SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1253 (19), Tuesday, March 13, 2007
**************************************************************************


TITLE: Opposition Sidelined In Regional Elections
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russians voted Sunday in regional ballots marred by complaints that Kremlin opponents are increasingly being sidelined before national parliamentary elections in December and a vote to replace President Vladimir Putin next year.
The elections for legislative assemblies in 14 of Russia’s 86 regions were held under new rules that critics say continue a retreat from democracy and restrict the ability of voters to voice discontent.
They provided a test for Just Russia, a new party that promotes itself as the opposition but supports Putin and is seen as a tool to channel public anger at the authorities away from ardent opponents while broadening the Kremlin’s support base.
Exit polls showed the dominant Kremlin-controlled party, United Russia, retaining its strength in most regions, but suggested that Just Russia would gain a foothold and take nearly half the votes in one province.
Just Russia led United Russia in the Stavropol region, with 40 percent to 29 percent, according to exit polls conducted by the respected VTsIOM, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion. The organization said it questioned about every fifth voter at polling stations until 6 p.m., two hours before the polls closed.
VTsIOM’s exit polls in nine other regions showed United Russia appearing to retain approximately the level of support it had in the old regional assemblies.
While 14 parties and their candidates competed in the elections, critics said the appearance of genuine pluralism was only superficial.
The liberal Union of Right Forces, known by its Russian abbreviation SPS, was barred from the ballot in four regions — in some cases, its leader said, because candidates withdrew under pressure from threats or with promises of jobs.
Sunday’s vote signaled the start of a year of elections that will culminate with a March 2008 presidential vote in which Putin is constitutionally barred from running, because he has served two terms. Critics say the Kremlin — nervously eyeing his departure — wants to choreograph the elections to ensure a smooth succession and enable the popular president to maintain influence after he steps down.
“Russia today technically is a police state and this corrupt and unethical Putin regime is trying to survive at any cost. They know that with free and fair elections and no censorship they will not last long,” former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who leads the Other Russia opposition movement, told The Associated Press.
Putin has hinted he will choose a favored successor and he evidently wants to leave little to chance.
By limiting the outlets for opposition sentiment, the Kremlin has pushed some opponents into the streets. Last weekend, police in St. Petersburg violently dispersed one of the largest opposition demonstrations in Russia in years; among protesters’ main complaints was that opposition parties were blocked from the ballot.
United Russia and Just Russia were on the ballots in all 14 regions, along with the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, whose flamboyant ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky is seen as loyal to the Kremlin. SPS, Yabloko and several smaller parties were also on some of the ballots.

TITLE: Pro-Kremlin Parties Dominate City Poll
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Nearly seventy percent of voters ignored Sunday elections to the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, and more than 3 percent of those who turned up at polling stations chose to deface their ballots.
The St. Petersburg elections, seen as a rehearsal for State Duma elections in December, were the first to be held since the removal of the minimum turnout limit, which was lifted by the Russian parliament in December 2006. Another novelty of the local campaign was the introduction of a proportional electoral system — also known as the party lists system — that requires candidates to run on a registered party list, in contrast to a majoritarian system that allows independent candidates to stand.
Preliminary results published by the St. Petersburg Election Commission on its website on Monday show that 33.18 percent of locals took part in the Sunday vote. 
Pro-Kremlin bloc United Russia received 37.37 percent, giving the party 23 out of the 50 seats in the Assembly. Another pro-Kremlin party, Just Russia, came second, with 21.9 percent translating to 13 seats. 
The Communist Party won 16.02 percent, equal to 9 seats, and the Liberal Democratic Party gathered 10.82 percent and 5 seats in the parliament. 
Patriots of Russia and the Union of Right Forces failed to pass a 7 percent margin required to entitle them to seats in the Assembly, having collected 5.8 percent and 5.2 percent of votes cast respectively.
A total of 37,501 ballots were declared invalid, according to the commission. The figure significantly exceeded that expected in normal election conditions of less than 1.5 percent, the statistical average of spoilt ballots. 
Liberal party Yabloko — expelled from the elections on a contested technicality earlier — had asked its supporters to go to polling stations and write the words “protest,” “Yabloko” or other words of disconsent on the ballot.
Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the political council of Yabloko branch in St. Petersburg, said it was extremely difficult for the party to deliver this message to the voters.
“We used all resources available to us to spread the word about the plan — our volunteers distributed leaflets among voters, but mainstream media attention was scarce.” he said. “Television channels simply refused to give coverage to our initiative. As a result, many people never got to know about it.”
Governor Valentina Matviyenko — who openly campaigned for United Russia — was satisfied with the results of the elections.
“I was really impressed by the high turnout,” Matviyenko told reporters on Monday. “There will be four parties in the city parliament, which means that we managed to create equal conditions for all rivals.”
Her critics, however, do not agree.
Maria Matskevich, a senior analyst with the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, called the election “a triumph of hypocrisy.”
“What we got was a cynical trade-off between two pro-Kremlin parties, equally loyal to the president,” Matskevich said. “It was an imitation of choice, and a step toward a fictitious two-party system, with the difference between two cloned parties being only their names. The only genuine and strong opposition party, Yabloko, had been shut out of elections. Nearing the State Duma elections in December, liberal parties were given a clear message.”
Alexander Veshnyakov, head of the Central Election Commission, said high voter turnout in St. Petersburg — many experts had predicted less than 25 percent — dispelled the concerns of the critics of electoral reforms made in 2006.
“The experts had been concerned about the removal of minimum voter turnout and removal of the ‘against all’ option but these measures are not significant enough to really prevent people from voting,” Veshnyakov told reporters in Moscow on Monday. “The important thing for voters is having a choice.”
But Veshnyakov did connect the increased number of invalid ballots with the removal of the “against all” option. 
“Some people opted to deface the paper as a form of protest vote,” he said.
Roman Mogilevsky, head of the Agency for Social Information, said the removal of the minimum turnout threshold resulted in a hands-off attitude from the parties.
“The parties are not seeking new voters, not trying to get more people interested in elections but rather they all target one-and-the-same group of people who traditionally go to polling stations,” he said.
In the meantime, Vishnevsky said Yabloko is considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to ask it to denounce the results of the elections.
Russia joined the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998,  and since that time, the French court has become the last resort for its citizens, who have long ago lost faith in Russia’s own judicial system.
Nine thousand cases from Russia — from hostilities and torture cases in Chechnya to St. Petersburg pensioners struggling for the right to dry their laundry in a disputed attic — are currently being reviewed, said Moscow lawyer Karina Moskalenko, director of the Center of Assistance for International Protection at a news conference in January.

TITLE: Russia’s Patience Wears Thin on Iran
AUTHOR: By Guy Faulconbridge
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Iran’s isolation over its nuclear ambitions deepened on Monday as Russia, its closest big power ally, announced indefinite delays to a joint nuclear power project and accused Tehran of abusing its goodwill.
Russia has defied Western concerns to supply arms to Iran, help build the Bushehr nuclear power station and water down sanctions against Tehran in the United Nations, but is now signaling its patience with Iran’s leadership is wearing thin.
Atomstroiexport, the state-owned contractor helping build the Bushehr plant, said the first fuel deliveries would not go ahead as planned this month and that the scheduled September launch date would not now be met either.
The contractor said the delays were caused by a payment row but observers in Moscow said the project was, in effect, being mothballed because of political sensitivities.
The United States — which suspects Iran of accumulating nuclear know-how to build a bomb — has for years urged Moscow to halt the project but the Kremlin refused. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.
“The timeframe has been moved and so the launch cannot happen in September — we simply cannot do it. If we can’t launch the station in September then we cannot deliver the fuel according to the old timetable either,” said Irina Yesipova, a spokeswoman for Atomstroiexport.
That announcement came as Russian news agencies quoted what they called an informed source in Moscow accusing Tehran of exploiting Russia’s diplomatic support while making no concessions in return.
“Unfortunately, the Iranians are abusing our constructive relations and have done nothing to convince our colleagues of the consistency of Tehran’s policies,” the source was quoted as saying.
There was no indication of the source’s identity but the source’s remarks were reported by all three of Russia’s main news agencies. Senior officials often use them as a back-channel for sending messages to foreign governments.
“We are suffering losses in terms of foreign policy and our image while they stand their ground,” the source was quoted as saying.
“If they do not respond to the questions of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), let them answer for themselves.”
“They cannot play on our methodical good relations eternally and they need to understand that.”
Russia’s holds the key to future UN sanctions on Iran because it holds a veto in the Security Council and has used its influence to soften previous measures.
The five permanent members of the Council — the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia — plus Germany are discussing imposing new sanctions on Iran.

TITLE: Russian Journalist Seeks Asylum in United States
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Russian journalist is seeking asylum in the United States after being beaten and suffering kidney failure in a suspected poisoning attempt, London’s Sunday Times reported.
The award-winning journalist, who has reported on events in the Caucasus, has been “promised political asylum” in the United States, the newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sunday Times did not disclose the identity of the female journalist, who claims to have been followed, harrassed and, on one occasion, beaten in connection with her publications.
Last October, an unidentified intruder broke into the journalist’s apartment while she was out. Upon discovering the break-in, the journalist had a cup of coffee and went to bed. She woke up in pain the next morning.
“There was practically no skin left on my mouth, only bare flesh. The same thing happened to my fingers. My skin just started peeling off,” the journalist told the Sunday Times.
She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with kidney failure. One month later the journalist again found herself in an intensive care unit after drinking tea and losing consciousness. She was subsequently diagnosed with an inadequate supply of blood to the heart, the Sunday Times reported.
“I have no doubt I was poisoned,” said the journalist, who is to leave Russia for the United States this week.
“I live in fear,” she told the Sunday Times. “I feel trapped and constantly threatened by the security services.”
Under U.S. law, the journalist must wait until she arrives in the United States to apply for asylum. In her application, and a subsequent interview with an asylum officer, the journalist must prove that she meets the definition of a refugee. 
If her claim is denied by the officer, it would be referred to an immigration court, which would either approve the claim or deport her back to Russia.
Last year, a critic of the Kremlin and the security services died in London after being poisoned. Alexander Litvinenko, a renegade former Federal Security Service agent who fled Russia and was granted political asylum in Britain, died from exposure to polonium-210.
Litvinenko blamed Russian authorities for the poisoning shortly before his death, but produced no evidence to back up his claim. The Kremlin has denied any role. Also last year, Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya was killed in an apparent contract hit.
At least one Russian journalist recently asked for political asylum. Alexander Kosvintsev, who edited a regional newspaper before taking a job with Novaya Gazeta and heading up the opposition United Civil Front in the Kemerovo region, fled to Ukraine and sought asylum there last month.

TITLE: President to Meet Pope at the Vatican
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting this week with President Vladimir Putin will benefit the Catholic community in Russia, the pontiff’s envoy in Moscow said Saturday, but he declined to say whether he expected an invitation for Benedict to travel to Moscow.
Benedict’s talks with Putin at the Vatican on Tuesday “certainly will be a portent of good fruits in further relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation, to the advantage as well of the Catholic Church in Russia,” Antonio Mennini told Vatican Radio.
Benedict and Putin will be holding the highest-level Kremlin-Vatican talks in more than three years, and it will be the first meeting between the president and the pope.
Mennini told Vatican Radio that Putin and Benedict would speak in German.

TITLE: Russia Criticizes U.S. Human Rights Report
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Moscow on Friday criticized the U.S. State Department’s annual report on global human rights, saying its assessment of the situation in Russia was skewed, confrontational and aimed at furthering U.S. political interests.
In a bitter statement that reflected persistent strains between the Cold War foes, the Foreign Ministry accused Washington of double standards and suggested the United States was preaching to the world while violating the its own citizens’ rights and rights of others across the globe.
The report is “nonobjective, politicized and in many ways confrontational,” the statement said, claiming that it aims to lead a reader to “draw specific negative conclusions” about Russia and contains “skewed perceptions of the real situation, outdated information, intentional vagueness and citations of biased sources.”
The statement did not mention any specific information in the State Department report, which was released last week.
The U.S. report says that Russia’s human rights record deteriorated over the last year as President Vladimir Putin’s government centralized power, restricted free speech and killed and abused civilians in and around Chechnya.
The Russian government tends to criticize the State Department report every year, reflecting irritation about what is widely seen as U.S. meddling in its affairs — a sense of resentment produced in part by the large volume of advice given by the United States to a struggling Russia in the years after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The ministry statement said Russia had complained to the State Department in the past over “the politicized evaluation of the human rights situation in Russia, which has been repeated year after year,” but that “it seems a persistent practice of not taking that into account has developed in Washington.”
Oil-fueled economic growth has made Russia more assertive on the international stage, while global anger over the war in Iraq and other U.S. moves during U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration have emboldened Moscow to sharpen its criticism of the United States.
Amid U.S. criticism of Russia over human rights, the progress of democracy and energy policy under Putin, ties between the two countries have been further strained in recent weeks by U.S. plans to place missile defense facilities in former Soviet satellite states in Europe.
In some of his boldest criticism of U.S. policy, Putin told a security conference in Germany last month that the United States “has overstepped its national borders in every way,” and accused it of fomenting a global arms race.
The ministry said Russia had expected the report to be prejudiced.
“Washington has long practiced double standards in the sphere of human rights, depending on whether one state or another acts in accordance with [U.S.] political interests,” the statement said.
“These standards are particularly clearly visible against the background of what is happening now in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the military base in Guantanamo with the participation of the U.S. armed forces,” the statement said.
At home, the statement said, “the United States, under various pretexts, limits democratic freedoms, interferes in the personal lives of its own people, effectively carries out censorship of the media and sends minors to the electric chair.”
Russia is ready for dialogue with all nations about human rights, but “we are convinced that politicizing the human rights issue will lead not to the solution of existing problems, but to the devaluation of the principles and aims of international cooperation in this area.”
It said the U.S. report was based partially on “tendentiously conveyed” information from reports by Russia’s human rights ombudsman, saying: “By the way, unlike in Russia, in the United States such official reports — on the human rights situation in its own country — are not produced.”

TITLE: Putin Praises Power Agencies
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Just a few years ago, separatists and power-hungry oligarchs threatened Russia’s very existence. But thanks to the security services, law enforcement agencies and military, order has been restored and Russia has been granted a new lease on life.
That was President Vladimir Putin’s message Friday at a Kremlin reception for newly promoted officers. In his comments, the president also pledged to lavish future funds on the so-called power agencies.
“With the armed forces in the state they were at that time, with what was essentially an ongoing civil war being waged, continued bloodshed in the Caucasus and the country’s national wealth being robbed on an unprecedented scale as millions of people looked on, the picture appeared to be of a country with no future ahead of it,” Putin said in comments posted on the Kremlin web site. 
“But dramatic change has been achieved over these last years, and this is thanks to your efforts, too,” Putin said.
The audience included generals from the Federal Guard Service, Prosecutor General’s Office, Interior Ministry, Defense Ministry, Federal Prison Service, Federal Drug Control Agency and Federal Security Service, or FSB.
But much work remains to be done, the commander in chief said. Major challenges, he said, include extremism, violent xenophobia, terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“All of this demands constant work to improve our country’s military organization, including maintaining our nuclear deterrent forces at a high level of combat readiness,” Putin said.
Putin repeated what senior officials have already said — that the government would spend nearly $191 billion building up the military from 2007 to 2015. Putin is scheduled to leave office in 2008.
The United States’ plans to deploy parts of a ballistic missile defense system in Eastern Europe are one of many reasons Russia should increase arms spending, Putin said.
Putin also outlined major goals for the power agencies before the 2007 parliamentary elections and the 2008 presidential vote.

