SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1249 (15), Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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TITLE: U.S. Fails To Ease Tensions
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday dismissed Washington’s assurances that a planned missile defense system in Eastern and Central Europe was not intended to prevent an attack from Russia.
“The tracking stations and missile interceptors there are not needed because the trajectories of hypothetical missiles that could fly out of Iran and North Korea lie in an absolutely different direction,” Lavrov said in remarks carried on the TV Center channel.
Lavrov is the latest in a series of top Russian officials to criticize the system, which would include a radar installation in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland in addition to a radar station and missile interceptors already deployed in Alaska.
Washington maintains that the system is designed to protect the United States and its NATO allies in Europe from ballistic missiles fired by so-called rogue states, such as Iran and North Korea.
The commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, General Nikolai Solovtsov, said last week that Russia might target the new installations in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The proposed system has become a major irritant in U.S.-Russian relations, not least because the new installations would be deployed in two former Soviet satellite states, in contrast to post-Cold War Western promises that NATO military infrastructure would not be placed in new member states when the alliance moved eastward.
Lavrov made clear on Sunday that Russia was no longer inclined to take U.S. assurances at face value.
“We were told that NATO would not expand and that no military infrastructure would be placed in Eastern Europe,” Lavrov said on TV Center. “The time for talking is past. We will now decide how to ensure our security based on the facts.”
In its efforts to assuage Russian concerns, the White House sent National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley to Moscow last week.
“[The system] is not directed in any way against Russia,” Hadley told reporters Thursday. “It is directed to certain countries that are both developing ballistic missiles and have shown a desire to pursue nuclear weapons.”
Also last week, General Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, and Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, delivered the same message to foreign reporters in Washington.
While they have tried to strike a conciliatory tone in their remarks on the planned system, U.S. officials have struggled to contain their indignation at a speech made earlier this month in Munich by President Vladimir Putin, in which he sharply criticized U.S. foreign policy.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Putin’s speech was “extraordinary.”
In response to Solovtsov’s comments, Fried said: “You don’t start out by threatening nuclear holocaust against your neighbors.”
Experts say, however, that the planned placement of 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a single radar station in the Czech Republic would not seriously undermine Russia’s nuclear capability.
That capability could be impaired, however, if the United States were to expand its missile defense system along with installing a new generation of interceptors.
In that case, the system could seriously reduce the effectiveness of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, giving Washington a powerful bargaining chip in any negotiations with Moscow, said Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow branch of the Center for Defense Information, a U.S. think tank.
“This system could be on line within 20 years, and the current conflict with Iran could be resolved by then. The infrastructure, however, would remain in place long after the ostensible reason for building it was gone. There is no guarantee that the system wouldn’t be used against Russia,” Safranchuk said.
Alexander Pikayev, an independent, Moscow-based defense expert, said the U.S. system was being proposed as Russia prepares to decommission hundreds of Soviet-made intercontinental ballistic missiles in a move to reduce its nuclear arsenal to roughly 1,700 warheads within a decade.
If the United States continues to develop its system and also targets Russia’s early warning capacity, Russia’s ability to inflict unacceptable damage on the United States after a U.S. nuclear attack could be compromised, he said.
Safranchuk said that in this scenario, the balance would be tilted in Washington’s favor, causing concern that Russia could be blackmailed.
Both Safranchuk and Pikayev said the planned U.S. system was already taking a toll on relations between the two countries, and that the situation could deteriorate as both countries gear up for presidential elections next year if U.S. President George W. Bush does not respond to Putin’s call to sort out their differences on this and other major issues.
Pikayev added that Russia would continue to cooperate with the United States in areas where the two countries’ interests converge, such as efforts to subdue international terrorism. But Moscow could hinder or even turn against Washington on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and the U.S. presence in Central Asia if no progress is made on the missile defense question.
Kevin Ryan, a former U.S. defense attache in Moscow and now a senior research fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said the Kremlin should understand that the United States viewed the system as a way to protect its European allies from the possibility of missile attack from countries such as Iran rather than as a way to undermine the credibility of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. “We have partners in Europe that want to be protected from Iran and theirs is a logical and understandable concern,” Ryan, a retired general, said.
Ryan said the planned missile defense system would “become a major constraint on the Russian nuclear force” only if Russia were to reduce its strategic nuclear arsenal to a total of hundreds of warheads — the level of China’s nuclear force.

TITLE: ‘Green’ Fears Dog Sochi’s 2014 Bid
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: SOCHI — Persistent environmental concerns and the many facilities waiting to be built — including skating rinks, bobsled tracks, chairlifts and hotels — could sink Sochi’s bid to host the 2014 Winter Games, despite extensive government support.
That was the conclusion of the International Olympic Committee’s evaluating commission as it wrapped up a six-day visit to the Black Sea resort Friday.
Further complicating Sochi’s bid are ongoing energy problems: Late last week, a gas pipe briefly malfunctioned, forcing a shutdown. The shutdown followed twin blackouts earlier this month due to high winds and heavy snowfall.
But the commission praised the strong support that the bid is getting from Moscow. The government is providing $7.2 billion to turn the resort into a world-class venue; another $4.8 billion is coming from businesses.
Still, there are major environmental obstacles to be tackled. While Sochi bid officials said all the problems had been ironed out, Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund representatives said, in fact, that they had not.
At the heart of the disagreement is a kilometer-wide mountainous buffer zone separating protected federal land from unprotected land in Sochi National Park. Sections of a bobsled track are to be built in the buffer zone.
Additional facilities that are unnecessary for the Games are also being put in nearby.
“They want to build an exclusive golf club that they cleverly categorize under the quaint euphemism ‘necessary social infrastructure,’” said Mikhail Kreindlin, who heads Greenpeace’s Moscow office.
Kreindlin also disagreed with the bid committee’s view that investment in the North Caucasus will help protect federal lands, which are home to brown bears and wild deer.
To address environmentalists’ fears, the Sochi 2014 bid committee is creating a working group, which will get a veto over all building projects.
But it remains to be seen whether the same green activists who raised the concerns will actually get a seat at the table. Kreindlin said Friday that he had yet to be contacted by officials.
Greenpeace and WWF representatives met last week with six members of the IOC evaluation commission, including the commission’s ecological adviser, Simon Balderstone.
“They listened to us, thanked us and left,” the WWF’s Pyotr Gorbunenko said of the meeting at the Olimpiisky Business Center.
At a final news conference Friday, IOC members would only say that they hope the outstanding environmental issues would be dealt with by Russian officials.
“We very much hope that solutions can be found in the near future,” IOC evaluation commission chairman Chiharu Agaya told a packed audience at a hotel here. 
“We recognize the importance of the environment.”
During its tour of Sochi and nearby Krasnaya Polyana, the IOC commission was also shown elaborate plans for a coastal Olympic Park. The park is expected to include state of the art skating, hockey and curling stadiums and housing for athletes and journalists.
IOC members praised the plans but warned that time is of the essence. For now, the planned park is a 2-square-kilometer field full of tractors and dirt.
“Should you get the Games here, you only have seven years to go, and so the time factor would be rather pressing,” Agaya said.
Sochi bid officials have actually given themselves only 6 1/2 years: The Olympic Park is scheduled to open in June 2013.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the bid committee, turned the lack of facilities into an advantage.
“Sochi is a blank canvas ready for a painter to create a masterpiece,” he said.
IOC officials acknowledged that Sochi has certain undeniable strengths: There is widespread support from President Vladimir Putin, who hosted an IOC dinner here Monday; Russia has a rich history of Winter Olympic medalists; and the city is proposing a compact plan for the Games, which includes two “clusters” of facilities separated by roughly 50 kilometers.
The committee will announce on July 4 which city — Sochi or one of its two rivals, Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeonchang, South Korea — gets the Games.
IOC members visited Pyeonchang earlier this month and will be in Salzburg next month.

TITLE: Russia Questions More Iran Sanctions
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS — In contrast to the United States, Russia is questioning the usefulness of additional UN sanctions against Iran, stressing that the goal was to reach a political solution to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Moscow’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, raised questions Thursday in reaction to a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, that said Iran failed to meet a Feb. 21 deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, which the West fears can be used to make an atomic bomb.
Stressing the need for a diplomatic solution, Churkin told reporters: “We should not lose sight of the goal and the goal is not to have a resolution or to impose sanctions. The goal is to accomplish a political outcome of this problem.”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, pressed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the additional sanctions during a meeting Thursday in Berlin of the the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers.
Talking to reporters Friday, Rice downplayed the likelihood of U.S. military action against Iran. “I don’t want to speak for my Russian colleague but … we would expect to continue to pursue our Security Council track as well as to pursue a track that would hopefully lead to negotiations,” Rice said during a visit to Ottawa. “I expect on that, we’re all on the same page.”
The United States and several European nations, such as council members Britain and France, are pushing for additional UN sanctions after Iran defied a Dec. 23 council resolution.
That measure imposed bans on Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials in an effort to stop enrichment work.
Among the new measures under review are a mandatory travel ban on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear program, an end to government-backed loans and credits, an enlargement of the list of items Tehran cannot buy and sell and restrictions on visas to students studying nuclear-related subjects abroad.
But much depends on how far the Russians are willing to go in imposing further penalties.
On Monday, Germany and the officials from the five permanent Security Council members with veto rights — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — met in London to begin drafting a resolution, said Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state.
In sharp contrast with Churkin, Burns, as well as Jackie Sanders, a U.S. deputy ambassador at the United Nations, said the time had come “to ratchet up the pressure on Iran.”
“Stay tuned,” Sanders said. And in Washington, Burns said, he expected to “see Iran repudiated again by the Security Council.”
Slovakia’s UN Ambassador Peter Burian, this month’s Security Council president, said, “We’ll be checking the mood and the interest of the members to convene consultations within our presidency,” he said.

TITLE: Activists 
Prevented From Giving Away Food
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Volunteers giving food to homeless people and street children in central St. Petersburg were stopped by police on Sunday, Fontanka.ru reported. 
Members of the “Food, Not Bombs” group were giving out food outside Vladimirskaya Metro Station when the police intervened. 
“All the activists who were at the square at the time — around 15 people — were detained by plain-clothes policemen,” a purported witness claimed on Indymedia Piter, an activist web site on Sunday.
No independent confirmation of this account was available Monday.
“Without being given a reason for the detention, with [the police] merely presenting their IDs, [the participants] were pushed into [police] vehicles and taken to the station,” the Indymedia account continues.
A participant of the event contacted by The St. Petersburg Times, who declined to be named, agreed with the details of the account published on the Indymedia Piter website. 
However, the police are reported to have said that the activists were not formally detained but taken in for a “talking to.”
“Law enforcement representatives maintain it was not a detention, but a preventative undertaking,” Fontanka.ru reported on Sunday. “The participants [in the ‘Food Not Bombs’ event] were invited to the station for a chat.” 
All those involved were released the same day.
In early February a bomb exploded under a flower stall outside Vladimirskaya Metro Station on the same day that a “Food, Not Bombs” event was scheduled to take place there. The explosion left the stall’s salesperson with minor injuries. 
In January, 21-year-old Ivan Yelin was seriously injured in a knife attack on the way home from participating in a “Food Not Bombs” event. 
In November 2005, anti-fascist campaigner Timur Kacharava was stabbed to death by unknown “skinhead” assailants outside a bookstore on Ligovsky Prospekt after being followed from a “Food, Not Bombs” event.

TITLE: Illness of 2 U.S. Citizens Prompts Police Inquiry
AUTHOR: By Carl Schreck
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Police are investigating the suspected poisoning of two U.S. citizens who were hospitalized in Moscow on Saturday.
Marina Kovalevskaya and her daughter, Yana Kovalevskaya, were rushed to the emergency room early Saturday. Doctors at the Sklifosovsky First Aid Institute detected signs of poisoning, but had not identified any specific poison, a law enforcement source told Interfax on Saturday.
Police could not be reached for comment Sunday, but a police source told Citi-FM radio that the two women had received guests at the Moscow hotel where they were staying, and fell ill after the guests left. Investigators have confiscated food and pills from the hotel room, Citi-FM reported.
Interfax reported that Marina Kovalevskaya, born in 1958, and her daughter Yana, born in 1981, went Saturday to the American Medical Center, but were quickly moved to the Sklifosovsky center.
A Sklifosovsky employee, who declined to give her name, confirmed Sunday that Kovalevskaya and her daughter were receiving treatment at the facility. The employee said she was not authorized to discuss details of the women’s diagnoses.
A U.S. Embassy official, who declined to be identified in line with embassy policy, said Sunday that consular officers were in contact with the mother, hospital personnel and police investigators, but that he could give no further details.
An employee of the American Clinic, located at 31 Grokholsky Pereulok, said Sunday that Kovalevskaya and her daughter had called around 5 a.m. on Saturday and said they were feeling unwell.
The clinic offered to send an ambulance, but the women opted to make their own way to the clinic, presumably by taxi, said the employee, who declined to be identified.
Both went instead to the nearby American Medical Center, located at 26 Prospekt Mira, the employee said.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Miner Dies in Pit</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (MT) — One miner died when a shaft collapsed at the Dzerzhinsky pit in the Kemerovo region, Valery Korchagin, chief spokesman for the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, told Interfax on Sunday.
Korchagin said that 11 miners were in the collapsed section of the shaft. As of Sunday afternoon, all but one of the miners had been accounted for.
Sergei Cheremnov, head of public relations for the Kemerovo regional administration, said the collapse had not been caused by an explosion or methane leak, Interfax reported.

