SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1226 (92), Friday, December 1, 2006
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TITLE: Mariinsky Theater Opens New Concert Hall
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Valery Gergiev, the indefatigable artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, was triumphant on Wednesday at the inauguration of the theater's brand-new, state-of-the-art concert hall, located in the company's former warehouse on Ulitsa Pisareva, a few hundred meters from the historical building.A 2 1/2 hour gala performance featuring such top-flight international performers as Russian violinists Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov, Chinese pianist Lang Lang and Russian tenor Vladimir Galuzin, alongside the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gergiev, marked the launch ceremony.
"This is perhaps the first time in modern Russia when private sponsors have invested more than the state into a grand-scale cultural project," the maestro said.
Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said $15 million of state money was invested into the concert hall, in addition to $24 million that came from private companies and individuals.
Six individual donors, Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, RUSAL chairman Oleg Deripaska and Akhmed Bilalov, the deputy head of the Russian Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, gave money to the Mariinsky.
"The opening of this hall marks the beginning of a new era for Russia," Kudrin said after the concert on Wednesday. "It shows that the country is getting stronger and in such grand-scale cultural projects state support goes hand in hand with private sponsorship. I find it a most encouraging sign."
The story of the Mariinsky's new concert hall, which is also referred to as the theater's "third stage," is almost literally the story of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
In September 2003, the warehouse on Ulitsa Pisareva nearly perished in a massive blaze that destroyed scenery for at least 30 of the theater's productions that was stored there. It was later decided to use the space for a modern concert hall and construction began in June 2005.
"We expect to receive some of the world's finest performers here, and very soon," Gergiev said. One of the confirmed arrangements is a visit of the London Symphony Orchestra, which Gergiev is now leading as artistic director.
Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref made a metaphorical reference to what he felt was a much greater fire.
"The need for the revival of the burnt premises and the need for a new concert venue were great indeed but Valery Gergiev's commendable burning enthusiasm for his theater made a much stronger impression," he said after the gala on Wednesday.
Kudrin was enthusiastic about the Mariinsky's ambitious plans for further expansion.
"The next step will be the construction of the theater's 'second stage,' [a new theater to run alongside its historic building] which will be covered entirely by the federal budget, and which we hope to complete within the next three years," Kudrin said. "After that we will get to the renovation of the Mariinsky's historic premises."
Designed by the French architect Xavier Fabre in the shape of a child's cradle, the new concert hall can seat 1,100 people. Good visibility and excellent acoustics are hallmarks of the new space.
"It was my premier goal to make all seats in the audience comfortable," Fabre said at a news briefing on Wednesday. "And this is a very multifunctional space, open to experiments with scenery, genres, and new forms of artistic activities."
Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota of the internationally acclaimed Nagata Acoustics was responsible for the hall's acoustics. The company prides itself on the exceptional sound of some of the world's most distinguished classical venues, including Japan's Sapporo and Kawasaki concert halls and the U.S. Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles.
"Some of the world's most sought-after violinists performed here tonight; they played their beautiful instruments, a Guarneri and a Stradivari," Gergiev said, referring to Vengerov and Repin. "I am very proud that the new instrument of our own, the new hall, lived up to the challenge."
Canadian maple — Yasuhisa Toyota's preferred material — was ordered for the hall's interiors. Local experts had suggested the Karelian pine but as the acoustician has not worked with the material, the maple was requested.
Everything about the new hall has a personal touch.
Gergiev personally selected several types of seats for the auditorium — they differ depending on their location in the hall — which were commissioned from a French furniture factory.
After the gala, Japanese diplomats mounted the stage to award Gergiev Japan's prestigious Order of the Rising Sun for the musician's personal input into the country's cultural life — the Mariinsky tours Japan frequently and extensively — and his support for emerging young talent in Japan.
"There are just 300 grams of wood in a violin but what makes a Stradivari precious is its marvelous acoustics," he said. "Likewise, we could have spent three hundred million dollars on this hall but its value is in its acoustics," said Gergiev.
Earlier Wednesday President Vladimir Putin visited the new concert hall and sat in on a rehearsal for the gala.

TITLE: British Track Radioactive Planes After Spy's Death
AUTHOR: By Paul Majendie and Adrian Croft
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Britain is monitoring a Russian plane and three British aircraft in an ever widening probe into the death from radiation poisoning of a former Russian FSB officer that has heightened tensions with Moscow.Other planes may need to be tracked, British interior minister John Reid told parliament as he pledged there would be no political barriers to the probe.
Reid said police had found radioactive traces at 12 out of 24 locations being checked in connection with the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He accused Putin of ordering his death but the Kremlin and Russia's foreign spy service have denied any involvement.
Litvinenko, who became a British citizen while living in London, died in the capital a week ago after being poisoned with radioactive polonium 210.
British Airways said three aircraft had been taken out of service as part of the probe. All had flown between Moscow and London, and one is still in Moscow.
The airline said "very low traces" of a radioactive substance had been found on the two planes being held in London.
A fourth plane being monitored, a Boeing 737 leased by Russian carrier Transaero that landed at Heathrow Airport on Thursday, was given the all clear.
"There is one other Russian plane, that we know, that we think we would be interested in," Reid said. "There may be other airplanes of which we don't at this stage know."
The announcement about the planes and their destinations could rekindle suspicions of a Moscow link to the poisoning.
Alex Goldfarb, a close friend of Litvinenko, told reporters in London he suspected the radiation had come from Moscow.
"Alexander was convinced Mr Putin was personally involved in this," he said as an inquest into Litvinenko's death was opened and promptly adjourned.
In Moscow, Anatoly Safonov, Putin's counter-terrorism adviser, said: "As we said before, we are open and willing to offer all the help needed."
Reid told parliament that Moscow had promised cooperation to the "highest level" and that British police would use all the powers they needed to search planes.
"There certainly will be no political prohibition on the police following where the evidence leads them," he said.
In Britain, thousands of BA passengers sought health reassurances from the airline after the announcement. BA says the risk to health is low. But it faces a huge task tracing the 33,000 passengers who used the planes over a five-week period.
In Russia, the Transport Ministry ordered international airports to step up security controls on foreign carriers.
Reid said Britain would contact the governments of every country where the planes may have landed.
Experts said Litvinenko's death raised serious questions about Britain's ability to deal with a radiation scare.
"We get one assassin coming in with a bit of radioactivity and the whole system falls to pieces," John Large, an independent nuclear expert, said. "We can't handle one radiation incident, let alone someone exploding a dirty bomb."
He noted doctors had failed to diagnose the nuclear poison in Litvinenko's body until three weeks after he fell ill, leading to concern medical staff may have been contaminated.

TITLE: Italian Manager Takes on Electricity Monopoly
AUTHOR: By Simon Shuster
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: OLGINO, Leningrad Oblast — The Italian director of Russia's most modern power plant sticks out like a sore thumb. Next to his buttoned-down Russian colleagues, his broad smiles and vigorous gestures seem as out of place as the management style he brought to the plant near St. Petersburg in 2004."Svetlana never leaves my side," Georgio Cimini said of his poker-faced translator. "I am the first stranger in the UES organization."
Electricity monopoly UES, or Unified Energy Systems, has a 66.4 percent stake in the NorthWest Thermal Power Plant. The rest of the plant is owned by UES's export arm, Inter RAO, and a group of small investors. The plant is managed by Italy's Enel under the first and only contract of its type between UES and a foreign firm.
It is unlikely, however, to be the last. UES chief Anatoly Chubais is currently in talks with German energy giant, E.On, and with as many as 20 energy IPOs planned for 2007, "strangers" are bound soon to seem less strange within the corridors of the electricity sector.
So far, Enel is setting quite a precedent. In the first two years of its three-year contract, Cimini's team has raised $129 million in private investment, streamlined the workforce by 15 percent, and built a new, state-of-the-art turbine about one year faster than usual. On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin is to speak at the unveiling of the 450-megawatt machine, the station's spokesman said.
Showing up to flip the switch on a turbine is not typically on the president's agenda. There are several reasons for the hype.
The visit will come one week after Putin scolded his government over its inaction on energy reform, demanding that decisive steps be taken to increase supply. One such step is following the NorthWest plant's lead and constructing combined cycle gas turbines, or CCGTs.
These gas-fired machines are about 40 percent more fuel-efficient than the antiquated steam turbines used throughout the country today. And considering the recent shortages of natural gas, this is no trifling advantage. So far, however, CCGTs account for only 1,000 megawatts of capacity in the nation's chronically inefficient power sector. Installing 70,000 megawatts more capacity is the backbone of UES construction plans for the next 10 years, Chubais said last week.
These 70,000 megawatts will cost $51.1 billion to install, making this mammoth industrial expansion the costliest since Stalin's five-year plans.
To help finance all of this, Chubais is counting largely on foreign investors to buy stakes in UES's subsidiaries.
Next year alone, he plans to raise at least $10 billion from 10 to 15 IPOs. "But by the smell of the market, I think it will be closer to 20," Chubais told a group of foreign journalists after a UES-organized tour of the NorthWest plant.
Foreign firms like Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens — Siemens built the new turbine at NorthWest — will also be needed to carry out much of the construction, because Russia's machine industry lacks both the know-how and the capacity to handle the project alone, Chubais explained.
As such, NorthWest is testing some serious waters — not only of foreign investment and foreign management but of the nation's plans for averting a looming energy crisis.
For Cimini, the poster boy for this experiment, it has been a hectic couple of years. Bureaucracy — the need to get most of his decisions rubber-stamped by UES officials or the government — has been his biggest frustration since he started in 2004.
"The system doesn't yet accept self-responsibility," he said. "[There are] resistances to change in behavior."
During his first year on the job, he had to obtain 567 official approvals, mostly from bureaucrats in the Leningrad regional administration. These approvals are a typical bane of operating in Russia.
But Cimini is proud that he has only had to obtain 390 approvals this year, a drop that he credits to a growing rapport with local officials.
He is even more proud that the plant's fuel efficiency has risen to 51 percent. The worldwide efficiency average is 36 percent to 40 percent, because power generation loses a lot of energy in the form of heat. But by harnessing part of this heat and supplying it to chilly northwestern Russia, Cimini said he also managed to save 200 million cubic meters of natural gas that would otherwise have gone toward heat production.
Natural gas powers all the turbines at NorthWest, and all of it is bought from Gazprom, the state-owned monopoly. Cimini did not name Gazprom as a problematic partner, but he noted "low competition for supply" of gas was indeed a strain on the energy sector's efficiency.
Another source of friction are state-set electricity prices, which are kept artificially low to keep consumers happy.
Like all of UES' generating companies, the NorthWest plant can only sell 15 percent of its output on the free market, where prices are 10 percent to 30 percent higher, depending on the region, said Vladimir Khlebnikov, general director of a UES power generating company, OGK-1.
But under new legislation, any capacity installed after next year can be sold on the free market. This means that if the NorthWest plant had waited just five weeks before starting up its new turbine, it could have sold those 450 megawatts of output for up to 30 percent more.
The way it stands, however, the November start date commits 85 percent of that new capacity — some 14 billion kilowatt hours per year — to be sold at below-market prices.
Cimini said he did not mind this because he felt "a certain social responsibility" to provide power as the temperature dropped through December. "The electricity is needed now," he said.
But from a business perspective, this seems a strange note to strike, said Dmitry Terekhov, electricity analyst at Antanta Capital. Since it is based in the energy-starved Leningrad region, the NorthWest plant would have no problem selling all of its output even at the higher market prices. "The deficit in that region is very real," Terekhov said.

