SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1269 (35), Tuesday, May 8, 2007
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TITLE: Conscript Dies After Suspected Hazing
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A drafted soldier with less than a month to serve at his detachment at the village of Sertolovo near St. Petersburg died Saturday at the city’s Military Medical Academy from severe head injuries, apparently sustained in a hazing incident.
“The recruit was delivered to the hospital’s brain surgery ward in a coma on April 27 and died on Saturday night without regaining consciousness,” said Colonel Yury Klyonov, an aide to the chief military commander of the Leningrad Military District. 
The recruit was named as Sergei Zavyalov, 23. 
Zavyalov’s mother, Nadezhda Zavyalova, told St. Petersburg-based human rights group Soldiers’ Mothers that she had learned about her son’s death in a phone call from his detachment. 
“They told me that Sergei fell and fatally struck his head,” his mother recalls. “It seemed contrived and unbelievable to me. I think he was killed and I am sure that it was deliberate. I am determined to find the people who did it and bring them to trial.”
Zavyalov last spoke to his mother by telephone on April 26.
The circumstances of Zavyalov’s injuries remain obscure.
Klyonov said the Leningrad Military Prosecutor’s office has promptly launched a criminal case and a fellow recruit had already been detained in connection with the death.
“We are carrying out our own investigation and we know that Sergei had been unconscious for some time; he had also been left without medical aid almost five hours before being sent to the Military Medical Academy,” said Ella Polyakova, chairwoman of Soldiers’ Mothers. 
“It is beyond my understanding why no immediate effort was made to save his life.” 
A native of Vologda, a small town in Northwestern Russia, Zavyalov was drafted in June 2005 and served in military detachment No.11255. His two years of conscription would have expired by the end of this month.
The Defense Ministry estimates that between 500 to 1,000 recruits die from non-combat-related causes each year in Russia. 
But human rights groups contest official statistics and claim the actual number is as high as 3,000.
Ruslan Linkov, head of the liberal political organization Democratic Russia, said that the military authorities often try to “make a scape-goat of another recruit.”
“Look at all recent hazing scandals and you will see that officers routinely escape punishment,” he said. “It has become a trend. Recruits are more vulnerable and deprived than the officers and burdening them with full responsibility kills two birds with one stone: the corrupt system is protected, while the human rights groups and the relatives are presented with a nominal figure to blame.”
Polyakova is convinced Zavyalov’s death could have been prevented had qualified medical aid been provided to him earlier.
“It looks like either a tremendous neglect of human life, or an equally tremendous fear that Sergei, if he had survived, would tell a story nobody was going to like,” she said.
Polyakova pointed to the case of another St. Petersburg conscript, Roman Rudakov, who has been awaiting a partial intestine transplant at Moscow’s Burdenko hospital since mid-January. 
Rudakov was kept in the emergency ward of military hospital No. 442 in St. Petersburg after doctors removed his small intestine on Sept. 30, 2006, following a severe beating to the abdominal area.
“In his letters home, Roman even contemplated suicide; he considered slitting his wrists so bad had the bullying become,” Polyakova said. “Information about the beatings which had been present in the original medical report was then mysteriously removed, and if his sister had not kept the original, we would never have been able to prove the fact that the beating led to the removal of the intestine. Worse, it took more than four months and the intervention of our organization before he started getting appropriate treatment.”
A rapid investigation into Rudakov’s case established that fellow recruit Maxim Lomonin was responsible for the beating. He received a three-year suspended sentence in the resulting trial. 
However, no officer was punished or reprimanded in the case. 
Linkov accused the military of being scared of publicity. 
“They typically try to hush things up and therefore avoid, whenever possible, dealing with  civil doctors because it would bring to light mishaps in treating and handling patients,” he said. 
“Germany, France and Israel have offered to help with Rudakov’s operation but Russia has rejected all the offers.”

TITLE: EU Casts Cloud Over Russian WTO Entry
AUTHOR: By Anna Smolchenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The European Union is threatening to block Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization unless progress is made on resolving acrimonious disputes between Russia and some of its neighbors before a key summit near Samara next week.
While the EU still supports Russia’s accession to the WTO, it will not do so “at any price,” Peter Power, a spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, said Friday.
Russia’s top WTO negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, sought to downplay the disagreement, saying he would meet with his EU counterpart in about a week.
“We’re in touch with the commission every day, really,” Medvedkov said by telephone.
“It’s business as usual,” he added in English.
President Vladimir Putin is to host German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other EU officials at the summit, which is to be held in the Volga River resort of Volzhsky Utyos near Samara on May 17 and 18.
EU members have agreed in an internal document to use the upcoming EU-Russia summit to “push for progress” in the negotiations, unless “a satisfactory compromise” is reached beforehand. “Bilateral problems or disregard for existing commitments will be major impediments,” Power quoted the document as saying.
“The EU is ready to support early conclusion of Russia’s WTO accession, but not at any price, and bilateral problems and disregard for the implementation of existing commitments will be major impediments,” the document continued.
The tougher EU line comes amid escalating tensions between Russia and Estonia over the relocation of a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn.
Amid calls for a trade boycott of Estonia, oil traders are reporting cuts in oil product exports to the country. (see story, page 5.) Hundreds of students marched to the EU’s office on Friday. (see story, page 2).
In other long-simmering disputes, Poland is vetoing the start of talks on a new long-term Russia-EU agreement over Moscow’s yearlong ban on Polish meat, and Lithuania is threatening to add its veto over Russia’s closure of an oil pipeline last year. European nations are already nervous about Moscow wielding its energy muscle through pipeline cutoffs to Ukraine and Belarus.
Friday’s development comes as a new blow to Russia’s WTO ambitions as the country prepares to enter the final, multilateral stage of entry talks.
One major stumbling block — strong opposition within the U.S. Congress to the lifting of the Soviet-era Jackson-Vanik amendment — is already threatening to jeopardize Russia’s chances of joining the WTO this year, and presidential elections in Russia and the United States could well see the issue put on the backburner until a new U.S. president enters the White House in early 2009.
The Russian and EU comments came after European Voice, a Brussels-based weekly published by The Economist, reported Thursday that the EU strategy document was discussed by ambassadors from member states on April 25 and represented “a dramatic toughening of the Union’s position toward Russia.”
But Power said the European Voice report was “totally inaccurate, wrong,” and Medvedkov called it “exaggerated.”
While Medvedkov said he was not aware of the document, he said it might very well exist. “There’s nothing bad about it,” he said.
He sought to downplay the document’s importance, saying it was “simply an internal document.” He added in an e-mailed response later that it had “no status.”
Power said the EU was “strongly committed to seeing” Russia in the WTO and that a “commercially viable basis” should be found.
Power and Medvedkov agreed that timber export duties and railway tariffs were the biggest sticking points to be resolved, with Medvedkov adding that he was confident a compromise would be reached.
Mandelson said last month that the “level of misunderstanding or even mistrust” between the EU and Russia was the lowest “since the end of the Cold War.”
Medvedkov said he was not aware of any plans for talks about WTO accession during the EU-Russia summit.
While Medvedkov’s boss, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, is pushing hard for Russia to complete the WTO multilateral approval process by the year’s end, some other officials are less eager to strike a deal, if it means making concessions on issues such as the war memorial in Estonia.
Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, told Vesti-24 state television that the country “is not desperate to enter the WTO as soon as possible.”

