SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1252 (18), Friday, March 9, 2007
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TITLE: Beaten 
Marchers Take Battle To Court
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Opposition politicians, who took to the streets on March 3 to participate in a march of dissenters, are gearing up to continue their battle in court. They are planning to file suits against Governor Valentina Matviyenko for libel and the local police for excessive use of violence against the peaceful demonstration and at least one St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly lawmaker.
The Assembly held its final session on Wednesday ahead of elections to be held on Sunday. Lawmakers Mikhail Amosov and Natalya Yevdokimova, who had both attended the dissenters’ march, used the session to send a parliamentary inquiry to Matviyenko.
The governor faces three questions:
n who ordered Yabloko activists and other participants in the march to be detained and is going to be held responible for detentions?
N who ordered parliamentarian Sergei Gulyayev to be detained and beaten, and who will be punished for it?
N  who requested additional police force units from other regions be sent to St.Petersburg, exactly how many police were deployed against the march and who funded the mission?
Despite the massive presence of police in riot gear, no ambulances were seen on or near the scene. Opposition leaders say some of the detainees were left for several hours without medical assistance until their lawyers intervened.
“Deputy Sergei Gulyayev was detained in an exceptionally violent way, with the police exercising demonstraive use of force,” reads the parliamentary inquiry. 
“When he was already in the police car, the lawmaker was brutally beaten once again, and he was knocked unconcious.” 
Gulyayev, who was taken to Yelizavetinskaya Hospital, is determined to find those who beat him and bring them to justice. 
“As they dragged me to the police car, kicking me in the process, I heard one of them urging the others to hit me harder,” the deputy recalls. “However difficult it was  for me to move, I managed to look at the man, and I remember his face very well.”
The march of dissenters organizers also brought up the matter at the State Duma in Moscow on Wednesday. Just Russia lawmaker Alexander Chuyev suggested that the Duma’s security committee investigates the circumstances of the police’s actions and informs the parliament of the result.
“We must know what motivated the police to use force against civilians who took part in the march,” Chuyev said. “The police even even beat deputies with truncheons.”
But Chuyev failed to find enough supporters for his initiative and it was buried by the Duma. 
“The march was yet another major provocation of [National Bolshevik leader Eduard] Limonov and [United Civil Front leader Garry] Kasparov,” said Duma lawmaker Sergei Abeltsev of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. 
The LDPR is a nationalist bloc that generally supports Kremlin-backed United Russia, according to Interfax. 
One of the slogans dominating the protest was “Free Elections,” and march participants expressed frustration over the course of the election campaign, from which Yabloko was excluded on a disputed technicality.
“Our favourite party was blocked from elections, we can no longer vote ‘against all,’ so the only thing left to us to show our opinion really is street politics,” said Oleg, 33, a marcher. “But even then we have armed police let loose on us.”
Gulyayev is preparing to file a case against Matviyenko for libel. 
“I will file the case against Matviyenko not as a governor but as an individual, who distributed lies about our initiative,” Gulyayev said.
Matviyenko had appeared on Channel 5 news bulletins in the evening before the march denouncing the planned demonstration and warning people not to join what she called “the extremists.” 
Frequent warnings broadcast on public address systems on street corners and in the metro advised people to stay away. 
Volunteers distributing leaflets about the march were also detained by the police. One of the people detained included Gulyayev’s elderly mother.
Anna Sharogradskaya, head of the Regional Press Institute, said that in the Soviet era individuls understood the oppressive power of the state. Now things have changed.
“We are told that life gets better in Russia, while in reality the liberties are shrinking,” Sharogradskaya said. 
“It is like a virus that constantly mutates: when you manage to produce an antidote to fight it, a different new strain pops up and you are defenceless against it.”

TITLE: Campaign Winds Down Amid Complaints
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Citywide and regional elections — widely seen as a curtain-raiser to the federal parliamentary elections in December and the presidential race in 2008 — will be held Sunday, along with 13 other regional elections.
Six parties will compete for the seats at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, including United Russia, the Communist Party of Russia, Just Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Union of Right Forces and Patriots of Russia.
Vladimir Putin’s home-town topped the list of regions in the number of complaints, with disqualification of opposotion party Yabloko making the biggest splash. 
According to political analyst Maria Matskevich of the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the absense of the strongest opposition party, the election campaign has turned into a war of slogans. 
“Unlike previous election campaigns the parties have largely refrained from communication with the voters,” Matskevich said. “And because the slogans on billboards look strikingly similar and embarrassingly vague, the voters show little interest in the elections.”
The city has been packed with billboards sponsored by United Russia and their strongest rival Just Russia, but when it came in the campaign parties demonstrated a remarkable shortage of ideas.
Topics such as parties’ plans to develop infrastructure, improve welfare policies, establish spending priorities, encourage investment, fight corruption and boost tourism were generally avoided during the campaign.
“By contrast, the only party discussing specific issues, including, for example, in-fill construction in the city center or controversial plans to change height limits for construction in the historical center in order to allow Gazprom to build its new headquarters, was Yabloko,” Matskevich said. “The party offered alternatives to the decisions pushed by the City Hall, and it was, in all likelihood, why the party suffered.” 
Yabloko is urging its supporters to head to polling stations and vote for the party nonetheless.
“The local elections were turned into a farce, and we believe that for our supporters who feel insulted this is a good chance to respond,” said Yabloko lawmaker Mikhail Amosov. “Voters can come to polling stations and write Yabloko over the ballot. Of course, these ballots will be declared invalid but the liberal voters will be able to express their opinion.”
A group of writers, including Boris Strugatsky, Andrei Bitov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Mark Rozovsky and Valery Popov signed a letter to the St. Petersburg voters asking them to support the Union of Right Forces, in the absense of Yabloko.
Among those who signed the appeal was prominent dissident writer Vasily Aksyonov. Yabloko politicians were especially upset by his participation.
“I was really disappointed to see Aksyonov sign the letter,” Amosov said. “It was as if back in the Soviet years I had wondered into a library and asked for Aksyonov’s then-banned novel ‘The Island of Crimea,’ and was advised to take [Soviet leader] Leonid Brezhnev’s ‘Malaya Zemlya’ instead since Aksyonov’s book was unavailable. There is so much difference between our political parties, with the Union of Right Forces showing loyalty to the Kremlin.”
In December, the State Duma abolished the minimum voter turnout limit, which was seen by many analysts as the last way of controlling misuse of electoral registers and other “black” techniques to manipulate elections, such as negative campaigning.
The St. Petersburg elections are the first to be held since the removal of the limit.
Matskevich said the neglect shown to voters is extremely revealing — not only in the sense of a lack of detailed programs for the city’s development, but also in the use of negative campaigning.
Spin-doctors and PR-gurus flexed their muscles by “killing off” two candidates representing the Just Russia party. Leaflets were distributed around town in the second half of March declaring that candidates Sergei Andreyev and Alexei Kovalev had been murdered.
Several news organizations have also reported obtaining a video showing “a man similar to Andreyev taking part in pornography.”
Alexander Veshnyakov, head of the Central Election Commission, who visited St. Petersburg in February amid the Yabloko controversy, criticised the local campaign.
“Local legislators created a judicial environment that creates extraordinary obstacles for parties willing to put their candidates forward and register for the elections,” Veshnyakov said citing the size of the bond parties were required to post in order to participate in the poll.
The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly stipulated a mammoth 90 million ruble ($3.3 million) bond, an amount out of reach of opposition parties not funded by big business or oligarchs.
By comparison, in other regions the bond does not exceed 4 million rubles ($150,000), and in December elections to the State Duma the size of bond will be smaller at 60 million rubles ($2.2 million). The alternative to the bond is collecting signatures but rules on how to judge their authenticity are unclear.
Of 35 opposition parties in Russia at least 16 have already been forced out of existence under a law passed in 2006. Parties that do not meet certain membership levels may not stand in elections and must reregister as organizations.
But the ranks of those opposition parties still standing are now being thinned by the actions of election officials in a number of regions.
In total, nine political parties have been ruled out in 11 of 14 regions being contested. The two pro-Kremlin rivals United Russia and Just Russia have not encountered problems, while opposition parties suffered the most from disqualification.

TITLE: Men Discover the Gift of Giving on Women’s Day
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More men than women in St. Petersburg think of International Women’s Day, celebrated on Thursday, as a “holiday,” according to recent data from the Agency for Social Information.
“Definitely yes,” said three quarters of men asked in St. Petersburg last week whether the day is a holiday compared with 66 percent of women, who took part in the poll. 
A former women’s rights event that has gradually emerged into a Russian version of Mother’s Day and St. Valentine’s Day mixed together, the day is one of the biggest in Russia’s festive calendar.
Obligatory bunches of flowers from men to their female colleagues, inboxes spammed with wishes of happiness and love from business partners, however distant, and toasts for ladies in offices that are stretched well into the night on Wednesday marked the start of the festivities.
“We, for example had to send the edition of our magazine to press, but our [male] managers decided to give us a massive celebration with dances [on Wednesday], so we now have to work on Sunday — this is just great!” fumed a female worker at a St. Petersburg-based publisher, who didn’t want to be named, in an email.
“A major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women,” is how International Women’s Day is described by Wikipedia, a web-based encyclopedia, but in St. Petersburg, where the tradition began with a strike by women “for bread and peace” on March 8 in the revolutionary year of 1917, the day is more associated with women’s gifts than women’s rights.
According to a poll from by Fontanka.ru, only around 8 percent of their readers that took part in the poll said they consider the occasion as a day of fighting for women’s rights. 
Almost half of them (45 percent) didn’t want to celebrate the gender-based holiday at all. 
Although Women’s Day is about men giving gifts to women, the Agency for Social Information poll showed that what men want to give and what women want to get did not match up. 
Flowers traditionally came first with 32.6 percent of women wanted them as a gift and almost 44 percent of men planning to give them. 
Domestic appliances, surprisingly for men, only 5.1 percent of whom thought such items made up a good present, turned out to be the second most desired object.
Almost every eighth woman chose appliances over jewelry and perfume. 

The dream of 3.7 percent of women to be given a fur-coat was unlikely to be fulfilled as only 0.5 percent of men were prepared to give it to them in spring.