TITLE: On World AIDS Day, Appeal For Toys For HIVPositive Children
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There's a chance for people to lend a helping hand to HIV-positive children on International AIDS Day on Friday by bringing New Year presents for them to the entrance of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Interfax reported.Volunteers from the youth movement "Energy of Life" and non-governmental organization "City Without Drugs" will be collecting presents for local HIV-positive children on Friday and Saturday and will then pass them on to the children's families and orphanages. The organizers of the charitable initiative say the donations do not need to involve much money, and stress children would welcome even a very small present.
"Let's try and make these children believe in a fairy tale," reads the volunteers' appeal to citizens. "Every little thing matters. You can start with buying a box of Pampers or a lively children's book, or bring clothes and toys. The children will be very happy."
The stigma that Russia's HIV patients confront in society dies hard.
The first child born with HIV in St. Petersburg was due to start school in September. It took the personal intervention of St. Petersburg vice-governor Lyudmila Kostkina to ensure that the child was accepted by a school.
Children of HIV-positive parents, even if HIV-negative themselves, are routinely denied access to many public facilities such as swimming pools, sports clubs or health centers, said Yevgeny Voronin, chief doctor with the Republican Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Ust-Izhora, outside St. Petersburg.
The adoption of an HIV-positive child in Russia is rare. During the 19 years which have passed since the first HIV cases were registered in Russia, only five HIV-positive children have been adopted, said Voronin. Of the five adopted HIV-positive children, only one baby was adopted by a Russian, while the other four were adopted by foreigners, he added.
"Society is still poorly informed about the disease," Voronin said. "People are driven by fear that is based on prejudice."

TITLE: Russia is a 'Problem' Says EC's Barosso
AUTHOR: By Michael Heath and Brian Parkin
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: The unexplained deaths of a former Russian spy, an investigative journalist, a central banker and two business executives have created "a problem" between Russia and Europe, European Commission President Jose Barroso said Thursday."We have a problem with Russia. In fact we have several problems," Barroso told the German Parliament's European Affairs Committee. "Too many people have been killed and we don't know who killed them."
The death by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, last week, and the slaying last month of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, both fierce Kremlin critics, came as President Vladimir Putin left for two visits to Europe. Putin played down the symbolism of the deaths of political opponents.
"We should not forget that such crimes do not only happen in Russia," he said at an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki on Nov. 24. "In other European countries there are well-known political murders that have not yet been resolved.
"Let's look at what is happening with the mafia in several EU countries," Putin said.
Barroso said Thursday that Europe "can't compromise" on human rights with Russia.
He spoke a day after it was announced that after former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar had been hospitalized for possible poisoning. Barroso is president of the EU's executive branch.

TITLE: NATO Looks East To Add Members
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: NATO leaders on Wednesday invited Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join a cooperation program that is a first step toward possible membership of the military alliance, but urged Serbia and Bosnia to cooperate fully with the United Nations war crimes tribunal.NATO leaders also declared support for the membership efforts of Georgia and Ukraine, but did not promise to accept them. Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych recently contradicted pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko on the need to join NATO.
NATO is taking a go-slow approach on Georgia because of its conflicts with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, diplomats said.
But Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a staunch advocate of admitting Georgia to NATO, suggested that some alliance members feared offending Russia, which opposes NATO enlargement, especially when it came to Moscow's former satellites.
"Georgia is treated with a lot of sympathy, but we also have a group of politicians who are, let's say, cautious," he said. "This caution results ... from the reactions of its [Georgia's] powerful neighbor."
Andrei Kokoshin, head of the State Duma's Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations With Russian Nationals Abroad, told Interfax on Wednesday that further expansion to the east would complicate NATO-Russian relations.
"At the NATO summit in Riga, there was talk about accepting new members — Georgia in particular, but also to some extent about Ukraine," Kokoshin said. "But the policy of eastward expansion is counterproductive and will significantly complicate relations between the alliance and Russia."
President Vladimir Putin caused a diplomatic frenzy Tuesday by offering to visit Latvia after the summit to congratulate French President Jacques Chirac on his 74th birthday on Wednesday.
But it was not to be. The Kremlin announced late Tuesday that scheduling difficulties had made the trip impossible.
Serbia and Bosnia previously were excluded from NATO's Partnership for Peace program because of their failure to apprehend the two leading war crimes suspects indicted by the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic.
But NATO said at the end of the two-day summit that the three countries could make a "valuable contribution" to stability in the Balkans, and that their membership in the program was important for the region.
NATO also said it would invite countries that met all alliance membership requirements to become full members at its 2008 summit. Three Balkan countries — Croatia, Macedonia and Albania — already take part in the NATO program and are lined up to join the alliance.
(AP, Reuters, SPT)

TITLE: Former PM's Illness Sparks Dark Rumors
AUTHOR: By Carl Schreck and Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the architect of Russia's turbulent transition to a market economy, became violently ill last week while in Ireland, prompting speculation he had been targeted for assassination.Gaidar, 50, fell ill one day after former KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died in London from apparent radiation poisoning. Gaidar was still recuperating Wednesday in a Moscow hospital.
Unified Energy Systems chief Anatoly Chubais, who presided over President Boris Yeltsin's privatization program and is a friend of Gaidar, said doctors believed Gaidar's illness might not be natural, linking the incident to Litvinenko's death and the murder last month of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Gaidar's death, Chubais told reporters, "would have been very desirable for some people who are seeking an unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia."
But a spokeswoman for the Irish Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "There is no reason to believe there is anything suspicious or untoward about this."
The former prime minister began bleeding from his nose and vomiting before fainting Friday while in Dublin, where he was promoting his book "The Death of Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia," said his spokesman, Valery Natarov.
Gaidar was rushed to a Dublin hospital; he spent one night there before checking out. One day later, he checked into a hospital in Moscow. Natarov could not explain what Gaidar was doing or where he was between leaving the hospital in Dublin and entering the hospital in Moscow. He also declined to name the hospital where Gaidar was staying in Moscow.
Natarov said the cause of Gaidar's illness remained unclear and that "poisoning has not been ruled out." Natarov said that as far as he knew, Gaidar had not received any death threats.
As of Wednesday night, Gaidar's condition was stable, Natarov said. "It is still unclear when he will be able to leave the hospital, but we're hoping for a speedy recovery," he added.
Gaidar is best known for abolishing the country's price controls in early 1992. His "shock therapy," widely blamed for wiping out the life savings of millions of Russians, earned him widespread scorn.
When, in September 2003, Gaidar's party, the Union of Right Forces, announced that the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq had invited Gaidar to help craft a recovery plan, pundits joked that Washington was unleashing a weapon of mass destruction on the Iraqi people.
Chubais, who has also been roundly and repeatedly attacked for his role in the spiraling prices and crooked privatization schemes that characterized much of the Yeltsin era, survived an assassination attempt last year.
The suspected assailants are now on trial. Prosecutors have said the would-be assassins were outraged by Chubais' record, as they saw it, of handing over the crown jewels of the Soviet Union to the oligarchs who came to dominate Russia in the 1990s.
Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, said he could not fathom why anyone in power would want Gaidar dead. While Gaidar advises some officials in President Vladimir Putin's administration, he does not have much pull.
Echoing the state-controlled media's take on Litvinenko's death, State Duma Deputy and journalist Alexander Khinshtein said Gaidar might have been poisoned by those looking to discredit the Kremlin.
"I don't exclude [the possibility that there is] a systematic plan, developed in the West, to massively discredit top Russian officials, the security forces, as well as President Putin, by blatantly attempting to liquidate members and ideologues of the liberal wing of Russian politics," Khinshtein said by e-mail.
Former Federal Security Service officer Gennady Gudkov dismissed talk of a conspiracy at home or abroad. Litvinenko's death, he said, had triggered fears of "poison mania." This had led some to label prematurely Gaidar's illness an assassination attempt, he suggested.
Gudkov, who is also a member of the Duma's Security Committee, observed that there was a long list of potential Kremlin critics who were very much alive, including chess champion and liberal reformer Garry Kasparov and liberal satirist Viktor Shenderovich.

TITLE: Bill Promises Elected Judges
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Leading judges would be elected and a special court would hear cases against judges if a raft of legislative measures submitted by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry were adopted.The measures, which consist of amendments to federal laws, are in line with Kremlin efforts to clean up the corruption-plagued judiciary.
They call for judges to elect their chairpersons in a secret ballot for a five-year term; the president now appoints all judges for a maximum of two six-year terms. And they establish a disciplinary court and internal investigation service to oversee cases involving judges.
The measures were reported Wednesday by Vedomosti.
The disciplinary court would consist of 21 judges approved by the Federation Council.
The president, judges and unidentified "representatives of the public" would each select one-third of the court nominees. Currently, judges suspected of ethical lapses are dealt with by associates.
A different bill drafted by the Supreme Arbitration Court requires judges to declare their incomes. The bill gives court chairpersons, not the Federal Tax Service, the power to review data provided by subordinates.

TITLE: Strategic Investments in Power
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Italy's energy group Enel wants to become a strategic investor in Russia's power sector, its top executive, Fulvio Conti, said Wednesday, but declined to disclose details."We are waiting for the decision regulating the privatization. We will act as strategic investors," he told reporters during a visit to St. Petersburg to inaugurate a second unit at the NorthWest Thermal Power Plant. Enel runs the plant under the first and so far only contract that power monopoly Unified Energy Systems, or UES, has with a foreign partner.
Enel is among several foreign companies interested in government plans to break up UES to boost competition and attract investment. UES has approved a list of five generating companies that will offer shares to investors. Conti has said Enel could invest from 2 billion to 4 billion euros ($2.6 billion to $5.25 billion) in Russia and is interested in buying blocking stakes in companies.
President Vladimir Putin, who also attended Wednesday's ceremony, said Russia must increase its electric-power-generating capacity 50 percent in 10 years to double its gross domestic product over the same period.
(Reuters, SPT)

TITLE: Get Back in Business With Nanotechnology
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg this week played host to Nanobio '06, the first international conference on nanotechnology to be held in Russia. The event ran from Monday through Wednesday at the city's State Polytechnic University."There is a lot of talk about nanoscience — it's a global technology that affects all other technologies and processes that people use," Sergei Kozyrev, director of the Center for Perspective Research at St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, said at a round table at Rosbalt news agency on Thursday.
Kozyrev compared the possible impact of nanoscience on society to the effects caused by new information technologies.
A nanometer is a measure equal to one millionth of a millimeter, and nanoscience deals with objects of that size.
"Nano means not merely very small objects, but objects that due to their small size have new qualities," said Viktor Ustinov, member of the Russian Academy of Science and scientist at the A.F. Ioffe Physics and Technical Institute.
Ustinov mentioned Russian scientist Zhores Alferov, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 2000 for his related work together with colleagues from the Institute of Physics and Technology in the 1960s and 70s.
Technologies based on semiconductors and Alferov's findings are used in solar batteries, light-emitting diodes and heterotransistors. Semiconductors made possible the internet, satellite communications, cellular phones and other things that have become present-day commodities.
"The potential market for nanoproducts is equal to the whole market of new innovative materials," Kozyrev said.
Potential uses range from powders with special qualities to information systems to medicine, he said.
John Reinitz, professor of Stony Brook University, reminded those present that the production of insulin allowed the treatment of diseases that were previously untreatable. He suggested that nanoscience will allow to control biological processes and could allow treatment of cancer and considerable improvements in agriculture.
"Unfortunately, Russia is currently well below global standards of technology in this industry — we are considerably behind China, a country that is making huge steps in developing nanotechnologies," Kozyrev said.
"In Russia, current methods of production do not correspond to the technologies that science could offer to the industry. And this gap keeps growing," Kozyrev said.
Although Intel, Siemens, Bosch and other foreign giants attended the conference to hire talented scientists and make interesting scientific discoveries, Russian companies were not represented, the experts said.
They estimated that less than 10 enterprises in St. Petersburg could be called 'high-tech.' "In Russia, we do not have high-tech production based on nanotechnologies," Ustinov said.
"We could compete in the world market and we are interesting to foreigners in the field of new ideas. That is the area where Russian science is almost unrivaled. But when it comes to competition in the realm of production, to producing working samples we find ourselves far behind other countries. That has been our problem ever since Soviet times," Kozyrev said.
At the moment a Federal program for the development of Russian nanoindustry infrastructure is being set up involving the creation of a number of research centers specialized in nanoscience, one of them in St. Petersburg, developed on the basis of the Prometei research institute of structural materials.
Total federal funding for the program is 16 billion rubles ($608 million). "Prometei" will receive about 1.5 billion rubles ($57 million).
"So far there has been no private investment in this industry," said Anatoliy Askenazi, chief engineer of the recently created Prometei Nanomaterials Research Center.
"We've overslept and missed out on the information revolution. So as not to miss out on the nanoscience revolution the Russian government has started developing special funding programs," he said.
The city's new research center will be carried out over several stages. The first part will be completed next year, the last part in 2010. The complex will occupy about 10,000 square meters and will consist of buildings on Shpalernaya Ulitsa in St. Petersburg and in Gatchina district in Leningrad Oblast.
"We will focus mainly on applicable technologies — on nanomaterials," Askenazi said.
The experts indicated that Japan and other research-focused countries spend tens of billions of dollars on similar programs. "In Russia this program has just appeared and its funding is significantly smaller," Ustinov said.