TITLE: Changes in Election Laws Clear First Hurdle in Duma
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The State Duma on Friday gave initial approval to a raft of amendments to the country’s election laws, including a provision that requires parties to field multiple party lists in cities and regions with more than 3 million people.
Deputies voted 336-88 in favor of the bill in a first reading. The Communist Party and A Just Russia opposed the bill, Interfax reported.
Critics of the amendment argue that it would give the pro-Kremlin United Russia party an unfair advantage in the country’s most densely populated areas for the State Duma election this coming December.
The bill would make United Russia almost unbeatable in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar and the Moscow region, critics say.
Party lists for federal parliamentary elections are formed on the basis of regional groups. 
Current law requires parties to submit 100 such groups, which means fielding multiple lists in Moscow and other major cities.
As a result, United Russia, which counts many mayors and governors among its members, is forced to split its heavyweights among several lists, giving rival parties a better chance of victory against the second-tier candidates.
Other parties have found it difficult to put together 100 regional groups, however.
Mikhail Yemelyanov, a United Russia deputy on the Duma’s Constitution and State Affairs Committee, said the current system was unfair to voters, because the votes of people in smaller regions are added to those cast by people in larger regions for the same party.
“People think they’re voting for one candidate, but then candidates in another region whom they don’t even know get their votes,” he said.
Yemelyanov said the proposed amendments did not privilege any single party and were not politically motivated.
Critics of the bill disagree, however. Nikolai Kharitonov, a Communist deputy, said the changes would deprive voters of the right to choose.
“All these laws are provocative and will result in the superiority of United Russia over other parties,” he said.

TITLE: Press Takes Bets on May Wedding for Prokhorov
AUTHOR: By Erika Niedowski
PUBLISHER: The Baltimore Sun
TEXT: MOSCOW — Time is running out on the single — and certainly the swinging — days of the man known as Russia’s most eligible bachelor. Mikhail Prokhorov, the tall, fine, feverish spender who amassed a worth of $13.5 billion running the world’s largest nickel producer, is getting hitched May 3.
To win a bet. Or so the story goes.
Perhaps that’s the only way to get him to settle down. After all, Prokhorov, 41, is known as quite a party man, throwing decadent bashes with women aplenty, where the cognac alone costs more than most Russians make in years. The excess has gotten him in trouble of late — Prokhorov was arrested in a glamorous resort town in the French Alps shortly after New Year’s in connection with a prostitution investigation; authorities released him without pressing charges after four days of questioning.
It is unclear, at least to the inquiring public, whom Prokhorov might be marrying and whether love is in any way involved. Ksenia Sobchak, an impeccably appointed blond socialite who hosts a television reality show “Dom-2” and is referred to as Russia’s Paris Hilton, has been mentioned as a contender.
She already owns a wedding dress, she has pointed out; she was formerly engaged to a Russian businessman trained at Harvard University and had planned a high-society wedding in 2005 that was called off.
A fair question: How did it come to this? Prokhorov apparently made a bet — with whom, and for what, is not known — to wed by the time he turns 42, which will happen on May 3.
And, it seems, he is a man of his word. Or he hates to lose. Or, perhaps, both. He has reportedly said, enigmatically, that he would wed the pervaya vstrechnaya, which means, literally, the “first one he meets.”
“Mishka said he would marry the first girl who came along,” Tvoi Den newspaper recently quoted a businessman “closely connected to the oligarch” as saying. “But he will have to choose her no later than March because it’s necessary to draw up all the documents before the marriage.”
There could be some other documents to draw up as well: those required for divorce. The same person from the Moscow registry office who will perform the marriage ceremony is expected to dissolve it, too, after five days.
Especially since his brush with the law in January, which was later called a “regrettable misunderstanding” by a spokesman for his company, Norilsk Nickel, Prokhorov cannot be in the news enough.
But there is one potential catch to the coverage of his impending nuptials: It could all be a hoax, just another excuse perhaps, as if Prokhorov needs one, to throw a party. Some have said the scheme was dreamed up during his detention in Courchevel, the French Alpine resort. He had to have something to do during his extended stay in a small cell.
Sobchak, a family friend of President Vladimir Putin, who worked for her father when he was mayor of St. Petersburg, says it’s not a joke.
“Misha is returning in three days,” she told Komsomolskaya Pravda this week, referring to his trip to an island off Venezuela where his bachelor party was held, “and we’re going to the Maldives, to look at the hotel where we’ll stay. Because there are still a few months left, it’s necessary to see how the preparations for the wedding will go.”
Sobchak says that she has lost a little weight since her earlier engagement but that she can always get her wedding dress tailored.
A former classmate of Prokhorov who works as a special correspondent for that newspaper, Anastasiya Pleshakova, confided — to the millions of readers of her paper — that Prokhorov has been talking of marrying at that age since his school days.
“At that time it was an excuse for his persistent admirers,” she said. “Sort of, ‘You girls keep your distance.’ Everyone was touched by Mishanya — what a sense of humor he has. Who could have suggested at that time that his matrimonial intentions were serious?”
Even for a wedding that, so far, has no bride, the media have offered up teasing glimpses of what’s in store. The five-day bash is to take place in the picturesque Maldives, a chain of more than 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean. The festivities will be held on two; unmarried couples will stay on Kurumba, married ones on Paradise (Prokhorov himself will reach Paradise only after exchanging vows). About 700 or 800 guests will attend, shuttled in on charter planes. In all, Prokhorov’s so-called “family life” will cost him around $10 million.
Prokhorov is one of the few remaining bachelors among Russia’s 55 billionaires.
“Holiday man — that’s what his entourage calls Mikhail Prokhorov,” said Tvoi Den. “His generosity is enough for everyone — he isn’t stingy in spending money on his close friends, on countless close friends and on the fair sex. It’s natural that the only thing he hides, under seven locks, is his heart.”
The wedding could well be one of the most expensive in post-Soviet Russia, though that of another billionaire, banker Andrei Melnichenko, was reported to have paid $35 million, including $3.6 million for Christina Aguilera to perform three songs. Melnichenko married a former Miss Yugoslavia in 2005.

TITLE: Bank Brothers Count Blessings In New List of Russia’s Richest
AUTHOR: By Anna Smolchenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A son of the president of Bashkortostan, a passionate collector of Jewish art and two religious banking brothers were among the country’s new billionaires as Russia vied with Germany for the second spot on Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest people.
The list, published Thursday, includes 53 Russians. There are 19 Russian newcomers and one making his reappearance — more newcomers than any other nation after the United States.
The combined net worth of the country’s billionaires shot up to $282 billion from $172.1 billion last year, Forbes said.
“2006 was the richest year in Russia’s history,” said Kirill Vishnepolsky, deputy editor of Forbes’ Russian edition, which helped compile the list.
Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich again led the Russians on the list, increasing his fortune to $18.7 billion from $18.2 billion in 2006. Suleiman Kerimov, the secretive Dagestani-born State Duma deputy who made headlines when he crashed his Ferrari in France last November, more than doubled his wealth to $14.4 billion over the past year, becoming Russia’s second-richest man and the world’s 35th.
Among other winners, Russian Aluminum owner Oleg Deripaska increased his fortune to $13.3 billion from $7.8 billion last year, while Severstal boss Alexei Mordashov amassed $11.2 billion, compared with $7.6 billion in 2006. Ten Russians now have more than $10 billion each, as compared to four billionaires last year and just one in 2005.
“Russia’s mostly young, self-made tycoons are catching up with Germany’s often-aging heirs and heiresses,” the magazine said. Russia is now only two billionaires shy of Germany’s total. But by collective wealth, the country’s billionaires are ahead of Germany’s, who have a total of $245 billion. The United States has 415 billionaires worth a total of $1.36 trillion.
Brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananyev, who sold a stake in their Promsvyazbank to Germany’s Commerzbank last year, are among the 19 new Russian names on the list. The brothers, each worth $1.7 billion, are “very religious,” with Alexei Ananyev assisting clergymen at the Moscow-based Church of the Trinity in his free time, the magazine said.
Surging demand in the electronics and food sectors has helped Sergei Galitsky, founder of Magnit, a chain of grocery stores, and Igor Yakovlev, founder of home-appliance and electronics retailer Eldorado, make the list.
Also new on the list are Vyacheslav Kantor, the chairman of the Russian Jewish Congress, who is founder of the Akron fertilizer holding and “a passionate collector of paintings by Russian artists of Jewish origin”; Oleg Boiko, a wheelchair-bound entrepreneur who made his money in the gambling business; and Filaret Galchev, the owner of Eurocement Group, the country’s largest cement producer.
One other notable newcomer is Ural Rakhimov, worth $2 billion, who heads Bashneft, the main Bashkortostan oil company. Rakhimov’s father is Murtaza Rakhimov, the autocratic president of Bashkortostan.
Boris Berezovsky, who last year sold Kommersant newspaper — the last of his interests in Russia — has returned to the Forbes fold with a fortune of $1.1 billion, the magazine said.

TITLE: Russians Discover the Beauty of Dental Hygiene
AUTHOR: By Erika Niedowski
PUBLISHER: The Baltimore Sun
TEXT: MOSCOW — Yekaterina Tkalenko brushes her teeth three or four times a day, especially after drinking enamel-insulting tea or coffee, has them professionally cleaned twice a year and carries floss as if it were as vital as an inhaler. She recently spent nearly $1,000 to have her teeth whitened.
“When I look at a person, no matter who it is, the first thing I look at is his or her teeth and smile,” said the 34-year-old Muscovite, who works in the tourism industry. “When I see good teeth, I think this person has a better chance in life, and he’ll be more successful than a person who has bad teeth.”
In a nation where, a generation ago, a trip to the dentist happened only when a tooth hurt, families shared toothbrushes, and dental floss was but a curiosity, oral hygiene is the new vogue. And good teeth — or at least straight, white ones — are as important a part of one’s image in wealthy cities like Moscow as the proper shade of lipstick or the perfect pair of heels.
Soviet-era teeth were notoriously bad. In 1991, the average 35-year-old had 12 to 14 cavities, fillings or missing teeth, said Vladimir Sadovsky, vice president of the Russian Dental Association.
Toothpaste meant whatever was available. Toothbrushes had hard bristles that cut the gums, sometimes doing more harm than good. Dental technologies were years behind those of the West; the 17-year-old who was crowned Miss USSR in 1990 flew to Philadelphia the same year to have the gap in her teeth closed and a few cavities filled.
But the domestic oral hygiene market has exploded in recent years. Private dental clinics in central Moscow, which have new equipment far surpassing the quality in under-funded municipal clinics, are practically on every corner. Pharmacy shelves are stocked not just with the latest blends of imported Colgate and Aquafresh, but yogurt-based paste and paste in flavors like Jazz or Lemon Mint. There are also anti-plaque rinses, fresheners, round flosses, flat flosses, whitening strips, whitening gels and whitening plates, among other things.
According to industry estimates, sales of oral hygiene products in Russia have nearly doubled since 2000. From 2005 to last year, Russians boosted spending in the sector by an estimated $170 million, to $1.43 billion, according to the online newsletter Cosmetics in Russia, citing statistics from Euromonitor International. More people are willing to purchase high-end items, including electric toothbrushes and Rembrandt toothpaste, which can cost as much as $14 per tube. Tkalenko, a self-described oral hygiene addict, uses another foreign brand that goes for $19.
“Now the population is well aware of one fact: If you want to be successful, say, in business, you have to have a healthy smile,” said Andrei Akulovich, a dentist in St. Petersburg who is editor of the newspaper Stomatologiya Segodnya.
In the 1980s, he said, statistics showed that one-quarter of households had only one toothbrush. Even now, with the tooth obsession sweeping cities, the average per capita spending on toothpaste per year is the equivalent of $3.80. That still means a lot of tooth decay.
Still, it’s not unusual for women, and even some men, to keep floss in their purses (though not all know that using it at the dinner table is uncivilized). And in large part because of an education campaign in schools, the importance of good oral hygiene is being drilled in at a young age. In a recent art contest in which children illustrated their view of the president, a 9-year-old girl drew a pajama- and slipper-clad Vladimir Putin brushing his teeth in front of a mirror (alongside a toilet made of gold).
Fluoride in the water still is viewed with skepticism here; one Moscow dentist said it causes people’s teeth to turn brown, and a major water supplier stopped selling it last year because, the company said, clients could get enough “from food” and “in the air.” Still, the government has funded the fluoridation of milk in some municipalities, and with good result. In the southern city of Voronezh, the average 12-year-old had nearly four cavities in 1994, the year the fluoridation campaign began, said Sadovsky. By 2004, the number of cavities was one and a half. In the United States, nearly 60 percent of those from 6 to 19 years of age have never had a cavity in their permanent teeth.
“In 1991, they didn’t know what a dental hygienist was. They didn’t know what dental floss was,” said Giovanni Favero, an American dentist who trained Russians in the early days after the collapse of the Soviet Union and founded the American-Russian Dental Center in central Moscow, where he has worked for 12 years.
Favero, 69, became acquainted with Russian dentistry in the early 1990s, when he saw Russian exchange students at his practice in California. One student, who had recently been to a dentist in Russia, came complaining of a toothache. He had 21 cavities.
Favero has seen it all in Russian mouths. An X-ray image once showed a patient’s broken tooth had been reattached with something that looked suspiciously like a paper clip. More recently, he removed two teeth that gave new meaning to the word loose; they were barely hanging by the roots. In jest, Svetlana Chekalina, a dental assistant at the clinic who has lovely teeth herself, suggested he pull them out by hand.
Favero and other dentists say the dental craze is not all for the good. Many clinics are owned and operated not by dentists but by businessmen who care far more about a healthy bottom line than healthy teeth and gums. Favero knows of one dentist who did 29 implants on a patient who needed half as many.
“Your smile is a business card,” said Antonina Shevtsova, a dentist at Masterdent, which has opened 30 clinics in the capital since 1996, explaining the growing demand for good-looking teeth.
Most patients at her clinic, which has a vertical fish tank adorning the waiting room (without fish) and computer screens and keyboards in the examination rooms, wish to have their old fillings or crowns replaced with new, better-quality ones. Some want implants. Every second patient asks for whitening. Most popular are veneers, thin caps of porcelain that fit over a tooth — like a fake fingernail — and can cover up stains or chips. They run about $570 per tooth.
Akulovich, of Dentistry Today, cautioned against all the whitening, especially that done at home, which can damage gums. He wants Russian teeth to become not just whiter, but healthier.
“White teeth,” he said, “don’t necessarily mean healthy teeth.”

