SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1210 (76), Friday, October 6, 2006
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TITLE: Chechen Force Goes to Beirut
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Defense Ministry will dispatch two platoons of elite soldiers stationed in Chechnya to protect Russian military engineers rebuilding bridges in Lebanon, ministry spokesman Nikolai Baranov said."It's more than likely that our troops will be there until the end of the year," Baranov said.
The estimated 50 soldiers were plucked from the army's 42nd Division's East and West battalions, Baranov said. The battalions are manned by ethnic Chechens.
"These soldiers have rich battle experience," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a news conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Interfax reported.
The 300 engineers arrived in Beirut on Tuesday to help in the reconstruction effort following the war between Israel and Hezbollah forces. The soldiers who will be guarding them routinely take part in search-and-destroy missions in Chechnya.
The decision to send Chechnya-based soldiers indicates that the situation in the once-volatile region has calmed down, said another ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov called the commandos "the best of the best in their division," RIA-Novosti reported. Many soldiers in Chechnya voiced hopes of going to Lebanon, Kadyrov said, "but only the best were chosen."
Lavrov said the troops start their new job Oct. 10.

TITLE: On His 30th Birthday, Kadyrov Eyes Top Job
AUTHOR: By Timur Aliev and Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Special to The Moscow Times
TEXT: GROZNY — He watches you from the portraits in state offices, from huge posters along pock-marked highways, from T-shirts emblazoned with his face.And on Friday, the man who is everywhere, the uncrowned ruler of Chechnya, Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, turns 30, making him eligible to be president of the republic.
For Chechens, it is not a question of if, but when Kadyrov will take over.
"Kadyrov has emerged victorious in the struggle for power," said Nikolai Silayev, an analyst with the Center for Caucasus Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "All that is left is to formalize the results."
With local leaders already having named so many sites after Kadyrov's slain father, Akhmad, the republic's former president, and Kadyrov himself, there aren't that many venues left to rename for the birthday celebrations.
The renovated Severny Airport in Grozny, the Chechen capital, will be dedicated Friday, and a monumental arch at the eastern entrance to the city will be unveiled, Kadyrov's spokesman, Lema Gudayev, said Thursday. A new shopping center and kindergarten are expected to open their doors in Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city and the heart of the Kadyrov clan.
"Formally, these events do not have any relation to Kadyrov's birthday, but the construction workers decided to thank Ramzan Akhmadovich in their own way, by completing these projects by that date," Gudayev said.
The actual birthday party will take place in Kadyrov's vacation house outside Gudermes and will be attended by several Russian pop stars, including Filipp Kirkorov, Soso Pavliashvili and Sofia Rotaru, Gudayev said.
Celebrities are Ramzan's weakness and a key component of his public relations strategy. Last year, the prime minister entertained Chechen youth and Moscow journalists by importing boxing champion Mike Tyson to serve as referee in a competition for teenagers.
After his father was killed in a terrorist attack in May 2004, Ramzan Kadyrov, then the head of his father's personal guard, was tapped by the Kremlin to be a future president of Chechnya.
Indeed, Alu Alkhanov, a former traffic police officer catapulted into the Chechen presidency in August 2004 by Moscow officials, has been widely seen as little more than a seat warmer for Kadyrov until the prime minister turned 30.
In the past two years, Kadyrov has used militia loyal to him to crush the insurgency in Chechnya at whatever cost necessary, in some cases taking relatives of rebels hostage. His ability to squeeze money out of federal officials in Moscow and local business leaders has enabled him to build schools and pave roads in the devastated republic — and give him even more political clout.
But many believe that Kadyrov's ascendancy to the highest office in the land largely depends on President Vladimir Putin. The president's term ends in early 2008; Alkhanov's expires several months later.
"The personal union of Putin and Kadyrov will remain the crucial factor defining developments in the republic," said Sergei Markedonov, a Caucasus analyst with the Institute of Political and Military Analysis.

TITLE: In Search of a Mid-Range Finish
AUTHOR: By Yelena Andreyeva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Finnish hotel and restaurant operator SOK is to open a second hotel next year in the city and is engaged in negotiations for a third, the group said at a press conference on Tuesday.The 16,000 square-meter Sokos Olympic Garden, designed by Russian architect bureau A-Len, is under construction on Bataysky Pereulok, next to the Tekhnologichesky Institute metro station, though the building itself is still open to alterations.
"Although it is a beautiful, well-designed building, in my opinion, at the moment it looks more like a bank or an insurance company office. Its facade needs to be slightly changed," said Juhani Jarvenpaa, President of SOK Holding.
The four-star hotel will consist of 348 rooms, two restaurants, as well as 12 meeting rooms of various sizes, the largest of which will be able to accommodate 300 people.
The hotel is aimed at Finish business travelers.
"We'll have the added edge of two hotels to provide services that Finnish business travelers rate highly: a Finnish daily newspaper, Finnish TV channels and safe and familiar quality and services," said Jarvenpaa.
As a modern business hotel, it will have free Internet access in all the rooms, she said.
The city's strong economic growth and dearth of good mid-range hotels, were cited as the main reasons for the investment.
"The Sokos Hotel chain is ideal for St. Petersburg's competitive hotel market, where there is a shortage of quality but suitably priced hotels," says Matti Pulkki, senior vice president of the SOK Hotel and Restaurant Division.
A room will cost around 135 euros ($160) per night.
Jarvenpaa said that the hotel operator, SOK, was investing around seven million euros ($10 million) into the project, while Wenaas, the developer, did not want to reveal its investment.
Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky, the first Sokos hotel, is currently under construction on Vasilievsky Island and is also to be completed in autumn of next year.
The two new hotels will provide around 250 jobs for local people.

TITLE: The Logistics of Growth
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The RosEuroDevelopment company has announced it is to construct a logistic and industrial park in Leningrad Oblast, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing the company's top executive.Operating since 2004, RosEuroDevelopment has completed a number of projects including shopping and entertainment centers, logistic parks, techno-parks, office centers and residential complexes. Total investment into the current project is estimated at around $250 million, Ivan Sitnikov, CEO of RosEuroDevelopment, said to Interfax.
The company will fund 30 percent of the investment itself, borrowing the remaining 70 percent. Construction will start next year and be completed by 2010, Sitnikov said.
Occupying a total of 60 hectares, the park will offer 300,000 square meters of industrial and logistic facilities for rent.
Its precise location has not yet been chosen, but will be somewhere along the ring-road. "At the moment we are in negotiations with potential contractors," Sitnikov said. "The city's ring-road is the most attractive location for logistic facilities, especially if the complex is based at an intersection with one of the main highways," said Konstantin Kovalyov, project manager at VTB-Capital development company.
Such a location still entails some hazards. "One of the major risks is delay in getting approvals. Most such projects are realized on agricultural land and the process of changing the land's status is unpredictable regarding time and the ultimate result," he said.
A sizeable outlay on engineering exploration and land development in the initial stages of the project could affect its overall profitability, Kovalyov added.
According to him, such large parks were in demand because they allow their tenants to work with " maxim efficiency."
At the same time the large scale of such projects means a developer economizes on infrastructure and construction costs, which allow lower rent rates, he said. "At the moment demand for high quality logistic complexes twice exceeds the facilities available and keeps growing because of intense transit and economic development," he said.
He indicated that a number of companies have announced the construction of large logistic complexes, though it is still to be seen who will start operating first.
According to Colliers, plans for the development of two million square meters of logistic space have already been announced. "This could satisfy demand for A-class logistic complexes. However very few companies have actually started construction," said Kirill Malyshev, senior consultant for office and logistic real estate at Colliers International in St. Petersburg.
The projects that have actually been finished — Avalon, MLP and Astros Logistics would not be sufficient, Malyshev said.
In general, any location within 15 kilometers of the ring-road could attract tenants, Malyshev said.
If the company focuses on buffer warehouses, which do not supply cargo to the city but just redistribute it for further transportation, it could be located anywhere within 50 kilometers of the ring-road, he said.

