SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1281 (47), Tuesday, June 19, 2007
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TITLE: FSB Probes Britain In Spy Flap
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Federal Security Service is investigating accusations of British espionage on Russian soil in what appears to be a tit-for-tat exchange after London demanded the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.
The FSB said in a statement Friday that it had opened the criminal investigation based on “Lugovoi’s statement and additional information from him about intelligence activity by the British special services on the territory of Russia.”
No other details were given, and an FSB spokesman refused to elaborate.
The British Embassy declined to comment. “It is our long-standing policy not to comment on matters of intelligence,” a spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is conducting its own investigation that has yet to yield any visible results, directed all questions to the FSB.
Lugovoi, whom Britain has charged with killing Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic and former security services officer, accused Litvinenko and businessman Boris Berezovsky at a recent Moscow news conference of having ties with the British intelligence services. He also said Berezovsky had been hired by MI6 to kill Litvinenko.
Neither Berezovsky nor Litvinenko were named in the FSB statement.
Berezovsky on Friday reiterated earlier denials of involvement with British intelligence. “I have never worked for any special services in my life, not in Britain, not in America, not in Israel, not in Russia. Not anywhere,” Berezovsky said by telephone from London, where he lives having received asylum.
Asked about Berezovsky, the British Foreign Office, which deals with MI6 inquiries, said it could not comment on intelligence matters. “That’s a long-standing policy,” a spokeswoman said.
Berezovsky is wanted in Russia on charges connected to his calling for the overthrow of President Vladimir Putin’s government and his previous business dealings in Russia. He has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
Berezovsky will be tried for embezzlement in absentia by Moscow’s Savyolovsky District Court, city court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova told Interfax on Friday. No date was named.
Berezovsky described Friday’s announcement by the FSB as an attempt to pressure British authorities into extraditing him by adding more charges against him. “Of course, I don’t fear that,” he said. “In Britain, the law is above the authorities.
“Anyway, Russia must know that if I work for MI6, I can’t be extradited,” he added, joking.
Britain has charged Lugovoi, a former Federal Security Services officer, with the murder and is demanding that Russia hand him over to face trial. Putin has called the request “stupidity,” saying Britain should know the Constitution prohibits the extradition of citizens.
Lugovoi and Litvinenko knew each other and both worked for the FSB and for Berezovsky, but were never close friends. A day before his Nov. 23 death, Litvinenko accused Putin in a statement from his London hospital bed of ordering his murder. The Kremlin has denied the allegation. Lugovoi is suspected of dropping a lethal dose of polonium-210 into Litvinenko’s cup of green tea during a meeting three weeks earlier at a London hotel. Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, who was also at the meeting, have left a trail of radiation across London and parts of Europe. Radiation was also detected in Berezovsky’s London office.
The British Embassy reiterated Friday that the Litvinenko case was “not an intelligence matter but a criminal matter,” the spokesman said.
“The question is about extradition, and we await Russia’s response to Britain’s request,” he said.
In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda published Friday, Lugovoi suggested that after the murder of Litvinenko, other opposition figures, such as former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former National Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov, could be killed in an attempt to discredit Putin.
Asked about the report, Berezovsky replied: “Lugovoi’s life is under threat itself.”
Lugovoi could not be reached for comment.
Friday’s announcement echoes a January 2006 spy scandal when the FSB accused four British Embassy staff members of spying with transmitters concealed inside fake rocks.
In August, a Moscow military court sentenced retired intelligence agency Colonel Sergei Skripal to 13 years in prison on charges of spying for Britain.
TITLE: Russian Cases Deluge Strasbourg Court
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: With a skyrocketing number of cases that originate in Russia heard in the European Court of Human Rights, appeals from war-torn regions like Chechnya sometimes cost people their lives and Russian lawyers admit helplessness against what they call “a corrupt system in which the police falsify evidence, the courts procrastinate and the state does not enforce verdicts.”
The concerns were voiced Monday at a human rights conference that brought together Russian lawyers and human rights advocates with experts from the Strasbourg court and the Council of Europe.
Angelina Kuznetsova, a spokeswoman for the St. Petersburg non-governmental organization Strategy said what makes it difficult to prove many of the cases of human rights abuse in Russia is that these cases look different on the surface and political motives are often hidden behind economic reasons.
“For instance, an opposition journalist loses their job for an attempt to publish balanced reports — but it is announced they are fired because of a restructuring or their publication’s financial problems,” said Kuznetsova.
Lawyer Clare Ovey, head of the division with the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, encouraged Russian non-governmental organizations to step in and send their materials to the court.
“It is in cases like these, which look harmless on the surface and may conceal a political motivation, when an understanding of a context, proof of a certain corrupt pattern or systematic and consistent falsifications, can play a decisive role,” she said.
But in Russia, filing a case in Strasbourg can become a matter of life and death.
Abdulla Istamulov, president of the Grozny, Chechnya-based Center for Strategic Research and Civil Society Development, said he personally knows of dozens of his compatriots who have suffered abuse — or even been killed — after they took cases to Strasbourg about the alleged torture and killings of relatives.
“A family of six people living in a village just outside Grozny was wiped out during a night raid after they filed a complaint to Strasbourg,” Istamulov said. “The complaint was about the police killing three men during a so-called mopping-up operation.”
Mopping-up operations, or zachistki, were an infamous common feature during the most-recent Chechen campaign.
Istamulov said persecution is carried out secretly and professionally, with no traces and no evidence left.
“The most painful thing is that we often even know the killers by name but have no proof against them,” he said. “It is a problem of a corrupt system, and no trial can solve it for Russia.”
Ovey said that nearly 90 percent of appeals to the court — not only from Russia — are turned down, with one of the key reasons being that not all domestic legal processes had been tried. But in Russia it can take many years to exhaust domestic legal processes — at a price that many people in the country cannot afford to pay.
St. Petersburg human rights lawyer Olga Tseitlina said that she struggles to get even basic information from law enforcement agencies.
In one case she cited, she said the Federal Migration Service took months just to confirm that a deportation had taken place.
“Procrastination is the Russian courts’ favorite tool against human rights cases,” Tseitlina said. “Even if we win a case, the results are often worthless and useless: thus, on one occasion, when we finally got the court to acknowledge that a deportation was illegal, the people had long since been deported. And when another court ruled that confiscation of publicity material for an opposition rally was illegal, the rally had already taken place — without the publicity helping people to learn about it.”
As Tseitlina points out, sometimes the verdict of a Russian court or a police protocol themselves make compelling evidence of corruption. The lawyer is currently collecting evidence to file a case against the St. Petersburg police for detaining nearly 100 people during opposition rallies on charges of swearing in a public place.
“One police protocol of detention of a person for allegedly swearing in a public place can hardly look suspicious but if we collect more than 50 identical protocols — all alleging swearing — and provide proof that the people were detained during a civil protest, then it immediately becomes clear that the protocols were contrived,” she said.
Ovey said the most ailing and recurrent problem in judgements in Russia is that domestic court decisions are routinely unenforced by the state, and the length of legal proceedings in the country, both in civil and criminal cases, is often unreasonable.
Russian lawyers working on cases of human rights violations accuse the courts of deliberately dragging the cases out in order to discourage people from standing up for their rights in cases against the state or influential businesses affiliated with the state.
Russia joined the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998. In doing so, it agreed to abide by the Strasbourg court’s decisions.
Since Russia entered the convention, the court has received about 50,000 complaints against the country.
Since 2002, Russia has been the leading member nation of the court as a source of new complaints, accounting, in 2006, for 21 percent of new complaints to the court. The court currently holds more than 20,000 complaints pending against Russia.
In 2006, Russia paid more than $480,000 of penalties for cases lost in Strasbourg. In total, penalties for all cases lost by Russia in Strasbourg amount to more than $1.6 million.
British barrister Guy Vassall-Adams, an expert with the Council of Europe, said it is hard for a nation to maintain a reputation as a responsible member of the group with so many cases being heard in Strasbourg.
“My Russian colleagues are telling me that all the court’s efforts are doomed and Russia — thriving in its oil and gas profits — is just going to ignore us,” he said. “But I disagree. Getting the authoritative judgment of the European Court of Human Rights to establish that human rights abuses have occurred, is a very effective way of publicizing the situation in a country. No country in the world likes to have this court finding a judgment against it. It is a political embarrassment, and the more cases there are, the more embarrassing it is.”
TITLE: Russia Fails in Arms Treaty Overhaul
AUTHOR: By William Kole
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Russia said Friday it could not rule out freezing its participation in a treaty limiting non-nuclear heavy weaponry around Europe after its attempt to overhaul the accord was rebuffed in what a diplomat called “fine, polite, elegant lip service.”
Organizers of an extraordinary meeting on the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty said participants failed to find common ground for a joint statement after talks that began Tuesday in Vienna.
Signatories to the accord had gathered in the Austrian capital after Moscow branded the treaty “hopelessly outmoded” and called for the special session.
“But no one listened to us. They continued to admonish us,” Anatoly Antonov, chief of security and disarmament issues at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told reporters Friday. He complained that Russia’s concerns were met with “fine, polite, elegant lip service.”
Karin Look, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for verification and arms control issues, said Washington considers the treaty “the cornerstone of security and stability in Europe,” and she said Russia’s complaints were addressed “seriously and cooperatively.”
“It’s part of this Cold War rhetoric that we keep hearing. It’s that drumbeat again,” Look said. But she said she was “heartened” by Russia’s willingness to keep talking.
Antonov said the conference was neither a tragedy nor a failure, and that the Kremlin remained open to further talks. But he said Russian President Vladimir Putin — who threatened in April that Russia might freeze its participation — would “carefully analyze and ponder” the stalemate.
“If no further results are achieved, then a moratorium could become more of a possibility,” he said. “We want to see some serious talking take place.”
The dispute has been a source of increasing friction between Russia and the NATO alliance.
On Friday, NATO issued a statement expressing regret that no agreement was reached, but it called on Russia to continue negotiations.
The United States, already clashing with Russia over a planned U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe, contends the CFE treaty is key to ensuring European security and must be maintained and strengthened.
Earlier this week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried warned against returning to what he called a “rhetorical arms race.”
The treaty, which covers military aircraft, tanks and other heavy armaments, was first signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Its goal has been to make significant cuts in the conventional military arsenals of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact states.
Russia has ratified the amended version, but the U.S. and other NATO members have refused to do so until Russian troops withdraw from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia — an issue Moscow says is unrelated.
The U.S. and its European allies have expressed concern over the troop presence and large ammunition stockpiles in Trans-Dniester, a breakaway region of Moldova. The U.S. has suggested a multinational peacekeeping force that would replace the Russian forces.
Since the treaty entered into force, more than 60,000 battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, combat aircraft and attack helicopters have been taken out of service across Europe.
Russia wants the amended treaty in full force no later than July 2008. Officials said another conference on the treaty might be held this autumn.
The Kremlin complains that the treaty prevents it from moving forces around its own territory — a situation Antonov denounced Friday as “absurd” and “intolerable.”
TITLE: Foreigner Found Dead in Moscow
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — An elderly woman from New Zealand is believed to have been killed in Russia, officials said Monday. Pamela Crane, 76, who had traveled to Russia on a British passport from Auckland, New Zealand, was last seen at a Moscow hotel where she was staying on May 29, said a spokesperson for the British Embassy in Moscow.
“A body has been found that is believed to be Crane’s,” the official said.
“A forensic examination still has to be made, but all the evidence indicates that it is Pamela,” the spokesperson said.
The official refused to say how, when or where the death occurred, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
The official said both Russian and New Zealand police were treating the case as a “suspicious death.”
Moscow police had no immediate comment on the case.
Crane, whose occupation is listed as teacher, had lived in New Zealand for 30 years and has family there.
TITLE: Iran Says Russia Won’t Share Radar Use
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it had received indications from President Vladimir Putin that he would not follow through with an offer to allow the United States to use a radar station in Azerbaijan for missile defense against Tehran.
“It seems Russia does not plan to make decisions that may cause instability and insecurity in the region, where it [Russia] is located,” ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
Russia has not publicly altered its offer to share the Gabala radar station and Kremlin officials had no immediate comment Sunday on Iran’s claim.
Hosseini said his ministry had summoned the Russian and Azeri ambassadors to discuss Putin’s surprise counteroffer to U.S. plans to install a missile defense shield in Central Europe. He said Iranian ambassadors in Moscow and Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, had also discussed the issue with their host countries.
The U.S. administration, meanwhile, said Friday that it was treating Putin’s proposal seriously — despite comments from Defense Secretary Robert Gates a day earlier that Washington intended to proceed with its missile defense plans in Central Europe.
In Brussels, Gates on Friday met briefly with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and said the two had not discussed the missile defense plans at all.
“I guess I would have to say, honestly, I was somewhat surprised,” Gates said. Gates said he did not bring the matter up in his session with Serdyukov because “I felt I’d been pretty explicit yesterday in the session so I didn’t feel the need to.” Instead, Gates said, they talked about plans for a meeting between Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush in Maine on July 1 and 2.
TITLE: Yabloko Leader Yavlinsky Ready to Run in ‘08
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Yabloko intends to nominate its leader, Grigory Yavlinsky, to run for president next year, further complicating efforts to field a single opposition candidate.
Yabloko council delegates decided Saturday to recommend that Yavlinsky be nominated at the party’s main convention in the fall, although other candidates could also be considered, including Federal Anti-Monopoly Service head Igor Artemyev and ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, Itar-Tass reported.