<b>2 Tourists Killed</b>
n?BANGKOK (Reuters) — Two female Russian tourists were shot dead and left on lounge chairs on a beach in Thailand’s eastern resort town of Pattaya, Thai police said Saturday.
The bodies of the women, aged 25 and 30, were found at dawn on Pattaya’s Jomtien Beach, a popular destination for foreign tourists located 150 kilometers from Bangkok.
“We have no idea what was the motive for the shooting,” said Pattaya Police Major Srettha Maklon, although he added that their mobile phones and wallets had not been taken.

<b>Putin to Meet Pope</b>
n?VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI will meet with President Vladimir Putin in Vatican City on March 13 in the highest-level Kremlin-Vatican talks in more than three years, the Holy See said.
Putin will also be holding bilateral talks with Italian leaders in southern Italy and will meet Benedict in Rome, Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said Thursday.
When Putin last visited the Vatican, in November 2003, for a meeting with Pope John Paul II, the president said he wanted to help end the dispute between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, but he did not invite the pontiff to Moscow.

TITLE: $2.9 Billion to Go On Combating Disease
AUTHOR: By Svetlana Osadchuk
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Cabinet has tentatively approved a $2.9 billion program aimed at raising the country’s life expectancy by tackling AIDS, diabetes, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov trumpeted the HIV portion of the program as “an essential step forward.”
Under the program, the state would provide medical treatment for 30,000 people living with HIV. “A couple of years ago, only 700 people with HIV or AIDS could get treatment,” Zurabov told the Cabinet while presenting the five-year program Thursday.
Now, 18,000 of the 58,000 people who need treatment are receiving it, according to the Federal AIDS Center. The official number of HIV cases in Russia is 380,000.
The draft program would put Russia on par with the United States in treatment, said Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Federal AIDS Center. “We plan to supply the drugs to half of those who need them, which is roughly how they do it in the United States,” Pokrovsky said by telephone.
The count of 380,000 HIV-positive people, however, reflects only those who have registered with the health system. The actual number of infected people was believed to be 940,000 in late 2005, said Yelena Tomazova, a spokeswoman for UNAIDS. Nearly 13,500 new cases were registered in the first six months of 2006.
The state also needs to educate the public about prevention and treatment services, some of which are hard to reach in remote areas, said Mikhail Rukavishikov, head of the Society of People Living With HIV, a nongovernmental organization.
“Many people who need treatment just do not know about it,” he said. At the same time, the treatment itself is complicated, Rukavishikov said. “It is impossible to do it by yourself,” he said.
This may be one reason why people discontinue treatment — an interruption that can be dangerous as it leads the body to build resistance to the drugs.
About 1,000 people gave up treatment last year, the country’s chief epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, said at a news conference Feb. 12.
The treatment of about 60 people was interrupted in the Leningrad region alone last summer due to a drug procurement problem, said Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Front AIDS, a nongovernmental organization in St. Petersburg.
“Expanding access to antiretroviral therapy is good as such, but people still will suffer and die because of HIV-related illnesses,” he added.
About 32,000 people are infected in St. Petersburg, and about 80 percent of them are ill with hepatitis. But “the city has only 350 sets for hepatitis treatment available,” Rumyantsev said.
Ensuring regular treatment will be a challenge for the federal program, said Corinna Reinicke, coordinator of the World Health Organization’s HIV-AIDS program in Russia.
Also at the Cabinet meeting, Zurabov said one in 10 migrant workers suffers from infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or hepatitis. “We were shocked with the numbers,” he said, citing a recent investigation.
He said his ministry was checking ordinary Russians, migrants and prisoners to establish the nature of the problem and find ways to deal with it.

TITLE: Celebration, Protest on Army Day
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Some Russians celebrated their military’s tradition of dedication Friday while others protested its recent history of corruption and brutality in separate events marking the annual Defenders of the Fatherland holiday.
In subzero temperatures, President Vladimir Putin stood by as an honor guard laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in the shadow of the Kremlin’s red brick wall. Communists, meanwhile, marched through Moscow to protest what they consider the shameful treatment of service members and veterans.
The Red Army’s defeat of the Nazis on the eastern front is still a source of great pride in Russia and the tradition of military service remains strong — although the army’s reputation suffered during wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
For Putin, the holiday — also called Army Day — provided a chance to celebrate Russia’s growing prosperity and strength. For his critics, it was a day to hold the government accountable for the military’s troubles, including the widespread and sometimes brutal hazing of conscripts.
Putin greeted generals and solemnly adjusted a ribbon on a wreath placed by the honor guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is marked by an eternal flame. Afterward, he held his bare hands over his ears to protect them from the cold.
During the first Chechen war in the mid-1990s, the army’s inadequacy as a modern fighting force was driven home when a relatively small number of rebels fought Russian forces to a standstill.
Putin has pledged to reform the military, and announced an ambitious weapons modernization plan this month. But corruption and abuses persist due to resistance by the top brass.
For communists and other leftists angry at Russia’s course since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the holiday is a chance to protest what they consider the military’s decline.
A few thousand marched down a main Moscow street to a monument to Karl Marx, where they called for better pay, pensions and benefits for servicemen and veterans.
State-run television Friday showed a slew of Soviet-era movies and patriotic concerts. It also broadcast a speech by Putin’s new defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov — the former chief of the tax collection service, who has little military background. He promised a “profound and thorough modernization of the armed forces, giving them a character fully answering the demands of the 21st century.”
During ceremonies at the Kremlin wall, Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox Church — which has historic ties to the military — also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and said a prayer for fallen soldiers.

TITLE: Timoshenko: Russia’s Grasp On Ukraine Growing Stronger
AUTHOR: By Mara Bellaby
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s main opposition leader, on the eve of a trip to the U.S., warned Saturday that the former Soviet republic is at risk of sliding back under the influence of Russia.
Yulia Timoshenko said she will reassure U.S. leaders on a visit that started on Sunday that the Orange Revolution team which set Ukraine on its pro-Western path has reunited and will provide tough opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s Russian-leaning government.
“Our union today is not due to circumstances, it is not a spontaneous decision,” Timoshenko said after signing an agreement Saturday to rejoin forces with President Viktor Yushchenko’s party.
“It is a decision dictated by those Ukrainians who want to see Ukraine European.”
Timoshenko was one of the driving forces behind the 2004 Orange Revolution, which helped bring the pro-Western Yushchenko to power. The Kremlin had backed Yanukovych, and his defeat was a major blow to Moscow’s efforts to keep Ukraine under its sway.
But Yushchenko’s hesitant governing style proved to be a disappointment for many Ukrainians who expected quick change and a strong embrace from Europe. He also split with Timoshenko, a widely popular politician in Ukraine. Last year, Yanukovych’s party triumphed in parliamentary elections and he returned to power as prime minister, governing jointly with Yushchenko.
Yushchenko has since become sidelined, and Timoshenko said that under Yanukovych, Russia’s influence was growing.
“I don’t want to be silent about this,” she said, noting that Moscow’s pressure was strongest in the energy sector.
“Really, there is energy pressure on Ukraine which … is used today for political control of the country,” she said. “All this forces us to confront a new challenge: to protect the independence of our country.”
Russia temporarily cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine last year, a shut-off was widely seen as punishment for Ukraine’s pro-Western policies. This year, both sides agreed to a price widely seen as a gift to Yanukovych’s government — nearly half the price Russia is demanding from Georgia, another West-leaning ex-Soviet republic.
Russia has increasingly used its huge energy supplies to wield influence in other former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>‘Satanic’ Luzhkov Sued</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The organizers of Moscow’s banned gay parade on Monday filed a lawsuit against the city mayor Yury Luzhkov for publicly calling the parade “satanic,” MosNews.com reported Monday quoting DPA news agency. 
“Both in the secular and religious context, the term ‘satanic’ is offensive and carries a negative coloring,” Nikolai Alexeyev, a parade organizer, was quoted by MosNews.com as saying.
Alexeyev said organizers were seeking a retraction from Luzhkov for “denigrating comments that don’t correspond to reality” as well as 1,000 rubles (38 dollars) each in compensation for “moral damage.” 
It was unclear how Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court would respond to the lawsuit, which follows a complaint lodged last month with the European Court of Human Rights.

<b>Election Law Proposal</b>
MOSCOW (SPT) —?Central Elections Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov told reporters in St. Petersburg on Friday that the time had come to consider changing the registration process for political parties in legislative elections at all levels, Interfax reported.
Veshnyakov said the federal law on political parties rendered obsolete two requirements in the current election law: the submission of signatures to support a party’s registration application, and the payment of a deposit.
The elections chief said either both provisions in the law should be scrapped altogether, or limits should be set on the size of the deposit and the time parties are given to collect signatures. 

<b>Cellist Honored</b>
MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin has awarded renowned conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich a Russian state medal, the Kremlin said Monday.
Putin signed a decree awarding Rostropovich the Order of Service to the Fatherland, First Degree, for his “outstanding contribution to the development of world music and many years of creative activity,” the presidential press service said.
Rostropovich, 79, was hospitalized earlier this month for unspecified reasons — first in Paris and then in Moscow. His hospitalization was revealed when the Kremlin said Putin had visited him in a Moscow hospital on Feb. 6.
Two Russian newspapers later reported that Rostropovich was being treated at Russia’s leading cancer clinic, but aides declined to comment on the reports.

<b>3 Die in Moscow Garage</b>
MOSCOW (SPT) — Three people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a garage in northern Moscow, Interfax reported Sunday. Law enforcement sources told Interfax that the bodies of two civilian drivers and a young woman had been found in a temporary garage on the grounds of a military unit on Khoroshyovskoye Shosse.

TITLE: Aeroflot Downcast on Boeing
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Talks on a multibillion-dollar deal for Aeroflot to buy 22 Boeing 787s are on hold, and frosty relations between Russia and the United States could be to blame, an Aeroflot official said.
Aeroflot management last year asked the government — the company’s controlling shareholder — to approve a deal to upgrade its long-range fleet by buying 22 Boeing 787s and an equal number of Airbus A350s. 
CEO Valery Okulov said later that no permission for the Boeing purchase had been received and a deadline for the deal had been missed, though a company spokeswoman said talks were continuing.
Aviation analysts have valued the Boeing order at $2.5 billion. 
Aeroflot deputy general director Lev Koshlyakov said Thursday that talks with Boeing were on hold.
“In respect of this contract negotiations have not been held for some time,” Koshlyakov said. “However this does not mean that we won’t be open to discussion with them in the future. Boeing remains a major producer.” 
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said last week that Aeroflot’s deal to buy two second-hand Airbus A330s this year did not mean the airline would not buy Boeing aircraft.
“Boeing works very well on the Russian market,” Gref said.
Officials at Boeing’s headquarters could not be immediately reached for comment. 
An unidentified Boeing official was quoted by the Seattle Times on Thursday as saying Boeing wrote off the deal “a month or so ago.”
Observers speculated that the deal had been caught up in politics — with relations between Washington and Moscow having taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent weeks.
Last August, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on arms exporter Rosoboronexport and fighter-jet maker Sukhoi for their dealings with Iran.
“As with any big deal, obviously the political situation has a certain influence,” Koshlyakov said. “As management, we proceed on the basis of economics, though of course our shareholders may have their own ideas about our choice of partner. At the end of the day it’s their decision.”
Koshlyakov, meanwhile, said that talks with Boeing’s main rival, Airbus, were ongoing. On Wednesday, Interfax quoted an Aeroflot source as saying the deal for the Airbus A350s would likely be completed later this year. 
French President Jacques Chirac is due to visit Moscow next month. 
Russia is interested in playing a bigger role in Airbus’ parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, where it already holds a 5 percent stake through state bank Vneshtorgbank.
On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin told visiting French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie that more cooperation “would be interesting and useful not only for Russian producers but for their European partners.”
Airbus is in the midst of a troubled restructuring, however, and has yet to commit to whether it will build the A350s in Germany or France.