TITLE: Foreigners Could Face Language Test
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — If Alexander Krutov gets his way, foreigners in this country may soon have to pass a Russian language test to qualify for a work permit.
“It is the moral obligation of people working in a given country to make an effort to learn its language,” Krutov, a State Duma deputy from the Rodina faction of A Just Russia, said Friday.
On Monday, Krutov plans to submit a bill to the lower house that would require foreign workers who arrive with no knowledge of the language to study what he calls “conversational Russian.”
Employees of foreign companies would be excluded from the requirement, Krutov said.
But most foreign companies do business in this country via Russian subsidiaries or in cooperation with local partners, whose employees would fall under the new law, Krutov said.
David Herne, a board member at Unified Energy Systems and head of Halcyon Advisors, said Friday that the test “is one of those things that, in isolation, could have a logical rationale.”
“But in the context of all the other hoops foreigners have to jump through, it is fairly absurd,” Herne said.
The government, the employer, or a combination of both will foot the bill for language instruction, Krutov said, adding that the mechanism for applying for work permits would have to be revised.
Vladimir Pligin, who chairs the Duma’s Constitution and State Affairs Committee, said he supported the idea, but that “we’ll have to think more about the sources of financing” for instruction, Kommersant reported Friday.
Alexei Belousov, the commercial director of Capital Group, a construction company, said in e-mailed comments Friday that companies could be expected to foot the bill for highly skilled employees.
“In the case of other employees, such as bricklayers, employers will more likely try to avoid paying for lessons by hiring Russian speakers,” Belousov said.
Krutov does not insist that foreign workers become fluent in Russian, just that they be able to function in everyday situations.
“The foreigner should be able to ask how to get to the theater, and how much a loaf of bread costs,” Krutov said. “It requires a vocabulary of about 1,200 words.”
Krutov denied the move was an attempt to stem the tide of unskilled immigrant workers from former Soviet republics.
“Each year, there are more and more immigrant workers,” he said. “They find it hard to adapt, and knowledge of the language will help with their integration into society.
“We don’t want enclaves of other nationals living in isolation,” Krutov added, insisting that assimilating foreign citizens into mainstream society can help diffuse tensions and increase understanding of other cultures.
“Everyone seems to be for this idea,” he said, adding that the Federal Migration Service had given the scheme a thumbs up.
A spokesman for the service on Friday declined to comment on the proposal. “We just follow orders,” he said.
But Vyacheslav Postavnin, deputy head of the service, told Kommersant that he supported the idea.
“We come across situations when we have issued work permits to people who don’t know the Russian language,” Postavnin said in comments published Friday. “This tends to isolate people, to leave them ignorant of the law and to weak integration.”
From Jan. 15 to April 30, the Federal Migration Service issued work permits to more than 600,000 foreigners, said a spokeswoman who declined to give her name. More than 1 million permits were issued in 2006, she said.

TITLE: Interior Ministry Warned By Chechnya on Torture
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Federal law enforcement units continue to torture detainees in Chechnya, the Chechen government said, warning of wider social unrest if it continues.
Speaking at a government meeting Friday in Grozny, regional lawmaker Ibrahim Khultygov said members of a unit known as ORB-2 routinely abducted relatives of detainees and tortured or used them to pressure the detainees themselves. The unit is affiliated with the Interior Ministry’s southern branch.
The government later approved a resolution calling on Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov to do more to deal with the problem.
Officials with the Interior Ministry’s southern branch refused to comment on the allegations, which echo those made in a March report by the Council of Europe’s torture prevention committee.
Following the report’s release, Kadyrov complained about the treatment of inmates at a detention facility controlled by ORB-2 in the town of Urus-Martan, saying they were “systematically subjected to torture.”
Some observers speculated that the allegations leveled at the federal authorities are aimed at bolstering Kadyrov’s standing among Chechens and helping him assert greater control over law enforcement actions in the republic.
Russian and international rights groups have also long accused authorities in Chechnya, including Kadyrov, of torture and rights abuses.
In another development, Kadyrov has ordered that most cafes and restaurants be closed after 8 p.m., ostensibly to prevent drunk driving.
In explaining his decision, he compared drunk drivers to Chechen rebels, saying: “What difference does it make at whose hands people are killed in the republic? Statistics tell us that more people actually die in road accidents than as a result of armed clashes,” according to the Prague Watchdog, which tracks the situation in Chechnya.
AP, SPT

TITLE: EU’s Office Besieged Over Estonia
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Hundreds of students marched to the European Union’s representative office on Friday in the latest protest by pro-Kremlin youth groups over the relocation of a Soviet war monument in Estonia.
The Estonian Embassy, meanwhile, reopened its consular section, which had been closed for three days after Nashi and Young Russia activists staged raucous protests that drew sharp criticism from the EU and NATO.
“The consular services department is fully operational as of Friday morning as the embassy’s security situation has sufficiently improved,” Estonia’s Foreign Ministry said.
The protesters left the embassy on Thursday, ending a virtual siege that had threatened to fray Russia’s already strained relations with the EU.
But hundreds of students rallied outside the EU’s representative office on Friday, waving Nashi flags and holding portraits of Mark Siryk, a high school student whom they said remained in custody after being arrested amid clashes between police and protesters in Tallinn a week earlier. The demonstrators handed an employee of the European Commission delegation headquarters letters they wrote protesting the Estonian authorities’ actions.
Russia has long accused the EU of failing to respond adequately to what it says is widespread discrimination against Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia.
About 20 Nashi activists briefly blocked traffic on a major highway near the Estonian border town of Ivangorod on Friday, standing with banners calling for an economic blockade of Estonia.
“Over a space of 20 minutes, we stopped 13 trucks with Estonian license plates that were heading in both directions,” a participant told Itar-Tass.
Drivers heading toward Estonia were given red carnations and asked to lay them on the grave of Dmitry Ganin, who was killed during the violence in Tallinn. More than 100 people were injured, and some 1,100 detained.
During last week’s embassy protests in Moscow, Estonia’s flag was pulled down and rocks were thrown at windows. A pregnant diplomat was flown back to Tallinn, and Ambassador Marina Kaljurand suddenly left on vacation Thursday.
A Moscow court on Friday fined two protesters 500 rubles each for blocking and throwing rocks at a car leaving the embassy compound, Interfax reported. Similar charges were dropped against five other activists.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said his country was monitoring the situation and again urged Russia to comply “completely” with the Vienna Convention concerning diplomatic premises and diplomats.
The dispute centered on Estonia’s relocation on April 27 of the Bronze Soldier, a statue commemorating Red Army soldiers killed in World War II. 
AP, SPT

TITLE: U.S. Agrees to Missile Talks
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The United States has agreed for U.S. and Russian defense and foreign ministers to meet in an attempt to allay Russian concerns about U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, a senior U.S. official said Friday.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said there had been talk of holding so-called 2+2 talks among the four ministers in September or early in the fall, but no date had been set.
Washington has angered Russia and unsettled some European allies with a plan to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar installation in the Czech Republic from 2012 to help shield Europe from a possible missile attack by Iran or North Korea.
Russia has yet to be persuaded by U.S. arguments that the system is no threat to its nuclear deterrent and has so far rebuffed U.S. invitations to cooperate on the system.
Fried said he was hopeful that over time Russian concerns could be addressed and said one venue for doing so could be talks among the defense and foreign ministers. Fried said U.S. and Russian national security advisers might also be included.

TITLE: Fugitive Says He’s American
AUTHOR: By Carl Schreck
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A 24-year-old fugitive has been detained in Samara while posing as a U.S. citizen trying to set a world record by crossing Russia without money or identification.
Rustam Dzhumaliyev, of the Primorye region village of Khasan, was detained near the campus of Samara State University by the Federal Security Service last week, the FSB’s Samara region branch said in a statement.
A federal warrant was put out for Dzhumaliyev’s arrest following a parole violation back home in the Far East, Interfax reported.
When FSB officers asked where he was from, Dzhumaliyev said in English that he was a U.S. citizen “traveling around the world” and that his mission was to “cross Russia from Vladivostok to Murmansk without money or documents,” the statement said, Interfax reported.
An FSB spokesman in Moscow said Friday that he had no information about the case. Officials at the agency’s Samara branch could not be reached for comment.
Dzhumaliyev, pretending he did not speak a word of Russian, had been traveling around the country for months while acquaintances paid his way, Interfax said.
Using his excellent English, he “easily fooled not only random acquaintances, but also law enforcement structures,” the report said.
While in Orenburg, he apparently was interviewed by a local newspaper, Yaik, about his journey across the country.
The interview, published April 18, is with a “DJ from Los Angeles” named “Lamar” who “doesn’t know a word of Russian.”
“You can always find a common language with people, regardless of their nationality,” Lamar told the newspaper.
Lamar said he was born in Thailand, grew up in California, and that in the 24 years of his life had been in Australia, America, Japan and Europe. “And now I have made it to Russia,” he said.
Lamar said that he was shocked at how much vodka people in Russia drink.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t really like this beverage — it’s too strong — but I realized that you can’t get by in Russia without it.”
The newspaper said Lamar arrived in Orenburg on March 11.
Dzhumaliyev had been convicted of robbery by a court in the Far East city of Khabarovsk and given a suspended sentence. But authorities issued a warrant for his arrest after he violated his parole, Interfax said.
Dzhumaliyev, who told officers in Samara that his name was Saktar Lertvartrakan, said he was hoping to set a Guinness world record with his trek, the FSB statement said.
But when security service officers pressed him over discrepancies in his story, he became agitated and began threatening “an international scandal between Russia and the United States.”