TITLE: U.S. Citizens Poisoned by Thallium
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Tests reveal that thallium has been found in two American women who were hospitalized last month following symptoms of poisoning, Russian consumer protection service officials announced Tuesday.
Marina Kovalevskaya, 42, and her daughter, Yana Kovalevskaya, 26, were rushed to the emergency room at Sklifosovsky First Aid Hospital on Feb. 24.
Doctors could not immediately identify what was ailing the two women. Further tests revealed traces of thallium, the press office of the consumer protection service told Interfax.
The consumer protection service did not say when or how the women were poisoned.
Moscow’s chief public health official, Nikolai Filatov, told RIA-Novosti on Tuesday that the women’s condition had improved to the extent that they could leave Russia on Wednesday. Filatov confirmed in an interview that the women had been poisoned with thallium.
A Sklifosovsky doctor, reached Tuesday, said the patients’ “condition was not grave but could worsen.” He declined to elaborate or give his name.
As of Tuesday, police detectives and prosecutors were still conducting a preliminary investigation to decide whether to start an official probe, said Viktor Biryukov, the Moscow police force’s chief spokesman.
Detectives have been investigating those places the two women visited after arriving in Moscow in mid-February from Los Angeles to attend a wedding. These included restaurants and bars.
Detectives have also interviewed people the two women met in Moscow.
A police source told Citi-FM radio late last month that the two women had invited guests up to the Moscow hotel room where they were staying and became ill after the guests left. 
The women were reportedly staying at the Marriott Tverskaya Hotel on Tverskaya Ulitsa.
Because it takes some time for thallium poisoning to manifest itself, it remains unclear whether, in fact, the women were poisoned in the United States or Russia, the police source said. 
Investigators are said to be considering working with U.S. law enforcement agents on the case.
The Transportation Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday that it had no plans to check the plane the two women flew on to Moscow.
Police spokesmen refused to comment Tuesday.
A U.S. Embassy official said Tuesday that embassy officials “are in close contact with the family.”
In an earlier time, thallium was the poison of choice for some of the communist countries’ secret services. Most notoriously, it was used to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978.
Former security service agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko was initially diagnosed with having been poisoned with thallium. It later turned out that he had been poisoned with polonium-210.

Staff Writer Svetlana Osadchuk contributed to this report.

TITLE: Foreign Minister Urges Caution on N. Korea
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia and South Korea on Tuesday expressed cautious optimism over North Korea’s pledge to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said more work must be done and that relations between Pyongyang and Washington were particularly important.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon was in Moscow for talks amid efforts to ensure the success of a Feb. 13 agreement in which North Korea said it would shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor within 60 days and eventually dismantle its weapons program in exchange for energy aid and other incentives.
“Painstaking work lies ahead on realizing the agreements of the February round,” Lavrov said, referring to the six-nation talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, Japan, China and the United States that produced the deal with Pyongyang.
“The agreements are undoubtedly important, but they do not encompass the aspects of all the problems, and a lot must still be done,” Lavrov said after talks with Song, adding that the level of trust among interested parties was not yet sufficient.
“A key issue is relations between the main so-called antagonists,” he said, referring to the United States and North Korea, adding that he and Song praised the “flexibility and readiness for compromise” on the part of the United States and North Korea.
“We hope such an approach will remain,” Lavrov said. Russia has repeatedly stressed that compromises by Washington and Pyongyang were needed to resolve the international standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program.
Song said he and Lavrov, “concluded that the agreements of Feb. 13 are going according to plan.”
Asked whether there could be a summit between the two Koreas, he indicated that would be premature.
“At this point, I doubt that such an atmosphere has been created,” Song said.

TITLE: Reporter Planned Story on Arms Deal
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Before his mysterious death, Kommersant journalist Ivan Safronov was on the verge of reporting a story about sensitive arms deals with Syria and Iran despite warnings that he would be prosecuted for disclosing classified information, it was reported Tuesday.
Kommersant reported that Safronov planned to file a story on the sale of Iskander surface-to-surface missiles and SU-30 fighters to Syria, and S-300 air defense systems to Iran. The newspaper added that the story was sure to have prompted a Federal Security Service, or FSB, investigation into disclosure of classified information.
The U.S. and Israel have lodged strong protests when arms deals between Russia and Syria have been reported.
In particular, Safronov’s article last year on plans to sell Iskanders to Syria caused an uproar in Tel Aviv and Washington. Fired from Syria, Islander missiles can hit targets across Israel.
Safronov repeatedly dismayed the defense and security establishment by reporting on secretive arms deals and military mishaps — for example, abortive test launches of submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
He did this work because it was his job, not because he was a political opponent of the Russian authorities, said Kommersant’s deputy editor, Ilya Bulavinov.
In an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, Bulavinov lamented “the hysteria” surrounding Safronov’s death in the Western media, which has drawn parallels between the Kommersant reporter’s death and those of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Safronov had been subject to earlier investigations for his articles on the arms trade, but these probes did not lead to formal charges.
But this time the journalist had been warned that the investigation into his story “would be completed,” Safronov was reported to have told fellow journalists Feb. 27, Kommersant reported.
The FSB declined to comment immediately.
Safronov apparently never said who had issued the warning, but he did say he had been dissuaded from writing his article. He later changed his mind, telling his editors he planned to file a story. He never did.
Three days later, Safronov fell out of a fifth-floor window of the apartment building where he lived, on Ulitsa Nizhegorodskaya in southeast Moscow.
Safronov’s family, friends and colleagues maintain that the journalist, known for his beaming smile and sense of humor, had no reason to kill himself. 

Staff Writer Svetlana Osadchuk contributed to this report.

TITLE: Kremlin Airs Missile Worries
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that the United States had not adequately answered Russia’s questions on its plans to deploy missile defense sites in Europe and accused Washington of acting unilaterally.
The remarks were Russia’s latest expression of irritation over U.S. plans to base parts of a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
They came one day after The New York Times reported that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush would reach out more often and more intensively to Russia.
The United States says the planned defenses would not be aimed at Russia and are intended to defend against missile attacks from so-called rogue countries such as Iran.
Moscow has warned, however, that it does not trust the U.S. claims and that Russia could take countermeasures.
“We are discussing this with our American colleagues and we are asking them to answer our questions, the concerns that we have, which are absolutely fair and justified,” Lavrov told reporters.
“Meetings devoted to this are being held, briefings are being organized for us, quite useful ones, but we haven’t received intelligible answers to the majority of our questions,” he said.
Lavrov, speaking at the end of talks with his South Korean counterpart, Song Min-soon, stressed, “the need to resolve such questions in a transparent, democratic way and not unilaterally.”
He also claimed that the United States was announcing plans to deploy the missile-defense installations without first consulting the countries in question, citing Ukraine as an example.

(AP, NYT)

TITLE: St. Petersburg Stevedore Snapped Up
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Severstaltrans group of companies has completed the acquisition of the St. Petersburg-based Petrolesport open joint-stock company, Prime-Tass news agency reported Tuesday referring to a statement from the Severstaltrans press service.
Though neither company would reveal the cost of the deal, experts believe the deal could cost Severstaltrans over $100 million.
Petrolesport is one of the largest stevedoring companies in St. Petersburg seaport. Its business is the shipment of containers, refrigerators, general freights and other types of freight. The terminal occupies 110 hectares of seaport territory.
“We value Petrolesport as a company that has serious growth potential, mainly in container shipment,” Nikita Mishin, a member of the directors’ board at Severstaltrans, was cited in the statement as saying.
“Severstaltrans never left the container shipment business. We broke our partnership with First Quantum but in fact it was a separation of assets. The acquisition of Petrolesport was absolutely in accordance with our plans to expand Severstaltrans’s containership business,” he said.
Separating the assets of former National Container Company, Severstaltrans acquired the stake of First Quantum at the container terminals of Vostochny and Vladivostok seaports. First?Quantum?in its turn acquired a 50 percent stake in First Container Terminal and Baltiisky Container Terminal from Severstaltrans.
Petrolesport has sufficient territory and technical opportunities to increase capacity in the shipment of containers as well as other types of freight, mainly refrigerators. 
The company’s investment program aims to increase the volume of container shipment up to 1.5 to two million TEU  (twenty-foot equivalent units) a year. Last year Petrolesport increased shipments 60 percent up to 313,000 TEU.
“We are considering various measures that would develop the terminal’s infrastructure. At the same time we think it very important to provide the terminal with the technical opportunities for growth and also to decrease pressure on city infrastructure,” Eduard Chovushan, general director of Petrolesport, was cited in the statement as saying.
The company is considering several sources of funding. A share offer is one option, he said.
Chovushan expects container shipment to remain a fast-growing segment of the Russian transport market.
“According to our assessment, a controlling stake in Petrolesport should cost over $100 million,” said Roman Semchishin, senior expert of FINAM investment company.
Semchishin saw this deal as favorable for Severstaltrans.
“First of all, the company is taking a new step towards strengthening its position in the container shipment market. If the new owner provides sufficient investment, Petrolesport could increase its capacity by several times and become the largest container terminal in Russia,” he said.
“As a result, capitalization of the company could increase several times over,” Semchishin said.
Severstaltrans is the leading private transport service operator in Russia, CIS and the Baltic states. The group comprises over 20 companies offering a full range of transport and expedition services including sea, track and railway transportation.
At the moment Severstaltrans is carrying out an investment program for the development of container terminals in the Far East — in the ports of Vladivostok and Vostochny.
The Petrolesport joint-stock company was registered in 1992. It was created on the base of the former transport union Lenmorlestorgport. Authorized capital of Petrolesport is 47.55 million rubles ($1.83 million). Before the deal Akvator company owned 50.04 percent of Petrolesport shares, Spree Cross Holding Inc. owned 20 percent, Ixworth Investments Limited owned 18.15 percent and Containers Fines Oy owned 6.8 percent.
Severstaltrans executives were elected to join the Petrolesport board at a special meeting of the company’s shareholders on Tuesday.

TITLE: Romanian Assets To Help Ford in Russia
AUTHOR: By Kevin Krolicki
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: GENEVA — Ford Motor Co will consider adding production capacity in Russia to meet rising demand in Europe’s fastest-growing major market, the head of the automaker’s European operations said on Wednesday.
If Ford succeeds with a bid it is now readying for the Romanian assets of the former Daewoo Motor, that would also open the way for expanded sales in eastern Europe, Ford of Europe Chief Executive John Fleming told reporters.
Ford’s cautious expansion in Europe, where the automaker expects to post a fourth consecutive profitable year, is a contrast to North America, where the Detroit-based automaker is shedding jobs and closing plants after a record loss.
Ford expects sales in Russia this year to top the roughly 118,000 vehicles it sold in 2006 and will consider adding manufacturing capacity there over the next year or so, said Fleming, speaking on the sidelines of the Geneva auto show.
“Probably in the next six to 12 months we’ll start to firm up on what we want to do,” Fleming said. “I think we can sell more vehicles in Russia this year than we did last year, and that’s what I’m looking for — continuous improvement.”
Ford, which entered the Russian market in 2000, has a single Russian plant dedicated to its entry-level Focus sedan. That St. Petersburg facility is running near its full capacity of about 75,000 vehicles annually with three shifts. About half of the cars Ford sold in Russia last year were made there, leaving the rest subject to import duties.
Ford plans to roll out its new and more upscale Mondeo sedan for Russia this year, and Fleming said Ford would have to weigh the benefits of expansion against other opportunities.
“We don’t have an open checkbook to just do anything we want. So we continue to look at what makes sense for the business,” Fleming said. “Yes, it would be nice to expand in Russia, but it’s nice to bring a new Mondeo to the market as well. We’ll have to look at that balance.”
Fleming said that if Ford succeeded in buying the Romanian government’s majority stake in carmaker Daewoo Automobile that could also free up more vehicles for the Russian market.
“It’s a consideration. The lower we can make the manufacturing costs, the more opportunities there are in the emerging markets,” Fleming said.
But he added that was not the only factor for Ford. “I think there’s a huge opportunity in Eastern Europe,” he said.
Fleming said Ford’s focus was on sustainable growth in a European market where overall sales for the industry are expected to be almost flat this year.
“I just want to build the business and the quality of the business rather than just aggressively rushing for volume, or rushing for share,” he said.
The Romanian government has said it hopes to wrap up the process by June, after it bought back the majority stake in the company from its bankrupt owner late last year.

