SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1216 (82), Friday, October 27, 2006
**************************************************************************


TITLE: NATO Boss Seeks Closer Ties With Russia
AUTHOR: By Maria Danilova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — NATO's secretary general on Thursday called for a deeper relationship between Moscow and the Western alliance, saying Russian involvement in world affairs is key to resolving many conflicts."Russia carries great responsibility in world affairs," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told President Vladimir Putin at the start of their Kremlin meeting. "Russia's active participation for the solution of many conflicts is essential."
Putin praised Russian-NATO cooperation in battling terrorism, citing Moscow's aid to NATO in Afghanistan and the Mediterranean.
"Our cooperation is developing and developing successfully according to our estimation," Putin told de Hoop Scheffer before journalists were ushered from the room.
Russia signed a partnership agreement with NATO in 2002 that outlined cooperation in counterterrorism, nonproliferation and peacekeeping. At the same time, Russia has raised concerns about the alliance's eastward expansion.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said NATO's plans to embrace other former Soviet nations would be raised during the talks with de Hoop Scheffer, Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
Grushko referred in particular to Georgia, saying NATO's decision to open a so-called "intensified dialogue" had been "interpreted by the Georgian authorities as an incentive to pursue a confrontational policy toward Russia." Georgia, a U.S. ally, aspires to join the alliance in 2008.
Georgia's brief arrest of four alleged Russian spies last month triggered the worst diplomatic crisis between the two countries in years.
Moscow imposed a transport blockade on its tiny southern neighbor and launched a crackdown on Georgian migrants.
Moscow has in the past expressed alarm over plans by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO, which would take its Cold War-era foe right up to Russia's southern border and part of its western flank.
Ukraine's new government, led by Russian-leaning Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, has put the brakes on the drive for NATO membership, but Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is pushing determinedly to join the alliance.
Grushko said Moscow was also exasperated by NATO member states' persistent refusal to ratify an amended version of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which limits the number of troops, aircraft, tanks and other heavy non-nuclear weapons in Europe.
Russia, worried about the prospect of NATO bases on its doorstep, has urged alliance members, particularly the ex-Soviet Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, to ratify the 1999 version of the treaty, which was meant to reflect changes since the 1991 Soviet breakup.
NATO members have refused to do that until Russia abides by its commitment to withdraw troops from the ex-Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia. Moscow says the two issues are not linked.

TITLE: Kremlin Opposes Sanctions On Iran
AUTHOR: By Henry Meyer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister on Thursday signaled Russian opposition to a draft UN Security Council resolution proposed by European nations that would impose sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.Russian news agencies reported Sergei Lavrov as saying the resolution, which imposes limited sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease uranium enrichment, is a departure from existing agreements between major powers.
Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent members of the council that have strong commercial ties with Tehran, have been reluctant to support sanctions against Iran.
"Our goal is to eliminate the risks of sensitive technologies getting into the hands of Iran until the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) clarifies issues of interest to it, while maintaining all possible channels of communication with Iran," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax, RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass on a visit to the Russian far north.
"And it seems to me that, in this context, the draft resolution clearly does not correspond to those tasks agreed on by the six sides," he added.
The six major powers of United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and China have offered Iran incentives to halt uranium enrichment, but Tehran has rejected them. Enrichment can produce material for nuclear power reactors or weapons.
European nations this week proposed sanctions — banning the sale of missile and atomic technology to Iran and ending most UN help for its nuclear programs — after weeks of exploratory talks with a European Union negotiator ended without progress.
The sanctions impose limits on a Russian project to build Iran's first nuclear power station in the southwestern city of Bushehr.
Russia has consistently rejected U.S. demands to halt work on the $1 billion contract and last month it agreed to supply fuel for the plant in March 2007, enabling the facility to go online in September. The United States has been pushing for even tougher sanctions, and Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said Wednesday there would be "American changes to the proposed European text." He refused to elaborate.
The head of the Russian state company that is in charge of the Bushehr project said Thursday that it would be completed on time.
"All work on the nuclear power station is being carried out in line with the existing timetable," Atomstroiexport's chief Sergei Shmatko was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia favors continued dialogue with Iran instead of punishment.
Moscow's aim is to "create the conditions for the launch of a negotiated process to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem," he said, according to ITAR-Tass.

TITLE: EULawmakers Urge Unity on Russia
AUTHOR: By Jan Sliva
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: STRASBOURG, France — The European Parliament on Wednesday urged EU member states to give "serious thought" to their future relations with Russia in light of the recent murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.It also called for a principled stand when the EU discusses a new partnership program with Russia at a summit next month.
In a strongly worded resolution, the parliament urged the member states to "give serious thought to the future of relations with the Russian Federation ... with a view to placing democracy, human rights and freedom of expression at the core of any future agreement."
The resolution is not binding, but is used as a form of political pressure by the EU's only elected body.
The parliamentarians voiced their concerns over what they called the increasing intimidation, harassment and murder of journalists and other people critical of the Russian government, saying the tendency could stain Russia's reputation abroad. Less than one week ago, EU leaders met President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Lahti, Finland. They grilled him over human rights issues and urged him to commit to a legally binding energy charter that would guarantee better access to Russia's oil and gas fields.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who chaired the Lahti summit, said both sides were critical of each other during what he called a frank and open dinner discussion.
"I was especially pleased we were able to speak with one voice. Our united line will help at the EU-Russia summit when Putin knows we really have a mandate from all 25 member states," Vanhanen told journalists in the parliament.
But Vanhanen warned against portraying Russia as what he called "some brutal dictatorship," saying Moscow was keen on close cooperation with the EU.

TITLE: Activists Prepare To March Against Racial Intolerance
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Politicians and activists are preparing to take to the streets on Sunday to protest against hatred, fascism and discrimination.The March Against Hatred which will start at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Sportivnaya metro station is dedicated to the memory of Nikolai Girenko, a prominent expert on ethnic and racial issues who was gunned down at the entrance of his apartment in June 2004.
Organized by local branches of Yabloko and Union of Right Forces as well as human rights groups, including Memorial, Soldiers' Mothers and Citizens' Watch, the event aims to unite and consolidate local citizens.
The march's organizers stress that they are appealing to citizens, rather than the authorities. Russia's human rights advocates say they are alarmed that in St. Petersburg three different juries in a row have this year acquitted people charged with hate-crimes.
In March, a jury cleared a teenager of murder charges in the stabbing of a 9-year-old Tajik girl in 2004, finding him guilty instead of hooliganism and calling for leniency in his sentencing.
In July, another jury acquitted defendants of the murder of Congolese student Roland Epassak, and, in October, prosecutors failed to convince the jury of the guilt of suspects in the murder case of Vietnamese student Vu An Tuan.
"Rulers come and go, but the people stay on; and it is the people who are now finding themselves on the verge of pogroms against Georgians and other non-Russians," said Iosif Skakovsky of the human rights group Memorial.
"The authorities are used to using special task forces, water cannon and gas against furious crowds, but a better and more long-lasting way to prevent massacre and pogroms is to nurture civil society," Skakovsky said.
Alexander Vinnikov, one of the leaders of the For Russia Without Racism movement, agreed.
"More and more Russian citizens feel alienated from one another. Not only are their social values and political beliefs different. Many people hate the very difference between them — be it a different skin color, political persuasion or social status — and are unwilling to open the door to dialogue and reconciliation," Vinnikov said.
The march will include a meeting of protest at 2 p.m. on Andrei Sakharov Square.
Both the right and left-wing opposition are expected to participate in the march. Its organizers have asked the most controversial groups, including, for instance, National Bolsheviks, whose slogans and philosophy frequently spark argument, not to bring any party symbols to the event.
At previous meetings there has been a substantial amount of hatred, intolerance and propaganda in the rhetoric of some of the march's participants, providing a striking contrast to its declared goal. This time round the event's organizers promise more moderation.
"During one of the first marches, some of the activists carried anti-Putin posters and shouted slogans like 'Russia Without Putin,'," recalls Yury Nesterov of the For Russia Without Racism movement. "Although many participants of the march felt the same way, there were people whose attitude toward the president was much less critical. The shouting made them uncomfortable and that's the kind of thing that we should certainly avoid in the future."
In previous years, public support for the march has been low. The first event in 2004 assembled about 700 participants, and last year the march gathered just over 1000 people. City officials have distanced themselves from the event.
Sergei Khokhayev, chairman of Memorial, blamed Gov. Valentina Matviyenko and other officials for what he called a "hands-off attitude."
"Not only do they stay away from anti-fascist meetings, but they also don't send anyone to remove fascist graffiti from the walls of apartment buildings," he said. "Young activists from Antifa are removing extremist slogans from walls on their own initiative, while the city simply turns a blind eye to them."
The activists are hoping for a better public attendance for their events.
"After all, the fascists are watching us, and if they see only a handful of activists out in the street, they feel they are winning," Khokhayev said. "And, of course, the state would face greater pressure to deal with the problem of intolerance if many thousands of people join forces even if it's just for the one street protest this coming Sunday."