TITLE: Former Rodina Chief Creates Great Russia
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Former Rodina head Dmitry Rogozin and two other nationalist-minded leaders created a new party Saturday that appears to have a good chance of getting into the next State Duma — if it can get registered.
The other co-founders of the new party, Great Russia, are Duma Deputy Andrei Savelyev and Alexander Belov, head of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which stages boisterous rallies denouncing the presence of dark-skinned foreigners in Russia. Last month, Rogozin joined the group for a rally meant to counter an opposition Dissenters’ March in Moscow.
Great Russia will have a nationalist platform, it will not be an opposition party, and it has no ties to the Kremlin, its founders told reporters after holding a founding congress at the Izmailovo Gamma-Delta hotel in eastern Moscow.
Rogozin — wearing a striped black and orange tie, the colors of Great Russia’s logo, the endangered Amur tiger — opened his remarks with a quip about the logo.
“While searching the web, I came across information that the Amur tiger stopped dying out last year for the first time in history,” Rogozin said.
“So now I believe that the Amur tiger will become a competitor to the blue bear,” he said, referring to the symbol of United Russia, a white bear on a blue background.
He predicted that the party would collect 25 percent of the vote in Duma elections in December. Political analysts said the party would garner much fewer votes but still easily clear the 7 percent barrier for getting seats in the Duma.
Great Russia currently only has about 35,000 members — far from the 50,000 it needs to be registered as a party.
Rogozin’s spokeswoman Lidia Mikhailova said the party would have enough members by the time it files for registration in July.
“There will be no problem getting the necessary 50,000 given that in Moscow alone we are getting calls from up to 100 people per day who wish to join our party and are leaving their contact information with us,” Mikhailova said by telephone on Sunday.
Savelyev was named the party’s chairman on Saturday, and he immediately sought to distance Great Russia from Rodina, saying the new party had no links to the Kremlin. Rodina is widely believed to have been a Kremlin-directed project, set up just weeks before the last Duma elections to steal votes successfully from the Communists. Rogozin, a Duma deputy, left Rodina after a falling out with the Kremlin.
Rogozin should not have been at the congress.
At the Duma’s request, the Prosecutor General’s Office had summoned him for questioning that day about speculation that the new party was being funded by self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky.
Rogozin is to meet with prosecutors in a few days, his spokeswoman said.
Rogozin and Belov did not receive any official positions within the party at the congress.
“We have strong suspicions that if I were on the party’s list, it would have more problems with registration,” Rogozin told the reporters.
Rogozin has good reason to worry, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, a political analyst with the Panorama think tank.
He said Vladislav Surkov, the deputy head of the presidential administration and the Kremlin’s pointman on political parties, has a “negative attitude toward Rogozin and his new party.”

TITLE: Newsweek Photographer Killed in Iraq
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Russian photographer was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb that also killed six U.S. troops, the editor of the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine said Monday.
Dmitry Chebotayev, 27, was killed Sunday while traveling in a vehicle with American troops on a road between Baghdad and Baqouba, Russian Newsweek editor Leonid Parfyonov said.
Chebotayev, a freelance photojournalist who often worked for Russian Newsweek, was on assignment for the magazine at the time, Parfyonov said.
“It is a big loss for us,” he told The Associated Press. “Everyone here loved him, and loved working with him. He was a cheerful person who loved life.”
The U.S. military had said six soldiers and a European journalist were killed when a massive bomb destroyed their vehicle in Diyala province. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded, the military said.
Chebotayev often worked in dangerous places such as Iraq and Russia’s war-scarred Chechnya region, Parfyonov said. He called Chebotayev “a very good photographer. He was a young guy who took risks, who often worked in hot spots.”
Chebotayev is the only Russian journalist to have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations.
Iraq was the deadliest country for journalists in the past decade, with 138 deaths, the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute said in a March report. Russia was second, with 88, it said.

TITLE: African Chamber of Commerce Founded
AUTHOR: By Ali Nassor
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: African diplomats joined officials from the Northwest Region and City Hall, and local Russian and African business communities in St Petersburg last week to work out strategies in preparation for Russia’s historic mission to explore trade with the African continent. 
“It’s not about a Russian push towards Africa... it’s about two-way traffic that will also involve Africans in the exploration of mutually beneficial commercial resources,” said Andrei Peregudov, member of Russia’s Northwestern Regional Public Chamber in reference to the newly-founded African Chamber of Commerce (Afcham).
Afcham, aimed at serving as a historic bridge between Russia and 53 African countries will be based in St Petersburg.
“Though one would expect Moscow to be the seat of the federal Afcham by virtue of being the capital, the country’s commercial center and a home for African diplomatic missions, we prefer St Petersburg because businesses in Russia’s Northwest seem to have completely forgotten about Africa’s existence,” said Afcham’s president, Michael Makia, a British-trained lawyer and director of the St Petersburg Business English School.
Makia, originally from Cameroon, says he was inspired into organizing and launching Afcham when he realized that “most Russians, including businessmen, had either a vague or distorted image of Africa, that seemingly prevented them from trying to set up ventures.”
“Unlike the American and the British chambers of commerce, whose own experiences we have learned from, we face the challenge of shifting people’s image of Africa away from the Dark Continent to one of a rich and reliable partner worth making business with,” Makia said. 
“We are here to promote, to show, to counsel and to help those who are ready to embark on this journey,” he added.
“But even political Africa was never Russia’s priority despite the Soviet’s Cold War ideological policies,” said Julius Masembe, liason officer at the Ugandan Embassy in Moscow. 
“I don’t remember a day in Russian history when a Russian Tsar, or a communist party leader or a president ever felt it necessary to set foot on African soil,” he added. 
However, President Vladimir Putin paid a one-day visit to Algeria last April.
Backing his colleague, mandated Minister of the Republic of Congo in Moscow Jean-Christophe Akojo-Vokas suggested that “Russia would now have to run to get to where others had previously walked to reach,” citing the example of countries once in the Soviet sphere of influence, such as Angola, which was abandoned by Russia only to be taken over by the Chinese later. “But it’s never too late to start,” he added.
Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are among the world’s leaders in diamond reserves. While the former also boasts immense oil reserves the latter is reputed for its forestry resources.
 “There’s a place and everything for all in mainland Africa and on the coast; from minerals, oil, forestry, tourism, fishery, real-estate and banking to culture, health, technology, educational and scientific research... the choice is yours” said Yulia Gers, director of the St Petersburg-based “Bright People” accessory design company who has spent several years in Africa studying the continent from Cape Town to Cairo. 
Gers and Makia are the masterminds behind the formation of the African Chamber of Commerce.
Currently, they are expecting the Baltika Beer Company to start the race for Africa. “Baltika is waiting for us to blow the whistle, pending final touches this month... They had long yearned to conquer the African market but didn’t know how,” Makia said. 
Gers said there were also several other prominent businesses ready to follow suit, but declined to name them. 
According to Gers, dozens of local businesses have already sought membership of Afcham, pending its official registration due at the end of the month.