TITLE: Heinz Intent on a Ketchup Killing
AUTHOR: By Brad Dorfman
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: CHICAGO — The Russian market is not an easy one for H.J. Heinz Co.
Margins there are, and will continue to be, below the company average. The market is fragmented and Heinz has got to spend a lot of money in a battle for market share.
But according to Heinz Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Johnson, the size of the market makes it one the company will not leave.
“It’s the second largest ketchup market in the world and one of the fastest growing with the third highest per capita consumption in the world,” Johnson said at the Reuters Food Summit in Chicago on Tuesday.
Johnson said the company did not want to repeat the mistake it made in the 1980s, when it chose not to sell ketchup in Japan, which for some time was the No. 2 ketchup market in the world.
“We fundamentally missed that market,” Johnson said. “We have a 5 percent share in Japan, give or take, and we are not going to make that same mistake in Russia.” The size of the Russian market is attracting other U.S. food companies. Campbell Soup Co. said in February it plans to test market its soup in Russia during fiscal year 2008, which begins at the end of July.
“It will be a long-term share battle,” Johnson said of Heinz’s plans in the Russian market. “It will be a long-term opportunity and someday we’ll look back and be very pleased that we participated in the Russian market.”
The Russian ketchup market is worth $250 million to $300 million in revenue, and growing at a rate of 7 percent to 9 percent annually, Johnson said.

TITLE: Putin to Sign Oil Pipeline Agreement
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign an agreement with Greece and Bulgaria next week on building a pipeline taking Russian crude oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean, bypassing Turkey’s Bosporus strait.
“During the course of a visit by the president of Russia to Athens on March 14-15, a Russian-Bulgarian-Greek summit will be held’’ and an agreement among the three governments will be signed “on cooperation in building and operating a pipeline from Bourgas to Alexandroupolis,’’ said a statement posted on Putin’s web site late Wednesday.
The 700 million-euro ($918 million), 285-kilometer (177-mile) pipeline will run from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis, bypassing Turkey’s clogged Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. Its initial annual capacity will be about 35 million tons of crude oil, and that will rise eventually to 50 million tons.
Russia ships oil from ports on the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean. 
To alleviate congestion in the straits, Turkish authorities barred tankers longer than 200 meters (656 feet) from sailing through the straits at night.
Fewer daylight hours in winter limits the number of ships that can use the waterway, and bad weather can further complicate the situation by clogging them further.
Putin is scheduled to visit Greece, for the second time in a year, after a two-day trip to Italy. 
He meets President Giorgio Napolitano and Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on March 13, before traveling to the southern city of Bari to meet Prime Minister Romano Prodi on March 14.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Flying High</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — GTK Rossia airline served over 324,000 passengers in January-February 2007, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Of this total, internal flights accounted for 184,000 people, international flights for 140,000. The company transported 1,357 tons of freight.
The St. Petersburg-based company came into being in October last year as a result of a merger between GTK Rossia and Pulkovo airline.

<b>Containing Routes</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Kaliningrad Sea Trading Port (KMTP) has expanded its container line, Trans-Baltica?Line,?to Rotterdam (Holland) and St. Petersburg. The ships will serve St. Petersburg twice a week and Rotterdam once a week, Interfax reported Tuesday.
The line started operating in January 2006. So far Trans-Baltica Line has served the ports of Kaliningrad, Hamburg and Bremen. 
Last year KMTP shipped 61,739 TEU worth of freight. This year the company expects to double its volume of freight.

<b>Communal Tariffs</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Tariffs for communal and housing services in January-February increased by 12.5 percent, 4.5 times higher than the Russian rate of inflation, the Federal State Statistics Service said Tuesday in a report. Inflation was reported at 2.8 percent for the last two months.
In January-February 2006 communal and housing services tariffs increased by 15 percent.

<b>Terminally Liquid</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Ust-Luga company is to complete a terminal for the shipment of liquid hydrocarbon gas by 2010, Interfax reported Tuesday.
The Leningrad Oblast terminal will have a capacity of one million tons a year. 
The first part of the project (facilities for shipment of 400,000 tons of gas a year) will cost 2.9 billion rubles ($110.68 million) in investment.

<b>Local Product</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Gross Regional Product in St. Petersburg increased 8.4 percent last year up to 784 billion rubles ($30 billion), Interfax reported Tuesday, citing Alexei Sergeyev, head of the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial policy and Trade.
Per capita GRP was estimated at 171,000 rubles ($6,525) last year. Turnover of companies increased 26.5 percent up to 2,067 billion rubles ($78.9 million) rubles. 
Investment into fixed capital accounted for 178 billion rubles ($6.8 billion) — a 4.5 percent increase on 2005. Foreign investment increased 3.7 times up to $5.3 billion.
City trade turnover accounted for $19.8 billion, including $6.9 billion from export operations.

<b>Bonded Billions</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — SZLK-Finance has issued bonds worth a total of one billion rubles ($38 million), Interfax reported Tuesday. The bonds will be in circulation for three years.
SZLK-Finance is a subsidiary of Northwest Timber Industrial Company (SZLK). The funds raised will be spent on restructuring the credit portfolio and investment program.
Last year SZLK decreased its consolidated net profit 13.9 times to 63.98 million rubles ($2.44 million). The company is owned by two people: Igor Bitkov (general director, 55 percent of shares) and Irina Bitkova (chairman, 45 percent).

<b>Kirovsky Bonds</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The largest industrial production enterprise in the Northwest region Kirovsky plant issued bonds worth a total of 1.5 billion rubles, Interfax reported Wednesday.
The bonds will be in circulation for three years. 
The funds will be invested into development and restructuring of the company’s debts. Kirovsky plant has 15 subsidiaries.

TITLE: Three Very Scary Words
AUTHOR: By Georgy Bovt
TEXT: “Do the Russian authorities really think that the anti-missile batteries [in Poland] are targeted against them?” a U.S. diplomat asked me recently. “After all, we explained the technical specifications of the system to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic long ago. This wasn’t exactly news to them, so I don’t understand the reaction.”
I answered that, no, the Kremlin does not believe the Americans.
Russia’s leadership, it seems to me, is acting out of a deep sense of distrust toward U.S. actions when it comes to the missile-defense system. This distrust, however, is just a symptom of a broader world view among the country’s leaders, including the man at the very top, President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin really appears to have developed the impression that the United States is besieging Russia from all sides. NATO has expanded, and plans to expand yet further. And now they have to deal with new insults in the plans for the Czech Republic and Poland, countries which Moscow’s current military and political elite are still likely to think of as former key Warsaw Pact members.
Then, last week, a representative of the U.S. military’s high command announced that there would be “close cooperation on anti-missile defense” with Ukraine. And Ukraine is the one country, as Zbigniew Brzezinski once noted, without which Russia cannot become an empire again. All of this is too hard on a ruling elite that has not used the past 15 years to develop a new Russian mentality, but instead remained “post-Soviets.”
Complicating the picture is the fact that image is taking on a heightened importance in modern Russia, which develops according to its own logic and blurs the line between PR and reality. The result is an escalation in the exchange of public statements. Almost every politician — and now even rank-and-file journalists — tries to add his voice to the anti-U.S. chorus. That chorus is no longer just singing — it is screaming , although just what it is screaming about is not exactly clear.
The roots of the psychological reaction to the anti-missile battery issue go back to the 1980s, and the announcement by U.S. President Ronald Reagan of the anti-missile defense program, which ultimately earned the nickname Star Wars. The system planned at the time differed significantly from that planned today under U.S. President George W. Bush, who led his administration to take the United States out of the Ant-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed with the Soviet Union in 1972. But as can often happen in big-time politics, the people involved sometimes neglect some of the essential details. 
ABM, the three-letter acronym for the treaty, held a major significance for the late Soviet ruling elite, as it does now for the current post-Soviet leadership.
Reagan’s campaigning for the Star Wars program generated a great deal of skepticism as to whether it was technically feasible and whether it constituted a serious threat to the Soviet Union. Soviet propagandists labeled it as such — at the top of their lungs. It was then that the words “asymmetrical response” first appeared in Russian propaganda. The Soviet leaders were supposedly ready with this in answer to U.S. military plans, although nothing more specific about the nature of this answer was ever provided.
It was all propaganda.
In reality, Soviet Leonid Brezhnev and Yury Andropov, then head of the KGB, were afraid of Reagan’s program. They perceived it not only as a serious challenge to the Soviet armed forces, but to the Communist system itself. Above all else, it was taken as a technological challenge that called for a swift and equally high-tech response. 
The fallout from that fear was the realization that the Soviet economy and social model as a whole were unable to respond adequately to such a challenge. This meant that the Soviet Union had lagged hopelessly behind the West. The idea emerged that something had to be done! 
This motivated Andropov — who succeeded Brezhnev as general secretary of the Communist Party — to make some modest attempts at reforming the Soviet system and economy. Mikhail Gorbachev continued this effort. The way it ended is well-known: It turned out that the system was impossible to change and the Soviet Union collapsed — an event Vladimir Putin has labeled the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.
In the early 1980s, during the first missile-defense debacle, Putin was already working for the KGB in East Germany. As a former special services agent, it is unlikely that he avoided internalizing some of the same ideas that had taken hold of his superiors. It looked like war with the West was becoming more than just a possibility.
What looks like an over-blown reaction can be explained by a three-word history: Anti-missile defense system.

Georgy Bovt is editor of Profil magazine.