TITLE: Putin Optimistic On North Korea
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — North Korea should not be backed into a corner over its nuclear test if the global community wants to resolve the crisis over the North's atomic ambitions, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.His comments come as Asia-Pacific powers sought to pin down the details of United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea for its Oct. 9 test that Pyongyang described as U.S. "double standards," on Wednesday.
Putin, referring to six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, said one of the reasons Pyongyang had resorted to conducting the test was that "not all participants in negotiations were able to find the right tone."
"You must never push one of the participants in talks into a corner and place it in a situation from which it can find no way out other than boosting tension," he said during a live television call-in show.
Responding to a question from a resident of Nakhodka, a city on the Pacific coast, who expressed concern at the close proximity of the Oct. 9 test, Putin said North Korea was sending "signals that the country is ready to return to negotiations if its national interests in terms of security and development of civil nuclear power are assured."
(AP, Reuters)

TITLE: Putin Addresses Compatriots From St. Petersburg Congress
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The government will spend 4.6 billion rubles ($240 million) next year to lure home ethnic Russians and other Russian speakers who currently live abroad, President Vladimir Putin told the Congress of Compatriots in St. Petersburg on Tuesday."We understand that the overwhelming majority of Russian speakers abroad ended up there against their will," Putin said, referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The president pledged "full support for those who decide to move to Russia," Interfax reported.
The Foreign Ministry estimates that some 30 million ethnic Russians live abroad, two-thirds of them in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In June, Putin unveiled a federal program to attract Russian-speaking workers in an attempt to address the country's demographic crisis. As part of the program, 12 regions most in need of skilled workers will begin providing accommodation to Russian-speaking immigrants, Putin said.
Officials hope the program, which includes a fast-track naturalization procedure, will draw 300,000 workers by 2009, Konstantin Romadanovsky, director of the Federal Migration Service, told the congress on Tuesday, Interfax reported. A total of 6 billion rubles ($223 million) will be spent on the program.
The program avoids specific references to ethnicity. It defines "compatriots" as people "raised in the traditions of Russian culture, who speak Russian and do not want to lose their ties to Russia."
Romadanovsky, whose agency is in charge of implementing the program, said offices had been opened in Armenia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to promote immigration and process applications. Residents of Ukraine and the Central Asian countries have shown the most interest so far.
The program divides the regions into three groups. The first includes "border regions of strategic importance," which will offer the greatest financial incentives to immigrants. The second group consists of regions with strong economies and labor shortages. Immigrants to these regions would not be eligible for unemployment benefits. The same condition applies to the third group — regions with a sharply declining population.
The government also plans to provide support to Russian speakers who choose to remain abroad. A new program will provide legal assistance, medical care for war veterans, and promote the teaching of Russian. In 2007, the government will spend 342 million rubles ($12.7 million) on this program.
The second Congress of Compatriots drew nearly 600 participants from 80 countries, Interfax reported. The first congress was held in 2001.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Darwin Case BeginsnST. PETERSBURG (SPT) The court of Oktyabrsky district begun its proceedings of the suit from a school student against the teaching of Darwinism in her school.
In the lawsuit of Maria Shrayber v. Russia's Ministry of Education and Science it states that presenting Darwin's origin of the species as the only true evolution theory offends the girl's religious beliefs and violates her right of ideology choice, Interfax reported Monday.
According to Kirill Shrayber, who represents the interest of his juvenile daughter in court, their suit aims to limit study of the theory in Russia's schools due to the fact that so far none of the evolution theories has been scientifically proved, Interfax reported. The next hearing is planned for December 13.

TITLE: Progress Made In Killing Case
AUTHOR: By Carl Schreck
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A jailed former police lieutenant in the western Siberian town of Nizhnevartovsk appears to be the focus of the investigation into the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.Politkovskaya, who reported for Novaya Gazeta, accused Sergei Lapin of committing atrocities against Chechen civilians in a September 2001 article in the newspaper.
The journalist soon after received e-mailed threats that Lapin would seek revenge, prompting her to flee to Austria. Nizhnevartovsk authorities brought charges against Lapin in 2002, but later dropped them.
Lapin, who served as an officer in the elite OMON special forces in Chechnya, is now serving time in a Chechen prison for one of the crimes he was originally accused of committing by Politkovskaya.
But two of Lapin's former colleagues who were also implicated in Politkovskaya's article were recently spotted in Nizhnevartovsk, Kommersant reported. International warrants were earlier issued for the two colleagues, Alexander Prilepin and Valery Minin.
A team of investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office arrived in Nizhnevartovsk a week ago to pursue the investigation into Politkovskaya's Oct. 7 slaying, police spokeswoman Tatyana Abdulina confirmed Wednesday.
Abdulina declined to give further details about the investigation. Viktor Potapov, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office, also declined to comment.
The investigators tried unsuccessfully to track down Prilepin and Minin but did question friends and relatives of the two men and of Lapin, Kommersant reported.
In his televised call-in show on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin pledged that those who had killed Politkovskaya and Andrei Kozlov, the Central Bank's former No. 2 official, would be brought to justice.

TITLE: Putin Touts the Path Out of 1990s Chaos
AUTHOR: By Maria Levitov and Anna Smolchenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said he would retain influence after 2008 — when he will presumably step down from office — and tiptoed around thorny issues like extremism and contract killings in a live television call-in show Wednesday.The president also defended the goverment's economic policies, stressing that the country's prospects had improved dramatically since the chaotic 1990s.
And he hailed the surge in investment, taming of inflation and diversification away from energy. "Diversification is the super task for the next decade," Putin said.
"Success in any country," the president declared, "is determined first of all by what happens in the economy."
Beside the economy, ethnic tension and bread-and-butter issues like wages and affordable housing dominated the three-hour show, Putin's fifth since taking office.
As if to underscore how seriously the Kremlin takes ethnic violence, two live video cameras were set up in the Karelian town of Kondopoga, where riots broke out between ethnic Slavs and natives of the Caucasus this fall. No cameras were set up in Moscow.
Popular state initiatives, including plans to slash the number of gambling establishments and crack down on bootlegged liquor, were also featured.
Russians from across the country tuned into state-run Channel One, Rossia and Vesti 24 to watch Putin.
More than 2.3 million questions for Putin poured in by way of e-mail, telephone and text message. Queries touched on everything from pensions to the cost of living to demographic problems to Russia post-Putin.
"What's going to happen to us, to the country, after 2008?" asked Arkady Kokayev, from the village of Podgorodnyaya Pokrovka in the Orenburg region.
Putin noted the Constitution bars him from seeking a third term but added that he would remain a force. "You and I," he said, "we'll be able to influence the life in our country."
Another questioner, Yelena Iovich, the deputy editor of Severnoye Primorye newspaper in the far eastern village of Kavalerovo, said she felt like the country has returned to the 1990s with several recent high-profile killings.
Last week, mayoral candidate Dmitry Fotyanov of Dalnegorsk, which neighbors Kavalerovo, was killed. On Oct. 7, reporter Anna Politkovskaya, a frequent critic of the Kremlin, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building. And last month, Andrei Kozlov, the Central Bank's No. 2 official, was gunned down in a Moscow parking lot.
"When such bloody crimes occur, they naturally attract the country's attention," Putin said. "But I must say that the number of contract killings here is nevertheless falling." The president added that he had "dry statistical figures" to back up this claim.
Killings "in the economic arena," he suggested, could be attributed to "those who are trying to stuff their pockets at the expense of the well being of millions."
The president did not mention Politkovskaya by name, but he vowed to make sure that investigations of murders of "members of the media" are pursued to the end.
Kondopoga-born Tatyana Konashkova asked the president whether "ineffective" local government was needed, saying town authorities had failed to prevent the arson and bloodshed in Kondopoga.
Putin replied: "Such government is not needed." The president appeared to shrug off any responsibility for the riots, sparked by the killing of two ethnic Slavs at the hands of two natives of the Caucasus. The president said he had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to get Karelia's governor on the phone.
Putin vowed to clean up outdoor markets, curb illegal immigration and tighten labor regulations, adding that the Cabinet was preparing to present a set of proposals by mid-November. With 10 million to 15 million illegal migrants in the country, he said, Russian citizens must have priority when it comes to filling jobs.
Putin said the outdoor markets, which tend to be hubs for migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, should be returned to domestic farmers, adding that they "were not created to sell products from China."
Touching on one of his key issues — Russia's shrinking population — the president said it was the country's duty to welcome home Russians who "woke up in different countries" when the Soviet Union collapsed. This applies, he said, to "Dagestanis, Russians, Tatars and any other peoples native to Russia."
State efforts to boost housing, agriculture, education and healthcare, refered to as the national projects, were addressed. So, too, was Putin's plan to pay women for having babies.
Corruption, the president said, remains the country's most pressing problem. He proposed higher wages for state employees and a change in national attitudes toward bribe taking.
When it came to the question of hate crimes, raised by a Tver resident, Putin sought to sidestep the issue, saying he was pleased with the development of the country's judicial system.
Other issues Putin touched upon included:
Oil Supplies to Belarus. Putin indicated Russia might cut oil supplies to Belarus if Minsk continued to export the crude oil imported from Russia for a profit. "If we fail to reach an agreement, we will be forced to impose some limitations, which we would not want to do," he said, adding that he welcomed the idea of a single state between Russia and Belarus but saying the economic basis for it was still lacking.
The Navy and the North European Gas Pipeline. Putin suggested that the Baltic Fleet could be put to good use to help develop seabed resources and build the North European Gas Pipeline. He said the Navy had the best understanding of World War II-era mines still littered on the floor of the Baltic Sea.
Duped Apartment Investors. Putin blamed inadequate 1990s-era legislation for creating a loophole that allowed thousands to be swindled out of their homes. The government is dealing with this problem, he said, without offering much detail.
Expensive Mortgages. Responding to concerns that average Russians have been priced out of the housing market, Putin defended banks, saying they charge rates upwards of 11 percent to make a profit. Inflation is expected to surpass 8 percent by year's end, he said.
Plane crashes and the aviation industry. The country faces "huge problems" in the aviation industry, Putin said, urging the creation of a state-run firm to oversee plane manufacturing, a plan that has long been in the works.

TITLE: Russia To Prevent Bloodshed in Abkhazia
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin voiced concern Wednesday that Georgia would attack Abkhazia or South Ossetia.If Tbilisi does so, he warned, Russia will take action. "We must prevent it," the president said.
Putin's comments came during a live question-and-answer session broadcast on state-run television.
Putin also dismissed accusations that Georgian nationals in Russia were being targeted for deportation, saying more people from two other, unidentified countries have been deported.
The deportations have been viewed as part of a wider attack on Georgian interests in the wake of an espionage spat ignited last month.
Pressure on Georgian-owned businesses seemed to ebb this week, as two casinos and one restaurant that had been shut down were reopened.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry issued a complaint late Tuesday to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights over Russia's actions.
High commissioner Louise Arbour had been in contact with Russian and Georgian officials, UN spokesman Jose Luis Diaz said by e-mail Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet with his Georgian counterpart, Gela Bezhuashvili, next week for the first meeting between senior officials since the spy scandal erupted.
Abkhazian separatist forces opened heavy-weapons fire on neighboring Georgian-controlled territory Wednesday while Georgia's interior minister was in the vicinity, the Interior Ministry said, The Associated Press reported.