TITLE: Traders Cut Out Estonia
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ST. PETERSBURG — Russia will drastically cut oil product exports via Estonia in the coming month or two, traders said Friday, as the European Commission urged companies to keep to their supply obligations.
One industry source said rail exports to Estonia would be cut by 2 million tons in the next one to two months. That would be the bulk of trade on the route, which carries 25 million tons per year, one quarter of the country’s oil products exports.
“Cargo owners are redirecting deliveries to the river, to St. Petersburg,” the source said.
Russian Railways, or RZD, has denied closing the railway route to Estonia.
An RZD spokeswoman said Thursday that traders were assuming wrongly that maintenance on the line — part of planned annual repairs — was part of a political row between Moscow and Tallinn. Nobody at RZD was available to comment late Friday.
The apparent supply cut coincides with protests in Moscow over Estonia’s relocation of a Soviet war memorial and could revive Western fears of the Kremlin using its energy influence as a political weapon against its former Soviet neighbors.
Russian supplies of gasoline, diesel and fuel oil sent via Estonia, are re-exported to northern Europe.
The European Commission called Friday on Russian firms to meet their obligations to deliver energy supplies to Estonia regardless of technical problems.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet wrote in an article in a Swedish daily newspaper that Russia was acting as if the Soviet Union still existed. Estonia has previously received support in its dispute with Moscow from the United States and NATO.
One oil trader said the Yaroslavl and Moscow refineries, which traditionally export fuel oil via Estonian ports, were not going to use the route for several weeks.
The Yaroslavl refinery is jointly owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Gazprom, and TNK-BP. The Moscow plant is also partly owned by Gazprom Neft. The same trader also said TNK-BP’s Ryazan refinery had redirected diesel to the Mediterranean from the northern European market.

TITLE: Headmaster Taught A Piracy Lesson
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Russian headmaster said on Monday that a court has fined him half his monthly wage for using pirated copies of Microsoft software at his school in a case President Vladimir Putin has called “utter nonsense.”
Prosecutors said Alexander Ponosov had violated Microsoft’s property rights by allowing pupils to use 12 computers with unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows and Office software.
Ponosov, a headmaster in a remote school in the Perm region of the Ural mountains, said he did not know the computers had fake licenses when they were delivered by a sub-contractor.
Russia has been urged to crack down on the widespread availability of cheap pirated software, films and music as it prepares to enter the World Trade Organization.
Illegal copies of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system are on sale for about $6 at Moscow markets.
Russian state television has portrayed Alexander Ponosov as a hero in a David-and-Goliath battle against the legal system and international corporations.
“Today the court brought in a guilty verdict - they ordered me to pay a fine of 5,000 roubles ($194.4),” Ponosov told Reuters by telephone from the Perm region. “I consider myself not guilty and I will file an appeal,” he said, adding that he had not paid the fine.

TITLE: Rosneft to Beat Two Rivals for Yukos Samara
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s state-controlled oil firm Rosneft will face competition from two smaller firms in a major Yukos bankruptcy auction on Thursday but is still the most likely winner, a newspaper said on Monday. 
Kommersant business daily quoted a source close to Yukod as saying energy investment company PromRegionHolding (PRH) and little-known firm Yunitex will compete with Rosneft for Yukos’ assets in the central Russian region of Samara. 
Analysts have little doubt Rosneft will win, and say other bidders, one of which is allegedly linked with its closest rival Lukoil and the other with gas monopoly Gazprom , will take part to legitimize the auction. 
An auction needs at least two bidders to be valid. 
The state property fund, which is organizing the sell off, will finish taking applications from potential bidders later on Monday. Neither Rosneft nor PRH confirmed officially they were going to compete. Yunitex was not available for comments. 
The lot, which has a starting price of 154.1 billion rubles ($5.99 billion), comprises some of Yukos’ most attractive assets, including three refineries with total processing capacity of 400,000 barrels per day and a 200,000 bpd oil production unit.        
Analysts expect no surprises from the sale, the eleventh in a string of auctions to recover the bankrupt firm’s debt of over $26 billion. They see Rosneft, which has already bought the bulk of Yukos, as the most probable winner. 
“We continue to view Rosneft as a front-runner for lot 11. The company has used some of these assets for many months, it has voiced an interest in acquiring them and has money available to participate in the auction,” said Pavel Kushnir at Deutsche UFG. 
Rosneft, which increased production threefold to 1.7 bpd after it bought Yukos’ main production unit, YuganskNefteGas, at a forced auction in 2004, lacks refining capacity and has repeatedly said it would try to buy Yukos’ Samara refineries. 
Traders have said Rosneft has ousted Yukos from the plants already and from this month it is using the plant’s entire processing capacity for refining its own crude, topping it up with crude supplies from Yukos. 
PromRegionHolding, which market participants say is affiliated with Leonid Fedun, Lukoil’s vice-president and co-owner, bought Yukos’ energy assets in southern Russia at a similar auction last week. 
Yunitex, although not widely-known, has also participated in a number of Yukos’ previous auctions, although without success so far. Russian media said the firm’s managers might be linked to Gazprombank.

TITLE: HSBC Gets  Retail Banking Licence
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW, May 7 — Europe’s biggest bank HSBC has received a licence for its Russian subsidiary allowing it to take deposits from retail clients, the central bank said on Monday. 
HSBC already has a growing corporate and investment banking business in Russia and an office there, but obtaining the licence is a key step towards becoming the first British lender to build a retail presence in Russia. 
After a decade building up its business in Latin America, the world’s third-largest bank has more recently turned its attention to fast-growing banking markets in eastern Europe and in Russia, where HSBC, like its British peers, has lagged continental rivals.

TITLE: Gazprom Eyes Asian Pipeline
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TEHRAN, Iran — Gazprom is interested in taking part in building and managing a proposed $7 billion gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan, a company official said Saturday.
Iran, India and Pakistan are expected to sign a key agreement on pricing in June that will help the pipeline project take off. 
But an Indian official said in April that New Delhi had yet to make a final decision on the pipeline from Iran via Pakistan, which has been opposed by the United States.
“One of the big projects Russia can play a role in is the pipeline that transfers Iranian gas to Pakistan and India,” the head of Gazprom’s office in Tehran, Abubakir Shamuzov told Shana news agency, the Iranian Oil Ministry’s web site.
“This pipeline can even go as far as to China because this region has a big population and is a big market,” he said. “I believe this pipeline should be constructed and Gazprom will most likely be a partner of this project.”
Last month, a senior Iranian official suggested that it would welcome any Gazprom involvement in the planned gas link, saying it would speed progress.
Gholamhossein Nozari, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, did not say whether Iran had been in contact with Gazprom on the issue or give details on what kind of participation he had in mind.
The pipeline project, which aims to feed the growing energy needs of the subcontinent, has made slow progress in part due to political tensions between India and Pakistan.
Iran sits atop the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions, politics and construction delays have slowed its gas development, and analysts say it is unlikely to become a major exporter for a decade.
Apart from the pipeline, New Delhi is also negotiating with Iran to secure a deal that would see Tehran supply 5 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year over a 25-year period from 2009.

TITLE: Slovaks Ask For Help On Yukos Stake
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday asked senior Russian officials for help in resolving the fate of Yukos’ 49 percent stake in Slovakian pipeline operator Transpetrol.
The sale of the stake to Transpetrol is the subject of legal wrangling among Yukos creditors, including those linked to the Russian state and to Yukos’ former majority shareholder, GML.
“We have asked Russia for comprehensive support in the elimination of all barriers in the transfer of Yukos property and shares to Transpetrol,” Fico said after holding meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Itar-Tass reported.
Fico said they had also discussed increasing deliveries of Russian oil and gas to Slovakia, Prime-Tass reported.
Russian officials on Friday offered to modernize Slovakia’s nuclear power plants, as the two countries vowed to expand their cooperation in the energy sector. 
“I agree that energy is the area where our cooperation will be most intensive in the future,” Fico said in televised comments during a meeting with Putin. 
Slovakia’s natural gas supplies from Russia fell 30 percent during a gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine in January 2006, when Gazprom temporarily switched off supplies to Ukraine, which lies between Russia and Slovakia. 
But Fico expressed support for Russia’s record as a reliable energy supplier. 
“We believe that Russia is a reliable, promising partner in energy supplies,” he said. 
AP, SPT