TITLE: Two Leaders — One Spot in the Vertical
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir Nikolayev, already under suspension by court order, was arrested in Moscow on Tuesday.
Nicknamed “Winnie the Pooh,” Nikolayev is a major figure in the Far East Primorye region, which contains Vladivostok. Pooh and another figure, with the moniker “Carp,” are alleged to have split the proceeds from the Vladivostok port racketeering business, which they allegedly inherited from the region’s chief bandit, known as “The Trunk.” The Trunk was the head honcho in Primorye until he quarreled with Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko. Despite being an accomplished diver, he died shortly thereafter in a swimming accident.
Among those involved in the Vladivostok dock scene was “The Lisp,” whose real name is Sergei Darkin. Darkin was first “given” to Carp, who is said to have intimidated him by shooting an automatic rifle at his feet. When Carp was later murdered, Darkin married his widow and went over to Winnie the Pooh’s side. Darkin was subsequently elected as Primorye governor.
I mention all of this to illustrate that arresting Nikolayev was probably a good move and in the best interests of the government. Criminal activity among the higher-ups in the Primorye fishing industry is one of the country’s worst kept secrets. Poaching is widespread and poachers need protection. Thus, the late fishing magnate and Dalnegorsk mayoral candidate Dmitry Fotyanov was gunned down in Pusan, South Korea, in October. Local businessman Viktor Alexeyenkov was left paralyzed after a bomb blew up in the entranceway to his office building in 2002.
The unpleasantness between Winnie the Pooh and Governor Lisp began one year ago, with the arrival of a new Federal Security Service chief for the Primorye region, Yury Alyoshin. As deputy FSB chief, Alyoshin helped crack down on crime around the port of Nakhodka. Transcripts of his conversations published in a local newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, documented him talking about sharing in the proceeds from the port. If nothing else, this demonstrated that Alyoshin is no slouch in comparison to Winnie the Pooh and The Lisp when it comes to making a buck.
Once Alyoshin took office, almost half of the deputy mayors and governors started to find reasons to miss work. Ultimately, they just got out of town altogether. The new chief’s activities seemed to fit in with President Vladimir Putin’s regarding integrating authority in areas like Customs and the fishing industry by putting trusted state employees in charge of these income streams. Darkin and Nikolayev sold almost all of their business interests.
Alyoshin, meanwhile, left his job two weeks ago, having held the post for a little more than one year. It was immediately after this that Winnie the Pooh, who had been Alyoshin’s main target, was bounced from his duties.
People who know Darkin think Alyoshin’s departure was orchestrated by the governor, but that is unlikely. His removal was probably the result of the biggest behind-the-scenes power struggle taking place in the Kremlin, for control over the Federal Customs Service. Whatever actually happened, Alyoshin’s exit meant the most senior security officer in the region had left.
It looks like the pressure tactics he had been employing were taken up by Darkin, who has very likely found himself under the thumb of the Moscow siloviki. Darkin may have simply used Alyoshin’s now leaderless FSB team to keep up the pressure on Nikolayev.
This conflict between mayor and governor is common to a number of the country’s regions, including Primorye, where half of the region’s revenues are generated in the capital, under the mayor’s nose. In this case, Darkin has come out the winner and, at least for as long as he remains under arrest, Winnie the Pooh will not be taking part in strengthening the vertical of state authority.

Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

TITLE: Reaching for new heights
AUTHOR: By Alexander Osipovich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi has made a career out of scrawling witty, half-improvised cartoons on the walls of European museums. Armed with a black marker, he has made his site-specific drawings in unconventional places like the Members’ Room of London’s Tate Modern. But with his latest work, he may have found his most surprising canvas yet — a set of corner windows on the 19th floor of Moscow’s Federation Tower.
On a  visit to the still-under-construction skyscraper, the bearded Bucharest resident admitted that he had drastically changed his approach to adapt to the high-rise setting. “I mean, you can’t compete with this,” he said, waving his hand at the spectacular view outside.
The Federation Tower, which its builders say will be the tallest building in Europe when completed in 2008, is the unlikely location for the flagship event of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, which kicked off last week and runs in various venues until April 1.
It should be noted that the Federation Tower is not the ideal place to hold a major art exhibition, if the idea is to attract a lot of people. It is well outside the city center, and it is surrounded by the sprawling construction site for the planned Moskva-City business district. 
However, the tower fits beautifully into the biennale’s official theme: “Footnotes on Geopolitics, Markets and Amnesia.” If you’re going to hold an exhibition whose stated aim is to explore the place of art in our globalized, forgetful, capitalist world, what better place than a modern-day Tower of Babel rising out of the petrodollar-fueled bacchanalia of Moskva-City?
When the first Moscow Biennale was held in 2005, it was conceived as a way to raise the profile of Russia in the contemporary-art world, and vice versa. Inspired by similar events held in cities around the world — but especially the famed Venice Biennale, from which it took its name — it was the biggest international contemporary-art fair ever held in post-Soviet Russia, and it had substantial government backing.
The tradition appears to be continuing. The Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency spent 52 million rubles ($2 million) on the current biennale, the agency’s head, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said at a February news conference. And private sponsors appear to have lined up as well, considering that their logos fill up three A4 pages of the biennale’s official catalog. Conspicuous among them are companies like Gazprom, Interros, Alfa Bank and Mirax Group, the real estate developer behind the Federation Tower.
Like the first biennale, the second one encompasses 30 or so “special projects” scattered at venues around town, most of which will run for the next month in parallel with the main program. Some of the highlights include an exhibition of Russian and Chinese political art at the New Tretyakov Gallery, an exhibition devoted to acclaimed Canadian photographer Jeff Wall at the Shchusev Architecture Museum and a video installation by British artist Darren Almond, which joins Oleg Kulik’s “I Believe” show at the Winzavod arts complex.
Among the stranger special projects is “Secret Fairway,” for which sailor-engineer Alexander Ponamoryov has promised to build a submarine in the Moscow River. 
Finally, a latecomer to the biennale is Yoko Ono, whose exhibition “Odyssey of a Cockroach” will be shown in a yet-to-be-determined location in May.
But the core of the biennale ended up getting split between the Federation Tower, the ritzy TsUM shopping center and the Shchusev Architecture Museum. But the main project is housed on the 19th, 20th and 21st floors of the Federation Tower.
The main project was overseen by an international team of eight curators, headed by the biennale’s so-called “commissar,” Iosif Bakshtein. 
The curators chose their works and artists according to the overarching theme “Footnotes on Geopolitics, Markets and Amnesia,” which refers to the role of art in today’s world. 
In the age of globalization, Bakshtein writes on the biennale’s web site, the artist is in danger of disappearing amid the avalanche of commerce and pop culture. “This,” he declares, “is precisely why today we speak of Footnotes, notes that art can leave on the margins of macroeconomic battles, of the crucial importance of the artist’s comment on statements made in the language of Capital and Big Politics.”
With a theme like that, it’s not surprising that some of the works in the Federation Tower have the flavor of anti-globalization protest art. In one of them, the Danish collective Superflex mocks capitalism by presenting the nonexistent brand “Nonalcoholic Vodka.” Next to it hang German artist Daniel Pflumm’s glowing light boxes, which look like convenience-store signs, but without any text. 
Yet the artists who take potshots at obvious targets, like the ubiquity of certain brand names or the human rights abuses of Guantanamo Bay, leave less of an impression than the ones who offer nuanced, mysterious experiences for the viewer to savor. In “What We Saw Awaking,” Afghan artist Lida Abdul shows a film of men pulling down the wall of a ruined building, then ceremoniously burying a piece of rubble — a quiet meditation on the ongoing troubles of her homeland. In her installation “Secrets, Interiors: Chrysalis,” Singapore artist Donna Ong furnishes a darkened room with items reminiscent of an early 20th-century mad scientist’s laboratory. The viewer can explore the space, discovering strange nooks and crannies and inventing his or her own narrative.
Some of the works succeed brilliantly in using the space provided in the Federation Tower. Brazilian artist Carmella Gross’ “Aurora” seems tailor-made for its penthouse space on the 20th floor. Consisting of the word “Aurora” spelled out in giant capital letters made of pink fluorescent tubes, it reflects in the windows, creating pale ghost images that hover over the wintry landscape below. 
Olga Chernysheva’s photographs succeed in a different way. Part of her ongoing “Working Day” series, they depict the elderly women (and occasionally young men) who watch the escalators in the Moscow metro. Encountering them in the tower provokes thoughts about how the people pictured, who dwell at the lowest point of the city’s geography (and near the bottom of its social ladder) have ended up at such heights.
And then there are Perjovschi’s drawings on the glass. The Romanian artist incorporates the specifics of his environment into each new project, and his cartoons in the Federation Tower are no different. One of them reflects the chilly sensation of trying to create art in a space that wasn’t always heated. Another one depicts his encounter with a construction worker.
“What you do for living?” asks the burly man, who has a large beam slung over his shoulder. 
“Installation,” replies the diminutive artist.

The main project of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art runs to April 1 in the Federation Tower, located at 15 1st Krasnogvardeisky Proyezd. Metro Mezhdunarodnaya, Delovoi Tsentr. 
For details visit 2nd.moscowbiennale.ru.

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: The week’s most rock-and-roll event had everything, but music. It was the <b>March of Dissenters</b> (Marsh nesoglasnykh), an anti-Putin rally that brought thousands on Nevsky Prospect. 
However, rock musicians were hard to find on the streets among people who expressed their disagreement with the authorities over the stifling of the press, the manipulation of elections and the demolition of historic buildings.
There were a few, though. 
“All the musicians who were expected to be there, the socially-concerned ones, were there,” said artist <b>Kirill Miller</b>, who collaborates with the local band NOM. Miller’s trademark red clothes were highly visible among the protesters. 
“NOM and Mikhail Borzykin [of Televizor] came. Borzykin was in forefront. Everybody else just didn’t give a damn.”
“It’s because they hope for something. They want to live well, so they hope that everything will be good by itself. They’re all apolitical,”  said Miller.
“I came because I can’t help but come,” Miller added about a rally that was marked by police brutality when heavily-equipped OMON officers happily beat peaceful protesters with their clubs.
“I think that the authorities are criminal, which was exactly what they demonstrated at the rally. I just wanted to see it one more time, with my own eyes, to realize it once and for good. Our authorities are criminal and there is no trace of democracy here.”
Yevgeny Fyodorov of <b>Tequilajazzz</b> said he would have joined the protest if the band had been in the city on that particular day.
“I would have gone — not with a slogan or a flag, because I don’t like flags since my childhood. I now agree even with [National Bolshevik leader Eduard] Limonov,” he said.
Fyodorov said while rock music helped to bring political changes in Russia in the 1980s, today’s morals are different.
“There was some spiritual upheaval there, people felt some spirit of freedom, they were allowed to speak — but now everybody seems to mind their own business.”
Fyodorov objected to the police brutality at the rally.
“It is extremely uncivilized. The police knows all these organizations and their activists; send them a note and call them into the court if they have violated anything. Why should you beat everybody with clubs in the center of [Russia’s] cultural capital,” he said.
Meanwhile, Boris Grebenshchikov of Akvarium recently approved Putin as a “good ruler.”
“I tour across the country and see how people live,” he was quoted by the Kiev-based publication Bulvar Gordona as saying.
“They say, it’s getting better. It is only in Moscow that people get hot under the collar; they say it’s not the right democracy, even if they write what they want and nobody seems to persecute them too hard.”
The rally last Saturday showed that it is not true. St. Petersburg is heating up too.
<i>— By Sergey Chernov</i>