TITLE: U.S. Paper Company Buys 50% of 4 Mills
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: International Paper is to acquire 50 percent of Russia's largest timber company, Ilim Pulp, and form a joint venture to make pulp, paper and packaging, the U.S-based company announced Wednesday in a statement."This joint venture will be attractive to both International Paper and Ilim Pulp because it unites the unique capabilities of both companies and enables us to create more value together than we could individually," International Paper Chairman and CEO John Faraci said in the statement.
"International Paper has been a committed part of the Russian forest-products industry for seven years, through the ownership of our Svetogorsk Mill, and we look forward to continuing to encourage the strategic development of the industry," he said.
International Paper evaluated Ilim Holding at $1.3 billion. The company operates four pulp and paper mills, annually producing 2.5 million tons of market pulp, uncoated papers and packaging.
Wood-products enterprises would not be integrated into the joint venture — Ilim plans to unify them into the country's largest timber-processing holding.
The pulp and paper mill of International Paper in Svetogorsk, in the Leningrad Oblast, would also remain separate from the joint venture.
Earlier this year the managers of Ilim Pulp said that they are considering an IPO and other ways of financing technical modernization and development, which could require selling a part of shareholders capital.
Ilim Pulp Chairman, Zakhar Smushkin, praised the agreement as providing "unprecedented opportunities for both parties and for the entire Russian forest-products industry."
"Our joint success would provide Russia with a competitive edge over other emerging markets in providing the industry with much-needed capital," he said.
The two companies agreed on a long-term investment program — in less than five years, the joint venture, with headquarters in St. Petersburg, would invest $1.2 billion in the four mills.
Through this investment the companies hope to upgrade equipment and increase production capacity by 40 percent (one million tons).
Ilim Pulp is among the world's top ten companies in output of market pulp and ranks sixth internationally in timber reserves and logging volumes. Last year it reported a consolidated turnover of $1.5 billion.
International Paper, the largest forest-product company in the world, reported revenue of $24.1 billion in 2005.
According to the statement, International Paper is transforming its operations to focus on uncoated papers and packaging.
"This deal dramatically expands International Paper's presence in Russia, and lays the ground for further expansion in Asia," said Sergije Franges, senior adviser for international corporate finance and IPOs at Institute for Enterprise Issues.
Franges saw $1.3 billion as an adequate evaluation of Ilim Pulp.

TITLE: Yukos Wins Lawsuit Dismissal
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: NEW YORK — Yukos, once Russia's largest oil exporter, won dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit that claimed company officials hid a tax strategy that provoked a crackdown by the Russian government.The ruling by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in New York reversed an earlier decision. On March 30, Pauley dismissed other claims in the case and ordered Moscow-based Yukos to defend the tax allegation. Today, the judge tossed out the tax claim as well, saying U.S. courts lack jurisdiction over Yukos.
"All of defendants' alleged misstatements emanated from abroad,'' Pauley wrote in his ruling. "In the face of the overwhelmingly foreign nature of defendants' alleged fraud, plaintiffs have not established sufficient conduct by defendants within the United States.''
The suit claimed that Yukos underpaid taxes to the Russian government for three years starting in 2000 by selling oil to trading companies in Russia's lower-taxed regions at below-market prices. The traders then sold the oil for full value and sent the profits to Yukos, the suit says.

TITLE: Rambler to Sell Television Unit
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW —Rambler Media, which controls Russia's second-biggest Internet search engine, is selling its television unit to concentrate on the Internet division, its main revenue generator.Rambler Media is selling Rambler-TV, with a license to broadcast across Russia, to a subsidiary of Vladimir Potanin's Prof-Media holding, the Moscow-based company said in a statement.
Deutsche UFG said it expected Rambler to collect at least $13 million.
Rambler competes with Yandex.ru and Mail.ru and gets most of its earnings from advertising fees generated by web sites. Unprofitable Rambler-TV is present in more than 470 towns and cities with a reach of 40 million people.
"Our strategic focus is to accelerate the development of our Internet assets and further consolidate our market-leading position on the Russian-language Internet market,'' Rambler CEO Irina Gofman said.
(Bloomberg, SPT)

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Lenta OpeningsnST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Lenta has expanded its network of hypermarkets by opening a new store in Novosibirsk on Saturday, its first complex outside St. Petersburg. The company plans to open another store, its 12th in Russia, in Astrakhan, Oct. 28.
Lenta has invested approximately $20 million in both new hypermarkets.
The St. Petersburg-based company has plans for four new stores in Siberia and another in Volgograd. Overall it will invest $160 million in both regions.Vekselberg VenturenMOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg's Renova-Capital investment fund is in talks to buy 25 percent of Siberian grocery chain Holiday Classic, Vedomosti said, citing executives from both companies.
Holiday Classic operates 29 supermarkets in Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Barnaul, and had sales last year of $180 million, Vedomosti said. The company wants to sell a stake to an outside investor to raise money for expansion, the newspaper said.

TITLE: Furnishing Finn Sets Foot in St. Pete
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Finnish furniture company Vepsalainen opened its first Russian center, Design House Vepsalainen, in St. Petersburg Thursday, investing around 500,000 euros ($625,000) into the project. The first store will be followed by further investment in the city and across Russia.Occupying 2,050 square meters, Design House Vepsalainen is a distributor of various European makes of furniture.
"We believe in the concept that offers combined services and a broad assortment of various products," Timo Vepsalainen, owner of the company, said in a statement.
Design House Vepsalainen follows the "shop in shop" model, offering several leading brands in the same store.
Besides furniture, the shop offers lamps, rugs, textiles and household accessories. Customers can see ready-made interiors on display, with the same assortment appearing in catalogues.
The assortment includes Conran, Gautier, HansK, Kaani, Louis Poulsen, Paksu, Stokke, Verner Panton, and Ylivieska.
Some of these brands have so far not been available in St. Petersburg.
"The preferences of Russians differ to some extent from those of Scandinavians. However, when it comes to high-quality products, then design expressing a clear language of forms is in high demand among Russians. That is exactly what we offer," Vepsalainen said.
The furniture center also houses a specialized section, Finnish Design, which is used to exhibit furniture from Finnish producers.
As well as furniture from the Artek, Muurame and Lundia plants, it shows the products of designer companies — Marimekko, Ivana Helsinki, Woodnotes and Avarte.
"Brands represented in Design House Vepsalainen were chosen by designers who like individuality and elegance," said Raivo Kukka, general director of Vepsalainen closed joint-stock company that manages operations in Russia.
"We set great value in our cooperation with architects and specialists in interior design. In the future we plan to introduce international design collections onto the Russian market," Kukka said.
The Vepsalainen company manages 20 furniture shops in Finland, with five new shops to open by the end of 2006.
Within the next three years three more shops will be opened in St. Petersburg. By 2008 Vepsalainen expects to operate a total of 10 furniture shops in Russia.
A consumer market expert said the proposed concept had its advantages.
Though there is no lack of furniture shops in the city, consumers are in need of middle-price products designed in an interesting way, said Mikhail Podushko, director for strategic development at COMCON-SPb (WorkLine Group).
"The market is inundated by standard models and unusual products that are too expensive for the average consumer," Podushko said.
According to research by COMCON-SPb, around three percent of city residents with monthly incomes over $500 acquired kitchen furniture during the last 12 months, five percent of residents bought room furniture.
"The most visited furniture stores are those that distribute the products of different producers — Great, Akvilon, Mebel-City, Mebelny Kontinent. Among the most popular is Ikea, which offers various interior accessories and household goods, as well as furniture," Podushko said.
"Producers' own chains can not compete in knowledge and popularity with furniture centers because of the limited assortment and high price. This remains true even for importers like Velikaya Mebel Ispanii or Angelina," he said.
Podushko indicated that furniture centers usually occupy over 10,000 square meters, but tend to suffer from uncoordinated dispalys.
"The new concept assumes correct organization and the right structuring of the assortment. That will be one of Design House's most obvious advantages," he said.
"Offering finished interiors for view is a potential niche, which is currently quite unoccupied. If the products are affordable, the project could be successful," he said.

