma, Munich, not Muenchen,  Moscow not Moskva. 
“We use Turin in accordance with our long-standing style to use English names on English-language wires,” said Terry Taylor, AP sports editor. “It’s the Shroud of Turin, for instance, not the Shroud of Torino. And when the World Cup comes to Germany this summer, we will write that games will be played in Munich, not Muenchen.

TITLE: Hewitt’s Hopes Dashed in Second Round
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MELBOURNE — Third seed Lleyton Hewitt became the biggest casualty of the Australian Open when he was upset 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-2 by bitter Argentine rival Juan Ignacio Chela in the second round on Thursday. 
Unseeded Chela triumphed in an unexpectedly flat encounter against world No. 6 Hewitt, who needed treatment including pain killers for a foot injury in the third set but was still able to fight back and force a tiebreak, which he won 10-8. 
Chela dragged Hewitt into long rallies and benefited from points gifted by wild forehands from the Australian, who was last year’s losing finalist. 
Hewitt also struggled with his serve. 
The match failed to produce the expected fireworks after last year’s spiteful third-round clash between the pair, when Chela was later fined for spitting in Hewitt’s direction. 
Earlier Thursday, Roger Federer was in top form as he cruised through his second-round match, needing only 1 hour and 12 minutes to beat Mayer 6-1 6-4 6-0. 
It was the second easy match for the Swiss star, who’s seeking his seventh Grand Slam victory and second title here. He has yielded only 12 games in six sets. 
“I definitely feel like, if I keep on playing the way I am, not losing too much energy out on the court... maybe it’s going to pay back eventually,” Federer said. “It might come down to this one match where you’re going to be tangled up in the fifth set and you need some reserves.” 
Spending as little time on court as possible was the goal of every player on a day when temperatures reached 91 degrees. The players sought shade at every opportunity. 
“It’s so nice to get quick matches in the heat,” Federer said. 
Fifth-seeded Mary Pierce, the 1995 Australian champion and a two-time finalist at last year’s majors, became the highest-seeded player to be eliminated when she lost 6-3, 7-5 to Iveta Benesova. 
Pierce, who turned 31 last Sunday and was playing in her 13th Australian Open, crashed into the net as she lunged to reach a drop shot on match point and said she had problems with her contact lenses in the hot, windy conditions. 
But the bottom line, she added, was that she didn’t play well. 
“It was just one of those days,” Pierce said. “Probably April or May was my last bad match. If I only have a bad match every nine months, it’s O.K.” 
Pierce made 41 unforced errors, against only 19 for Benesova. 
“This is definitely the best win in my whole career,” said the 22-year-old Czech player. “It’s good that it happened in a Grand Slam.” 
Losses by Pierce and No. 21 Ava Ivanovic mean that Martina Hingis, on a comeback from a three-year retirement, has no seeded players left in her part of the draw until the quarterfinals, when she could face ailing Kim Clijsters, seeded second. 
Backed by a crowd that included a yodeler, Hingis smiled frequently and was sharp again as she scored an easy 6-1, 6-1 victory over unseeded Emma Laine of Finland in just 52 minutes. 
Hingis won twice as many points, 52-25, and committed only nine unforced errors. 
“Maybe all these three years, I freshened up a little,” said Hingis, who has dropped only five games in four sets. “I’m just really enjoying every second of being around here.” 
Swiss fans were sprinkled around Rod Laver Arena, including three young men with the national flag painted on their faces, as Federer took the court. 
They saw nothing to disappoint them. 
Federer was so dominating that Mayer never even had a game point after holding serve to pull within 4-5 in the second set. 
The overmatched Mayer tried a little of everything, charging the net and flicking soft drops from the baseline, but nothing worked with any consistency. 
Always a perfectionist, the normally stoic Federer did seem a little annoyed at his 18 unforced errors that accounted for a third of Florian’s points. And after smacking a forehand crosscourt winner for his third break of the final set, he allowed himself a little fist pump. 
Federer finished off the match with a pair of service winners and his eighth and ninth aces, then hit the ball high into the stands on one side and tossed his green wristband on the other. His next opponent is 30th-seeded Max Mirnyi. 
No. 5 Nikolai Davydenko, a potential quarterfinal opponent, advanced 4-6 6-0 6-3 6-2 over American Kevin Kim and No. 6 Guillermo Coria overcame Italy’s Federico Luzzi 7-6 6-4 6-3. 
Also advancing were 12th-seeded Dominik Hrbaty, No. 15 Juan Carlos Ferrero, No. 21 Nicolas Kiefer, No. 23 Igor Andreyev and No. 25 Sebastien Grosjean (25). 
Kim Clijsters, bothered by hip and back soreness, overcame 48 unforced errors and five double faults to beat Yuan Meng, who had heavy strapping on both thighs and produced only two clean winners in the match. 
The second-seeded Clijsters needed treatment on her back and hip between sets and wasn’t moving fluently, although she went to the net 14 times and won 12 of those points. 
“I’m happy with the win, but my body doesn’t feel too good at the moment,” Clijsters said. “Although I didn’t play my best tennis, not even close, I always felt like I could win. 
“As long as [the hip] doesn’t get worse, I’ll keep fighting and see how I go.” 
Third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo advanced 7-6 6-2 over French compatriot Emilie Loit. Also advancing were No. 7 Patty Schnyder, No. 12 Anastasia Myskina, No. 16 Nicole Vaidisova and No. 20 Flavia Pennetta. Seven of the seeded women lost Thursday. 
Samantha Stosur beat Ivanovic; and 17-year-old Michaella Krajicek, the half-sister of 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, defeated No. 32 Sania Mirza. 
Other ranked players who lost were Dinara Safina (19), Anna-Lena Groenefeld (22), Marion Bartoli (27) and Gisela Dulko (31). 
(Reuters, AP)