TITLE: Moldova Wonders Where to Sell Wine Stocks
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Chubashenko
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MILESTII MICI, Moldova — A visitor on foot would need far more than a day to tour the entire underground city housing the world’s largest collection of wines — about 2 million bottles — in Moldova.
But the director of Milestii Mici wonders just who will buy any of that stock, with Russia slow to lift a ban it slapped on all wine imports last year from this country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Russia said the ban on Moldovan — and Georgian — wine was linked to concerns over adulterated products that could harm consumers. Moldovans and Georgians believe the ban sought to punish their countries for a drive to boost ties with the West.
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and President Vladimir Putin agreed last November to scrap the ban on wine, restoring an economic lifeline to Europe’s poorest country.
Before the ban, alcohol sales accounted for one-quarter of Moldova’s exports, and Moldovan wine had a 60 percent share of the Russian market — a gap now filled by other producers.
But Putin’s pledge to toast the New Year with a glass of Moldovan champagne came to nothing. Moscow failed to restore imports, instead dispatching a steady stream of customs and health officers to conduct quality checks.
“I don’t think anyone knows when Russia will lift the ban on our wine exports,” said Milestii Mici’s director, Mihail Maciuca.
After Russian authorities pulled Moldovan wine from store shelves and destroyed hundreds of thousands of bottles, Moldova’s president acknowledged that there had been isolated instances when production standards fell short. But producers — and the president — ardently defend the quality of Moldova’s current output. “We cannot agree that Moldovan wine is of poor quality or that it is harmful to health,” the president said at a recent wine exhibition.
Moldovans say the ban was prompted by Moscow’s irritation at moves by Voronin to turn away from Russia and seek European Union membership. Georgia pursues the same aim.
Voronin accuses Russia of abetting separatists who have declared their own state in Moldova’s self-proclaimed Transdnestr republic. Voronin said Moldova wanted to lessen its dependence on Russia, which previously accounted for 80 percent of exports.
Western countries now buy 25 percent of Moldovan exports, led by different types of cabernet, merlot and pinot noir, with new customers in Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania and the United States.
“The Russian ban was a shock to the entire industry. Whole plants came to a standstill,” said Gheorghe Cozub, head of the union of Moldovan wine exporters.
Cozub said Moldova exported 300 million bottles in 2005, with revenues of $350 million. Last year that was halved and economic growth slowed to 4 percent from 7.5 percent in 2005.
Sergei Borets, head of Acorex-Vin, one of Moldova’s most prominent producers, estimates losses from the embargo at $10 million.
Milestii Mici has fared better than many competitors. It made a name in the West with an entry in the Guinness book of records for its vast collection, 80 meters below ground. Its exports, which account for 90 percent of production, are aimed at markets in Europe and Asia. “It is not our aim to sell wine at all costs, whatever the price,” Maciuca said. “Selling to the West allows for higher profits given the same volumes, or even less.”

TITLE: State Plans Reforms For Universities
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW Government officials have approved a plan to abandon the Soviet system of higher education in favor of bachelor and master’s programs.
The plan, designed by the Education and Science Ministry, calls for Russian universities to make the switch this coming September, but some universities are allowed to defer the change, Minister Andrei Fursenko told RIA-Novosti.
The new plan calls for a three-year bachelor’s program — as is the case for most undergraduate programs in Britain — and a two-year master’s program. The new bachelor’s curricula would give students 90 percent of what they need to know for 10 to 15 related professions, Fursenko said. The new master’s program would equip students with specific knowledge for their field of choice, he said.
Students currently enrolled in Soviet-style five-year programs would be able to complete their degrees in accordance with the old system, Fursenko said.
The minister noted that several former Soviet states have already switched to the bachelor’s and master’s system, adding that Russia must change to attract students from abroad and produce a competitive workforce.
The ministry estimates that only 15 to 20 percent of Russian university graduates meet the requirements of prospective employers.

TITLE: Norilsk Buys Into OGK-3
AUTHOR: By Simon Shuster
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Unified Energy Systems on Saturday for the first time relinquished control of one of its wholesale power producers, selling 38 percent of OGK-3 to mining giant Norilsk Nickel for a premium price of $3.1 billion.
“This is, of course, an absolutely fantastic success,” OGK-3 chairman Alexander Chikunov said at a news conference at UES headquarters in southwestern Moscow. “We were only expecting to attract $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion.”
Chikunov also announced that OGK-3 general director Maxim Kuznetsov would step down at the end of the month, to be replaced by his first deputy, Nikolai Baldin. No reason was given for the change, and Kuznetsov said he was not sure whether he would stay in the power sector.
The list of bidders for the share emission read like a who’s who of international energy giants. Norilsk’s winning bid looks to have trumped them all, as it is 13 percent higher than the market price at Friday’s close, and 23 percent higher than the average price of the stock this month. 
Norilsk’s main local competition was Gazprom, while the foreigners included Italy’s Enel, Finland’s Fortum, France’s Mechel and Gaz de France, and the United States’ Integrated Energy Systems. Chikunov declined to name or to rank the other bids, saying only that they were all “substantial.”
Before Saturday’s sale, Norilsk owned about 12 percent of OGK-3, which controls six power stations across the country and has 8,500 megawatts of installed capacity, Chikunov said. After the share emission, Norilsk will control more than 40 percent and less than 50 percent of OGK-3, UES spokeswoman Margarita Nagoga said.
But by snapping up shares on the open market, Norilsk could cheaply and easily get majority control of the company, analysts said. 
As the majority stakeholder, Norilsk would essentially get its money back, because the $3.1 billion that it paid would be on OGK-3’s accounts, which Norilsk would then control. 
Chikunov, however, said Norilsk had signed a “memorandum” agreeing to spend this money to build up OGK-3 — more specifically, to install 2,800 megawatts of new capacity by 2013. 
This investment project, he added, would cost about $1.6 billion. As for the rest of the money raised through the share emission, he said, “We believe we will be able to talk the new investor into spending these funds on our company as well.”
Although Chikunov said other shareholders could take Norilsk to court for not developing the firm as it promised, Russian law gives the controlling shareholder the last word on how to spend the firm’s money, and there is no legal precedent for intruding on this right.
Out of all of the bidders, Norilsk is the only one that could have gained majority control from this emission, as it already held a significant stake. This may explain why its bid was so radically above the market price, said a Moscow-based analyst who declined to be identified. 
The analyst added that, after following through on the $1.6 billion investment program set out by OGK-3, Norilsk would probably spend the rest of the $3.1 billion on other acquisitions. 
UES, whose stake in OGK-3 is being reduced to 38 percent, will still have the right to block decisions by the board of directors, but only until 2008, when it will have spun off all of its assets to help fund $120 billion of upgrades to the power system. 
Under its reform plan, UES hopes to see 70 gigawatts of new capacity installed to keep pace with surging demand.
Norilsk Nickel is controlled by the $15 billion Interros holding company, which was founded by business partners Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov in 1990. In January, the partners announced that they were splitting their assets, with Potanin buying most of Prokhorov’s Interros assets, and Prokhorov forming a new electricity holding. 
Matvei Taits, utilities analyst at UralSib, said Interros’ OGK-3 stake would go to Prokhorov’s new venture. 
The holding is already expected to inherit a 3.5 percent stake in UES, a 7 percent stake in power producer TGK-1, and smaller stakes in other generating firms. 
According to Forbes magazine’s new rich list, Prokhorov has a personal fortune of $14.2 billion. His interest in the electricity business is “serious,” he said, in a recent statement on the Interros web site. Taits said Interros was likely to spin off its electricity assets into an independent company, much like Prokhorov did with the holding’s gold assets last year to form the largest gold producer in Russia, Polyus Gold, which is worth about $9 billion.
This new electricity company would be second only to Gazprom in terms of its potential to dominate the power sector. 
The OGK-3 share emission appears to show that demand for electricity assets is robust — a welcome piece of news for UES, which is trying to raise $15 billion through as many as 15 public offerings this year. 
“The results of this emission, its final sale price, testifies to how this process is progressing, what significance it has and what kinds of resources it is able to attract,” Nagoga, the spokeswoman for UES?said Saturday.

TITLE: No Resolution To Bushehr Dispute
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Three days of talks aimed at resolving a funding dispute over the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran ended in failure Friday, signaling yet another delay in the start-up of Iran’s first atomic power plant and potentially new tension between Tehran and Moscow.
Russia has blamed Iran for paying only a fraction of the required monthly payments of $25 million for construction work at Bushehr in recent months, and warned that the payment delays would push back both the reactor’s launch and uranium fuel deliveries.
“The Iranian failure to take quick measures to resume payments will mean [works] falling further behind the schedule,” Atomstroiexport, the state-run Russian company building the Bushehr plant, said in a statement released after the talks had finished.
A Russian official familiar with the talks, speaking Friday after three days of talks, said Iran had offered to increase the amount of its regular payments for the project, but refused to put that offer in writing.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the continuing disagreement meant that Russia would not ship uranium fuel needed to run it this month, as had earlier been planned — and the reactor would not be launched in September.
Iran has urged Russia to speed up the fuel delivery, but Russian officials said it would only be delivered six months before the plant’s launch.
Mohammed Saeedi, the vice president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran who led the Iranian delegation in the Moscow talks, said in remarks carried by state-run Vesti-24 television that Tehran was ready to provide more funds to enable the plant in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr to be launched in September as planned.
He also strongly urged Russia to deliver uranium fuel for the plant this month, as earlier agreed.
Saeedi denied that there had been any payment delays but, striking a condescending note, said his nation was ready to help Atomstroiexport with more funds.
Atomstroiexport officials say Iran has failed to make any payments since Jan. 17. The company said in a statement Friday that the Iranian delegation had promised to resume making payments next week and that a new round of talks was set for next week in Tehran.
Alexander Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said the talks failure signaled that Russia was taking a tougher line on Tehran amid the continuing refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities, which the United States and other Western countries say are aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
“Russia is using routine Iranian payment delays as a pretext to delay fuel deliveries and the Bushehr reactor’s launch,” Pikayev said.
“Russia wants to put pressure on the Iranians to show them that their refusal to heed the [United Nations] Security Council’s demands wouldn’t go unpunished.”

TITLE: Matviyenko Reaches Out For State Shipbuilding HQ
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The State’s shipbuilding assets will be merged into one corporation and city governor Valentina Matviyenko is already looking to locate the headquarters of the new company in St. Petersburg.
The decision to create a financial holding — Unified Shipbuilding Corporation — came late Friday after a ministerial meeting with president Vladimir Putin.
“Unified Shipbuilding Corporation will consolidate the state’s assets in the shipbuilding industry,” Interfax cited vice primeminister Sergei Ivanov as saying Friday.
All assets will be merged, including 100 percent state-owned companies as well as smaller stakes that the Russian Federation holds in private firms, Ivanov said. The corporation will also include state projection and construction bureaus.
“The decision has been made to create three regional sub holdings that will be subordinate to the parent company. The sub holdings will manage existing shipbuilding facilities. The Northern sub holding will comprise enterprises based in St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad Oblast,” Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying.
Ivanov said that the state’s program for the development of the armed forces would provide enough state orders to keep the facilities active for a long period of time. As a probable source of problems, Ivanov indicated the “deficit of technical equipment and facilities for the production of civil ships.”
Russia plans to explore the sea shelf and needs mass production of sea platforms for extraction and of special ships for hydrocarbon transportation. The minister noted that despite consolidation the company “is interested in healthy competition and cooperation with private firms.” The Ministry for Industrial Production and Energy has already announced a tender for the construction of special ships for private companies.
“The main task is to make the shipbuilding industry effective in a situation of global competition,” Ivanov said. He saw state funding of the industry as a necessary condition for achieving this goal. “The president gave an order to create a federal program for the development of civil shipbuilding,” Ivanov said.
Speaking to journalists on Saturday Valentina Matviyenko said that she will ask that the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation be registered in St. Petersburg.
“This morning I talked to Sergei Ivanov and also asked the president to register this state holding in St. Petersburg. Ivanov showed understanding and I hope it will be decided in our favor,” Interfax cited Matviyenko as saying.
“It’s a logical step and we’ll strive to register the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation in St. Petersburg because the city houses a large number of shipbuilding companies and scientific institutes,” she said.
“The restructuring assumes state financing for the modernization of Russian shipyards and St. Petersburg enterprises could be entitled to receive federal funding,” the governor said.
“Shipbuilding enterprises are scattered across Russia. They are not loaded at full capacity. To develop the industry, it’s rational to unify those enterprises,” said Gennady Sukhanov, analyst at Troika Dialog brokerage.
A merger will simplify control over cash flows. Investment will also become more efficient, Sukhanov said.
He observed that reforms in the shipbuilding industry have been proposed on numerous occasions. Some experts proposed creating two holdings, some spoke in favor of three holdings. “I think it would make sense to create one holding because the number of shipyards is not that big,” Sukhanov noted.
He pointed out that private shipbuilding enterprises could face an “interesting” choice. “For example, Baltiysky plant and Northern Shipyards are 100 percent private companies. And they are two of the largest. The state would be interested in owning those companies, while their current shareholders could be interested in swapping their assets for a stake in the unified company,” Sukhanov said.
He saw it as rational to base the headquarters in St. Petersburg considering that the city has three shipyards while shipbuilding enterprises in the Leningrad Oblast and Kaliningrad are located close by.