TITLE: IPO Values Drug Firm At $2.2Bln
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Pharmstandard, the drug maker part-owned by Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse Capital, has raised $880 million in an initial public offering that the company said Friday valued it at $2.2 billion. 
Pharmstandard, the largest Russian pharmaceuticals company operating on the domestic market and the first from the sector to float, said it had sold shares in Moscow at $58.20 apiece and global depositary receipts in London at $14.55 each. 
The combined offering of existing shares and GDRs represents 40 percent of Pharmstandard’s equity, and raised $880 million for its shareholders, before an overallotment option. 
Core owners Viktor Kharitonin, Yegor Kulkov and Millhouse Capital, Abramovich’s investment vehicle, sold shares via the IPO. Citibank and UBS advised on the offering. 
The company, a maker of generic drugs, operates five manufacturing facilities in the country and sells medical equipment
The float follows Pharmstandard’s acquisition last year of Masterlek and with it a product portfolio including antiviral drug Arbidol, the market leader in the country ahead of Pfizer’s Viagra.
In its 2006 results, Pharmstandard said sales rose 50 percent to 8.52 billion rubles ($324 million). 
Reuters, SPT

TITLE: PwC Office Search Declared Illegal
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A Moscow court on Friday declared that a police raid of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit office was illegal. 
The Tverskoi District Court said the search by Interior Ministry investigators had not been sanctioned by a court warrant.
The court ordered the authorities to rectify the violations.
PwC spokeswoman Vera Totskaya expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision Sunday, and said the company had always believed the search “was unjustified and infringed on audit confidentiality, which is protected by Russian law.” 
The March 9 search of the company’s offices was connected with a PwC audit of Yukos from 2002 to 2004, and a separate investigation into whether PwC evaded taxes of 243 million rubles ($9.3 million) in 2002.
Friday’s court ruling came one day after state-owned Rosneft bought Yukos production unit Tomskneft for $6.8 billion in the penultimate auction for the bankrupt firm’s oil units. Most of Yukos’ assets have been sold to state-linked energy firms. 
A lawsuit filed by the Federal Tax Service last year questioned PwC’s audit of Yukos’ tax filings and claimed that the auditor had helped Yukos disguise profits.
In December, the tax service demanded $145,000 from PwC, the amount that Yukos had paid for the audit. 
In March, the Moscow Arbitration Court increased the fine to $480,000.
PwC has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In the case against PwC over its own tax payments, authorities sued for additional payments for 2002, which investigators said the company had incurred for classifying its expatriate staff as consultants rather than employees.
Since that ruling, state-run Gazprom and Sberbank have retained PwC as their auditors, but oil pipeline monopoly Transneft dropped the company in favor of KPMG, and carmaker AvtoVAZ said its board would recommend that shareholders replace PwC with Ernst & Young.
PwC says it audits more than 2,000 companies countrywide, which together account for nearly half of gross domestic product.

TITLE: Universal Operators Lay Siege to Homely Webs
AUTHOR: By Natalia Chumarova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: One of the most popular and fast developing areas of today’s telecommunications market is broadband access to the Internet using Ethernet technology, which, for residential subscribers, is promoted as a home network. It is not surprising that operators who previously specialized in the corporate or card segments have now turned their attention to this segment.
Today almost all of the big players on St. Petersburg’s fixed-line market have developed their own projects for the development of home networks.
There exist a number of broadband technologies, including ADSL and the use of interactive Cable television and radio.
However, a more popular and fast-developing alternative is Ethernet or Local Area Network (LAN), which transmits data using fiber-optic cables.
In practice, the St. Petersburg market only took its current form in 2005, although the first complete commercial provider appeared in the city in 1999-2000 in the form of Nevacom and Tsit Home Network.
A little later the first company specializing in the development of such services was Matrix Network Solutions. 
The majority of current players began their activity as non-commercial projects. These were the private initiatives of amateurs, who combined their resources for the exchange of files and network games (it is worth noting that for the most part student dormitories were the model for their development, which are currently working relatively successfully).
Later, such projects either developed into fully-fledged commercial operators, or became part of an alliance with other players, or received investment from other investors, at the same time acquiring a share of the assets.
 Today the market for home networks has become a serious segment of the telecommunications market, where large players already dominate several city districts, several of which intend to become city-wide operators during 2007. 
Serious players include companies such as Matrix Network Solutions, Corbin Telecom, Tsiffra and AntHill.

Universal Interest
That universal operators began to enter this market was a logical development.
The first players to appear here were Lanck Telecom and Linia 1 (a Petersburg Telecom Transit project, now owned by CET). 
Remarkably, this happened even before the actual flourishing of the industry itself, in 2004. 
Lanck Telecom serves more than 5,000 apartments in 21 buildings, although 12 of these are located in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. Linia 1 works in a similar way. The main areas covered are the Primorsky and Vyborksy districts, though in general the company’s services are accessible in a certain amount of apartments in every city district, totaling 15,000. It also became the first company to offer video transmission/broadcasting on their network.
The next company who launched itself onto the home network market was Peterstar in 2005. Subscribers are connected to the operator across the whole city, though only after their building is deemed profitable for the development of networks and if other buildings connected to the operator are in close proximity. 
Nevertheless, at the end of last year the company decided to concentrate its efforts and started to build an independent network in Rybatskoye region in the Nevsky district. About 30 buildings are currently covered by the network, with another 200 buildings to be added by the end of the year.  
The breakthrough year for universal operators was 2006. The company Master I-T, which used to focus on selling  cards, has started connecting subscribers to its home networks. Initially coverage was limited to the Krasnogvardeisky, Tsentralny and Admiralteisky districts because connection there can be established in immediate proximity to the company’s network nodes. The company is also building home networks in Vyborgsky and other St Petersburg districts. 
An ADSL provider, Web Plus, is also becoming attentive to the home network segment. Their first home network was launched in Primorsky district where 200 buildings are connected and where the service is used by more than 350 subscribers, but new networks are already under construction in Vyborgsky and Nevsky districts. 
It’s worth mentioning that the technical network is built in such a way that buildings are connected on the basis of ADSL2+ technology first and then switched to optical fiber. 
“We wanted to offer our subscribers an alternative to enable them to decide for themselves which technology they wanted to use to access the Internet,” said the head of PR at Web Plus, Viktoria Kulibanova. The company’s coverage currently extends to over 300 buildings throughout the city with another 1,100 residential buildings to be connected across various city districts in 2007. This year more than $5 million has been assigned for this project.

New Brands
Some operators also developed a separate brand especially for this market. Last summer, the company Corporation OSS started to work in this market under the brand Kivinet. 
Today the network operates in the Moskovsky and Krasnoselsky districts and also in Sestroretsk. “Development of this segment is one of our priorities. We see great opportunities on a market which, in spite of the considerable number of players and considerable growth rate, is still not quite saturated,” said Yelena Fyodorova, the director of marketing and advertising at OSS in St. Petersburg. Formerly, this operator was also known mainly for its cards.
The St. Petersburg branch of the universal operator WestCall has acted in a similar way. Their services are promoted under the brand EnterNet on the market of home networks. The first buildings to be connected were in the Krasnoselsky district, which became an area to test the efficiency of this service. By the end of 2006 the company had spread its coverage to the Tsentralny, Admiralteisky, Vasilieostrovsky and Kirovsky districts and at the beginning of this year its home network covered practically the whole city, wherever the technical resources made connection possible. 
“At the moment the company WestCall is a competitive operator on the home network market. The number of our services is increasing constantly and that gives us an advantage over other suppliers of Internet services,” said WestCall’s manager of the Home Networks project in St. Petersburg, Irina Golovina.
Another operator who has developed its own separate brand for home network is the card operator Viaton. Its pilot project works under the name of Sokovyzhimalka (Juicer) and their services are currently available in the Nevsky district, though the company has ambitions to go citywide. 
“We have carried out work on all aspects of an activity, which is new to us. Now our operators, and we work with a pool of operators under one single brand, are actively developing, and we have started to connect clients. At the same time, we have selected priority districts with which to begin, though we are trying to spread our services as far as possible. We are sure that in one or two years we’ll be among the five biggest home network operators,” said Viaton’s director for development Mikhail Khanin.