TITLE: Border Traffic To Speed Up
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Finland and Russia agreed Wednesday on steps to reduce long traffic lines at their 1,300-kilometer border."We will make additional efforts to facilitate controls, increase the number of workers at border crossings and invest additional funds to expand the checkpoints," Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said after talks with visiting Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
Long lines of trucks regularly back up at border crossings, and Fradkov said he had asked his Cabinet to find ways to attract the Asian cargo that is shipped across Russian territory to Russian ports instead of Finnish ones. He said tariff cuts and improved port management would attract the cargo.
Helsinki has proposed allowing officials to register cargo details at ports and other pickup points by computer. That would enable the automatic transfer of data to control points on both sides of the border.
Last year, nearly 6 million border crossings were recorded at eight international border crossings between Finland and Russia, an increase of some 5 percent from the previous year. This year alone, 850,000 trucks will cross the joint border.

(AP, SPT)

TITLE: Putin Goes Back to School
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a state-run management school in the city."This is a school of a new type, oriented toward top world standards," Putin said. "We believe it will be able to compete with all the famous business schools around the world."
The state will allocate 1.5 billion rubles ($57 million) this year and next year for the Higher School of Management (HSM) project, he said.
Within the framework of the national project 'Education,' it was decided to create two world-class business schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In Moscow, the model of a private business school was chosen, in St. Petersburg the HSM is to be part of the state university's management faculty.
According to the rector of HSM, Valery Katkalo, the management faculty already has a recognized name and reputation and global ties. He wants the school to specialize in scientific research.
According to him, it's vital to create a long-lasting alliance with well-known business schools and international and Russian companies. "We are attached to the idea of a public private partnership, which should become the essence of the creation of the HSM," he said.
In all of this there is a lot of politics and very little business, said Alexander Yanchevski, director of the Russian campus at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management. According to him the private Moscow business school is a lot more intelligible and better defined than the unclear private-public partnership of St. Petersburg due to the former's organizational-legal form.

(Vedomosti, SPT)

TITLE: Finding New Ways To Sell Arms to China
AUTHOR: By Joe McDonald
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ZHUHAI, China — For a decade, China has been the financial savior of Russia's arms industry, spending freely on fighter jets, submarines and other high-tech weapons. That buying binge is trailing off as Beijing, its immediate needs met, shifts to trying to develop its own advanced weapons."It seems as if it's going to be a downward spiral from now on," said Paul Holtom, who follows the arms trade for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.
With fewer big-ticket sales on the horizon, Moscow is looking for new ways to sell to China, including a possible partnership with Beijing to create stealth jets to match U.S. advances and getting into China's civil aviation market, analysts say.
Moscow's commercial zeal was on display earlier this month at China's biggest air show in Zhuhai, where dozens of Russian companies showed off jet engines, missiles and other technology in air-conditioned exhibition halls. Russia was, after China, the second-biggest presence at the show. Despite the show, Russia does not expect any big orders. "Our experts estimate that for the foreseeable future, for some 10 years, China has a sufficient amount of Russian military equipment that they will need time to absorb," said Leonid Gladchenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the arms export agency.
Filling existing orders will keep Russia's shipyards and factories busy for several years, Gladchenko said. After that, he said, the arms industry will have to live on the smaller sums from after-sales service and spare-parts deliveries.
Beijing has spent at least $15.6 billion on Russian weapons since 1999, according to SIPRI. Purchases last year totaled $2.6 billion, or 45 percent of Moscow's reported $6 billion in exports.
With arms sales winding down, Russian companies are trying to break into China's civilian aviation market, which is forecast to be the world's fastest-growing over the next two decades.
Sukhoi, the fighter-jet maker, was at the Zhuhai show promoting a 100-seat civilian regional jet. Tupolev, maker of nuclear bombers, displayed its Tu-204 jetliner, a twin-engine plane with a list price of $37 million that can seat 162 passengers. Chinese airlines have bought 15 Tu-204s as cargo planes, and Tupolev is talking to China's post office and other possible customers, said Oleg Alesheyev, the company's chief designer.
Beijing might still be forced to turn to Moscow if its weapons designers do not progress fast enough and U.S. and European arms embargoes stay in place, said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher at SIPRI. One option would be for Beijing to pay for Moscow's development of weapons such as the planned Su-35 fighter, meant to match the U.S.-made F-22 or F-35, Wezeman said.

TITLE: Inflowing Worries Are Capital
AUTHOR: By Artyom Danielyan
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Central Bank on Wednesday raised its forecast for capital inflows this year and said it might tighten banking reserve requirements to slow a flood of cash exerting upward pressure on the ruble.First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said he expected capital inflows to reach $23 billion to $25 billion in 2006 — up from his previous forecast of $20 billion and a vast increase from last year's $0.9 billion.
Russia is on track to post its first sizeable capital account surplus since 1991, with the abolition of capital controls on July 1 attracting both direct and portfolio investors.
That is creating a headache for the Central Bank, as it tries to defend a competitive exchange rate amid global dollar weakness. The ruble traded at 26.35 to the dollar Wednesday, close to a seven-year high and up 9 percent this year.
The government, running huge budget surpluses, has embarked on a debt reduction drive. But companies are borrowing heavily abroad, with state-controlled Gazprom recently raising $2 billion on the Eurobond market.
Outstanding Eurobond issuance by Russian corporates grew to $56 billion as of Oct. 31, according to the web site Cbonds. That compares with sovereign issuance that stands at $37 billion.
Ulyukayev told a financial forum that the Central Bank might raise reserve requirements to make foreign borrowing less attractive.
"We are ready to look at the question of applying a higher norm to nonresident funding than we have now," said Ulyukayev, the Central Bank's chief policy spokesman. "We don't want to create a special stimulus for capital inflows."
The Central Bank last ordered an increase in reserve requirements on foreign borrowing, to 3.5 percent from 2.0 percent, on Aug. 23. The measure, effectively a tax on foreign borrowing, took effect Oct. 1.
Support for the ruble from the capital account has come as weaker oil prices and rising imports have eroded the current account surplus, which has acted as the main driver of ruble appreciation in recent years.
Ulyukayev also told reporters that the dollar's latest fall would not prompt the Central Bank to revise its 2006 forecasts for inflation and the ruble's real appreciation — currently at 9 percent and 8.5 to 9 percent, respectively.
"The Central Bank ... believes that the dollar's decline against the world's major currencies and the Russian ruble up to now cannot be a reason for revising forecasts for the ruble's real effective rate and inflation in 2006," he said.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry said earlier that it expected consumer prices to rise 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent in November and cumulative inflation in the first 11 months of the year to reach 8.0 to 8.1 percent.

TITLE: Gazprom Closing In on Belarus' Pipeline Control
AUTHOR: By Miriam Elder
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Gazprom is close to reaching a final deal with Belarus that would give it partial control over the country's pipeline network in exchange for a lower gas price, officials in Moscow and Minsk said Wednesday.After years of stalled talks between Gazprom and Belarussian state pipeline network Beltransgaz, a 50-50 joint-venture deal is due to be reached by Jan. 1, Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said.
Gazprom has long sought greater control of the pipelines that deliver gas through Belarus and on to Germany, Lithuania and Poland. The talks have stalled over differing valuations of Beltransgaz.
Minsk has said that Gazprom's attempts to raise drastically the price that Belarus pays for gas imports, along with brief cutoffs of supplies, are intended to pressure Minsk into accepting Gazprom's terms.
President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow would "capitalize part of the gas price in the value of Beltransgaz" as part of the deal.
Dutch bank ABN Amro has finished an independent valuation of Beltransgaz. In the past, Gazprom has valued the company at about $1 billion, while Minsk says it is worth $5 billion.
The two sides had "earlier agreed that whatever the [independent] valuation would be, we would accept it," Putin said after the close of a Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Minsk on Tuesday.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov declined to provide details, saying only that the company was studying documents presented by Beltransgaz. An ABN Amro spokeswoman declined to comment.
Gazprom has said that concessions on ownership of Belarus' pipeline network would prompt it to ease demands that the country pay $200 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas starting next year, a steep hike from the $47 it currently pays.
Kupriyanov said a price had been agreed upon, but refused to provide details until the official close of talks. When asked to name the price, Kupriyanov would only say: "It's a market price."
Gazprom has been steadily raising prices for former Soviet republics, hoping to bring them closer to the European market average.
"We will switch to market relations with all partners, with no exceptions," Putin said during Tuesday's summit.
Critics of the Kremlin's energy policies have noted, however, that Gazprom's price hikes often ride on the back of political crises.
Gazprom asked Georgia to pay $230 per 1,000 cubic meters, more than double the $110 it currently pays, after Tbilisi expelled four Russian military officers on spying charges in September.

TITLE: Building Inclusive Democracy
AUTHOR: By Viktor Yushchenko
TEXT: Two years ago, an authoritarian regime's attempt to hijack the presidential election in Ukraine failed. As official results were announced, disbelief provoked millions of citizens to pour into the streets in protest. They took a stand against those discredited officials who hid behind law enforcement bodies in an attempt to prolong their corrupt hold on power. Those days and weeks are known as Ukraine's Orange Revolution.In the time since, my main goal as president has been to institutionalize democracy and guarantee that it is irreversible. Many of the wrongs in my country have been corrected. We are maintaining our unwavering commitment to the principles of freedom. We agreed to shift constitutional powers from an authoritarian presidency to a coalition government formed by the parliament to end the country's political impasse. And we abolished state censorship of the media, while also forbidding interference in news reporting.
This year, free and fair elections were held at national, regional and local levels. Overseeing the peaceful and democratic transition of power was my unique test, as it brought back to office my former political opponents.
But along with our national successes and economic achievements under two "orange" prime ministers, there have been disappointments and miscalculations. Infighting among my political allies has been the biggest disappointment. Some "orange" politicians have ignored their fundamental duty to deliver results for the public good. Instead, gaining political power and seeking the limelight have become their goal. As our country's democracy continues to mature, I am convinced that a young cadre of leaders will rise through the ranks of Ukraine's democratic parties to create a political renewal.
On my watch, the corruption that has historically emanated from the president's office has ceased. Thousands of election officials, tax collectors, foot patrols, road police and customs agents were brought to justice for petty corruption. Yet the biggest abusers of public office remain at large because of unreformed prosecutors and corruption in the courts. I have recently initiated a number of anti-corruption bills to reform the criminal justice system and the courts, and I will continue to press the parliament for speedy action.
Because we were preoccupied with domestic political reforms this year, we failed to communicate effectively with our international partners. I want to explain where Ukraine stands and where we are heading. Democracy and stability — two interdependent principles — form the basis of my agenda. To this end, I will continue constitutional reforms that facilitate the effective work of government and prevent a return to authoritarianism or the usurpation of power.
Today there is a balance of political power between two directly elected democratic bodies: the president and the parliament. The prime minister, although not directly elected, represents a majority of the members of the parliament. Bills specifying the role of the governing coalition and the opposition have yet to be passed. But let there be no mistake: Together we share responsibility for shaping, executing and controlling laws and state policies.
Second, constitutional reforms are incomplete and as a result, there is political asymmetry. We will continue to refine a reliable system of checks and balances between the presidency, the parliament and the coalition government to expedite policy decision making. To meet these objectives, I have commissioned a group of constitutional experts to recommend amendments to strengthen our nascent democratic institutions.
Third, our law on national security promotes participation and membership in pan-European and regional systems of collective security. Membership in the European Union and NATO, as well as good relations and strategic partnerships with Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, are not romantic ideas of the Orange Revolution; they are founded in Ukrainian law. The president, coalition government and the parliament determine the speed with which these goals are reached.
Most importantly, the democratic debates in Kiev's halls of power are now centered on ideas about competing economic theories, values and world views. Our current system of checks and balances requires policy coordination, party coexistence and political compromise for us to move forward. Not everyone likes the new rules of the game and some are having trouble playing in this new reality, but Ukraine's democracy is here to stay.
As president, my historic mission is to guarantee that Ukraine's national goals are reached not through political dictates, but through an institutionalized democratic process that brings together governing bodies and citizen groups. I am convinced that an inclusive democracy is one of the most significant and lasting achievements of the Orange Revolution.