TITLE: Kremlin Rejects Shelling Out More For Sakhalin-2
AUTHOR: By Miriam Elder
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW —A top Kremlin economic adviser on Wednesday said Shell had broken its agreement with the government to develop Sakhalin-2 when it doubled the cost estimate for the project to $20 billion, and warned that the government would never accept the increase."You know which side changed the conditions of development" when it asked to double the project's costs, Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the Presidential Experts' Council, told an investment conference.
"It was clear from the beginning that the Russian side was never going to cover this," he said.
Shell announced last year that it would cost $20 billion to develop the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, which it operates under a production sharing agreement, or PSA, with the government. The project has recently come under fire in what observers say is a Kremlin push to sweeten the terms for state-run Gazprom to take a share. With a direct stake in the project, the state could see quicker revenue, since under the PSA it has to wait for all investments to be recouped before reaping any profits.
Dvorkovich denied that threats to revoke the environmental approval for the project were part of a wider strategy to corral energy projects into Kremlin control. In recent weeks, the government has said it will not accept price increases at the ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 project and has accused TNK-BP of environmental violations at its Kovykta field in east Siberia.
"There is no [such] campaign," he said. "There are no intentions to completely hand over the energy sector, including PSAs, to state companies."
Speaking on the sidelines of an investment conference organized by the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, Dvorkovich said, "The PSAs are safe — if the agreement, if legislation, is being followed."
State officials have insisted they are merely trying to ensure that Western companies follow the rules.
Konstantin Panin, vice president of Shell Exploration and Production, was one of several speakers at the conference to criticize the state for failing to make that message clear.
"There must be clear rules," Panin said. "There must be confidence that once the rules of the game are established, they will be adhered to."
"One can avoid [conspiracy theories] easily by entering into a dialogue with the company," he told the conference.
State officials have recently declined Shell's requests to hold meetings, he said. Sakhalin Energy, the company that operates the project on behalf of Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, has made similar claims.
British Ambassador Anthony Brenton was more skeptical that a wider government push wasn't under way.
"It feels like a more wide-ranging pressure," he said on the sidelines of the conference, which was held at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or RCCI, and celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce.
BP is the latest foreign oil major to come to Russia, creating the country's third-largest oil producer through its joint venture with the Tyumen Oil Company, or TNK, in 2003.
Gazprom has said it would be willing to buy shares from the company's Russian partners, although TNK-BP CEO Robert Dudley has said he has seen no sign that the partners, Alfa Group and Access-Renova, were looking to sell.
Dealing with Russian companies has been "BP's choice as an approach to do business in Russia, which I think will prove to be right," BP Russia president Richard Spies told the conference.
President Vladimir Putin has signaled his intention to reassert state control over the energy sector, calling the industry the "holy of holies," as high oil prices have driven the country's economic growth in the last few years.
State-run Gazprom and Rosneft have led the charge, acquiring plum privately owned assets — from Yukos' main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, to Roman Abramovich's Sibneft.
Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told the conference that the company was still in talks with Shell over an asset swap that would see it buy into Sakhalin-2, but denied it was seeking a controlling stake. "We are continuing negotiations with Shell, though they are somewhat protracted, on joining Sakhalin-2," he said. Talks on Gazprom taking a 25 percent stake in the venture in exchange for giving Shell a 50 percent stake in its Zapolyarnoye field in west Siberia stalled after Shell announced the cost increase last year.
"The question of a controlling stake is not under discussion," Medvedev said.
From now on, Shell's Panin said, oil majors will have to accept that Russian companies will hold a 51 percent stake in major oil projects. Shell is "ready for that," he said.
Charles Ryan, CEO of Deutsche UFG, echoed the sentiments of many speakers when he said that the government had failed to outline its intentions clearly. "It seems to be entirely normal that Russia should want to control its hydrocarbons," he told the conference. Since losing its status as a superpower, its standing as a top oil and gas producer is the best way to ensure it remains in the world's most influential clubs, he said.
But, "it has to be more careful and more clear" in its message, he said.
Russia was "actually extremely liberal" in allowing foreign ownership of energy projects, Ryan said, pointing to the fact that only a handful of countries — the United States, Canada and Britain among them — did the same.

TITLE: Pipe Producer TMK Expects $1Bln IPO
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Pipe producer TMK will list as much as 30 percent of its shares in London and Moscow in the "very beginning" of November, the company's chief financial officer said Wednesday.Depending on interest generated by TMK's road show for investors, the company will sell up to 21 percent of its shares on the London Stock Exchange and up to 9 percent in Moscow, CFO Vladimir Shmatovich said.
Aton metals analyst Vladimir Katunin values TMK, the world's second-largest producer of seamless pipes, at just under $4 billion based on its 2006 earnings. UralSib bank values TMK at between $3.1 billion and $5.6 billion, depending on whether the company is compared to Russian pipe-producing companies or with international pipe makers such as Tenaris.
The company declined to provide an estimated market value.
"I'm pretty sure there will be demand for TMK since there is no Russian pipeline company trading internationally," Katunin said.
Most of the proceeds of the IPO will be used to repay a $780 million loan that the company's chief shareholder, Dmitry Pumpyansky, used to buy out other top shareholders.

TITLE: Russian Business Seeks Out Corruptible Partners Abroad
AUTHOR: By Simon Shuster
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW —In promoting their interests abroad, Russian businesses are among the quickest to offer bribes, according to Transparency International's Bribe Payers Index, released Wednesday.Russian executives seek out partnerships where bribery and corruption are the norm, said Yelena Panfilova, director of Transparency International in Russia.
"They've come to the conclusion that since they were so successful with these methods at home, they will be equally successful with the same methods abroad," she said.
This year's Bribe Payers Index, which was compiled from information submitted by more than 11,000 executives worldwide, found that two global anti-corruption initiatives — the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention — have not been effective enough. Unsettling levels of bribery persist, the study reported, even among business executives from leading Western nations.
"The 'good' are not so good," ran the headline for one article in the study, which singled out the United States as a nation that has strong anti-corruption laws but does little to enforce them abroad.
But the emerging export markets — India, China and Russia, respectively — took the three lowest spots in the survey of the world's 30 biggest exporting nations, meaning that businesspeople from these nations hand out more bribes in their dealings abroad than any other.
The victims of this practice are the developing nations they deal with, Transparency International head Huguette Labelle wrote on the organization's web site. "Bribing companies are actively undermining the best efforts of governments in developing nations to improve governance, and thereby driving the vicious cycle of poverty."
But in Russia, the main victim is the nation itself, Panfilova said, because "the premise of national stability is lawfulness and respect for international standards, both of which are compromised by these practices."
"So we ourselves are the victims," she said.
The study asked business leaders from more than 125 nations: Who hands out the most bribes among the foreigners who come here? The companies they named tended to be subsidiaries of major corporations, but Transparency International insisted that this fact must not be used to let the big fish off the hook.
"Companies must be ready to take responsibility for actions along their supply chains," Transparency International board member Jermyn Brooks wrote on the organization's web site.
But Ivan Polyakov, a board member of business lobby Delovaya Rossiya, defended the way that Russian exporters do business and said that the people offering bribes must share equal blame with those accepting them.
He also criticized the "slew" of studies attacking Russia over corruption as "incorrect." "This practice of doling out blame is wrong," Polyakov said. "Doing business in certain regions abroad always involves various mechanisms for success."

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Joint Oil StudiesnMADRID (Bloomberg) — Repsol YPF SA, Europe's fifth-largest oil company, has agreed with Gazprom to study joint oil and natural-gas projects.
The companies' agreement covers projects in Europe, Latin America and Africa, Madrid-based Repsol said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. The two may also cooperate on liquefied natural gas projects using Russian gas, Repsol said.
Repsol is trying to cut its dependence on Latin America, from where it gets two thirds of its oil and gas output. Gazprom is seeking alliances with foreign oil companies to gain more direct access to European energy customers.
Repsol and Gazprom are already in talks to develop the South Tambey field on the Yamal peninsula, which holds 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.Rosneft Looks EastnMOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Rosneft plans to spend $8 billion in the next five years to develop oil and gas projects in eastern Russia, Interfax reported Thursday, citing Chief Executive Officer Sergei Bogdanchikov.
The CEO said the company will invest $5 billion on exploration and $6 billion on its Vankor field in Taimyr, Eastern Siberia, by 2011, according to Interfax. The Vankor field will start producing as much as 33 million tons of oil a day by the end of 2008, Interfax cited Bogdanchikov as saying.
Rosneft is developing oil and gas projects offshore near Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula.Mittal DealnMOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Mittal Steel Co. agreed to pay rises for 6,000 coal miners and metal workers in Kazakhstan, ending an eight-day strike, AP reported, citing the chief executive officer of Mittal Steel Temirtau.
The mines supply Mittal's Temirtau steel plant in the Karaganda region. The strike was triggered by a methane explosion at a coal mine last week that killed 41 people, AP said.Mechel PlantsnMOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Mechel, a Russian metals and mining company, has bought the Moscow Coke and Gas Plant for about $300 million as part of its plan to increase coke and coal output.
Mechel bought 77 percent of the plant, known as Moskoks, which can produce 1.5 million metric tons a year of coking coal, used in steel production, Moscow-based Mechel said in an e- mailed press release Thursday.
The company said March 7 it plans to spend $1.1 billion during the next five years raising coal production and improving steel quality, with $750 million of the total to be spent on mining. Annual coal output will rise to 25 million metric tons by 2010, 60 percent higher than in 2005.Ukrainian CoupnKIEV (Bloomberg) — The Ukrainian government has won agreement from oil traders to reduce prices for domestic fuel by at least 10 percent, Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuyev said Thursday in Kiev at a press conference.
The government last month said it would cut household prices for natural gas and electricity, trying to win public support after its 2007 draft budget gave rise to criticism.
Ukraine's previous cabinet increased household gas prices and prices for electricity by 85 percent beginning July 1. The government has already increased prices 25 percent from May 1.
Ukraine's cabinet approved a 2007 draft spending plan that aims to curb inflation and boost growth by holding the budget deficit to 2.55 percent of gross domestic product.