Yavlinsky, 55, said he would agree to run, Yabloko spokeswoman Yevgenia Dilendorf said. The announcement deals another blow to hopes of the country’s increasingly marginalized and fragmented opposition to agree on a common candidate. The movement led by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov nominated him as its candidate at a conference earlier this month. Yukos chairman Viktor Gerashchenko has said he also would run, as has Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion who has played a key role in organizing anti-government protests, and other opposition politicians have said that fielding a single candidate is the only chance to confront the Kremlin.
But Dilendorf said members of Yabloko’s council spoke strongly against any kind of alliance with Kasparov’s United Civil Front and other groups in the Other Russia movement.
SPT, AP
TITLE: Survey: Moscow Remains Costliest for Ex-Patriates
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Moscow remains the world’s most expensive city for expatriates with London close behind after rising three places due to the weakness of the dollar, said an annual cost-of-living survey to be published Monday.
Currency movements were the main factor driving multiple changes of position in the worldwide survey by leading human resources consultancy Mercer, which ranks 143 cities against each other with New York as the benchmark.
“There have been some significant changes in the rankings since last year,” said Mercer consultant Rebecca Powers. “These are primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations — in particular the weakening of the U.S. dollar and strengthening of the euro.”
Seoul was the No. 3 city, followed by Tokyo and Hong Kong, all down one from 2006. Copenhagen was up two in sixth place, Geneva unchanged in seventh, Osaka down two in eighth and Zurich and Oslo unchanged in ninth and 10 places, respectively. The survey measures the comparative costs of more than 200 items including rent, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. For example, the most expensive fast-food hamburger in a leading city is to be found in Copenhagen while the cheapest is in Beijing.
Moscow serves the most expensive cup of coffee, with the cheapest being found in Buenos Aires. Monthly rental of a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment is most expensive in Tokyo and cheapest in Johannesburg, where it costs less than one-quarter of the Tokyo price.
The annual survey normally covers 144 cities, but this year Harare has been dropped because hyperinflation there has made international cost comparisons meaningless, Mercer said.
TITLE: Parties Face Ban On Street Ads
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Political parties and candidates might be barred from using billboards in electoral campaigns, depriving opposition parties of one of their few remaining sources of widespread public exposure, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said.
The agency said in a letter to the Central Elections Committee that the use of billboards in elections violated advertising laws, a service spokeswoman said Friday.
The CEC asked the agency in April to clarify whether candidates had the right to use billboards, an elections commission spokesman said.
At issue is a March 2006 law that says “an object of advertising” is anything “intended for sale, exchange or other realization.” The law explicitly says it does not regulate political advertising, which is covered by other laws. All billboard advertising, however, is regulated by the March 2006 law.
TITLE: Russia Implores, Scolds Austria Over Spy Arrest
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Austria’s arrest of a high-ranking space official on spy charges is putting considerable strain on relations between Moscow and Vienna, which President Vladimir Putin had just last month praised as “problem-free.”
The Foreign Ministry issued a harsh statement Friday calling the detention “an unfriendly act that harms bilateral relations.”
Austrian Ambassador Martin Vukovich was called to the ministry and asked to convey to Vienna a request from Russia for the official’s release.
But the Austrian side made it clear that the case was a matter for the courts, which are independent of politics, embassy spokesman Hannes Schreiber said.
The suspect, identified by Austrian investigators as Vladimir V., was detained last Monday on a German warrant as he arrived in Salzburg by train. He is accused of offering an Austrian warrant officer 20,000 euros ($26,600) for classified information, according to Austrian media reports.
The spy dispute is unfolding just three weeks after Putin lauded Austria as a model partner in energy exports during an official two-day visit.
In an apparent reference to the good fundamentals of bilateral relations, Schreiber said the Foreign Ministry had abstained from formally summoning Vukovich but had merely “invited” the ambassador to a meeting.
Vienna prosecutors insist that the suspect be tried in Austria. “We want to put him on trial,” prosecutor’s office spokesman Gerhard Jarosch said by telephone from Vienna.
Jarosch said the Russian’s imprisonment had been sanctioned by a court and that he would be transferred from Salzburg to a prison in Vienna. Within two weeks, another court in the Austrian capital would decide whether to extend his custody, he said.
He said a German extradition request was stalled as long as Austria’s investigation was ongoing.
Jarosch stressed that the Russian was not protected by diplomatic immunity. “His passport just identified him as a government employee. It was no diplomatic passport,” he said.
Moscow, however, insists that the suspect has diplomatic status because he was a member of an official Russian delegation attending a United Nations conference in Vienna.
The Foreign Ministry criticized the arrest as a breach of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
“The incident does not strengthen Austria’s authority as a seat of UN institutions,” the ministry statement said. The Russian Embassy in Vienna had earlier filed a protest with the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
Schreiber, the Austrian Embassy spokesman, said a passport type did not necessarily define the bearer’s legal status. He said the Austrian government was working together with the UN on the question of whether diplomatic immunity applied.
While the suspect’s full name has not been revealed, he appears to be Vladimir Vozhzhov, one of 17 Russians on the official list of participants at the 50th session of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which took place from June 6 to 14. Vladimir Vozhzhov is the deputy head of the Federal Space Agency’s international relations department, according to the agency’s web site.
Space agency spokesman Igor Panarin told Rossia television that the suspect was in good health and that he hoped the situation would be settled favorably soon.
Staff members at Vozhzhov’s department, reached by telephone Friday, said they were expecting him back from a business trip to Austria later this week.
Two other space agency officials who attended the conference said they had not seen Vozhzhov there. The two, Vadim Mironov and Yury Sobakinskikh, said they had not known Vozhzhov was at the conference and learned about the arrest from media reports, Gazeta.ru reported. A third delegate, agency analyst Dmitry Paison, said he had not been aware of the news because he had been busy “arranging an exhibition.”
Vozhzhov’s precise role at the space agency was unclear. Gazeta.ru reported that he had worked in the agency since the beginning of the decade and that he traveled to Europe frequently. In January, he received an official award for his contribution to international space cooperation, the report said.
The Vienna-based magazine News wrote that Vozhzhov served as trade commissioner at the Russian Embassy in Vienna until 2001.
A deputy trade commissioner at the Russian mission in Vienna was recalled in April 2001 after his spying activities for the Russian Military Intelligence Service, or GRU, were uncovered, an official Austrian government report said.
It remained unclear Sunday what exactly the Russian could have gotten from the Austrian warrant officer, a helicopter technician who was detained last Monday, in Linz, Austria.
The Wiener Zeitung, a paper published by the Austrian government, reported that the warrant officer had access to the latest radar surveillance technology from Germany.
News said the case involved classified material from Eurocopter, a German-based unit of space and aviation giant EADS. But the Austrians do not use any equipment from Eurocopter and the company has declined any comment.
A spokesman for the Austrian Defense Ministry also declined to give details. Asked whether the case was more about military or industrial espionage, he merely said that there were “different lines of investigation.” The Austrian military intelligence service is also looking into the case, he said.
Austria has a history of serving as operation ground for secret agents, epitomized in the famous 1949 film noir “The Third Man,” based on a novel by Graham Greene.
TITLE: Low Life Expectancy Blamed on Drinking
AUTHOR: By Svetalana Osadchuk
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Drinking alcohol not meant for consumption, including antiseptics and medicines, accounts for nearly half of the deaths of working-age men in Russia, according to a new study.
British researchers found that hazardous drinking — which includes the excessive consumption of regular alcohol as well as so-called “surrogate” alcohols — caused 43 percent of deaths in the Urals city of Izhevsk, said the study, published Friday in The Lancet.
David Leon, a doctor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues studied 1,750 men aged 25 to 54 who died from 2003 to 2005 in Izhevsk. They compared those cases with 1,750 randomly selected living men in the same city. The men who died were much more likely than those who lived to consume surrogate alcohols.
“Banning surrogate alcohols doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to get a population who are upright and sober,” Leon said. “But what you’ll get is a population that takes longer to kill themselves.”
With the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the findings could be applicable to the rest of the country, said Daria Khulturina, who tracks demographics and death rates at the Presidential Academy of State Services in Moscow and is not connected to the study.
Surrogate alcohols are popular because of their low cost and their higher ethanol content compared with regular alcoholic drinks, she said. Alcohol-based medicine, for example, can cost 12 rubles to 20 rubles a bottle, while a bottle of vodka can cost 100 rubles. The amount of ethanol in the medicine is 70 percent to 80 percent, compared with 43 percent in vodka.
“The fatal dose of pure alcohol is 400 grams for the average person, but many people are ignorant about this,” Khulturina said.
This drinking problem is especially flourishing among the poor in remote and economically depressed regions, she said. The Federal Consumer Protection Service declined to comment on the study.
The country saw an outbreak of toxic hepatitis cases due to the consumption of antiseptics last fall, said Sergei Kolesnikov, a State Duma deputy and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He blamed the increase on a law on alcohol sales that came into force last July. The law asked companies to substitute isopropyl alcohol for ethanol in antiseptics, but many drinkers didn’t know about the change and were poisoned. The change was aimed at getting people to stop drinking surrogate alcohols.
Kolesnikov said, however, that he doubted surrogate alcohols were a main contributor to hazardous drinking deaths. Kolesnikov estimated that alcoholics account for 2.5 million of the country’s population of 43 million. There is no way to count those who use surrogate alcohols, he said.
The average life expectancy for men in Russia is 59 years.
One half of working-age men die before the age of 60 due to the heavy drinking of alcohol such as beer, wine and spirits, according to the State Statistics Service. The figure is four times higher than that of other countries in Eastern Europe. Sixty percent were drunk at the time of their death.
TITLE: Pope and Orthodox Leader Search for Unity
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting Orthodox leader on Saturday that he held firm hope that the Catholic and Orthodox churches could be united, despite centuries of painful division.
Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus promised the pope to sound out Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II about prospects for a groundbreaking meeting between the two.
Chrysostomos told reporters that he would pursue his offer to help organize a possible meeting when he meets with Alexy, at the patriarch’s invitation, on July 13 in Moscow.
“I’ll see what his reaction is, I think I can be useful,” he said.
Chrysostomos said Benedict’s background as a theologian with a good grasp of Orthodox theology would help the process of reuniting the two churches, which split nearly 1,000 years ago.
The Russian church accuses Roman Catholics of improperly seeking converts in areas that traditionally would be Russian Orthodox. The Vatican has rejected the proselytizing accusations, saying it is only ministering to Russia’s tiny Catholic community of about 600,000 people in a country of 144 million.
Despite “centuries-old divisions, diverging roads and despite the hard work of closing painful wounds, the Lord has never ceased to guide our steps on the path toward unity and reconciliation,” Benedict said at a ceremony after the two men held private talks for more than 30 minutes.
Both men also had a two-hour lunch together. In a joint signed statement, they pledged to “intensify the search for full unity among all Christians.”
Benedict described the archbishop’s visit as a “very useful initiative to make us progress toward the unity desired by Christ.”
One major difference between both sides is the Vatican’s teaching of pope supremacy.
“This is a question being discussed on theological level in dialogue,” Chrysostomos said. “I am certain a day will come when we will have one flock with one shepherd, even if we won’t be able to see it in our days.”
The Vatican sees the Orthodox church as a logical partner in its efforts to push its conservative agenda on bioethical, social and moral issues, including opposition to embryonic stem cell research, abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
TITLE: Bones Found in a Meadow Revive Memories of Nazi Horrors
AUTHOR: By Natasha Lisova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GVOZDAVKA-1, Ukraine — As children watched in the hot sunshine, a dozen rabbis scoured a Ukrainian village meadow for bones — the fragmented remains of Jews systematically murdered here in the Holocaust.
People who live in Gvozdavka-1 know that thousands of Jews were killed in the area during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, but the evidence didn’t surface until April, when workers laying gas pipes happened on the burial ground.
This week, the rabbis — including three Holocaust scholars from Israel and the United States — spent several hours hunting for bones, which they immediately shoveled back into the ground.
For 70 years, Gvozdavka-1’s villagers planted vegetables and grazed cows on the meadow, and told their children horrific stories about thousands of Jews executed in the village, 180 kilometers northwest of Odessa.
“My grandmother frightened me with this story. What happened here is horrible,” said Vika Bengul, 14, who often played in the meadow.
In November 1941, Romanian troops allied with the Nazis set up a concentration camp in Gvozdavka-1, where about 5,000 Jews perished, according to regional Jewish leaders. Jews were brought here from several regions of Ukraine, as well as from what is now Moldova, they said.
Each day several cartloads of Jews arrived, villagers say. Some Jews were executed, while others died of starvation or disease.
“They extended their hands through the camp fence begging for food,” said Olha Tomachenko, 78. “We threw potatoes and bread to them.”
Tomachenko recalled how the inmates lived in the open, drenched by rain, freezing in the winter. “They gave birth to their kids and died at the camp,” she said.
Yakov Ruza, rabbinical representative at the Israeli government’s L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine, said there were plans to fence off the site and put up a monument, but not to exhume the dead or try to identify them.
“We want to cover the place,” he said. “These holy Jews will stay where they are.”
Villagers say the mass grave is only one of at least four in Gvozdavka-1.
“They buried them everywhere,” said Olha Korsya, 80.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Storm Kills 3
MOSCOW (SPT) — A fierce storm swept across Urals and Volga River regions over the weekend, killing three people and injuring 52, including three children, RIA-Novosti reported Sunday.
The storm, which started Friday afternoon, saw wind gusts of up to 180 kilometers per hour that knocked down electricity lines, tore off roofs and uprooted trees, the report said.
Two people died in the Chelyabinsk region and one in Bashkortostan. Fifteen people were hospitalized. Tatarstan and Mordovia were also affected.
9 Die in House Fire
MOSCOW (AP) — A fire tore through a house in Bashkortostan early Sunday, killing nine people, including four children, emergency officials said.