TITLE: Bank St. Petersburg To Finally Settle Down
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A 25-floor office building for Bank St. Petersburg is planned as the architectural center of an “A-Class” business area comprising 150,000 square meters of office space to be complete by 2012, one of the largest projects of its kind in the city, developer Setl City said last week in a statement.
Bank St. Petersburg and Setl City have already begun construction at Malookhtinsky Prospekt to the east of the city center on the north side of the Neva River, near to the proposed site of the new Gazprom City development. As well as the new building for the bank, the area will also include more than ten office buildings of eight to nine floors.
“The office areas will be in demand because of the deficit of ‘A-Class’ business centers in St. Petersburg,” general director of Setl Group Vasily Selivanov said.
“All existing ‘A-Class’ office areas in the city are accumulated in separately located business centers. So our business area will have the additional competitive advantages of centralized planning and a unified concept. It will offer large office areas, a comfortable location, parking spaces, and good access to transport  to the city center,” Selivanov said.
Selivanov noted that the business park will be completed sooner than other projects of a similar type that have been announced. 
Plans for the area were proposed by St. Petersburg architectural bureau Yevgeny Gerasimov & Partners and German planning bureau Choban & Associates.
“It’s not by accident that we’ve chosen this place for construction of the new office center. There are not only geographical and transport advantages to the area but there is also the possibility of creating a unique business environment for our clients and the partners that are attracted by us,” Bank St. Petersburg Chairman Alexander Saveliyev said.
“We are confident that this project will modernize the Neva Embankment and fit well into the city’s architecture,” he added.
Setl City is part of Setl Group holding, and, according to the plan, another subsidiary of Setl Group — Praktis  — will manage and maintain the office areas after they are completed.
A real estate expert said that Setl City should be in demand considering the announced features of the project and the market.
“Existing height-limits considerably affect the pay-back period for construction projects and their profitability,” said Dmitry Zolin, managing partner of London Consulting & Management Company.
The average profitability of business centers in St. Petersburg is 14 percent to 17 percent a year. A normal pay-back period varies between six years and eight years, Zolin said.
“The aim of Setl City to construct a 25-floor business center is quite natural. By doing so they could shorten the pay-back period and increase profitability because of larger areas available for lease,” Zolin said.
“Most office areas offered for lease in the city do not meet tenants’ expectations in terms of quality and technical characteristics. The trend is that the tenants consider not only the rent but also the range of services. ‘A-Class’ business centers  will surely be in demand in the next two to three years,” Zolin said.
A location outside the city center is not a disadvantage for an ‘A-Class’ business center if it can easily be reached by car, he said.
“The obvious advantage of business centers constructed from scratch like Setl City is their technical characteristics. Such centers offer high-quality technical equipment, which is not always possible when a historical building is reconstructed into a business center,” Zolin said.
Total investment in the project is estimated at $430 million, with the first part of the project — including the offices of Bank St. Petersburg — to be completed by 2010. Completion of the whole project is due by 2012.

TITLE: Japan and Russia Agree To Increase Energy Relations
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: TOKYO — Japan and Russia have pledged to strengthen reciprocal relations in oil and natural gas development and increase trade at a ministerial meeting in Tokyo.
Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko of Russia and Foreign Minister Taro Aso of Japan discussed two oil and gas projects on Russia’s Sakhalin Island and an East Siberian oil pipeline project, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The two ministers met for two hours Monday.
Japan, which imports 89 percent of its oil from the Middle East, is increasing its reliance on Russian energy assets such as oil, gas and uranium enrichment processes to strengthen its supply security. That contrasts with Europe, Russia’s largest energy market, where nations have discussed cutting reliance on Russian oil and gas after a series of supply disruptions.
“Japan should expand oil and gas imports from Russia,” Hidetoshi Shioda, senior energy analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, said by telephone. “Cutting dependence on the Middle East means mitigating risks of any supply disruption in the region in the years ahead.”
In the talks, Khristenko called Japan a vital market for Russia’s oil and gas exports, the official said. The two ministers agreed that their countries should be able to expand trade in areas including energy, fishery and agricultural products, transportation and information technology.
Khristenko told Aso that Russia had completed a 700-kilometer section of its proposed 4,300-kilometer oil pipeline from Taishet in eastern Siberia to Perevoznaya on Russia’s Pacific coast, the official said. In the first phase of the project, Russia will build a pipeline to Skovorodino by the end of 2008 and construct an extension line to Perevoznaya in the second phase. Japan has lobbied for the construction of the pipeline to Perevoznaya to boost imports from eastern Siberian fields.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Sberbank Assets</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Northwest Bank of Sberbank Rossii increased assets by 45 percent last year up to 298 billion rubles ($11.38 billion), Interfax reported Thursday.
Net profit increased by 70 percent up to 6.6 billion rubles ($252 million). The bank’s own assets are estimated to be worth 27 billion rubles ($1 billion) — a 50 percent increase. Loans to corporate clients increased by 50 percent, to individual borrowers — by over 80 percent. The credit portfolio reached a total of 155 billion rubles ($5.9 billion).

<b>Lenta Opening</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Lenta retail operator started construction of a second supermarket in Nizhny Novgorod, Interfax reported Thursday. The cost of the project is the same as its first supermarket in the city — $20 million. Both projects are due for completion by the the end of 2007.
At the moment Lenta operates 14 supermarkets in Russia and 13 supermarkets are being constructed. Last year Lenta’s turnover accounted for $1.016 billion as opposed to $623 million in 2005. This year the company will invest $490 million into development.

<b>Phone Market</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Northwest region’s mobile phone market grew by 25.9 percent last year up to $1.7 billion, according to Rustele.com analytical agency, Prime-Tass reported Thursday.
MegaFon, the largest operator in the Northwest, holds 38 percent of the market by number of SIM-cards and 50 percent by revenue. Vympelcom (the Beeline brand) is the only major operator that increased its market share both by revenue and number of new subscribers.

<b>Entertaining Force</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — On Wednesday this week Trans-Force Ltd, a part of Transas group, will open the second entertainment complex Trans-Force in St. Petersburg, Prime-Tass reported Thursday.
The complex located in Planeta Neptun shopping center could serve 100 people at a time. The managers hope to return investment within one year and a half by serving 100,000 people a year. Nine million rubles ($340,000) has been invested in the project. 

<b>Modern Rails</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Russian Railways will invest about 40 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) into modernization of the railway network in Russia this year, RBC reported Monday.
Over 9,700 kilometers of railways will be replaced and repaired. Last year Russian Railways repaired about 11,000 kilometers of railway.

<b>Sea Platforms</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Sevmashpredpriyatie state enterprise signed a contract with Norwegian companies Moss Maritime and Moss Mosvold Platforms for the construction of the third sea multifunctional platform MOSS CS-50, Prime-Tass reported Thursday.
Contracts for the two previous platforms were signed in June 2005 and June 2006 respectively. The platforms will be used for oil mining.

<b>GAZ Group Bid</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — GAZ Group, a Russian maker of cars and trucks, declined to comment on a report it may bid for DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit.
“The rule of our company is not to talk about deals before they are completed,’’ GAZ spokesman Vladimir Torin said by telephone in Moscow Monday. “I can neither confirm nor deny the possibility.’’
Focus magazine reported Sunday that GAZ, controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, is interested in acquiring Chrysler, without saying where it got the information. DaimlerChrysler said this month it may consider a sale or seek partners for its unprofitable unit.

<b>Usmanov Stake</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov bought $800 million in Sberbank stock at the bank’s secondary offering last week, Vedomosti reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the results of the share sale.
Usmanov, co-owner of the Gazmetall holding, bought the stake using Credit Suisse’s private-banking services, the newspaper said, citing the person.

<b>Gold Shares </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Eurasia Gold Inc., a Kazakh-based gold miner part-owned by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, plans to sell shares in London next month to raise as much as $150 million for acquisitions in central Asia.
The company, already listed in Toronto, will sell new dollar-denominated shares, while existing shareholders the Mukashev family will offer part of their stake to banks managing the sale, said Tim Read, chairman of Eurasia Gold. Nomura International and Uralsib Financial Corp. will manage the sale.
 
<b>Turkmen Appointment </b>
ASHGABAT (Bloomberg) — Turkmenistan’s new president removed the chairman of the state-owned natural-gas company, which controls the biggest reserves in the former Soviet Union after Russia, and appointed him deputy prime minister, a month after he took over at the gas company.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who was sworn in as the Central Asian country’s new leader on Feb. 14, dismissed Tachberdy Tagyev as chairman of Turkmengaz, the official online newspaper, Turkmenistan.ru, reported Feb. 23. 

<b>3G Mobile Bids </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian wireless companies led by Mobile TeleSystems, VimpelCom and  MegaFon will bid for licenses to offer faster mobile-phone services such as video-conferences and mobile television.
The three largest mobile-phone operators in Russia have applied for the so-called third generation permits, company representatives said by telephone Monday. The winners for the licenses will be announced in April.

<b>Rosneft Plans </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Rosneft, Russia’s state-run oil producer, plans to raise as much as $3 billion in loans and bonds in the next month to help buy assets of bankrupt Yukos Oil Co., a banker hired to arrange the financing said.
The transactions will refinance part of a $24.5 billion bridge loan Rosneft got last year from ABN Amro Holding NV, Barclays Plc, Calyon, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

TITLE: Russia’s KrasAir Seals Malev Deal
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BUDAPEST — Hungary’s privatization agency said it agreed to sell national airline Malev to Russia’s KrasAir for 200 million forints ($1.04 million) and the buyer also agreed to inject 50 million euros ($66 million) into Malev.
Of the 50 million euro equity increase, 20 million euros will be provided immediately and the remainder later, when necessary, the privatization agency said Friday.
KrasAir, owned by businessman Boris Abramovich, also agreed to repay or refinance 13 billion forints of Malev’s debts while another 20 billion forints of Malev’s state-guaranteed debts will be backed by a 32 million euro bank guarantee.
Hungary selected KrasAir in early February to buy Malev after three failed privatization attempts over the past two and a half years. The deal is expected to close in March, when KrasAir will pay the 200 million forint purchase price and the 20 billion forint equity increase.
As around 20 billion forints of Malev’s debt will remain state guaranteed, the privatization agency will remove some of Malev’s assets before the sale and use them as collateral for the debt.
A new asset management firm will take over the debt as well as some of Malev’s aircraft, its brand name, and the jet fuel pipeline that connects Budapest’s airport with the country’s main oil refinery.
Malev will then rent these assets from the state-owned asset management firm.
Once the debt is repaid, Malev will be able to buy back these assets, the privatization agency added.
Including its international sales staff, Malev employs around 3,300 people, and news reports earlier indicated KrasAir plans to reduce this number sharply. Questioned on this at a news conference, KrasAir representatives declined to comment.

TITLE: Advising the Graduate
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Matvei Pirozhenko, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Pedersen & Partners executive search firm, suggested that the main difference between MBA graduates and candidates with similar work experience but no MBA diploma comes down to the salary. Managers believe that as Masters of Business they will ultimately earn more money.  
Tatyana Polovnikova, senior consultant at Consort Petersburg, estimated this “extra reward” at 30 percent to 40 percent of the average salary offered for a particular job.
Another recruiting expert agreed. “Regardless of the industry, MBA graduates differ from other candidates in terms of their expectations of a higher compensation package. And it’s not surprising. People invest in additional business education to increase their market value,” said Alexei Zelentsov, regional director for Northwest at Kelly Services.

What they choose
MBA graduates try to establish their worth by taking a challenging position in a foreign company, recruiters said.
“MBA graduates prefer jobs that have to deal with strategic management and business restructuring. Work experience and basic education usually define the industry, though MBAs might be found in any company,” Polovnikova said.
“Western business school graduates focus on large western companies. Managers who studied at IMISP, the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia and other Russian business schools obviously consider both western and Russian companies. I know several people who have taken jobs in Kiev,” Polovnikova said.
Pirozhenko agreed that “MBA graduates are motivated to take top positions in western companies where they can make best use of their knowledge.”
Working in a foreign company also gives the graduates of serious business schools the opportunity to maintain a good command of English,” he said.
“If the employer funded the studies, the MBA graduate keeps working in the same company for two to three years after graduating, otherwise they must compensate for the expenses incurred by the company,” Pirozhenko said.
Students who paid for the education themselves show interest in different companies of various sizes, he said, but mainly foreign.

Who hunts them
According to Begin Group, in St. Petersburg 36 percent of managers with MBAs work in finance, 35 percent in marketing, 19 percent in sales and nine percent in logistics.
The career path of most MBA graduates is more related to the companies’ demand than their own preferences, Zelentsov indicated.
“Most MBA graduates change job within a year after graduation, even if they started the course with the intention to keep working for their current employer. Obviously, most of them would like to work in a large Russian or western company, but they do not always succeed,” Zelentsov said.
On the contrary, MBA graduates are mainly in demand in Russian companies, he noted.
“Foreign companies are looking for good performers at any managerial level, from the bottom to the top. Their business processes have been perfected over many years in many different countries. They do not need any restructuring,” Zelentsov said.
“Russian companies, on the contrary, often grow to a size where they need not only good management but also serious or even revolutionary change at all levels. And that is what MBA graduates are good for,” he said.
Another expert shared this view. “The recent trend is that Russian monopolists, like Power Machines, Russian Railways and Interros, hunt strong managers with serious experience and offer them twice the salary offered by western employers,” Polovnikova said.
She did not consider that MBA graduates overvalue themselves, since a higher salary goes hand in hand with more work experience.
“Russian monopolists hunt professionals who’ve had serious work experience in large western companies. They are not necessarily MBA graduates — the main thing is a systematic mindset and the ability to create correct business processes. And MBAs usually think in a more systematic way,” Polovnikova said.