Competitive Stakes
According to experts, the movement of universals into the segment of home networks is encouraged by two obvious factors — a competitive corporate market and a more attractive private sector. 
“We already have the experience of working in the private sector — both with cards and ADSL. Moreover, we service the telephone needs of residents on Vasilievsky island,” said the commercial director of Peterstar, Pyotr Akulshin.
“At the moment St. Petersburg is at the stage of rapid growth of private broadband access that gives our company new opportunities for work with subscribers living in apartments,” he said.
From the point of view of universal operators, their appearance on the home network market has made the latter more civilized and the growing competition will force traditional players to make concessions to their subscribers.
“It is a bit early to talk about it but the tendency is obvious — many universals have entered homes and count on high consumer demand,” said Khanin. “There is already good demand which will only increase and that’s why operators want to connect as many clients as possible now to offer not only access to the Internet but local networks and other services like IP-TV and VideoOnDemand. Operators will gradually force out the small home networks and the market itself will become more civilized,” he said.
“No doubt the competition on the home network market increased even more with the coming of universal operators,” adds Victoria Kulibanova. “Universal operators have increased the opportunities for people who live in ordinary flats.” 
“It’s no secret that today it is not that easy to install an additional telephone line in a flat and to install a separate phone in a communal flat is sometimes impossible,” said Kulibanova.  
“The entry of universal operators onto the market will allow people to solve these problems at a low cost and in a short space of time,” said Golovina. 
According to Fyodorova, “Universal operators have brought in the client-based culture used on the corporate market. The appearance of big companies has roused interest and increased trust in the service itself.” 
“However, most of them are still in the process of building networks and they can’t, with the odd rare exception, boast of a considerable number of subscribers,” Fyodorova said.

Corporate Innocence
Representatives from the home network market itself look at this situation with more skepticism however. In their opinion universal operators do not differ from any other new players. “Their entry onto the market has not really been apparent. I’m afraid they have missed the opportunity of a quick and simple entry onto the market,” said Technical Director at Matrix Solutions, Oleg Lebedev. 
“Moreover, home networks are more accessible — we are closer and we react quicker to clients’ demands. The new, larger players usually have their offices in the city center, far from the homes of its subscribers,” he said. 
Similarly, the general director of AntHill, Konstantin Agafonov, said:“It is necessary to bear in mind the time factor — in most of the city districts that have potential, serious competition has already formed and there are few subscribers left. It is unlikely that the arrival of new players, at least initially, will change the situation.”

TITLE: A Shift Tempered by Circumstance
AUTHOR: By Richard Robert
TEXT: Even by late Sunday, conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy looked to be on his way to winning the French presidential election. Although belonging to President Jacques Chirac’s party, Sarkozy might adopt a different approach to foreign affairs. Contrary to a 50-year Gaullist tradition of strategic autonomy from the United States, he made significant moves toward a trans-Atlantic approach.
While Chirac built an alliance with President Vladimir Putin and has notoriously bad relations with U.S. President George W. Bush, Sarkozy has showed himself reluctant when it comes to Bush-bashing, a French national sport since the beginning of the Iraq war. During a visit to Washington in September, then-Interior Minister Sarkozy was criticized by both opponents and fellow Cabinet ministers for abandoning the official line and embarking on his own policy. During the visit, Sarkozy said, “When I think that those who disapprove of my visit with Bush are the same ones who would shake hands with Putin, I have to laugh to myself.” The signs were clearly there that the French-Russian relationship might be strongly affected with Sarkozy as president.
Even though he has since introduced a few nuances to his pro-U.S. position, recent statements continue to suggest he could forge tighter links with the United States while establishing greater distance from Russia. “If you want to know which I feel closer to — the United States or Russia, which we saw in action in Chechnya — I would have to say the United States,” Sarkozy said in April. Since the first Chechen war in 1994, the French media and people in general have tended to find fault with the Kremlin’s approach in the republic. The government, conversely, has adopted a careful position, maintaining the official line that Chechnya is a Russian internal affair. Chirac, who was first elected in 1995 and has been responsible for his country’s official diplomatic line during his presidency, was often criticized for his silence on the issue, despite his good relations with Boris Yeltsin and Putin. The nature of Sarkozy’s reference to Chechnya sends a different signal.
How much of a shift could come under Sarkozy? A closer look at the presidential election campaign provides some insight. Before his official nomination as the candidate from Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement, Sarkozy had to beat off challenges from two rivals: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and, until recently, the president himself. Chirac had been considering running for a third term, but he finally abandoned the idea in early 2007, when polls made it clear he stood little chance of success.
Both Chirac and Villepin played significant roles in the creation of the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis in the lead up to the Iraq war. In charge of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2004, Villepin worked hand in hand with Chirac to create an alliance with Putin and German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroder. A speech at the United Nations in 2003 opposing the war raised his popularity to the point that he was made prime minister in 2005 and became a serious potential presidential candidate.
Both Villepin and Chirac had a strong background in foreign affairs, which is a presidential prerogative under the French Constitution. To strengthen his candidacy, Sarkozy not only had to prove his competence in this area, but also to stake out a distinctive position.
As a result, his whole campaign has been based on the idea of a rupture with the past and distancing himself from Chirac’s legacy. Chirac’s diplomatic tack has generally garnered him support from the French and has been the highest-profile characteristic of his time in office. To be consistent with his own strategy, Sarkozy had to show his difference on this field. As a result, this provided Sarkozy with his greatest opportunity to portray himself as the candidate of the future, and not of the past.
A more pro-U.S. stance has helped Sarkozy in another way. By stating his intention to change the “French model,” Sarkozy has borrowed generously from U. S. rhetoric, regularly using the term “dream,” and from Bush’s brand of compassionate conservatism in particular. As a result, Sarkozy’s policies sometimes appear close to those of U.S. Republicans.
This does not, however, mean that he will be looking to earn the nickname “Bush’s lapdog,” as he has been labeled on occasion by his opponents. The key words of his political agenda have included sovereignty and a strong national identity. “I tell great powers, including the United States, that they are mistaken in not signing the Kyoto Protocol and that they are wrong in Iraq,” he said at a news conference this month. But his record as interior minister might raise questions as to his concerns over the Kyoto Protocol or human rights issues.
But while his campaign suggests a strong affinity with the conservative end of the U.S. political spectrum, his approach also has much in common with Putin on questions of domestic and foreign policy. His emphasis on economic patriotism and public order have more in common with Putin’s approach to governing than to Bush’s vision of a global democratic order. In the field of foreign policy, Sarkozy is not a neoconservative but a realist.
Talking about the United States, he has said, “We have common values, such as democracy.” But beyond those common values lies a deep understanding of national interest and a strong concern with public security, which he shares with Putin. So there is a greater likelihood that purely pragmatic considerations will place business interests ahead of those related to human rights, while maintaining public order and security means not alienating France’s Muslim minority by getting too close to Bush.
So Chirac’s departure could cool French-Russian relations, but it is important not to overestimate the magnitude of the change. Chirac’s internationalism was basically an attempt to boost French interests. Sarkozy will continue on this track, but using a different language that could diminish the risk of misunderstandings.

Richard Robert is the author of “The Possibility of a Center” and a founding member of the Telos think tank in Paris.