The adult victims were drunk and neglected safety, leading to the high death toll, said Yevgeny Gerbin, spokesman for the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry. The cause of the fire was not known
Football Senator
MOSCOW (SPT) — Former football player Dmitry Alenichev has been named senator to the Federation Council.
Alenichev will represent Omsk in the chamber after the region’s legislature approved his candidacy Thursday. He had been nominated by United Russia.
Alenichev, a former Spartak Moscow captain, won the Champions League and the UEFA Cup while playing for Portuguese side Porto. He retired from football last year.
Flight Attendant Jailed
MOSCOW (SPT) — A court in the Norwegian city of Tromso has sentenced a Russian flight attendant to 60 days in prison for being drunk on duty during an April flight from Murmansk, Interfax reported Friday.
The unidentified, 37-year-old woman was detained when the flight arrived in Norway, and the return flight was delayed by two days as police investigated a passenger’s complaint about her behavior, the report said.
The airline was not identified.
Space Computers Fixed
HOUSTON (Reuters) — Faulty computers on the international space station were fully revived over the weekend, but crewmembers admitted the problem had worried them and served as a reminder that spaceflight is dangerous.
Station commander Fyodor Yurchikin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov on Saturday rewired the bank of computers to bypass a power outlet that NASA and Russian space officials believe may have caused them to crash last Monday.
The computers, which are German-made and use Russian software, are critical because they keep the space station properly positioned for solar power generation and communications.
For the Record
A passenger train rammed into the back of a cargo train in the Voronezh region on Sunday, injuring 32 people, including two children, emergency officials said. The cause of the crash was under investigation. (AP)
n Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, who was diagnosed with poisoning last month in what he called an assassination attempt, is undergoing treatment in Turkey and “feeling well,” his office said late last week. (AP)
n Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday refused to rule out running for a new term after 2012, saying the decision would depend on his health and public opinion. (AP)
TITLE: Russia Seeks Aid Over Emissions
AUTHOR: By Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia sees the European Union as the nation’s “main partner” for cleaning up industry to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov said Friday.
“For us, joint implementation projects are of No. 1 importance because they channel investment into cutting emissions,” Sharonov told representatives of foreign governments and institutions including the World Bank in Moscow.
Russia, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States and China, “will not exceed its obligations” for carbon dioxide emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and will use the global accord’s mechanisms to attract investment, Sharonov said.
The Kyoto Protocol requires its participating countries to cut their carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 5.2 percent by 2012. Russia ratified the accord in 2004, while the United States refused to ratify it, citing the cost to industries.
Russia could produce 300 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent reduction units, a type of credit created under the Kyoto pact, between 2008 and 2012, Sharonov said. He added that the government has not established the limit for the number of these units at this time.
“Western companies can come in, increase environmental efficiency” of Russian enterprises “for relatively little money and sell the credits that would be created on external markets,” Sharonov said on the sidelines of Friday’s meeting. He also said that Russian companies are welcome to participate in such projects.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Russia is less expensive than in countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development because Russia is starting from a lower base, he said. Because of low energy efficiency and aging equipment, cutting a ton of emissions costs from $5 to $25 in Russia, compared with from $50 to $100 in the OECD countries, Sharonov said.
Companies that build projects to cut emissions can sell credits approved by a United Nations board, according to the Kyoto Protocol provisions, which came into force in February 2005.
Increasing energy efficiency, cutting emissions in the housing and utilities industries and decreasing methane gas leaks to improve the safety of mines are among Russia’s top priorities for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, Sharonov said.
Some 29 projects for improving the emissions standards at domestic companies have already been submitted to the Kyoto secretariat for approval, Sharonov said. The average cost of these projects is from 10 million euros ($13.3 million) to 50 million euros, he said.
TITLE: Governor Presses Ahead on Banning Casinos
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Gambling enterprises in St. Petersburg will be abolished from Jan. 1, 2008 — sooner than a federal law requires — after Governor Valentina Matviyenko signed a decree to that effect last week, the governor’s press service said in a statement.
According to City Hall, 21 casinos and 571 gaming halls operate in St. Petersburg, with about 75 percent of gaming halls located in residential buildings. Matviyenko suggested using their premises for retail, banking and other services and retraining their employees.
Speaking at a government meeting earlier this year, Matviyenko said that discontent among gambling entrepreneurs and the loss of 2.5 billion rubles of locally-raised taxes would not prevent her from signing the decree. The taxes could be replaced by other tax sources, Matviyenko said, while owners of the gambling enterprises could also use their premises for other purposes.
Seventeen casinos, however, will be given a waiver to operate in St. Petersburg until July 1, 2009 — the deadline defined by a new federal law regulating gambling business.
According to the federal law, by July 1, 2007, gambling companies and casinos should increase net assets to 600 million rubles, and bookmakers increase net assets to 100 million rubles in order to be licensed. Payout ratio should be more than 90 percent, and the number of machines and gaming tables in the hall and the size of the halls are also regulated.
Gambling is prohibited in residential houses, educational and medical institutions, resorts, railway buildings and trains, sea ports, airports, transport hubs, sports facilities, and state and municipal buildings.
All enterprises that do not meet the requirements should be closed by July 1, 2007. By July 1, 2009 all gambling enterprises will move to four limited areas — to the Kaliningrad Oblast, Altai in the Far East and a boundary area between Rostov Oblast and Krasnodarsky Krai.
The law also prohibits bookmakers to operate via the Internet and other telecom networks, although they could be based outside the four selected gambling zones.
A few months ago analysts were still positive about the prospects of the gambling industry in Russia. In February, this year Moody’s international rating agency wrote a statement saying that restrictions prescribed by the federal law could affect some small companies and would not damage cash flows of large companies like Ritzio Entertainment.
The second stage of the law is not due to be enacted until July 2009, Moody’s experts said, and suggested that “in the interim its content could be significantly altered.”
“New changes will be more than acceptable for us, primarily due to our resources, the best financial indicators in the industry and our experience on the Russian market,” Oleg Boyko, president of Ritzio Entertainment Group, said in a statement. Boyko listed “higher stability and transparency, and an improved quality of services” as positive results of the new legislation. Besides, Ritzio Entertainment plans to continue expansion to Eastern Europe and Latin America, he said.
At the moment most of the companies comment on the situation unwillingly and are generally pessimistic.
“We are a law-abiding company. We will act according to the law,” said Alexander Yebralidze, general director of OAO Taleon.
“We do not plan to move our business to any gambling zones. We have our own opinion on how the gambling business should develop, but nobody cares about our opinion,” Yebralidze said.
“The federal law was enacted only in the last six months. We are still waiting to see how it will be actually exercised after July 1. Meanwhile it would be unwise to make any comments or serious moves,” another industry player said on the condition of anonymity.
“Many regions have much smaller budgets compared to St. Petersburg and they did not think about the loss in taxes when they introduced their decrees.”
According to Association of Gambling Business Entrepreneurs, only in four Russian regions did legislative assemblies refrain from the prescheduled abolishment of gaming halls. In 54 regions local deputies voted for complete or partial abolishment of gambling business either after July 1, 2007 or Jan. 1, 2008.
In St. Petersburg last year, taxes from gambling enterprises decreased by 162.5 million rubles while total income of the budget increased by 23 billion rubles.
TITLE: Some Love May Close The Oil and Gas Gap
AUTHOR: By Simon Shuster
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A bit like a Hilton sister thrown in jail, the Russian oil and gas sector is finally getting some love, or at least some attention, as analysts start predicting a sharp and short-lived comeback for an industry that’s hit rock bottom.
As of the start of last week’s trading, hydrocarbon stocks were down 18 percent year to date, as high taxes, rising costs and fears of a drop-off in the global oil price have sapped investor confidence.
Since they still represent more than half of the value of the Russian market, energy blue chips have driven a 17 percent wedge between the RTS index (down 3 percent) and the average emerging market (up 14 percent) so far this year.
“The gap has become gaping,” said Caius Rapanu, oil and gas analyst at UralSib, and the realization that the biggest stocks are undeniably cheap has led to a market-wide rally.
Gazprom (GAZP) ended the three-day week of trading up 9.4 percent, recovering half the ground it had lost this year. Rosneft (ROSN) gained 3.4 percent for the week, and LUKoil was up 4.1 percent. As a whole, the RTS gained 4.7 percent last week.
A similar jump took place two weeks ago, with the blue chips leading as usual, but was followed by another dour week of trading that shaved 1.7 percent off the RTS.
Last week’s rally has a better chance of holding strong, however, as it has become more apparent in recent weeks that second-quarter earnings reports in the oil and gas sector would not disappoint. In March and April, crude export duties were unusually low relative to the global price of crude, which averaged near $63 per barrel in the second quarter of this year.
“When the market starts pricing in those expected earnings, we’re going to see a more sustained rally,” said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital.
“The indicators are there, and people are beginning to talk about it. It could happen right now, or it could be as late as July,” Nash said.
Morgan Stanley, which is traditionally more bearish on Russia than most banks, upgraded the Russian market Friday, advising investors to boost its weighting in their portfolios.
Also Friday, the price of crude in New York hit a nine-month high of $68 per barrel, a level which could find short-term support from the U.S. summer driving season, when demand usually peaks, and from repeated promises by OPEC that it will not raise supplies in coming months.
But fundamentally, nothing has changed for the oil and gas firms. They still face a suffocating tax regime and growing cost-side pressure from the need to develop new fields.
The expected recovery will therefore be speculative and is not expected to last.
“One bank upgrades, and everybody looks around and says, ‘Hey, maybe I should upgrade, too,’” he said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that feeds on itself.”
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Kaliningrad Flights
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Kaliningrad based airline KD Avia has begun regular transit flights from Russia to Europe through Khrabrovo airport in Kaliningrad, Interfax reported Friday.
Twelve Boeing 737-300 planes will fly four to six times a week from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Ufa, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen to Europe. The destinations include London, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hanover, Munich, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Kiev and Athens.
Recruitment Merger
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — ANCOR Holding, the largest recruitment company in Russia, and Unistaff Group will merge their assets, ANCOR said Monday in a statement.
As a result of the merger, Unistaff Professional Recruitment and Unistaff Mass Recruitment subdivisions will be transferred to ANCOR, while the Payroll Department of ANCOR Holding Company will be made part of Unistaff Payroll Services.
Unistaff operates in 23 regions of Russia. ANCOR’s regional network includes 27 offices in Russia, three offices in Ukraine and an office in Minsk. ANCOR’s turnover amounted to two billion rubles last year.
The merger will be completed by September 2007.
More Dough
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Khlebny Dom bakery increased net profit by 77 percent last year up to 584.35 million rubles, according to Russian accounting standard, RBC news agency reported Friday.
Khlebny Dom will pay 51.576 million rubles in dividends for 2006. Dividend per one share was approved at 30 kopeks.
Seventy-nine percent of shares of Khlebny Dom are owned by Fazer Group.
Iskrasoft Hard Profit
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Iskrasoft retail chain increased net profit by 43 percent last year up to 16.1 million rubles, according to IFRS, Interfax reported Monday.
Gazprom Urals Deal
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom agreed Friday to buy gas from Urals Energy’s Dulisma field in eastern Siberia.
Gazprom and London-based Urals Energy signed a preliminary agreement to jointly finance construction of pipelines in the Irkutsk region, the gas company said in a statement Friday. The companies may also develop gas processing, petrochemicals and power ventures.
LUKoil in the East
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — LUKoil proposed setting up a group of companies, led by Gazprom, to develop gas fields in the Far East and eastern Siberian, Interfax said, citing LUKoil CEO Vagit Alekperov at a government meeting Friday.
The areas could produce more than 200 billion cubic meters per year of gas after 2030, Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Ananenkov told the meeting.
Eni-Kazakh Link?
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Bloomberg) — Eni wants Kazakhstan’s state-run KazMunaiGaz to take part in a planned oil pipeline project that will connect Samsun on the Black Sea to Ceyhan in Turkey, Interfax reported Friday.
“We would be very happy if KazMunaiGaz became one of the participants in the project,” Stefano Cao, Eni’s general manager of exploration and production, said Sunday in Ust-Kamenogorsk, cited by the news agency.
Gas Exports Up
LONDON (Bloomberg) — Gazprom will get more for the fuel because of higher crude oil prices, brokerage Troika Dialog forecast in a report for clients Friday.
Gazprom’s export gas price will average $245 a 1,000 cubic meters in 2011, up from the earlier forecast of $209, the report said.
3 Pipes to China?
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — China and Russia may build three cross-border natural gas pipelines, China Daily reported Friday, citing a researcher at China’s CNPC.
The first pipeline will have a capacity to transport 34 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia’s Irkutsk to Daqing in northeastern China, the newspaper reported Friday, citing Li Guoyu.
The second pipeline will be able to pump 30 bcm of the fuel from Siberia to Lunnan in China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang, the report said. The third will run from Sakhalin to China and will be able to transport 15 bcm per year, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Coke Tariff Suspended
MOSCOW (REUTERS) — Russia has suspended a 6.5 percent tariff on coke produced from coal for nine months, the government said Friday.
The announcement was published on the government’s web site. A resolution suspending the tariff will become effective one month after it is published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Springer Denies Sale
MOSCOW (SPT) — Axel Springer Russia has denied reports that it sold the Russian edition of Forbes magazine to Rodionov publishing house, Interfax said Friday.
“Rumors that Forbes was sold to Rodionov Publishing House are not true,” Axel Springer Russia assistant director Peter Krueger said, Interfax reported.
Earlier media reports had claimed that sale of the business publication to Rodionov had neared completion. Rodionov is half-owned by billionaire Iskander Makhmudov, according to Forbes.
Venezuela Not Buying
CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Isaias Baduel denied reports the government is planning to buy submarines from Russia, the state’s Bolivarian news agency reported Friday.