TITLE: The Great Chess Mess
AUTHOR: By Garry Kasparov
TEXT: It usually takes a scandal to get the world's pre-eminent mind sport into the news these days. The latest example comes from the current world chess championship in Elista. The match between Russia's Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria was intended to unify the chess championship that has been divided since my challenger and I broke away from the international chess federation (known by its French acronym FIDE) in 1993 in an attempt to professionalize the sport.The first four games between Kramnik and Topalov received scant attention in the world press. That changed when the Bulgarians published a complaint about Kramnik's frequent trips to the restroom during the games, calling his behavior "suspicious" and threatening to abandon the match. The appeals committee governing the match agreed, and ruled to close the players' private restrooms, which would be replaced by a shared one. (How it pains me to see such distasteful events driving the coverage of a world championship.) Kramnik protested the decision by sitting out the fifth game, which he forfeited. The two players drew the sixth game on Monday.
The clear implication of the original protest was that Kramnik might be cheating during his restroom visits. In recent years, the chess world has been rife with such suspicions thanks to the rise of powerful microcomputers and transmitting technologies. Several amateur chess players have even been caught using such devices to cheat in tournaments. I should add that Kramnik was leading 3-1 at the time of Topalov's protest, although it was mostly thanks to very shaky play by his opponent, not suspiciously superhuman skill.
Adding irony to the tragedy is the fact that, for the past year and a half, Topalov himself has been the subject of rumors and even public accusations that he has cheated with computer assistance. Hard evidence is lacking. Some point to odd behavior by his assistants and other critics say there is simply no other explanation for Topalov's sudden ascent to the top of the rating list after my retirement.
Chess has a long history of scandal and controversy at the highest level. The last world championship game to be decided by forfeit was Bobby Fischer's loss to Boris Spassky in their legendary match in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972. Fischer was well known for such protests and lived up to his reputation by complaining about the conditions in the playing hall after game one and then not appearing to play the second game. Spassky, a gentleman, too much so, perhaps, agreed to Fischer's demands, even playing the next game in a small back room usually reserved for table tennis. (Notably, Fischer accepted the forfeit almost meekly.) Spassky's 2-0 lead didn't help him in the end. Fischer won the match convincingly and, while he was clearly the superior player, I am one of many who believe that, by making concessions off the board, Spassky was psychologically unable to play his best at the board.
Until last Friday, that was the last forfeit in world championship history. It's still not clear if this is the first match cancellation since 1985. After five months of grueling play, my first world championship contest with Anatoly Karpov was abruptly canceled by the FIDE president. Instead of having a set number of games, our match was to go to the first player to reach six victories, a goal that had proved unreachable despite Karpov's jumping out to a 5-0 lead. After I won games 47 and 48 to move to the score to 3-5, the match was abruptly canceled. The Soviet sports authorities, who had significant influence in FIDE, didn't want to take the chance that I would win another game. Their loyal favorite, Karpov, hadn't won a game in months, and the outspoken youngster from Baku was getting too close for comfort.
Fischer may have been difficult and unstable, but he was a sportsman whose complaints were based on principle and a sincere desire to improve the standards of the chess world. Tournament conditions and prize funds improved immeasurably thanks to Fischer's efforts.
My battles with the power-hungry thugs who ran the Soviet and international chess world were politically driven. To me, they represented a backwards and corrupt system. They saw me as a threat to their control.
The protests and conflicts seen in the current match are of a very different nature and reflect the complete loss of professionalism in the sport. The event is taking place in the capital of the republic of Kalmykia under the auspices of its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also the president of FIDE. He has created a vertical column of power that would be familiar to any observer of Russia today. He runs the chess world in the same authoritarian way he runs his impoverished republic. After a decade of such mistreatment, the only place that could be found to host this match was his own capital. Serious sponsors rarely want anything to do with Ilyumzhinov and his organization.
Even Ilyumzhinov's closest cronies in FIDE failed him this time. He stocked the match's appeals committee with FIDE officials, but while he was away, their decision created the crisis that now seems likely to see the match end in ruin. Recognizing the failure of his stated goals and base methods, Ilyumzhinov has lately taken steps to unify the chess world and make long-overdue moves to professionalize the organization of events. This terrifies the fixers, who would be the first to go under a professional administration.
Combine this collapsing power structure with players and managers concerned only with self-interest and making money, and what happened in Elista was practically inevitable. In fact, most of the principal actors in Elista stand to gain from the cancellation of the match. Topalov was losing at the game, so he switched to gamesmanship. If the match is aborted, he can claim he wasn't defeated, and thus maintain his status as FIDE champion.
Kramnik rose to the provocation and now may walk off with the same faded title he took from me in 2000. For years, he avoided both a rematch and unification with FIDE. If this chaos isn't resolved, he can go on claiming to be "champion for life" while standing outside of FIDE.
Just like their brothers in spirit in the Kremlin, the chess nomenklatura hope to prolong the anarchy and corruption from which they have profited for so long. Ilyumzhinov needs this match to continue, but it is he who sowed the seeds of its downfall.
For a game associated with brainpower, chess' leaders and its leading players have displayed remarkably little in recent years. They are now paying the price by having their pettiness and incompetence splashed across front pages around the world.

Garry Kasparov is the former world chess champion and the current chairman of the United Civil Front in Russia. This comment was published in The Wall Street Journal.

TITLE: A Patriot of a Different Pale
AUTHOR: By Masha Gessen
TEXT: What was the likelihood of finding myself standing next to the Belgorod region governor and a Russian Orthodox priest, surrounded by schoolchildren, flowers, microphones and other attributes of celebratory officialdom? None, until the town of Korocha, in the Belgorod Region, invited me to the unveiling of a monument to my great-grandfather.Arnold Gessen wrote popular books about Pushkin and the Decembrists. Several of the books were on the recommended reading list for high school students, so in Soviet times they had combined print runs of about 1.5 million. My great-grandfather's other claim to fame was that he started writing books at the age of 81, making him, he said, "the oldest living working writer in the world." He died in 1976 at the age of 98.
The monument was placed on the grounds of a Korocha school that used to be a boys' Gymnasium. This was where my great-grandfather went to school. The priest spoke about the importance of remembering. School children called my great-grandfather "a great Russian" and "a great patriot of Russia."
I suppose they are taught that all good people are patriots of Russia. Then a little blonde girl sang a song about Russia, which, the lyrics claimed, "is so white."
None of this was exactly untrue. But the congratulatory stereotypes obscured some basic facts about my great-grandfather. A Jew, he was a stranger in the Russia that "is so white." His father, who owned a printing company, cajoled the Gymnasium director to admit his son. After graduation, it took Arnold a year to finagle his way into St. Petersburg University, which enforced a quota on the admission of Jews (non-Jews were admitted automatically on the basis of a high school diploma).
He became a journalist and served as the Birzheviye Vedomosti newspaper's Duma correspondent for 11 years, until the Revolution. Then he was a publisher, after which he spent a decade and a half basically on the run, lying low enough to avoid arrest. He was finally jailed in 1952, at the age of 75, and sentenced to 25 years. It was after he was paroled that he became an author.
We watched a recent film about my great-grandfather's legacy. The children on screen were wearing red neckerchiefs. I asked a teacher about this. She reported proudly that the school had kept its Young Pioneers organization going until just a couple of years ago.
What a mess these kids must be, I thought. Like all schools in the region, this one has introduced a mandatory course on the "fundamentals of Russian Orthodox culture." How that squares with the Young Pioneers, I don't know.
I now had to say something to the children. I wanted to tell them how difficult it had been for my great-grandfather to get an education and use this chance to tell them not everyone in this country is Russian Orthodox. I also wanted to talk about patriotism. I figured I should focus on just one point, so I chose patriotism.
"You heard that Arnold Gessen was a great patriot of Russia," I said. "I think this is true. He didn't leave the country when so many of his friends did. The country was not kind to him in return. He was jailed and sentenced to 25 years in prison." I told them how he bounced back.
Three children in a row asked me what he was jailed for. Each time, I simplified my answer, finally boiling it down to the unfairness of the Soviet regime.
The director of the school grew pale. Later at dinner, she told me that she used to be the ideology chief at the District Party Committee, and that she had brought her entire team from there to the school. No wonder the children are confused. I told her I couldn't eat the pork fat she offered because I am Jewish.

Masha Gessen is a Moscow journalist.