TITLE: Kiev Says Gas Deal Not Yet Set in Stone
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's deputy chief of staff cast doubt on the country's new gas deal with Russia on Wednesday, a day after the two countries' prime ministers announced an agreement to raise the gas price by 40 percent next year.Olexander Chaliy criticized the hike and said it was unclear whether the pro-Western president would sign off on it.
"It's still not clear how the price formula of $130 per thousand cubic meters has been reached," Chaliy told reporters in Kiev, Interfax reported. "It's not clear today whether the intergovernmental agreements will be signed."
Pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych trumpeted the deal Tuesday as a breakthrough in talks key to ensuring smooth supplies to Ukraine, a crucial transit state to Europe. During a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Yanukovych said he had received telephone confirmation that the gas price for Ukraine would be raised to no more than $130 from the $95 Ukraine currently pays. But opposition politicians warned Wednesday that the deal could be used to exert more pressure on Kiev to move back into Moscow's fold.
Tension had been growing after Central Asian suppliers said they wanted significant price increases next year. Europe has been on tenterhooks since Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine in January, demanding a price hike to $230. The standoff was resolved when Swiss-registered trader RosUkrEnergo stepped in to lower the overall price by adding cheaper Central Asian gas to Ukraine's supplies.
A RosUkrEnergo spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the new price had been set. Under the deal, the trader will sell 55 billion cubic meters of gas from Central Asia, a volume that is expected to meet all Ukraine's domestic gas needs.
But Ukrainian opposition politicians slammed the new agreement as strengthening the role of RosUkrEnergo, which has faced criticism over its murky ownership structure, and as being potentially devastating for the economy.
Hryhoriy Nemyria, a senior adviser to Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, said the economy could not handle the new price. "The attempts by Yanukovych's government to present this deal as a success is an attempt to put on a good face on a bad show," Nemyria said by telephone from Kiev. "This is more than the maximum Ukraine's industry can deal with."
He said the price hikes threatened to exacerbate further the mushrooming debts of state-owned Ukrainian oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz to RosUkrEnergo even further, and warned that the Ukrainian government could be forced to make concessions, such as handing over a stake in its strategically important gas-pipeline network, to Russia as a result. RosUkrEnergo, which has been investigated for links to organized crime, is half-owned by Gazprom and half-owned — on paper at least — by a Ukrainian gas trader Dmitry Firtash and his partner Ivan Fursin.
RosUkrEnergo spokesman Andrei Knutov said Naftogaz's current debts stood at $322 million. Naftogaz spokesman Konstantin Borodin refused to confirm the figure.
Nemyria said the Kremlin was already calling for too many concessions, noting Fradkov's call Tuesday for Ukraine to "synchronize" its entry into the World Trade Organization with Russia's.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Economic GrowthnMOSCOW (Bloomberg) — The Russian economy grew an annual 6.9 percent in the third quarter, the Economy Ministry said in a preliminary report on its web site Thursday. Gross domestic product expanded an annual 7.4 percent in the previous quarter, the Federal Service of State Statistics said on Sept. 11.
The ministry Thursday said full-year growth may be between 6.6 and 6.7 percent.
The economy is poised to record the longest period of economic expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union, boosted by high oil prices. Growth may reach 6.8 percent this year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said on Oct. 24.Energy TaxnASTANA (Bloomberg) — The owners of Nations Energy, a Kazakhstan-based oil producer, may have to pay about $380 million to the government from the $1.9 billion China International Trust & Investment Corp. offered for its Kazakh assets.
A Kazakhstan law that starts Jan. 1 levies a 20 percent tax on the sale by non-residents of assets that have a majority of their value in the country. Citic and Nations Energy plan to complete the transaction in December, the Kazakh producer said Thursday.Total TalksnPARIS (Bloomberg) — Total SA is in talks with Gazprom on several projects regarding liquefied natural gas, La Tribune said Wednesday, citing an interview with Menno Grouvel, head of exploration and production for Total in Europe and central Asia.

TITLE: United Russia's Martyardom
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Dmitry Fotyanov, a mayoral candidate in the far eastern city of Dalnegorsk, was gunned down last Thursday on the eve of the election. State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov immediately suggested a political motive.Gryzlov's reaction was only natural, as Fotyanov was running under the banner of United Russia, the party Gryzlov heads. When two candidates are vying for the mayor's job, it's usually a safe bet that one of them will be from United Russia. There are even instances when both are from United Russia, in which case they fight it out between themselves to prove which of them is more United Russia than the other. The candidates then quarrel like a couple of train passengers who have bought expensive tickets for a good berth, only to discover that some shyster has sold them both the same spot.
Fotyanov was part of a constellation of politicians in the Primorye region, whose best-known member is Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir Nikolayev, otherwise known by the nickname "Winnie the Pooh." Nikolayev has past convictions for assault and threatening to murder someone, so the background for many of these characters is fairly clear, Fotyanov and Winnie the Pooh actually started out together, but then had a huge falling-out.
Nikolayev's rival, Alexander Terebilov, belonged to a slightly different Primorye political grouping, best represented by the region's governor, Sergei Darkin, a businessman who previously enjoyed Winnie the Pooh's patronage.
Rumor has it that Fotyanov had previously provided protection for retail stores and kiosks operated by Terebilov, so we could stretch the point slightly by describing the conflict between them as one between the laboring bourgeoisie and their oppressors. The mayoral race in Dalnegorsk also bore similarities to a protection racket falling apart.
As for Dalnegorsk, it is a dead town, home to the Dalpolimetall mining company and far enough away to make it difficult to control from either Vladivostok or Moscow. But the town's lure is the timber shipped to Japan by people who buy licenses for 1,000 cubic meters and cut down 100,000. As a friend from Vladivostok once told me: "All you ever write about is fish. Fish is nothing compared with timber." This is the prize over which the two major political groups were slugging it out.
Until now, United Russia has not had the aura of martyrdom about it that comes when members are oppressed, gunned down or thrown into torture chambers. Gryzlov's statement opened a rich new political vein.
Nikolayev, for example, also at one point represented United Russia in the region, but now has serious problems. One of his deputies is already behind bars. So in light of Gryzlov's statement we should recognize this as political persecution of United Russia and not, for instance, as a sign that the local FSB has teamed up with Winnie the Pooh.
Or another example: Last year vodka king and United Russia Duma Deputy Kirill Ragozin died when his snowmobile plunged through the ice on the Gulf of Finland. Given Gryzlov's statement, maybe it is worth re-examining the case. Those who don't get Gryzlov's point probably still believe the official explanation that Ragozin died when some male-bonding revelry got out of hand and he lost control of the powerful machine. But how do we know that this wasn't a political murder?
What should we make out of all of this? As the party goes, so go the political murders.
We should, of course, feel sadness for Fotyanov. Apparently he was a nice guy. He just fell victim to the nature of Primorye political elites. There are no other elites available there.

Yulia Latynina is host of a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

TITLE: Combating Corruption
TEXT: No one disputes that corruption is rife in Russia. President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the problem many times.But whenever a foreigner raises concern, Putin bristles, responding that many countries, including those that criticize Russia, have their own problems.
The latest incident came Friday, when Putin replied to criticism from Spain's Joseph Borrell, the president of the European Parliament, by saying that all Spanish mayors were corrupt and in jail.
The comparison is revealing. Mayor Marisol Yague and Deputy Mayor Isabel Garcia Marcos were arrested and orderedto be held without bail for a construction kickback scheme in the Mediterranean resort town of Marbella. They are now awaiting trial.
Compare this to the case of former Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov, who was arrested in Switzerland in 2005 on U.S. charges of stealing more than $9 million earmarked for improving the safety of Russian reactors. He was extradited to Moscow earlier this year after the Russian government argued that he should face corruption charges at home. But it remains unclear when his trial will start in earnest. A court recently sent back his case for further investigation, and Adamov is now free after promising not to leave town.
If the court thinks more investigation is needed in the Adamov case, it would be interesting to hear what it thinks about the activities of IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman. In May, a Zurich tribunal ruled that Reiman had abused his office by using his post to help a commercial group in which he was the sole beneficiary.
The commercial tribunal's ruling is not a confirmation of criminal activity, but it should have been enough to prompt an inquiry by Russian prosecutors.
Or how about Pavel Borodin, the former presidential property chief who was found guilty by a Geneva judge of laundering millions of dollars in kickback schemes from Swiss construction firms that refurbished the Kremlin? Borodin still holds a government post as the state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union.
None of this demonstrates much commitment from the Kremlin to fight state corruption. Even the president's anti-corruption council has been relatively quiet. It only made headlines when then-Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was tapped to chair it in 2003, and then early the next year when Mikhail Fradkov took over as head of both the council and the government.
It is hard to believe that much progress will be made against corruption as long as Putin is more interested in talking about Marbella than about Moscow.

This comment first appeared in The Moscow Times.

TITLE: A Tough Act to Follow
AUTHOR: By Paul J. Saunders
TEXT: The Kremlin's ongoing efforts to establish dominance over Russia's energy sector, and to use it as an instrument to develop both the economy and Moscow's international standing has often been viewed as part of an effort to follow the successful "Chinese model" of state-led development. But if the Russian government wants to enjoy the same economic results, not to mention China's considerable and growing international influence, it would do well to study Beijing's foreign policy, too.Russia's international behavior has become increasingly assertive as the country's natural resource wealth has morphed into $268 billion in Central Bank reserves and a $71 billion stabilization fund. This has been evident most recently in Moscow's tough handling of its dispute with Ukraine over natural gas prices, its even tougher treatment of Georgia after Tbilisi's very public arrest of Russian military officers on espionage charges, and the irritated tone of senior Russian officials when dealing with the United States.
The contrast with China is striking in more ways than one. Looking strictly at economic statistics, Beijing has $988 billion in central bank reserves — almost four times the Russian total — and added some $169 billion, or two-thirds of Russia's reserves, in the first nine months of 2006 alone. And unlike the expansion of Russia's foreign currency holdings, these impressive gains were made in spite of high oil prices, not because of them.
More broadly, in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, the size of China's economy is over five times that of Russia — $8.9 trillion to $1.6 trillion — and the dollar volume of its exports is three times higher than Russia's energy-inflated figure. Of course, China has a considerably larger population than Russia — a source of anxiety to many in Moscow, not to mention the Far East — but its PPP gross domestic product per capita is still about two-thirds of Russia's.
No less interesting are the differences between China's and Russia's approaches to converting economic might into political weight. China's economy reached the size of the present-day Russian economy about 16 or 17 years ago, roughly at the time of the Tiananmen Square tragedy. China did not, however, suddenly begin to express its frustration at hundreds of years of perceived abuses by Western imperial powers or to push around its neighbors. On the contrary, over the last 15 years, Beijing has generally been quite moderate in its own behavior, with a view to promoting the regional and global stability necessary to encourage further economic growth. Today China sometimes appears to bend over backwards to reassure its neighbors and others of its benign intentions. And it seems to have worked.
In Moscow, by contrast, a few short years of energy wealth have led to a growing sense of foreign policy entitlement not unlike the sense of economic entitlement that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The interesting question is whether it is based on similarly flawed assumptions that will lead to a new and different kind of disappointment and disillusionment.
One assumption is that energy prices will remain high. That seems like a reasonably safe assumption to make today, especially with OPEC trying to cut oil production to prop up prices, but how long will today's numbers last? Two years? Five? Ten? If they do last that long, when will someone invent a new energy technology to displace oil or gas?
The next question is whether Russia will successfully take advantage of the current period of high energy prices to diversify its economy. Senior officials routinely cite this as a goal and call for a high-tech economy, but seem to be doing little to get there. And Russian foreign policy, not to mention continuing problems with the investment climate, hardly contributes to this process. Some in Russia might respond by saying that with the country's new wealth, Moscow can go it alone. They tend to forget that another of Russia's Asian neighbors — North Korea — has tried that approach and failed. Russia was unfairly disparaged in the 1990s as "Upper Volta with missiles," but few would view "North Korea with oil" as progress.
None of this is to argue that Moscow can not succeed without returning to what Russians view as the overly compliant foreign policy of the Yeltsin era. After all, there has been one major exception to China's relatively restrained foreign policy, namely Taiwan. Beijing has been very clear with the United States about the potential consequences of a Taiwanese declaration of independence. And China has not been shy in using economic inducements — as distinct from economic pressure — to influence other governments' policies toward the island, especially in Africa. At the same time, however, Beijing has managed to craft a sophisticated foreign policy to protect its vital interest in avoiding a split while maintaining cooperative ties with Washington, other key powers and its neighbors. This in turn has helped China's leaders to manage one of the greatest economic miracles in history. Will today's Russian foreign policy strategy lead to the same result?