Viktor Yushchenko is president of Ukraine. This comment first appeared in The Washington Post.

TITLE: Pope Needs To Build Bridges To Muslims
PUBLISHER: LOS ANGELES TIMES
TEXT: Pope Benedict XVI met in Turkey on Wednesday with a representative of a religious tradition whose sometimes violent differences with the Roman Catholic Church can be traced back to the Crusades. That personage is not, as one might think, a Muslim, but a Christian: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church.Although the Crusades were called to wrest back the Holy Land from Muslims, the Catholic foot soldiers in that "holy war" vandalized the sacred places of Orthodox Christians, looting Hagia Sophia, the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, in Constantinople.
On Thursday, Benedict will visit Hagia Sophia, which was transformed into a mosque in the 15th century and is now a museum.
News coverage of the pope's trip has focused on Catholic-Muslim relations, given the outrage in the Muslim world over a lecture in September in which Benedict quoted a medieval emperor who said Mohammed's teachings contained "things only evil and inhuman." The visit also has been shadowed by the pope's opposition as a cardinal to the admission of Turkey into the European Union, a position he repudiated Tuesday.
Yet the religious purpose of the journey is to strengthen relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern churches that do not recognize the authority of the bishop of Rome.
Benedict traveled to Istanbul to meet Patriarch Bartholomew, the "first among equals" among Orthodox prelates. After a service in the Orthodox cathedral, the two will sign a joint declaration. It's likely to be more substantive than a conversation in Rome last week between Benedict and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. That encounter ended with a communique noting that a reunion between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches faced "serious obstacles," including the ordination of women as Anglican priests and the acceptance by some Anglican churches of openly gay clergy.
By contrast, the Eastern Orthodox Church, like the Roman Catholic Church, limits its priesthood to men, condemns homosexual relations and values traditional forms of worship. The affinities between the pope and the patriarch are theological, but they could have political consequences. Many of the churches that complain of oppression by Islamic governments, including the Orthodox Church in Turkey, have roots in Constantinople. If the pope plans to be their champion, he will need to build bridges to Muslims as well as to fellow Christians.

This comment appeared as an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.

TITLE: No End in Sight to Tskhinvali Tug of War
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: Catching up on the news over the weekend on the Internet, I came across a report about the "alternative" leader of South Ossetia, Dmitry Sanakoyev, who had condemned the policies of the region's "official" president, Eduard Kokoity.No country in the world — Russia included — has recognized South Ossetia's self-proclaimed independence, and now it turns out that the region has two presidents to boot. Georgia doesn't recognize either one, and Moscow, while maintaining good relations with Kokoity, hasn't gone so far as to recognize him as the head of a sovereign state.
Sanakoyev's claim to power would appear comical if not for the fact that the Kokoity's legitimacy is also questionable at best. He was certainly not elected in a free and fair election. Candidates who supported unification with Tbilisi were not allowed to run, and there was no open debate or competition between political rivals.
At first glance, South Ossetia — like the self-proclaimed Transdnestr republic in Moldova — seems a throwback to the Soviet era: The political process is strictly controlled, and in the absence of any real choice, elections routinely end in landslide victories.
This similarity is superficial, however, because the real system of rule in South Ossetia is hardly Soviet. The ruling groups long ago crossed over into business, privatizing everything of value to their own and their partners' benefit. Decisions of state are all in the family. This system more closely resembles the feudal order, in which the powerful lord demonstrates his independence from the weak king by disposing of his lands and subjects as he sees fit.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is also less like a modern political leader than a medieval monarch. Having inherited a patchwork state, he has tried to turn it into something resembling a unified whole, although the unification of the country is conceived exclusively in terms of securing recognition of the lawful ruler's authority.
Abkhazia is the exception. Free elections have been held in the region, and an opposition candidate even came out on top. The vote nearly ended in violence, but the parties have managed to settle their differences and govern together.
It is hard to imagine Georgia or Moldova restoring their territorial integrity any time soon. Saakashvili and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin have little in common with Louis XI. Then again, President Vladimir Putin is no Catherine the Great. Nationalist pundits are therefore naive to hope that Russia will begin rebuilding its empire by annexing these regions.
Disputes of this nature can go unresolved for decades. In 40 years, no European country has recognized the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, although Turkey, unlike Russia, established diplomatic relations with the region.
For many years, the Aland Islands tried to break away from Finland to join Sweden. And unlike South Ossetia, they had a real vote on the issue. Europe never acceded to this, however, and Sweden made no attempt to seize Finnish territory. The islands took their revenge by refusing to join the European Union as part of Finland.
Territorial disputes are resolved either on the basis of international law or by force. None of the participants in the South Ossetian conflict today possesses sufficient military strength or legitimacy to impose its will on the other side. Negotiations are needed. But what would they yield?
The examples of the Aland Islands and Cyprus show the possibilities for unrecognized territories: They either stake out as much autonomy as possible and remain part of the country they had sought to leave, or the dispute simply festers.
It's not hard to predict which option South Ossetia will choose, because its rulers don't really have a problem with Georgia. The current state of affairs suits them just fine.

Boris Kagarlitsky is the director of the Institute of Globalization Studies.

TITLE: Only connect
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Yo-Yo Ma seeks connections between music, culture and humanity.Perhaps the world's most admired cellist, musical anthropologist, and winner of 15 Grammy awards, Yo-Yo Ma performs in concert on Sunday at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory.British pianist Kathryn Stott, a frequent stage partner for Ma will be joining the virtuoso cellist in a program of Shostakovich, Schubert, Piazzolla, Gismonti and Franck. Ma will also give a master class to young St. Petersburg musicians.
Born to Chinese parents in Paris in 1955, Ma moved to the United States when he was 7 and studied at the prestigious Juilliard School.
The musician is the founder of the Silk Road Project, which is devoted to discovering and bringing together musicians from countries along the ancient route between Asia and Europe, commissioning new works and performing them.
Exposing the once invisible links between music, looking into a fusion of influences and getting to the bottom of a story behind a composition, Ma gives the impression of being a magician, able to see through the score and straight into the roots of the composers' inspiration. Ma notes, for example, that Gustav Mahler's large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra "Das Lied von der Erde," ("The Song of the Earth"), composed in 1907-09, was inspired by "Die Chinesische FlÚte" ("The Chinese Flute"), a book of Chinese poetry Mahler had been given in translation.
In an exclusive interview with The St. Petersburg Times, the musician traces the connections between Bach's "The Sarabande" and erotic dance in North Africa and discusses the musical connections that bind humanity together.Which of your three instruments will you play in St. Petersburg and what is your criteria for choosing which one to play?I will play my 2003 cello made by the American firm Moes & Moes. I love this instrument, it is absolutely wonderful.
I am so excited about being able to come back to St. Petersburg because my first two trips gave me such great memories.
Sometimes when I choose which instrument to use it depends on the music but right now it is all different. I would have wanted to bring the "Davidov" Stradivari [dating from 1712 and previously used by Jacqueline du PrÎ] because it lived in St. Petersburg for a long time but right now it is set up as a baroque cello. Sometimes I play period instruments, and so the "Davidov" is currently set up so that it does not have so much tension on the instrument and I think it sounds particularly wonderful with gut strings and with a baroque bow. And another instrument, the [1733, Venetian-made] Montagnana is in a shop being repaired. So of all the instruments, the Moes & Moes is the only one I can actually play at the moment.
But when I am able to choose, it is a lot of fun. For example this summer I tried to play half of a program of Beethoven sonatas with a fortepiano [played by Emmanuel Ax] and the Stradivari set up as a baroque cello, and the other half on a regular concert-size Steinway and an instrument with a contemporary set up.You have a genuine passion for tracing the sources of music. What fuels your relentless enthusiasm for it?Part of what I like about being a musician is that I never stop learning and part of learning, including finding out sources, makes me feel alive. And I think what I have been trying to do in music, in terms of growing up at a time when most people listen to many different [types of] music, is understand what the connections between music are. For example, in the program that I am playing in St. Petersburg, I start with Schubert and Shostakovich and then move on to play an Argentinian composer's music and then a Brazilian composer's music and then a French piece, so it is music from all around the world. But there are connections linking the music. For instance, the Shostakovich sonata was written with [Russian cellist] Mstislav Rostropovich in mind, as was Astor Piazzolla's Grand Tango. And Piazzolla is one of the most interesting composers of the 20th century — he happened to study in France with Nadia Boulanger, a great teacher to many people, and she was the one who told Piazzolla: "You write very good music, show me what else you do." And he showed her some of the tango pieces. Boulanger told him they were extraordinary, and really urged him to make them his life's work. Which he did. And she told the same to the Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, another pupil.How does your Silk Road project fit into the picture?I am thinking about the inspirations that allowed the pieces to come into this world. Having just been to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Rostropovich was born, I am very much interested in muhgam [a modal art music], which famous Azeri singer Alim Gasimov sings. It is classical Azeri music that is improvised. Going to places like Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, I listen to the music there and try to understand how many of those folk traditions influenced Shostakovich, Stravinsky, how they understood the power of that music. And I am trying to learn.How does this experience, your exposure to world music affect your approach to the classical repertoire? Does it feel different going back to the classics?Every time I learn something, I go back to playing Bach and Beethoven and think a little bit differently. I now perceive classical music as part of a much greater stream of music with influences from around the world. This stream is the result of a long period of almost unbroken creativity. I go back to Bach thinking much more clearly that he was able to take into the cello suites, various 18th century dance forms — sarabande, courante, allemande, gigue, minuet.
I often play Bach's "Sarabande" [Suite for Cello in E flat Major (BWV1010), circa 1720] and ask people "Where does this music come from?" Naturally, Bach is a German composer but he wrote this music at a time when Germany as a country did not exist.
The truth is that the sarabande came from North Africa as an erotic dance to Spain, then it traveled from Spain to France. But sarabande is also courtly music because by the time the French took over the sarabande it was not an erotic dance anymore, it became a courtly dance. But in North Africa the sarabande still exists.
So, essentially, yes, this is Bach's music but what is the source, who owns it? It is all those things that result in something that I feel very privileged to play in Bach's "Sarabande."What is the most rewarding part of the Silk Road Project and how long do you feel it might continue?Friendships and connections, and the building of trust among different communities. One of my goals is for us to visit each others' homes: go to Baku and meet Alim's daughter, who is also a wonderful singer, and his wife — I mean, to suddenly see a great musician in the context of their community. Over time it makes a very deep connection. You see the connections of how architecture and music and craftsmanship all come together in various art forms.
When I meet new people, one thing very important to me is trust. Just how much effort one would invest into building a connection with someone they do not know.
From the audience's point of view, I am beginning to see a new generation of young people for whom this is really their world. They grow up knowing people from many different parts of the world, and this happens in Russia as well as in Europe and the Americas, and somehow they feel like "your music is my music." They can identify with other cultures, and for me this is immensely rewarding.How do you see the Silk Road Project relating to the rest of the world?People are now able to do DNA testing. I will bring a kit with me to St. Petersburg, and you can take a swab of your cheek and send it in to a genetics lab — it is private, you do not have to give your name — and in a couple of months you can go on your computer and find out where your ancestry from 60 to 70,000 years ago [came from]. This is all part of the national genographic project.
What is interesting about Russian history, is that they now think that what we know as American Indians in North and South America came there from Northern Siberia over 14,000 years ago. All native Americans come from about 70 people from Northern Siberia.
So the connection, if you take it beyond the 3,000 years of trading, is this. If you look at human migration, we find a very connected world that is to me a cultural world that goes beyond economic or political analysis. At a time when we are very concerned about climate change, water and energy shortages — the Aral sea is an example of what can happen to huge communities — this is a world issue, and in our age we for the first time have the tools to deal with these problems.To what extent is the music a part of it?Music is very much part of the issue. Music is so important to people and provides such identity, grounding and, in a way, an inner coding, a code for the inner life of people: what you listen to, what moves you, what you keep in your memory.What power does music have over human beings?Music has a great ability to get to our essential self, to your soul, if you will. I think we all have an inner life, which is very difficult to measure externally but we all have that. If you keep that inner part alive, [it is] in many ways ... the essential part of life. I do not think we can be more accurately measured necessarily by what we own — sure, the material things define us to a certain extent — I mean, if we are in touch with our essential selves, this is one way people can be and remain connected with one another.Despite your hectic schedule you still find time for masterclasses. You are planning a masterclass in St. Petersburg. What is your attitude toward your students?I believe very much that a get-together like that is not so much a class but sort of a mutual experience, it is a place and time to share what we care about. And I think, in terms of a class, I always like to hear somebody not only play but tell me what they are thinking about, what they are trying to communicate, what the content of what they are playing is. And then I — almost as an audience member — can understand what is coming through. So it is always about content, communication and reception, and how we are part of each one of those areas.
If you play a piece that I do not know, I have to try and figure out what the content is and tell the performer how it is coming across to me. And you as the player might be able to do that on your own and ask me if you are doing everything possible to make the content alive in somebody else.www.yo-yoma.com, www.silkroadproject.org, www.musicalolympus.ru