TITLE: Investigators Raid PwC On Eve of Yukos Audit
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky and Daan van der Schriek
PUBLISHER: Staff Writers
TEXT: MOSCOW — Investigators searched the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Moscow for several hours Friday on the eve of a court hearing into the firm’s audit of Yukos. 
The raid comes as the authorities once again step up their legal campaign against the founders of the bankrupt oil firm and the state-appointed receiver prepares to sell off its remaining assets at discount prices. 
Prosecutors and police searched the PwC offices in central Moscow in separate audit and tax evasion investigations. 
On Monday, PwC faces allegations in the Moscow Arbitration Court that it concealed tax evasion by Yukos in its 2002-2004 audit of the company. In a second investigation, police suspect that the company evaded taxes worth 243 million rubles ($9.3 million) in 2002 on its managers’ orders, the Interior Ministry’s investigations committee said in a statement Friday.
PwC denies the allegations.
The raids come also as the government is proposing to tighten rules for international audit firms.
The Kremlin has attempted to draw a parallel between the Yukos case and that of Enron, the U.S. energy firm that collapsed in 2001 amid a slew of fraud and accounting-related charges.
Earlier this year, prosecutors brought new money laundering charges against Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who are already jailed for eight years on tax evasion and fraud charges. The two men face up to a further 15 years in jail.
PwC audited Yukos’ accounts from 1996 to 2004, the period when Khodorkovsky and his partners controlled the company.
If PwC is found to have broken Russian accounting rules, it could stand to lose lucrative clients, such as the Central Bank, Gazprom, electricity utility Unified Energy Systems and billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s holding company, Alfa Group.
At the PwC offices on Kosmodamianskaya Naberezhnaya on Friday, security and staff leaving the offices were reluctant to comment on the ongoing searches.
About 10 police officers began their search at 9 a.m. and ended it after 6 p.m., taking computer files relating to the 2002 back tax claims, a PwC spokeswoman said. It was not immediately clear how many prosecutors were involved in searching the offices.
Officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office looked at documents and spoke with company managers as part of their investigation into Yukos, said the PwC spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 
PwC recently paid $145 million after it lost a lawsuit against the Federal Tax Service over the payment for foreign consultants, a spokeswoman for the company said. “We believe it wasn’t tax evasion,” she said. “The taxmen don’t recognize money spent on foreign experts.”
By law, the payment of outstanding taxes does not preclude the police from pressing tax evasion charges against company managers.
Mike Kubena, general director of PwC Russia, said in a Jan. 17 statement: “We believe that the tax inspection claim is without merit and is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the roles and responsibilities of auditors as defined by Russian law.” 
The Prosecutor General’s Office declined to comment Friday.
The checks are linked to the government’s drive to establish more control over international financial services, said Tim Brenton, equities strategist at Renaissance Capital. 
“The Russian government wants to bring these accounting firms more into line, to have more control over capital flight,” he said. “Obviously, in the long term they will do it through legislation.”
The Central Bank has asked the Cabinet to approve amendments to banking and auditing legislation that would allow the Central Bank access to commercially sensitive information that may be at the disposal of auditing companies, Kommersant reported Wednesday. Several branches of the Federal Tax Service have demanded similar disclosures from auditing firms, the newspaper reported Friday.
In 2004, the Interior Ministry brought charges of tax evasion against Deloitte & Touche, another “Big Four” accounting firm. Police never reported the outcome of that case.
PwC also has offices in St. Petersburg, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Tolyatti. It audits more than 2,000 of the country’s companies, which together account for nearly half of gross domestic product.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Local Market</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — One of Russia’s largest retail operators Sedmoi Kontinent has paid 3.95 billion rubles ($150.7 million) for a 100 percent stake in Unified Trade Real Estate company, RBC reported Friday.
Unified Trade Real Estate open joint-stock company owns 29 shops in Moscow, with a total of 68,000 square meters in area. Sedmoi Kontinent plans to use the new stores to develop its supermarket chains “Universam” and “5 stars.” 

<b>Turning it Over</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Turnover at the St. Petersburg Currency Exchange increased by 22 percent in February compared to the previous month, Interfax reported Friday.
Total turnover accounted for 506.231 billion rubles with the exception of standard contract trading. Turnover of US dollars accounted for $4.9 billion (an increase of 26 percent), euros accounted for 328.2 million euros (an increase of 33 percent), other foreign currencies accounted for 140.312 billion rubles (an increase of 25.7 percent).

<b>Staying Afloat</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — CIT Finance investment bank will float bonds worth  two billion rubles total value at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange on March 15, Prime-Tass reported Friday.
The bonds will be sold at a nominal cost and will be in circulation for three years. CIT Finance will use the raised funds for the financing of its core operations and diversification of resources.
A significant part of the funds will be spent on mortgage lending.

<b>Boeing Order</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Boeing Co., the world’s second-largest maker of commercial aircraft, signed a contract to deliver as many as 10 of its 747 jets to Volga-Dnepr, a Russian cargo carrier whose customers range from NATO to rock stars.
Volga-Dnepr agreed to buy five 747-8 cargo craft with an option for five more, the companies said in a statement prior to a news conference in Moscow Monday, without disclosing the terms.
The catalog value of the 747-8 is about $280 million, suggesting the contract is worth at least $1.4 billion.
Boeing agreed to deliver the first of the cargo jets by February 2010 and the other four by 2013. Volga-Dnepr has until 2015 to exercise its option on the other five aircraft. Volga-Dnepr is the global leader in oversized cargo, with more than 50 percent of the market. 
The United Nations uses its big-bellied An-124 airplane for peacekeeping missions, and entertainers including Madonna, Michael Jackson and the band U2 use the aircraft for world tours.

<b>Vienna Stake </b>
VIENNA (Bloomberg) — Vienna Insurance Group, Austria’s biggest insurer, bought stakes in two Russian companies for an undisclosed price.
The Vienna-based insurer bought 15 percent stakes in Russia’s Standart-Rezerv and Solidarnost Dlya Zhizn, in a transaction organized by Russian Funds, according to a statement posted on the fund’s web site Monday.
The two Russian insurers are controlled by a holding company, Stolichnaya Strakhovaya Gruppa, which was formed by Bank of Moscow, the city of Moscow and Russian Funds, according to the statement.
Nobody from the press department at Vienna Insurance was immediately available to comment.

<b>Aeroflot Renewal</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Aeroflot, eastern Europe’s largest airline, plans to more than double its fleet of Airbus SAS 320 aircraft by mid-2010 as the carrier expands to meet growing demand and replaces older aircraft.
Aeroflot will have 27 of the A320 family of planes by the end of the month and the total will rise to 56 planes by mid-2010, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Lev Koshlyakov said in a telephone interview Monday from Moscow where the company is based.
“This is to replace the aging Tupolev-154s that will be decommissioned by that time,’’ Koshlyakov said, adding that so far Aeroflot has preliminary agreements for the new jets.
State-controlled Aeroflot, which last year entered the SkyTeam alliance of Air France-KLM Group, is seeking to become more competitive in domestic and international markets. Russian airlines flew 38 million passengers in 2006, or 8.3 percent more than a year earlier, as the country’s expanding economy encouraged travel.

<b>Lukoil Repair </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil producer and refiner, said it will restore full operations at its Volgograd oil refinery by May 1, after a weekend fire damaged a processing unit.
The fire caused about $10 million in damages, which is covered by insurance, Lukoil spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said in a telephone interview from Moscow on Monday.
The fire was extinguished within two hours on March 10 at one of the refinery’s two primary processing units, which has the capacity to refine 4 million tons of oil a year (80,000 barrels a day). No one was injured, Dolgov said.

<b>Center-Invest Bonds</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Bank Center-Invest, a Russian regional lender partly owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is selling up to $100 million in its first sale of notes to foreign investors.
Center-Invest, the second-biggest bank by assets in the southern federal district, hired Moscow-based Trust Investment Bank to sell the credit-linked notes.
The Rostov-on-Don-based bank is rated B1 by Moody’s Investors Service with a “stable’’ outlook, the same rating as URSA Bank, Bank Soyuz and Absolut Bank. The EBRD owns 27.5 percent of Bank Center-Invest with U.S.-based hedge fund Firebird Management LLP owning another 10 percent.

<b>Kazakh Output </b>
ALMATY (Bloomberg) — Kazakhstan, the second-biggest energy producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, increased output of oil products by 6.6 percent in the first two months of the year from a year earlier.
The central Asian nation produced 1.784 million metric tons of gasoline, diesel and other refined products in the first two months, the Almaty-based State Statistics Agency said Monday in an e-mail, without giving reasons for the increase.
Gasoline output surged 23.2 percent to 418,600 tons in the period. Kerosene output climbed 14.3 percent to 52,000 tons and diesel production rose 12.9 percent to 648,100 tons.
Heating fuel production fell 28.7 percent to 378,300 tons.

<b>Nuclear Shutdown</b>
VORONEZH (Bloomberg) — Russia shut down a nuclear reactor in the central Voronezh region due to problems with the cooling system, the plant’s operator said.
The 950-megawatt reactor at the Novovoronezhskaya plant, commissioned in 1981, was stopped at 11.56 p.m. local time Sunday, Rosenergoatom, the state-owned operator of nuclear plants, said in an e-mailed statement Monday. Radiation levels are normal, the statement said.

<b>Urals Loan</b>
LONDON (Bloomberg) — Urals Energy Public Co., a London-based trading company with oil assets in Russia, got the remaining $80 million of a $130 million loan to develop oil reserves in eastern Siberia.
The loan, to develop the Dulisma oil field in Irkutsk region, was arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Standard Bank Plc, Urals Energy said Monday in a Regulatory News Service statement.
Urals Energy plans to export oil from the field through a pipeline Russia is building to the Pacific coast.

<b>EuroChem Bonds</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — EuroChem, the world’s seventh-largest fertilizer producer, plans to sell $300 million in bonds to foreign investors.
The five-year notes will yield around 8 percent, bankers involved in the transaction said. Citigroup Inc., UBS AG and ING Groep NV, which are managing the sale, may stop taking orders for the debt as early as Monday, the bankers said.
EuroChem is rated BB- by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

<b>UralSib Resignation </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire and Lukoil board member Nikolai Tsvetkov resigned as chairman of his bank UralSib, Kommersant said Monday, citing UralSib.
Tsvetkov, who is Russia’s 11th richest man with a net worth of $8.4 billion, plans to concentrate on other businesses, including retail, the newspaper said. Moscow-based UralSib last week completed the purchase of the remaining 50 percent it didn’t own in supermarket chain Kopeika.
First Vice President Andrei Donsky will replace Tsvetkov, Kommersant reported.
UralSib is Russia’s fourth-biggest bank by capital with $1.36 billion, according to the newspaper. 
It ranked sixth in terms of assets, with $10.6 billion. The bank was formed in 2005 following the merger of five lenders, including Nikoil and AvtoBank.

<b>Russian Growth </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia raised its economic growth forecast for 2007 to 6.2 percent, less than a month after the Economy Ministry cut the end-year estimate because of an expected decline in oil prices.
Gross domestic product will probably expand 6.2 percent this year, according to the revised forecast, a Russian Economy Ministry spokeswoman said by telephone Monday. 
She also said that consumer prices in the first five days of March expanded 0.1 percent, citing ministry calculations.
The Economy Ministry said on Feb. 19 that GDP will probably grow 6.05 percent this year, as oil prices drop to $55 a barrel in 2007 from $61 a barrel in the previous year.

TITLE: Putin Calls for Reform Of Stabilization Fund
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — The stabilization fund, replenished by windfall oil export revenues, must be transformed into a reserve fund and a separate “fund for future generations,” President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
In his budget guidelines for 2008 to 2010, published on the Kremlin web site, Putin said the reform of the stabilization fund would ensure the stability of budget spending, irrespective of fluctuations in raw material prices.
In his written address sent to the Federation Council and the State Duma — his last before presidential elections next year — Putin also called for a halving of the inflation rate, long-term budget planning and an increase in the minimum wage. He said he was against any increase in personal income tax.
The stabilization fund collects mineral extraction and export duties above an oil price of $27 per barrel. The fund, which stood at $103.6 billion on March 1, has fast outgrown its original task, becoming an important tool for mopping up excess liquidity.
Putin said the future reserve fund would aim to support the stability of budget spending in the medium term in the event of a sharp decline in oil prices on the world market.
“The size of the reserve fund, as well as the volume of oil and gas revenues used to finance the spending of the federal budget, must be fixed by law as a percentage of gross domestic product,” Putin said.
 “While doing so, a three-year transition to new principles of managing oil and gas revenues must be envisaged.”
“The fund for future generations” should aim to accumulate those oil and gas revenues that remain after fixed payments to the reserve fund and exceed the funds channeled to finance budget spending, the document said.
“There have been no real strong indications that they are going to be really loosening fiscal policy going forward in a substantial way,” said Matthew Vogel, head of emerging market research at Barclay’s Capital, London.
Annual inflation should be reduced to between 3 percent and 4 percent, Putin said. 
Turning to tax administration, Putin said the government had yet to sort out issues related to value-added tax and property taxes, among others.
“The practice of applying a value-added tax remains an obstacle to expanding economic activity,” Putin said, adding that companies have been having a hard time getting the tax back.
A property tax, “proceeding from the market value of real estate,” should also be introduced, Putin said. He added that the personal income tax should remain at the current rate of 13 percent.
Putin added that he supported efforts to reform the excise duty system to encourage the consumption of high-quality products, such as good-quality gasoline.
Reuters, SPT

TITLE: Jordan to Lead Lehman Foray
AUTHOR: By Miriam Elder
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Lehman Brothers is due to open its first Moscow office, hiring Russia hand Nicholas Jordan to lead the investment bank’s foray into a market supported by stable economic growth and awash in petrodollars.
Lehman’s activities in Russia came to a near standstill after the August 1998 financial crisis, when Western and Russian banks suffered billions of dollars in losses. The bank is one of the last to re-enter the Russian market, with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch opening branches in Moscow in recent years.
“Lehman had an interesting proposal in that it was offering a blank slate,” Jordan said by telephone from London on Friday. 
Lehman, which manages $255 billion in assets worldwide, poached Jordan from his position as co-head of investment banking in Russia for Deutsche Bank in London.
Officials at Lehman declined to comment on details of the move. A source in Russian finance who requested anonymity said the bank had already applied for licenses to operate in the country.
“I know for certain that they’re in the process” of getting licenses, the source said.
A Lehman spokesman in London  would only say that the bank was “considering the opportunity.”
“We will conduct due diligence before we make any decisions,” the spokesman said.
Lehman has been extremely cautious in taking steps toward Russia. The bank declined to disclose how much it had lost in the 1998 default. Credit Suisse First Boston lost about $1.3 billion, UBS Warburg lost over $450 million and Citigroup recorded $400 million in losses.
Despite creeping state control over major sectors, the country’s booming economy continues to be a major draw for foreign investors.
“They must pay attention to the fact that lots of existing global clients are doing business in Russia,” Jordan said. “It’s hard to justify not being where the clients are.”
Jordan declined to comment on Lehman’s timetable for setting up its business in Russia, saying it was “pretty far away.” He said he would likely move to Moscow after one month.
Jordan, a U.S. citizen of Russian heritage who is believed to have close ties to the Kremlin and Gazprom, has long experience in the country. He oversaw the creation of Deutsche UFG in December 2005, when Deutsche Bank fully acquired Moscow-based United Financial Group.
“We believe Nick has done a lot to integrate Deutsche Bank and the UFG team, and we wish him good luck in his new job,” Charles Ryan, Deutsche CEO in Russia, said in a statement.
Jordan’s brother, Boris, helped found Renaissance Capital and now runs the Sputnik finance group. Boris Jordan was appointed general director of NTV television by Gazprom in April 2001, as the gas giant took control of the television network founded by the exiled oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky. 
He was dismissed from the post two years later. Nicholas Jordan aided Gazprom-Media in its efforts to seize NTV and will likely benefit from his ties to the state gas giant.
“You can’t take Russia out of the puzzle now,” said one Western banker who requested anonymity. “You need to have a presence, but there’s lots of competition and lots of learning to be done.
“It’s a great market for incumbents and it’s difficult for new guys to find where they can add value. That’s why they’re bringing in big names who have experience and connections here,” the banker said.
The country’s banking scene has seen a number of high-profile shake-ups recently. 
Merrill Lynch last month hired Bernard Sucher, a former chairman of Alfa Capital and managing director and co-founder of Troika Dialog, as a managing director and head of global markets for Russia. 
Stephen O’Sullivan left his post as the head of research at Deutsche UFG earlier this month to manage Asia and Japan research for Macquarie Bank, Australia’s largest investment bank.
“As one of the leading firms in the market, you don’t want to lose too many of your senior staff, or people will start asking questions,” said one banker with experience in Russia who asked not to be named, commenting on the two departures from Deutsche.