Venezuela’s recent increase in arms purchases is aimed at building up the country’s defensive capabilities, Baduel said, cited by the state news agency.
$5 Bln Nuclear Plant
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia will spend 130 billion rubles ($5 billion) on building a nuclear plant in Novovoronezh as the state seeks to expand atomic energy capacity and cut reliance on fossil fuels, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
Engineering company Atomenergoproject will build a two-reactor plant with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts in Novovoronezh, western Russia, the agency said. The facility will start by 2012, it said.
German Satellite
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian-built rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome Friday, sending a German satellite into orbit and providing a bit of good news for Russia’s efforts to boost its profile in the commercial launch industry.
The Federal Space Agency said the Dnepr rocket carrying the TerraSAR-X satellite lifted off from Baikonur at 6:14 a.m. local time. The state-run German Aerospace Center, which jointly developed the craft along with EADS Astrium, said in a statement that the satellite reached orbit a short time later.
TITLE: Russian Pharmaceutical Market Set For Growth
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The global pharmaceutical market will more than double in value to $1.3 trillion by 2020, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report published last week. Russia is among the countries where consumption of medicines is expected to grow dramatically. The experts suggested that the industry must transform in order to capitalize on the opportunities.
“The Russian pharmaceutical market looks quite promising at the present time, even despite certain difficulties. The sector is developing rapidly on account of general economic growth and increased standards of living among the population,” said Alina Lavrentiyeva, Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia’s Pharmaceutical Industry group.
By 2020, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey could account for one fifth of global pharmaceutical sales, PwC reports.
Growth of the markets in those countries is driven by soaring demand for medicines and preventative treatments as the population grows, ages and becomes more prosperous. GDP in those seven countries is expected to triple during the next 13 years – from $5.1 trillion in 2004 to $15.7 trillion in 2020.
Despite being a big player on the global pharmaceutical market, Russia should improve its system of health care and medicines distribution in the next few years to meet the new realities, the experts indicated.
The problem is set to grow as the population ages. According to demographic forecasts, by 2020, 15.2 percent of Russians will be 65 or older, compared with just seven percent of those living in India. Russia will become more like a developed country in terms of an increasing demand for medical services and effective medicines.
“The potential capacity of the market and the opportunities for growth it presents is giving rise to great interest on the part of investors. Moreover, there is a foundation in place for research and development of medicines in Russia. All of these factors allow us to positively assess the prospects for future growth in the Russian pharma sector,” Lavrentiyeva said.
However, the PwC report indicates that the current pharmaceutical industry business model is economically unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly enough to produce the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets.
Pharmaceutical companies suffer from poor financial performance, growing sales and marketing costs and increased legal and regulatory constraints.
“The pharma industry will not be in a strong position to capitalise on opportunities unless R&D productivity improves. The core challenge for the industry is a lack of innovation. The industry is investing twice as much in R&D as it was a decade ago to produce two-fifths of the new medicines it then produced. It is simply an unsustainable business model,” said Steve Arlington, global pharmaceutical research and development advisory leader at PwC.
The report suggests focusing investment more on research and less on sales and marketing and more on prevention instead of treatment. It will lead to the wider use of health management, wellness programs, monitoring, vaccinations and other value-added services.
Solutions to monitor and ensure that patients are fully compliant with their medications could generate more than $30 billion of revenue a year in new sales, the report said.
The industry will have to reduce its sales force and, probably, introduce “just-in-time” manufacturing and delivery techniques.
Earlier this year German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer Schering Pharma announced a strategy of focusing on innovative and specialized high value-added medications.
“Our strategic goal is to increase the share of innovative medications for specialized therapy up to 70 percent of total sales,” Manfred Paul, head of Bayer Schering Pharma in Russia, said in April at a news conference in St. Petersburg.
The company spends 15 percent to 17 percent of its revenue on R&D. Last year global sales exceeded 10 billion euros ($13.5 million). In Russia, Bayer Schering Pharma sales accounted for 150 million euros last year. This year the company expects sales amounting to 185 million euros.
TITLE: Postal Professionals Gather For Forum
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The growing competition that traditional postal services face against new information technologies, the liberalization of the industry and its survival in the internet era are all topics set to be discussed in St. Petersburg starting Tuesday, when postal industry professionals from around the world gather at the Pochtovaya Troika event.
The postal industry forum, which ends Thursday, is held every two years and this year, organizers say, the event will be particularly significant for the industry as it is held between two important international events — the Strategic Conference in Dubai of the year 2006 and the Nairobi Congress — scheduled for 2008.
“Realizing the need to hold a strategic forum of this level at this particularly significant time for the postal community, we commit ourselves to organizing an event that will be noted for its rich and challenging content, its discussion of the vital questions and the interactivity of its debates,” Pochtovaya Troika’s website reads, introducing the international event.
The forum’s program is planned in such a way as to become a logical follow-up to discussions and debates that are expected to start during the Strategic Conference in Dubai; in addition, it is a part of the communication plan of the Strategic Planning Group of the UPU, chaired by the Russian Federation, the website continues.
For the first time, this year the forum will become “strategic,” which will be reflected in the event’s agenda, Russian Minister for Information Technologies and Communications Leonid Reiman — due to take part in the forum’s opening ceremony — said in a welcome note to guests and participants of Pochtovaya Troika.
“During forthcoming discussions, Pochtovaya Troika delegates are going to work out further plans of development for the postal sector in the circumstances of globalization and increasing competition in the world economy,” Reiman said.
With the development of new information technologies including the internet, communication through the means of the simple letter has increasingly become a thing of the past. But contrary to the popular belief that the post service will be obsolete in the foreseeable future, industry experts are positive and say postal services will always find a market.
Sergei Grigorenko, the public director of the Russian national postal service Russian Post, which organized the event, said: “We still hear opinions that given the development of the new communication technologies, post will die soon. But this judgment is wrong.”
“The post today is an essential addition to electronic services. Take online shopping, for example. In any case the delivery goes through the post service,” Grigorenko told The St. Petersburg Times on Monday.
“They say people have stopped writing letters to each other. Maybe so, but, on the other hand, the post is still in high demand. Through delivering various bills, notifications and other official papers and business correspondence our business grows every year,” he said.
Concurrent with Pochtovaya Troika, St. Petersburg, the city where the first national postage stamp was issued 150 years ago, will host the St. Petersburg World Philately Exhibition until July 25 in the Manege Central Exhibition Hall.
TITLE: Executives Join Ivanov’s Nanotech Board
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Billionaires Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Alexei Mordashov, Mikhail Prokhorov and Alexander Abramov will take seats on the government’s new nanotechnology council, Kommersant reported Friday.
The body will be headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and aims to foster nanotechnology in the country, the newspaper said, citing a government resolution. Nanotechnology is the science of building devices from single atoms and molecules.
Abramov and Mordashov, who head steelmakers Evraz Group and Severstal, respectively, were named to the council as part of a quota from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Kommersant reported.
Yevtushenkov, controlling shareholder of Sistema, wants to develop nanotechnology for his Sitronics unit, while Prokhorov, a co-owner of Polyus Gold, has set up a fund for nanotechnology projects, the newspaper said. Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov will also sit on the council, Kommersant said.
The council aims to ensure coordination among the authorities and businesspeople and scientists, the government said on its web site last week.
Rosneft declined to say why Bogdanchikov had joined the council and Yevtushenkov and Abramov did not explain their interest, Kommersant said. Yevtushenkov said, “I was asked — I agreed,” while Mordashov “received an invitation and he agreed,” the newspaper said.
Bloomberg, SPT
TITLE: Evraz Merges Its 2 Siberian Coal Firms
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Steelmaker Evraz, partially owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, will merge its two coal mining companies, creating the world’s third-largest producer of coal for the metals industry, the group announced Friday.
Evraz will seek to improve safety at the Siberian coal companies, Raspadskaya and Yuzhkuzbassugol, in an effort to prevent any repetition of the underground explosions that claimed 149 lives at Yuzhkuzbassugol this year, it said.
“Through [this merger] we will create a Russian coking coal leader and a top-three global coking coal producer,” Evraz chairman and CEO Alexander Frolov said in a statement.
The combined company will be the world’s largest coal miner after Australia’s BHP Billiton and Japan’s Mitsui, Evraz spokeswoman Irina Kibina said.
Raspadskaya and Yuzhkuzbassugol cumulatively produced 21.3 million tons of coking coal, or some 30 percent of the country’s output, last year, according to Kibina and Raspadskaya’s web site.
The companies ship more than half of their coking coal to Evraz mills in Siberia for steel production, and that will remain unchanged after the merger, Kibina said. They supply the rest to various other steelmakers in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Unlike most global steel producers, Russian companies prefer to own coal mines to ensure continuity of supply — a tradition that comes from the tumultuous 1990s, a time when contracts were not always honored.
“It makes them extremely profitable,” said Anthony Trickett, a raw materials expert at the International Iron and Steel Institute.
Western steelmakers are now struggling to keep their raw materials inflow at the levels that meet their growing demands, in part because Australia — one of the main suppliers — has railroad restraints, he said.
World prices for coking coal have been rising sharply over the past two years as a result of supply problems, especially at Chinese mills.
Evraz could get an even greater edge over competitors because the synergy of the merged companies could make their product cheaper, said Valentina Bogomolova, an analyst at Alfa Bank.
Raspadskaya CEO Gennady Kozovoi will take the helm at the new entity. Improving safety standards at the mines of the combined company will be a top priority, he said in the statement.
A methane explosion killed 110 Yuzhkuzbassugol miners in March, and another 39 died in a blast at another mine owned by the company two months later.
Evraz earlier this month completed a deal to buy the half of Yuzhkuzbassugol that it didn’t already own. It didn’t exercise operational control of the company at the time of the blasts. The stake has been valued at between $500 million and $750 million, but Evraz is widely expected to enjoy a discount.
Evraz also owns 40 percent of Raspadskaya through Corber Enterprises Limited. Another 40 percent in Raspadskaya belong to its managers while the remaining 20 percent of shares are publicly traded on Russian stock exchanges.
Upon completion of the merger, Raspadskaya will fully own Yuzhkuz-
bassugol.
Evraz expects to finalize the terms of the merger in the second half of the year.
TITLE: Kovykta License Delayed
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency has put off a decision on the Kovykta gas field run by a subsidiary of BP’s joint venture, TNK-BP, officials said Friday.
The agency’s committee had already postponed the decision by two weeks on June 1.
A spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Ministry, however, said that due to public holidays earlier last week, that deadline had now been extended.
“The committee has put it off. It could be a week or two, I’m not sure,” the spokeswoman said Friday.
“There won’t be a decision on Kovykta today,” the spokeswoman said.
Another official at the ministry said there would be no more meetings about Kovykta, just a decision — but not yet.
“The decision on Kovykta will be taken within days. The holidays were quite long. This is why the decision won’t be taken on Friday,” the official said.
A TNK-BP spokesman declined to comment.
The delay gives more time for TNK-BP and BP to reach a deal with gas monopoly Gazprom before the license to operate Kovykta is stripped.
Reuters, Bloomberg
TITLE: Time Both Free & Costly
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The pace of modern life is constantly increasing, and people are finding themselves with less and less free time. But this is happening at different rates in different countries. Russians, for example, are more concerned about lacking money than having free time.
The predictions made by the futurologists of the 1960s seem comical today. They thought that by the 21st century, the introduction of new timesaving technologies would lead to a significant reduction of the average workweek, six months of vacation per year and a boom in the amount of work done from home. Alvin Toffler, the author of the bestsellers “Future Shock” and “The Third Wave,” predicted that special leisure consultants would be needed to help people cope with the extra time on their hands.
The forecasts have not become reality. Instead, polls and surveys repeatedly indicate that people feel they have too little time. Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain recently published a study of how quickly pedestrians move on sidewalks. He found that this indicator for the speed of urban life has risen by 10 percent over the last decade. How fast pedestrians walk, according to Wiseman, demonstrates how much they believe can be gained by hurrying. People slept an average of more than nine hours per day at the beginning of the last century, according to Russell Foster, a chronobiologist at Oxford University, and the figure was still more than eight hours in the 1960s. Today that figure is only about six hours.
For the Japanese fiscal year covering 2006 and 2007, according to the country’s Health Ministry, 355 people fell ill or died from work-related exhaustion, an increase of almost 8 percent from the previous year.
A survey by Harris Interactive revealed that the main sources of stress for Americans were rising prices, too much work, a lack of free time and the fear that some unseen circumstance would leave them critically short of money. In a new survey by pollster FOM, more than half (57 percent) of Russians say they have enough free time, and 4 percent even said they had too much. Just 26 percent of respondents said they had too little free time, and a significant number of these were people with higher educations (36 percent), residents of large urban centers (35 percent), people with high incomes (32 percent), and those from 18 to 35 years of age (31 percent). A lack of free time is not a major problem for most Russians. Fifty percent of those surveyed said their main problem was a lack of money.
When the question is money, Russian attitudes are closer to those of people in developing nations than those in the developed world. Having too much free time is unusual. According to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations body, 22 percent of the world’s work force puts in more than 48 hours per week on the job, with the majority of overtime registered in developed countries. Russia and Moldova, meanwhile, finished lowest in the report with regard to overtime worked. Just 3.2 percent of Russians work 50 or more hours per week.
The problem doesn’t just arise from the difficulty of keeping track of overtime given the widespread presence of informal work arrangements or the widespread use of cheap, temporary manual labor. The problem is that companies still aren’t getting as much out of their labor pools as they might.