Paul J. Saunders is executive director of The Nixon Center and associate publisher of The National Interest.

TITLE: Going Dutch
AUTHOR: By Sophia Kornienko
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Paul Verhoeven's "Black Book" has been seen by many critics as a return to form.AMSTERDAM — Cinephiles across Europe have been asking this question for months: is Paul Verhoeven really back from Hollywood after 20 years?The Dutch would like to think that he is and are celebrating their greatest director's comeback by releasing an imposing DVD-box commemorating Verhoeven's first steps in cinema.
The maverick filmmaker, whose Hollywood hits include "RoboCop" (1987), "Total Recall" (1990) and "Basic Instinct" (1992) — but who fell from favor after "Showgirls" (1995) was a massive flop — is planning to shoot his next film in St. Petersburg, based on a Russian novel.
The Venice film festival this year gave Verhoeven's new film "Black Book" ("Zwartboek"), about a Jewish girl surviving in Holland under the Nazis, the Premi Arca CineGiovanni for the best international production.
The Dutch often say that "Verhoeven thinks he is bigger than The Netherlands" while at the same time lauding him as the "God of the Dutch Cinema." Verhoeven appears to be too hardworking and open for argument to accept that title. Every time the conversation with him deviates toward lofty matters, he brings it down to earth by giving a simple reply. Even 20 years of theological research brought him to the earthly conclusion that Jesus was first of all a human being.
Verhoeven takes one step at a time and says his biggest career goal is always to make the next film, preferably a very different film every time.
"Showgirls "(which Verhoeven believes will be fully recognized only after some 20 or 30 years have passed) is different from "Total Recall" and "Basic Instinct," and his whole American period is strikingly different from the dark, probing style of his Dutch films, such as 1973's "Turkish Delight" ("Turks Fruit") and 1977's "Soldier of Orange "("Soldaat van Oranje"). Looking back only makes the 68-year-old director inspired to work on, as his career is far from over. But he is allowed to make no more mistakes, he says.
"You know what's good about this DVD-box with my early works?" Verhoeven told The St. Petersburg Times in an interview last month.
"Churchill used to say, one must have made all ones mistakes before one turns fifty or later they become life-threatening. Many films that form part of the DVD-box are full of mistakes in many ways — either the dialogues are amateuristic, or there was not enough money, or enough sense of taste. But now, everyone who will be watching these films — film students, for instance — will see that even if you originally could not do anything, eventually something can come out, if you work long enough. That's what's important."
Verhoeven likes comparing film to the other arts, especially painting and music. He draws parallels between himself and Igor Stravinsky, his "favorite artist of all time," who began conducting his own pieces himself later in life.
Like Stravinsky, Verhoeven has taken charge of his own heritage and prepared elaborate commentaries to his films, even to the very first film he made "Little Cups of Coffee" ("Kopjes Coffee") in 1959.
"I figured that I should not think up anything complicated, just a simple story that takes place in three minutes, brightly lit," Verhoeven said of that first effort. "I did not know yet how to set up lights correctly. In this film I used my Mom's ultraviolet lamp."
Verhoeven's attempts to describe his films stem from his frantic desire to preserve film as art.
"I think back to my recent talk with British Amsterdam-based director Peter Greenaway who was very convincing about the idea that cinema as a separate art is dead and if he wants to continue working, a filmmaker must become a 'multimedia artist,'" Verhoeven said.
"There is a problem with film," he continued. "When I started making movies I thought that film was a certain form of art. And it is becoming more and more difficult now that everything is multimedia to rediscover art in film."
Does he mean that he finds it difficult to plug into the new format?
"I am not interested in that at all! I never did it for that reason!" Verhoeven replied. "I am really not interested in video games and all that stuff. I want to make movies because I thought there was something interesting there. And I am a big fan, of course, of movies that I consider art. Like [Sergei] Eisenstein, to name something Russian. Eisenstein's 'Ivan The Terrible' [1944, 1958], I think, is a work of art."
In his early films the influence of classic film directors is very powerful, from Eisenstein to Nouvelle Vague. But is there anything he has done that he is ashamed of?
"Well, there are films on this DVD that came out with my early works which I think are terrible! There's a film called 'The Lifters' for example."
Looking back at when he started his career, does Verhoeven feel good about how very Dutch his early films are, and how Dutch he was as a director?
"Yes, sure," he said. "I started as a Dutch director and then became an American director, and with 'Black Book,' I think, I became a European director. Well, it's also Dutch, clearly, but it feels like a more European movie to me, because it has four languages in it."
Verhoeven is now planning another Dutch production — "Knielen op een bed violen" ("Kneeling on a Bed of Violets") based upon a novel by Dutch writer Jan Siebelink — but possibly only after his St. Petersburg project.
"I want first to [film] Boris Akunin, as you know. I want to do [Akunin's Erast Fandorin bestseller] 'Azazel.' I still hope that's my next project."
Last year, Verhoeven's old friend Dirk Rijneke made a documentary about him, in which the director elaborated a growing critique of American culture, stemming from the difficulty he has had convincing American backers to let him make the film adaptation of "Azazel."
"I tried very hard to do that with 'Azazel,' because 'Azazel' for me is like 'Tintin,' the Flemish comic book hero. I call Akunin "Tintin for adults.' So I tried to do that, but I could not get it off the ground in the States, I could not get the money. It could happen now, because 'Black Book' has been received by the critics in a very favorable way. All the critics' reviews in America are very good. And I think there may be much more interest now in me doing this strange Russian detective story in Petersburg. It should be Moscow, but I changed it to Petersburg. Because in Petersburg you can still do 1876, but in Moscow no, because it's all Stalinist or even more modern than Stalinist."
The switch of the film's location to St. Petersburg comes after a number of western films have been made in the city in recent years, including, for example Bernd Eichinger and Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Der Untergang" ("Downfall") about the last days of Adolf Hitler.
Twenty—first century St. Petersburg, with its crumbling pre-Revolutionary architecture, proved a very good substitue for war-torn Berlin.
"Yes, I called them and asked how it was to work in Petersburg," Verhoeven said of the German filmmakers. "They said they had a couple of female producers [Globus Film] that were excellent, they told me. So we decided… I had already rewritten it for Petersburg anyway, because the architecture would be much easier to find."

TITLE: Building bridges
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg's oldest British ex-patriate celebrates his 87th birthday.Studying in Oxford, running a newspaper in Switzerland, facilitating peace in Nigeria, living in Finland — Kenneth Rundell did it all before finding his home in St. Petersburg.Although St. Petersburg's oldest British resident, Cornwall-born Rundell, turns 87 on Friday, he's still full of ideas. "Regardless of his age, he just refuses to give in — he's a bundle of energy and keeps planning new projects," said Peter Dyson, a St. Petersburg-based composer who works closely with Rundell.
These days he occupies himself chairing Agora, a cultural and educational center, sponsored by his son Michael, a London-based architect and designer.
"I carry on my wife's dream of creating a society for the spiritual renewal of Russia," Kenneth Rundell said, explaining the idea behind the center.
It was Rundell's first wife, Pirkko Ristolainen from Finland, who brought Rundell to Russia, a place he "never expected to come to."
He came to Russia for the first time in 1983 to support his wife's initiative to improve relations between Russia and Finland.
When, during the Winter War (1939-1940), Pirkko and her family were driven out of the Finnish town of Terijoki (now Russia's Zelenogorsk), "they decided they would never make friends with the Russians," he said.
"Her home had been burnt down — her family torched it in 1939 so it wouldn't fall into the hands of the Russians," he said.
"And my wife shared the bitterness and hatred that the Finnish people felt until 10 years before I married her in 1982. In 1972, she was persuaded by her friends to come back and see her old home," he said.
After that, the Rundells began coming back to Russia every year.
"Pirkko was overwhelmed by the misery she found there and felt called by God to do something to restore relations between Finland and Russia," he said.
Unfortunately, at that time she was overcome by Alzheimer's disease and could not play any active part in forming the society that she wanted to create, but Rundell has kept the idea alive.
Despite the fact that the club celebrated its tenth anniversary last Christmas, the renovated roof space above an apartment on the Fontanka Embankment, where Modest, brother of the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky once lived, still has an air of secrecy about it. There's no sign on the door and their closest neighbors exchanged looks of confusion when asked for directions to the mysterious Agora — an unknown place and unfamiliar word for many.
"We looked through all sorts of names and discovered that the communists had used all of the good ones and we didn't want to be associated with them, so we went for something completely different," Rundell explained.
Agora, or "meeting place in classical greek," according to Rundell was the forum in Athens where democracy first appeared and the word perfectly reflects the idea behind the center.
"We wanted to create a place where people of very different backgrounds, faiths and traditions and people without any faith at all could meet and explore how to move towards the creation of a civil society," he said.
Although Agora's coordinator Darya Yudina said the organization can't cater for many due to limited space, Rundell gives reassurances that anyone who wishes to join will be welcomed.The society provides a venue for lectures, art exhibitions and various classical music concerts. 24 Nab. Fontanki, tel. 327 0814