TITLE: No Riddle Here
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bulygin
TEXT: When citing Winston Churchill’s memorable but often misquoted 1939 radio speech — “[Russia] is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” — commentators discussing Russia regularly omit the adjoining insight that, when seeking to predict Russia’s response to any event, the key is “Russian national interest.”
There is nothing mysterious about the Kremlin’s robust defense of national interest. Like any other government, it is simply protecting what it deems important for the country and for its people. It surprises me that anyone questions whether Russia should rightly, proudly and fairly protect its interests. Russian businesses, especially those championing the drive to international capital markets, must naturally do the same.
RusAl commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit to conduct a study, including interviews with 300 multinational chief executives, into perceptions of Russian business. The report, “The Russians are Coming: Understanding Emerging Multinationals,” makes compelling but at times alarming reading.
The emergence of new multinationals in Russia is part of a broader global phenomenon. As economic power has shifted toward emerging markets, Asian and Latin American companies were the first to break on to the global business scene. Russian companies are relative latecomers — but their expansion, facilitated by oil liquidity, has been rapid. Russia is now the third-largest foreign investor among emerging markets.
The emergence of Russia as a global player has clearly surprised the established business world. Some chief executives interviewed for the report saw the extent of the corporate advance as a strategic move by the Kremlin to entrench Russia’s geopolitical influence. Russian companies were perceived by some as having poor management practices and structures, and as using outmoded and defunct technology. Such misinformed views greatly disturb me.
Chief executives doing business in or with Russia had a more positive view: They recognized that Russia had changed and for some time now had offered first-rate opportunities for growth. Several suggested that it was vital that a broader spectrum of the international business community recognized that Russian business was primarily driven by commercial logic and competitive advantage — not by political agendas.
The rapid pick-up in Russian investment abroad is driven by factors such as gaining critical mass to survive consolidation; gaining access to new markets, raw materials, technology transfer and management know-how; coping with excess liquidity; and the lack of expansion opportunities at home.
Russian companies enjoy significant competitive advantages over established players: emerging markets experience, a powerful but flexible corporate structure, liquidity, a highly educated staff pool and enormous ambition. These characteristics allow Russian businesses to act quickly, operate at low cost and consider acquisitions in emerging and developed markets that are too risky or problematic for other companies.
As the drive to listing and cross-border transactions continues, Russian business is adopting best practice, rising to the challenge of transparency. This commitment is far-reaching — from operational structure and financial reporting to corporate citizenship and sustainable development. This cannot be a fast-tracked process. Changing behavior and stripping away long-standing, stereotypical perceptions of Russia will happen in years, not months. Even for nonlisted companies, there have been important changes in corporate governance and disclosure. RusAl, for example, has developed an 18-month corporate governance program, with the help of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Finance Corporation, appointing an independent board among other activities. There is often less criticism of Western private equity firms than of private Russian enterprises.
Russian companies are taking dramatic steps to shed a debilitating image. We are not only credible business partners, but real competitors to and, indeed, owners of some of the world’s largest, most innovative companies. The combined strength of RusAl, SUAL and the alumina assets of Glencore — making an enlarged company and the number one player in the global aluminum industry — demonstrates that the Russians are indeed coming. With the encouragement, understanding and healthy competition of the international business community, I am confident that the enigma image can be put aside for good.

Alexander Bulygin is chief executive of RusAl. This comment appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: Giving The Fans a Fair TV Deal
PUBLISHER: EDITORIAL
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin’s reaction to NTV-Plus acquiring the broadcasting rights for Premier League football matches probably had as much to do with election-year populism as it did with his concern for the good of the game.
Putin objected that the deal would “deprive us, the average fans, of the chance to watch football for free.”
If the president were primarily concerned with ensuring access to top-flight football, however, he might better have convinced state-owned RTR-Sport to sweeten its bid, which paled in comparison with NTV-Plus’ offer of some $100 million over four years.
Moreover, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whom Putin assigned to sort out the situation, is chairman of Gazprom, which effectively controls NTV-Plus through the Gazprom-Media holding.
But Putin did draw attention to the likelihood that many fans will see far fewer games this season.
NTV-Plus is offering a football-only package for 299 rubles ($11.40) per month, a sum that will be beyond the means of some, not including a one-time connection fee of 7,450 rubles (about $280).
Football fans who don’t hook up to NTV-Plus will have to be content with one match per week on Channel One. Regional stations also retain the right to broadcast matches involving their local clubs.
Time will tell if the deal makes good business sense, although the news that sponsor Rosgosstrakh is thinking about renegotiating its $53 million, five-year contract with the league is hardly an encouraging sign.
Most major European leagues have reached similar agreements with pay-TV operators over the last 15 years. In England, for example, the most recent three-season television contract netted the English Premier League ?1.7 billion ($3.1 billion) — ?1.3 billion from BSkyB and ?392 million from rival pay-TV outfit Setanta. 
This income is crucial to the league’s financial health.
Supporters of the Russian deal, such as Dynamo Moscow general director Dmitry Ivanov, have said it will deliver a similar benefit to the Premier League’s 16 clubs, especially smaller clubs in the regions.
Yet even a cheerleader like Ivanov has called for a more gradual transition to pay-TV, suggesting that NTV start by offering 20 matches for free on its national channel.

TITLE: The West Must Set Strategy for a Resurgent Russia
AUTHOR: By Anatol Lieven
TEXT: Soon after I arrived in Moscow as a correspondent at the start of 1993, Andrei Kozyrev, the then Russian foreign minister, made a speech warning that if the west continued to ignore Russia’s vital interests and publicly humiliate the country, there would one day be a Russian reaction that would sweep away the new partnership with the west that he and other Russian liberals were trying to build. A western colleague scrawled on a transcript of his remarks: “More of Kozyrev’s ravings.” Thus were dismissed out of hand the reasonable concerns of the most pro-western foreign minister that Russia has ever had.
Western policymakers therefore need to understand that the attitudes set out by President Vladimir Putin in his speech in Munich will define Russian approaches to the west for the foreseeable future. This is not only because the basic form of Russia’s ruling order now seems set for a long time to come. It is also because Putin’s remarks reflect those of a large majority of Russians — and indeed, a great many other peoples around the world — and because the U.S. has recently suffered serious blows to its power and prestige. As soon as Russia recovered a measure of its economic strength, it was always going to seek to regain a measure of its international influence. 
However, this will remain vastly more limited than that of the Soviet Union. Russia is also bound to the west by dependence on foreign investment and the global economy. This should be a deterrent to reckless moves by Moscow.
Nonetheless, we are living in a world very different from that of the 1990s, when the west expanded Nato and launched the Kosovo war. Then, westerners argued that Russia could be transformed into a free-market democracy that would be subservient to the U.S.; and that Russia was so weak that even hostile western actions would bring no effective Russian response. Today, western moves against what Russia sees as its vital interests will bring very severe retaliation indeed.
In these new geopolitical circumstances, the main guidelines of western governments and organisations in formulating strategy towards Russia should be: to reduce potentially dangerous western dependencies on Russia; to avoid clashes with Russia except where these are essential either to the vital interests of the west or to international law and morality; and, on the territory of the former Soviet Union, to draw up common rules of behavior with a view to maintaining peace and stability.
The first principle requires reducing European dependence on Russian energy exports, which is also desirable as part of the struggle against global warming. This requires both serious action and moral courage on the part of European governments; above all, as Tony Blair, British prime minister, has argued, when it comes to recognising the unavoidable importance of nuclear energy in this regard. What Europe must not do is infuriate Russia by talking publicly about the alleged Russian energy threat, without doing anything to reduce it.
The second and third principles require abandoning Nato enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia in favor of mutually agreed restraints on western and Russian behavior on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Nato membership for Ukraine is opposed by a large majority of Ukrainians. Nato membership for Georgia would commit the west to one side of unsolved and probably insoluble ethnic conflicts, with Russia irrevocably committed to the other side. Both moves would ensure very damaging Russian attacks on vital Western interests elsewhere.
Instead, the west should seek to create with Russia the kind of relationship that the U.S. has sought with some success with China: one based on respect for both sides’ vital interests with a common commitment to the stability of the world economy. This is what John Hulsman and I have called “the great capitalist peace”.
In east Asia, these mutually agreed constraints and commitments have been developed in recent years to deal with potential crises over Taiwan and North Korea; but their foundations were laid down many years ago in agreements between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong. Surely, if the U.S. could achieve a mutually beneficial set of international ground rules with the fanatical architects of China’s monstrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, it ought to be capable of doing so with a Russian administration as tough but also as pragmatic as that of Vladimir Putin in Russia?

Anatol Lieven is a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington DC. This comment first appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: Diaspora Splinters in Big Apple
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: NEW YORK — In a city of immigrants like New York, the Russian-speaking community often seems more homogenous than most.
Successive waves of arrivals have traditionally headed for the hubs of the Russian-speaking Diaspora like Brighton Beach or patches of Queens. Setting up home there initially, they moved on once  they had struck it rich.
Now, however, the community splits. While the glitzy, super-rich new Russian arrivals are heading for Manhattan, the established community is returning to its roots.
Having emigrated to Brooklyn from the Soviet Union 29 years ago, Gregory Merichensky is typical of a certain generation of Russian-speaking Americans.
“I love America and think it’s the best country in the world, but you have to understand: My heart is still back there,” he said in thickly accented English.
Over the years, as Merichensky realized his own American dream, he moved up and away from the old neighborhood. Now, at the age of 52 and the successful owner of an electrical firm, he lives in a large house in the upscale Long Island suburb of Hewlett Harbor.
Two years ago, however, as part of a trend that is now seeing the successful and assimilated Russian-speaking community in the United States returning to the established neighborhoods, Merichensky bought a luxury condominium in the mammoth Oceana development in Brighton Beach, one of the best-known centers for the Russian-speaking Diaspora in the United States.
“I really want to live back in the community,” Merichensky said, explaining that the property was “not really a second home, but a home for my retirement.”
“It is not just the restaurants, but the theaters and the whole culture that is there,” he said.
Looking out over the Atlantic, the 6-hectare Oceana complex consists of more than 800 luxury condominiums costing from $600,000 to $3 million and was built specifically for the returning, richer Russian-speaking community.
“Its pretty well-known in New York that the Russian-speaking immigrant community is probably the most successful group that has come to this country in the last few years,” said Jason Muss of Muss Developments, the company responsible for the project. 
Muss estimated that more than 90 percent of the apartments in Oceana had been sold to Russian-speaking buyers.
Similar projects are in the works. As his Persian cat, Oxford, lounged on a leopard-print pouf in his Chelsea apartment, Gene Dubrovin, the vice president of the Triumph Property Group, a New York brokerage firm, showed off plans for a luxury development of 100 condominiums in Forest Hills, Queens, another Russian area in the city.
“Forest Hills is like a Mecca for Russians here,” Dubrovin said. 
“Back in the day, the area was a cruising ground for Russian juveniles,” he added with a laugh.
With the price of a three-bedroom penthouse in the development penciled in at $1.5 million, the site is looking to cash in on the returning, enriched Russian community. 
“Lately we’ve started to see a lot of these people who were in the old neighborhoods coming back because they want a second home,” he said. 
Having come with his family to New York at the age of four in a wave of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s, Dubrovin represents the next generation from Merichensky but has remained just as close to his Russian roots and the community.
Dapper in a shirt and tie, he wanders around a neighboring three-bedroom apartment that he is helping a Russian acquaintance sell for “north of $3 million.”
Asked what the priorities are for Russian buyers, Dubrovin chuckled.
“Security, definitely security. Oh boy, do they care about security,” he said. “And schools are very important too. The culture is very kid-driven.” 
Over the past few years, his family and circle of Russian friends have “become comfortable dabbling in real estate” as an investment, Dubrovin said, with many buying second homes in Florida during the “Miami boom.”
But while the established Russian community remains homogenous as it returns to its roots, recent wealthy arrivals from Russia are heading for the city center districts of the generic super-rich.
“They want to be in the heart of town, a mid-town location, very high-end,” said Barbara Russo, an agent for The Corcoran Sunshine Group, reeling off a list of the “trophy buildings” where rich Russian new arrivals were buying apartments.
“On the scale of one to 10 wealth, these people are a 10, definitely,” she said.
“These are second or third or even fourth residences,” she said. “ I remember buying an $8 million apartment for their kids.”
Asked how they are to work with, Russo said they were “fussy.” 
According to Arthur Gellego, vice president of communications and public relations at SHVO Marketing, a leading New York real estate agency, the Russian arrivals are showing interest in the more- expensive properties and “are often successful entrepreneurs and in their late 30s to mid-40s.”
“The younger Russian buyers are very low-key, while the older buyers tend to be a bit more glamorous and flashy,” he said.
With lukewarm prices in the New York property market over the last year, supply is now outstripping demand. But few agents are looking to Russia specifically to drum up more business, and the few that have done so have met with only marginal success.
Unlike in London and a number of European outposts of excess such as St. Tropez, Sardinia and Cyprus, Russians have not created a real estate fever in New York.
Ilya Shershnev, who has worked as a property consultant to the Russian super-rich at Geneva-based Swiss Realty, says buyers are lured to London and European locales for their proximity to Russia.
“If you tried to commute from New York to Moscow, you’d end up looking like a corpse,” he said. 
Gary Hersham of Beauchamp Estates, a real estate agency in London that is “very involved” with Russian buyers, said the Russians were spending millions of pounds on property.
“The lowest value I’ve sold for is ?1 million ($1.9 million) for the son of somebody, and the highest value I’ve sold for is in the multi-, multi-, multimillions of pounds,” Hersham said.
In a city like New York, however, Russians are just one of many groups of wealthy people, Dubrovin said. 
“It’s easier to get lost in New York than it is in London,” Dubrovin explained, adding that “there is a lot more quiet money lurking around Manhattan.”
According to New York realtors, one reason for the lack of attention is that arrivals in New York have lacked headline-grabbing figures, such as Roman Abramovich or Boris Berezovsky in London. 
Perhaps the closest the parvenu set comes to a centerpiece is Anna Anisimova, the daughter of billionaire metals magnate Vasily Anisimov, ranked 606th richest man in the world in a Forbes survey in 2006. 
The 21-year-old brunette, dubbed a Russian Paris Hilton by New York Magazine, has bought up a host of exclusive properties around the city, including an apartment in the glitzy $1.7 billion Time Warner Center development.
But according to the gossip pages of the New York Post in November, even Anisimova may be quitting New York soon, heading west to the sunnier climes of California in an attempt to establish her own perfume brand.