TITLE: The beat goes on
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: What was once called Moloko is Tsokol as the music club prepares to reopen its doors.Tsokol, a new club with old traditions, will open with a concert by Tequilajazzz on Saturday.The club is a reincarnation of Moloko, arguably once the city's finest and most respected underground club which had to move to a new location after a three-year struggle with City authorities who cited complaints from the people who lived above its basement premises.
The new location, in a basement in a non-residential building, is the result of a compromise between the City Property Committee and the club's management who, after making the move, decided to change the club's name from Moloko to Tsokol.
Director Yury Ugryumov said that the new club is still not finished and work will continue on it for the next few months.
"It's like a newborn baby," he said. "It's hard to see the 'adult' in it yet."
Although the club's renaming was a surprise to many because the Moloko name had built a loyal following among clubgoers since opening in 1996, Ugryumov said he had the idea as soon as Moloko closed late last year.
"Then there were a lot of discussions, with a lot of pros and cons," he said.
"But we didn't want to have our arms bound by the old name. If we had kept the old name, we would start, to a degree, imitating Moloko."
"We would try, involuntarily, to clone Moloko, which is impossible on principle, because it's a new place, with different interiors, and the time has changed. We started it out in 1996. Ten years have passed, music has changed, and we have changed ourselves."
"We understood that it would be impossible to recreate Moloko, and if we tried to modernize it, we would get a new club. It's more honest to leave Moloko in the past. We'll take something from there, some traditions will remain, but, all in all, it will be a new place."
Nevertheless, Moloko's main principle will remain intact: Tsokol is a music club promoting live underground music which makes it different from DJ bars or cafes with a stage.
"We'll be orientated toward informed, underground music without a marginal component," said Ugryumov. "Moloko was a unique place in this sense; very different music genres and styles co-existed there very peacefully."
Ugryumov is hoping that Moloko's uniquely warm atmosphere and positive mood will be preserved in the new location.
"We and the public that went to the old club are the bearers of that spirit. We have stayed, so the question is whether the public stays. If the core of it stays, the atmosphere will emerge, little by little."
Ugryumov said that saying goodbye to such a popular name has been difficult for the club's team.
"We started afresh, that's harder than continuing under the old name, but, on the other hand, it's more interesting," he said.
"We remain the same, but we can possibly find a new way and get a different result."
However, Ugryumov said he would pass his job of art director to Vladimir Trudov while concentrating on continuing construction work and general management.
"He is one of us, he came through all our history so he has an understanding of it. But he is 15 years younger than me and he has some ideas about the club," said Ugryumov, 44. "But I will keep the right to veto [Trudov's decisions] and will cross out things that contradict the spirit of the club."
Construction work will continue until New Year, said Ugryumov, who previously had hoped to launch the club this past spring. Until then, Tsokol will hold concerts four nights a week, reserving the other three for improving the interiors.
Tsokol is around 15 percent smaller than Moloko, but better organized and has niches where visitors can sit and talk.
Moloko was launched ten years ago just a few months after TaMtAm, a pioneering alternative rock club managed by musician Seva Gakkel, had been shut down. In its first stages its repertoire revolved around bands that either made their debut at TaMtAm or performed at the venue frequently.
The opening concert, on Nov. 29 1996, was by TaMtAm regulars Markscheider Kunst, with African singer Seraphin Selenge Makangila. According to Ugryumov, that first concert drew only 38 fans. The bands Khimera, Dostoevsky Idiot and the Rainbow Army Band soon followed.
Moloko was then based in the premises of the now-defunct Theater na Perekupnom, a small independent drama venue in a basement on a side street off Nevsky Prospekt, which staged performances only sporadically.
Early concerts went under the banner "Concerts at the Theater na Perekupnom," since the club's name came a little later from a discarded, iron milk-shop sign that was hung over the stage. Regulars began affectionately calling the club "Moloko" (milk).
The last concert at Moloko was given, appropriately, by Markscheider Kunst on Oct. 22, 2005.
Tequilajazzz, the band to open Tsokol, has also been associated with Moloko since the club's beginnings and compared the place with the legendary TaMtAm where it made its debut in September 1993. The band released its famous three-hour concert recorded at the club in July 1999 as the double album "Moloko."
Tequilajazzz frontman Yevgeny Fyodorov said that he only visited Tsokol at the start of the new construction work.
"I was preparing a surprise for myself, that's why I deliberately didn't go there for a while — so I could go and be blown away," he said.
"It's a bit of a pity that the old name has been lost, I think it would be logical to keep the name, but [Ugryumov] made a different decision, because it's a different place. But I think the spirit will be kept because a club is not a location, a club is people."
Fyodorov, who once described Moloko as being "hippie in a good sense," sticks by the term.
"They kept some elements of 'hippie idealism' in the old Moloko, which was very nice to have, especially in this society," he said.
"They found their model of behavior in the business world today which turned out to be optimal for us [as a band] and sustained the level of the quality of music and human behavior.
"But I am sure that everything will be the same way [at Tsokol], because it's the same people, isn't it?"
Seva Gakkel, a musician and the founder of TaMtAm club, sees the change of name as the right move. "I think it's wise, some things should be left behind, and [Ugryumov] is a great guy to understand this," he said.
"Moloko was Moloko; it was the place, the time, the epoch. I would never do what was offered to me — to reopen TaMtAm; if it had happened it would definitely be under a different name."
Gakkel, who helped to promote a gig by the New York-based band Melomane at the semi-opened Tsokol last month, said he found that the place has kept the old Moloko spirit.
"It was more of a party, rather than a regular concert, but in my view, yes, it was pure Moloko," he said.Tsokol Club opens with a gig by Tequilajazzz on Saturday. www.zoccolo.ru, www.moloko-club.spb.ru

TITLE: Concert with a conscience
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Conductor Kristofer Wahlander spearheads a charity concert in aid of St. Petersburg's city hospice.The St. Petersburg State Academic Capella on Saturday is hosting a concert with a conscience.The distinguished Icelandic National Opera Choir (Reykjavik Opera Choir) will perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony under the baton of Swedish conductor Kristofer Wahlander as part of a worldwide series of concerts in the global Voices For Hospices initiative aimed at raising funds for local hospices and encouraging public awareness about their needs in participating cities.
Remarkably, all performances that are part of the ambitious project are scheduled to start at the same time — according to local time zones — thus creating the effect of an enormous chain of concerts rolling over the globe.
Wahlander, the artistic director and principal conductor of the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra, is also the founder of the annual Nordic Music Festival that showcases classical masterpieces from the five Nordic states. In May, Wahlander arranged for a concert of the "Logreglukor Reykjavikur," the Icelandic Policemen's Choir, to sing at the State Cappella courtyard during this year's Nordic Music Festival.
"Choral culture flourishes in Iceland but little about the country's music is known abroad," Wahlander said. "A country with a population of slightly more than 300,000 people boasts 300 male choirs alone, which is extremely impressive."
Tickets for Saturday's concert are priced modestly at 50 rubles to 100 rubles, with takings going to the Cappella. A big plastic cube for donations will be installed in the hall for concertgoers who wish to make donations. Several sponsors have already pledged more than 150,000 rubles to St. Petersburg's main hospice in Lakhta, and more money is expected.
Wahlander first took part in a series of "Voices For Hospices" concerts in 2003, when he conducted the Kaliningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and two local choirs performing Handel's Messiah at the Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall. He found out about the initiative after being approached by charity enthusiasts after one of his performances in 2002.
Last year's event saw over 500 concerts in 60 cities, including a performance of Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate for soprano and orchestra and Coronation Mass for four soloists, choir and orchestra in St. Petersburg's St. Peter's Church, with Wahlander conducting an international musical team assembled from members of the venerable St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lege Artis Choir and established soloists from Denmark, the U.K. and Australia.
At least 10,000 euros was raised for the city hospice.
"This international event is extremely well designed for local communities in the sense that each concert is supposed to help the nearest hospice," Wahlander said.
State medical institutions in Russia struggle to stay afloat.
"Penniless old people lying in corridors in state Russian clinics beg for food when they see a kind face passing by," Dyomin said. "Others occupy shabby beds dating from just after World War II, without bed linen and in some cases without even mattresses. It is an common knowledge that a backhander of $15 per day will get a patient washed, fed and properly looked after."
According to this year's research by the Moscow-based INDEM foundation, half of all bribes in Russia are paid to doctors, and more than 20 percent of Russians have reported not being able to get the treatment they need because they could not afford the bribe, the same study says. Some of the patients of the city hospice, and their relatives, will be offered the opportunity to attend the concert at the Cappella, Wahlander said. Some tickets was purchased by donors in the U.K. with an eye to be handed over and offered as gifts to the patients and their families.
Prior to the performance on Saturday, the choir gave a free concert under the baton of Gardar Cortes on Thursday at St. Peter's Church, 22 Nevsky Prospekt, with a program comprising Icelandic songs and a selection of famous opera choruses, including choral scenes from "Carmen," "The Barber of Seville," "Nabucco," "The Gypsy Baron," "Eugene Onegin" and other operas.