TITLE: Chernov's choice
TEXT: Popular music venue Platforma is to close, the club's art director Denis Rubin revealed this week. On the scene since Sept. 2004, Platforma became one of the city's leading live music venues, hosting concerts by artists like Arto Lindsay, Chumbawamba and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier.
It has also hosted rare film screenings, theater performances and literary readings.Though the club published its program for November last week, in all likelihood it will close early next month — the rest of October's schedule remaining unchanged, Rubin said, putting the closure down to "conceptual differences between program organizers and the general management."
He added that Platforma's rooms, located in the city center and comprising a concert hall, cafe, bar and bookstore, will be closed.
There's a fear that Platforma's demise could adversely affect the local scene, as the club hosted concerts by some of the finest local and visiting bands.
But Rubin said that some time next year he and Vyacheslav Kuritsyn, the author and literary critic who promoted literary events at the club, plan to reopen Platforma at a new, central location using the same name.
At the same time, Rubin and his associates will also use the name "Platforma" for promoting concerts and publishing.
Rubin said he would not cancel the planned gigs, which include popular local band Auktsyon and the Los Angeles-based Center, but move them to different venues.
Meanwhile, he continues to promote concerts on Thursdays at Decadence, the invitation-only "elitist" club, and is planning to organize Tuesday gigs at Maina, the new venue due to open in the north of the city on Nov. 4.
A message appeared in this paper's mailbox criticizing the use of the term "anti-folk" by Frank Turner, the British punk rocker turned singer-songwriter who performed at Platforma in July.
Speaking to the St. Petersburg Times, Turner, formerly of Million Dead, applied it to Billy Bragg and his own work.
"Billy Bragg never had anything to do with Antifolk. It was started by Lach in NYC. Do some research already!" wrote Steve Rogers of www.antifolk.net in New York.
Nevertheless, careful research does in fact show that Bragg used the term himself in the early 1980s, long before New York's singer-songwriter Lach gained any notoriety.
"As far as I am aware Billy Bragg was the first person to be called anti-folk," replied Turner last week.
"Maybe someone else beat him to it (this sounds a lot like the NYC vs. London, Ramones vs. Pistols thing to me!!), but who cares really? He's certainly the guy who made the term famous."

— By Sergey Chernov

TITLE: In vino veritas
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It's all a bit kinky. A middle-aged man awkwardly looks around and shivers. Another stealthy glance, and he divulges his secret to us: one fine morning he discovered a cold slippery wine bottle in his underpants. To make things worse, the bottle seemed to have permanently replaced his penis.Your first thought when you observe all this is that you're suffering from delirium tremens, a topic dear to the hearts of entire generations of Russian writers, yet what we face here turns out to be a little more complicated. Mariano Cuttin, a bank clerk-turned-wine critic, began a captivating journey to the bottom of his first glass of wine, and eventually ended up in the depths of his subconscious, and it appears that he hasn't made much of a safe return journey.
Cuttin, performed by Italian actor Antonio Caldonazzi, is a character in a one-man show entitled "Inside Wine" based on Fabio Marcotto's 1999 story of the same name ("Vino Dentro") and gives a fresh take on the centuries-old theme. He gradually discovers the world while tasting new wines, losing his wife, getting an implanted new liver, becoming Italy's top enologist and ultimately going stark-staring-raving-bonkers in the process.
The Russian premiere of "Inside Wine" that played at the Maly Drama Theater-Theater d'Europe on Monday marked the opening of the Days of Italian Language and Culture in St. Petersburg — a sobering choice! — which this year has a gastronomy bent.
Cuttin's journey into the world of wine started by accident when the 30-year old bank clerk was asked to give his opinion about a wine during a lunch with his colleagues. "Nettles," he pronounced, and was lost to the banking business.
Six years on, he is ecstatic about his new environment. With more wines on the list, Cuttin's hands tremble, his body flinches, his lips quiver as whimsical metaphors mount up to the edge of delirium, creating a surreal flair. The enologist's mental upheaval goes hand in hand with his physical transformation — call it mutation or degradation.
Italian wine was served by Caldonazzi personally before the start of the show to help spectators get into the mood. The code of behavior in the auditorium on this night was more relaxed than usual, and the notoriously strict staff at this venue turned a blind eye to those who chose to take their wine to their seats — to sustain the mood over the course of the performance.
As the story progressed, some members of the audiences peered dubiously at their half-empty glasses.
Marcotto's phantasmagoric play traces his character's descent into the world of wine, which fully engrosses Cuttin. All in all, the show makes for a fun journey into linguistics as it is into the performing arts.
Italophiles are sure to be overwhelmed by the forthcoming visit of Milan's internationally renowned Piccolo Teatro-Theatre d'Europe which will be coming to town for two performances of Giorgio Strehler's rendition of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte on Friday, Oct. 27 and Sat., Oct. 28, and a staging of Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days," also by Strehler, on Oct. 31 and Nov.1.
The renowned Italian troupe belongs to the same prestigious club of Theaters of Europe that includes St. Petersburg's Maly Drama Theater, and on its previous visits to town the company made use of the Maly's rather modest auditorium. This time round, the Italians will perform at a venue with a much greater seating capacity, the Alexandrinsky Theater, which is celebrating its anniversary with an extensive festival this autumn.
For Teatro Piccolo, this year also brings a series of important anniversaries — the company's 60th birthday and 10 years since the death of Giorgio Strehler, to mention just two. Piccolo's founder, Strehler gained international fame as a reformer of Italian theater who created a new approach to performing arts in Europe. Inspired by the ideas of Berthold Brecht, Strehler skillfully incorporated current social and political themes into venerable traditional plays, from Shakespeare to Chekhov, creating a greater resonance for his productions.
The Days of Italian Culture have yet more up their sleeve. On Friday, Swiss expert Marco Cameroni will give a lecture with the reflexive and self-ironic title of "Italian Switzerland: poor cuisine, rich art" at 4 p.m. at the Institute for Italian Culture at 10 Teatralnaya Ploshad, followed by a screening of Sandra Nettelback's film "Love Recipes" at 6 p.m.On Saturday at 6 p.m., be sure to head to the Stray Dog art cafe (Brodyachaya Sobaka) for an evening of Sardinian literature and a bite of regional snacks.Links: www.piccoloteatro.org,
www.iicsanpietroburgo.esteri.it

TITLE: Lost in translation
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: "'The goat cried in an inhuman voice…' I could not leave this in!" the English professor in "Autumn Marathon" (1979) remarks after spending hours helping with a translation by his less talented colleague.The Soviet classic comedy recreates in detail the perfectionism of St. Petersburg's old school translation trade.
"The translator's character, Lifanov, states that translation in the modern world must facilitate better mutual understanding between nations, and you, with your babble, will only divide them," says the same professor rejecting one of his students' works.
Such customs, it seems, sank into oblivion with the end of the Soviet Union and now, experts say, nobody guarantees that a foreign book translated into Russian will contain exactly what it promises.
"During the Soviet era, translations were done mainly by people working at foreign language departments [of universities] and who were directly related to teaching translating," Natalia Molchanova, president of Ego Translating, a local translating agency, said.
"Literary translation was considered to be a scientific, a prestigious and a very well-paid job," she said.
After the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, the state no longer provided financing for such work, and the job was left in the hands of publishers. The quality of translations significantly worsened.
"Publishing houses — commercial enterprises having profit as their main aim — were governed by economic interests and tried to economize on translations as much as they could," Molchanova, said.
Pavel Krusanov, the chief editor of St. Petersburg-based publishing house Limbus Press agrees that low-quality translations of foreign literature are a regular feature on the shelves of Russia's bookstores. In his opinion, this often arises as a result of publishers being in a constant hurry to dispatch their books to printers to avoid penalties for delays.
In the event of a poor translation, it would be very "uneconomical" for the publisher to try and find another translator, but at the same time, publishers are not able to control the level of quality, he said.
"Say a publisher has a contract with the printers half a year ahead, [the case with bad translations]. To commission the translation from someone else will mean doubling the publisher's losses which, in turn, will be reflected in the book's higher price," he said.
"Before the publisher signs the contract with a translator, the latter is asked to translate a short sample of about two pages of text," Krusanov explained.
"If the test is successful, then the contract is signed. But the problem is that the translator might work with someone to do the test or really put some effort in while preparing the sample. As a result the quality of translation on the contract might be wretched".
Viktor Toporov, a well-known literary critic and a translator, recalled that as recently as six years ago translators were simply "taken on their word" and nobody in publishing houses ever attempted to check the quality of the end result. But the situation is gradually changing.
"To a large extent, such naΥve perceptions are slowly shifting back to normal," Toporov said. One of the ways out of the current crisis lies in improving the training of translators, Molchanova said.
"Until they start to train translators on specifically tailored programs (and not only on philological ones), the translation of applied literature will continue to be done by those who over five years [in university] studied Shakespeare and the language as cultural heritage — and fiction will continue to be translated by the rest," she said.