TITLE: Sports Watch
TEXT: Man U Advance
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Giuseppe Rossi scored twice and Louis Saha, Kieran Richardson and Ryan Giggs had one goal each to lead Manchester United over semipro Burton Albion 5-0 Wednesday night in their English FA Cup third-round replay. 
Everton also advanced to the fourth round, beating Millwall 1-0 on Tim Cahill’s goal in the 72nd minute. Everton hosts Premier League leader Chelsea in the next round, on Jan. 28. 
Saha and Rossi put Manchester United ahead 2-0 by the 23rd minute, quickly overwhelming Burton Albion, which held the 15-time league champion and 11-time Cup champion to a 0-0 tie 10 days earlier. 

Uzbeks Get New Coach
TOKYO (Reuters) — Russian Valery Nepomniachi is to become Uzbekistan’s new coach, officials said on Thursday. 
Nepomniachi, who led Cameroon to the 1990 World Cup quarter-finals, could be formally unveiled this week. 
“I can confirm he [will] be the next coach of Uzbekistan,” Uzbekistan Football Federation spokesman Sanjar Rizayev said. 
“He is coming to Tashkent this week in order to sign the contract. We have had negotiations and he has said yes.” 
Uzbekistan have been without a head coach since Englishman Bobby Houghton departed after their elimination by Bahrain in the 2006 World Cup qualifying playoff last October. 

Rodriguez Picks U.S.
NEW YORK (AP) — All-star third baseman Alex Rodriguez has decided to play for the United States in the World Baseball Classic after months of indecision. 
New York-born Rodriguez, the American League most valuable player, was eligible to represent the U.S. or Dominican Republic in the inaugural world-cup style tournament in March because his parents are citizens of the Caribbean nation. 
“In recent weeks, following dialogue with caring friends and players, both Dominican and American, I reached the conclusion that if I played in the Classic, I would play for the United States and honor my American citizenship,” he said in a statement on the website of his club, the New York Yankees. 

Goalie’s Arm Amputated
ROME (Reuters)— Paraguayan international Julio Gonzalez has had his left arm amputated four weeks after being involved in a car crash in northern Italy, his Italian club Vicenza said on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old striker has been in hospital ever since the accident, which happened on a highway while he was driving teammate Gerardo Grighini to Venice’s Marco Polo airport in the early hours of December 22.
Gonzalez, bidding for a place in Paraguay’s squad for this year’s World Cup finals, was in his second season at Serie B side Vicenza and was the team’s top scorer, with eight goals in 15 appearances. 

Ex-Mayor Mediates
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer was picked to mediate the deadlock between Major League Baseball and the District of Columbia over a lease for the Washington Nationals’ new stadium.