TITLE: In the spotlight
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: For months, I've been looking forward to NTV's new drama series set in a brothel. Originally it was going to be called "Bez Chesti," or "Without Honor," a name that had a slightly disapproving ring to it.Now the show has been renamed "Damned Heaven," which sounds like something Rhett Butler would say. He was fond of ladies of the night, but I think he would blench at the gynecological examination scene — complete with bloodstained gloves — that was shown at a launch party last week.
The series, which premieres in January, was presented last week at a casino in central Moscow where real-life prostitutes hang around the bar with men in suits. The presentation was sponsored by the uber-tabloid Speed-Info, and more serious newspapers ignored the event, although there were plenty of photographers buzzing around the actresses' cleavages.
For reasons not fully explained, the episode of "Damned Heaven" shown to journalists was the sixth, not the first. The director said something about wanting to see if it would hold the audience's attention. Hmm, let's see: a client wanting a virgin nymphet and getting "proof" of her virginity on DVD; the brothel's resident doctor getting a kick out of examining a prostitute; her getting locked in a dungeon — I didn't see anyone yawning.
In a way, you have to admire this series for hitting all the buttons of trash lovers and having absolutely no redeeming qualities. Set in a mansion complete with indoor carp pool and small dungeon, the series has a drug-dealing pimp and a madam with a gold telephone who organizes kidnappings of unsuspecting girls. What's not to like?
Apparently it will be shown on NTV after the 10 p.m. beer-advertising watershed, but still before the midnight erotica threshold, in a twilight zone when viewers are still supposed to be sipping their lager. So that means this little whorehouse is all mouth and no trousers, as it were, since it can't actually have sex scenes.
At the party after the presentation, the producer let slip who the true audience of the series would be: women in their sixties, the main viewers of Russia's federal channels. I could also see the show being a camp favorite like "Showgirls," due to actress Evelina Blyodans, who plays the madam.
Sharp of talon and stiletto heel, her character will have hidden depths and a mysterious past, a bit like Elizabeth Berkeley's aspiring dancer in "Showgirls." At the presentation, Blyodans dominated the room in a leopard-print cape and skintight black satin and repeatedly referred to herself in the third person. Meanwhile singer Andrei Gubin wrote a song for the show, while ex-Strelki singer Yulia Beretta plays a prostitute. Wearing a plunging dress that sparked some real-versus-fake debate, she denied rumors that she was having an affair with Gubin, but said they "work very closely together," with an emphasis on "closely." So now you know.Sergey Chernov is on vacation.

TITLE: Going, going, gone
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: This week's Russian sales in London have seen millions of dollars changing hands.Russians led the bidders who parted with around $100 million in London this week to buy back art from their homeland, but the failure of a rare Faberge clock to sell showed even their appetite has its limits.The Russian art market has soared over the past five years as booming prices for raw materials created a super-wealthy class seeking to reverse the flood of valuable works of art leaving the region to private collections overseas.
"Over half of the paintings we sell go back to Russia and Ukraine," said William MacDougall, director of the Russian specialist MacDougall's art gallery in London.
"Ten to 15 years ago people were taking paintings out of Russia and selling them in the West."
The November auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams and MacDougall's are the annual highlight of the Russian art calendar and attract hundreds of buyers from the former Soviet Union to the sale rooms of London.
Jo Vickery, Russian expert at Sotheby's said most Russians in town for the sales fly in especially, although London is now the residence of some of the country's super-rich, including billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club.
This year the auctions once again underlined the purchasing power of the "new Russians", but also threw up some disappointments.
The biggest came at Christie's, where the star lot of the week — an ornate silver and diamond Faberge clock presented to Emperor Alexander III — failed to sell on Wednesday.
The pre-sale expectation was that it could set a new world auction record for any Russian work of art, currently held by Faberge's Winter Egg that fetched $9.6 million in 2002.
There was some good news, however, with "Pastorale Russe", a painting by Konstantin Somov, fetching $5.27 million, a new record for a Russian painting and 10 times pre-sale estimates.
Overall, Christie's expected to claim a one-day Russian sale record of over $52.72 million with 50 lots still to go under the hammer.
Sotheby's sold $39 million worth of pictures and works of art on Tuesday, within expectations but short of the equivalent sale in May.
The top lot at Sotheby's, a pair of 1830 Imperial porcelain vases from the period of Nicholas I, fetched $4.4 million, which was close to the high estimate.
Also at Sotheby's, a gold and diamond Faberge snuff box went to an anonymous U.S. collector for $1.8 million, well in excess of expectations.
"Buyers are clearly looking for pieces of superior quality and rarity with good provenance and are prepared to bid extremely competitively to acquire such works," said Vickery. More than half the lots sold topped their presale estimates, she added.
Sotheby's leads the Russian art market, reporting total sales in 2005 of $102 million, more than double its 2004 figure. Its total for 2006 so far is $149 million.
Christie's International reported global Russian sales in 2005 of $40.7 million, up 77 percent from 2004.
Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter, is in its seventh year of economic growth, fueled partly by high prices for oil, gas and metals. The economy will expand more than 6 percent this year and next, the government predicts.
Russians or Russian emigres made up 70 percent to 80 percent of Tuesday's 230 registered buyers, Vickery at Sotheby's said. Bidders included Vladimir Voronchenko and Andrei Ruzhnikov, directors of Aurora Fine Art Investments, a Russian art-investment fund majority-owned by oil-and-mining billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
The lot that fetched the single highest bid was the pair of porcelain vases, made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg. The pieces, from a European collection, sold to an anonymous bidder on the phone for just under the presale high estimate of $4.8 million.
The same buyer scooped up another imperial vase for a little more than $1 million, near its high estimate of $1.17 million.
The imperial gold, diamond and enamel snuffbox crafted by Michael Perchin was the top seller among Sotheby's selection of more than 90 Faberge works . Consigned by an American collector, its selling price of $1.8 million was above the high estimate of $1.3 million.
Sotheby's top painting of the day was "Three Women in a Box at the Theater," a 1918 oil by emigre artist Alexander Yakovlev (1887-1938). Wild bidding pushed it to $1.9 million, a record for the artist at auction and almost triple its high estimate of $683,000.
"Reclining Nude," 1930, by Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967), sold for $1.7 million, an auction record for the painter and above the estimate.
"Good things went for good prices," said Mark Schaffer, a director at A La Vieille Russie, a New York gallery specializing in Russian decorative art and Faberge pieces. Unsold lots would have fared better had their presale estimates been lower, Schaffer said.
Soviet porcelain plates from the 1920s, widely valued for their avant-garde designs, continued to prove popular with Russian buyers. A private Australian collection of 15 plates was sold off piece by piece, raising a total of $610,000, almost double the high estimate for the set.
(Reuters, Bloomberg)

TITLE: Skyscraper scandal
AUTHOR: By Steven Lee Myers
PUBLISHER: the new york times
TEXT: The winning design for Gazprom's new skyscraper in St. Petersburg is announced on Friday, but not everyone is happy about it.On Friday, the authorities are to announce the winner of a design competition that will usher in a new era of progress and prosperity — or ruin one of the world's most beautiful cities. In this debate, it seems, there is no middle ground.Russia's state-controlled energy company, Gazprom, invited six foreign architects to submit drawings of a proposed business center, anchored by a soaring skyscraper for its newly acquired oil subsidiary. And then in an unusual gesture of openness for construction projects in this country, the company asked the public to comment, even to vote.
The consequent furor seems unlikely to subside soon.
The proposals, now on exhibition at the Academy of Arts and viewable on the web at www.gazprom-city.info, include stylish modern buildings that evoke, among other things, a curtain of glass, a gas-fueled flame, a strand of DNA and a lady's high-heeled shoe.
The most vehement reactions, however, have been to the project's scale and to its site, a historic one where the Neva River meets the Bolshaya Okhta, opposite the ornate, blue-and-white Smolny Cathedral.
The main tower in each proposal would be three or four times higher than the city's most famous landmarks, including Smolny, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Admiralty, and the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the golden spire of which reaches 122.5 meters, or 404 feet, the city's tallest building excluding the 310-meter television tower in the northern part of the city.
A building of that height, the project's critics argue, would irrevocably mar a cityscape that Unesco has declared a World Heritage Site.
"Even if it were made of solid gold," said Vladimir Popov, president of the Union of Architects of St. Petersburg and a critic of Gazprom's project, "it would nevertheless kill the city."
The architects' union has refused to participate in the jury Gazprom has chosen to evaluate the designs and threatened to file suit to stop the winner from ever being built. The director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, has also inveighed against the project, organizing meetings of preservationists and architects to propose alternative sites.
"Something the city needs is development," Piotrovsky said in an interview in his museum office in the Winter Palace, which itself established acceptable height limits for most buildings for decades, "but let's not destroy the old city."
Gazprom, however, has certain advantages that make the skyscraper appear inevitable, despite the public outcry.
Not least of them is the fact that the company is, effectively, an arm of the Kremlin and is now the world's fourth largest company by stock value, worth more than $250 billion.
The project also has the support of St. Petersburg's leaders, including Governor Valentina Matviyenko, who has championed the new business center, with an estimated cost exceeding $2 billion, as a sorely needed economic boost for a city that has long suffered in Moscow's shadow.
President Vladimir Putin, a native of St. Petersburg, has long supported efforts to relocate companies and government bodies to the city.
That the city's zoning laws forbid anything in that area higher than 48 meters appears to be no obstacle, recalling a Russian aphorism: "It is forbidden, but if you really want it, then it is possible."
Gazprom officials said they would seek to have the law changed once a design was chosen.
Gazprom has embraced for itself the legacy of Peter the Great, who built the city by decree at the beginning of the 18th century to become a new capital and Russia's "window on the West." And like Peter the Great, the company turned to foreign architects, not Russian ones, inviting seven to submit designs.
Six agreed: Jean Nouvel of Paris; Massimiliano Fuksas of Rome; the Swiss team Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron; Rem Koolhaas of the Netherlands; the British collective RMJM London; and Daniel Libeskind, the Polish-born American who designed the master plan for the new World Trade Center site in New York City.
Nikolai Tanayev, general director of Gazprom Neft Invest, the subsidiary overseeing the project, said the project was intended to restore the city's status as a bridge to European culture and investment. He compared today's criticism to that lodged against the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris more than a century ago.
"We live in the 21st century, not in the 18th," he said. "Views are different. If you spoke of launching satellites in the 18th century, you would have been accused of devil worship."
At the Academy of Arts, on the Neva embankment, the exhibition has drawn the curious to see models of the six proposals. Visitors are asked to vote for their favorite on a ballot that declares, "The City Chooses the Future." People may also vote online.
One irony, not lost on some, is that the city's voters no longer have the right to choose their governor, a chief supporter of the project, following Putin's abolition of direct elections for regional leaders in 2004.
Nor can they vote "against all," another ballot choice eliminated from Russian elections this year.
Ilya Tatarinov, an architectural student, expressed doubt that the public's choice would sway Gazprom (and the company said that the voting would be only one factor in a final decision). But he had little doubt that the project would proceed.
"It is absolutely not appropriate for the city," he said, "but most likely they will build it regardless."
A worn factory now occupies the site — now covered in a giant panel announcing Gazprom's project. Although few object to revitalizing the area, which is rundown, some opponents noted that it was the site of a Swedish fort from the 17th century and thus has archeological significance.
And while the site is more than 10 kilometers from the center of the city, they argue that its main tower would be visible from almost any point in the city, destroying what Aleksandr Margolis, the head of the Charitable Fund for the Saving of Petersburg and Leningrad, called an architectural harmony largely unaltered for nearly three centuries.
The project's supporters counter that the city of Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky, Diaghilev and Shostakovich — not to mention Lenin and the Bolsheviks — should not let its past bind its future.
"There is a mistaken belief that St. Petersburg's center has remained unchanged since it was founded," the city's vice governor, Aleksandr Vakhmistrov, said in a written response to questions. "In the last 300 years, however, the city has changed. New houses have been built in place of old ones."
He went on: "St. Petersburg should preserve its architectural traditions, but should not reject improvement."