TITLE: Russia Only Ranks 63rd In Property Rights Poll
AUTHOR: By Anna Smolchenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Widespread corruption and a lack of judicial independence, among other factors, put Russia toward the bottom of a new global property-rights index released Tuesday.
According to the Washington-based Property Rights Alliance, Russia ranks 63 out of 70 countries — a notch above Pakistan and one below Nigeria — when it comes to protecting intellectual and property rights.
Norway topped the list, while Bangladesh came in last. It was the group’s first such compilation.
Russia “made a lot of solid steps over the past year,” said Scott LaGanga, Property Rights Alliance’s executive director. 
But the study was critical of Russia’s “legal and political environment.” 
Indeed, the Russian political system was deemed to be on a par with those of Pakistan, Venezuela and Ecuador. 
Other factors that were taken into account in the Alliance’s index were political stability, access to loans and public confidence in the court system.
Fellow emerging-market countries India and China did much better than Russia, coming in at 33 and 45, respectively.
The study was based on surveys conducted by the World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and other groups. 
The index encompasses 95 percent of the total world economic output, LaGanga said.
The study establishes a clear link between property rights and gross domestic product: The more property rights are protected, the higher the GDP.
“There are some who incorrectly claim that strict property protections prevent developing countries and their citizens from unlocking their potential,” LaGanga said in the study. 
“Such assertions are the opposite of the reality on the ground.”
On average, countries in the index’s top quarter were more than seven times wealthier than countries in the bottom quarter — with a per capita GDP of nearly $33,000 compared to roughly $4,300.
MDM Bank’s chief economist, Peter Westin, said the property rights-GDP connection posited in the Property Alliance report “sounds reasonable.” 
Westin pointed to the Baltic countries as support for the thesis.

TITLE: Breaking the Cordon
AUTHOR: By Masha Lipman
TEXT: The Kremlin has been sending persistent signals that autonomous political activism will not be tolerated. As a result, political action on the streets has become highly risky, and those venturing to participate in events unwelcome by the government should be prepared to get in trouble.
Authorities are anxious to ensure a smooth transfer of power after State Duma elections this year and the presidential vote in 2008, but enhanced restrictions on the freedom of assembly are creating problems as the political opposition manages for the first time in years to muster thousands in the streets.
On March 3, in an unusually large political protest in St. Petersburg, several thousand people defied a government ban on their rally, broke through police cordons, and marched along the streets of the country’s second-largest city. The event was organized by The Other Russia, a medley of small opposition groups headed by political opponents of President Vladimir Putin, such as former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former chess world champion Garry Kasparov. The marchers decried Putin and the policies of the St. Petersburg government. Many of them were beaten by police, and about 100 people were detained.
“I congratulate you on overcoming your fear,” Kasparov told the crowd. The victorious mood was echoed in some marchers’ online postings. The demonstrators had a good reason to celebrate: This latest rally was clearly more successful than their December event in Moscow.
Then, protesters were also forbidden to march and were forced to stand in place: The 2,000 who had gathered were surrounded by at least 4,000 riot police, who blocked off the area. This time, police failed to contain the protesters and, savoring their success, the protesters are planning a march in Moscow next month.
While individuals may still exercise verbal dissent — and smaller media outlets still pursue independent editorial positions, though they have been increasingly marginalized — federal legislation has been repeatedly amended to broaden the government’s authority to ban political gatherings. Moscow lawmakers have initiated even tighter restrictions — apparently concerned that the capital must be protected against acts of political discord. Suggested amendments include bans on staging rallies “near historical and cultural monuments” and limits on crowd density, such as no more than two people per square meter.
Authorities commonly deny permission to stage street events if they are even vaguely political, and participants are routinely harassed. Over the past several months, area police have mastered the Soviet practice of preventive detentions and harassment — activists from other regions, for example, are stopped on their way to events in Moscow or St. Petersburg.
The relative permissiveness regarding verbal expression may be explained by the fact that remaining media freedom exists at the mercy of the government. The Kremlin has ensured that most media outlets that are not state-owned are controlled by owners who are loyal to it. If the government decides that certain outlets are dangerously influencing public opinion, it has leverage to temper the editorial line. But public energies are harder to control, and once they are unleashed, there might not be a loyal owner or leader who could discipline or stifle dissenters on government orders. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine is but one powerful example.
Such fears appear to be unjustified. The Russian public remains largely apathetic and indifferent to infringements of its political rights and freedoms. But when all democratic channels of public participation or opposition have been clogged and political parties replaced by Kremlin-organized groups of loyalists, small, defiant groups are bound to emerge. At its core, The Other Russia consists of people who take to the streets because there is no other option for political participation. Some of its radical, younger members simply enjoy defying the authorities, even if they end up beaten or jailed. The group and its leaders are not popular and are unlikely to generate a mass following.
But even if The Other Russia does not pose a real danger to the ruling elite, the Kremlin is not taking chances. Autonomous political activism and direct challenges to the president, no matter how marginal the challenger, are not allowed. Such actions have come to be regarded as illegitimate and are deemed disloyal to the state.
Characteristically, television coverage of the St. Petersburg protests on state-controlled media attempted to discredit participants and portray them as hired troublemakers. St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said two train cars full of “provocateurs” bent on destabilization came to the city from Moscow. Not a single protester was asked on camera why he or she had joined the rally. Of course, the public is not supposed to hear incendiary political talk on television.
It is hard to say what caused the high turnout at the rally and whether the protesters have been emboldened enough to stage another rally next month. If they are, the authorities would face a dilemma: The police measures used were insufficient to discourage The Other Russia from continued defiance, but resorting to severe suppression, such as prosecuting protest leaders and imprisoning participants, would move Russia closer toward being a full-fledged police state. Given the current thinking in the Kremlin, the latter unfortunately appears more likely.

Masha Lipman is editor of The Carnegie Moscow Center’s Pro et Contra journal. This comment appeared in The Washington Post.

TITLE: Uniting Energy
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: One of the basic threats to the Kremlin’s energy ambitions today is European economic consolidation: Russia could find itself alone face to face with a strong union of consumers. That threat is personified in German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Germany presently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and Merkel is calling on her colleagues to make Europe the world’s environmental leader and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses. She wants to increase significantly the share of biofuels and renewable sources in Europe’s energy balance. And Merkel wants to make these targets mandatory and impose real punishments on those member states that don’t meet their obligations.
This all fits with Merkel’s larger priorities, including further EU consolidation and restarting the process to push through a constitution for Europe. These tendencies are fraught with complications for Russia, which prefers bilateral to multilateral scenarios in its foreign policy. The government runs into resistance from the EU when defending the interests of Russian oil and gas companies, but has a much easier time negotiating with individual European companies or governments. Lack of European unity and the presence of different national energy interests make this easy.
Germany used to be Russia’s chief partner in Europe. Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schroder, happily signed bilateral deals and lobbied for the Nord Stream gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea connecting Russia to Germany. Merkel appears uninterested in being Russia’s energy representative in Europe. In an interview with the Financial Times on the eve of last week’s European energy summit, she made it clear that Europe would present a unified front on Nord Stream, with all countries receiving gas from the pipeline according to the same conditions. Merkel also took a strong stand against Gazprom expansion. Relations between the EU and Russia, she said, should be symmetrical: If Russia limits foreign investors’ access to strategic assets, then Europe should introduce the same measures for Russian companies.
So far, Merkel’s plans remain just that. European leaders failed to reach total agreement on energy policy at the summit. They all agree something has to be done about global warming and renewable energy, but not everyone likes the idea of mandatory targets and punishments. EU members also differ over how best to achieve the desired goals. But in the long term Europe has no choice — a unified energy policy is just a matter of time.
The question is whether this will be bad for Russia as a whole or just for the Kremlin’s plans. Will EU energy consolidation have a negative effect on the economy or just on Gazprom and its sometimes incomprehensible business projects?

This comment first appeared  in Vedomosti.

TITLE: Repairing Relations
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: Relations between Washington and Moscow are at a new post-Soviet low. The main reasons for the friction are ill-considered U.S. policy and Russian domestic failures. There are, however, specific steps that each side could take at relatively low political cost that would begin to turn the relationship around.
First, the United States could immediately cancel all plans to put anti-missile defense installations in the Czech Republic and Poland. (The New York Times reported March 2 that Washington is also looking to “base anti-missile radar in the Caucasus,” probably in either Georgia or Azerbaijan.) Was there no one in the upper levels of U.S. government who realized that placing missiles in Poland was not unlike the Soviet Union, for whatever reason, placing its own missiles in Cuba?
Second, it makes no sense to extend NATO from the Baltic to the Black Sea, which would be the result if Ukraine were allowed in. Ukraine is very different from Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Ukraine and Russia are bound in many ways — close to half of Ukraine’s population is ethnic Russian. Part of the current Ukraine, the formerly Russian Crimea, was a “gift” from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev when it all was Soviet property and such gifts had no practical significance. At least 40 percent of Ukraine is opposed to joining the alliance, and referendums this month will make the exact figures clearer.
Ukraine’s independence must be supported by membership in the European Union and the World Trade Organization, but it is not in the United States’ best interest now to come out strongly and publicly for Ukrainian membership in NATO. The damage to the Russian-U.S. relationship would exceed any real security benefit that could possibly accrue to Ukraine.
Third, triumphal claims that the United States won the Cold War by outspending, outperforming and outlasting the Soviet Union should be squelched ASAP. It insultingly neglects the pivotal role played by brave individuals like the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and Mikhail Gorbachev in bringing down communism so bloodlessly. It also neglects the historical truth that major events are never the product of a single cause and take years to sort out. This impolitic rhetoric parallels what the Russians see as the United States’ impolitic pursuit of hegemony.
Russia, for its part, needs to demonstrate that it has not slipped off the civilized spectrum. Step one is to make sure that the presidential election takes place in 2008. There is considerable support for amendments to be passed allowing Putin to remain for a third term. This must not happen. Even if the election will be little more than a ratification of Putin’s choice for successor, the example of the most powerful person in the country submitting himself to the rule of law is essential for Russia.
Step two: Free Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was no more an angel than any of the other oligarchs but, as the great human rights campaigner Yelena Bonner pointed out, he is a political prisoner because the law was used selectively to punish him. He could be freed as one of Putin’s last acts or one of the new president’s first. Whatever the case, this travesty of justice has gone on too long.
Step three: Find the killer of the crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the killer of Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, or the killer of Alexander Litvinenko, the former FSB agent poisoned with polonium-210 in London last November. Solving any one of these crimes would demonstrate that Russia has the will and the ability truly to enforce the rule of law.
Then, when the Russian-U.S. relationship is back on track again, maybe we can start dealing jointly with the dangers that recognize no borders — terrorism and climate change.

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

TITLE: Just Trailblazers On Road to Independence
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: Ever wondered who was behind the civil wars in the Caucasus in the early 1990s? It seems that Satan was the mastermind, or at least according to the dapper-looking gent who approached me at an outdoor cafe in Abkhazia last week. I must admit that I started to doubt his judgment a little when he went on to say that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was a robot programmed by his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, to carry on his evil works.
Nevertheless, the landscape of Abkhazia, the Black Sea region that has been trying to break away from Georgia since the war of the early 1990s, looks like it’s been through hell. Many homes are still abandoned after a quarter of a million Georgians fled the fighting. Buildings are pockmarked by rocket fire or smashed to rubble. The capital, Sukhumi, was a rather grand resort in Soviet times, but even though the war ended over a decade ago, it looks as though the ceasefire began last week.
I was there for the recent parliamentary elections, which Abkhaz separatist ministers told me represented another step toward the region’s recognition as an independent state. The Abkhaz authorities were excited that what they described as “international observers” had arrived to pronounce the elections free and fair. But these, of course, weren’t from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which usually prowls the polling stations in former Soviet republics. As no country in the world recognizes Abkhazia, the OSCE skipped the vote and condemned it from afar.
Instead, the observers were a motley crew who seemed to be happy that the Abkhaz elections were a poke in the eye for the West and its regional ally, Georgia, as well as deputies in the Russian State Duma, which has never been slow to voice its support for republics with breakaway ambitions — as long as they aren’t Russian regions.
At a restaurant after the polls closed, a few observers were already deep into vodka bottles, toasting Abkhazia’s right to choose its own destiny, as if their testimony would make much difference. One particularly enthusiastic imbiber screamed: “Free Abkhazia! Free South Ossetia! And free Wallonia!” although his hosts appeared a bit bemused at the linking of Abkhazia’s fate to that of the French-speaking part of Belgium. Another young observer, with wine pouring down his clothes as he gesticulated wildly with his glass, declared through his hiccups that the Abkhaz elections would not only bring independence, but change the entire face of Europe. The Abkhaz officials smiled, but it wasn’t clear whether they were having doubts about the kind of people on whom they’d placed their hopes.

Matthew Collin is a Tbilisi-based journalist.

TITLE: Happiness Without Pursuit
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: In a story that surely stunned many old Russia hands, Interfax recently reported that the latest poll data indicate “most Russians are more or less happy with their lives today.” Indeed, a whopping 80 percent of those surveyed by the Levada Center claimed that “things are not that bad.” Pardon my skepticism, but you may want to verify this yourself: If only two of the first 10 people on your neighborhood bus tomorrow seem irritated, indignant or just clinically glum, I will be greatly surprised — and I’ll either move to your neighborhood or admit that there has been a dramatic change in traditional Russian attitudes toward, well, attitudes.
Happy Russians? While perhaps not on the level of “sovereign democracy,” as oxymorons go, the phrase lurks in that vicinity. This is a society that began its recorded history unhappily and never got over it. Following a mysterious ninth-century plea to nearby Vikings to step in and sort out the mess here, Russians were visited by a series of natural, extraneous and self-made disasters that remain unparalleled in human history. Forget the actual events. Simply naming the categories — invasions, civil wars, serfdom, schisms, autocracy, famines, pogroms, social inequality, revolutions, mass repressions, failed states, idiots and bad roads — is enough to depress the average commuter before even reaching the bus stop.
This lengthy parade of misfortune inspired some of the world’s least-optimistic folk sayings (“Happiness is where we aren’t,” “We were born to make Kafka come true”) and a national Weltanschauung in which the absence of bad news is good news. Russians do not cringe when bad things happen to good people; here, bad things happen to all people, and pretty much all the time. Happiness is when they magically stop.
While Russians slogged grimly through their history, Americans were frog-marching their own muse in the other direction, hell-bent not only on “the pursuit of happiness” at home, but on making the rest of the planet happy a l’americaine: Who else could inflict the happy face on the world’s Internet, the happy hour on its liver and the Happy Meal on its innards?
And how happy has pursuit made the pursuers? At home the United States’ red and blue clans remain intensely unhappy with each other (and with $3 per gallon gasoline); on the foreign front, ever fewer folks seem happy about an endless campaign to save Iraq from now-deceased evil Iraqis. Meanwhile, habitually miserable Russians have begun looking back at 1987 and 1997, and find 2007 looking pretty darn good, says the Levada Center. Maybe they just haven’t learned to smile on the bus yet.
Does this mean that Russians are now happier than Americans? Is this part of Cold War II — a happiness race? Can a galvanized United States close the happiness gap?
In reality, of course, there can be no comparison here, much less a race, as the two visions of happiness are so different. The Russian variant — an abeyance of the suffering and misfortune long identified as both the nation’s lot and its redemption — clearly has little to do with the indexes by which Americans tend to calibrate contentment, such as achievement, recognition and acquisition. It has everything to do with a perceived steadiness and predictability that are precious, indeed, when you have always lacked them. The pursuit of happiness can be trumped by the assurance of stability, and likely always will be. Ask Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The good news is that the two versions of happiness can be reconciled. During Lent, which ends the same day in both camps this year, it’s good to recall singer Sheryl Crow’s advice: “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.” Happiness isn’t your head no longer banging against the wall and it isn’t taking over the wall and democratizing it. It comes from recognizing your gifts and what’s worth doing with them — and then doing it.
One of my grandfathers pursued happiness and the other did not. The first tried a dozen disparate jobs but found only modest success and fleeting satisfaction. The non-pursuer — a rare combination of journalist, historian and Methodist minister — did all three for their own sake and that of others, and did them very well. When he died, Time magazine titled his obituary “A Happy Man.”
If the Levada people are right, that’s great — I couldn’t be happier that Russians are happier. I just hope their happiness, along with ours, is of a kind that endures.