Tickets cost from 50 to 100 rubles. The State Academic Cappella ticket office can be reached on 314 1058.

TITLE: Chernov's choice
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Metamorphosis, the "chamber-punk quartet" of musicians from Austria, the Czech Republic and Turkey, returns to the city to premiere its new album this week.Called "Luff," the album is due on Leo Records, the British label founded by Russian emigre Leo Feigin that releases records by such artists as Sun Ra, Ikue Mori, Ganelin Trio and Eugene Chadbourne.
The record contains compositions from guitarists Martin Alacam and Richard Deutsch arranged by the whole band.
The band, whose members are based in different cities in Europe, used the internet while working on the album.
"We sent each other tracks and everybody found his basic lines to them, which we later on developed together during several blocks of rehearsals," wrote St. Petersburg-based Deutsch in an email this week.
"We have webspace on a very fast server, where we can all upload and download our stuff, listen to everybody's ideas, develop them further and so on. But still the main goal was to sit down together in the kitchen or in the rehearsal room to try out all these ideas and form songs out of them which finally satisfied us!"
The band recorded the album earlier this year in Vienna.
"In May 2006 we were playing our fingers raw in three weeks of intense rehearsals and immediately after that we went to the studio to record," wrote Deutsch. "We recorded all music as a whole band, not track by track, with only a handful of overdubs."
"The new album is more playful in terms of using sounds and devices. I guess it is also more focused than 'Dip.'"
"We had a closer idea about what we were going to record on this new album, but when it was finished, we recognised that it is again quite an adventurous and insane compilation. I think it's possible to hear that we still like the vibrating energy of former Metamorphosis pieces, but there are now also some very slow and melodic tracks.
"It is the first time that we celebrate and focus on the pure sound of the ensemble. Some of the new tracks have more reference to tricky pop tunes, than to classical pieces. We are also inspired by 20th century classical music, but 'our music is funny, not serious' as Martin says."
"Luff" is also the first album featuring the band's latest cello player, Jan "Honza" Kavan.
According to Deutsch, the band is already working on the next album which should be released on Leo Records next year.
"It will feature strange devices. In more concrete words, synthesizers which are built from the world-famous 'Robotman' Stanley Povoda. They are found in old tape-machines, solariums, DDR-telephones and so on." Metamorphosis will perform at Platforma on Saturday.
The week's local event is the opening of Tsokol, the club that succeeds the now-defunct Moloko. It will be launched with a concert by Tequilajazzz. on Saturday. See article, page i and ii.

TITLE: Bauhaus captured on film
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: More than 124 original photographs by more than 40 photographers will go on display at the Museum of City Sculpture on Thursday at a new exhibition organized by the Goethe Institute and the Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehhungen in Germany."Bauhaus Photography" presents a wide range of photographic works documenting the activities at the Bauhaus — the leading avant-garde art educational institution in Germany between the two World Wars. Photographs presented at the exhibition cover various forms and genres, from amateur to professional works and from casual personal snapshots to carefully devised and staged advertising photos.
From the time of its creation in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school worked as a testing ground for a whole range of artists, artisans and industrial designers, all combining their efforts in search of new forms. However, the Bauhaus staff and students saw their photographic works more as documentary shots than works of photographic art.
While trying to reflect this attitude, the exhibition demonstrates various uses and purposes of photography, mixing unknown works with famous shots.
"Bauhaus Photography" is divided into five main sections. The first, "The Teaching — from the Photogram to Peterhans," concentrates on two main figures in Bauhaus photography, LΗszlΧ Moholy-Nagy and Walter Peterhans (the latter was the official teacher of photography).
A "Portraits" section comprises self-portraits and pictures of Bauhaus Buildings, including those built in Bessau by Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school.
The third section is "Material Objects — the World," concentrating on finding new angles from which to take pictures and also dramatic night photos with constructivist lines of light.
The final two sections are "Superimposition. Montage. Collage. Photo-plastic" dedicated to pictorial combination and "Typo-Photo. Photography in Typography" devoted to the use of geometric forms as accentuation and formal elements in book covers, posters and other means of advertising.
The teachings of the Bauhaus school were widely implemented all over the world throughout the 20th century but reached its zenith in Germany before World War II. In the Soviet Union and all over Europe artists were combining art and industry in an effort to change lifestyles and people's mentalities. This new culture rejected old ways of life, values and attitudes. The Bauhaus school attracted artists from across Europe: among its teachers were Wasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and Theo van Doesburg
But dictatorship, both in Germany and the U.S.S.R., put an end to many artistic initiatives. In 1933 the Bauhaus school was dissolved by its third director, Mies van der Rohe, while professors and students emigrated to some 20 countries worldwide. Twenty-three came to the Soviet Union, feeling quite close to the Soviet Constructivist movement, for example, the work of Konstantin Melnikov and Vladimir Tatlin. Bauhaus students even succeeded in building something in the Soviet Union — a few housing quarters for workers in Magnitogorsk, Orsk and Perm, a school in Yekaterinburg, a number of museums, industrial buildings and residential houses in Kharkov and other towns in Ukraine and Russia.
The Bauhaus' second director Hannes Meyer came to the U.S.S.R. in 1930, having been fired from his position for political reasons. He and four students were called "The Red Brigade of the Bauhaus" and their works were highly acclaimed in the Soviet Union. However, later the growing involvement of the state in governing all aspects of art and architecture in the Soviet Union restricted the realization of further Bauhaus plans in the country. "Bauhaus Photography" tracks some of these ideas.For further information see cms.ifa.de, www.goethe.de/ins/ru/pet
and www.ncprf.org/eng

TITLE: Hand signals
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: An extravagant thematic show currently running on the second floor of the State Russian Museum's Marble Palace, "Speaking with Hands: Photographs from the Buhl Collection," could be described as an ode to the human hand.The show is organized by New York's Guggenheim Museum, but all the exhibits are from the private collection of Henry Buhl, a philanthropist and art-collector who was formerly a successful New York businessman. Buhl is somewhat mad about human hands, preferably depicted in photographs, the best medium to capture details.
The touring exhibition ("Speaking with Hands" has been already shown at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, Spain, as well as at the Volkwang Museum in Essen, Germany) is formed from just a small part of Buhl's collection of more than a thousand images of hands and features 170 photographs by 150 artists.
The images vary from the totalitarian collective hand of the first Soviet enthusiasts of 1920s to hedonistic hands in the air at a Berlin rave in the 1980s to the fist of heavyweight boxer Joe Louis. The images also vary in their degrees of realism with the experiments of LΗszlΧ Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray set against documentary photographs of praying, infected, amputated or dead hands. There are images of hands that read Braille, hands that give, hands that take, mens' and womens' hands, black and white hands, left and right hands and so on.
The whole undertaking may leave an experienced viewer confused. On the one hand, so to speak, brilliant and often rare works by photography's foremost practitioners in America and Europe are well represented, but on the other there are photographs of hands just for the sake of it without artistic motives.
There are some interesting hits. The show reflects the interest shown in hands in Surrealist photo-collages. The poetic piece, "Dίrer's Praying Hands" (1993), by Vik Muniz, which refers to Albrecht Dίrer's famous drawing, and Gabriel Orozco's powerful "My Hands Are My Heart" (1991), along with a series of photo images of Frank Loyd Wright's hands illustrating architectural concepts, are a few good examples. And, although it is chaotic and fetishistic, "Speaking with Hands" contains some interesting works that are in most cases fresh to the Russian viewer.
According to the Guggenheim, Buhl is best known for founding one of America's most successful job training and job placement programs for the homeless. Perhaps the subject of Buhl's art collection can be seen as a sort of aesthetic sublimation of the idea of hands as a common social signifier of human communication and assistance. Buhl offers a "helping hand" in his philanthropy, while gathering images of hands for his unusual collection. He began just ten years ago with the acquisition of the Alfred Stieglitz's remarkable "Hands with Thimble" (1920) and now Buhl has on his hands an imposing and erudite survey of photographic art.
The show, alternating periods and subjects as well as genres and techniques, starts from the first daguerreotypes of the middle of 19th century by William Henry Fox Talbot, Nadar, Julia Cameron and moves onwards via Constructivism, Surrealism, Bauhaus, conceptual art, and culminating in cutting-edge media and names such as Cindy Sherman, Gilbert and George, Shirin Neshat, Oleg Kulik, among others.
Above all, there are dozens of celebrities' hands. Along with the omnipresent Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, it features Jean Cocteau's ladylike hands and the confident hands of Marcel Duchamp playing chess, and many others. There is Robert Rauschenberg's handsome image of a young Cy Twombly and an exclusive picture of Leon Trotsky lecturing Danish students on the history of the Russian revolution by the legendary master Robert Capa."Speaking with Hands" runs until the end of October at the Marble Palace. Links: www.rusmuseum.ru