TITLE: Rising stars
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Adults performing for children is rather a common phenomenon but a “children’s theater for adults,” as artistic director Marina Landa calls her musical theater company Raduga (“Rainbow” in English), is something more unusual. 
Based at the Pushkin Apartment Museum at Moika 12, the theater company has 25 child actors with just two adults involved, Landa and director Sergei Vasiliyev. The company orginated in 1991 when Landa was invited by Radio Rossia to stage the first Russian radio version of the  Lionel Bart musical “Oliver!” (1960). Landa was a musical director and sang in it with children.
For several years Landa produced musicals with children for the radio station.
“In 1998 I felt that concert programs and radio theater is not enough, that children are ready to something greater. And I conceived the idea of making real performances,” said Landa.
“But I needed a professional director, so I invited one of the students of Zinovy Korogodsky — I was a musical director of his “Theater of Generations” — Sergey Vasiliyev, so he became our director.
The new theater company performed at different festivals, made concert programs and began to produce orginal performances. The first, “The Old Flat,” told the story of the Composers’ Union in Leningrad from 1932 until 1950. 
“The way children sang these songs convinced us of the uniqueness of it. Retro songs are so popular now for good reason. Those songs we real, composed by talented people,” said Landa.
Among other performances using music by Soviet-era composers were “The Family Album” and a work based on music by Valery Brovko. There was also  a program based on the songs of noted film composer Andrei Petrov.
Last year Raduga produced “15 Suitcases and One Country,” which featured the work of three well-known composers: Isaak Dunayevsky, Vasily Soloviyev-Sedoi and Bulat Okudzhava.    
“Suitcases are also characters because like songs they are handed down from generation to generation and observe the life of the country. Through these songs, from these suitcases emerges the musical history of the country,” said Landa.
“We think these songs are still topical. Maybe some texts are out-of-date, nevertheless, they possess sincerity, which is also the main quality that is characteristic of children.”
The songs of Dunayevsky (1900-1955), Soloviyev-Sedoi (1907-1979) and Okudzhava (1924-1997) are well-known to older generations, but the post-Soviet one is ignorant of this musical history. Raduga aims to fill this gap.
The theater company consists of children from 6 to 18 for whom it almost becomes a second home. Almost all Raduga’s graduates work in theaters or specialize in theater studies. 
Among the graduates is Andrei Birin, who starred in the film “She Who Runs on The Waves” and Vitaly Naumov, who played a cabin boy in “Convoy PQ-17.” Raduga graduate Yekaterina Fomenko is now a reporter for Kommersant newspaper. 
Most of the children are from ordinary families who are given an opportunity to grow through art.
“In some time they become a little different. They feel they are loved and understood. People always respond to them. I believe in setting a good example. When they see how we treat them, respect them, they will not want to behave another way,” said Landa.

TITLE: Orange revolution
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Alain Maratrat aims to awaken opera fans joi de vivre in his production of Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Love For Three Oranges” which premieres on Wednesday at the Mariinsky Theater.
Inspired by Carlo Gozzi’s commedia dell’arte scenario, the surrealistic and enchanting work is Prokofiev’s most widely performed opera. The Gozzi tale was admired by the composer for its bright theatricality and a whimsical fusion of magic and parody.
“When I left Moscow, I took a volume of plays with me for the journey; in it was printed Carlo Gozzi’s ‘The Love For Three Oranges’,” Prokofiev wrote in his diary. “It held me spellbound with its mix of fairy tales, humor and satire — it was during that long journey that I began something resembling a sketch for the opera.”
“The Love For Three Oranges” tells the story of a hypochondriac prince who falls in love with a princess from a distance. The prince is looking for a place for himself and is rewarded by the love of the princess. The opera is packed with miracles, parodies and mystifications.
The opera first saw the stage in Chicago on Dec. 30, 1921, and immediately became a favorite on the international opera scene. It enjoyed its first staging at the Mariinsky five years later. Prokofiev welcomed the Russian premiere — staged by director Sergei Radlov — by saying that the show was by far the most successful production of the opera he had seen. Mariinsky’s second take on the opera, directed by Alexander Petrov, followed in 1991.
“This work is like a bustling musical show, with a lot of drive and passion,” Maratrat, the French director of the latest version, said, exuding enthusiasm and promising a dynamic production with snappy changes of set. “And this is a fantastic story.”
Maratrat is hoping to inspire and encourage a more cheerful and more curious attitude in the audiences. The hypochondriac prince has become a common type these days, the director feels. 
“There are so many young people who do exactly the same — shutting themselves off from the real world, hiding from reality on the internet, and being afraid of life itself,” Maratrat said. “They need a way out of that trap, and the story of the poor prince shows one such way. We need to make it believable.”
“I do feel I need to whet people’s appetite for life,” Maratrat told The St. Petersburg Times in an interview between rehearsals on Tuesday. “Look around, and you see that even young people have a meagre appetite for life; dull, uninspired faces abound the streets, regardless of where you go. People just do not smile anymore.”
The show marks Maratrat’s second collaboration with the Mariinsky Theater. His sparkling rendition of Rossini’s 1825 opera “Il Viaggio a Reims,” which premiered in 2005, earned the company two Golden Mask awards, the most prestigious theater prize in Russia.
With training as an actor under his belt, Maratrat knows how to handle the acting required of his performers.
“The trick is that I play all the roles in front of the singers,” the director said. “Of course, I cannot sing but artistically I am capable of showing them exactly what I want them to do.”
In Maratrat’s opinion, the opera’s characters resonate strongly with the present day, and the links between the opera, its characters and the real world are tangible.
“The Prime Minister Leandre can only think about power and nothing else; take a look at people around you now and you will inevitably see that nothing has changed really,” he said, “Money, greed and vanity make this world tick, and this is very wrong. I want to touch people with the production, to make them reconsider.”
Maratrat’s other artistic ambition is to make the audience dream. “They need to feel everything is for real, and let their fantasies take over,” he said. “And everything on stage — the music, the singing, the acting, the plot and the scenery — will be aimed at that.”

www.mariinsky.ru

TITLE: Sushi deluxe
AUTHOR: By Chris Gordon
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: American artist Matthew Barney is best known for creating the ambitious 6 1/2 hour, five film Cremaster Cycle that was seen in Moscow a few years ago. Now it’s the turn of St. Petersburg audiences to experience this artist’s over-heated and sometimes baffling work. 
“Drawing Restraint 9,” a 135-minute exercise in narrative free-fall, is being screened at Rodina cinema this week. Set aboard a whaling ship in Nagasaki Bay, it is a less fully accomplished work than the Cremaster films that came before but nonetheless serves as a good introduction to the artist’s particularly American veneration of the big and expensive. 
“Drawing Restraint 9” is, as the title suggests, the ninth in a series of works in various formats and media that date back to Barney’s student days at Yale in the late 1980s. 
Connected by the not particularly original idea that the creation of a work of art is inhibited by various forces, the previous versions benefitted from the inventive ways in which the problem was formulated and usually included some tantalising skin-shots of a former sportsman turned-male-model-turned-art-world messiah. 
Not so with “Drawing Restraint 9,” which is ironically about as unrestrained as can be, featuring a richness of design that would be quite at home on Fashion TV. 
Unfortunately all this money and effort is in the service of the sort of offhanded cultural colonialism that only apologists could ignore. Seemingly tailor-made for international distribution and mass consumption, Barney’s work eschews dialogue in favor of the purely visual and includes easily identifiable logos and lots of pageantry along the way. The new film is no exception featuring as it does the artist’s trademark imagery augmented by co-star and life-partner Bjork’s twin contributions of soundtrack and pop-star allure. 
While more manageable than the Cremaster films, “Drawing Restraint 9” is somewhat less satisfying, suffering as it does from the simplicity of its rather facile binary concerns. Watching Barney and Bjork immerse themselves in a fantasy of the Orient that includes elaborate costumes and tea ceremonies is interesting for the way it symbolically offers up their relationship to the curious gaze of the world. 
The action, such as it is, focuses on ritual and the work of others with a bit of cannibalism thrown in at the end for good measure. 
Unfortunately, the film never fulfils the promise of the Cremaster Cycle, which is perhaps understandable given the more limited ambitions. But since the audience is left with only some pretty pictures of Barney and Bjork an all expenses paid jolly to Japan in exchange for their more than two-hour commitment, they may be left wondering if it was all worth it? 
Nonetheless, the way in which the elements are manipulated is, if not exactly satisfying, a thrilling and sometimes spine-chilling vision of American consumption at its most bloody.

“Drawing Restraint 9” is showing on Friday and Saturday at the Rodina Cinema, Dom 12, Karavannaya Ulitsa. 
Tel: 571 6131. www.rodinakino.ru

TITLE: Footnotes
AUTHOR: By Mindy Aloff
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Nearly a quarter of a century after George Balanchine’s death, at the age of 79, his ballets are still being danced — beautifully — around the world, and he remains a subject of intense interest for biographers, critics, scholars, fans and the individuals who knew him, as well as for audiences. The remarkable thing is that culture worldwide has moved far away from the aesthetics and taste that Balanchine and the composer Igor Stravinsky, his closest collaborator, represented. Their commitment to the impersonal nature of classical art, their wedding of beauty with logical surprise, their obsession with craft, their appreciation of 19th-century Romantic artists as well as those from the Baroque and Modernist periods, their view of theatrical dancing and its music as a civilized entertainment for audiences of adults and school-age children, their spooky humor and severe wit, their almost mystical adherence to the sacred, their allegiance to the idea that art speaks for itself without elaborate explanation or other literary scaffolding — how very remote all this seems from contemporary theatrical practices, both in the West and in Russia, where Balanchine and Stravinsky were born, reared and trained nearly a century ago.
Predictably, during their lifetimes their success individually and together provoked envy and resentment, and the polarization continues between their fans and detractors. These two brilliant, prolific, charismatic and long-lived artists provide huge targets, and the stream of memoirs, critical retrospectives and arguments that focus on them is not likely to run dry soon. 
Still, from the shelves of books in English on Balanchine, alone, my choice as an introduction for someone who knows little about him and wants to learn what he was “really like” is Barbara Milberg Fisher’s modest yet piercing remembrance, “In Balanchine’s Company.” Fisher — a child of Russian-Jewish parents who were born in Ukraine and came to New York before World War I — grew up in Brooklyn, where she studied both classical piano and ballet, and read voraciously. During the 1940s, she attended the School of American Ballet, co-founded by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein and staffed mostly with stars who had trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg or who had danced with the ballerina Anna Pavlova or Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. 
In 1946, Balanchine took the 14-year-old Barbara Milberg into Ballet Society, the immediate predecessor of the New York City Ballet, and the next year she became a charter member of NYCB when it made its debut at the City Center of Music and Drama, in Manhattan. She danced with the company for 10 years, performing corps de ballet and soloist parts in ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Frederick Ashton and others, and she also choreographed a little bit, with Balanchine’s encouragement. Among the high points of her NYCB career was her participation as a showcased member of the original cast of “Agon,” Balanchine’s 1957 landmark collaboration with Stravinsky; it was the last ballet she performed with NYCB. In 1958, she married a young arts enthusiast and accepted Robbins’ invitation to join his own new company, Ballets: USA, with which she danced throughout Europe and, at the invitation of Jacqueline Kennedy, for President John F. Kennedy in the White House. Her last performance as a dancer was at the 1962 Madison Square Garden birthday gala for the president, now famous for Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Fisher, the mother of three children, then followed her lifelong love of reading and enrolled as an undergraduate at City College, going on to earn her Ph.D. in English with a specialization in the 17th century. She joined the City College faculty, published a well-received study of the poet Wallace Stevens and another on pure mathematics in literature, and is now a professor emeritus, living in New York.
“In Balanchine’s Company,” which enjoys a lovely and affectionate foreword by the dance critic Arlene Croce, who has been researching and writing her own Balanchine book for the past quarter of a century, fills in this personal material with offhand elegance and charm; in its last chapter, it also offers a lyrical analogy between Balanchine’s art and that of William Shakespeare’s Prospero, from “The Tempest.” However, the book’s unstinting focus is the author’s experience of working with Balanchine during that crucial first decade of NYCB and, during those fertile and highly experimental yet also financially unstable and audience-building years, of meeting him for coffee, hosting him and his wife Tanaquil Le Clercq for dinner, and — amazingly — giving him unsolicited advice about how to deal with the dancers (which, alas for everyone involved, he took). Milberg danced for him when, among classical ballets such as “Scotch Symphony” and “abstract” ballet-poems such as the unsettling “Ivesiana,” he was also turning out new works with actual libretti or story-like elements and reviving others: “The Firebird,” “Prodigal Son,” “Orpheus,” “The Nutcracker,” “Opus 34.” She was among the first group of NYCB dancers to take Balanchine’s intensive and unconventional daily-company class, and she belongs to the era when NYCB dancers had to struggle to obtain a sufficient number of pointe shoes and company management had to struggle to pay for costumes and decor — although the dancers were always paid on time. 
Precisely because Fisher was not one of Balanchine’s muses, or even a principal dancer (whose responsibilities would have caused her to be blinkered to aspects of the company at large), she was at the perfect distance to observe the man at his times of stress and devilry. These she reports without apology, hostility or defensiveness, along with snapshots of Balanchine’s apparently Olympian calm at moments when, as she discovered later, he was, in fact, extremely upset. She has the musicianship to render a vivid and exact picture of a rehearsal for “Agon.” And she enjoys the necessary emotional detachment to speak honestly of Balanchine’s arguments in the studio with Stravinsky, of an episode in which he exhibited direct anger at the dancers, of his boyish — and somewhat reckless — infatuation with Vespas, of his Machiavellian efforts to embarrass Kirstein, and of his willingness to take the company to the Barcelona of Franco’s Spain because the raked stage of the opera house there would season them for the raked stage of the Paris Opera, where he was desperate for NYCB to make a good impression. 
Fisher is not, by profession, a dance historian, and she makes a few factual errors about dance history that she did not herself experience. (Ballet Theatre never had a full-length “Sleeping Beauty” in repertory during the 1940s. Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” was not based directly on the biblical parable but rather on a short story by Alexander Pushkin that referred to it. Stravinsky’s “Firebird” score as staged by Balanchine in 1949 had indeed been changed from the score that Diaghilev produced.) Her efforts to link Balanchine’s art to that of great poets from the canon of English literature are also a little sketchy. Even so, she warmly and consistently animates the choreographer as a human being and a creative force, and she does so in the context of a profound love for his imagination and a sense of great privilege for having known him. 