TITLE: Chelsea Relinquishes Premiership Crown
AUTHOR: By Krystyna Rudzki
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Manchester United won its first English Premier League title since 2003 without kicking a ball Sunday because Chelsea was held to a 1-1 tie at Arsenal. 
United, which beat Manchester City 1-0 Saturday, has 88 points. Chelsea is second with 81 points with two games left to play. The two play each other at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
United has won the English title nine times since the Premier League was formed in 1992 — all under manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who took over the club in 1986. United also has won seven other English titles.
“It’s a fantastic day for the club and the supporters,” said Sir Alex, who said he watched the final 15 minutes of Sunday’s game. “Over the last two years, Chelsea has dominated the Premier League, and yes, we had a big job to do to catch up with them. The key was having a good start to the season and trying to stay with them.”
Chelsea had been trying to win its third straight Premier League title. The last club to do that was Manchester United from 1999-01.
“I have to say that maybe I’m prouder today than when I was champion,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. “My players are heroes. All season, against absolutely everything, they did brilliantly.”
Chelsea needed to win to keep the title race alive, but Gilberto Silva scored from a penalty kick in the 43rd minute after Julio Baptista was brought down by Khalid Boulahrouz. The Chelsea defender was then sent off.
Michael Essien tied the score in the 70th for Chelsea, beating Arsenal defender William Gallas with a header that got past goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
United hosts West Ham on Sunday in its final game, while Chelsea hosts Everton.
Sunderland won the League Championship in rookie coach Roy Keane’s first season. Sunderland defeated Luton 5-0 on the final day to finish with 90 points. Birmingham ended second with 86 points. Both clubs already had been promoted to the Premier League.
n MADRID, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid, with David Beckham in midfield, moved into second place in the Spanish league by downing Sevilla 3-2.
Beckham, the soon-to-be Los Angeles Galaxy player, originally was suspended for the game after picking up his 10th yellow card of the season, but that was lifted Thursday. Beckham, however, received a yellow card in the closing stages of Sunday’s game and will miss next weekend’s game with Espanyol.
Ruud van Nistelrooy scored two goals in the second half for Madrid and Robinho added the other. Van Nistelrooy is now the league’s leading scorer with 20 goals.
n MILAN, Italy (AP) — AS Roma clinched second place in the Italian league by beating Palermo 2-1. 
Roma captain Francesco Totti scored his 22nd goal of the season with a swerving free kick in the 17th minute, and teammate Marco Cassetti scored in the 36th. Giovanni Tedesco had a goal for Palermo in the 86th. 
Roma has 72 points with three games to go, 11 more than third-place Lazio, which beat Livorno 1-0. 
Inter Milan, which won its second straight league title two weeks ago, has 90 points after defeating Messina 1-0, which was relegated. 
Hernan Crespo scored for Inter in the 72nd. 
n BERLIN (AP) — Werder Bremen stayed alive in the Bundesliga, with Markus Rosenberg scoring three goals in a 4-1 win over Hertha Berlin. 
Bremen trails leader Schalke by two points and second-place VfB Stuttgart by one with two games to go. Schalke and Stuttgart won Saturday. 
Rosenberg first scored on a deflected 19th-minute shot, then added a chip in the 50th and a third off Diego’s cross in the 82nd. Diego scored Bremen’s other goal in the 60th. 
Gilberto scored for Berlin, which failed to win for the sixth straight time at home. Jonas Kamper’s long shot in the 83rd minute lifted Arminia Bielefeld to a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

TITLE: ‘Bonjour’ To New First Lady
PUBLISHER: Agence France Press
TEXT: PARIS — Cecilia Sarkozy, whose husband Nicolas was elected Sunday as France’s new president, is a fiercely independent former model and PR executive unlikely to fit easily into the discreet role of first lady. 
“I don’t see myself as a first lady. It bores me. I prefer going round in combat trousers and cowboy boots. I don’t fit the mould,” the elegant 49-year-old brunette has said.
Her arrival at the Elysee will certainly send in a blast of modernity after 12 years of the Chiracs, whose bourgeois respectability sat well with the Louis XV furniture of the 18th century palace.
Like the defeated Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, Cecilia and her husband are in a relationship that flies in the face of presidential convention but which in many ways reflects the changing sociology of France.
Of Jewish-Spanish ancestry, Cecilia’s foreign roots match those of Sarkozy, who is half Hungarian and quarter Jewish. In 2004 she made a point of saying she did “not have a drop of French blood in my veins.”
Cecilia was conspicuously absent from Sarkozy’s election campaign — setting tongues wagging and reawakening memories of 2005 when the couple split for several months.
When Sarkozy entered government in 2002, Cecilia had an office in the interior ministry, but in early 2005 she disappeared from view and it was revealed she had left him for an advertising executive in New York.
A few months later they were reconciled.

TITLE: Clijsters Hangs Up Her Racket
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BRUSSELS, Belgium — Her muscles aching when she gets out of bed, Kim Clijsters is done with tennis at 23. The former U.S. Open champion, once ranked No. 1, initially planned to quit after the season. Now, with injuries having exacted too much and her thoughts turning to family and a “new life,” her retirement is immediate. 
“Health and private happiness are so much more important,” she said on her web site Sunday.
Still ranked No. 4, Clijsters said she was wary of the injuries that have led to fatigue, lack of motivation and a decline in play.
“It’s tiring to get out of bed and to use an hour just to warm up stiff muscles in the morning,” she wrote in Dutch on her online diary. “The constant injuries and continual rehabilitation ... it makes it all even more difficult to go on.”
Clijsters made the decision after losing in straight sets to Ukrainian qualifier Julia Vakulenko in her final match Thursday, failing to defend her title in Warsaw, Poland.
Clijsters has been playing for 10 years and won 34 career singles titles, including the 2002 and 2003 WTA Championships. She had wanted to go out with style, making Wimbledon the last Grand Slam tournament of her career. Instead, her summer will be marked by her July 14 wedding to Brian Lynch, a former Villanova basketball player now playing in Belgium.
“It has been more than fun, but the rackets are being hung up,” she said. “To retire before the age of 24, it is very young — but it was so beautiful. I would have been able to continue for a few months and to take part in the four most lucrative tournaments [three Grand Slams and the Masters]. Money is important, but not the most important thing in my life.”
A left wrist injury last year stopped Clijsters from defending her only Grand Slam title in New York and from playing in the Fed Cup final. She reached the 2007 Australian Open semifinals but injured her hip. She recently complained of back pain after losing in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Clijsters was Belgium’s first tennis player to reach No. 1, holding the spot for 19 weeks in 2003. But she was unlucky in Grand Slam finals — losing in 2001 and 2003 at the French Open, in 2003 at the U.S. Open and in 2004 at the Australian Open.
Belgian rival Justine Henin praised Clijsters for what she did in her career — “as a player, as a person.”
“We’ve almost grown up together and I think we’ve helped each other to come in another level because we’ve pushed each other always to play better... She did a lot for the game, for Belgian tennis for sure, and I think I will have great memories of her.”
Clijsters made an emotional farewell to her Belgian fans in Antwerp at the Diamond Games in February, where she lost the final to Amelie Mauresmo. Antwerp was her last and only tournament on home turf this season.
However, Clijsters promised her fans Sunday that she would organize another goodbye party in September.
“It is time for a new life,” she added.