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

TITLE: Chirac Bows Out After 45 Eventful Years
AUTHOR: By James Mackenzie and Elizabeth Pineau
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS — French President Jacques Chirac announced on Sunday he would not seek re-election next month, bowing out of frontline politics after a 45-year career that consisted of symbolic gestures as much as concrete policies. 
Chirac has served as president since 1995 and his widely expected decision to stand aside marks the end of an era for France, clearing the way for a new generation of politicians.
“I will not seek your backing for a new mandate,” the 74-year-old said in a televised address to the nation.
Chirac will perhaps be best remembered outside France for his denunciation of U.S. policy in Iraq and his determination to maintain his country’s leading role in international affairs.
But on the domestic front he introduced few meaningful reforms and leaves behind a difficult legacy for his successor, with the French economy underachieving and social tensions simmering in deprived suburbs.
Opinion polls have indicated for months that Chirac would have been trounced if he had run for a record third mandate in the April/May election, but he had kept a resolute silence over his plans to avoid being regarded as a lame duck president.
All the three leading contenders to succeed Chirac — Nicolas Sarkozy of the ruling UMP party, Socialist Segolene Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou — are in their 50s and all have pledged to break with the politics of the past 25 years.
The last survivor of a political generation that started out in the postwar governments of General Charles de Gaulle, Chirac’s career was dogged by allegations of corruption, which he always denied, dating from his 18 years as mayor of Paris.
During his reign, Chirac ended compulsory military service, played an important role in ending the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s and was the first president to acknowledge that France’s World War II Vichy regime had assisted in the Holocaust.
However, he was regarded as increasingly out of touch on domestic issues and suffered a major defeat when voters rejected the planned European constitution in 2005, pushing the European Union into crisis and weakening his international standing.
After building a power base in the Paris town hall, Chirac succeeded a dying Francois Mitterrand in 1995 and crushed far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to be re-elected in 2002.
He infuriated Washington with his vocal opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq and embodied the forces scornfully dismissed by former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as “Old Europe.”
In Europe itself, he held tightly to the traditional Franco-German alliance, particularly with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and refused to surrender the lavish subsidies enjoyed by the French farming sector.
Charismatic and clever, Chirac was brilliant on the campaign trail but had a less certain touch in office. At one point he had the worst popularity ratings of any French president but his support has climbed of late as his retirement neared.
His mandate ends on May 17 and it is not clear if he will still play a role in public life after that.

TITLE: New-Look England Stops France’s Advance
AUTHOR: By Mitch Phillips
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — The Six Nations championship was thrown wide open on Sunday when new-look England ended France’s grand slam hopes with an emphatic 26-18 victory over the holders at Twickenham.
England were unrecognisable from the side thumped 43-13 by Ireland two weeks ago while France were strangely subdued and both teams, along with Ireland, go into next week’s final round on six points.
France remain favourites to retain the title with a home game against Scotland to come but triple crown winners Ireland, who are away to Italy, and England, who visit winless Wales, remain very much in the hunt.
It was a remarkable turnaround for England who suffered their record Six Nations defeat at Croke Park but came back with a host of new faces and a new attitude.
Only a series of English errors kept France in the game through the penalties of David Skrela and Dimitri Yachvili but the visitors never threatened a try as they sought a fourth successive victory over the world champions.
England were without injured flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson but it was his understudies — Toby Flood and Shane Geraghty — who made the difference.
The former scored the first try and kicked 11 points in his first start and the latter produced a great break for Mike Tindall’s clinching score 10 minutes after coming on as a replacement for his international debut.
Mike Catt, the 35-year-old recalled as captain for his first Six Nations start in six years, was also hugely influential and his break set up the match-turning try for Flood.
“The whole emotional side of it is absolutely fantastic,” Catt told the BBC. “Individually, the boys played to their strengths.
“There’s still a hell of a lot we need to learn but for a team who have been put together in five days that’s awesome.
“We got on the front foot, we had the balls to go out there and play the way we train, that’s the way (coach) Brian Ashton wants us to play.”
The first half was a disjointed affair as England’s new-look side attempted to bed down while France seemed cautious.
Three Skrela penalties and one for Yachvili against three for Flood, who also missed two, had France 12-9 ahead at halftime.
The Twickenham fans were happy with their team’s ambition, if not their precision, and were on their feet roaring the first try eight minutes after the restart.
The forwards pounded ineffectively at the French line before the ball moved to Catt who defied his years with an explosive 10-metre burst and managed to unload in the tackle for Flood, who ran round under the posts and then converted his try.
It was exactly the sort of move Ashton had in mind when he recalled Catt to add the zip and creativity that had been sorely missing earlier in the campaign.
France responded strongly with Serge Betsen at the heart of their attacks but although two more Yachvili penalties regained the lead after an hour, they showed little invention.
Flood then went off with a dead leg to open the way for Geraghty and the 20-year-old was immediately involved with two ambitious unloads and then a penalty in the 68th minute to restore England’s lead.
Geraghty made an even greater impact in the 73rd minute with a searing break to set up Tindall for the decisive score.
It meant England, who had finished fourth, fourth and third in the last three Six Nations and looked to be heading the same way two weeks ago, have suddenly got a chance of winning the title for the first time since 2003.
France, while still well placed to retain the title, know they have much to do if they are to challenge New Zealand for the World Cup later this year.
“We were not ambitious enough,” said their coach Bernard Laporte.

TITLE: Brown To Go Green In Britain
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — U.K. Finance Minister Gordon Brown was due on Monday to call for international action to tackle global warming and argue the best way to change people’s behavior is through education and incentives, not taxation.
In what aides have billed as major speech on the environment just months before he is widely expected to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brown was due to propose the United Nations make dealing with climate change a core institutional “pillar.”
He was due to argue that harnessing the desire of citizens and communities to play their part is the only way that carbon reductions can be achieved in a fair and just way.
“People want to make the right choices and they want help to take the right decisions. The Government must provide practical help with, wherever possible, incentives in preference to penalties,” it was planned he would say in a speech delivered late Monday. 
“Changes must be considered, costed, credible and consumer friendly not ill-conceived, short-termist, unworkable and unfair.”
Brown doubled air passenger duty and raised the tax on fuel in his pre-budget report in December but environmental groups said that fell short of what was needed. The Treasury argues that many green taxes are regressive and hit the poor.

TITLE: Chelsea Claws Back Draw In Cup Race
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Chelsea scored twice in the last 19 minutes to tie Tottenham 3-3 Sunday in the FA Cup quarterfinals and force a replay. 
Blackburn, with former U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel in the net, reached the semifinals by beating Manchester City 2-0. 
Tottenham led 3-1 and appeared on course for its first victory at Chelsea since 1990. But Frank Lampard scored his second goal of the game in the 71st minute and Salomon Kalou made it 3-3 in the 86th. The replay is March 19. 
The comeback started when Michael Ballack jumped to meet a corner with a powerful header. After Didier Drogba failed to get in a shot, the ball rolled to the unmarked Lampard, who scored his 19th goal of the season. Kalou then tied it 4 minutes from the end. Drogba headed the ball and the Chelsea forward scored with a volley from 8 yards. 
Tottenham, which has 20 goals in its last six games, almost won with 3 minutes to go when Jermain Defoe dribbled past two defenders on the right and hit the crossbar. 
Dimitar Berbatov gave Tottenham the lead in the fifth minute, but Lampard tied it in the 22nd when he deflected in a shot from Ballack. Tottenham regained the lead when Michael Essien scored an own-goal in the 29th. Hossam Ghaly made it 3-1 for Tottenham in the 36th. 
Aaron Mokoena gave Blackburn the lead in the 28th, but he was sent off in the 69th for his second yellow card. Matt Derbyshire added the second goal in the final minute. 
Watford also made it to the semifinals, beating League Championship team Plymouth Argyle 1-0. Hameur Bouazza scored with an 18-yard shot in the 21st. 

MILAN, Italy — AC Milan lost for the first time in 16 games, beaten 2-1 by Inter Milan in the Italian league on two goals in the second half. 
Julio Ricardo Cruz tied the score in the 54th minute after Ronaldo had scored against his former club in the 40th. Cruz then set up Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the winner in the 75th. 
Inter, which defeated Milan 4-3 in October, has beaten its city rival twice in a season for the first time in 25 years. 
Inter is undefeated in Italy’s top division and leads with 73 points — 33 more than Milan, which started the season with an eight-point penalty from the Italian match-fixing scandal. 
The game was Ronaldo’s first against his old club since returning to Italy. 
He received a hostile reception from the Inter fans and was met with banners reading, “The clown has arrived. The circus is full.” 
But the Brazilian forward, who moved to Milan in January from Real Madrid, beat Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar with a bending shot 5 minutes before halftime to give his team the lead. 
“Ronaldo is a dangerous player,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said. “Give him space and he will punish you. He showed that today.” 
Cruz later tapped in Ibrahimovic’s cross, seconds after replacing Hernan Crespo. In the 75th, Cruz cut the ball back to Ibrahimovic, who beat Dida diving to his right from just inside the penalty area. 
Second-place AS Roma also won, beating Udinese 3-1. Francesco Totti scored two goals and Simone Perrotta added the other. 
Lazio beat Reggina 3-2 on an 80th-minute goal by Stephen Makinwa and moved into a tie for third with Palermo, which tied 1-1 with Fiorentina. 

MADRID, Spain — Sevilla missed a chance to take over first place in the Spanish league Sunday, allowing Javier Portillo to score the winning goal in the 76th minute in a 1-0 loss to Gimnastic Tarragona. 
Portillo, on loan from Real Madrid, headed in Jose Maria Calvo’s floated pass to keep FC Barcelona in first place. 
Sevilla, which had been unbeaten in seven games, needed a draw at Nou Estadi to reclaim t place. Also, third-place Valencia drew 1-1 at Osasuna to move within three points of the lead. 
Barcelona and Sevilla each have 50 points, although the defending champions are first because of head-to-head results. Valencia has 47, two more than Real Madrid. Zaragoza and Atletico Madrid follow with 43. 

PARIS, France — Mamadou Niang scored with four minutes remaining Sunday to earn Marseille a 1-1 draw at French leader Lyon and end a two-game losing streak. 
Milan Baros gave the defending champion the lead in the 20th minute, but in the 86th Niang collected Djibril Cisse’s flick, rounded goalkeeper Gregory Coupet and slotted home. 
The result extended Lyon’s unbeaten streak to five — following a slump in which it lost three of four league matches — and gave it 62 points from 28 rounds. Lens has 49 points, followed by Lille, Toulouse and Bordeaux — all on 43. 
Bordeaux was the only team in the top five to win this weekend, enabling Lyon to close further toward a sixth straight title. 

FRANKFURT, Germany — Werder Bremen held Bayern Munich to a 1-1 tie, cutting Schalke’s lead in the Bundesliga to three points. 
Mark van Bommel set up Lukas Podolski, who tapped his shot past helpless Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the seventh minute for the first goal. Rosenberg headed in Bremen’s tying goal after Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn collided with striker Almeida. 
Bayern, with 44 points, could have gone into a three-way tie for second place with a win, and Bremen could have cut Schalke’s lead to one point. Schalke leads with 50 points while Bremen has 47. 
Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen played to a 0-0 tie. 

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands?— Ajax gained two points on Dutch leader PSV Eindhoven after downing FC Twente 4-1 behind three goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar. 
Ryan Babel added the other goal for Ajax, which has 59 points. 
Defending champion PSV was held to a 0-0 tie at Excelsior Rotterdam, and AZ Alkmaar also tied 0-0 against Feyenoord. 
PSV leads the league with 67 points, with Ajax and AZ at 59. 

GLASGOW, Scotland — Rangers slowed Celtic’s title run, beating the Scottish Premier League leaders 1-0. 
Ugo Ehiogu scored the winner with an overhead kick from 12 yards in the 50th minute after the hosts had failed to clear Charlie Adam’s corner. 
Celtic still leads with 74 points with eight games to play. Rangers are second with 58 points. 

ATHENS, Greece — Defending champion Olympiakos came from behind to beat host Apollon 2-1 and extend its lead in the Greek league. 
Dimitris Orfanos gave Apollon the lead before second-half goals from Rivaldo and Nery Castillo. 
Olympiakos leads the league with 62 points with five rounds to go. AEK Athens, which beat Larissa 1-0, is second with 52 points, while Panathinaikos dropped to third with 51 after losing to 10-man Ergotelis 1-0. 

LISBON, Portugal — FC Porto beat Maritimo 2-1 in the Portuguese league, getting goals from Adriano Louzada and Raul Meireles. 
Porto leads the league with 52 points, seven more than Benfica and nine more than Sporting.