TITLE: Footloose
AUTHOR: By David Jays
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: When she gets to heaven, Irina Baronova predicts, she'll be greeted as one of the celebrated "Baby Ballerinas." Scooped up from her Paris dance class in 1931, the Russian-born dancer was just 13 when she became a star of Colonel Wassily de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. The company continued founder Sergei Diaghilev's pioneering legacy, and Baronova shared the limelight with Tamara Toumanova and Tatiana Riabouchinska. As all were barely in their teens, the "Baby Ballerinas" label stuck fast. They stunned audiences with their precocious technique and charisma. In George Balanchine's "La Concurrence," the trio lined up and threw off 32 fouettes in unison.To be a child with an adult's talent is a mixed blessing and, 70 years on, Baronova has written a record of her brief but turbulent career. Baronova hated her round, baby-blond features (she was nicknamed "Bouboule," or bubble), especially compared to Toumanova's brunette sophistication. She even made herself some unconvincing false boobs out of lamb's wool. On stage, however, the kid became an adult artist; no one found her an infant phenomenon, cast for cuteness. She wasn't merely working beyond her years, but portraying roles beyond her experience. When the choreographer Leonide Massine cast her in the "passion" movement of "Les Presages," her first great success, she had to ask someone to explain the emotion. In her memoir, she focuses on the bruises left by David Lichine's awkward partnering: "It was torture! He ... would sink his fingers into my flesh and grab." (Another ballet marred by the prickle of Lichine's shaved chest and his messy body paint.)
Ballet demands effort — grinding repetition, feats of endurance and virtuosity, and the cruel paradox that insists toil must be subsumed into grace. Baronova was a worker who embraced the challenges set by Michel Fokine or Massine, and was delighted when the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska taught her a "devilishly difficult" variation from "Sleeping Beauty." Baronova's readiness to work is one of her most attractive qualities: In 1940s Britain, hard up and between engagements, she immediately took a temporary job in a pub, making sandwiches. She didn't have a diva's airs; she couldn't afford them.
Baronova emerges as impulsive, warm-hearted and occasionally hot-headed. Yet she was drawn to figures who would control her and dampen her spirits. Her mama was an archetypal ballet-mother monster, living out her own thwarted ambitions through her daughter while resenting her, and prone to crazed outbursts of temper. "I lived with grown-ups, I worked as a grown-up," Baronova complains, "and yet I was fourteen but treated by my mother as if I were eight."
Mama even insisted that Irina not wed until she turned 30. Unsurprisingly, she married the first suitably unsuitable man she found: de Basil's company manager, German (Jerry) Sevastianov. Twice her age and only partially divorced, he was "forbidden fruit," and Irina had to slip him lipsticked notes on toilet paper. When Mama discovered the flirtation, she punched Irina so hard that she left a purple welt on her face. The couple eloped to Cincinnati, marrying in a registry office smelling of stale cigars and with a cab driver and a peanut-seller as witnesses. Adventure quickly degraded into sullen misunderstanding and possessiveness; Jerry wished "he could put me in his breast pocket and only allow me out for performances." It didn't last.
The only controlling figures to whom Baronova responded well were great choreographers. None was more forbidding than Nijinska, who choreographed Baronova's haughty princess in "Les Cent Baisers." Fokine was more controlled and distant, but when a Berlin rehearsal was interrupted by Adolf Hitler's cavalcade outside, he exploded, "Fokine is more important than Hitler!" and stormed out of the room.
Baronova's ballet career was unexpectedly brief. Jerry tried to steer her toward Hollywood, and money worries pushed her toward lucrative (if unfulfilling) appearances in Broadway musicals, straight theater and variety. She was briefly a member of Ballet Theater, but her second husband, Cecil Tennant, demanded that she abandon her career.
The Ballets Russes companies schlepped ballet across the globe to Australia, South America, the United States. Touring suited Baronova's temperament. From her earliest days, hers was an itinerant life. Her parents smuggled themselves into Romania from revolutionary Russia soon after Irina's birth in 1919 and later moved to Paris to develop Irina's talent. With de Basil, she embarked on a traveling life. A chapter of her memoir is called "On the Run"; life, as she presents it here, was experienced on the hoof — always a different city, new repertoire, another experience to assimilate. Only movement could make meaning for her; it's no surprise that she and Jerry eloped, burying incompatibility in brief excitement.
And when she stopped moving? Baronova is uncomfortable with reflection — she often caps experiences with commonplaces like, "Well, that's life," "You live and learn" and even, typically, "The show must go on." When illness demanded that she rest for six months, she admits, "To me it sounded like a death sentence." To stop moving is to die, and Baronova responded to death itself with terrible depressions, especially when she lost mentors like de Basil and Fokine. The worst hopelessness followed Tennant's death in a car accident; a widow in her 40s, Baronova ends the book here, admitting, "life as I knew and loved it ended abruptly. It became an existence, as I groped in the dark." There were 40 years to go, but they are dismissed in a couple of pages.
It isn't retrospection but recall that makes this autobiography a delight. The detail is fabulous: in London, Natalia Goncharova's costumes for "Le Coq d'Or" were so elaborate that they arrived at the theater at the last possible second — by ambulance. In Hollywood, Marlene Dietrich became Massine's groupie, watching mesmerized from the wings. In Berlin, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were in the audience.
If Baronova never quite communicates the physical sensation of dancing she beguilingly conveys the physical impact of memory. Recalling after 70 years her first "Swan Lake," she confides, "My old heart is pounding as it did then, long ago! I must pause, get a drink, a cigarette, calm down." The baby hasn't quite grown up, and her readiness to be tugged back to youth is this book's most captivating quality.

TITLE: Federer Crushes Moodie in Tokyo
AUTHOR: By Alastair Himmer
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TOKYO — World No.1 Roger Federer ended Wesley Moodie's reign as Japan Open champion with a crushing 6-2 6-1 win to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.Razor-sharp from the opening point, the Swiss top seed needed just 52 minutes to blow away the South African behind a blaze of winners in Tokyo, improving his win-loss record this year to 74-5.
"I played great and came up with an incredible match," Federer told reporters.
"I hit a few really great shots but to win so convincingly was quite surprising."
Federer won seven straight games from 3-2 in the first set with an awesome display of stroke-making that left Moodie shaking his head in disbelief.
One angled backhand return from Federer that drifted away from Moodie and onto the line to give him a break for 2-0 in the second set even brought a wry smile to Federer's face.
The nine-times grand slam singles champion had struggled to beat 276th-ranked qualifier Viktor Troicki 7-6 7-6 in his opening match and the unfortunate Moodie felt the full backlash.
Federer wrapped up the formalities on his first match point with a kicking second serve that brought a wild backhand from his deflated opponent, who looked relieved his ordeal was over.
"I had trouble returning yesterday and I was expecting worse today," Federer added. "But my reaction time was faster throughout the match today and I got the read better."
Federer will play either Germany's Alexander Waske or Japanese wildcard Takao Suzuki in the quarter-finals. Federer's match with Moodie was played under a closed roof in Tokyo as rain washed out much of Thursday's play.
Former British No.1 Tim Henman's third round clash against Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro was just one of several matches postponed until Friday.

TITLE: NATOTakes Over in Eastern Afghanistan
AUTHOR: By Jim Krane
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO took over eastern Afghanistan from U.S.-led forces Thursday, assuming control of 12,000 American troops and extending its military role to the entire country.The commander of the NATO-led force, British Gen. David Richards, who was promoted to a four-star general Thursday, called the move "historic" in a ceremony also attended by President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry.
The handover "illustrates the enduring commitment of NATO and its international partners to the future of this great country," said Richards, who now holds the British military's highest rank.
Richards all but guaranteed progress in Afghanistan's deteriorating security, joking that he would appear in front of a firing squad if the country isn't safer by the end of his command in February.
"If by next spring these improvements are not evident then I will be surrendering to whoever wants to put me up against a wall," he told reporters after the ceremony.
With about 12,000 troops, the U.S. is the biggest contributor to the 31,000-strong NATO mission. Britain has 5,200 troops and Germany has 2,750 troops in the 37-nation force.
"A key point to remember in this transition is that the United States maintains its full commitment to Afghanistan," Eikenberry said. "As a NATO member, the United States will remain by far the single-largest contributor of troops and military capability."
Eikenberry will continue to command some 8,000 U.S. troops functioning outside NATO who are tracking al-Qaida terrorists, helping train Afghan security forces and doing reconstruction work.
Eikenberry also retains administrative and legal responsibility for U.S. forces under NATO, overseeing matters such as logistics and military justice, said U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins.
Eikenberry said that consolidating the command under Richards streamlines western troops' effectiveness. It confines direct U.S. control to a single chief enclave: the sprawling American base at Bagram. Most air operations in the Afghan theater also remain under American oversight.
U.S.-operated prisons and interrogation centers at Bagram will remain under U.S. command, while NATO will continue to transfer its detainees to Afghan police.
The alliance's troops took command of southern Afghanistan just two months ago and have struggled to stem escalating violence there. It also has troops in the north and west of the country and patrols the capital, Kabul.
A 10-day NATO offensive in Kandahar province last month saw hundreds of Taliban fighters killed and more than 100 taken prisoner. Few NATO soldiers were killed or wounded. Richards said the operation prevented the Taliban from holding valuable ground that might have allowed it to attack Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city.
"The significant defeat of the Taliban is probably the greatest single defeat they suffered since 2001," Richards said. "We have unequivocally proved our mettle in military operations."
In the latest violence, suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan late Wednesday, and the ensuing clash left six militants dead and three wounded, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
The clash in the Gereshk district of Helmand province also left three policemen wounded, Muhiddin said.
In western Afghanistan, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a convoy carrying a regional police chief in western Afghanistan, an official said. No police were injured.
The NATO takeover, which came months ahead of schedule, caps an already historic expansion of missions for the largely European alliance that was created as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviet Union. Its combat role in southern Afghanistan is the largest the alliance has ever undertaken.
An American four-star general, Army Gen. Dan K. McNeil, will take charge of both U.S. and NATO forces in February, pending confirmation by the Senate.