TITLE: Flying over the cuckoo's nest
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Alex Budovsky, the award-winning St. Petersburg-born, New York-based animator, appears to know how to make music and cartoons go together, using modest means to great effect.Budovsky, who came to Russia earlier this month to supply some video backing to a pair of shows by The Real Tuesday Weld, has been collaborating with Stephen Coates' London-based "antique-pop" band since he made his first video for them in 2002.
The artistic ties between the five-piece band and the animator have grown close enough for Budovsky to be described as the band's "sixth member."
Born in Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was known then, in 1975, Budovsky moved to the U.S. in 1994.
"I moved to New York on December 19, 1994, with my entire family," he wrote in a recent email from New York.
"It seemed that we all had no future in Russia, and when we got our chance to leave we used it — my grandmother moved to the U.S. earlier and thanks to her we had our invitations to NYC."
Having developed his distinctive, 2-D silhouette-style, Budovsky, who got a BA from Brooklyn College specializing in film, said he became an animator "by accident."
"It was during my last year in college. I just didn't know what else to do with my life," he said.
"I didn't know much about computers at all and during my last semester I took a course in Photoshop, Illustrator and Macromedia Director. While studying Director I realized that I could do very simple silhouette-like animation in this program. That is how I discovered my style."
Budovsky's first music video was "Terminally Ambivalent Over You" from The Real Tuesday Weld's "When Psyche Meets Cupid" album in 2002.
"When I first heard The Real Tuesday Weld I immediately fell in love with the music, it felt like I was on the same frequency as the musicians," he said.
"I couldn't stop listening to the album, which Stephen recorded alone in his attic, and wanted to make a video for 'Terminally Ambivalent Over You' right away, so I just started working on it.
"The music sounded very cinematic, and I kept having visuals in my mind. It took me two weeks to make it and then another two weeks to re-make it because I was studying the software at the same time and saved images in the wrong format."
According to Coates, whom Budovsky contacted via the musician's web site, he did not expect much, as he gets offers from video directors once in a while. But when he received the finished video, a story of a convict toiling away at a prison's gramophone factory while thinking of his girlfriend, he was "blown away — it was wonderful and strange."
Coates then sent his sketches for the next album, "I, Lucifer," to Budovsky for consideration.
"Out of five tracks that Stephen sent me, I picked 'Bathtime in Clerkenwell' because I felt that it was a potential hit and I was right. It took me two months to make the film and then it started to win awards around the world which was quite surprising for me," said Budovsky.
The video, in which London cuckoo-clock cuckoos revolt and force their human masters into their clocks, picked up a number of awards around the world, including the Jury Award for Best Animation at the Sundance Online Film Festival 2004, the Prize "for the perfection of music and fantastic imagery" at the Ottawa Animated Film Festival 2004 and the Grand Jury Award for the best animated short at the Florida Film Festival 2003.
"I seriously don't remember how I got this idea," said Budovsky.
"The whole film was an improvisation from beginning to end and half way through I didn't know what the end was going to be like, so I think the idea came from 'above'." Budovsky, who makes his living by doing commercials, sees his music videos as a "hobby."
"All of my music videos are done for free, with zero budget and just for fun," he said.
Budovsky's latest music video was to the song "Jukebox" by Jim Avignon, the German artist who makes music under the moniker Neoangin and is currently based in New York.
"I heard Stephen's music at my friend's house — he bought The Real Tuesday Weld CD in a small shop in Manhattan," said Budovsky.
"Funny that it was the same person who introduced me to Jim Avignon several years later. I mean really introduced me — I met Jim face to face. We met in April this year, became friends and decided to do something together. Then Jim went to Berlin and I started to work on the animation, double-checking every scene with him. It was also fun."
In a recent email, Avignon wrote that Budovsky's friend Radik, who appeared in his gallery one day, was responsible for the collaboration.
"[Radik's] a DJ and organizes Russian parties. We became friends and organized stuff together," said Avignon.
"He introduced me to Alex. One night we watched his animations all together and it wasn't long before we started to speak about doing something together. I liked the style and humor in his animations so much that I showed them last December at a festival in Berlin."
Unlike his work with The Real Tuesday Weld, the video for "Jukebox," featuring a singing cat, was based on Avignon's own images.
"I gave Alex a CD with unreleased tracks and it was nine months before we came up with a track that we both thought would be perfect to do an animation to," said Avignon.
"In the meantime I released 'Scratchbook' — an album with a 100-page booklet — and Alex came up with a beautiful story he developed out of the images that were in that book."
Avignon, who is now releasing the video in QuickTime format on his mini-CD in Germany, said that Budovsky himself first came up with the idea.
"He always likes to tell people that he's not an artist himself and has a hard time finding images and characters, but in his previous animations he's done it so well and it's been so impressive that I was really curious about what would happen to my characters," he said.
"He redrew them all and they started to move. It was incredible.
"I think it's absolutely beautiful and I am prouder than ever before. Maybe I expected that we would somehow work more together on the storyline but I understand that, like any other real artist, he needed space for his own creativity. And as a result you can see his input as well as mine."www.figlimigliproductions.com

TITLE: Sectarian Violence Killing 100 a Day in Iraq
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said on Thursday five more American troops were killed in Iraq, bringing the U.S. death toll for October to 96, as President George W. Bush faced mounting election-year pressure over the war.With less than two weeks before Nov 7. polls in which his Republican party risks losing control of Congress, a survey released on Thursday found about 50 percent of likely voters believe U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq by the end of 2007, including 15 percent who favor an immediate withdrawal.
The Reuters/Zogby poll also found that 41 percent agreed that troops should remain "until the situation is stable."
Underscoring the challenges an increasingly impatient Washington faces in building Iraq's forces to allow it to send its 140,000 troops home, gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police convoy in a town north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing eight policemen, including the commander, police said.
At least 50 other policemen were reported missing after the attack near the volatile town of Baquba. Earlier, gunmen attacked a station for an Iraqi special police force in another town near Baquba, killing six police and wounding 10.
October's death toll for U.S. forces reached its highest level in a year. The deadliest month in the war was November 2004, when 137 troops died.
The Reuters/Zogby survey found 57 percent believe the war in Iraq is not worth the loss of lives, up from 53 percent. A U.S. sailor and four U.S. Marines were killed in combat in western Anbar province on Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Anbar is a stronghold of the insurgency battling U.S. forces and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Maliki, a Shi'ite, put himself at odds with his Washington allies on Wednesday, when he distanced himself from a U.S.- announced "timeline" to end sectarian violence and criticized a raid on a Shi'ite militia stronghold in Baghdad.
In comments meant to appease his Shi'ite power base, Maliki said he did not believe in a timetable imposed from outside, saying his was a sovereign government. He spoke a day after America's top civilian and military officials in Baghdad said he had agreed to steps to ease violence, including disbanding powerful Shi'ite militias. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said he expected "significant progress" over the next 12 months.
With sectarian bloodshed killing 100 people a day, U.S. military commanders and officials are stepping up pressure on Maliki to rein in militias, which have ties to powerful political parties in his coalition. He has so far resisted calls to move decisively against them.
Maliki also criticized an Iraqi-U.S. ground and air assault in a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a powerful force behind Maliki.
The U.S. military first reported the raid in Baghdad's Sadr City was aimed at a death squad leader but later said suspects in the abduction of a missing U.S. soldier were also targeted.
It said 10 militants were killed in a first raid against what it said was an insurgent's residence. Iraqi forces then moved through Sadr City to a mosque where the kidnapping suspects were believed to be located, detaining three suspects.

TITLE: Rain Wreaks World Series Chaos
AUTHOR: By Mike Fitzpatrick
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ST. LOUIS — Pitchers dominated the first three games of the World Series, then rain took over.Game 4 was postponed Wednesday night because of showers and will be made up Thursday at 8:27 p.m. EDT, potentially sending the World Series into scheduling chaos. More rain was expected the next two days, and nobody was certain when the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals would play again.
"They're going to be dicey," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office. "There is about a 70 percent chance of rain tomorrow. It's going to be light rain. We don't know whether or not that rain will linger, like it did tonight."
Game 5 at Busch Stadium was pushed back to Friday night, which was supposed to be a day off in the Series. And it doesn't look much better this weekend in Detroit, with a forecast of rain and cold.
The Cardinals lead the best-of-seven Series 2-1 after a 5-0 victory behind ace Chris Carpenter on Tuesday night. A silver tarp covered the infield all evening, players didn't come out to warm up and Game 4 never got started.
"This wouldn't have been a baseball game, it would have been survival," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "I'm actually pleased for both teams that we're not playing. Fans, that wouldn't have been too much fun, either."
But Jeremy Bonderman, slated to start for Detroit against St. Louis' Jeff Suppan, was eager to pitch in the light drizzle early Wednesday night.
"We aren't sugar. We ain't going to melt," Bonderman said.
Tigers first baseman Sean Casey, however, thought Major League Baseball made the right call.
"Guys getting hurt, having a five-inning World Series game, nobody wants that," Casey said.
A sparse crowd at Busch Stadium was informed of the rainout about three minutes after the announcement was made. Fans covered in plastic, many who stayed for hours hoping the rain would stop, quickly filed toward the exits.
Some had waited out the delay in the stands. Others packed the gift shop and lined up at concession stands.
Standing beneath an umbrella in the upper deck, Victoria Atkinson was disappointed. She came all the way from Montreal to watch.
"I'm a baseball fan and I wanted to see a baseball game," she said. "We kept hearing all different things — that there was a blip on the radar screen, that the rain might stop, that it would keep going.
"I don't know if they could have called it earlier than they did ," she added.
"I guess they had a lot of hot dogs to sell and they sold them."
Cigarette-puffing Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who said Bonderman will start Game 4 — whenever it is — had his own way of passing the time.
"I smoked about a carton, probably the worst day of the year for my lungs," he said.
Steady showers all day led to the first World Series rainout since the 1996 opener between the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees.

TITLE: 6 Germans Face Skull Inquiry
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BERLIN — Six suspects were under investigation in the scandal over pictures of German soldiers posing with a skull in Afghanistan, and military officials have been instructed to review training for foreign deployments, the defense minister said Thursday.Franz Josef Jung also repeated his vow that such behavior had "no place" in Germany's military.
"Anyone who behaves like this has no place in the army," the minister told the Bundestag lower house of parliament. "We will enforce all consequences, both criminal and disciplinary."
Jung said he was glad that investigators had been able within only 24 hours to identify six suspects. Two had initially been suspected; of the six, four are no longer in the military, he said.
He said he had instructed the army's inspector general, Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, to review training procedures. But he warned against a "wholesale judgment" of the German soldiers deployed in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Sudan, Djibouti, Congo and Lebanon.
The pictures of the soldiers handling the skull — one is pictured with it next to his exposed genitals — and putting it on the hood of their vehicle have led to expressions of disgust among German officials. Chancellor Angela Merkel called them "repugnant" and said they "can be excused by nothing."