TITLE: Federer’s Streak Ended By ‘Lucky Loser’ Canas
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: INDIAN WELLS, California — Roger Federer had won seven consecutive tournaments and was favored to break Guillermo Vilas’ 30-year-old record of 47 straight victories. 
However, Guillermo Canas beat the world's top-ranked player 7-5, 6-2 Sunday in the second round of the Pacific Life Open, snapping Federer's 41-match winning streak. 
“Today was just a grind for me from the start,” said Federer, the three-time defending tournament champion. “A first-round match is always difficult. But I’ve had an incredible run, not losing in the first round for, I think, over two years. Sooner or later it had to happen, so it's OK, it’s no problem.” 
Despite the loss, the Swiss star began Monday as the No. 1 player on the ATP Tour for a record 163rd consecutive week. 
Federer, who received a bye into the second round, was playing his first match at Indian Wells, while Canas was in his fourth. The Argentine played two matches in qualifying, where he lost to Alexander Waske in the final round, then got into the 96-player field as a “lucky loser” when Xavier Malisse withdrew. 
Canas then cruised past Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic in the first round on Saturday. 
“I think if I would have played him in the third or fourth round I would have beaten him,” Federer said. “But just not today. He was too tough.”
Canas is the first lucky loser to beat a world No. 1 since Sandon Stolel beat Thomas Muster in Dubai in 1996 
“I don’t know. Just I beat him,” Canas said. “I enjoyed it. I don’t know how I do it. But I think I played good.”
He handed Federer his 16th loss since he became No. 1 on Feb. 2, 2004, and his first opening match loss since 2004 at Cincinnati, where he lost to Dominic Hrbaty. 
Federer hadn’t lost since falling to Andy Murray on Aug. 16, 2006, in Cincinnati. 
“It’s no pressure at all because I take it match by match,” Federer said of the streak.

TITLE: Berlusconi, Mills Stand Trial in Rome
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MILAN — Silvio Berlusconi and David Mills go on trial on Tuesday over an alleged bribe paid to the British lawyer to keep quiet about the former Italian prime minister’s media business dealings. 
Berlusconi is accused of paying Mills, the estranged husband of British Culture, Media and Sports Secretary Tessa Jowell, $600,000 for withholding details of his media empire during testimony in two court cases in 1997.
If convicted of the charge of corruption in a court case, media mogul Berlusconi, Italy’s richest man, could face up to eight years in prison, as could Mills.
It is one of two ongoing trials for Berlusconi and Mills — an expert in offshore taxation — over the Mediaset broadcasting business owned by the leader of Italy’s centre-right opposition.
Another trial over alleged corporate fraud at Mediaset began in November, 2006 and is still in the preliminary stages. Some charges have already been thrown out because they had expired under Italy’s statute of limitations. 
Both Berlusconi and Mills have denied any wrongdoing. Neither Berlusconi nor Mills are expected to attend the opening session of the trial. In Britain, the case caused a political storm which nearly cost Jowell her job after it triggered an inquiry into whether she had broken the ministerial code of conduct when a $600,000 payment was used to repay a mortgage.
If proceedings run into 2008, Berlusconi is likely to avoid prosecution because the statute of limitations — which was shortened under his government — could come into play.

TITLE: Cricket-Mad Jamaica Hosts Unpredictable World Cup
AUTHOR: By Simon Evans
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two of the most inconsistent sides in international cricket open what should be an unpredictable World Cup when hosts West Indies face Pakistan on Tuesday.
Brian Lara’s men had been showing signs of improvement in recent months but Friday’s nine-wicket warm-up defeat to India was a reminder that they are a team that can easily press the self-destruct button.
Lara was one of only three batsmen to make double figures as his team were skittled out for just 85 and the skipper conceded his team had a “chronic” tendency towards batting collapses.
Although demanding greater application and focus from his batsmen and more intensity from his bowlers, Lara has also defended his team from critics who suggest they have a carefree attitude to the game.
“This a team that over the past few years has beaten everyone else and we have played some very good cricket but we have been unpredictable,” he said while conceding his team have to learn how to cope better with pressure.
A capacity crowd at Sabina Park in the Jamaica capital will provide plenty of pressure and record-holding batsman Lara will have to cope with more than his share. He is the main source of runs for the Caribbean side and is also keen to crown his years of captaincy with a successful tournament.
The good news for Lara is that, prior to the debacle against India, two of his frontline batsmen — Jamaicans Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle — both produced confident knocks against Kenya, Samuels retiring after reaching his century.
Pace bowlers Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell have looked lively in net practice in the past week and will be expected to provide the penetration that has been lacking at times for Lara’s side.
Group D opponents Pakistan were roundly beaten in both a test and one-day series in South Africa but then cruised to a seven-wicket win over those same opponents on Friday.
Pakistan’s preparations suffered a blow with the late withdrawal of fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif through injury, but replacements Mohammad Sami and Yasir Arafat have slotted in well.
“With the loss of those two our chances have reduced but other bowlers have come in and worked hard. Pakistan have played in the past without Shoaib and Asif,” said captain Inzamam-ul-Haq who added that the warm-up wins over Canada and South Africa have been useful.
“All the players are in good touch and all the main batsmen have scored runs in the warm-up games,” he said.
Pakistan beat the West Indies in a home series in late 2006 but Inzamam said it would be a tougher challenge in the Caribbean.
“Beating the West Indies at home is certainly not going to be easy.”

TITLE: Swiss Faces 75 Years in Jail for Royal Insult
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHIANG MAI, Thailand — A Swiss man accused of insulting this nation’s monarchy by spray-painting over several portraits of the revered king pleaded guilty Monday and faces a maximum 75-year prison sentence. 
Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57, was caught by surveillance cameras on Dec. 5 spray-painting black paint over several portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the northern city of Chiang Mai, police said. 
His lawyer said he was intoxicated during the act.
The vandalism coincided with Bhumibol’s 79th birthday, which was celebrated across Thailand with fireworks and prayers. The king is the world’s longest serving monarch.
Jufer made no comment as he entered the courthouse with his legs chained, dressed in an orange prison uniform.
Judge Chaikrit Devaplin said Jufer pleaded guilty, reversing an initial statement of non-guilt that he had made to police, and a sentence was expected to be issued March 29. The trial was closed to the public, and prosecutors declined to discuss details of the case because of sensitivities in Thailand about portraying the beloved king in a negative light.
“Revealing the details of this case does not benefit anybody because it involves the king and the monarchy,” said prosecutor Bhanu Kwanyuen, adding only that Jufer is accused of defacing five posters and faces a penalty of between three and 15 years in prison for each one.
“In every Thai constitution, the king is revered and worshipped, and he cannot be insulted,” Bhanu said.

TITLE: Madrid Bomb Victims Remembered in Glass
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MADRID, Spain — Spain paid tribute to victims of Europe’s worst Islamic-linked terror attack Sunday as the king unveiled a towering glass monument etched with outpourings of grief for the 191 people who died in the train bombings three years ago.
Spaniards fell silent at the memorial site — the bomb-hit Atocha rail station in downtown Madrid — and left candles and flowers at other spots around the city to remember the attack on March 11, 2004, which also wounded more than 1,800 people.
“It is a day of immense pain,” said Pilar Manjon, leader of a March 11 victims association who lost her 20-year-old son Daniel in the bombings.
King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, senior government officials and an invitation-only crowd of several hundred people listened to a lone cellist play the sad strains of “Song of the Birds,” a composition by Pablo Casals meant to be a call for peace.
The ceremony was short and staid. There were no speeches. Some wiped away tears outside the station, one of four targets in the string of 10 backpack bombings that ripped apart the packed commuter trains at rush hour.
Accompanied by guards, the king placed a wreath at the foot of the monument: a 10-story glass cylinder with a transparent inner membrane bearing messages of condolence that Spaniards and other people left at Atocha and elsewhere after the attacks. These messages, in Spanish and other languages, are only visible from a chamber beneath the hollow, oval-shaped monument.
“Tomorrow I will leave home just like you did, in order to continue your journey,” one inscription reads. Another, in English, said, “Words are not enough.”
The monument is the second to the people killed in the Madrid attack.
On its first anniversary, Spaniards inaugurated what they call the “Forest of Remembrance,” a grove of olive and cypress trees in the city’s main park. The new glass monument — two and a half years in the making at a cost of $6 million — is considered the main tribute to the victims.
The Spanish monument’s construction moved considerably more quickly than work in New York on a comprehensive memorial to the 2,973 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Construction at the site in Manhattan began a year ago; since then, it has been redesigned to trim a construction budget that was approaching $1 billion.
The current design for New York includes twin reflecting pools in place of the Twin Towers, along with a tree-lined plaza and museum. Lynn Rasic, spokeswoman for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, said construction at the eight-acre site is set to be completed by 2009.
The Spanish bombings were claimed by Muslim militants who said they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spanish investigators say the cell did not receive orders or financing from Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group, but was inspired by it. Twenty-nine people are on trial in Madrid over the attacks.

TITLE: In Policy Shift, U.S. Meets Iran at Key Iraqi Summit
AUTHOR: By Sudarsan Raghavan
PUBLISHER: The Washington Post
TEXT: BAGHDAD — After months of trading accusations, U.S. and Iranian officials sat in the same room Saturday at a much-anticipated regional conference on finding ways to end Iraq's sectarian violence and prevent a wider conflict.
Officials described the meeting as a constructive step, but it yielded few concrete answers to Iraq's deep-rooted problems and did little to bridge the ideological divide between the United States and Iran.
While the meeting was underway at the Foreign Ministry building, two mortars landed nearby with a sharp cracking sound. The blasts rattled windows and sent plumes of smoke into the air. No one was injured, but the attack served as a reminder of the country's tenuous security landscape.
Inside the building, the United States and Iran — Iraq's two most powerful allies — found plenty to disagree on, even though they expressed a common interest in stabilizing Iraq. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Iraq's neighbors favored holding a second regional meeting next month in Istanbul. Abbas Araghchi, the head of the Iranian delegation, said it should be in Baghdad.
The Iranians accused the Americans of "kidnapping" six Iranian diplomats in Iraq. Khalilzad replied that coalition forces were not holding any diplomats.
Khalilzad said he had spoken to the Iranians "directly and in the presence of others." But Araghchi said: "We didn't have any direct contact. If the Americans are interested, there is a proper channel for that."
Khalilzad described the talks as "constructive, businesslike" and "problem-solving."
But by evening, the verbal volleys had resumed.
"Unfortunately, the Americans are suffering from intelligence failure," Araghchi said. "They have made so many mistakes in Iraq… so many wrong policies because of false information and intelligence they had at the beginning. We hope they don't repeat their previous mistakes."
Araghchi said he had told the American delegation that Iran wanted a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in Iraq. "We think the presence of foreign soldiers cannot help the security of Iraq in the long term," he said.
Saturday's conference, which included countries neighboring Iraq, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and three international groups, highlighted the immense challenges the country faces as it struggles to stabilize. Even as its neighbors seek to help, suspicions, diplomatic squabbling and geopolitics are complicating Iraq's attempts to forge peace.
An hour before the mortar attack, a car bomb killed at least 10 people and injured 52 on the outskirts of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, said Brig. Qasim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman. In a statement, U.S. military officials credited Iraqi soldiers for stopping the vehicle at a checkpoint before it could enter Sadr City. At least six of those killed were Iraqi police officers, the statement said.
An hour after the mortar attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the country's neighbors in his opening remarks to stop financing attacks and funneling weapons and fighters across their borders.
Iraq "will not accept that its lands, cities and streets be an arena for inter-regional or regional-international disputes," Maliki said. "It does not accept by any means to be a theater for influence of any state or for regional or international power-sharing."
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the countries to which Maliki was referring were all represented at the conference.
Many of Iraq's neighbors had pressing reasons to attend. Syria and Jordan are hosting large numbers of Iraqi refugees. Turkey, with its restive Kurdish minority, is worried about cross-border attacks by Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas. Saudi Arabia is concerned that the conflict could propel its Shiite minority to rise up, a reason analysts say the kingdom has done little to aid Iraq.
The interaction among delegates from the United States, Iran and Syria were closely watched by those attending the conference. The United States and Iraq have accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross its borders and attack targets in Iraq, an allegation the Syrian government has denied.
Khalilzad, in a subsequent telephone interview with reporters, said U.S. officials had had brief discussions with the Syrians on Saturday. The Syrians "did not respond directly" to U.S. concerns but pledged to support Iraq in a statement issued at the meeting, Khalilzad said.
In recent months, the Bush administration has zeroed in on Iran, not only because of concerns about its nuclear ambitions but also on the premise that it is destabilizing Iraq. U.S. military officials have alleged that Iran is backing Shiite militias with financing and weapons, including sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed U.S. soldiers.
Iraq's Shiite-led government has expressed deep concerns about becoming a battleground for its two allies, both of whom have significant influence. "We don't want to pay any price for any problems between the two countries," said Ali Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman.
Khalilzad said he discussed with the Iranians cross-border weapons transfers and "money, training, support for militias, and other illegal armed groups."
"Nobody was pounding the table," Khalilzad said. "The exchanges were quite, I would say, ordinary. There were frank and sometimes even jovial exchanges."
On that, Araghchi agreed.
"The meeting in general was constructive, taking place in a very good environment," he said. "But it doesn't mean we didn't raise our concerns about what's going on in Iraq."
Khalilzad said he was cautiously optimistic about his Iranian counterparts.
"They want the government to succeed, they want national reconciliation, they want a close to violence and terror," he said. "Those are good words, welcome words, but we will have to wait and see what happens on the ground."
By the end of the conference, the delegates had agreed to form three working groups composed of representatives from Iraq's neighbors and to hold a second regional meeting as early as next month. The three groups would look at such issues as security, refugees, and fuel and energy supplies, Zebari said.
Also Saturday, the Associated Press released a video made by insurgents purportedly showing a German woman and her son who were kidnapped in Iraq last month. The woman, who appears to be weeping in the video, said the kidnappers had declared that they would kill them if German troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan.

TITLE: Police Smash Zimbabwe Rally, Opposition Leader Beaten Up
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HARARE — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was severely assaulted in detention and had to be taken to hospital for treatment following his arrest on Sunday over a banned prayer rally, his lawyer said. 
“He was in bad shape, he was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn’t distinguish between the head and the face and he could not see properly,” Innocent Chagonda, an attorney, told Reuters after visiting a Harare police station where Tsvangirai was being held.
Chagonda said he had not spoken to Tsvangirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), because police had denied lawyers access to the dozens of opposition and civic leaders arrested in the crackdown on anti-government forces.
“I managed to see him from about 10 meters inside the police holding fence at Borrowdale Police Station. They were being paraded,” he said.
“Police confirmed they had taken him to hospital last night, which explains the reason he was bandaged,” Chagonda added.
A spokesman for National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a political pressure group, said its chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, suffered a broken arm and a bad head wound after being taken into police custody.
“I saw him at Parirenyatwa Hospital [in Harare] this morning, and his arm is now in a plaster and the head wound is quite bad,” NCA spokesman Ernest Mudzengi said.
The organizers of the prayer rally, which was stopped by the police because it violated a three-month government ban on such protests, said Tsvangirai fainted three times after being beaten while Madhuku passed out and was rushed to hospital.
The welfare of Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway faction of the MDC and was among those arrested on Sunday, was unclear, his lawyer Harrison Nkomo said.
The arrests of the opposition leaders, which were condemned by the United States government, came amid rising tensions in Zimbabwe over a deepening economic crisis and President Robert Mugabe’s rule.
Zimbabwe, once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries, is struggling with inflation over 1,700 percent, sky-high unemployment and chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.
Mugabe, in power since the country won independence from Britain in 1980, was quoted by a state-run newspaper on Monday as saying he would run again for president if his ruling ZANU-PF party nominated him.