Mindy Aloff is the author of “Dance Anecdotes.”

TITLE: In the Spotlight
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The other week, Nikolai Rastorguyev, lead singer of the military-themed rock band Lyube, celebrated his 50th birthday in true rock ‘n’ roll style: a telegram from President Vladimir Putin and a chat with Lyudmila. No word on presents, but I hope no one tried to give him a sapphire — he’s already got one of those.
The singer’s big day coincided with celebrations for Defenders of the Fatherland Day on Feb. 23. So he scored gigs at the Kremlin Palace, a televised concert on Channel One and even a documentary on his life, screened on the same channel. The icing on the cake was the cover of Seven Days magazine, plus a 10-page interview inside.
It’s hard to define Lyube’s unique style. But you could call it vertical-of-power rock. One of the band’s hits has lyrics about fighting “for the Caucasus,” and all the musicians are members of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. Rastorguyev tends to wear quasi-military tunics and camouflage, despite never having seen active service — he only did some parade-ground training as a student.
The band started in 1989, when it was reportedly more edgy and took its name from the rough Lyubertsy district of Moscow. It was put together by producer Igor Matviyenko, the eminence grise of Russian pop, who is also responsible for the world’s least boyish boy band, Ivanushki International.
Sadly, Lyube has two syllables; we’re not talking about some Slavic version of the Village People. And Rastorguyev is definitely a man’s man. He once told Komsomskaya Pravda that it was “a pity” there were so many gay singers. It’s safe to say he won’t be dueting with Elton John if the British singer’s proposed gay pride concert on Red Square ever gets off the ground.
Matviyenko’s songs are frighteningly catchy as well as frighteningly uncool. A chance exposure in a taxi may lead you to start humming songs about throwing yourself into the attack again, or even shooting your horse. The latter ditty was sung as a duet with film director Nikita Mikhalkov, who has called the band the Russian Beatles, if that’s any recommendation.
A few years ago in Sochi, Putin and his other half went to a Lyube concert, giving the band the same seal of approval they later gave to popster Filipp Kirkorov. I think such favored artists should print a little logo on their records, rather in the way that Britons are informed of the royal family’s chosen brand of toilet paper. A crown might be a bit too ostentatious, though. I suggest a simple depiction of Connie, the First Labrador.
The First Lady, the lovely Lyudmila Putina, was meanwhile in the front row at Rastorguyev’s birthday concert and met him for a private audience afterward, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. She probably headbanged to one of Lyube’s hits, “Don’t Play the Fool, America,” covered by the Ivanushki tribe, which also made an appearance at the concert. One of the aging boys even tattooed “Lyube” on his arm, the tabloid wrote, adding that he only used washable henna. Perhaps a prudent move, since Dmitry Medvedev, one of Putin’s potential successors, is said to like Deep Purple.
If the wind of change blows cold, Rastorguyev can always put his sapphire in hock. In the Seven Days interview, which featured both him and his wife, she talked about a previous birthday when she bought him an “enormous” sapphire, flew to Riga and found a jeweler to put it in a platinum ring. Then the couple flew to Spain to stay with television presenter Yury Nikolayev, and she handed over the surprise gift. 
What a man of the people. But I’m a bit concerned that the sapphire might clash with khaki. Best to slip it off when you’re singing about throwing yourself into the attack.

TITLE: Italian idol
AUTHOR: By William Whitehead
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Fidelio
13 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa. Tel: 314 8444, 571 5956.
Open daily noon through midnight.
Menu in Italian and Russian.
Credit cards accepted.
Dinner for two with wine 2,390 rubles ($91)
Doubts come aplenty stepping through the door of this new Italian restaurant near the Moika River.
We visited on a weeknight only a few days before Women’s Day (March 8) but the eerie emptiness of the place felt a little uneasy. Another factor was the slightly reticent waiter, who took a little long in noticing his new and only arrivals, then forgot to take our coats — nor was any coat rack in view — or even show us to a table. Other discrepancies: just the one red wine, and a lack of napkins, paper or otherwise. 
And yet despite all this, there’s a feeling that the whole place is on the verge of something, its reputation ready to explode across town, freeing fame from the grasp of others less worthy.
And of course it all comes down to chef Luigi’s cooking. There’s certainly nothing wrong with Mikhail Orlov’s interior, of modern simplicity, not unlike that of Fasol down the road. Flowery art nouveau wallpaper excelled in the general sense of restraint, just about avoiding, like the waiter, any needless pretension.
The waiter gave the impression of inexperience rather than incompetence, then proved a revelation when it came down to answering our queries, something instrumental in our choice of desert, the meal’s pinnacle, the remarkable Seadas in Honey. Inexpensive, at 150 rubles ($5.70), this turned out to be a round of crisp pastry stuffed with curd cheese and covered with honey and lemon — a truly sensational combination of sweetnesses and textures with a zesty after-twang.
The waiter had also explained to us the makings of one of our starters, a duck galantine (250 rubles, $9.50), which proved another multi-dimensional treat, with pearl onions, gherkins and nuts pocketed in rich thin strips of  pink and smooth meat.
Fidelio offers the standard array of salads and pasta, whose portions, they say, combine bulk with interest, but that would mean forgoing a vast eclecticism that the average Italian eatery ignores. At Fidelio, one wouldn’t mind trying a bit of everything. 
As such we were tempted by the sea mollusks under a cheese crust, which, with its couple of mussels and scallops was not exactly given away at 440 rubles ($16.80). 
The waiter asked when we’d finished if we had liked that particular dish, explaining that the chef was worried. One would expect a little bit more for the price. Anyone familiar with the Russian Far East’s tremendous variety of seafood would have found the small specimens on offer here disappointing. But in terms of flavor, it was nothing that a little less potato wouldn’t have put right. 
The main courses turned up hot on the starters’ heels, as did the chef, looking very Italian. Both main courses — meat cooked to perfection — were hugely satisfying affairs. An exquisite couple of rabbit legs (300 rubles, $11.40) came with a fragrant stuffing of bacon and sage, and a sharp red pepper sauce, while rosemary-flavored juices welled-up nicely from a handsome slice of lamb (470 rubles, $18) and its crunchy egg-milk crust. 
Also worth a mention were our 70 ruble ($2.70) side orders of eggplant in white wine and zucchini with spring onion, garlic and parsley. Skillfully, they kept their perfectly-cooked identity without overpowering the main dishes.
The shelves behind the bar suggested otherwise, but a merlot remained the only wine available and, although light, each glass went down with relative ease, even it might have been cheaper than 160 rubles ($6.10) a glass.
By the time we got to dessert the chef himself was tucking into a little something round the corner. Let’s hope he’s called upon more often to produce his kitchen magic.