TITLE: Razor's edge
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Babyshambles canceled its gig at Moscow's B2 last week amid frontman Pete Doherty's ongoing legal troubles, but Razorlight — another highlight of the current British music scene — did come to Moscow to headline Nokia Trends, a publicity event for the Finnish phone company.The band was reported to have had a photo session on Red Square, but failed to perform as the event was canceled by the authorities hours before it was scheduled to start, "as a result of negotiations with administrative authorities during the day," as the event's official web site put it.
"Razorlight were forced to cancel their gig in Russia after shady 'officials' demanded thousands of pounds just hours before they went on stage," wrote The Mirror this week.
"The rockers [...] were told by promoters at the Moscow venue they had to pay the huge sum to 'the government' for a special 'permit' to perform."
With two albums already under its belt, Razorlight scored a No. 1 hit in Britain last month with the song "America," which, as drummer Andy Burrows told The Times of London this summer, was inspired by a drumbeat from a Billy Joel record.
"We were on tour for a long time in America, in the beginning of 2005, last year, and we had a couple of days off in Columbus, Ohio," Burrows, 27, who co-wrote the song with singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell, said in a recent telephone interview with The St. Petersburg Times from a hotel in Munich.
"Me and Johnny, we sat in a restaurant, and this song came on. I think it was Billy Joel, but it doesn't really matter. It had this drumbeat, and we were like, 'We should have a song with a drumbeat like this.' But to be honest with you, it actually has nothing to do with the song, that's just what made us go upstairs and start writing the song. It doesn't actually have anything to do with Billy Joel."
With the lines "There's nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio / That means that much to me" and "All my life / Watching America / All my life / There's panic in America," the song is a combination of political and personal, Burrows said.
"It's kind of a political song, really, but it's also a love song, a personal song. You know, it's quite a lonely song," he said.
"When you are a kid growing up in the U.K., and probably in Russia, there's a lot of American influence in the media, like cartoons and films and books and toys, you know, when you are little, and that's what I really love about the song 'America,' because it kind of evokes that sense of innocence."
There's an alternative line to the song; during its recent Japanese tour Borrell sang "The fascists in America," The Observer reported in October, but Burrows, who said that Borrell wrote the lyrics while they wrote the music together, is evasive.
"Oh, I don't know, I shouldn't talk about that, it's not something that I've ever heard," he said. "I'd have to let Johnny comment on that. They're not the real lyrics." But does rock and roll come from the U.S.?
"Yes, but I think both nations inspired each other culturally," said Burrows.
"I guess the roots of rock and roll began in America, but I think we in Britain certainly gave our best with bands such as The Beatles, the Stones, you got David Bowie, Elton John, The Kinks, I mean there was quite a lot of music coming from Britain, you know, back in the day."
Along with Burrows and Borrell, who are both British, the London-based band includes two Swedes, guitarist Bjorn Agren and bassist Carl Dalemo, but the band's sound is distinctively English.
"We are a British band. We all live in Britain, that's where our career began, where it's taken off," said Burrows.
Burrows joined the band in 2004, after the original drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo left.
"I joined the band three years ago, and they had just finished recording their first album. Literally just finished," he said.
"They were starting to get big in the U.K., starting but still small. It was starting to catch on. The old drummer Christian, he didn't want to do this anymore, so I guess it was just good timing for both myself and the band."
Burrows said he was picked out at an audition.
"A lot of drummers, sort of 70 or 80 drummers turned up at this big warehouse, and everybody queued up outside and everyone went in and played drums for a while, though we kind of clicked straight away, it was kind of instant, we had a connection, I guess," he said.
Razorlight's claims to fame include a performance last year at Hyde Park as part of the Live 8 concert series.
"We were very nervous, it was a big event, but we had a great day. Obviously, the issue involved was to bring awareness to the Make Poverty History campaign. For us as a band it was certainly a big deal. It was seen by a lot of people. It was just a fantastic thing to be involved in."
Burrows also used the opportunity to ask Elton John's drummer Nigel Olsen for an autograph.
"I did, yeah, I did, I just had to, because I'm a big fan," he said.
"He's certainly one of my favorite drummers. I have several, but he is fantastic. I love his career. You know, he started in 1969 playing with Elton John and throughout the 1970s he played on some of Elton John's most famous songs, and he sings beautiful backing vocals as well. Plus he looks cool! He's one of my favorites, he's very sweet."
Burrows said he fell in love with drums when he was five.
"I was always interested in watching drummers, when I was a boy, when I was about five, I just used to love watching drummers on the television or, you know, in the brass bands," he said.
"I just always used to stand by the drum kit and watch the drummer. And then when I saw people like Roger Taylor of Queen and Ringo Starr and Keith Moon, I was just like, 'I'm going to play the drums.' I love the drums. I've always loved the drums, I love them now more than ever."
According to Burrows, drums are at the core of every song.
"Everybody likes to dance, right? Or most people like to dance or tap their foot or whatever. That's all about rhythm," he said.
"I think the drums are very therapeutic to play and to listen to. It's an amazing instrument. They are the backbone of any song. Unless obviously it's a ballad and it doesn't have drums. For many songs it's the backbone, it's what holds it together. I'm just so excited by drums. If I go to a drum shop, it's like a kid in a sweet shop, you know. Yeah, fantastic."
Razorlight's most recent album, "Razorlight," was produced by Chris Thomas, who previously worked with The Beatles, Pink Floyd and the Sex Pistols.
"He's a very amazing guy, he had a lot to bring to the table," said Burrows.
"It was fantastic to work with him, he has a lot of stories. I mean he was an integral part of the recording of this album."
Razorlight has recently been criticized by some members of an older generation of musicians. In a September issue of NME magazine, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp dismissed the band as "career" pop stars and added that reading an interview with Razorlight was "just like reading The Economist."
Burrows dismissed the criticism. "We are not bothered about that, we believe in what we are doing, we are happy with our records and live performances," he said. "Jarvis is a good guy, I'm sure. He certainly fronted a fantastic band in the 1990s, Pulp. We've all been Pulp fans, but we don't really bother what he thinks about our band at all."
Singling out the London band Guillemots for special praise, Burrows said he was excited about the current British music scene.
"I think the best band of this year is Guillemots, I think they are phenomenal. Their singer Fyfe [Dangerfield] is a huge talent, and I think that next year they are going to do big, big things," he said.
"There are amazing bands coming out of there. It's a great time, it's a privilege being part of it, and I am proud to say I think that right now we're kind of in full front."

www.razorlight.co.uk

TITLE: Pope Calls Christian Divisions a World 'Scandal'
AUTHOR: By Brian Murphy
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ISTANBUL, Turkey — Pope Benedict XVI called divisions among Christians a "scandal to the world" at a joint ceremony Thursday with the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian church, which split from Catholicism nearly 1,000 years ago.Reaching out to the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians is a centerpiece of Benedict's papacy. He has set the difficult goal of full unity between the two ancient branches of Christianity, which divided over disputes including the extent of papal authority.
"The divisions which exist among Christians are a scandal to the world," the pope said after joining Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to mark the feast day of St. Andrew, who preached across Asia Minor and who is believed to have ordained the first bishop of Constantinople, now Istanbul.
The pope also said all Christians should "renew Europe's awareness of its Christian roots, traditions and values, giving them new vitality."
In a joint communique, the pope and patriarch stressed the need to "preserve Christian roots" in European culture while remaining "open to other religions and their cultural contributions."
The pope avoided any direct mention of Islam after praying with Bartholomew at the gilded St. George Church in Istanbul. But he is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican labels "reciprocity" — that Muslim demands for greater respect in the West must be matched by increased tolerance and freedoms for Christians in Islamic nations.
Too much pressure by the pope, who arrived in Istanbul late Wednesday, could risk new friction with Muslims after broad gestures of goodwill that sought to ease simmering Muslim anger over remarks by the pope on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.
A statement claiming to be from al-Qaida in Iraq denounced the pope's visit as part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam and an attempt to "extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the declaration — posted on several Islamic militant web sites — shows the need for faiths to fight "violence in the name of God."
He said "neither the pope nor his entourage are worried."
Still, Turkish authorities took massive security precautions for the Istanbul stop, with thousands of police on the street and roads cleared of all traffic for the papal motorcade.
Later Thursday, the pope plans to visit the 1,500-year-old Haghia Sophia, a domed complex that was once a spiritual center of Christianity and then converted to a mosque in the 15th century. The site became a museum following the sweeping secular reforms that formed modern Turkey in the 1920s.
About 150 nationalists demonstrated against the pope's planned visit to the Haghia Sophia, gathering at a square less than a mile from the site and urging the government to open the museum to Muslim worship. Nationalists view the planned visit as a sign of Christian claims to the site and a challenge to Turkish sovereignty.
"Haghia Sophia is Turkish and will remain Turkish," one protest sign read. Riot police surrounded the demonstrators to prevent them from advancing toward the site.
Benedict also is expected to make a brief tour of the famous Blue Mosque in the second papal visit to a Muslim place of worship after Pope John Paul II's historic stop in a mosque in Syria in 2001.
Of Turkey's 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant, mostly converts from Islam. Another 23,000 are Jewish.