TITLE: Reformer Sarkozy Wins French Presidency
AUTHOR: By Angela Doland
PUBLISHER: Agence France Press
TEXT: PARIS — French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy plans to waste no time pushing through a weighty package of pro-market, anti-crime reforms — but the first battle is winning a majority in parliament in new elections next month. 
Sarkozy, a pro-American conservative and an immigrant’s son, defeated Socialist Segolene Royal by 53.06 percent to 46.94 percent with an 84 percent voter turnout, according to final results released early Monday.
The win gave Sarkozy a strong mandate for his vision of France’s future: He wants to free up labor markets, calls France’s 35-hour work week “absurd” and plans tougher measures on crime and immigration.
“The people of France have chosen change,” Sarkozy told cheering supporters in a victory speech that sketched out a stronger global role for France and renewed partnership with the United States.
A headline Monday in Les Echos newspaper, a financial daily, read: “President Sarkozy: a wide majority for reforming the country in depth.”
Still, his task will not be easy. Sarkozy is certain to face resistance from powerful unions to his plans to make the French work more and make it easier for companies to hire and fire.
Sarkozy planned to stay out of the public eye for a few days, said Francois Fillon, an adviser often cited as a candidate for prime minister. Sarkozy “will retire to somewhere in France to unwind a little ... and to start organizing and preparing his teams,” Fillon told TF1 television.
The new president plans to take over power from outgoing leader Jacques Chirac on May 16. Fillon said Sarkozy’s new government would be installed May 19 or 20.
The election left little time for celebrating: Legislative elections are slated for June 10 and 17, and Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party needs a majority to keep his mandate for reforms. A win by the left would bring “cohabitation” — an awkward power-sharing with a leftist prime minister — which would put a stop to his plans.
Sarkozy, 52, has drawn up a whirlwind agenda for his first 100 days in office and plans to put big reforms before parliament at an extraordinary session in July. One bill would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and still another would toughen up the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France.
On election night, scattered violence was reported around France. There had been fears that the impoverished suburban housing projects, home to Arab and African immigrants and their French-born children, would erupt again at the victory of a man who labeled those responsible for rioting in 2005 as “scum.”
That abrasive style raised doubts over whether Sarkozy, himself the son of a Hungarian refugee, could unite a politically polarized, increasingly diverse nation.
Late Sunday, small bands of youths hurled stones and other objects at police at the Place de la Bastille in Paris. Some bared their backsides at riot officers behind their shields, and police fired volleys of tear gas. Two police unions said firebombs targeted schools and recreation centers in several towns in the Essonne region just south of Paris.
In Sarkozy’s victory speech, he reached out to those he has alienated in the past, promising to be president “of all the French, without exception.”
The White House said U.S. President George Bush had called to congratulate Sarkozy, who is largely untested in foreign policy but reached out to the United States in his victory speech, an indication of his desire to break from the trans-Atlantic tension of the Chirac era.
Sarkozy also made it clear that France would remain an independent voice.
The United States, he declared, can “count on our friendship,” but he added that “friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions.”
He urged the United States to take the lead on climate change and said the issue would be a priority for France. 
“A great nation, like the United States, has a duty not to block the battle against global warming but — on the contrary — to take the lead in this battle, because the fate of the whole of humanity is at stake,” Sarkozy said.

TITLE: Ovechkin Suspended as Russia Beats Switzerland
AUTHOR: By Gennady Fyodorov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Unbeaten Canada needed an overtime goal to edge the Czech Republic 4-3 and defending champions Sweden shut out Finland 1-0 to maintain its 100 percent record at the world ice hockey championship on Sunday.
Russia overpowered Switzerland 6-3 for its fifth straight victory while Slovakia beat Belarus 4-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
The Russians, however, had their best player, Washington Capitals left wing Alexander Ovechkin, suspended for hitting Valentin Wirz on the head. The Swiss was later diagnosed with a light concussion.
Last year’s NHL rookie of the year received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit.
But Ovechkin, who had faced a long suspension, was given a lenient one-game ban by the disciplinary committee of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) at its hearing late on Sunday.
He missed the top-of-the-table Group E clash against Sweden which was due to take place Monday.
Russia coach Vyacheslav Bykov defended his top player.
“I’ve talked to Ovechkin and he said the hit wasn’t intentional,” Bykov told reporters.
In Mytishchi, Canada’s Eric Staal scored the winner 23 seconds into extra time against the Czechs, who despite the loss still squeaked into the quarter-finals.
The Czechs closed out qualifying-round play with three straight defeats but the single point they earned when the third period ended in a regulation draw was enough to see last year’s runners-up and 2005 champions through and eliminate Germany.
Canada, which tops Group F with 11 points, will play the United States, who has nine, on Monday for first place.
At Moscow’s Khodynka Arena, Johan Akerman scored the only goal of the game in the first period and Johan Backlund made 38 saves for world and Olympic champions Sweden.
Kari Lehtonen could not handle Akerman’s long-range blast from the point, the puck hitting the Finnish goaltender’s glove before trickling over the goal-line.
Backlund played well in goal, turning aside all 38 shots he faced for his second shutout of the tournament.
Lehtonen finished with 20 saves for the Finns, who despite the loss guaranteed themselves third place in Group E.
Montreal Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov scored a goal and added two assists to lead Russia.
With Switzerland back on the ice less than 24 hours after its 4-1 win over Denmark and Russia well rested, the hosts, chasing their first world title since 1993, took charge of the game from the start.
They opened up a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, then held out for a comfortable win.
Pavol Demitra scored into an empty net with 39 seconds left on the clock to give Slovakia a hard-earned victory.
Belarus, needing a regulation time win to keep alive its hopes of advancing, pulled its goaltender in the final minute for an extra attacker and the Slovaks pounced, Marian Gaborik feeding his Minnesota Wild team mate Demitra in front of goal for the winner.
“We battled hard until the end and it was kind of a lucky win for us,” said Gaborik, who scored two goals.
In a battle to avoid relegation, Latvia beat Austria 5-1 to secure its place in hockey’s top echelon for another year.
Ukraine edged Norway 3-2 to keep alive its hopes of staying up.
With each team having one game remaining Ukraine, with three points, faces Austria, who has one, on Monday while Norway, with two, plays Latvia.
The top two teams stay in the top flight while the bottom two are relegated.

TITLE: Cameroon Crash Survivors ‘Unlikely’
AUTHOR: By Heidi Vogt
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MBANGA-PONGO, Cameroon — Aviation officials said Monday that a plane carrying 114 people nose-dived into a thick mangrove forest over the weekend, disintegrating on impact and making it unlikely any passengers survived. 
Villagers wielding machetes and chain saws cleared the way Monday for searchers setting out into a central African swamp where the Kenya Airways jetliner crashed Saturday.
“The plane fell head first. Its nose was buried in the mangrove swamp. It’s very unlikely that there are any survivors, but until we have completely surveyed the area, we are not going to announce that,” said Thomas Sobakam, chief of meteorology for Douala airport.
He said the search continued, however. Two other aviation officials in Cameroon, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an official determination had not yet been made, also said it was unlikely anyone survived.
The plane had taken off from Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital, and its wreckage was found just 12 miles from the town’s outskirts. The cause of the crash remained unclear.
The Nairobi, Kenya-bound plane was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew members from 27 different countries.
Among the passengers was Nairobi-based Associated Press correspondent Anthony Mitchell, who had been on assignment in the region.
Other passengers include executives from the South African cell phone giant MTN and the nephew of Indian tycoon Ramesh Chauhan, the owner of Parle Products, a leading manufacturer of cookies in India.
The wreckage was found southeast of Douala, along the plane’s flight path from Douala airport — more than 40 hours after the Boeing 737-800 lost contact with the airport. 
The crash site was concealed by a thick canopy of trees, Titus Naikuni, chief executive of Kenya Airways, told a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Sunday.

TITLE: U.S. Hosts Britain’s Queen
PUBLISHER: Agence France Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush was due to welcome Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband to the White House on Monday in what was set to become the first formal British royal visit with a U.S. leader in 16 years. 
The monarch and Prince Philip were due to be greeted on the south lawn of the White House with a 21-gun salute and the national anthems of the two countries. As the White House polished its best china and crystal tableware, 7,000 guests including diplomats, members of the U.S. Congress and cabinet and other officials chose their grandest outfits in which to attend the ceremony.
Only the most formal dress code of white-tie and tails would do for the five-course state dinner in the queen’s honor that was due to be hosted Monday evening by the president and First Lady Laura Bush.
“It will be closely watched by the social elite for its collision of cultures — Texas swagger meets British prim,” The New York Times predicted.
Bush has hosted eight official visits during his six years as president — including by leaders from Poland, Kenya, Japan and China — but it is the first time he has applied the white-tie treatment.
“The United States has no closer ally and friend than Great Britain,” the White House said in a statement detailing the tightly-coordinated protocol for the royal visit.
Arrangements for the dinner were being handled by the office of Laura Bush, who was said to be behind the idea to decree such formal attire, U.S. media reported.
The White House said the tables for the dinner would be adorned with “historically significant pieces” from its collection, including gold-rimmed china, the president’s “house crystal” and English vermeil gilded silver.
Among the 134 guests will be Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. military joint chiefs of staff, the White House said.
Lamposts near the White House were festooned with Union Jacks and U.S. flags ahead of the queen’s arrival.
The White House also said it had coordinated closely with the State Department’s Office of Protocol, which gives advice for state visits including “the proper way to address foreign dignitaries and visitors” and the dietary preferences of visitors.
After seeing a historic English settlement in Virginia and a classic horse race in Kentucky, the royal couple touched down at Andrews Air Force Base near the capital on Sunday.