TITLE: Mets Open With Win, Athletics In Command
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — The New York Mets' bullpen combined to edge out the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 in their series opener on Wednesday, while their Big Apple rivals the Yankees had the second game of their divisional series postponed due to rain.Inclement weather was not an issue at the Minneapolis Metrodome, where Oakland's Mark Kotsay slammed an inside the park two-run homer in a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Twins as the Athletics took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series.
With aces Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez out through injury, the Mets' post-season chances appeared gloomy when they took to the Shea Stadium field for Game One of the their NL division series with rookie John Maine on the mound.
However, Maine provided the Mets 4-1/3 sharp innings, giving up one run and the heart of the New York order — Carlos Delgado and David Wright — delivered the big hits as the Mets hung on take an early advantage in the series.
Delgado, playing the first post-season game of his 14-year career, stroked four hits, including a mammoth home run and Wright hit two doubles to drive in three for New York, who were making their first playoff appearance since 2000.
"It's nice to see him [Delgado] get the opportunity to finally get on this stage and come through," Mets manager Willie Randolph told reporters.
"He hit the ball the other way, hit it sharp. He's tough to pitch to when his approach is that way." Deadlocked at 4-4, Delgado also delivered the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh, when he singled sharply to center to score Jose Reyes.
The Mets also received a solid effort from their bullpen, Randolph using five relievers to finish the game.
"Our bullpen is rested and ready and that is our strength," said Randolph, whose relievers led the majors with wins this season with 32 and were second in ERA.
Game Two is scheduled for Thursday night, with New York starting Tom Glavine against Hong-Chih Kuo of Taiwan in a battle of left-handers.In Minneapolis, the Athletics moved to within a win of sweeping the Twins and getting past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1992, having lost nine consecutive AL division series games in which they had a chance to advance since 2000.
"We're up 2-0, and that's it," Athletics general manager Billy Beane said. "That means nothing [ahead of Game Three on] Friday. We've been here before."Tied 2-2 in the seventh inning, with two out and a runner on first, Kotsay lined a shot into center field in front of charging Torii Hunter, a Gold Glove outfielder who made only four fielding errors during the regular season.
But Hunter badly misjudged a diving catch, the stunned capacity crowd at the Metrodome falling silent as the ball rolled to the wall and Jason Kendall easily scored followed home by a sprinting Kotsay. Oakland added a run in the ninth on another Twins error when Nick Swisher scored on a wild pitch.

TITLE: Rice Pledges Help For Palestinians
AUTHOR: By Anne Gearan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM — Providing more humanitarian relief and freer movement across borders are ways the U.S. may help improve the lives of Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.The top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that she hopes to revitalize and expand agreements made last year to help people and goods move with fewer restrictions across the borders with Israel and Egypt. Although she said she would like to increase resources for humanitarian relief, Rice made no specific pledge of U.S. aid.
"Those are the kinds of on-the-ground things that make it easier for the Palestinian people," Rice said.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States supports an expansion of Abbas' security force, the presidential guard, as part of a multimillion-dollar plan to strengthen and streamline overlapping Palestinian security forces.
Abbas is trying to resolve a political stalemate with Hamas radicals who control part of the Palestinian government. At the same time, the United States has been trying to prompt Arab countries to increase their financial support for the Palestinians.
Rice is in the Middle East this week to drum up Arab support for the moderate Abbas and to test ways that the United States and other powers might help from afar. The United States hopes that Abbas will benefit from any ease in the rising tension and hardship in the territories, but the United States is also worried that the situation could spin out of control.
Underscoring the gulf remaining with the militant group Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused the U.S. of trying to "rearrange" the Middle East for its own purposes.
Rice "cares only to rearrange this region and to rearrange the Palestinian scene in a way that serves the American and Israeli agenda," Haniyeh, a Hamas member, said in Gaza City.
Rice is putting gentle pressure on Israel to loosen what Palestinians claim is a blockade of their separate territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The territories are not economically viable without extensive trade across their borders with Israel and Egypt and without the daily passage of Palestinians to jobs elsewhere.
"We are very concerned, of course, about the humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territories, about the economic situation," Rice said.
"We understand that some of the economic hardships are of course caused by the lack of mobility, the lack of movement and access, and I will of course see what I can do to make sure that some of those crossings are indeed open longer and more frequently so that economic activity can return," she said.

TITLE: Schumacher Brushes Aside Title Pressure
AUTHOR: By Alan Baldwin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SUZUKA, Japan — Michael Schumacher is counting on all his years of experience to make the difference in his neck-and-neck Formula One title battle with Renault's Fernando Alonso."I've been in this situation for many, many years so I know pretty much how to handle it," the Ferrari driver said on Thursday.
"It's not the first time .... so let's hope it works out."
The two title contenders are level on points with two races to go. Schumacher has won two of his seven titles at Suzuka, in 2000 when it was also the penultimate race, and in 2003 when it was the season's finale.
But the most successful driver in the history of the sport, with 91 wins from 248 starts, also lost out to McLaren's Mika Hakkinen at the circuit in 1998.
While the 37-year-old, who is retiring at the end of the season, sounded confident, others have questioned his ability to perform under pressure.
Renault's engineering head Pat Symonds, who guided Schumacher to his first two titles with Benetton, said before last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix that he believed Alonso was a calmer character.
"I truly do believe that Fernando handles pressure better than Michael," he said. "Throughout his career, there have been many instances of Michael not performing to his potential when he has been under pressure.
"Previously, he always had the safety net of trying again next year, if he didn't win. There is no next year for him now."
Schumacher is ahead of Alonso 7-6 on race victories, meaning that he will take the title on Sunday if he wins and the young Spaniard fails to score.

TITLE: Thai Coup Leader to Talk to Rebels
AUTHOR: By Sutin Wannabovorn
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BANGKOK, Thailand — The Thai army chief who staged last month's coup said Thursday that he has agreed to hold talks with rebel leaders in the restive south, an abrupt policy change from the administration of the ousted prime minister.In other news Thursday, Thailand's new interim prime minister said that the country's candidate to become the next secretary general of the United Nations is dropping his bid for the job.
The announcement of Surakiart Sathirathai's withdrawal follows an informal poll of the 15 Security Council nations, which gave South Korea's foreign minister near-certain victory in the contest to succeed Kofi Annan. Jordan's UN ambassador dropped out of the race on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, who led the bloodless coup against Thaksin Shinawatra on Sept. 19, said that officials from certain rebel factions had contacted a top army commander and requested talks.
"I have agreed to the talks," Sondhi said. "I stress that these will be talks not negotiations."
He did not indicate if any date had been set.
One rebel leader, meanwhile, said Thaksin should be tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands in connection with the killings and disappearances of suspected insurgents.
Exiled Muslim rebel leader Lukman B. Lima, head of the Pattani United Liberation Organization, one of several groups fighting for a separate Muslim state in southern Thailand, said incoming interim government will not be able to fully solve the divisions in the south unless they "bring Thaksin and some of his generals ... to the court of justice in the Hague."
"Thaksin Shinawatra's hands are full of blood," Lukman said in an e-mailed message from Sweden.
Thaksin's government, which came under harsh criticism for its strong-arm approach to the violence, had repeatedly declined to hold any talks with Muslim insurgents. That decision put Thaksin at odds with Sondhi, a Muslim who had urged a peaceful approach to ending the violence.
The ousted prime minister, who was also accused of widespread corruption and abuse of power, was widely detested in Thailand's three Muslim-majority provinces, where violence erupted in January 2004. Many moderate Muslims said that the conflict could never be resolved as long as he remained in power.
The government's heavy-handed response bred discontent in the army that was one of the factors driving the military coup of Sept. 19.
"They see that only talks can end the violence," Sondhi said of the rebels. "If they are seeking cooperation with us, that kind of approach is OK with me."
To many Thais, the coup was seen as offering an opening to resolve the conflict, which has killed more than 1,700 people.
Sondhi, one of the few Muslims to rise to such a prominent position in Thailand, has been seen as a potential healing force for the conflict.
Violence has waxed and waned for decades in Thailand's three southernmost provinces — Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat — which were annexed a century ago from what had been an Islamic sultanate. They are the only provinces with Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.
After violence flared in 2004, Thaksin deployed thousands of troops to the south, and shifted commanders and tactics countless times. He ordered all-out manhunts for militants, armed teachers and villagers and imposed draconian laws.
In one highly criticized operation, the government quashed a demonstration in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat in October 2004, arresting more than 1,000 men after subduing them with gunfire. About 85 people died, most of them in custody when they suffocated after being stacked prone four to six deep on trucks that were taking them to detention.