Ultimate outcome
Recruiters have to give special attention to MBA graduates. “As a rule, MBA graduates prefer to deal with more experienced and older consultants,” Polovnikova said.
However, self-confidence can easily lead managers into a trap, Zelentsov said. “Sometimes, after graduating the manager tries to dismantle everything in the company and build it up again just like he was taught at business school,” he said.
Nonetheless, Zelentsov was positive about the prospects for MBAs. “There are no salary price lists for MBAs and other managers, but an MBA diploma is always a serious argument in favor of increasing compensation,” he said.
“I know employers who do not consider MBA an advantage, mainly because the candidate demands more money. But usually they are Russian companies. Having said that some firms in the CIS reject candidates without an MBA diploma,” Pirozhenko said.
“If the company uses business school methods, it considerably increases the chances that an MBA graduate will get a job there,” Pirozhenko said.
“I know only one industry where an MBA diploma is an undisputable advantage, even if the candidate lacks experience — corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions,” said Anna Bogina, Group Leader in the Finance and Banking Department at ANCOR.
“The St. Petersburg market often fails to offer large scale projects and high salaries that could compensate money spent on business education. Usually MBA graduates find jobs in Moscow,” she said. Though normally employers would not pay a higher salary simply for an MBA (without corresponding experience), there are rare exceptions. Bogina gave an example of a foreign company that acquired a business in Russia and started restructuring.
“They needed a mediator — a person who understood western management principles and could explain the local environment to foreign managers,” she said.

According to Begin Group statistics, only 37 percent of companies in St. Petersburg employ MBA graduates and only 15 percent of employers send their personnel on MBA courses.
Around 77 percent of companies employing MBAs hire them only as top managers. 29 percent of them employ one MBA manager, with 41 percent employing two or three managers and 30 percent four or five managers.
Only five percent of companies indicate an MBA as a must for particular jobs, 37 percent consider it an advantage for a candidate. However, 24 percent of employers stated that an MBA diploma does not influence the choice, if a candidate has sufficient work experience, while for 34 percent of employers an MBA diploma is of no importance in any case.
35 percent of employers stated that an MBA diploma does not influence career advancement in their company, 45 percent said it could, if the employee also becomes more effective. Only 20 percent of employers said that MBA would positively affect career advancement.

TITLE: Young And Restless
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Young specialists are often welcomed into a company by their more experienced colleagues with the saying: “Forget everything that you were taught at university.” The reason is that graduates often fail to apply even a very sound theoretical knowledge to practical tasks. We ask: Is the young and ambitious MBA graduate any different?
The answer depends on a person’s personality as much as on their age. And the first problem for a young manager is to convince a business school that age is no barrier to getting an MBA degree.
“Top and middle managers form the majority of students. However the type of student will vary according to the business school and particular programs on offer,” said Alla Zhavoronkova, head of the project “BEGIN. Business education” at the Begin Group consulting company.
“An executive MBA is for older people with a lot of management experience. Students of ordinary, modular MBA programs are usually younger. Younger managers often choose English language programs either from Russia or abroad,” Zhavoronkova said.
According to a poll conducted by Begin Group last year, the majority of MBA students in Russia are 26 to 30 years old (31 percent). People aged between 31 to 35 years old account for 25 percent of students. Younger students (under 26 years) account for 24 percent with older people (over 36 years old) making up 20 percent.
To find appropriate students, business schools usually set limits not on age but on work experience. 
According to Begin Group, most students (36 percent) have been working for seven to ten years and 34 percent over ten years.
Inexperienced students make up a distinct minority. Three to six years of professional experience was reported by 31 percent of MBA students. Only nine percent said they had been working for less than two years.
19 percent of students reported two years’ management experience, 37 percent — three to five years, 35 percent — six to ten years, nine percent — over ten years.
Young managers are actively prevented from enrolling in EMBA programs.
“The average age of students on EMBA programs is 32 to 33 years old. In two groups starting this year it decreased slightly to 31.5 years old. However it’s too early to say if this is a trend or an anomaly,” said Svetlana Rakutina, head of the degree unit at the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia.
Although Rakutina denied that the SSE discriminated by age, certain other requirements make it clear that prospective students should not be too young.
“We enlist students with management experience of over five years. Consequently, the youngest person in the group is rarely younger than 28,” she said.
“It’s not an accident that leading schools set strict limits on age and management experience. Lectures are 90 percent to 100 percent comprehensible, if the person is prepared, if he can compare theory with personal experience. For a young person without experience it’s much harder to use what they learn in practice,” said Alexei Zelentsov, regional director for the Northwest at Kelly Services.
Another recruitment specialist added that some employers are actually mistrustful of MBA graduates aged around the 26 to 30 year-old mark, thinking them too young and immature.
“Young people should cut their teeth, gain practical experience in making decisions, take responsibility and learn how to manage a wide range of different people. All this means a lot of work. But high-quality education is very time-consuming. The employer thinks, either this person has worked badly or else studied badly,” said Olga Samarina, deputy director of Arbat-Nevsky.
“Sometimes, after studying a CV ringing out with prestigious business programs, the employer says: ‘Mmm, this guy would better off going for the presidency. Let’s postpone meeting him for another time’,” Samarina said.
For top positions employers usually hire men between 30 and 45 years old and women between 33 and 43 years old, she indicated. But there are exceptions.
“I know a young man of 20 who, though a student by day, had already managed to create a successful restaurant and worked as the director of a hotel complex. When I sent his resume to an employer, he described him as a “young Khodorkovsky.” He did not hire him thinking that someone so “brilliant” would soon get bored. A month later this candidate became the head of marketing in a large construction corporation,” Samarina said.
Samarina did not directly relate career advancement with age or business education. “Usually it’s not a candidate’s education or qualifications that make a difference. It’s his charisma, his personality and ability to convince older people to believe in him,” she said.
That is true for candidates of any age, she indicated. 
“Managers both young and old should be very creative in the promotion of their career, perhaps using a mediator, such as a recruiter, who can convince an employer to believe in the candidate’s professional qualities, irrespective of age,” Samarina said.
“Common sense suggests that the energy of youth is an advantage, while lack of experience is a serious minus. However, in each case experience 
and energy depend on personality,” Rakutina agreed.
“Success comes to mature people who know what they want. It’s hard to say how it correlates with age. For us, a student of 30 is a young manager, because we often enlist people over 40 and 50 years old,” Rakutina said.
Some employers decide in favor of young candidates because of their professional “innocence.”
“The advantage of a young candidate is that they still have a straightforward career path without frequent switching between companies. Some people change jobs every six months. Work experience at a famous brand is great but collectors of logos are not welcome,” Samarina said.
For better self-promotion Samarina advised young people to stick to one company, gain experience and try to deliver results that they could be proud of.

TITLE: Evaluating a Job Offer: 
6 steps to consider
TEXT: After spending a year or two tied to your books, case studies and presentation notes, you’ve finally earned that MBA you’ve been striving for. So what next? 

Knowing that you’ve received numerous job offers is flattering and just what you’ve been aiming for as a graduation goal. High salaries, intriguing benefit packages and fancy titles are tempting you like a free tropical holiday, so how do you choose between these seemingly exceptional jobs?
1. Function: Ideally you’ll use the skills you developed in business school to produce personal success and company improvement. And hopefully you’ll gain even more skills, either through formal training or on-the-job experience, to add to your skills bank. Accordingly, make sure your new role is challenging, as nothing leads to career static like a boring job that seems elementary, especially if you’ve just completed an MBA. Take into account if and how the prospective role will evolve and whether you’ll have the opportunity to strengthen the role or even gain access to a higher position from ‘mastering’ the position’s demands.
2. Location: Choosing a city that has good economic, social, and cultural benefits can be harder than you think. Keep in mind that if you are a consultant or banker you may not have much time for social or extracurricular events in your first year or two after graduation, so you may consider choosing a city you feel won’t be your permanent home, if the career benefits are there. If you feel you will be working long hours, find accommodation near your workplace to avoid long, tiring commutes.
3. Environment: Good working relationships are key to career success. Try to get a sense of your boss’ work habits and if possible, meet your potential colleagues. Mike Holmes, Recruitment Expert at QS Global Workplace explains, “Try and arrange to meet some of your colleagues, either in a work or social environment. Can you see yourself working with these?people? Do you think you will enjoy working with them??It does not have to be positive, however if it is negative, perhaps you should reconsider!”
4. Career Prospects: Mike Holmes discusses the importance of creating the right career path: “Make this job an excellent stepping stone; look at where you want?to get to over the next 3-5 years and your long-term career aims. Put some milestones down so your career path looks manageable and realistically achievable.”
5. Company values: Does the corporate culture reflect your personal and professional values and goals? Do they uphold the highest standards of ethical practice? Is the staff diverse? If you value hard work between the hours of 9 and 5 and the company values 24-hour dedication, you may decide its standards are not in sync with your own. Furthermore, many companies, especially online businesses, encourage team proactivity and a happy working environment. Google, for example, has an onsite gym, restaurant, and even sofas and dogs in some locations. Experts say this could be the reason why Google now ranks second in Fortune 100’s Top 100 MBA Employers 2006.
6. Salary and Benefits: Make sure to consider company benefits such as bonuses, as what seems like a low salary quite easily could end up being a higher salary than offered for a similar position at a different company. Furthermore, it goes without saying that evaluating purchasing power in the country in which you intend to work is essential. You’d be surprised what a seemingly small amount of money can get you in some countries. And finally, while salary is very important, it shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all of job selection: “Always place a financial figure against the development and lifestyle opportunities that are available to you in both jobs,” advises Peter Fennah, Director of the Career Development Service at the Cranfield School of Management.  “At this point, you will find enough revealing information to make an informed decision along with your gut instinct.”

TITLE: The Business Reader
TEXT: According to him, the book’s famous dictum “A penny saved is a penny earned” ushered in what is today a major literary trend.
Franklin’s book was followed by an increasing volume of what may be called ‘business advice,’ advice to businessmen who normally either run their own business, or are trying to start a business.
Although the first professional book on business might be said to be Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” written in 1776, modern business literature (literature that targets the management of business organizations) can be traced to Fredrick Taylor’s “The Principles of Scientific Management,” published in 1911.  Taylor’s work coincided and greatly encouraged the formation of management as a distinct profession. 
Professional managers as a group were avid consumers of business books, and with the emergence of business schools and specialised publishers in this area the genre took off.
As a full-scale phenomenon, business management literature took off in the 1960s, mainly in the U.S., where the whole concept of business education and MBAs was first developed. 
In Russia, business literature remains rather wet behind the ears — it only really started to develop in the mid 1990s.
“In contrast to western literature, our books are mostly of a theoretical and descriptive character. This is a result of a lack of practical experience,” said Vladimir Kolchanov, vice-rector of IMISP. 
Obviously these days much original material has been written by Russian authors, coexisting alongside translated Western works. Books in the original foreign languages are available but in less demand, while the only reliable source of this literature is the online store Amazon.
According to research by the Stockholm School of Economics, every year a total of 64 publishers produce between one and 90 publications. Among the leaders in terms of sales are the following publishing houses: Alpina Business Books, Williams, Infra-M, Olympus-business, Piter, EKSMO and the Stockholm School of Economics. 
“Nevertheless, although specialized literature on business (‘proper’) is currently booming, it is in terms of quantity not quality,” said Professor Alexander Yanchevsky, the director of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, St. Petersburg campus.
“Though many good books are translated into Russian, the quality of translations is frequently rather poor,” he said.
From this it follows that it is important to involve in this process not simply professional translators, but people who combine experience in economics and business with a knowledge of foreign languages.  	
  “Another problem related to business literature in Russia is that books written by Russian authors are quite often compiled replicas of Western ones, just slightly ‘adapted’ or ‘disguised’ for the local context,” said Yanchevsky.
“This is, for the most part, the result of a lack of research on business management in this country,” he said.
Business schools often prefer to teach MBA using foreign books, because they are basic and systematic.  However, there are also disadvantages. 
“All the case studies or concrete business situations are taken from western practice, while in Russia we do things differently,” said Kolchanov.
Nevertheless, there is a recent tradition of publishing Russian books with appropriate Russian examples. As part of the “Presidential program” on training managers and executives, launched in 1997, educational materials have been produced consisting of 17 books, each devoted to a separate discipline. 
“This is a situation where Russian authors write for Russian executives, and books are based on Russian reality,” said Kolchanov.
Another example is the publishing of western books adapted for Russian conditions — a kind of Russian ‘special edition.’ The basic text remains unchanged, while all practical tasks are rewritten according to Russian reality. The book “Marketing” by William Rudelius underwent such a transformation.  
“It was a special project coordinated with the author. The book was published in Russian and adapted to Russian business and business-education,” said Kolchanov.
Choosing one’s books is a difficult task. “For the inexperienced fresher, orientating oneself around the book market is not easy — it is full of rubbish, titles like ‘Marketing wars,’and ‘Easy ways to make money on the stock market.’ The best way to find a good and relevant book is to ask the advice of a professional in the relevant field,” said Yanchevsky.  
MBA students usually rely on their business schools to inform them about business literature. IMISP launched the special project “The MBA Classics” with the participation of its teachers and the publishing house ‘Piter.’
“Our teachers of the basic disciplines chose the most modern and interesting foreign titles and recommended that the publisher buy the rights and translate them. The teacher would write a foreword in the book they had chosen,” said Kolchanov. “He became the scientific editor.”
Over the last four years, eight books have been published on various topics as part of this project. 
Among them are Market-Driven Management by Jean-Jaquez Lambin, Financial Management for Non-specialists by Peter Atrill, Management by Richard L. Daft and Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar H. Schein.   
“We wanted to recommend to our colleagues and potential students some of the best trends in business literature,” said Kolchanov. 
The field of business literature is constantly developing. According to the aforementioned research by the Stockholm School of Economics, the number of such books grows annually by 10 to 15 percent. 
The weekly journal “Secret firm” (“The Secret of firms”), which publishes business case studies and reviews of the most recently published books on business management, is a good place to start.