TITLE: Playing for laughs
AUTHOR: By Leo Mourzenko
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In the unlikely event that a new Russian romantic comedy about a husband and a wife switching bodies hits the world market, the producers will face quite a riddle: what to call the movie? The original Russian title “Lubov-Morkov’” means precisely “Love-Carrot.” For those unfamiliar with this idiom let’s say that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything but is used in rhymes like “maybe-baby” or “easy-peasy.” Following this paradigm, the most appropriate translation for “Lubov-Morkov” could be “Lovey-Dovey” since it is a rhyme and reflects the content of the film.
The content doesn’t really deserve such a shallow name. It’s a well-crafted romantic comedy with some very good acting. In an effort to combine “Dating The Enemy,” “What Women Want” and “Freaky Friday” the film mashes together every gender-swap cliche but surprisingly is not overly disturbing. 
Andrei, a successful divorce lawyer (Gosha Kuzenko) doesn’t seem to fully appreciate his wife Olga (Kristina Orbakaite), a successful art-dealer. Then there comes a witch doctor who traps them inside each other’s bodies, and the morning after is filled with the expected jokes about breasts and shaving legs and all that jazz. The reason that such predictability isn’t a problem is that it’s done with full-hearted devotion. 
The creator’s desire to imitate Hollywood standards can only be praised: indeed it’s a genre with a developed structure and “Lovey-Dovey” carefully follows the steps. 
There’s a moment in the middle of the movie when Orbakaite takes a walk in the park that recalls all those Drew Barrimore/Ben Stiller/John Cusak New York-based comedies. 
The actors try hard to deliver the right kind of comedy. Kuzenko appears in every second Russian movie and the majority of these films make you wonder why exactly he is so popular. Here the Bondarchuk-wannabe actually works and even if his portrayal of a woman is over the top it’s no problem in a comedy. 
Songstress Orbakaite, on the other hand, doesn’t make many movies, which is a pity. She is much more promising as an actress than as a singer, from her first role in the school drama “Chuchelo” in the 1980s she showed a talent that should have been developed on the soundstage rather than in a studio. In “Lovey-Dovey,” Orbakaite does an impressive job of creating a physical portrait of her husband. Many times more subtle than Kuzenko, her take on male behavior is also comedic but goes further than just playing it for laughs. 
Aside from the leads there are decent performances from recently deceased Andrei Krasko and former all-girl-group lead singer Olga Orlova. However, other  performances are bleak at best. What’s worse is that there is a subplot that not only isn’t funny but is quite annoying. 
A gang of three idiots and a leader with a Napoleon complex tries to steal a painting from Olga’s gallery. The three idiots were probably designed to invoke the hilarious trio of Morgunov-Nikulin-Vitsin, who starred in national comedy genius Leonid Gaidai’s films in the ‘60s and 70s. Those three were actually very funny; the modern ones aren’t. Their leader, played by Yevgeny Stichkin  is not only boring, but actually makes you feel sad. After performances in such screen gems as “Pushkin: The Last Duel” and “Flash.ka,” his name should warn movie fans away from any of his films.   
To add to this, there’s another evil that takes an unprecedented form in “Lovey-Dovey.” It’s understood that product placement nowadays is an inevitable part of movie making, especially in Russia where filmmakers need to raise extra money in order to make their films look the way they want them to. “Lovey-Dovey” looks good but at what price? Characters actually speak in advertising slogans. Twice. There’s a vodka brand that is mentioned at least a dozen times and a character full-heartedly repeats a slogan for it.

TITLE: Man U Joins Euro Elite in Quarter Finals
AUTHOR: By Trevor Huggins
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven booked their places in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday, dashing English hopes of making European football history.
Bayern stormed back from a 3-2 defeat in Spain to beat Real 2-1 on the night and qualify on the away goals rule after a 4-4 aggregate, while United beat Lille 1-0 at Old Trafford for a 2-0 aggregate win, ending an acrimonious knockout round tie.
PSV drew 1-1 at Arsenal, their defender Alex scoring an own goal and then the vital late equaliser to secure a 2-1 win over the two legs and deny England the chance of becoming the first country to put four clubs into the last eight.
Milan needed extra time to get past Celtic as their Brazilian playmaker Kaka scored a fine winner in the 93rd minute after the teams had been goalless for 180 minutes.
Bayern, United, Milan and PSV will join 2005 winners Liverpool, Chelsea, AS Roma and Valencia, who all qualified on Tuesday, in the quarter-final and semi-final draw on Friday.
Both last year’s finalists are out, however, as runners-up Arsenal join Barcelona, knocked out by Liverpool, on the sidelines.
Bayern’s triumph was a classic encounter between two European heavyweights and the tone was set when Dutch striker Roy Makaay put the Germans ahead after 10 seconds — the fastest goal in Champions League history.
Bayern created and missed a host of chances before Lucio headed the second in the 66th minute but a penalty converted by Real’s Dutch forward Ruud van Nistelrooy made for a pulsating finish, marred by two red cards.
Bayern’s Mark van Bommel and Real’s Mahamadou Diarra were dismissed after receiving second yellow cards as they jostled before Nistelrooy took the spot kick.
The result extended nine-times champions Real’s appalling record in Germany, where they have now won only one of 21 European matches.

LARSSON STRIKES
Manchester United’s Swedish on-loan striker Henrik Larsson, playing his last competitive home game for them before returning to his native Helsingborg, headed their winner 18 minutes from the end of a dour game.
United will certainly be glad to see the back of a tie that was dogged by animosity since their controversial winner against Lille in Lens two weeks ago.
The French team’s players appeared to walk off the pitch in protest at Ryan Giggs’s quickly-taken free kick and their club appealed unsuccessfully to UEFA while United were unhappy with the way their fans were treated.
The two managers have exchanged barbs, with United’s Alex Ferguson accusing Lille of adding to an already inflammatory situation with their behaviour since the game in France.
Brazilian defender Alex was villain-turned-hero for PSV, deflecting in a 58th minute own goal but then rising superbly to head the equaliser in the 83rd minute to put the Dutch through.
Arsenal’s exit capped a calamitous 10 days which saw them lose a stormy League Cup final to Chelsea and then get dumped out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers.
The draw for the quarter-and semi-finals will be held on Friday in Athens, which is also hosting the final on May 23.

TITLE: IAEA Freezes  Assistance 
To Iranians
AUTHOR: By George Jahn
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VIENNA, Austria — Delegates to a 35-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday approved the suspension of nearly two dozen nuclear technical aid programs to Iran as part of UN sanctions imposed because its nuclear defiance.
The decision to deprive Iran of 23 projects was taken by consensus and was expected. Even nations on the IAEA board normally supportive of Iran backed it because it was recommended by agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, on the authority of the UN Security Council.
“I have not heard anyone express dissatisfaction” with ElBaradei’s recommendations, said Ramzy Ezzeidin Ramzy, Egypt’s chief IAEA representative, before the decision, reflecting the meeting’s widespread unanimity on the issue.
The suspensions fell under the provision of UN Security Council sanctions agreed on Dec. 23 to punish Iran for defying a council demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment activities. The five permanent council members now are consulting on additional sanctions.

TITLE: U.S.: Iraqi Insurgent Attacks Intensifying
AUTHOR: By Lauren Frayer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents have sought to intensify attacks during a Baghdad security crackdown and additional U.S. forces will be sent to areas outside the capital where militant groups are regrouping, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Thursday.
U.S. General David Petraeus said the troop buildups outside Baghdad will focus on Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, a growing hotbed for suspected Sunni extremists fleeing the U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad.
But Petraeus stressed that military force alone is “not sufficient” to end the violence in Iraq and political talks must eventually include some militant groups now opposing the U.S.-backed government.
“This is critical,” Petraeus said in his first news conference since taking over command last month. He noted that such political negotiations “will determine in the long run the success of this effort.”
Petraeus listed a series of high-profile attacks since U.S. and Iraqi forces began the security sweep three weeks ago, including a suicide blast at a mostly Shiite university and an assassination attempt against one of Iraq’s vice presidents.
The Pentagon has pledged 17,500 combat troops to the capital. Petraeus has said the full contingent should not be in place until early June. He declined to say how many U.S. forces will be deployed to Diyala, which the group al-Qaida in Iraq has made one its main staging grounds.
Military officials believe many insurgents have shifted from Baghdad to Diyala to escape the security operation.
“Car bombs have targeted hundreds of Iraqis,” Petraeus said. He also denounced the wave of other attacks, including the “thugs with no soul” who have killed more than 150 Shiite pilgrims in the past three days.
“We share the horror” of witnessing the suicide bombings and shootings against the pilgrims, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims have been streaming by bus, car and foot toward the holy city of Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, for annual religious rituals that begin Friday.
The Shiite religious rites mark the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in a 7th-century battle near Karbala cemented the schism between Sunnis and Shiites.
Petraeus said U.S. forces are ready to help provide additional security for the pilgrims if asked by Iraqi authorities.
“It is an enormous task to protect all of them and there is a point at which if someone is willing to blow up himself … the problem becomes very, very difficult indeed,” he said.
But Petraeus added that he saw no role for the powerful Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army, which had sent out fighters to guard the pilgrimage in the past two years.
He said “extremist elements” in the militia have been engaged in “true excesses” in the past — an apparent reference to suspected gangs carrying out targeted killings against Sunnis.

TITLE: Turning Wickets  To Stump Sloggers
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent — Two of cricket’s biggest hitters might have to modify their styles at the World Cup with slow-paced pitches expected.
England No. 4 Kevin Pietersen and Australian opener Adam Gilchrist are at their most destructive when swinging freely to hit through the line of deliveries.
But if the two warm-up games at the Arnos Vale ground are any indication, that will be a difficult task, especially when the slower bowlers are on.
Pietersen, who made 43 in England’s 241-run warm-up win Monday over Bermuda before he was stumped off left-arm spinner Dwayne Leverock, described the pitch as like one from the subcontinent.
“From what we saw the previous day, it’s going to be a patience game, a bit like some of the Indian tracks we got last year,” he said. “That track on Monday reminded me of a couple of tracks we played on in India last year where for the first 15 overs, the ball comes on OK.
“The ball then gets a bit softer and the spinners come on and you’re going to have to sweep and nudge and ‘nurdle’ the ball. You’re not going to be able to freely clear the ropes and hit through the line of the ball; and because the ball is stopping, biting, spinning, you’re going to have to play the patience game.
“I did it in India last year, there’s no reason why I can’t do it here.”
Australia beat Zimbabwe by 106 runs Tuesday, but it lost one more wicket — seven to six, including three to spinners — and had No. 1 spinner Brad Hogg go wicket-less for the sixth game in a row.
Gilchrist sat out the match after flying in late Monday night, but said his teammates had appreciated the hit-out purely so they could adjust to the pitch.
“A few of them are much happier for experiencing a West Indian wicket,” the Australian wicketkeeper said. “Whether it’s an absolutely typical one remains to be seen, but they’re much better for the run.”
Australia captain Ricky Ponting will be without Andrew Symonds’ offspin for most, if not all, of the group stage, so Brad Hodge’s gentle tweakers were used against Zimbabwe — and even claimed a wicket.
“I thought Hodge did a good job for us,” Ponting said. “We’ve still got Michael Clarke to bowl, and Symonds will have a big part to play when he returns. I’m very happy with my slow-bowling options.”

TITLE: French Left Puzzled by English Reshuffle Ahead of Six Nations
AUTHOR: By Jean-Paul Couret
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MARCOUSSIS, France — French players and coaches are puzzled by the wholesale changes in an England team deprived of Phil Vickery and Jonny Wilkinson but will be on their guard on Sunday.
“It’s surprising but beware of the English Lions, particularly when they are injured and play in their Twickenham lair backed by 80,000 supporters ready to strike up Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” team manager Jo Maso said on Wednesday.
“They changed eight players and such a reshuffle is not easy to manage but I’m sure that those guys will cross the white line with the will to prove they deserve to play that game and to be selected for the World Cup. “The only one we know well is Mike Catt. He has a lot of experience and played a major part in the 2003 World Cup because of his reassuring influence over the backline.”
Scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili, who started his professional career with Gloucester, said he knew English players well enough to be “sure that they will not give up until the last minute of the game.”
“I know some of the new guys. They all are great competitors and have the mental and physical strength to get over this time of adversity,” said Wasps hooker Raphael Ibanez, who will captain France on Sunday. “I’m sure they will play a simple game and try to smash us,” added number eight Sebastien Chabal.