TITLE: Man United Crushes Everton to Stay Top
AUTHOR: By Ravi Ubha
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: Manchester United beat Everton 3-0 to maintain its lead atop English soccer's Premiership over Chelsea, which beat Bolton 1-0. Fulham defeated Arsenal for the first time in 40 years.Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrice Evra and John O'Shea scored for United, which rebounded after blowing a lead and tying Chelsea 1-1 tie at Old Trafford three days ago. Chelsea has won four straight at Bolton.
"We are not top of the league,'' Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports.
"But we had two difficult matches. I don't think we will take a lot of time to be top of the league.''
Fulham beat Arsenal 2-1, Portsmouth snapped Liverpool's six-game winning streak at home with a 0-0 draw at Anfield, and Manchester City extended its unbeaten run to 10 games against Aston Villa, winning 3-1 away.
Manchester United has 38 points to 35 for Chelsea, the two- time defending champion. Portsmouth moved into third on goal difference ahead of Bolton with 24, while Arsenal remained sixth following a third straight league game without a win.
Ronaldo scored in the 39th minute, with Everton wasting a chance to tie when James Beattie failed to control a ball in the United penalty box. Evra got his first United goal in the 63rd minute, taking a pass from Wayne Rooney, and O'Shea finished the scoring in the 89th.
United manager Alex Ferguson kept leading scorer Louis Saha and midfielder Paul Scholes on the bench. Everton was without its two top scorers, Tim Cahill and Andy Johnson.Ballack Scores
Michael Ballack, Germany's captain, put Chelsea ahead three minutes into first-half injury time when he headed the ball into the net from a corner. Chelsea earned the corner when Andriy Shevchenko forced Jussi Jaaskelainen into a diving save.Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini preserved the win by stopping El Hadji Diouf in the 79th minute and once more in injury time.
"I like to be first, but I am very happy with this situation,'' Mourinho said.
U.S. striker Brian McBride gave Fulham the lead in the sixth minute with a header from a corner kick, and Tomasz Radzinski made it 2-0 after Luis Boa Morte set him up by getting past two defenders. Robin van Persie scored for Arsenal with a 30-yard free kick before halftime.
Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos was ejected in the 66th minute for a second yellow card.
Liverpool failed to turn its possession into goals, with the Reds also missing central midfielders Xabi Alonso, Bolo Zenden and Momo Sissoko because of injuries.
Arsenal and Liverpool trail Manchester United by 16 points.
Darius Vassell scored for the fifth time in five games against his former club and Joey Barton made it 2-0 within 32 minutes for Manchester City, which won for the first time on the road this season.
Gavin McCann scored for Aston Villa in the 66th minute before defender Sylvain Distin restored the two-goal advantage in the 75th.

TITLE: Castro Too Ill For 80th Festivities
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HAVANA — In a note to thousands of admirers, President Fidel Castro of Cuba has told well-wishers that he is too ill to join them at the opening of a five- day celebration of his 80th birthday.The message, which was read to 5,000 people at the Karl Marx Theater and broadcast on state television Tuesday, indicates that he is far from recovered from the mysterious ailment that forced him to turn over power to his brother, the Defense Minister RaÜl Castro, on July 31.
The Cuban president turned 80 on Aug. 13 but delayed his birthday celebrations because he was recovering from surgery two weeks earlier for intestinal bleeding.
Castro, who has not been seen in public for four months, wanted the delayed celebrations to be held on Saturday, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the date that he and fellow rebels landed by boat in Cuba to launch their revolution.
Clearly, by now, Castro felt he would be sufficiently recuperated to participate in the celebrations. But his announcement Tuesday raises doubts about whether he will appear at all.
In a message read to luminaries who traveled from abroad and thousands of other admirers at the celebration's opening, Castro said doctors had told him he was not in a condition to meet with a large crowd.
"I direct myself to you, intellectuals and prestigious personalities of the world, with a dilemma," the note read.
"I could not meet with you in a small locale, only in the Karl Marx Theater where all the visitors would fit, and I was not yet in condition, according to the doctors, to face such a colossal encounter.
"My very close friends, who have done me the honor of visiting our country, I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give thanks and hugs to each and every one of you." The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
Among the 1,300 politicians, artists and intellectuals due to arrive for the celebrations in Havana this week are: the presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and of Haiti, RenÎ PrÎval; and the president-elect of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. The Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona, South African singer Miriam Makeba and Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel GarcÒa MÇrquez are also expected to attend.
Castro's good friend and political ally, President Hugo ChÇvez of Venezuela, will not be there — he is up for re-election on Sunday. ChÇvez said he would dedicate his victory to Castro.
Cuban officials insist Castro is recovering, but U.S. officials say they believe he suffers from an inoperable cancer and will not live through next year. The details of his ailment are a state secret.

TITLE: Australia Waits On McGrath
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ADELAIDE, Australia — With a deferent nod to history Thursday, Australia put off a final call on Glenn McGrath's fitness for the second Ashes cricket test against England until shortly before Friday's toss.McGrath bowled a little and gingerly at a net practice session Thursday morning and the Australians, who had hoped for a more emphatic statement of fitness, chose to postpone until matchday a troubling decision over whether he will play.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said he would have to be convinced McGrath was 100 per cent fit before he would consider him for selection because the balance of the team depended on every bowler being able to shoulder his workload.
McGrath, 36 and the elder statesman of the Australian attack, would go to any lengths to play but would not be treated any differently than any other player under an injury cloud, Ponting said.
"Hopefully he comes up with flying colors," Ponting said.
"We aren't going to be able to go into the Test match unless he's 100 per cent and we can rely upon him to be able to get right through the game at his best."
Young fast bowlers Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson will vie for McGrath's place if he is deemed unfit and Tait, in outstanding form and blessed with local knowledge, has his head in front in that, shadow selection race.
Australia's caution over McGrath, their willingness to concede him time to recover from a blistered heel, acknowledges his importance to the balance of their side, a factor sharpened by historical recollection.
McGrath missed the second and fourth tests of last year's Ashes series in England and those were the matches England won to fashion a 2-1 series victory which gave them the trophy for the first time in 17 years.
Any historical reverie will inevitably include the memory that after beating England by 239 runs in the first match of the 2005 series, Australia then conceded the second test by a narrow margin. Australia beat England by 277 runs in last week's first test at Brisbane and is now determined that, with or without McGrath, history will not be repeated.
"I think it's been in the back of our minds since the start of the series," Ponting said.
"We spoke about it a lot through the first test match in Brisbane and our celebrations were pretty low key as well, getting focused on being right for (Friday) morning.
"You have to expect (England) are going to have to play better than they did in the first test match, and I think they're very capable of doing that.
"It's up to us, really, just to make sure we repeat what we did in Brisbane. I thought the cricket we played up there was of a very high caliber and it's just important we start this test match off exactly the same."
England have also drawn on the memory of the 2005 series to convince themselves that, despite the severity of their first test defeat, they can yet turn this series around.
England captain Andy Flintoff has acknowledged that if Australia wins in Adelaide, the series and the Ashes are probably lost.
"I think everyone realizes we're better than what we did last week. We're a better side than that," Flintoff said.
"Our heads are not going to go down. We've got four test matches to go. The lads have responded well to what happened last week and worked hard to try to get something out of this next game.
"The lads want to win out here in Australia. They're tough lads, they're proud lads. We've played well for the past two or three years and we want to play like that again."
England also has a tricky decision to make Friday over the composition of its bowling attack, whether to use two spinners at the expense of a fast bowler. If so, troubled quick Steve Harmison may survive while James Anderson concedes his place to Monty Panesar.
If McGrath is fit, Australia's match XI will likely be unchanged.

TITLE: Davydenko Leads Russian Davis Cup Bid
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Nikolay Davydenko has postponed his honeymoon for at least a week to lead Russia in this weekend's Davis Cup final against Argentina.World number three Davydenko, who married his long-time sweetheart Irina Vasina on Saturday, said winning the cup would be the best present he could get from his team mates.
Russia, undefeated at home in the Davis Cup since 1997 and also featuring former world number one Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov, are considered the overwhelming favorites on a fast indoor court at Moscow's Olympic arena against the clay-court specialists from South America.
The Argentines are countering with world number eight David Nalbandian, Jose Acasuso, Agustin Calleri and Juan Ignacio Chela.
Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev is taking nothing for granted, however. "When you have two evenly matched teams, each has a 50-50 chance of winning," Tarpishchev told Reuters. "But in this particular case, I would even give Argentina a slight edge simply because they have a more balanced line-up."
His Argentine counterpart Alberto Mancini echoed that view.
"We don't consider ourselves to be clear underdogs," Mancini told reporters after arriving in Moscow on Sunday. "We are capable of playing quality tennis and we'll do our best to win."
Nikolay Davydenko was drawn to play Juan Ignacio Chela in the opening singles match on Friday having lost all five of their previous matches.
The third-ranked Davydenko has taken only two sets in losing three times on clay and twice on hard courts to the 33rd-ranked Chela, but none of the matches were in Davis Cup play.
Thursday's draw also pitted two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin of Russia, ranked 26th, against eighth-ranked David Nalbandian on carpet at the Olympic Indoor stadium.
Safin has a 6-2 head-to-head record against Nalbandian — including a four-set semifinal win on carpet in 2002 when Russia won 3-2 and went on to beat France in the final and claim its only title.
Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia are scheduled to play Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri in Saturday's doubles. Team captains can change their lineups until one hour before play.
This will be the fourth meeting between the two nations, with the Russians holding a slight edge, 2-1.
The visitors can count on support from one of their most loyal fans, Diego Maradona. The former Argentina soccer captain, who has attended several of his country's Davis Cup home ties, is expected to travel to Moscow to root for his compatriots.
(Reuters, AP)

TITLE: U.S. and N. Korea Fail To Reach Deal on Nuclear Talks
AUTHOR: By Charles Hutzler
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — U.S. and North Korean diplomats failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on when to resume six-nation talks on Pyongyang's disputed nuclear program, but stressed their commitment to moving the process forward.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill left Thursday after two days of talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, during which he presented ideas on how the regime —which conducted its first nuclear test last month — could disarm.
"These are ideas designed to make rapid progress," Hill told reporters at the airport without elaborating. "We discussed them and they're taking them back to Pyongyang and we hope to hear from them soon."
The North said in its own statement that it "promised to study these ideas."
Kim also met South Korea's main nuclear negotiator on Thursday in a Beijing restaurant, and told reporters afterward that Pyongyang remains committed to an agreement made last year on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."Our denuclearization is the great leader's 'dying instruction' and we are ready to implement our commitment in the Sept. 19 joint statement," Kim said, referring to Kim Il Sung, the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il.
"There are many commitments according to the Sept. 19 joint statement," said Kim, who added that his country "cannot unilaterally abandon" its atomic weapons program at this point.
The China-hosted six-nation talks involve the United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russia, which has not sent an envoy to Beijing.
"The purpose is that when we start the talks, that we really do make progress," Hill said. "The purpose of the six-party talks is not to talk, it's to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."
Japan's Kyodo News agency cited unidentified officials at the talks as saying Kim had demanded the U.S. lift financial sanctions and freeze UN sanctions that were imposed after the October nuclear test.
Hill said the issue of the Washington-imposed sanctions was discussed but he made it clear that denuclearization had to be addressed first.
Hill, who had been scheduled to fly to Seoul after Beijing, canceled the trip, said Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. She did not give a reason.
North Korea agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid. But Washington imposed the financial sanctions against a Macau-based bank on suspicions it was laundering counterfeit money for the North Koreans. Angered by the move, Pyongyang withdrew from the talks two months later.
Kim's trip to Beijing — a rare overseas visit for a North Korean official — and the presence of other negotiators had lifted expectations that there could be a breakthrough in ongoing efforts to restart the talks.