Even ignoring the fact that salaries have been rising faster than labor productivity —average salaries rose by 15.5 percent and labor productivity by just 7.8 percent over the first quarter of the year, according to data from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry — the average Russian worker still offers a bigger return than his or her Western counterpart. Every additional dollar paid as labor compensation in Russia generates an increase in production worth of $2.60, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, while the return in Europe is just $1.14.
This comment first appeared in Vedomosti.
TITLE: Dictatorships vs. Democracies
AUTHOR: By Alvaro Vargas Llosa
TEXT: A group of European readers recently wrote to me, arguing that from an economic point of view, dictatorships have been outperforming democracies for many years and that if the trend continues there will be very little incentive to replace autocrats with the rule of law.
This is an old discussion that resurfaces from time to time. The success enjoyed nowadays by autocracies awash in natural resources has reignited it. A recent article in the online magazine American.com measures economic performance against the degree of political and civil freedom existing in various nations. The conclusion is that in the last 15 years, the economies of nations ruled by despots have grown at an annual rate of 6.8 percent on average — 2 1/2 times faster than politically free countries. Those autocracies that have opened their markets in recent decades but continued to restrict or prevent democracy — China, Russia, Malaysia and Singapore, for example — have done better than most of the developed or underdeveloped countries that enjoy a considerable measure of political and civil freedom.
It would be silly to deny that a dictatorship can boast sound economic results. Any political system, free or otherwise, that removes some obstacles to entrepreneurship, investment and trade, and makes a credible commitment to safeguard property rights to a certain extent will trigger a virtuous economic cycle. Spain’s Francisco Franco and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew discovered that in the 1960s, as did China’s Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 1970s, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet in the 1980s and many others at various times.
But this is not the end of the story. Of the 15 richest countries in the world, 13 are liberal democracies. The other two are Hong Kong, a Chinese territory that enjoys far greater civil liberties than mainland China, and Qatar, where the abundance of oil and natural gas and the tiny population translate into high per capita income.
What this picture really tells us is that stability and reliability are most important when it comes to economic prosperity over the long term. Spain, a modern success story, has seen its wealth double since 1985 and yet at no point in the last quarter-century did the Spaniards achieve annual growth figures comparable to those of China. Similarly, the U.S. economy has grown by a factor of 13 since 1940, but never experienced “Asian” growth figures.
When the environment in which the economy breathes depends on institutions rather than on the commitment of an autocrat or a party, stability and reliability generate the sort of long-term results that we call “development.” That is probably why Chile’s economic performance after Pinochet compares favorably to the years when the general was in power. This is not to mention the fact that dictatorships that enjoy economic success are heavily dependent on technology invented in countries where exercising a creative imagination does not land one in jail.
Another reason dictatorships are outperforming liberal democracies has to do with the fact that many of the democratic examples are fully developed. Once a country starts to move forward, spare capacity and unrealized potential tend to allow it to grow faster than developed nations. Furthermore, if we consider that China is a disproportionately big component of the group of unfree nations outperforming liberal democracies, the growth rate gap is not surprising.
In fact, liberal democracies can compete favorably with dictatorships even in the short term. India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is a liberal democracy. So is Peru, which has an economy experiencing 7 percent annual growth. These are imperfect democracies, for sure. But the recent success indicates that elections, freedom of the press and freedom of association can coexist with high economic growth.
From a moral point of view, the relative prosperity that a dictatorship can trigger is a double-edged sword — it brings relief to people who are otherwise oppressed but also serves as an argument for the indefinite postponement of political and civil liberty.
Two things are certain, however. First, history indicates that the combination of political, civil and economic freedom is a better guarantee of ever-increasing prosperity than a capitalist dictatorship.
Second, there are sufficient examples — Portugal or the Baltic countries — of underdeveloped countries that have generated stable and reliable environments through political freedom to invalidate the notion that a country should be kept in political and civil infancy until it reaches economic maturity.
Alvaro Vargas Llosa is a columnist for The Wall
Street Journal, where this comment first appeared.
TITLE: Hanging on by a Thread
AUTHOR: By Konstantin Sonin
TEXT: If there is anything Vladimir Putin’s presidency has had in common with that of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, it is the desire to return the country to the path it was following prior to the 1917 Revolution. The 74 years of Communist leadership that followed involved a fruitless search for effective developmental models, but since 1991, things have been returning to what passes for normal. Even the recent noises from the proponents of the “Let’s go back to the Soviet Union” approach actually have more in common with a return to pre-revolutionary conditions than to those under communism.
In the humanities, in fields of study like economics, political science, history and sociology, the return to normalcy often takes much longer than in actual political life. The re-establishment of a scientific school can be as difficult and take just as much time as the restoration of churches. So scholars who studied previously under some of the country’s great thinkers and the students they have trained to carry on the work are invaluable to the academic restoration project. These are the important threads still linking us to the past.
On May 25, economist Valery Makarov turned 70. Makarov is the director of the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute and academic secretary of the social sciences branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The fact that he received a telegram from Putin with congratulations on behalf of the Russian people was befitting of his status.
But there is something more than status at stake here. The unfortunate reality is that, although Russian mathematics has a rich history, the study of economics in the country does not. The list of economists whose work is studied in courses worldwide contains the names of just three Russians.
One, Eugene Slutsky, was an economist. The other two, Lev Pontryagin and Leonid Kantorovich, were great mathematicians. Makarov studied under Kantorovich, who was himself a student of Grigory Fikhtengolz and Vladimir Smirnov, who in turn graduated from the St. Petersburg school of mathematics under the eye of Pafnuty Chebyshev, one of Russia’s first mathematicians.
Kantorovich, the only Russian to win the Nobel Prize for economics, had to pay more than once in Soviet times for the fact that his mathematical theorems occupied such an important role in economics. Karl Marx had already said everything there was to say about prices as far as the Communists were concerned. What could Lagrange coefficients have to add anyway? (Without going into details, it is worth noting that these coefficients are still used in setting prices in today’s market economy, even if the people using them have never even heard of Italian mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange.) Kantorovich’s student, Makarov, and many other Soviet academics had to make sure they held the highest possible posts in the Soviet academic hierarchy if they were to have any hope of promoting their own views and of preserving the connections to earlier generations of scientists.
It is hard to say exactly which of Makarov’s academic achievements will be remembered by science over the long term — which is the most important perspective when it comes to economic theory. Maybe it will be his collaboration with Kantorovich, or his monograph on the mathematical theory of economic dynamics, or perhaps his founding of the New Economic School, the first institution of higher learning created after the collapse of the Soviet Union to have earned international recognition. It is even possible that Makarov’s new brainchild — the Advanced School of Public Administration at Moscow State University — will not only provide education in the art of economic governance, but will significantly change the landscape in the field of economics itself.
Hamlet said: “The time is out of joint; o cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!” We have the people to set things right. We just need to recognize them.
Konstantin Sonin is a professor at the New Economic School/CEFIR.
TITLE: A Grim Past — and Present
AUTHOR: By Robert Service
TEXT: When U.S. President George W. Bush declared, at Tuesday’s dedication of the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, that communist regimes had been responsible for taking the lives of 100 million innocent people during the 20th century, he did not so much misspeak as underspeak.
Whoever gave the president his estimate of the death toll was only making a guess. The actual number of fatalities in the Soviet gulag, in the Chinese laogai or in the Cambodian forests is not known with precision. What we do know for certain is that the killing of people by communist regimes is only part of the story. If you calculate the lives ruined by communism, the number shoots into the billions.
Gradations of victimhood existed under communism. There were those who were intentionally murdered, for instance, as opposed to those who died along the way as a result of thoughtless or inhumane social policies. Dispute persists about whether Stalin deliberately intended to starve Ukrainians to extinction in 1932 and 1933. Few researchers believe that Mao Zedong consciously hoped to create mass famine in China in the late 1950s, a famine that is reckoned to have been the worst in modern history. What is beyond challenge is that communist regimes had a terrible record in managing agriculture and guaranteeing food supplies.
Communist governments introduced policies of discrimination against entire classes of “hostile” people. Former President Boris Yeltsin’s father, for instance, was a peasant who fell afoul of the Stalinist authorities for complaining about working conditions.
The black mark against the father was affixed to the son, and the youthful Boris had to draw a veil over it in order to get any kind of engineer’s training in the Soviet Union. In Cambodia the situation was even worse: Anyone wearing glasses — a symbol of “U.S. intellectualism — was automatically categorized as an enemy and subjected to persecution.
A full analysis of communism’s victims also would have to take into account the restrictions on political, religious and cultural freedom. Even where communist parties permitted other political parties to exist in name, the reality was communist one-party rule. This was the case in East Germany. And even where the church was allowed a certain prominence — as in Poland — its priests avoided any criticism of the communist ideology or risked punitive sanctions.
Censorship was severe. Ideas were dangerous to every communist government unless they were communist ones. In the world’s democracies, it was usually possible for conservatives, liberals and socialists to be in power without suppressing the freedom of communist parties to exist.
There were, of course, exceptions. West Germany banned its communist party in 1956, after the party leadership, on Moscow’s orders, repudiated the state’s constitutional right to exist. In the United States, Senator Joe McCarthy started a witch hunt against communists and their sympathizers.
But what was exceptional in the democracies was the norm in communist states, which clamped down regularly on freedom.
Those states jammed foreign radio and television broadcasts. They withheld the right of their citizens to travel abroad. For communism to survive, it needed to put its citizens in quarantine. The great symbol of this was the Berlin Wall, which was not pulled down until November 1989.
Successful modern states seek to win the unforced consent of their citizens. Economies function better this way. And the public clash of ideas is good in principle and practice. Thus, when communist dictator Enver Hoxha declared Albania the first atheist country, he only aggravated the problems of inter-faith and inter-ethnic cooperation in the longer term.
These regimes weren’t all the same. Nobody would maintain that Cuba, with its colorful, noisy bars and restaurants, is administered in exactly the same way as North Korea. Mao’s China was not a precise replica of Gomulka’s Poland or Hoxha’s Albania. Yet communism’s characteristics have been basically similar wherever it has lasted any length of time.
Nor can it be stressed too heavily that not every inhuman action in the 20th century was perpetrated by communists. Adolf Hitler carried out the extermination of Jews, Roma, homosexuals and mental hospital patients during the Third Reich. No communist was involved in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The Agent Orange poisoning of Vietnamese and Cambodian forests was carried out by the U.S. Air Force.
In the end, the West won the Cold War, with more than a little help from Mikhail Gorbachev and his Soviet reform agenda. Communism today is discredited around the world, and the new monument in Washington commemorates its victims.
Yet communist states survive: China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. Bush said nothing about this. He passed up the chance to state the blindingly obvious: that the Chinese labor-camp system remains in place. Its victims are current, not just historical. The camps there are even more brutal than those of the Soviet gulag because the Chinese authorities insist on indoctrinating as well as incarcerating prisoners — and the methods of indoctrination are savage.
China is a crucial trading partner with the West, and it tends to be handled gently by governments and the media. Lest we forget: Its regime remains the most disgustingly repressive of the world’s great powers.
Robert Service is a professor of Russian history at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and author of the recently released “Comrades!: A History of World Communism.” This comment appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
TITLE: Not Exactly Morning People
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Ñóòêè: a 24-hour period
The one thing we foreigners mastered in Russian 101 was the basics of Russian greetings: Äîáðîå óòðî (good morning), äîáðûé äåíü (good day), and äîáðûé âå÷åð (good evening). Can’t screw that up, right?
Wrong. It turns out that one nation’s morning is another nation’s night. Before launching into the puzzle of Russian time-of-day expressions, it’s worth remembering that English is pretty kooky, too. We divide up a 24-hour period into a.m. and p.m. We say that someone woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning (a.m.), but we call that the middle of the night.
Russians have a handy word that we lack: ñóòêè (a 24-hour period). This can be from midnight to midnight (a calendar day) or any 24-hour period. Îíà ìåäñåñòðà è ðàáîòàåò ñóòêè, ñ äåâÿòè óòðà äî äåâÿòè óòðà. (She’s a nurse and works a 24-hour shift, from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m.) It’s also the word you use when reserving a hotel room: Ìíå õîòåëîñü áû çàáðîíèðîâàòü íîìåð íà äâîå ñóòîê. (I want to book a room for two nights.)
In Russian, óòðî (morning) means the start of the day — when a person gets up or when the world gets going. Äîáðîå óòðî (good morning) is what you mumble or gush (depending on mood and years of conjugal living) to your significant other when you first stumble out of bed. It’s what you say to people who are just starting work: folks in the elevator heading to the office, the receptionist in your building, your co-worker pouring a cup of coffee.
If you are one of those horribly cheerful morning people who annoy a good number of the rest of us, you can say, “Ñ äîáðûì óòðîì!” which seems to be short for ïîçäðàâëÿþ ñ äîáðûì óòðîì (literally, “I congratulate you on this fine morning”).
If you are not a morning person, you can
mutter back, “ß âñòàëà, íî åùå íå ïðîñíóëàñü.” (I got out of bed, but haven’t woken up yet.) If you walk into a business meeting at 11 a.m., do you say, “Äîáðîå óòðî?” Most Russians say no. Your colleagues’ “morning” — i.e., the start of the day — began hours ago, so saying “Äîáðîå óòðî” might be taken as a dig — a comment on their sleepy demeanor or a sly insinuation that they just got into the office.
And now let’s pause to recall all the people we have inadvertently insulted over the years with our misplaced good mornings.
Äîáðûé äåíü (good day) is appropriate to say from late morning to about 6 p.m. Russians divide this long stretch of day into ïåðâàÿ and âòîðàÿ ïîëîâèíà äíÿ (first and second half of the day). So, if someone says: Âñòðåòèìñÿ âî âòîðîé ïîëîâèíå äíÿ (Let’s meet in the second half of the day), when exactly do they mean? An informal survey of Muscovites gave a range from noon to 7 p.m. Best practice: Nail it down. Âî ñêîëüêî? (At what time?)