TITLE: Tiger Woods Ready To Host PGA Tour Event
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Tiger Woods joined elite company as one of only three players to host a US PGA Tour event during their careers.
But this wasn’t about taking his place with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Woods was more interested in the dozen children seated to the side of a packed lounge in the National Press Club on Wednesday, when Woods and US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced plans for the AT&T National in July that marks the return of golf to the U.S. capital.
Still to be determined is where the tournament will be played and the size of the field.
Woods made clear, however, that the tournament would pay tribute to the military over the U.S. Independence Day holiday week, and pay for a new Tiger Woods Learning Center in the Washington area as he expands his foundation’s goal to help children. 
“The last year or so, we’ve been looking up and down the Eastern seaboard for a new learning center,” Woods said. “And then this opportunity fell into our laps. It makes sense to build it here, we just haven’t had time to find a site yet.”
The first step is to build a tournament.
The AT&T National replaces the International outside Denver, which shut down last month when tournament founder Jack Vickers couldn’t find a sponsor, which he blamed in part on Woods not playing the event.
It will be played from July 5-8, and Woods isn’t sure if he will be able to play this year because his wife is expecting their first child. But while Palmer bought the Bay Hill Club and Nicklaus built his own course in his hometown outside Columbus, Ohio, Woods is establishing his tournament roots in Washington.
“That’s our intent, to stay here and have this be our home event, hopefully for perpetuity,” he said.
The Tiger Woods Foundation will run the tournament, with charitable money going to the foundation toward building a learning center. Woods’ first learning center, which cost $25 million, opened a year ago in Anaheim, California.
Woods becomes the youngest player to host a tournament. Bobby Jones was 32 when the Augusta National Invitation — which later became the Masters — was held in 1934. Nicklaus was 36 when the Memorial was played for the first time. 
Palmer was 44 when he took over at Bay Hill, and Byron Nelson had been long retired when he gave his name to a tournament in Dallas.

TITLE: Yankees Expect Wild Ride
AUTHOR: By Robert Green
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TAMPA, Florida — After a season that ended in shock, frustration and tragedy, the New York Yankees are back in Florida getting ready for what could be another tumultuous year.
“It’s a great time of the year for me because you don’t have the pressure to win,” manager Joe Torre said.
That laid-back attitude will end on April 2 when the Yankees open their season against the Tampa Bay Devils Rays and Torre once again finds himself in the spotlight at the helm of one of the world’s most recognisable teams.
The Bronx Bombers won a major league high 97 games in 2006 but then were blown out of the post-season playoffs by Detroit, three games to one in a best-of-five series.
Owner George Steinbrenner called the playoff loss “not acceptable” and said he expected much more from Torre and his highly paid players in 2007.
Four days later, on October 11, pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed when their small plane crashed into an apartment building in New York.
The Yankees will wear black armbands on their uniforms this season in Lidle’s memory.
Torre, 66, is starting his 12th season as Yankee manager and the last year under his current contract. The Yankees have won four World Series and six American League championships under Torre, but none since 2003.
He said spring training had changed greatly in recent years from a time when the only type of conditioning was running.
“The training is so much more sophisticated,” Torre told reporters before a recent spring training game against the Devil Rays. “It’s so much more organised.
“I told the players you are here to get ready to start the season. They’re judged on how hard they work.”
Torre said pitching would be the key to the Yankees’ season. They have three proven starters in Chien-Ming Wang (19-6 last season), Mike Mussina (15-7) and Andy Pettitte (14-13 with Houston last year).
They expect their other two starters to be Kei Igawa, who had a 14-9 record in Japan, and Carl Pavano, who has not pitched since 2005 because of injuries.
Igawa’s first spring training start was on Monday against Detroit and the 27-year-old southpaw gave up two runs in one inning with three strikeouts and three walks. Pavano’s season debut was on Sunday and he gave up one run on two hits in two innings.
The training camp opened in February amid controversy when the Yankees’ top two names, shortstop Derek Jeter and third baseman Alex Rodriguez, acknowledged they were not as friendly off the field as they had been.
Both players insisted it would not affect their play and Torre said things had gone well so far.
“Everybody is working hard,” said Torre. “They seem to be having a good time.”

TITLE: James Leads Cavaliers Past Pistons
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DETROIT — LeBron James scored a season-high 41 points to lift the Cleveland Cavaliers to within two games of the Central Division lead with a 101-97 win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
James added eight assists and hauled down seven rebounds as the Cavaliers secured their third straight win and handed Detroit its second loss in a row.
The game went into overtime after a video replay showed that a 27-foot basket by James at the buzzer did not count because time had expired.
“If we play well, nobody can beat us,” James told reporters. “We believe that.”
The Cavaliers had lost five straight regular season games to the Pistons and it was a tight contest between two rivals who played a seven-game series in the playoffs last year won by Detroit.
Cleveland led 52-50 at the intermission and the game was tied 70-70 after three quarters.
Detroit lost for the third time in four games despite getting to the foul line 44 times, making 35 free throws. The Cavaliers got to the line 24 times and were successful with just 13 but they made four of their six free throws in overtime.
Drew Gooden added 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Cavaliers. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Larry Hughes added 12 points.
• Yao Ming scored 11 points in 18 minutes in his second game back from a broken leg to help the Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics 111-80.
• Shaquille O’Neal had 24 points, nine rebounds and a season-high eight assists as the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 103-70.
• The Atlanta Hawks snapped a six-game losing streak by upsetting the Washington Wizards 100-97.
• The lowly Philadelphia 76ers won their fifth straight game as Andre Iguodala had a triple double to lead the Sixers past the Seattle SuperSonics 92-89.
• Chris Bosh had 19 points and nine rebounds as the Toronto Raptors snapped a three-game losing streak with a 94-87 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

TITLE: Chicago 
Bid For 2016 Praised
AUTHOR: By Andrew Stern
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: CHICAGO — U.S. Olympic officials gave high marks to Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Games on Wednesday, saying the city’s plan differed substantially from Los Angeles’ rival proposal.
“We have two great cities to choose from … and we have two cities that could compete on the international stage,” Bob Ctvrtlik, chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission, told a news conference after completing a two-day tour.
The commission expects answers to its remaining questions about Olympic plans from both cities by the end of March and will then present its recommendation to the Olympic Committee for a vote on April 14th. In 2009, the U.S. choice will be among the cities competing globally for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) nod to host the 2016 games.
Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city after New York and Los Angeles, presented plans for a stripped-down $366 million Olympic Stadium to be built in a South Side park, and a $1.1 billion Olympic village to go up along Chicago’s lakefront, where most of the athletes would stay.
One appeal of Chicago’s proposal was the amenities to be provided athletes in the village, which would put 88 percent of them within 15 minutes travel time of the venues where they would compete, Ctvrtlik said.
Committee members last week gave Los Angeles less favorable marks for a layout that risked traffic delays in a city famous for jams. But they praised the city’s bid for having most of the facilities needed for the games already in place.
It would be Los Angeles’ third games, having hosted in 1932 and 1984, while Chicago would be hosting its first.
Critics have said Chicago promises major projects that end up costing more than initially estimated.
“It’s not the fact that one city has construction projects and the other does not. It is the quality of the experience, the concepts and primarily whether we have confidence that what has been promised will be delivered,” Ctvrtlik said.
Mayor Richard Daley, just elected to his sixth term, offered assurances that organizers of the city’s bid would put together a financial guarantee for the massive project. He declined to say whether that would include taxpayer money.
Even if Chicago does not win the Olympics, the village would still be built, Daley said, bringing sorely needed development to the near South Side.
“The ability to come into a city, use the power of an Olympic games and transform an area of a city, it’s powerful and it’s very compelling to the IOC membership,” Ctvrtlik said.

TITLE: Team by Team Prospects For New Formula 1 Season
AUTHOR: By Alan Baldwin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Team by team prospects for the Formula One season starting with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 18 (teams listed in 2006 championship order):

RENAULT
World champions for the past two seasons but probably only third or fourth fastest at the moment on the evidence of pre-season testing.
Double champion Fernando Alonso’s departure to McLaren leaves them with a far less convincing line-up. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, 34, won just once last year while Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen, 25, has yet to start a grand prix.
Reliability is a Renault strong point and that could be important early in the season. Another big plus is the tactical nous of engineering head Pat Symonds and continuity under the leadership of Flavio Briatore.
PREDICTION: Can win races but title to go elsewhere.

FERRARI
A new era unfolds at Formula One’s glamour team, following the retirement of seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher and departure, temporary or otherwise, of technical director Ross Brawn. For the first time in years, Ferrari should have two drivers on equal terms. Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen, joining from McLaren, is the star but Brazilian Felipe Massa could make life uncomfortable for him.
PREDICTION: Both drivers to win races, Raikkonen the title.

MCLAREN
After challenging for the title in 2005 and then failing to win a race last year for the first time in a decade, McLaren are on the up again.
The arrival of Alonso has energised the team and their performances in testing suggest they will be slugging it out with Ferrari right from the start.
Reliability remains a worry while 22-year-old rookie Lewis Hamilton’s lack of experience could cost McLaren vital constructors’ points.
PREDICTION: Possible third title in a row for Alonso, Hamilton to win a race.

HONDA
Button ended last season as the driver with most points from the final six races, after a first win in Hungary, and had hoped to make a genuine title challenge.
Testing times have shown the Honda to be some way off their rivals however.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, 34, is now the most experienced driver on the starting grid but his best days are probably behind him.
PREDICTION: Might strike lucky, but wins unlikely.

BMW SAUBER
A line-up blending youth with experience, with Poland’s Robert Kubica providing the former after just six races last year and Germany’s Nick Heidfeld the latter. Early candidates for most-improved team, providing they can finish. Reliability looks their weak point.
PREDICTION: More podiums at the very least.

TOYOTA
Seemingly unlimited resources and continuity, with an unchanged driver line-up of Germany’s Ralf Schumacher and Italian Jarno Trulli, are plus points.
However, winning a grand prix for the first time remains the big target and, although both drivers have won for other teams, Toyota’s testing times suggest the wait will go on.
They also have to contend with a Toyota-engined Williams. Being beaten by them will not go down well.
PREDICTION: Still no win.

RED BULL
The arrival of Mark Webber, replacing Austrian Christian Klien, lends more weight to the line-up but the Australian still has plenty to prove. David Coulthard, 35, is the oldest driver on the grid.
Adrian Newey’s first car for the team has proved a tight fit for Webber and testing has been troubled. But Red Bull have the resources to make steady improvements and the Renault engines should be reliable.
PREDICTION: A hard year ahead, improving steadily.

WILLIAMS
After their worst season in 30 years, Williams should do better. A new Toyota engine deal and a technical reshuffle, with Alonso’s former race engineer Rod Nelson joining as chief operations engineer, will help.
Germany’s Nico Rosberg can build on last year’s promise while Austrian Alex Wurz has a point to prove in what will be his first full season since 2000.
PREDICTION: Better than last year.

TORO ROSSO
Same drivers as last year, American Scott Speed and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi. Different engine, with Ferrari replacing the Cosworth unit.
Also designed by Adrian Newey, the new car is already controversial and could be challenged by rival teams questioning its legality. The team say all is in order but Melbourne scrutineering will be the test of that.
PREDICTION: More points than last year (1).