TITLE: Finding the Best Lecturer for You
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Russian professor or foreign theorist, classic academic versus experienced practitioner — when it comes down to getting your MBA who will do the best job? To simplify the choice we asked local business schools and ex-students to highlight some differences.

The Stockholm School of Economics in St. Petersburg acts as “an importer” of European education. As well as offering a European diploma, up to 85 percent of its lecturers are foreign nationals, said Svetlana Rakutina, head of the academic programs department at SSE in St. Petersburg.
It is logical since students on an International EMBA program “need theoretical knowledge and to know how international business is run,” she said.
“However, when we need to portray the reality of business in this country we invite Russian representatives, but also we invite guest speakers from many other countries,” she said. Despite having different backgrounds and experience, they are of equal interest to students.
Sometimes it is hard to say whether a Russian or European way of teaching is better, Rakutina said. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. 
“In the Russian tradition a lecturer starts with a general rule and then explains it with particular cases. The Western approach assumes that a lecturer explains his particular field, stimulating students for independent thought,” Rakutina said.

National adjustment
The International Management Institute in St. Petersburg (IMISP) adopts another approach, offering only Russian language lecturers.
“Some think that English language MBA programs are better. However it can be difficult for people over 40 years of age to take in new information in a foreign language,” said Yelena Sannikova, lecturer on strategic management at IMISP.
IMISP specialists explore foreign theory and practice, adapting it to national reality and adding relevant local examples.
“Laws, cultures and business environments differ dramatically between countries and those features require Russian lecturers to adopt and explain foreign theories,” Sannikova said.
As for qualifications, up to 40 percent of IMISP lecturers are candidates of science. All specialists must combine experience in real business with teaching skills.
“Courses differ from the traditional university scheme of lecturing on theory and then offering students practical problems to solve. Theories and models are explained with practical examples,” Sannikova said.
“I always involve students in a discussion. Being experienced people they have their own view on proposed business models. We discuss the suitability of each concept in particular business spheres. Here the lecturer acts more like a moderator who organizes a discussion and presents its conclusions,” she said.
Detailed feedback is ensured by questionnaires offered to students at the end of the course. A lecturer’s salary directly depends on the rank they get from their students.
The Institute for International Business and Communications at Baltiisky State Technical University regards Russian scholars as more efficient lecturers than business practitioners or foreign theorists.
Only one out of 10 lecturers is a foreign specialist. However according to Marina Volkova, head of the MBA department at Voyenmekh, the institute complies to international standards of education, cooperating with the Norwegian School of Management and providing both Russian and European diplomas.
Managers also make up 10 percent of the lecturers.

“Not all practitioners have the ability to give lectures. And it is not the practice of a particular industry that is important to students. They have practical experience themselves. They want a lecturer to explain how theories could be applied to particular situations,” Volkova said.
The School of Management of St. Petersburg State University currently offers two types of MBA programs. “The Russian language MBA program, run on evenings and at the weekend, is aimed at managers of rapidly growing Russian companies and foreign companies operating in Russia. Accordingly, lecturers should not only be able to explain management theory but also their consulting experience and use both Russian and international case studies,” said Igor Baranov, deputy dean for MBA programs at the School of Management at St. Petersburg State University.
Given that the main task is to develop students’ decision-making ability in a local environment, the same approach as in the U.S. and Europe is adopted with up to 90 percent of lecturers being Russian staff scholars, with the rest invited from various companies.
“The English language International Executive MBA programs are aimed at the top managers of Russian companies that are planning to internationalize their operations,” Baranov said.
This program is run in alliance with four top European business schools, which provide about 80 percent of lecturers, the other 20 percent being Russian.
However students may find differences between Western and Russian lecturers and between theorists and practitioners quite indistinct, especially when an interactive way of teaching is required.
“The students’ attitude towards a lecturer mainly depends on the lecturer’s personality, on his ability to explain the subject,” Baranov said.
Students are just as likely to give good marks to an academic mathematician running lectures on quantitative methods in decision-making as they are to a retail consultant, he said.
“Given that world class lecturers are rare and others pretty much alike, students are more interested in a school’s rating and popularity,” said Kirill Vronsky, director for sales engineering at Reksoft, who got an MBA at IMISP.

TITLE: Siphoning Off the Strategists
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Why did you start studying at a business school?
I work in a family business and manage rather a large department. Also, I have responsibilities in other areas. In the future I could face more important responsibilities. Though I do have a higher education, I needed training in economics, finance and HR management.
I’m not the kind of person who has her head in the books before going to sleep. It’s difficult for me. So I decided on a systematized education. After analyzing the existing selection of short-term programs and retraining courses, I decided to take the maximum from these studies and chose a program that included everything — HR, finance, marketing and other management issues. MBA programs offer exactly this kind of complex education.
Besides the knowledge, at this period of my life I needed to meet new people. I could not meet people on my level and with the same interests at a bus station. I could only find them in a place where interesting things happen. An MBA solved this problem as well. I met professionally mature and successful people of a definite sort. New contacts were very important for me.

Did the school schedule really motivate you to study hard?
I’m in a system with rather strict rules. My business school observes them very scrupulously. Also when you’ve paid for your education, you don’t want this money to be wasted. I would not go to a library to read a book if I didn’t have to. Here you are obliged to do just that.
Self-learning accounts for 70 percent of the program. We have a limited number of lectures and very few evening meetings, as a rule, on weekends. We write one or two works on each discipline and solve practical tasks.
Unlike school, you can’t just compile together information from various books. The main purpose is to use this new knowledge and the tools of management in practical situations, best of all — at your own company. Reading additional literature also depends only on your own motivation. If you want to get new knowledge – you’ll read.

How did you manage to combine all that study with regular work?
I “sacrificed” my private life. We were warned about it, and it was difficult. For two years, with the exception of vacations, I did not have a single free evening. I could ask somebody else to do my homework for me but I don’t see the point in doing so — to spend money and time and without understanding anything myself. I did everything myself.

What did you get out of this MBA program?
The disciplines covered all aspects of management, so I got a many-sided view of the business. Though including many theoretical issues, the program was practically oriented. We analyzed practical situations and solved problems related to real companies. It was not mere theory but really working things out. Such an education really makes your brain work better.
However, it was a western program, and sometimes that was felt. The case studies were mainly Russian, but in some disciplines, for instance, double accounting and gray schemes, it was pointless to try and introduce western standards. Also, the program is too focused on global companies and multinationals, while most of the students come from small and medium-sized firms.

What is required in terms of diploma work?
The diploma work is written in groups for a period of four months. It focuses on real, local companies. Students choose the topic together with the lecturer, related to strategy, a particular project or problem solving. My group works with a real company, which we visit, cooperating with managers and exchanging information.

Some students say that up to 40 percent of lectures have nothing to do with their business. How useful were your studies?
You could hardly meet a person who would claim that 100 percent of lectures were useful. I work in the beauty industry, and 60 to 70 percent of the information I received could not be used in my business. But education is valuable for one’s own development in general. Some things I use, and some things are just interesting to me. I could need this knowledge in the future.

Did you find any business partners or employees on the program?
I did not look for personnel on the program. Rather I looked for interesting people with whom I could communicate constructively. Now, on seeing the other students I am not sure I would hire MBA graduates.
Obviously, business owners who are deeply interested and motivated, study for themselves. Managers study mainly for one reason — to increase their market value. Knowledge comes second. And lecturers by all means popularize this idea of an MBA as a tool to increase the person’s market value.
I completely disagree with such an approach. People study differently — some plagiarize, some work hard. You never know how the person got the diploma. A diploma does not guarantee global knowledge. For me an MBA is not a decisive factor in hiring people.

Would you send your managers on a MBA program? 
I would be better off sending them on retraining programs, which are more focused. An MBA is very time consuming. The company can hardly wait 2 1/2 years until the employee finishes his studies and then face demands for a 50 percent or 100 percent increase in salary.
MBA programs offer many disciplines that are not necessary to such and such a manager who works in such and such a company. Retraining programs, even longer ones, would be better.

In your opinion, who needs an MBA diploma?
Top managers and people who are responsible for defining company strategy, people who need a broader view. Not the ordinary executives, like sales managers or managers of production departments.
Business education is largely about things in general. That’s more about strategy. When studying business, owners do not really need an in-depth knowledge of finance.

TITLE: Setting the Right Priorities
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: High-quality business education is good at the right time and for the right people. Alexander Krasovsky, vice-president for strategic development at BAC Int., a Moscow based IT company, began his studies at Kingston University Business School, when he was a manager at Avaya (formerly Lucent Technologies). However, as his career took off, the increased volume of work forced him to suspend his studies. He spoke of his experience and gave advice to potential students in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times.

What motivated you to get a business education?
I needed a business education because my basic education was not enough for my work. I needed a British-type education because I was working (for ten years) in an American company. For Russian employees and representatives it was preferable to have a western education. That was the first reason. The second reason was that I had to systematize the experience I gained in the IT industry. 

How did you choose your business school?
The choice was rather easy. Five people in our company graduated from Kingston University with an MBA diploma. They gave very good reviews of this business school. Another argument in favor of this particular school was that it was British, not the Russian equivalent. The school is based in Moscow close to my former office, which was also very convenient.

Were all the lectures held in Moscow?
Yes. We studied in Moscow, but the lecturers came from London.

Was the schedule convenient for working managers?
That’s where the disadvantages of this particular business school lay. The quality of education was very high, the theoretical base was excellent, the lecturers were brilliant. It was also very useful to work in a new team. You can always use these contacts in your business, which I did.
But among the disadvantages I would list a very intense program of study and a huge amount of homework. Of course, it all depends on the person. If you work from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. the schedule is not a problem. But if you have irregular working hours, if you are busy both in sales and management, it’s extremely difficult to cope with this additional workload.
At the moment I’m on a sabbatical. The reason I suspended my studies after a year is that I’d set priorities for myself, decided what was more important for me. At the moment my earnings are growing much faster than before. I had either to slow down my career and give myself over completely to my studies or do the reverse. I could not study just any old how. I went to business school not for a diploma — I don’t need it  — I went there for knowledge.
I don’t think anything is a substitute for real work experience. No business school can give you such an experience. At the moment I am choosing to do business. Besides, I’ve now left that American company. At the moment I work in a Russian firm and I have twice as much work.

You were supposed to study for two years?
Yes. It was an intense course. They gave us a lot of business case studies and profound knowledge of management theories, though about 40 percent of the program did not relate to me or to my business at all. Those business case studies were very interesting from a theoretical point of view but you could hardly use them in practice. They taught us about American and western companies. But the notorious “Russian particularities” do make a difference. Of course, every business is based on the same principles, but after taking part in a number of tenders or mergers you’ll get through the same stage, which will be related to Russian reality. 

Didn’t they try to adapt the case studies to the local environment?
More tailored case studies are brought in at the next level — I did not study them. At the moment working and earning money is just more important for me. When I feel that I’m lacking some knowledge, I will resume my studies. Though maybe I will manage without it. I don’t know at the moment.

Did your colleagues study in other business schools? What were their impressions?
They studied in Russian business schools. And I must say that they offer a more convenient schedule. 

How was study organized at Kingston?
Once a month we had to stop working and study for one whole week from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. every day. At other times we had various types of lectures, gatherings, case studies and teamwork. They checked everything very scrupulously. About 50 percent of students in Kingston give up studies because they can’t cope with it. But Kingston does not simplify the program and wants to maintain its high reputation. If you graduate from Kingston, everybody knows that you have been working like mad.

What was the selection criteria to enter?
First of all, an interview and, of course, good references.

In your opinion, who needs an MBA and what obstacles could they  face?
You should not expect an MBA to increase your salary automatically. It’s a myth. Many people, having got an MBA diploma, become very fussy about jobs and employers. They might start thinking of themselves as stars, but an employer will never think of them in that way. Now, being an employer myself, I can say that for sure.
Also people should be ready to spend time away from their family. Relatives should understand the situation and support you. You’ll have to sacrifice some part of your work as well. You’ll get two years of tricky compromises and sleepless nights.

What are the positive outcomes of doing such a course?
A systematization of knowledge, self-confidence, new information that is unavailable at work. Though I would not advise embarking on an MBA just after graduating — I’ve seen such people and they did not study well.

TITLE: Women Unfazed By The Risible Reward
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: There are many reasons, historically speaking, why women earned less than men. Most of them relate to the patriarchal family and the unpaid domestic labor a woman was deemed destined to be responsible for. But given that women now seem freer to choose between a career or family or a combination of both, why, when they fill the same jobs as men, are they still subject to salarial discrimination ?