TITLE: Ducks Sink Edmonton 6-2
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Anaheim defenseman Chris Pronger had three assists against his former team as the Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-2 on Wednesday.Pronger, who led the Oilers to the Stanley Cup finals last year, became public enemy number one in Edmonton after demanding a trade at the end of the season.
The Ducks gave up promising forward Joffrey Lupul and first and second round draft picks to get Pronger and the big defenseman has made an immediate impact. The Ducks improved to 7-0-2 with the win and have yet to lose in regulation.
Pronger, whose reasons for wanting out of Edmonton after signing a five-year deal were never made public, has teamed up with another All Star blueliner Scott Niedermayer in Anaheim. Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 29 saves in net for the Ducks.
"They had a number of opportunities in the first and second and Jiggy (Giguere) came up with some big saves," Pronger told the Ducks' web site.
"We were fortunate enough to get off on the right foot in the second and get that two-goal lead, and we were able to continue on."
Edmonton's Jarret Stoll and the Ducks' Travis Moen traded first-period goals before Anaheim went 3-1 up early in the second through Niedermayer and Ryan Getzlaf.Stoll scored his second of the game to make it 3-2 but Ryan Shannon restored the two-goal cushion before the end of the period.Getzlaf and Moen grabbed their second goals of the night in the third to cap the Anaheim win.
In St. Paul, Brian Rolston scored twice and Pierre-Marc Bouchard set up all three goals leading the red-hot Minnesota Twins to a 3-1 win over the slumping Los Angeles Kings.
Todd White also contributed a goal and two assists to the victory as the Wild continued their best start to a season in franchise history, improving their record to 8-1.
Brian Willsie had the lone Los Angeles goal midway through the third period to spoil Manny Fernandez's shutout bid. The Kings fell to their third straight defeat and seventh in eight games.
In Detroit, Dominik Hasek made 22 saves and Robert Lang collected the third-period winner as the Red Wings edged the San Jose Sharks 2-1 to snap a three-game losing skid.
Steve Bernier's first period powerplay goal gave the Sharks the early lead but the Red Wings hit back with a pair of third period tallies, Mathieu Schneider getting the equaliser just 38 seconds into the final frame then set up Lang's winner.
Hasek was sharp in the final minutes, making two big saves to preserve the win. Evgeni Nabokov made 37 saves for the Sharks.
In Chicago, Roberto Luongo made 32 saves to register his first shutout with the Canucks as Vancouver crushed the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0.

TITLE: Refocused Els Takes On Elite
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PALM HARBOR, United States — South African golfer Ernie Els, keen to challenge Tiger Woods' global golf hegemony, takes on an elite field here this week in the 5.3 million-dollar Chrysler Championship."I am definitely refocused and dedicated," Els said. "I've given myself a realistic goal for the next three years and that means I have to dedicate myself physically and mentally. It's good to have a clear goal I want to achieve in a couple of years, not a six-month goal or a two-month goal, because that's when I'm going to be my best.
"If you look at where the number one player is right now, you are not going to get near him in one or two years, so I've got to give myself a three-year stretch to try to approach him."
Two years ago, Els contended in all four majors, twice finishing second and finishing second on the US tour money list.
His was enduring an average 2005 even before he suffered a ruptured ligament in his left knee in July that required surgery and saw him sidelined for almost five months.
After winning his comeback tournament last December, Els is without a win in 23 starts this year.
"I'm in much better shape than I was in my late 20s," said the South African, who was ranked No. 1 in the world for a total of nine weeks in 1997-98. "My swing has come a long way since that time also. I've had a couple of body blows, losing close tournaments, but when you get in contention, you are going to lose quite a bit, especially playing against Tiger.
"It has been a tough year, but it's not like I've fallen off the map completely. I just haven't been consistent. What's let me down is my putting and driving. Because I haven't driven the ball that well, I've put a lot of pressure on my putting."
Els is ranked 30th on the money list heading into this week's tournament, and only the top 30 on the list on Sunday for next week's season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta, an event Els hasn't missed since 1998.
However, he is also eager for the victory that would book his place in January's Mercedes Championship, the season opener in Hawaii restricted to winners on tour the previous year.
"I want to start the year in Hawaii (because) all the years I have started there I've had good years," Els said. "The only way I can get in is to win this week or next. That's what I'm focused on."
The field here also includes Australian Adam Scott, Fiji's Vijay Singh and South African Retief Goosen. Tom Lehman is also in action, focused on playing again after completing his Ryder Cup captaincy duties.

TITLE: Injuries Decimate St. Pete Open
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: A rush of injuries decimated the St. Petersburg Open on Wednesday when three seeded players were forced to quit the $1 million tournament.Top seed Nikolay Davydenko retired from his second-round match against South Africa's Wesley Moodie with a foot injury while leading 6-2 3-3.
The Russian was joined on the sidelines by compatriot and eighth seed Mikhail Youzhny, who just 30 minutes earlier pulled out of his doubles match after spraining his right ankle. The injury handed Swede Thomas Johansson a walkover into the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the day, fifth-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen also retired from his second-round match against Potito Starace with a foot injury, with the Italian leading 7-5 3-2.
"I hurt my right foot in the seventh game of the first set when I ran for a short ball," Davydenko told a news conference.
"I just felt a huge pain in my foot. I don't think it was my ankle, it was more like my heel.
"I called a trainer after the next changeover to tape my foot.
"I won the first set but in the second I felt more pain and had trouble moving around the court.
"I probably could have continued but I wasn't sure how I would feel tomorrow and I just didn't want to take any chances with a Masters tournament in Paris coming up next week and the (season-ending) Masters Cup in Shanghai to follow."
Johansson, who won here last year, will now meet Moodie in Friday's quarter-finals.
Youzhny's injury appears to be more serious.
The world number 23 was taken to a local hospital for x-rays.
"Medical test will show if Youzhny would be able to participate in any future tournaments for the rest of the year," ATP officials said in a statement.
The 97th-ranked Starace advanced to the quarter-finals for the third time this year and will meet either fourth-seeded German Tommy Haas or Russian wildcard Igor Kunitsyn.
Sixth seed Dmitry Tursunov was shown the exit after losing to Belarus' Max Mirnyi 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the first round.
Mirnyi broke the Russian in the seventh game of the final set when the world number 22 double-faulted on break point.
The lanky Belarussian then closed out the match with his customary delivery in just under two hours.
Haas also booked his place in the second round with a 6-2 6-7 6-2 victory over Serbian qualifier Nenad Zimonjic.
The German allowed a 4-1 lead in the second set to slip through his grasp before making amends in the decider.
"Finally, I got to celebrate my first win here today," said Haas, who lost in the first round on his previous visit in 2001.

TITLE: Gronholm Looks To Close Gap On Loeb
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MELBOURNE — Ford's Marcus Gronholm will look to close the gap on absent world championship leader Sebastien Loeb in the Rally of Australia this weekend as the event makes its final appearance in Perth.Loeb missed the Turkish Rally earlier in the month after breaking his arm in a fall from his mountain bike and the French world champion will also skip the three-day trek across the gravel roads of Western Australia.
The 38-year-old Gronholm took full advantage of Loeb's absence in Istanbul, claiming his fifth win of the year to close the gap on the leader to 25 points with three rounds remaining.
"Australia is a special rally for me and one that I really like," the two-times world champion said of the 26-stage event starting on Friday.
"Sebastien Loeb will still be injured so I will be first on the road on Friday. I have previously set good times on those roads from the front.
"The 1-2 result in Turkey gave the team a real boost and having now moved into the lead of the manufacturers' championship, we'll do everything we can in Australia to strengthen our position."
Loeb's Kronos Racing Citroen team relinquished the lead in the championship in Turkey after the decision to use former world champion Colin McRae in place of Loeb misfired, with the Scot failing to trouble the leaders and retiring on the final stage.
This time the privately owned Belgian team have opted for Spaniard Xevi Pons, who finished fourth in the second Xsara in Turkey, and team boss Marc Van Dalen was happy with his selection.
"We've tried a bit of a gamble in Turkey but things didn't really go as Colin and ourselves wished. Xevi is a strong member of the team, he has found his confidence and performed really well in Turkey," he said.
Pons and fellow Spaniard Daniel Sordo will drive the only two Kronos cars in the race and the 26-year-old is unfazed at stepping into Loeb's shoes.
"Seb is irreplaceable and I hope that he will come back soon. The fact I will be driving the number one Xsara is only due to regulation purposes. I feel no pressure."
Loeb leads Gronholm by 25 points with the races in Australia, New Zealand and Wales remaining while Ford lead the team standings by eight points from Kronos.

TITLE: Man. U Avoids Cup Embarassment
AUTHOR: By James Cone
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: LONDON — Kieran Lee scored in extra time to give defending-champion Manchester United a 2-1 victory over Crewe in the third round of English soccer's League Cup. Liverpool defeated Reading 4-3.Lee, making his United debut as a second-half substitute, fired a low shot into the net for the winning goal after Crewe, which plays in the third-tier League One, rallied to force extra time at its Gresty Road stadium.
"I'm just disappointed, really,'' Luke Varney, who got Crewe's goal, told Sky Sports. "I'd started to look forward to a penalty shootout.''
Elsewhere in the country's secondary cup tournament, Chelsea won 2-0 at Blackburn, Tottenham beat Milton Keynes Dons 5-0, Charlton defeated Bolton 1-0, and two goals from Nolberto Solano helped Newcastle beat Portsmouth 3-0.
United got the opening goal Wednesday in the 26th minute, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's sixth strike in 10 games this season. The Norwegian slid the ball into the net from Richie Jones's cross.
Crewe goalkeeper Ben Williams, who started his career at United without ever playing for the first team, a minute later pushed a Kieran Richardson effort against the crossbar to stop the visitors from increasing their lead.
With 17 minutes remaining, Crewe tied the game on Varney's goal. His low shot beat Tomasz Kuszczak in the United goal from 15 yards. It was Crewe's first goal against United since 1894.
Liverpool, which won the last of its record seven League Cup titles in 2003, survived a rally by visiting Reading to secure its spot in the last 16.
Robbie Fowler, John Arne Riise and Gabriel Paletta put Liverpool three goals ahead, before Andre Bikey scored for Reading with 15 minutes remaining. Peter Crouch re-established Liverpool's advantage two minutes later before goals by Reading's Leroy Lita and Shane Long.
Chelsea extended its unbeaten run to 11 games with goals from Joe Cole and Salomon Kalou against 2002 champion Blackburn. It was the same result as their Premiership meeting at Blackburn two months ago.

FOURTH-ROUND DRAW:
Notts County	vs	Wycombe
Tottenham	vs	Port Vale
Birmingham	vs	Liverpool
Chelsea	vs	Aston Villa
Watford	vs	Newcastle
Chesterfield	vs	Charlton
Southend	vs	Man. United
Everton	vs	Arsenal