Âå÷åð (evening) for Russians seems to be the time period from the end of the work day until bedtime, roughly from 6 p.m. to midnight. You can safely wish anyone äîáðûé âå÷åð in those hours.
Interestingly, you can say ðàíî óòðîì (early in the morning), ïîçäíî âå÷åðîì (late in the evening), ïîçäíî íî÷üþ (late at night) and less commonly ðàíî âå÷åðîì (early in the evening) and ïîçäíî óòðîì (late in the morning). But almost no one says ðàíî äíÿì (early in the day) or ðàíî íî÷üþ (early in the night), presumably because those times are morning and evening, respectively.
Most people reserve äîáðîé íî÷è (good night) as a parting wish for a good night’s sleep — a more formal version of ñïîêîéíîé íî÷è (literally “peaceful night”).
However, one informant in St. Petersburg says äîáðîé íî÷è as a greeting if she is calling someone after midnight. She also says, “Äîáðîå óòðî” at 11 a.m.
Best practice: When in doubt, say, “Çäðàâñòâóéòå!” (Hello!).
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: Exuberant Patriotism Or Dangerous Xenophobia
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: The legacy of Josef Stalin’s predilection for uprooting ethnic groups and brutally shifting them around the Communist empire still has the power to spark conflict in the Caucasus. The latest political scuffle erupted in Georgia last week, over the issue of the repatriation of the Meskhetian Turks. Tens of thousands of these people were expelled from Georgia back in 1944 and transported in cattle trucks to Central Asia. Thousands are believed to have died of cold or starvation during the horrific journey east. Their tragic story doesn’t end there; in 1989, many were forced to leave their homes again after an outbreak of ethnic violence in Uzbekistan.
The Georgian government has just introduced draft legislation that will allow some of the Meskhetian Turks and their descendants to return, fulfilling a human rights commitment that Georgia made years ago. But some people are distinctly unhappy about the suggestion that thousands of Muslims could be on their way home to the villages of Meskhetia, near the Turkish border.
The Conservative Party says Georgia has enough problems with separatists without Turks coming back and demanding their own language schools, regional autonomy, and maybe somewhere down the line, unity with Turkey. “They are speaking in Turkish, their religion is Islam, and we are not sure that they will be loyal to Georgia’s government and territorial integrity,” said leading Conservative Kakha Kukava. This isn’t anti-Muslim prejudice, Kukava insisted — it’s just that Georgia is a small, relatively poor country that can’t even cope with the 200,000 or so refugees from the separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The line between exuberant patriotism and outright xenophobia can be thin in a relatively new state like Georgia, which still fears that its identity and independence is under threat from outsiders. The proliferation of Chinese-owned shops in Georgia over the past year has brought some ugly sentiments to the surface. One admittedly marginal party leader recently “joked” that if a Chinese couple went to bed at night, there would be four of them in the morning. More mainstream politicians have also made unpleasant statements about Chinese immigration, some of them using the kind of language that ends political careers in Western Europe.
President Mikheil Saakashvili often stresses that Georgia’s many ethnicities should live together in Utopian bliss. “I will be an Azeri for those who hate Azeris, and I will be an Armenian for those who hate Armenians. And despite this, I will remain 100 percent Georgian,” he said recently. Unfortunately for Saakashvili, by no means do all of his compatriots think the same way.
Matthew Collin is a Tbilisi-based journalist.
TITLE: Revamping Exchange Rates
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Exchanges are, by definition, two-way streets: You give something, they give something, a deal is done and everybody’s happy, or at least temporarily satisfied. Russians and Americans have been two-way streeting on the educational, cultural and scholarly-scientific routes for a good half-century now — and good for us. In 30 years’ involvement in the process, I don’t regret a day as exchanger or exchangee. And the countries shouldn’t either, since my good fortune has been theirs as well.
True, the deals have sometimes listed a bit toward the asymmetrical. As an exchange student in Leningrad in the mid-1970s, I often wondered whether my counterpart at some U.S. campus was also enjoying a dingy communal dorm room, food-like substances of ill-defined origins and tap water bubbling with an exotic parasite. The U.S. side apparently sent self-selected students keen on studying Russian while the Soviets sent state-selected grownups keen on studying power plants. But whatever my counterpart actually did, I had an amazing semester at Leningrad State, amenities be damned. Knowledge gained there in the classroom, dorm and near-mystical city serves me well to this day.
Evolving from educational to cultural exchangee a few years later, I served for seven months as a guide-interpreter on a U.S. exhibition touring the Soviet Union. This was part of a 40-year exchange of exhibits which began in Moscow in 1959, when the initial U.S. entry hosted the famous Kitchen Debate between mercurial Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and his doggedly competitive tour guide, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon.
Twenty years after this historic episode, the job of exhibit guide was more informational and less confrontational: We talked (and talked and talked) with an endless stream of Soviet visitors about our exhibit, our country, our lives — and theirs. It was spontaneous, seat-of-the-pants public diplomacy, alternately invigorating and enervating, and it was a training program without peer for some critical cadres. Three of my fellow guides became ambassadors, another runs the Carnegie Moscow Center, another is the U.S. Consul in Yekaterinburg, another does Russian-American exchanges for the Library of Congress — it’s a long list.
The late 1980s saw the traffic in warm bodies between the United States and the Soviet Union approaching rush hour status. By the end of the decade, I was a veteran of three scholar exchange programs, each of which profited both me and those I taught; and I had become an exchanger as well as exchangee, moving students and scholars between the two countries under public and private programs unimaginable only a decade before. At a reception in Washington for the first U.S.-Soviet high school exchangees in 1989, I listened with my students and their Soviet counterparts as U.S. President Ronald Reagan confided to us, in his inimitable style, that this was a special time and that exchanges were good. It was and they were.
They still are, of course, and we need to remind ourselves of this fact. Thursday, the Carnegie Moscow Center will do a bit of memory jogging, noting the 50-year history of this two-way street with a symposium uniting exchangers and exchangees from both sides. We will reminisce, evaluate and speculate together, then meet the immediate future, the departing wave of Russian student exchangees, at a reception thrown by the U.S. ambassador. This varied collection of scholars, diplomats, professionals and younger mortals will in its very convocation offer eloquent testimony to the value of the exchange function.
As we recall the virtues of the process — what exchanges told us about each other and how they helped nudge history in a better direction — it might also make sense to ask if the current Russian-U.S. public dialogue, which runs the gamut from irritation to hostility, might profit from some retrospective inspiration. If Khrushchev and Nixon could hector one another in public, then shake hands and send each other flowers in the form of exhibitions, why can’t their successors? Instead of long-distance rhetorical sniping, perhaps our leaders could meet at another cultural exhibition, posture all morning for the cameras, then do some practical good and send off bigger waves of students and scholars and a new round of exhibits. A fanciful notion, but could anything be more fanciful than expecting success from the non-dialogue we’re conducting now, 18 years after we stopped exchanging exhibits?
This summer marks the 200th anniversary of Russian-U.S. diplomatic relations. Both sides should celebrate, of course, and not least by getting more traffic moving on our underused two-way street.
Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Russian-American relations in Moscow.
TITLE: Oil Firms Scale Back Refineries
AUTHOR: By Josef Hebert
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels, such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come.
With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones.
Oil industry executives no longer believe there will be the demand for gasoline over the next decade to warrant the billions of dollars in refinery expansions — as much as a 10 percent increase in new refining capacity — they anticipated just a year ago.
Biofuels such as ethanol and efforts to get automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars and SUVs have been portrayed as key to countering high gasoline prices, but they are likely to do little to curb costs at the pump today, or in the years ahead as refiners reduce gasoline production.
A shortage of refineries frequently has been blamed by politicians for the sharp price spikes in gasoline, as was the case last week by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., during debate on a Senate energy bill.
“The fact is that Americans are paying more at the pump because we do not have the domestic capacity to refine the fuels consumers demand,” Inhofe complained as he tried unsuccessfully to get into the bill a proposal to ease permitting and environmental rules for refineries.
This spring, refiners, hampered by outages, could not keep up with demand and imports were down because of greater fuel demand in Europe and elsewhere. Despite stable — even sometimes declining — oil prices, gasoline prices soared to record levels and remain well above $3 a gallon.
Consumer advocates maintain the oil industry likes it that way.
“By creating a situation of extremely tight supply, the oil companies gain control over price at the wholesale level,” said Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. He argued that a wave of mergers in recent years created a refining industry that “has no interest in creating spare (refining) capacity.”
Only last year, the Energy Department was told that refiners, reaping big profits and anticipating growing demand, were looking at boosting their refining capacity by more than 1.6 million barrels a day, a roughly 10 percent increase. That would be enough to produce an additional 37 million gallons of gasoline daily.
But oil companies already have scaled those expansion plans back by nearly 40 percent. More cancelations are expected if Congress passes legislation calling for 15 billion gallons of ethanol use annually by 2015 and more than double that by 2022, say industry and government officials.
TITLE: Boeing and Airbus Receive New Orders
AUTHOR: By Jane Wardell
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LE BOURGET, France — Airbus racked up a series of big orders at the opening Monday of the world’s biggest air show, stealing some early limelight from U.S. rival Boeing Co.
With the manufacturers’ intense competition again expected to be a dominant theme of the weeklong show at Le Bourget, north of Paris, both looked to make a splash from the start, with billions of dollars worth of orders announced.
Airbus booked orders from U.S. Airways, Qatar Airlines, Emirates and Jazeera Airways for a raft of planes, including its problem-plagued A350 and superjumbo A380 models.
U.S. Airways Group Inc. ordered 60 A320 single-aisle aircraft and 32 widebody aircraft. It also increased its previously announced order of 20 A350s by two to 22 A350 XWBs in both the 800 and larger 900 series configuration.
The A320s will replace Boeing 737-300/400s, which will be eliminated from the fleet, the carrier said. It added that it expects to take delivery of the first A350-800 in 2014, becoming the North American launch customer for the fleet type.
Qatar ordered 80 A350 XWBs, three A380s and three A320 family aircraft. The A350 order was a confirmation of Qatar’s earlier commitments to buy the 80 jets. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the order for the A350s is worth $16 billion.
Two of the orders for the A380, Airbus’s flagship double-decker plane, are conversions of earlier options into firm orders, he said, and the airline is taking one new order, bringing its total for A380s to five. The three firm orders are worth about $750 million, he said.
Wiring and other technical problems are behind a costly two-year delay in delivery of the A380. The holdup could reduce profit by 4.8 billion euros ($6.2 billion) for Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. NV over the next four years.
Emirates is by far the biggest single customer for the A380. It initially ordered 43 A380s and took another four in May. Emirates is believed to have obtained significantly improved financial terms for these aircraft and the latest batch of eight. Jazeera Airways signed an order for 30 single-aisle A320 jets worth between $2.1 billion and $2.4 billion at list prices.
Emirates ordered an additional A380, boosting to 55 the number of A380s ordered by the Dubai-based airline.
However, Emirates remained undecided about whether it will sign up for Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner or its wide-bodied Airbus rival, the A350 WXB.
“We’ve got some talking to do to both Boeing and Airbus with regard to the commercial terms of the deal, but I think we’re in a good position to make an aircraft decision in the next few months,” said Emirates President Tim Clark.
Clark said the carrier would select only one of the aircraft, rather than buying some of each.
Airbus was forced last year to launch a costly redesign of the planned A350 after airlines scorned its earlier model — resulting in the extra-wide-body or XWB model — and is having to renegotiate existing orders.
TITLE: IBM Seeks New Software Acquisitions
AUTHOR: By Philipp Gollner
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SAN FRANCISCO — IBM may acquire more software companies this year as it tries to boost software’s share of total IBM profit to 50 percent, according to analysts.
International Business Machines Corp. is banking on software, which accounts for 20 percent of revenue but generates 40 percent of pretax earnings, to lift the overall profitability of a company that spans computer hardware, services and software.
Gross profit margins at the company’s software unit, led by Steve Mills, are typically the highest of IBM’s four main businesses and stood at 83.6 percent in the first quarter. The hardware unit’s profit margin, by comparison, was 34.8 percent, and global technology services came in at 29.2 percent.
IBM of Armonk, New York, is the world’s second-largest software maker, behind Microsoft Corp.
One area where IBM sees opportunity is selling software to companies that repackage it with their own software. For example, IBM last week announced an expansion of a deal with network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. under which Cisco will use IBM software to help customers better manage their communications networks.
IBM said its business in that market, called OEM for original equipment manufacturer, is growing at a double-digit annual percentage rate following acquisitions in recent years. The company has signed more than 4,500 deals with companies that use IBM software in their products.
TITLE: Beckham’s Hollywood Ending in Europe
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MADRID, Spain — David Beckham was minutes away from a perfect Hollywood ending.
The 32-year-old soccer star-pop icon, who likely played his last game for a European club, was taken off the field moments before Real Madrid rallied to win the Spanish league title for the first time in Beckham’s four years with the team.
The England midfielder was replaced in the 66th minute with what appeared to be a recurrence of an ankle injury. But he still managed to limp around the field in celebration—in front of a huge crowd that included wife Victoria and friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes—after his team beat Mallorca 3-1 to win its 30th league title.
“I couldn’t have dreamt it any better,” Beckham said Sunday. “It’s been about winning the title for the last six months and we’ve deserved it tonight.”
It was the culmination of a season that can easily be called the most difficult of his life. But even being shunned by both Madrid coach Fabio Capello and England coach Steve McClaren over the last year didn’t keep Beckham from proving he still has the skills to compete at the highest level.