According to QS Top MBA Research, female MBAs expect to be paid, on average, 30 percent less than men. At the same time the research suggests that women are just as ambitious as men. 
There is very little difference between the 10-year goals of women and men. 17 percent of men aim to be a Senior Manager or Director of a small company within 10 years of completing their MBA. Women expect to earn less yet aim for the same positions as men. 
Whatever the various reasons for the gender wage gap, part of the explanation is clearly down to how a woman has come to think of herself. 
“Subconsciously women are less self-confident than men. And East European women, in spite of equality and fraternity being propagandized some time ago, still do not imagine themselves rising to the top,” said Zoya Zaitseva, Business Development Manager at QS. 
The difference in salaries can partly be explained by the fact that women with MBAs aim to work in traditionally lower paid fields. In this way, 38 percent of women, compared to 27 percent of men, seek to work in Retail, Consumer Products and Media, and 22 percent of women compared to 14 percent of men opt for the Non-Profit and Public Sectors. 
A much lower proportion of women prefer what are generally higher paid sectors such as Industry & Engineering, Consulting, or Financial Services.    
Yet another important reason that women are less paid than men is that they tend to work shorter hours.
“Women choose those jobs and spheres of activity where one doesn’t have to be hard at it 120 hours per week and can confine oneself to 45, but then have a life outside the office, be it family, friends or some social club,” said Zaitseva.
It is more difficult for women to combine a job and family. And at a given moment some women choose to have children.
“In the West this has less effect on one’s career. Partly because the attitude towards children and the family is different, partly because of more opportunities to combine having children and a career — by working at home, for instance, or part-time,” said Zaitseva.
“But in Russia one cannot afford to leave the business environment even for six months, without risking missing the boat.”
Nevertheless, structural factors, such as the glass ceiling, obviously still carry explanatory weight. 
It strongly depends on the country and particular sphere of business. In Russia the number of women in top positions in the industrial sector is not even comparable to that of men. In general the situation in Russia is structured in the following way: the line positions are mostly women, in middle management there is an equal number of men and women, while top management positions are mainly filled by men. 
“Working with companies and recruiters I still come across the note ‘man required.’ 
That would never happen in the U.S. or Europe. Any kind of gender discrimination can have rather lamentable results for a company’s reputation,” said Zaitseva.
“That is why we launched the forum Women in Leadership. To help women understand the best way to plan their career, which steps to take at each stage.”
“It is not only because of men that such a ceiling exists. Women themselves often think that they are not up to it and lose heart and do not try to turn the situation around. Though they could and would probably be successful,” she said.
“The ‘glass ceiling’ analogy has been offered to describe the alleged condition which is supposed to keep women from achieving anything other than token positions at the highest echelons of corporate organizations,” said Natasha Bonner-Fomes, an MBA alumna from Cass Business School, currently Executive Director of Electronic Client Services and Senior Vice President at Lehamn Brothers. 
? “However, with good experience,?hard work and solid networks the glass ceiling can be ‘broken’.”
This belief is instrumental in her motivation to be involved in Cass’s Women in Business special interest group, of which she is Chair.?The aims are to develop relationships with potential employers, help build networks with students, faculty and alumni, to serve as a consultancy?and advisory service to?organizations seeking to employ individuals, and to provide a platform for the discussion of current issues within various industries. It offers a road map to other women and helps them every step of the way.       
In spite of the existing gap in the pay of men and women, there is a distinct trend toward equality.
“The important thing is to believe that everything is possible and firmly move toward your goal,” said Zaitseva.

TITLE: A Golden Opportunity
TEXT: The fact is, business school is expensive, so many prospective MBA candidates in Russia want to make sure their choice will provide a decent financial return. The QS World MBA Tour, which comes to Moscow on 5 March, travels with over 40 local and international MBA programs, so those wondering just how good an investment b-school can be can find out from the school directors themselves.
According to QS TopMBA research, the average MBA salary reported by European and U.S. employers averaged $90,250 in 2006, with Russian graduates specifically making between $55,000 and $120,000. The intimidating part is that some top business schools charge as much as US$80,000 tuition. Prospective MBA graduates need to be sure they will get the best return on investment (ROI) possible, and they are beginning to see past the top 5 schools.
According to Nunzio Quacquarelli, Director of QS, the education and career specialists, “Many prospective students are realizing that return on investment may be more important than rankings in their b-school selection process. Online research like utilizing QS Scorecard at www.topmba.com is a great starting point in investigating ROI because we have ‘run the numbers’. Although we caution that any statistics are averages and face-to-face discussion with the school representatives can help verify how these average ROIs apply to your personal situation.” 
For example, amongst schools participating in the QS World MBA Tour, Insead and Vlerick Leuven Gent achieve average twenty year ROIs of 2217% and 3938% respectively, with pay-back periods of less than three years each. Two year programs like Tuck and London Business School have ROIs of 1630% and 1982%, with pay-back periods of just under four years.
In 2006, over 75,000 young professionals registered to attend the QS World MBA Tour fairs around the world. 98% of attendees rated them ‘very useful’ or ‘useful’. Talking face-to-face with alumni and Admissions Officers, backed up by expert advice is invaluable in helping candidates decide where and when they want to study and what ROI they can hope to achieve. MBA candidate, Yekaterina Sycheva reports, “QS World MBA Tour is the only big event that all potential MBAs look forward to both in the spring and fall. Talking directly to schools representatives was very influential in determining my final list.”
Tuition fees, travel and living expenses, book costs, and the salary achieved upon graduation can be discussed during the Tour. Furthermore, students can find out about a wide range of available scholarships. 
Bring a friend and receive free entry to the QS World MBA Tour.

Moscow MBA Fair:
Monday 5 March
Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya Hotel
Europe Square, 2 
17:00-21:00

TITLE: Financing an MBA: The Tangible Limit
AUTHOR: By Yelena Andreyeva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: How does one find the money for an MBA degree? Is it better to get a loan or ask your employer to finance it? Or is it really possible to get a scholarship? These are the frequently asked questions that most MBA applicants need answering. 

In fact, the options open to MBA students are quite limited. They can either spend their own savings or get money from somewhere else — either a bank, their employer or a business school.
The easiest way is to persuade your employer that studying for an MBA course will provide you with unique management knowledge that you will apply at work in order to move the company (of your employer!) forward to prosperity. The main point here is to make your boss believe that after graduation you will not immediately seek a new challenge and  still be eager to be a part of his or her team. 
Dmitry Vatyutov, sales manager at InterComp, obtained his MBA at the Moscow International Higher Business School “MIRBIS” where he paid only 50 per cent of the tuition fee while the other 50 per cent of the sum was paid by his employer. “It is very important to show your diligence at work, try to always optimize the business processes in your company, just do your best and then your managers will understand that if they invest money into your education they will not only get a highly qualified but also a very loyal employee,” Vatyutov said.
According to a survey conducted by Begin group in December 2006, only 20 per cent of employers send their employees on an MBA course. 56 per cent of them cover the total cost of tuition, 28 per cent cover part of the cost and 16 per cent do not finance it at all. 
In order to select the best candidates among the potential MBA students, some companies test their employees’ potential and only then conclude whether it is reasonable for the company to finance their studies. 
Analysts say that companies with MBA graduates on staff tend to value the benefits of MBA knowledge and encourage other employees in the same direction.
However, in order to protect their interests and prevent competitors from hiring their MBA specialists, many employees sign an agreement with their would-be-MBA graduate-employees that prohibits potential students from quitting their job for a period of three to five years, said Svetlana Rakutina, head of the Degree Unit at the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia. 
“Otherwise, they are obliged to pay back all or part of the money which the company spent on their education,” added Yulia Mishina, the dean’s deputy at the Faculty of International and Masters programs at the International Banking Institute. 
This means that many MBA students prefer to get a bank loan than to lose their freedom of choice and become totally dependent on their company. 
However, in Russia, in contrast to Europe and the U.S., it is still difficult for students to finance their MBA studies with bank loans. While in the the U.S. you can get an educational loan with an annual interest rate of 6 to 8 percent for 10-15 years, in Russia the interest rates vary from 9 to 20 per cent and the loans are given for a maximum of six years. 
In St. Petersburg educational MBA loans with interest rates of around 12 percent for one to four years are available at Banque Societe Generale Vostok (BSGV). These loans are specifically for students of such business schools as the St. Petersburg campus of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, International Management Institute of St. Petersburg (IMISP), the Stockholm School of Economics and Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University. 
UralSib bank gives two-year loans with 20 percent interest rates to finance an MBA program at the Open Business School. At other banks students have the option of standard consumer credit.
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School confirmed they are planning to complete an agreement with First Czech-Russian bank that will provide educational loans with an interest rate of nine percent that cover 100 percent of the tuition fee.
However, according to the statistics, not that many students take out loans. For example, only three per cent of students at theGraduate School of Management finance their tuition in this way.
“I consider payment in installments one of the most effective ways for students to finance their MBAs,” said Sergei Fyodorov, director at the Open Business School. “We offer to pay for the course in installments whose number vary depending on the course’s duration. For example, you pay an initial 50 per cent of the fee and then the rest in monthly installments.”
Among the other options available is to apply for a scholarship. However, here most Russian students face another problem – there are almost no scholarships for MBA students available in Russia. All you can do is to apply for a foreign scholarship. 
Charitable institutions provide a wide range of scholarships. Fulbright Awards (www.fulbright.ru), for example, or The Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program (www.irex.ru) offer help to students to study in the U.S. 
The Rotary Foundation’s Ambassadorial Scholarships is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarships program, awarding more than 1,100 scholarships to candidates from 64 countries for study in 69 countries. Awards total approximately $26 million.
“If you successfully passed the GMAT and carefully collected all the papers for your application pack you can try to apply for a merit-based award,” said Yelena Minina, U.S. Educational Adviser at the St. Petersburg Office of the American Councils for International Education. 
“However, such awards are usually given by “average” universities. Also, you can try to get a diversity award, given by some universities in order to lure more international students to their campuses. A university that launches a new MBA program and wants to promote it can cover some of a student’s first-year tuition fee.”
Although in the UK there are no specific MBA scholarships, some British business schools give 50 per cent discounts for their students. For instance, Cranfield Business schools regularly give discounts to two students from Russia (www.som.cranfield.ac.uk) and Cass Business School gives 25 per cent discount on the tuition fee. (www.cass.city.ac.uk/masters/funding/cass-business-school.html). 
MBA programs are also on the list of subjects of such scholarships as Chevening (www.chevening.ru), Shell Scholarship (www.shellscholar.org), and Scottish & Newcastle Baltika Scholarships  (www.britishcouncil.org/ru/russia-educationuk-scholarship-edinburg.htm).

TITLE: Former Soviet-Sphere Countries Face Up to Business Education Conundrum
AUTHOR: By Kester Eddy
PUBLISHER: Financial Times
TEXT: As the leaders of the Gdansk Foundation for Management Development (GFMD) are proud to point out, it offers the oldest MBA program in Poland.
Now run in co-operation with RSM Erasmus University of the Netherlands, the course bows to local needs by offering 30 per cent of its content in Polish, although the school demands a high level of English. However, despite the concession to the local vernacular, Maciej Rydel, program director, insists the MBA adheres to the western template.
“There are only slight modifications to take account of local conditions, mainly concerning Polish business law, some accounting and local marketing conditions, along with Polish case studies,” he says.
Further along the Baltic coast, the Estonian Business School in Tallinn, makes more of an effort to exploit its local connections, particularly its historical ties to its giant neighbor, Russia.
“Obviously, where we are developing specific modules, these are tailored to Estonia’s unique selling points: tourism, doing business in Russia, doing business around the Baltic, business language and culture, specialising in Russian,” says Nicola Hijklema, vice rector for international relations at EBS.
As one of the post-communist countries in transition, EBS increased its emphasis on change management — these innovations are largely in response to feedback from students and partner companies, and part of an effort to differentiate itself. “I feel this is the big challenge. Few schools have fully faced up to the need to differentiate themselves [enough],” Prof Hijklema says.
Well to the south, in Hungary, Corvinus University in Budapest has moved a step further from the western template, designing its international MBA to suit the needs of the region.
“We have quite a few companies in Hungary that have moved into the region. We chose a curatorium [board] of local chief executives, headed by Konrad Wetzker, the regional head of Boston Consulting here [in Budapest]. All have long experience in the region and know the issues management face,” says Sandor Kerekes, MBA director at Corvinus.
The first three intakes, which have averaged 15 students each, typically comprise two-thirds Hungarians, with the remainder from neighboring countries such as Romania and Slovakia.
“We are beginning to build up local case studies, and projects are, naturally, mostly region-based,” Prof Kerekes says.
These are just three examples of how management education institutions in the former Soviet-sphere countries are facing up to the conundrum of how to offer management education — either an MSc or MBA — that is accepted, and indeed increasingly accredited, in the west while adapting to local needs. Do such courses work?
Ahmed Ismail, a business control manager with IBM in Budapest, who is partly through the Corvinus MBA program, is uniquely placed to comment.
An accountant seeking a broader career, Ismail, an Egyptian, interrupted plans to take up an MBA when relocating to Budapest five years ago.
The course, he says, allows him a deep insight into regional issues, which he finds valuable for his current work, while keeping the international approach he needs longer-term. “I need an international MBA, as I may be asked to take up a post in Germany, the U.S. or Australia. On the course, there is a lot of local or regional input, but the issues are always compared with international practice,” he says.