TITLE: Pilots May Face Charges in Brazil
AUTHOR: By Peter Muello
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Prosecutors could charge two American pilots of an executive jet with manslaughter following the high-altitude collision with a Brazilian jetliner that apparently led to a crash that killed all 155 people aboard, federal police said Wednesday.Police seized the passports of pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, both from New York State. The two were not arrested, but cannot leave the country.
Lepore and Paladino were piloting the Brazilian-made Embraer Legacy 600 when it collided with a brand-new Boeing 737-800 above the Amazon rain forest near Peixoto de Azevedo in Mato Grosso state, some 1,100 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
Gol airlines Flight 1907 crashed, killing all 155 aboard. The Legacy was damaged, but landed safely.
Mato Grosso's acting federal police director, Geraldo Pereira, said the Federal Prosecutor's Office had ordered an investigation into "the possible commission of a crime."
"We will start investigating if the two pilots caused the accident and if they are considered guilty, they could be charged with involuntary manslaughter," Pereira said.
Lepore and Paladino underwent questioning and routine physical tests in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and did not talk to journalists.
State prosecutor Adriano Roberto Alves wants to question the two, as well as air controllers and passengers of the Legacy, his press office said Wednesday.

TITLE: Crouch Defying Doubters
AUTHOR: By Mark Ogden
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MANCHESTER, England — Peter Crouch can look back on 2006 having scored more goals in a calendar year than any England striker before him, but the Liverpool forward admits that he still has his doubters ahead of Saturday's Euro 2008 qualifier against Macedonia in Manchester.Crouch has hit 11 goals in ten games for England this year and, with Michael Owen's long-term knee injury and Wayne Rooney's injury and suspension problems, he has become a key figure in Steve McClaren's starting line-up.
The 6-foot, 7-inches tall giant also netted the winner in the 1-0 win against Macedonia in Skopje last month, but despite winning over the boo-boys that targeted him early in his England career, Crouch believes that he has yet to convince everybody of his worth on the international stage.
"Maybe sometimes I do feel as though I need to do a little bit more than the others, but that's something I have to live with," said Crouch.
"As long as I'm doing well and scoring goals I don't think people can criticise. I look at my manager with England and my manager at Liverpool and my team-mates and they all seem to be happy with how I am doing at the moment.
"So all I can do for everybody else is keep going in the same manner. Everyone I meet in the streets is complimentary to me, though, so I seem to be turning a few people around.
"Everyone wants to be a popular player, you'd rather be that than not. If admiration comes your way, you should embrace it. It's a lot better than being out of favor!
"It's been a roller-coaster at times but I've enjoyed every minute of it. Ever since I made my debut for England I've enjoyed being part of the set up and I'd like to think I've done well and I want to keep that going."
Crouch is set to partner Manchester United striker Rooney up-front against the Macedonians. Rooney will make his first appearance since the World Cup having served a two-match ban for his red card against Portugal in the quarter-finals and his place in the starting line-up is not in doubt.
And having made great strides on the international scene since his debut against Colombia in May 2005, Crouch admits he is determined to acquire similar "first-team regular" status.
"If you are injured and you go straight back in the team, that shows the manager has a great belief in you," he added.
"That's what happens with Wayne, everyone knows he is a top player. Every player hopes for that and I hope it's the same for me.
"We all know what a top player Wayne is, and we have to remember how young he is."

TITLE: Sabres, Senators Open in Style
AUTHOR: By Gene Cherry
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: RALEIGH, North Carolina — Carolina's Stanley Cup banner-raising night ended on a flat note on Wednesday as Daniel Briere's shootout goal gave the Buffalo Sabres a 3-2 win over the Hurricanes.Briere faked Carolina goaltender Cam Ward and scored with a backhander for the only goal of the shootout after last season's Eastern Conference finalists had played to a 2-2 tie after regulation and overtime on NHL's opening night.
After Carolina's Ray Whitney was wide on the opening shot of the shootout, Briere said he relied on instinct to score.
"It was a big one," Briere told reporters.
"I didn't know what I was doing until I got there. I was trying to look for a hole. Look to see where he [Ward] was leaning a little bit, and trying to make a move.
"It worked this time."
Carolina coach Peter Laviolette thought the Hurricanes lost their way in the second period.
"They did a better job of getting in front of the shots than we did," Laviolette said.
In other opening night action, the Toronto Maple Leafs fell 4-1 to bitter rivals Ottawa Senators at a sold-out Air Canada Centre in front of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Senators goaltender Martin Gerber, who helped Carolina to the Stanley Cup last season, made an impressive debut stopping 33 shots.
The other game on opening night saw Darryl Sydor score at 2:07 of overtime to lift the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

TITLE: Moscow to Stage 2008 European Cup Final
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Moscow's Luzhniki stadium will stage next season's European Champions League final, UEFA's Executive Committee said on Wednesday.The decision was made after the first day of a two-day meeting of the Executive Committee in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
The 84,745-seater stadium became last week the first ground to stage a Champions League group stage match on artifical turf when Spartak Moscow drew 1-1 with Sporting Lisbon.
However, the stadium organisers plan to restore grass for European club football's most prestigious event.
"There were no demands from UEFA about the artificial pitch being removed," spokesman William Gaillard told Reuters by telephone from Ljubjlana.
"It has been legal to play all Champions League matches on artificial turf for a year and a half now, but the Moscow bidders chose to state in their technical data that the final would be played on grass."
Russian Football Union president Vitaly Mutko acclaimed the announcement.
"This is just great, great news for all of us," Mutko was quoted as saying by the official web site of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
"All of us, the Moscow authorities, the RFU and the Luzhniki management, have worked very hard for this," he said.
"I can assure all football fans that Moscow will give its utmost attention to everything. We'll make sure no one will have any problems with transportation, hotels, visas, etc."
UEFA also announced that Rome's Stadio Olimpico is to stage the 2009 Champions League final.
The City Of Manchester Stadium, home of Manchester City, will host next season's UEFA Cup final with the 2009 version being held at the Sίkrί SaraΝoglu Stadium in Istanbul.

TITLE: Dementyeva Victorious Despite Late Collapse in Grand Prix
AUTHOR: By Barry Wood
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: STUTTGART — Third seed Yelena Dementyeva, who collapsed with cramp while serving for the match, recovered to defeat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 4-6 7-5 7-5 in the second round of the Stuttgart Grand Prix on Wednesday.Having broken to lead 5-4 in the deciding set, the Russian fell to the floor in pain.
After several minutes of treatment and a sympathetic hand on the shoulder from her opponent, Dementyeva carried on playing and had her serve broken.
But she dug deep to pound a succession of powerful groundstrokes to break serve again before completing one of the most difficult wins of her career.
"I didn't want to give up and I put in so much, everything that I had today," Dementyeva told Reuters.
"When the cramping happened I was in shock, I didn't want to quit. I wanted to continue because I was almost closing the match.
"It was a very difficult moment. I was thinking that if I won one more game I'm going to have a day off and that was really going to help me recover. I didn't want to lose and wanted to fight, fight."
Dementyeva welcomed the announcement that U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova wanted to join Russia's Fed Cup campaign next season.
Russia have been drawn at home against Spain in the first round in April.
"If she [Sharapova] plays it's going to be very helpful for the team," said Dementyeva. "She's a very strong player and we have a lot of chances to win if she's playing."
Anastasia Myskina once said she would refuse to play if Sharapova's father Yury was present.
But Dementyeva dismissed the idea of unrest in the Russian camp.
"I don't see any problems with her father," said Dementyeva.
"He's an emotional guy but it is nothing to do with his daughter. Maria is a nice girl and I don't see any problems."
In a first-round match on Wednesday, unseeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova defeated Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer 6-3 5-7 6-3 to earn a meeting with Russian Dinara Safina.