“It’s been an incredible experience but all I remember now is the great things. Winning this tonight now puts to bed everything else,” said Beckham, who was dropped from the Madrid lineup in January after signing a five-year, $32.5 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS.
But with Madrid again eliminated early from the Champions League and the team in fourth place in the league—six points behind leader FC Barcelona—Capello begrudgingly recalled the former England captain.
“A major fault of mine this season was not recognizing Beckham’s potential,” Capello said Sunday.
Beckham, whose good looks and pop star wife have made him an international marketing magnet, marked his return to the team by scoring with a bending free kick in Madrid’s 2-1 win at Real Sociedad.
After missing six weeks with a knee injury, Beckham returned to set up the winning goal in a 2-1 win over Valencia.
Madrid rode an eight-game unbeaten run by scoring 24 goals—more than a third of the total it had scored in the first 30 games of the season.
On Sunday, Beckham nearly scored with a free kick in the 18th minute, and then watched as another one went over the crossbar in the 52nd. Six minutes later, Beckham hit the bar with another.
But Beckham appeared to re-aggravate his left ankle sprain and he was replaced by Jose Antonio Reyes, who scored two of Madrid’s three goals.
After the game, Beckham did a lap of honor with an England flag draped across his back, soaking in the atmosphere at the famous Santiago Bernabeu stadium for one last time.
Beckham arrived at Madrid in 2003 with nine major trophies from his days at Manchester United. Lining up alongside Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Luis Figo, Beckham was the last “galactico”—sure to fill the club’s pockets with marketing money while the nine-time European champions continued to collect trophies.
But life in Madrid was tough for Beckham. The club went four years without winning a trophy—its longest drought in 53 years.
A new language, six different coaches and three club presidents during his spell led to incessant criticism that Madrid was not a team, but a collection of players.
“I’ve gone through things that I never thought were possible,” Beckham said. “Things have happened here that never happened at Manchester United. Not being involved in matches or in training and having things said about me that were not true was hard.”
Despite the lack of trophies, the midfielder’s determination and fiery temper saw his standing with the home fans remain steady.
The same can be said of his supporters in England, who enthusiastically welcomed Beckham back to the national team for the European Championship qualifying competition. The former captain responded by setting up two of England’s goals in its 3-0 win over Estonia.
“There’s no doubt I could have stayed with Real Madrid for two or three more years, or for the rest of my career,” Beckham said. “I had to make a decision when I was told I was leaving the club at the end of the season. I’ve had 15 years playing top flight football... but I’m moving on to a new challenge.”
TITLE: Abbas Regime Rewarded as Hamas is Isolated
AUTHOR: By Sarah El Deeb
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The emergency government that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas installed after Islamic militants seized control of Gaza reaped its first windfall on Monday, with the European Union promising to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in crucial aid.
The EU traditionally has been the Palestinian Authority’s largest donor, and the reinstatement of aid, cut off after the Islamic Hamas movement took power 15 months ago, could signal the beginning of the end to a crippling international boycott.
On Sunday, Abbas hurriedly swore in the new Cabinet, days after dissolving the unity government in response to the Islamic group’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip.
The rift has left the Palestinians with two rival governments — a Fatah-allied government in the West Bank and the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Abbas seeks peace with Israel, whereas Hamas is sworn to the Jewish state’s destruction.
Underscoring the convoluted political solution, the dueling Palestinian Cabinets were holding separate meetings in the West Bank and Gaza on Monday. The dispute has endangered the Palestinians’ goal of forming an independent state in the two territories, which are located on opposite sides of Israel.
The international community has largely rallied behind Abbas’ government, led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist.
In a major boost to Abbas, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced in Luxembourg on Monday that the 27-nation bloc would resume direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority now that Hamas is no longer part of the government.
“We absolutely have to back” the new government in the West Bank, said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn. “The question of today is: How can we help the 1.4 million people in Gaza?”
Riyad al-Malki, the new Palestinian minister of information and justice, welcomed the announcement.
“There are encouraging steps. We hope that these steps will be carried out quickly,” he said.
Both the Haniyeh and Fayyad governments profess to represent Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza. To drive home that point, al-Malki said the EU aid also would go to pay salaries for government employees in Gaza.
“We will work to secure all basic needs for our people in Gaza,” he said before the Cabinet meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The United States, another major donor to the Palestinians, has said it will end its financial embargo, while Israel has signaled that it too will ease sanctions on the Palestinians. Israel collects some $55 million a month in customs duties on behalf of the Palestinians, but has withheld the funds since Hamas took power.
The stark division between Gaza and the West Bank since Hamas’ lightning takeover of Gaza has raised grave questions about the ability to stave off a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Both Israel and Egypt have sealed off the area’s borders.
In Gaza, panicked residents continued to stock up on basic supplies, fearing growing shortages of food, fuel and other staples.
Some of those fears were alleviated after the sole provider of gasoline to Gaza, Israeli company Dor Alon, renewed shipments cut off last week during the heavy fighting.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was aware of the humanitarian dangers facing the Gaza Strip. But he said Israel had not yet figured out a way to deal with the Hamas rulers of Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States already have said they would work to bolster Abbas, while isolating Hamas. The U.S., EU and Israel consider Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, a terrorist group.
In New York, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that his country would be a “genuine partner” of the new Palestinian government and promised to consider releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds.
TITLE: Seven Children Killed By U.S. in Afghanistan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan — Seven children were killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike targeting suspected al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said Monday. The strike came hours after the deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban fell in 2001.
Police said Monday they had detained a suspect in connection with the deadly suicide bombing that destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul’s busiest transportation hub, killing 35 people and wounding 52.
In an operation backed by Afghan troops, jets on Sunday targeted a compound that also contained a mosque and a madrassa, or Islamic school, in the Zarghun Shah district of Paktika province. Early reports indicated seven children at the madrassa and “several militants” were killed, and two militants detained, the statement said.
Coalition troops had “surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building,” said Major Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. He accused the militants of not letting the children leave the compound that was targeted.
“If we knew that there were children inside the building, there was no way that that airstrike would have occurred,” said Sergeant 1st Class Dean Welch, another coalition spokesman.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it has sent a team with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to investigate the incident.
Afghan officials have recently said that civilian deaths are the main concern of Afghans, and President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for foreign troops to do more to prevent civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, police detained a suspect in the Kabul bus bombing after he was caught filming the aftermath of the deadly suicide blast, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, Kabul police director of criminal investigation.
The suspect, whose name and nationality were not disclosed, had pictures of the slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah in his phone, as well as text messages from a foreign country, Paktiawal said.
Sunday’s enormous blast, which raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or army soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The bomb sheared off the bus’ metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.
“Never in my life have I heard such a sound,” said Ali Jawad, a 48-year-old who was selling phone cards nearby.
“A big fireball followed. I saw blood and a decapitated man thrown out of the bus.”
The explosion was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country.
Condemning the Kabul attack, Karzai said the “enemies of Afghanistan” were trying to stop the development of Afghan security forces, a key component in the U.S.-NATO strategy of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government one day, allowing Western forces to leave.
A self-described Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a Taliban suicide bomber named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman caused the blast. Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter from an undisclosed location. His claim could not be verified.
TITLE: Prince William: ‘Fat’ Comments Hurt Diana
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — Of all the media scrutiny given to Princess Diana, perhaps the most outrageous was tabloid commentary that she was too fat, Prince William said in a television interview aired on Monday.
“Someone said she had cellulite or something like that. As a woman in the public eye, she tried so hard and was so glamorous, always in the gym,” William told NBC’s Matt Lauer.
“For any woman, I imagine, it’s just outrageous that these people sit behind their desks and comment on it. There were many times we just sort of had to cheer her up and tell her she was the best thing ever,” William said.
The interview with William, 24, and Prince Harry, 22, was conducted last month in London.
Portions of the interview were aired on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday morning and will be shown again on “Dateline NBC” on Monday night. Partial transcripts were released previously.
Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, after a high-speed car crash in a Paris tunnel along with her boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver.
The princes are planning a concert in Wembley Stadium in their mother’s honor on July 1, which would have been her 46th birthday. The concert will include performances by artists expected to include Elton John, Duran Duran, Rod Stewart and Tom Jones.
Previously released transcripts showed both princes saying in the interview that in the decade since their mother’s death, time had passed very slowly.
William said that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about her and her death, and Harry said he still wonders about what happened the night of the crash.
TITLE: Heavenly U.S. Open For Angel
AUTHOR: By Alan Robinson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OAKMONT, Philadelphia — Possessing greatness is a necessity to win at Oakmont, so went the talk all week at the U.S. Open. The kind of over-the-top talent Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus displayed in winning championships there, that Johnny Miller owned for a day while shooting his record 63 in 1973.
So, with Tiger Woods ready to win the 13th major championship that would edge him closer to Nicklaus’ record 18 majors, how could Angel Cabrera emerge from a tense final round Sunday as champion?
All together now: Who?
Cabrera is 12th in European Tour career earnings, but his visibility in America probably couldn’t have been much lower. Despite six previous top 10 finishes in majors, he is almost never mentioned among the top contenders in big tournaments.
Now that he’s stared down world-ranked No. 1 Woods and No. 3 Jim Furyk to bring a U.S. Open title home to Argentina for the first time—smoking like a steel mill, much like Arnold Palmer once did—that will change.
“The good thing is that I beat everybody here, not only Tiger Woods,” Cabrera said Sunday, moments after putting both arms around the championship trophy and tucking it close.
Cabrera, 36, doesn’t come from a country club background, growing up so poor he didn’t finish elementary school. He began golfing only because his caddie’s job allowed him to venture onto home-course Cordoba Golf Club. Back home, he is nicknamed El Pato—the duck—for the way he walks down the fairway.
“I had to work as a caddie to put food on the table,” said Cabrera, whose best previous victory came in the 2005 BMW Championship, one of Europe’s top events. “That’s why, probably, these moments are enjoyed even more.”
He smokes to deal with stress.
“Well, there are some players that have psychologists, sportologists,” he said. “I smoke.”
Curiously, Oakmont Country Club, home to the rich, wealthy and famous, put away most of the field with its toughness, enabling the once dirt-poor Cabrera to take care of the rest as he finished at 5-over 285 for the tournament. Big and burly, Cabrera fit in well in Pittsburgh, where star athletes such as the now-retired Jerome Bettis aren’t always perfect physical specimens.
Still, if one would have said his last name before the U.S. Open, many local fans would have confused him with Francisco Cabrera, the Braves bench player whose ninth-inning pinch hit beat the Pirates in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.
No doubt it was a coincidence, but Angel Cabrera was the only contender who came out Sunday wearing yellow and black, his bright shirt almost exactly the shade of Steelers gold. Furyk spent part of his youth in western Pennsylvania and some fans chanted his name, yet it was Cabrera who dressed the role as the hometown favorite.
“He (Cabrera) had some great golf shots, and that’s what you have to do,” Woods said. “He went out there and put all the pressure on Jim and I, and we fell one short.”
Woods was the runner-up in a major for the second time this year; he also was at the Masters. Furyk tied for second in the U.S. Open for the second year in a row, the first to do that since Palmer in 1966-67.
Cabrera, the only player with two below-par rounds at Oakmont, owned the second-round lead following a 1-under 69 on Thursday and a 71 on Friday. But his 6-over 76 Saturday left him four off the pace. That meant he went off four groups ahead of Woods and third-round leader Aaron Baddeley, who took a triple-bogey 7 on the first hole and never contended.
At one point, five were tied for the lead after Cabrera gave back a shot with a bogey at the ninth following birdies on the fourth and fifth. But he birdied the 10th to regain the lead and once led by three shots after another birdie on the 15th.
Cabrera’s victory is Argentina’s greatest golfing moment since Roberto de Vicenzo won the British Open in 1967. It also partly made up for the country’s greatest such disappointment a year later.
In the 1968 Masters, de Vicenzo incorrectly signed a wrong scoreboard and was denied a chance to play Bob Goalby in a playoff. De Vicenzo’s playing partner, Tommy Aaron, accidentally gave him a par on a hole rather than a birdie, and de Vicenzo didn’t catch the mistake before signing his card.
Cabrera knows the story, but draws his motivation from proving he could win a big one. Despite his long success on the European Tour, he had only three wins there and was considered something of an underachiever.
No more.
“I felt a winner,” he said.
TITLE: Blair Gets Tough On Europe
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday he would not agree to a new European Union treaty that gave Europe a greater say over Britain’s judicial system or its tax and benefits arrangements.
Spelling out clear guidelines for how far he would go in negotiations on a new EU treaty at a Brussels summit this week, Blair said that if his conditions were met he saw no need for a referendum on the new treaty in Britain.
“Europe needs to work more effectively. What it does not need is a constitutional treaty,” Blair told a parliamentary committee.
Blair faces pressure from the Conservatives and eurosceptic newspapers which say he must not cede powers to Brussels and must give Britons a vote on any new treaty.
Blair set out four areas where he would not give way at his final EU summit before he steps down on June 27 after a decade as prime minister.
Europe’s leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to try to reach agreement on the outline of a treaty reforming the EU’s institutions — a slimmed-down version of a proposed EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
“We will not accept a treaty that allows the Charter of Fundamental Rights to change UK law in any way,” Blair said.
TITLE: Hero Hamilton Proves He’s No Flash-in-the-Pan
AUTHOR: By Mike Harris
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Nobody is likely to call Lewis Hamilton’s first Formula One victory a fluke any more.
The sensational 22-year-old rookie from England not only backed it up with his second straight win, he did it by fighting off two separate challenges from Mercedes McLaren teammate and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
A week earlier, in Montreal, Hamilton was aided by five full-course caution flags, one of which caught his teammate on pit road and took him out of contention, relegating the Spaniard to a seventh-place finish.