TITLE: One Cold War Was Enough
AUTHOR: By Sergei Lavrov
TEXT: There has been much misinterpretation in the West since President Vladimir Putin’s recent speech at the Munich Conference on Security Policy. From the reaction of some Western journalists and politicians, one would think that the president wished to ignite a blast of anti-American rhetoric that would spark another Cold War. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got it right when he responded by asserting that “one Cold War was quite enough.” Indeed it was, so let’s not declare — or look for a pretext to declare — a new one. At a time when Russia is ready and eager to play a positive role in world affairs and integrate into the global economy, it does far more harm than good to treat it as a hostile nation whenever Moscow and Washington disagree.
What Putin actually said in Munich was not new. He said nothing that we have not discussed directly with U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration and that is not whispered in political circles in Europe and elsewhere. He made these statements at a conference to get the world’s attention to begin a dialogue about what kind of world we want for our children and ourselves. Putin believes, as do many others, that the world cannot be dictated to by a single country. History shows that this has been attempted repeatedly but has never worked. Recent unilateral actions have not resolved problems but actually exacerbated them and created new hotbeds of tension.
If you read the president’s entire speech, you will see that Putin was neither attacking the United States nor proposing Russia as a counterbalance to U.S. unilateralism. Instead, he called for a world with many centers of influence where different interests work together multilaterally to form a common denominator on global issues. The recent six-nation agreement on North Korea’s nuclear program proves that this pragmatic approach can work.
In fact, Putin offered more instances of mutual agreement between the United States and Russia than examples of discord. As he noted, we are strong partners on counterterrorism and nuclear nonproliferation. We have a common stake in ensuring global energy security, as agreed to at the Group of Eight summit last July in St. Petersburg.
Our U.S. colleagues tell us that the United States needs Russia and other key countries to help resolve numerous regional conflicts. Against this background, the United States’ unilateral actions look puzzling. It’s also ironic that Putin’s speech was deemed threatening. Russians ask themselves: Who threatens whom? With the Warsaw Pact having been dissolved for more than 15 years, why does NATO still spread toward Russian borders? What should Russia believe when the United States seeks to place anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe? And instead of joining efforts to counter global threats, should our two countries really be engaged in searching for deficiencies in each other’s domestic life?
As Russians struggled with the chaos and weakness that dogged us in the first post-Soviet years, some might have gained the impression that our voice would never again be heard on the world stage. A stronger, more vibrant Russia has emerged from the rubble of the 1990s. Our economy continues to expand and diversify; our people look forward to the progress and prosperity that our new society can deliver through technological innovation and social programs. And a growing middle class benefits from the robust business climate that attracts more and more foreign investments: In 2006, for example, net inflow of capital to Russia surpassed $40 billion.
It only makes sense that we would hold our own views and expect them to be taken seriously, whether they concern vital security matters or terms of economic interaction. We are strongly committed to democracy, and we will not compromise the right of the Russian people to decide things for themselves and be heard on international issues.
In any relationship, disagreements arise. But observers make a grave error when they mistake the honest and open airing of concerns as some sort of casus belli. President Bush rightly emphasized the other day that while differences exist between our two countries, “there’s also a relationship in which we can find common ground to solve problems.” Russia is ready to work with the United States on an equal and mutually respectful basis.
Another Cold War? Certainly not. A democratic world in which a strong Russia coexists with a strong United States, as well as a strong Europe, China, India, Brazil and others? That is Vladimir Putin’s vision — and it is well worth considering.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov contributed this comment to the Washington Post.

TITLE: Misguided Missile Policy
PUBLISHER: The New York Times
TEXT: Fifteen years after the Cold War’s end, it would seem that everyone should know better. But the tone-deaf plan of President George W. Bush’s administration to station parts of a missile defense system in Eastern Europe and Moscow’s snarling response show that all sides could use a refresher course in diplomatic sense and civility.
U.S. officials insist that the 10 interceptors it is planning to place in Poland and the early warning radar to be set up in the Czech Republic are supposed to defend Europe from Iran’s missiles — not Russia’s. And there is no doubt they’re telling the truth. The untested system could be easily overwhelmed by Russia’s huge nuclear arsenal.
It is unlikely, however, that more military posturing against Iran will lead it to give up its nuclear ambitions. Russia’s reaction to the stationing of even weak missile defenses near its borders (and in its former satellites), while out of proportion, was also utterly predictable. A top Russian general — who sounded as if he’d slept through the last 15 years — warned the Poles and the Czechs that if they went along with the U.S. plans, Russia’s missiles “will be capable of targeting the facilities.”
The mixture of crocodile tears and threats from Russian officials seems overly dramatic — and very much in character for President Vladimir Putin, who is hoping to divert attention from his own thuggery at home, not to mention his desire to reassert power in Russia’s old neighborhood.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who cut her teeth on Kremlinology, should have expected Moscow’s reaction. And Rice, who’s been counting on Russia to help keep up the pressure against Iran’s nuclear efforts, should have known provoking Moscow this way could be counterproductive. Add to that the fact that the move has annoyed “old European” allies, like Germany, which are central to efforts to contain Iran, and it seems like another example of diplomatic negligence.
In any case, this is a fight that should be quickly reined in. Washington has wisely chosen to respond calmly to Russia’s vitriol, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has taken some welcome steps to moderate Moscow’s stance.
A few interceptors in Europe may or may not work against “rogue states,” but they are counterproductive if all they do is to provoke Russia and irk NATO allies.

This comment appeared as an editorial in The New York Times.

TITLE: Grandmaster Putin
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: Ilya Nyzhnyk, a 10-year-old Ukrainian chess prodigy who holds a teddy bear when he plays, crushed opponents during the recent Moscow Open with his unpredictable moves. President Vladimir Putin, minus the teddy bear, is doing something of the same. He made a series of three interconnected moves that were dramatic, sudden, but not entirely unpredictable. These were his speech in Munich denouncing U.S. aggression, his abrupt promotion of Sergei Ivanov from defense minister to first deputy prime minister, and the threat, voiced by the head of the General Staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, to withdraw unilaterally from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty negotiated by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. This threat was made as a direct response to the U.S. plan to deploy missiles in Poland to counter a possible attack by Iran.
Putin’s harsh Munich rhetoric seems to have caught the West by surprise. It should have seen it coming. The speech only made more public and explicit the same sentiments he expressed at the new military intelligence headquarters in November. Polls had already shown a sharp decline in Russian popular goodwill toward the United States and strong opposition to U.S. President George W. Bush’s “foreign policy, aspiration for global domination and interference in other countries’ affairs.”
Putin’s attack was thus bound to play well domestically and prepared the way for the promotion of the hawkish Ivanov. In several respects Ivanov is the right replacement for Putin during a transition period in which continuity will be paramount. A Leningrader with a KGB background like Putin, Ivanov can, however, appear pedantic, more a gray eminence than a leader.
As soon as Ivanov was promoted, the speculation machine shifted into high gear. In granting him the same title as the other obvious heir apparent, Dmitry Medvedev, Putin was reminding everyone that he was still the man in charge and would battle any efforts to turn him into a lame duck (an expression that has now found its way into the Russian lexicon.) Another line of reasoning had it that Putin was actually making these moves to mask his real choice of successor, whom he will bring in later and blindside everyone.
But we should be looking at policy, not personalities. In moving strongly against the United States and the West, Putin has taken a new tack, signaling that the stabilization period is over and Russia is now entering an assertive phase. Putin inherited a country in disgrace and disorder and will pass on a resurgent and respected Russia on to his successor.
The first serious move by the newly assertive Russia is against the foolish and provocative U.S. policy laid down by President Bill Clinton and extended by Bush, one of the rare instances of continuity between their administrations. It is perfectly understandable why countries like Poland and the Baltic states, with their bitter experience of invasion and domination by Moscow, would want to cement themselves as firmly as possible in the Western camp. A resurgent Russia only rouses old suspicions.
But Russian suspicions have been roused as well, and they matter more. If Ukraine joins NATO, Russia will be ringed from the Baltic to the Black Sea by a foreign military alliance in two of whose countries, Poland and the Czech Republic, new missile and radar installations will be deployed. Technical assurances from the Bush administration that the missiles would be incapable of intercepting Russian ICBMs ring false. The Russians are adept at interpreting gestures of pressure and intimidation. This is political science, not rocket science.
Talk of a renewed Cold War is nonsense. Russia is simply pursuing its interests. As the French (who also give the United States headaches) like to say — the beast is very nasty, if you attack it, it defends itself.

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

TITLE: Television Is Helping Stalin Reach the Young
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: The ghost of Josef Stalin is haunting Georgia again. The former Soviet strongman has returned to his home country as a “televisual” apparition and has seriously spooked some of the country’s top politicians.
Earlier this month, the leading Georgian channel Rustavi-2 started screening the Russian series “Stalin Live,” a soapy drama about old Joe’s last days on Earth. While promoting the series, the channel’s general director said the programs offered the chance to find out whether Stalin was really bad or not and that, as it turns out, he wasn’t. A Rustavi-2 journalist followed up by saying that although he wasn’t defending Stalin, there had been a Western campaign to present the former Soviet boss as the source of all evil.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government doesn’t have much time for the Soviet Union, or for Communists of any kind for that matter. Saakashvili once told me that the day the Soviet Union came to an end was one of the best in his life — unlike President Vladimir Putin, who famously declared its collapse to be a tragedy.
So, although Rustavi-2 is generally considered to be supportive of the government, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when one of Saakashvili’s closest allies, influential lawmaker Giga Bokeria, ripped into the channel during a parliamentary debate. Bokeria raged that attempts to promote a bloodthirsty tyrant as the greatest Georgian politician were scandalous.
The dispute has divided public opinion here. A few still admire Stalin, and not only in his hometown of Gori, where a huge statue of the mustachioed killer looms grimly over the main square and there is a large museum offering a sympathetic view of his life and times. Talking to people on the streets of Tbilisi, many said that Stalin was a great leader, a Georgian who had ruled a huge empire.
“I’m not sure if he was a good man, but since he was such an important historical figure, we can close our eyes to some bad things,” said one woman, although most people I talked to went on to concede that he was also a mean and vicious character.
It’s generally thought that Stalin’s few remaining Georgian admirers are among the older generation, who respect him for defeating the Nazis in what is known as the Great Patriotic War. But I heard differently from one young man, barely in his 20s, who told me that yes, Stalin was a great leader and a decent man. Of course, he continued, from a religious point of view, Stalin was a murderer, but that was for God to judge and not us.

Matthew Collin is a journalist in Tbilisi.

TITLE: Neither Young Nor Restless
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Revelations can strike anywhere, including Moscow’s public transportation system. When I got into a taxi-van recently, the driver, a nondescript young man in a stocking cap, glanced over his shoulder and laconically warned, “Don’t slam the door, gramps, it’ll stick shut.”
Gramps?
Since Russian demography and sociology both interest me, I asked the driver why he had chosen this particular form of address. 
His answer was disappointingly muffled and unclear — until I relaxed my grip on his windpipe to allow better articulation.
This episode could have been dismissed — maybe the driver was blind in one eye or something — but a few days later, as I stood in the middle of a semi-crowded subway car, a young man sitting in front of me rose, pointed to his vacated place, and asked if I would like to sit down. 
He was obviously a decent, well-mannered young fellow and I regretted having to punch his lights out just to demonstrate that I was not among the subway’s privileged “elderly, invalids and passengers with children.”
Actually, I laughed — at first. Having checked behind me to confirm there was no seat-coveting babushka toting a samovar, two cardboard suitcases and a chicken, I literally chuckled at the irony of somebody offering me, a subway seat hog who yields grudgingly to any geezer short of 90, his place. 
I politely declined the offer and stood for a couple more stations, wavering between amusement, irritation and panic. So this is what old feels like. Stop the train, I want to get off.
I should’ve seen this coming. My students don’t remember Brezhnev. My salt-and-pepper beard is running out of pepper. In pick-up basketball I run a “slow break.” 
Middle-aged women — Channel One’s Yekaterina Andreyeva and Ukrainian politico Yulia Tymoshenko, for example — have mysteriously been getting more attractive, while Maria Sharapova now makes me feel protective. (Keep your hands where I can see them, Roddick!) And my parents, who are alive and well, thanks, have for some years now been other people’s great-grandparents. You do the math.
The capper, however, was a statistical coincidence that disturbingly resembles handwriting on the wall. Last week, the longtime dean of U.S. demographers of Russia and the Soviet Union, Murray Feshbach, reported seeing two authoritative references to a new, lower median mortality age for males in this country: 57. This represents a decline of almost two years from the previous norm. Guess how old I am.
I picked a bad place to turn old, and a bad gender to do it in, too. As Pravda’s English edition recently put it, “male mortality is caused by what [are] traditionally called vices, that is alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction, poor nutrition and absolute neglect of health problems. In other words, Russian men do not care of their future.” Well, I care of mine. And I have no plans to leave the country soon. So being old here is more than a game plan; it’s the only plan. I geeze, therefore I am.
The classic Russian writers have always been my chronological yardsticks. Having successively outlived Lermontov, Pushkin, Gogol and Chekhov, I am now bearing down on Dostoevsky, a fellow columnist who made it to 59. 
With luck — a commodity you need a lot of to live long here — perhaps I’ll even make it into the territory of the grand old men of “Russ Lit 102,” Tolstoy, 82, and Bunin, 83. I avoid Pravda’s vices, and I’ll be backed up, should something go amiss, by a Western health plan. 
If Soviet medical care was a hit-and-miss affair, where the classic conundrum was an emergency heart clinic in a third-floor walk-up, the post-Soviet version may be even spottier, so I am happy to be beyond its clutches in my drive toward Tolstoyan Buninism.
Meanwhile, I’ve calmed down a bit about aging. If I do, indeed, turn 58 this summer, I’ll be darned glad about it. 
And I’ll be rooting for more Russian peers to join me in oldness, too. Perhaps if we set our minds and bodies to it (and maybe ask Dr. Feshbach to fudge a couple charts or something), we’ll all get a few more years to work with, and in Russia, 60 will be the new 60.

Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Russian-American relations in Moscow.

TITLE: UN: ‘Serbia Did Not Commit Genocide’
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Hudson
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: THE HAGUE — The highest UN court cleared the Serbian state on Monday of direct responsibility for genocide in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, but said it had violated its responsibility to prevent genocide. 
Bosnia had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on whether Serbia committed genocide through the killing, rape and ethnic cleansing that ravaged Bosnia during the war, in one of the court’s biggest cases in its 60-year history.
It was the first time a state had been tried for genocide, outlawed in a UN convention in 1948 after the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. A judgment in Bosnia’s favor could have allowed it to seek billions of dollars of compensation from Serbia.
ICJ President Judge Rosalyn Higgins said the court concluded that the Srebrenica massacre did constitute genocide, but that other mass killings of Bosnian Muslims did not.
But she said the court ruled that the Serbian state could not be held directly responsible for genocide, so paying reparations to Bosnia would be inappropriate even though Serbia had failed to prevent genocide and punish the perpetrators.
“The court finds by 13 votes to 2 that Serbia has not committed genocide,” she said. “The court finds that Serbia has violated the obligation to prevent genocide … in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica.”
Some 8,000 Muslims from Srebrenica and surrounding villages in eastern Bosnia were killed in July 1995. The bodies of about half of them have been found in more than 80 mass graves nearby.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, both accused of genocide over Srebrenica, are still on the run. Earlier in the ruling, Higgins said the court found it established that Serbia “was making its considerable military and financial support available” to the Bosnian Serbs but that it had not known they had genocidal intent.
Serbia had said a ruling against it would be an unjust and lasting stigma on the state, which overthrew its wartime leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Milosevic died last year, just months before a verdict in his trial on 66 counts of genocide and war crimes was due.
The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has already found individuals guilty of genocide at Srebrenica. Bosnia used evidence from trials there for its case against Serbia.
In Bosnia, now split between a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb Republic, sentiment is split along ethnic lines, with Muslims hoping the court would brand Serbia an aggressor.
About 50 people demonstrated outside the court on Monday in favor of a genocide verdict.
“A ruling that Serbia committed genocide in Bosnia means everything to me,” said 34-year-old Hedija Krdzic who lost her husband, father and grandfather at Srebrenica. “Without such a ruling I fear that one day the massacre will be forgotten.”
It is almost 14 years since Bosnia first sued the rump Yugoslav state from which it seceded in 1992, but the case has been repeatedly held up by arguments over jurisdiction.
Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats followed Slovenia and Croatia in breaking away from Yugoslavia in April 1992, against the wishes of Bosnian Serbs, who were left as a one-third minority in what had previously been a Yugoslav republic ruled from Belgrade. 
This triggered a war in which at least 100,000 people were killed. 
Backed by the Yugoslav army, the Serbs captured two-thirds of Bosnia and besieged Sarajevo. Tens of thousands of non-Serbs were killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.

TITLE: Sports Watch
TEXT: <b>Ullrich Quits Cycling</b>
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich retired from cycling Monday amid continuing investigations of his alleged role in a Spanish doping scandal. 
The 33-year-old German, who won the Tour in 1997 and was runner-up five times to Lance Armstrong, said he will stay in the sport as a consultant for the Austrian-based Volksbank team. 
He criticized the way he had been treated by cycling officials in Germany and Switzerland and by the German media. 

<b>Road Relay Record</b>
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — Lilia Shobukhova took the lead in the opening section to help Russia to its second straight win in the Yokohama international women’s road relay race.
Shobukhova set a new course record of 14:45 seconds in the first five-kilometer section, allowing team Russia to make a long solo run, crossing the finishing line in 2:14:48.

<b>Haas Swamps Roddick</b>
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Reuters) — German Tommy Haas produced a stunning performance to crush top seed Andy Roddick 6-3 6-2 and win the Memphis International for the third time on Sunday. 
The defending champion outplayed Roddick in every department, dropping just seven points on serve as he wrapped up his 11th career title in brilliant fashion. 
The German did not face a single break point on his serve in the whole tournament, a total of 47 games. 

<b>‘Babushka’ Blamed</b>
MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian world swimming champion Anastasia Ivanenko has denied any wrongdoing after being handed a provisional doping ban following a positive test for a banned substance.
Ivanenko tested positive for the banned diuretic Furosemide on Jan. 23, meaning she is now doubtful for the upcoming world swimming championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Reports on Sunday quoted an anonymous source from within the Russian swimming federation as saying that Ivanenko has blamed the positive test on a pill given to her by her grandmother to ease feeling bloated while she was sick.

<b>Ronaldinho ‘Not Fat’</b>
MADRID (Reuters) — Barcelona forward Ronaldinho has admitted he was keen to prove wrong critics who said he was overweight, after his side’s 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. 
Photos of the 26-year-old showing a roll of fat around his waistband after he had taken off his shirt at the end of Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Liverpool, have sparked a heated debate about the Brazilian’s weight and form. 
Newspapers in both Madrid and Barcelona made comparisons about Ronaldinho’s apparent loss of fitness by publishing photos of the forward taken in 2003 and 2004 in which he appeared to be leaner and more muscular. 
But after playing on Sunday, the Brazilian stripped to the waist at the end of the match and jokingly challenged pitchside photographers to snap him.

TITLE: Brawling To Be Probed As Chelsea Wins League Cup
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: CARDIFF — Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said it was a pity his side’s League Cup triumph over Arsenal had been marred by a mass melee among players in the last 10 minutes on Sunday. 
The English champions lifted the first trophy of the season with a 2-1 win over Arsene Wenger’s young side in a gripping game full of incident at the Millennium Stadium. 
“It was a pity because it was a final and it was a good game,” Mourinho said. “Some boys maybe lost a bit of hold of their emotions…I hope we all can forget this incident and we can focus on the good things of the game.” 
Chelsea’s 19-year-old Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel, who had come on for injured captain John Terry, and Arsenal’s Kolo Toure of Ivory Coast and Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo were sent off after a brawl following the second of Didier Drogba’s two goals. 
Nerves had been frayed by what appeared to be a serious injury to Chelsea and England captain John Terry who lost consciousness, was carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital with a head injury. The defender later returned to the stadium and was able to congratulate his team mates. 
Wenger echoed Mourinho’s sentiments. 
“I think people will keep in a part of their brain that they have seen a very good football game,” the French coach said. 
Mourinho said Arsenal, who scored first through 17-year-old Theo Walcott, had had the best of the first half. 
“To be 1-1 at halftime was good for us because they were better in the first half. The second half…we hit the post twice and when we scored it was almost over.” 
Mourinho and Wenger rushed on to the pitch when the melee broke out and said they had wanted to calm their players. The Portuguese coach said he could not blame the players too much because both he and his Arsenal counterpart had been guilty in the past of losing their cool. 
On Mikel he said: “If he has done something wrong it is not for me to kill him but to educate him.” 
Wenger said he had stuck to his young side, without big names such as Thierry Henry and William Gallas, throughout the cup run, beating Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur and he did not regret playing them on Sunday. 
“There is a great spirit in the squad. If we had kept our calm we had the resources to come back — we could have come back to 2-2,” Wenger said. 
“It is a learning process for them…I feel this team is aggressive in a positive way but they have to learn to keep it under control.” 
Wenger said he regretted his team had not taken first-half chances to kill off the game and lamented what he considered bad decisions by referee Howard Webb. He thought Drogba’s first goal was offside and that a move by Adebayor had been wrongly adjudged offside. 
“It’s a trophy lost but we are still full of hopes. We have still a good chance in the FA Cup and in the Champions League,” he said.

TITLE: Scorsese Finally Wins on Hollywood’s Big Night
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Martin Scorsese, the creator of “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver,” finally won Oscar recognition on Sunday but he had to share the spotlight with politician Al Gore, regal actress Helen Mirren and Cinderella story Jennifer Hudson. 
Scorsese won a standing ovation from an Oscar audience that clearly thought it was time for the 64-year-old filmmaker, who was named best director and his gangster movie “The Departed” best film.
It was the first Academy Award for Scorsese after five previous best director nominations and he demanded a recount. “Could you double check the envelope?” Scorsese joked onstage.
Former U.S. Vice President Gore took center stage at the Oscars when the film adaptation of his slide-show lecture on global warming won Oscars for best documentary and best song.
The 95-minute film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” its message calling for urgent action to address climate change, and Gore himself drew some of the evening’s biggest ovations — and laughs.
The film marked a personal triumph for Gore, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee who left politics after narrowly losing his White House bid to Republican George W. Bush and embarked on a new campaign calling attention to the threat of climate change.
“My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis,” Gore said after taking the stage.
“It’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it,” he declared.
Britain’s Helen Mirren was named best actress for her pitch-perfect portrayal of the ruling Queen Elizabeth in “The Queen,” a tale about the British royal family in a time of crisis at the death of Princess Diana.
Mirren held her Oscar high in the air and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Queen.”
Veteran actor Forest Whitaker won best actor playing ruthless dictator Idi Amin in drama “The Last King of Scotland.” He had to take a moment to calm himself, then with his voice breaking, he remembered a time when he was a young kid watching movies in the backseat of his family’s car at the local drive-in theater. He said that for kids who believe in dreams, he was proof they can come true.
Jennifer Hudson, who was booted off the popular song contest program “American Idol” and was singing on cruise ships three years ago, won best supporting actress for her role as spurned singer Effie White in musical “Dreamgirls.”
“Look what God can do,” Hudson said fighting back tears while holding her Oscar onstage. Alan Arkin, 72, won for best supporting actor, beating one-time favorite Eddie Murphy.
It was a night of other surprises as well, including best foreign language trophy going to Germany’s “The Lives of Others.”
The Oscars show was hosted for the first time by comedian Ellen DeGeneres and first reviews were less than kind.
Tom Shales wrote on the Washington Post web site that the show was both “a bore and a horror” and Brian Lowry of Daily Variety called the show unspectacular bordering on dull.
But Martin Scorsese left the room smiling.

TITLE: England Flop Raises Coach Question
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Brian Ashton’s honeymoon period is well and truly over as the man who appeared to have rejuvenated England three weeks ago is now responsible for overseeing their worst-ever Six Nations championship defeat. 
Ashton was praised to the heavens after picking an exciting team who repaid his faith by thumping Scotland 42-20 in his first game in charge. 
There were some grumbles when pretty much the same group fumbled past Italy 20-7 but the mood was of shocked incredulity after Saturday’s 43-13 hiding at Croke Park. 
The thrashing surpassed the 33-6 reverse to Scotland in 1986 as England’s heaviest defeat in the tournament and the 37-12 loss to France in 1972 for the highest score conceded. 
It also lumbered Ashton a bizarre double. He coached England to their worst defeat against Ireland having been in charge of the Irish for their worst loss against England, 10 years ago. 
Ashton, who did his best to play down the high hopes that followed the Scotland result, was also keen to avoid hyperbole after Saturday’s problems. 
“I don’t feel embarrassed, I don’t feel humiliated, no, I feel as though there is a hell of a lot of work to do,” he said. 
Ashton admitted to not having “the faintest idea” why his team were outmuscled in all areas of the game but said his players did not appear as fresh as the Irish — none of whom were involved in club action last weekend. 
Two of his key selections had days to forget on Saturday as flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson looked below par and centre Andy Farrell was outclassed by Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy. 
It was the third test for rugby league convert Farrell and his inability to impose himself against one of the game’s best midfield pairings earned a barrel of criticism from ex-players. 
Will Carling, former England captain and centre, said: “Ashton is a huge fan (of Farrell) but you can’t play international rugby without pace and while Farrell has all sorts of attributes, pace is not one of them and the Irish exposed that quite cruelly. 
“I think the line-up of Wilkinson, Farrell and (Mike) Tindall does not pose the threat it needs to in international rugby. 
“Ashton, despite his desire to keep a settled side, will have to look at changing the midfield in order to pose any kind of threat against the French,” added Carling, who said he would drop Farrell for the game at Twickenham in two weeks. 
Former England flyhalf Stuart Barnes felt that Farrell should be given more time to develop his union game in the club environment. 
“The flaws in the Farrell experiment were exposed too frequently in that first nightmarish 40 minutes,” he said. 
Certainly England failed to threaten in the middle and only debutant wing David Strettle and replacement back Mathew Tait appeared to have the spark to worry the Irish. 
Up front it was a similar story as captain Phil Vickery and his front row colleagues were unable to control the scrum and Ireland dominated the lineout.