TITLE: Harrington Roars Into Early Sun City Lead
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SUN CITY, South Africa — In-form European number one Padraig Harrington roared into an early lead in the first round of the Sun City Challenge on Thursday.Harrington dropped just one shot through 12 holes and had six birdies as he raced to five under par, three strokes ahead of a quintet of players at the Gary Player Country Club course.
The Irishman's round peaked in a stretch of four successive birdies from the seventh hole, including a superb three at the 450-metre eighth hole, the hardest on the course.
World number two Jim Furyk, Briton David Howell, Sweden's Henrik Stenson, American Chris diMarco and 2004 champion Retief Goosen went through the first nine in two-under-par 34.
Defending champion Furyk picked up birdies on the par-four first and fifth holes.
The other South Africans in the field have enjoyed solid rounds thus far, with three-times champion Ernie Els, making a record 15th appearance, leading the way.
Els overcame a frigid putter to post a one-under-par score through nine holes, while U.S. PGA Tour rookie of the year Trevor Immelman also logged a 35.
The 26-year-old was in early trouble with bogeys at the fourth and fifth holes, but clawed his way back with birdies at the eighth and ninth.
Charl Schwartzel, included in the field for the first time by virtue of topping the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, birdied the par-three seventh, but three bogeys marred his card at the halfway mark.
Former European number one Colin Montgomerie was one-under-par through nine holes, as was two-times champion Sergio Garcia of Spain. Jose-Maria Olazabal was the one player to find the early going tough, posting a 38 for the first nine.

TITLE: Tensions Increase Ahead Of Election in Venezuela
AUTHOR: By Fabiola Sanchez
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MARACAIBO, Venezuela — Venezuela's leading opposition candidate called Wednesday for President Hugo Chavez's government to play clean in Sunday's presidential election amid signs of a widening political divide in the country.The race has highlighted how increasingly polarized Venezuela has become, largely along class lines, with the wealthier supporting Rosales, the poor backing Chavez and the middle class fractured.
Shoppers are packing supermarkets to stock up on supplies, fearful that Sunday's outcome could prompt street protests and violence.
"It has to be a clean game ... If that happens, all of us will be calm," Manuel Rosales, governor of oil-rich Zulia state, said to The Associated Press shortly before closing his campaign with a huge rally in Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city.
Both Rosales and Chavez have warned their supporters to be alert for fraud and to be ready to defend the vote.
Chavez, speaking at his own rally in southeastern Trujillo state, warned that the U.S. government was backing Rosales and would try to undermine the election.
"If the imperialists and its lackeys try to destabilize Venezuela with riots, they will regret it for the rest of their lives. I warn them," he said.
The exchange of warnings came as a top lawmaker from Chavez's ruling party, Iris Varela, called on government supporters to take over private TV stations that report Rosales in the lead ahead of official results.
Varela said the opposition-aligned media may use rigged exit polls to show that Rosales is ahead in order to mislead the public.
"When they start to do that, we must take over the TV channels ... a peaceful takeover as we have always done at the doors of these TV stations," she told the state TV broadcaster in an interview, singling out two Caracas stations in particular, Globovision and RCTV — both highly critical of the government.
Varela denied she was emitting a threat, saying, "we are only going to demand they say the truth, that's it."
In Maracaibo, hundreds of thousands dancing to the pulse of reggaeton music packed a dozen blocks along a major road in support of Rosales, who united Venezuela's opposition movement for the first time since a crushing defeat in a 2004 recall referendum against Chavez.
Rosales has accused Chavez of seeking to exploit divisions in order to consolidate power, and warns the Venezuelan leader's "socialist revolution" aims to copy Cuban President Fidel Castro's one-man communist system.

TITLE: Predators Carry On Winning
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — Martin Erat scored with 5:09 left in regulation time to give the Nashville Predators a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in NHL play in Philadelphia on Wednesday.The Predators won their third straight game and increased their lead in the Central Division to four points over the idle Detroit Red Wings with the win, but they were pressed hard for most of the night by the last-placed Flyers.
Chris Mason made 24 saves for Nashville, including stopping 10 of the 11 shots he faced in the third period, when the Flyers had several good scoring chances before Erat's game-winner.
Steve Sullivan and Alexander Radulov scored the other goals for the Predators, who out-shot the Flyers 29-26.
Philadelphia slipped to 7-15-3 with the loss, leaving the Flyers in last place in the Eastern Conference overall standings as their modest two-game winning streak was snapped.
Mike Knuble, who earlier in the day signed a two-year contract extension with the club, and R.J. Umberger scored for the Flyers, while Antero Niittymaki made 26 saves.
Umberger's goal at 13:29 of the third period tied the score at 2-2, but Erat's game-winner came just 1:40 later off a Philadelphia turnover.
In other games, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 and the San Jose Sharks edged the Minnesota Wild 2-1.

TITLE: Chinese Food a Danger For Olympic Athletes
PUBLISHER: AGENCE FRANCE PRESS
TEXT: BEIJING — Athletes who compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics face the danger of a positive drugs test if they dine out and eat some of China's chemical-laden foods, a top Chinese doping expert has warned.Chinese food is contaminated with banned drugs like anabolic steroids to such an extent that the possibility is real, said Yang Shumin, the former head of China's Olympic doping control centre and an expert on anabolic steroids.
"Concern about it goes to the top of the Chinese government," Yang, now a researcher at the doping control centre who also advises the government on food safety, told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.
Athletes caught doping rarely admit their guilt, and most come up with dubious stories about spiked food and drink or medicine that turned out to contain banned substances.
"Those stories could be true in 2008," Yang said.
In China, food safety is a major issue for the entire population, not just for the more than 10,000 athletes who will arrive here in August 2008 to take part in the Olympics.
Many of the hundreds of millions of China's farmers buy anabolic steroids for their livestock and antibiotics for their fowl from salesmen who promise better prices for bigger pigs and healthier ducks.
Dangerous pesticides, fertilizers and chemical additives to make the produce more attractive also combine with heavy metals washed into the food chain through contaminated rivers and streams.
Add to that poor hygiene and food handling, and the recipe for regular outbreaks of mass food-poisoning is complete.
In one recent case that raised Olympic alarm bells, 336 people fell sick in Shanghai in September after eating pork contaminated with anabolic steroids.
Sales of turbot, a popular flatfish, were also this month banned in parts of eastern China after they were found to contain carcinogens from antibiotics.
Other food scares have centered on duck eggs dyed with dangerous chemicals and snails infested by parasites that sent about 90 Beijing diners to hospital suffering from meningitis.
Although it is aware of the wider problem, the Chinese leadership has made the Olympics its focus, staking its prestige on staging a great, doping-free Games.
"The Chinese government cares. They don't want to lose face because of doping. And that does not just apply to Chinese athletes. It applies to all athletes," said Yang.
"So we are doing our best to prevent any drugs getting into athletes' systems."
The government has issued what is calls a "dead order" — one that must be obeyed at all costs — on food safety at the Olympic village where most of the athletes will stay during the August 8-24 games.
Any Chinese official found responsible for a lapse in food security can expect no mercy.
A high-tech surveillance system will be used to trace the entire food supply chain for the athletes, from production and processing to delivery at the village.
But the problems deepen once athletes step beyond the sanitized borders of the village.
Chinese officials were stunned to hear that athletes taking part in the World Junior Championships in Beijing in August went looking to eat raw meat on the streets.
"This is very dangerous," he said. "Top athletes are very clear about this. They won't buy anything they are not sure of. But inexperienced athletes could be caught."

TITLE: Andrew: 'No Quick Fix for English Rugby'
PUBLISHER: AGENCE FRANCE PRESS
TEXT: LONDON — Rob Andrew, England's elite rugby director, insisted there would be no hurry in finding a "sticking plaster" successor to Andy Robinson whose wretched two years as coach of the world champions finally came to an end.Under Robinson, England lost 13 out of 22 Tests with only nine wins and a solitary away victory during a period where the loss of key players such as Jonny Wilkinson through injury was compounded by the coach's sometimes bizarre decision-making.
Earlier this month England completed a record-equalling run of seven straight Test defeats.
Meanwhile the November series at Twickenham saw England lose three out of their four matches and struggle to beat an under-strength South Africa in the first of two clashes against the Springboks.
The reverses left England in an embarrassing seventh place in the International Rugby Board (IRB) world rankings barely 10 months out from next year's World Cup in France.
"What do they say in football, the table never lies," was Andrew's blunt assessment of England's standing to reporters on Wednesday.
Although Robinson, whose contract ran until 2008, promised he wouldn't "walk away" from his job, last weekend's 25-14 defeat by South Africa was the final straw for Twickenham chiefs, Andrew included, as England's players produced another display littered with basic errors.
But by forcing out Robinson now, England have left themselves little time to find a replacement for the Six Nations opener against Scotland on February 3 unless they promote bookmakers favourite Brian Ashton, currently their backs' coach, or someone else from the existing staff.
"It's very urgent but we are not going to rush into a decision which we find in six months' time is the wrong decision," Andrew, who ruled himself out of the job of replacing Robinson, previously deputy to World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward, said.
In his 'resignation' statement, ex-England flanker Robinson argued the structure of English rugby union, where players are contracted to their clubs and not centrally by the Rugby Football Union, worked against producing Test-class performers.
Former England outside-half Andrew agreed, saying: "There is no doubt that there is a fundamental problem in the current structure of the management of elite players which is being highlighted by what other countries are doing, particularly Ireland.
"Two countries at international level that are struggling with their systems are France and England (the French set-up mirrors that of England).
"We all know that. The skill there is actually finding the solution long-term," Andrew added.
"We can't have another sticking plaster solution because it just doesn't work."
Andrew said that although the present set-up had helped deliver England the World Cup three years ago, the game had now moved on.
"Back then we had a combination of a great head coach, a great group of players and professional system that for its time may well have got the jump on other countries.
"But maybe what we've seen in the last three years is that other countries have adapted their systems and have now leapfrogged the system we had in place pre-2003.
Despite that analysis, former Newcastle rugby director Andrew — who only moved into his RFU role three months ago — said Robinson had to go.

TITLE: Solberg Aims for Five In a Row in Britain
AUTHOR: By Alan Baldwin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Subaru's Petter Solberg has promised an all-out attack this weekend in the hope of ending a grim year for his world rally team with a fifth successive victory in Britain.The Norwegian has not won since last year in Wales, a hollow triumph following the death of Peugeot's British co-driver Michael 'Beef' Park on the penultimate stage.
Solberg's victory that September was handed to him by Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who took deliberate time penalties to ensure he did not take his second title in such tragic circumstances and with three rounds remaining.
The rally has now returned to its traditional end of year slot — although the December date is the latest it has been for 20 years.
Loeb is absent this time, still recovering from a broken arm but with his third title in a row already won.
Ford have clinched the manufacturers' crown, for the first time in 27 years, meaning that all the leading drivers are off the leash.
"It's going to be a big attack from the first metre of the rally, it's as simple as that," said 2003 world champion Solberg, whose British co-driver Phil Mills can count on plenty of local support.
"It's the final round of the championship and there's nothing to lose.
"I hope it will be good old-fashioned Rally GB weather, with lots of mud on the stages. Those would be the best conditions for me," he added in a team preview.
Subaru have dominated the rally for more than a decade, winning seven times in the last nine years. But the former champions have won nothing this year.
Ford aim to cap their most successful season yet with a first win in Britain since 1979, with Finland's Marcus Gronholm a winner with Peugeot in 2001 and chasing his seventh victory of the year.
He will be a favourite but expects a rough ride.
"You can guarantee that with the rally back at the end of the season, at some point we will have fog and that's horrible," he said.
Finnish team mate Mikko Hirvonen, already assured of third place in the overall standings, looked forward to taking on Gronholm now that the title battle was over.
"There will be no pressure through having to score points so I'm looking forward to giving it a real go and driving as fast as I can," he said in a team preview.
Apart from Loeb, the Ford drivers are the only ones to have won rallies this year.
The rally starts on Friday in the forests of south Wales with the start and finish in Cardiff. There are 17 stages and 355 km of competitive driving over a route of 1,206 km.