On Sunday, in the U.S. Grand Prix at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the safety car stayed behind the pit wall and Hamilton outdueled Alonso to gain his seventh consecutive top-three finish—a first in F1 for a rookie—and extend his points lead over his teammate to 10 points heading to the French Grand Prix in two weeks.
This is all very heady stuff for the youngster, who is the first black driver in F1 history.
“Coming into the season, being realistic, I never expected anything like this, but I hoped to do well,” Hamilton said.
“I hoped maybe I’d get a podium at some point. This is just insane.”
The McLaren drivers finished 1-2 for the third time this season, but this time the order was reversed from Malaysia in April and last month’s race at Monaco.
Hamilton started from the pole for the second straight race and Alonso tried hard to pass his less experienced teammate at the start. He darted to the outside and pulled nearly alongside Hamilton for a moment, then backed off and dived to the inside as the leaders squirted through the first two narrow turns, a sharp right-hander and then a left-hander.
“I think the start was the key point of the race because after that, whatever, you were second and we finish second in the race,” Alonso said.
Hamilton managed to stay in front and continue to fend off pressure from the hard-charging Alonso to the end of the 73-lap event on Indy’s 2.605-mile road circuit.
Alonso almost wrested the lead from Hamilton as they began lap 39. He had been dogging the back of his teammate’s silver and red McLaren for several laps and pulled alongside on the main straightaway but was unable to complete the pass as they drove into the first turn.
The outcome of the race remained in question until Alonso locked up his brakes on lap 47 and drove through the grass, allowing Hamilton to pull out to a 2.5-second lead. Hamilton drove on to the win without further challenge, finishing 1.5 seconds—nearly half the main straight—ahead of Alonso.
“To follow that close is not easy,” Alonso said. “I did have my chance (at the end of lap 38), but it was not possible. I could get close to him but not overtake. He made no mistakes.”
Asked about his teammate’s attempt to pass at the midway point, Hamilton said, “I was very nervous about that. I saw him coming. But I made sure I made one move (to block), which is all you’re allowed, and made it stick.
“So it was very, very tough, but he fought very well, very professional. At the end, I managed to pull a gap and ... I was able to maintain that gap and control the rest of the race.”
Reports earlier in the week that Alonso thought his new teammate was being given preference by the British-based McLaren team were allayed by the warm hug they gave each other when they reached the victory podium.
The two then turned to the cheering crowd with arms over each other’s shoulders, smiling widely.
“We’re very, very close on the track and I think we are getting closer and closer off track,” Hamilton said. “And our respect for each other I think is growing and it’s great. We’re really happy for the team. But, once again, I’m just proud and honored to be sitting next to him as I’ve always looked up to him for the last few years.”
Ferrari had won six of the previous seven F1 races at Indy, five of them by now-retired Michael Schumacher. But, this time, the McLarens were just too strong.
The Ferraris of 2006 Indy runner-up Felipe Massa and Raikkonen, who replaced Schumacher, battled each other most of the day before finishing third and fourth, respectively, with Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen fifth, followed by Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
“It was difficult to fight the McLarens with their consistency and their pace,” said Massa, sounding somewhat frustrated. “We’re going to work a lot the next two weeks to improve the car. The championship is not so close, but we need to keep fighting.”
BMW Sauber’s Sebastian Vettel, a 19-year-old rookie filling in for Robert Kubica and making his first F1 start, finished eighth, earning the final point. Kubica missed the race after sustaining a concussion and a sprained ankle in a spectacular crash in Canada. Fifteen of the 22 cars were running at the finish.
Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, a former USGP winner when he was with Ferrari, didn’t make it past the start, colliding with Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher and Red Bull’s David Coulthard as they fought for position near the back of the grid on the start. All three were out before completing a lap.
TITLE: Defending Champ Set for Wimbledon
AUTHOR: By Martyn Herman
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Twelve months after enchanting Wimbledon’s crowds with her flamboyant brilliance, reigning champion Amelie Mauresmo is ready to plug into the All England Club magic once again.
The 27-year-old Frenchwoman was a popular winner last year when she beat Justine Henin to add the Wimbledon crown to the Australian Open title she won earlier in the year when the same opponent retired in the final.
In a sport full of baseline sluggers, Wimbledon crowds embrace style and artistry and Mauresmo fits the bill perfectly with her rapier groundstrokes and graceful movement. She even practices the dying art of serve and volley.
“I definitely feel at ease here,” world number four Mauresmo told Reuters on Sunday in an interview arranged by Sony Ericsson ahead of the Eastbourne warm-up event. “When I walked into Wimbledon again I felt great, the setting, the history and tradition, it lifts my spirit.
“Last year I felt terrible going into the championships and not very positive about my game but when I arrived the tournament inspired me. I guess you could say it’s the magic of the place.”
Her Wimbledon title last year cemented her name among the game’s greats and silenced those who said she had only won the Australian Open by default when Henin quit.
“It was funny last year. People were still doubting, still saying ‘can she win a match point?’ after Australia, but I knew that I could,” she said.
Her victory at the Tour Championships in Los Angeles in 2005 had helped convince her of that, she added.
Apart from winning a diamond racket in Antwerp, this year has been a more difficult one for the former world number one.
She surrendered her Australian Open crown, missed March and April with acute appendicitis and suffered an early French Open defeat after being hampered by a thigh injury.
However, she is relishing the chance to get back into action on her favorite surface.
“I’ve been proud for a year to be defending champion and it will be even more emotional this time,” she told reporters last week after arriving in the country.
“Wimbledon is something I can’t really explain, it’s special.
“I’m confident that my game can come really quickly on the grass—and it will have to because I’ve not had a lot of tennis behind me.
“But there are not many players that play like me on the grass so I think it can be a big weapon. The first matches are going to be very important to get things going. Hopefully it will come right at the same time.”
TITLE: Sarkozy Gets Small Majority in French Poll
AUTHOR: By Jon Boyle and Francois Murphy
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his prime minister on Monday after securing an unexpectedly small parliamentary majority and losing a senior minister—setbacks that nonetheless left his reform program on track.
Sarkozy formally reappointed Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and their first task will be to find a replacement for government No.2 Alain Juppe, who said he would quit after a shock defeat to a little-known Socialist in Sunday’s election.
“You’d really love things to be bad for me. You’d be happy if I died,” the mayor of Bordeaux snapped at reporters in the city where he lost his seat and his cabinet post.
Sarkozy’s allies won 345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, well short of the crushing 470-seat bloc predicted in some pre-poll estimates.
The Socialists’ relief at winning 207 seats and avoiding a drubbing was partly overshadowed by the separation of the party’s “power couple”—defeated presidential candidate Segolene Royal and party chief Francois Hollande.
“I have asked Francois to live his life his way and he accepted. We no longer live in the same home,” Royal, who is expected to seek the party leadership, told France Inter radio.
Commentators blamed the right’s sudden loss of support on a row over the government’s decision to consider raising value-added tax, and said opposition warnings that a huge majority would give Sarkozy too much power had taken their toll.
“Voters signaled their rejection of a monochrome (lower) chamber and of total power being handed to one man,” the left-wing daily Liberation said in an editorial.
The conservative daily Le Figaro said the result was a shot across the bows of the government and said the sales tax row had cost the right support on a night the UMP became the first party since 1978 to win re-election.
“If the French have been won over by the idea of reform, they are not ready to accept what has not been fully thought through,” the paper said.
REFORM AGENDA
The government is studying plans to increase VAT so as to cut social security charges on payrolls to make it cheaper for companies to hire.
Despite the setback Sarkozy now has the legislative muscle to press ahead with reforms to ease rigid labor laws, trim fat from the public service, cut taxes, slash unemployment and boost growth in the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
Among measures due before the new parliament are tax breaks on mortgage interest repayments and overtime, a 50 percent cap on personal taxation, tighter immigration laws and stiffer terms for repeat criminal offenders. Socialist euphoria at their better than expected poll performance could soon fade as recriminations over the party’s defeat in both major elections this year give way to a bout of blood-letting that could force leader Hollande to step down early.
The announcement that he and Royal, who have four children, are to separate added spice to the impending leadership battle, in which Royal is expected to be a candidate.
TITLE: Roddick Wins Record Fourth Queens
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Andy Roddick won his fourth Queen’s Club title Sunday, saving match point in the second set before beating France’s Nicolas Mahut 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2) in the final of the grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon.
Roddick, seeded second, also won from 2003-05 and joined Lleyton Hewitt, Boris Becker and John McEnroe as four-time winners of this event.
“I think it’s nice winning at tournaments that you really enjoy playing at,” Roddick said. “To have won four is great. I’ll have a number of chances to get five. My focus right now is on getting No. 1 at Wimbledon.”
Mahut, who beat French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, was not broken once in the match. He is 0-2 against Roddick.
Roddick served 24 aces and had only one break point. That came at 4-4 in the opening set, but Mahut hit a low forehand volley to force an error. Mahut then earned the only break of the match to claim the set when Roddick’s attempt to send a winner down the line went wide.
Games went with serve in the second set before Roddick faced a match point at 7-6 in the tiebreaker, but Mahut netted a forehand and then made another forehand error to drop the set.
“It’s good to get some of those tough matches in before Wimbledon,” Roddick said.
TITLE: Ex-KGB Agent Honored by Queen
AUTHOR: By Jeremy Lovell
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Former top Russian spy Oleg Gordievsky rubs shoulders with cricketer Ian Botham, author Salman Rushdie and actor Barry Humphries in the Queen’s birthday honors list, published on Saturday.
Gordievsky, a KGB Colonel who became the highest ranking defector in the Cold War when he first started spying for and later escaped to Britain, becomes a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George.
His citation for the award, usually reserved for top diplomats, is for services to the security of the United Kingdom.
The award comes as relations between Britain and Russia are under strain over the murder in London last year with radioactive Polonium 210 of another former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who accused Moscow of ordering his death.
Botham, already an OBE, becomes Sir Ian, with a knighthood for his services to cricket and to charity in honor of the millions of pounds he has raised through long-distance walks.
West Indies record-breaker Viv Richards, who played against Botham at international level and with him for English county team Somerset, welcomed the news.
“It’s long overdue, I thought he would get this when he had just finished playing but it’s better late than never,” he told Reuters.
Author Salman Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after his novel The Satanic Verses prompted Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa death warrant for him, gets a knighthood for services to literature.
Australian comic actor and writer Barry Humphries, whose characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson lampoon both Britons and Australians, becomes a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entertainment.
The twice-yearly honors ritual — designed to recognize outstanding achievement — is part of an ancient and complex honors system that has been beset by scandal this year, damaging Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour Party. Blair steps down as premier on June 27. Departing prime ministers have traditionally named their own honors lists but it is not clear whether Blair will do so. Among those on Saturday’s list are Christiane Amanpour, chief reporter for U.S. cable news network CNN, for services to journalism, and legal rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, for services to human rights. Both get CBEs.
Writer and director Stephen Poliakoff also gets a CBE, as do historian David Starkey, dairy farmer and Glastonbury pop festival organizer Michael Eavis and magistrate Timothy Workman, who handles most of Britain’s terrorism and extradition cases.
Star hairdresser Nicky Clarke becomes an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), as do gravel-voiced singer Joe Cocker and footballer Ryan Giggs, film and television writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, actor Peter Sallis — best known as the voice of Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit fame — and actress Sylvia Syms.
TITLE: U.K. Marks 25 Years Since Falklands War
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Dozens of military aircraft flew over Buckingham Palace on Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina.
Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joined military leaders and thousands of veterans for the ceremony commemorating the end of the 1982 conflict over the south Atlantic islands. Thatcher sent British troops to retake the islands after Argentina’s invasion. More than 600 Argentine troops, 255 British servicemen and three islanders were killed.
Some 10,000 veterans and their families attended a solemn service on Horse Guards Parade — traditional home of British military pomp and ceremony.
Footage of the conflict was broadcast on big screens, and veterans recounted their experiences from a stage in the shape of the Falklands.
Among the veterans was Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who flew Royal Navy helicopters during the conflict.
He took the stage and quoted Rudyard Kipling’s “Song of the Dead” — “If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid it in!”
Despite their defeat, Argentines still universally claim ownership of the islands, which Britain seized by force in 1833.
Last week, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner called the British victory “a colonial victory, really unacceptable in the eyes of the world.”
TITLE: Shuttle Due Back Thursday
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HOUSTON, Texas — Astronauts put the final touches to a new solar power unit for the International Space Station on Sunday in their last spacewalk before the scheduled departure of the shuttle Atlantis on Tuesday.
Still to come on Monday was a test to make sure the space station’s guidance system is in good shape after a computer crash last week.
During a 6-1/2 hour spacewalk, Atlantis crewmembers Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson set up a rotary joint for a new array of solar panels that will enable them to track the sun.
The wing-like panels, which will generate additional electricity for the station, were installed last week during the first spacewalk of Atlantis’ 13-day flight.
During installation, the space station’s primary computer network crashed, raising concerns that the half-finished $100 billion outpost would have to be temporarily abandoned.
The computers control steering rockets that help keep the station in the proper position. The shuttle, which docked with the complex on June 10, was using its jets to perform that task while the computers were down.
The computers were revived over the weekend and on Monday will be tested to see if they are ready to once again keep the station stable.
“We’re confident it’s going to work but it will be a good double check to make sure everything’s in the proper configuration,” said space station flight director Kelly Beck at the Johnson Space Center.
The shuttle has enough supplies to stay at the outpost until Wednesday if any problems arise but is currently scheduled to leave the station on Tuesday and return to Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.
The computer malfunction is believed to have been caused by an electrical problem. A European module and cargo ship scheduled to go to the station later have the same computer system, so investigations are under way to determine whether changes need to be made.