SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1301 (67), Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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TITLE: Police Detain Suspected Gang Leader
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Local businessman Vladimir Barsukov, reportedly one of the former leaders of the Tambov criminal group, has been arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal gang, murder, attempted execution-style contract killing and other crimes, the Prosecutor General’s press-office said on Monday.
Barsukov, who changed his last name from Kumarin in the 1990s, was arrested on Aug. 22 during a special raid carried out by a joint team of law enforcement officers from Moscow and St. Petersburg, prosecutors said. The businessman was then transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison and criminal investigation isolation ward, where he is currently being held.
In a comment posted on the Prosecutor General‘s Office website, the prosecutors said Barsukov is suspected, in particular, in “an attempt to organize a contract killing aimed at eventually seizing ownership of the St. Petersburg oil terminal.”
The attempted murder mentioned in the statement refers to a 2006 attempt to kill local businessman Sergei Vasiliev, a co-owner of the St. Petersburg oil terminal.
In the1990s, Barsukov/Kumarin was alleged to be the head of the Tambov gang, one of the most commanding criminal syndicates in St. Petersburg at the time. 
In the October 1999 Viktor Novosyolov, then controversial vice-speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, who was believed to be the Tambov group’s lobbyist in the parliament and known to maintain close ties to Barsukov was murdered, and the powerful Tambov group was suspected in a series of killings of local businessmen. 
Barsukov, who has continually denied being a leader in the criminal community, and has won several cases against Russian journalists who directly accused him of criminal connections in their publications.
However, on Jan. 16 Prosecutor General Yury Chaika announced that the Tambov criminal syndicate “has been exposed” and investigation launched into a series of seizures that the prosecutors believe the gang was responsible for. In January, Chaika said more than 40 people had been charged in connection with the Tambov gang investigation.
According to a statement made Friday, the Prosecutor General is actively investigating a series of raids on large St. Petersburg companies and organizations, and has already launched 15 criminal cases on the seizures of over 30 enterprises. Seventy-six people have already been charged in connection with these crimes. The prosecutors are probing Vladimir Barsukov’s possible involvment in any of the cases.
At a news conference in Moscow on Monday, Chaika said the Tambov gang investigation exposed corrupt networks involving law enforcement officers as well as state executives and the prosecutor’s own staff. 
“When we started digging into these cases, we immediately encountered cases of open, cold-blooded betrayal of professional duties by certain members of law enforcement and high-ranking civil servants,” Chaika told reporters. “The criminal community has existed rather comfortably in St. Petersburg for more than the last ten years.”
Often referred to as St. Petersburg’s most powerful gang, responsible for a series of assassinations and and engaged in a protection racket, the Tambov group was reportedly founded in 1988 by Barsukov and Valery Ledovskikh, another former resident of the Tambov region which gives the gang its name.
In 1994, Barsukov lost his right arm during an assassination attempt.
Born on February 15, 1956, in Tambov Region in Central Russia, Barsukov moved to St. Petersburg after serving in the army. From 1985 to 1988, he served three years in prison for hooliganism, illegal possession of weapons and forgery.

TITLE: Ten Held For Russian Journalist’s Killing
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia on Monday announced that 10 people have been arrested in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including law enforcement officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya, who revealed human rights abuses in war-scarred Chechnya, and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership.
Her slaying blackened the reputation of President Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia and deepened Western concerns about the safety of journalists and government critics in the country.
By pointing to enemies of Russia abroad, Chaika echoed statements by Putin and allies who suggested Politkovskaya’s death could have been plotted by Kremlin opponents who have fled Russia as part of a campaign to besmirch the country’s image.
Politkovskaya was shot to death in her Moscow apartment building. Putin sparked outrage abroad when he seemed to dismiss Politkovskaya shortly after her killing, saying her influence on Russian political life was “very minor.”
Chaika said the slaying was set up by a Chechen native who led a Moscow organized crime ring that specialized in contract killings. He said that those arrested — accused of helping track Politkovskaya and provide her killers with information — included a police major and a Federal Security Service officer, as well as three former police officers.
He said that people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing may have also been involved in the 2004 shooting death of Paul Klebnikov, an American who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition.
“As for the motives for the killing, the results of the investigation lead us to the conclusion that only individuals located outside the territory of the Russian Federation could have had an interest in getting rid of Politkovskaya,” Chaika told a news conference.
“It is in the interest first of all of those people and structures that aim to destabilize the situation in the country, change the constitutional order [and] create a crisis in Russia,” he said, adding that such forces want to “discredit the leadership” and provoke foreign pressure on the Kremlin.
They seek “a return to the former system of rule, under which money and oligarchs decided everything,” he said.
Chaika mentioned no names, but he appeared to be pointing the finger at least in part at Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status.
His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad — often Berezovsky — for the nation’s problems.
Politkovskaya’s killing came less than two months before the radiation poisoning death in London on Nov. 23 of Berezovsky associate and former KGB counterintelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, which further damaged the Russian leadership’s reputation abroad.
Litvinenko, who had been investigating Politkovskaya’s death, had said Putin was behind her slaying and also blamed the Russian leader for his own poisoning.
Days after Politkovskaya’s death, Putin suggested her killing could have been plotted by Kremlin foes abroad to harm Russia’s image, and his allies have made similar remarks about Litvinenko’s death. In November, Chaika said a foreign connection was among several theories being investigated in the Politkovskaya case.
Chaika revealed details hours after telling Putin, in televised comments, that 10 people were arrested and that “literally in the nearest future they will be charged with the commission of this grave crime.”
Chaika did not name those arrested. He said Politkovskaya knew the person who ordered the killing and had met with him.
A Moscow district court approved the arrests of eight of the suspects Friday, city court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said.
Chaika’s remarks were the first announcement of arrests in the killing, which Western governments have urged Russian authorities to solve. In April, the journalists’ advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said there appeared to have been no progress in the investigation.

TITLE: Experts Claim Last Romanovs Found
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Claims published Friday by archaeologists that they have found the remains of two of the children of the last tsar, Nicholas II, have brought the controversy surrounding the fate of the royal family’s remains to the surface again.
Almost 90 years after they were shot by the Bolsheviks in the basement of the Yekaterinburg building where they were being held, the news that the remains of Tsarevich Alexei, Nicholas’ son and former heir to the throne, and his sister Maria may have been discovered near the city has led prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the circumstances of the shootings.
Scientific officials from the Sverdlovsk region, where Yekaterinburg is located, and representatives of the Romanov family and the Russian Orthodox Church over the weekend voiced extreme caution at the findings.
“This set of facts, the location ... and the results of the anthropological analysis make it possible to conclude that the ... remains of members of the Romanov imperial family, Tsarevich Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria, hidden by revolutionaries in 1918, have been found,” Sergei Pogorelov, an archaeologist from the Sverdlovsk regional administration, said in a statement posted on the Religare.ru web site.
Pogorelov said an analysis of the remains discovered during an anthropological dig in July and August showed that they were those of a male aged 10 to 13 and a female aged 18 to 23.
The bodies of Alexei, 13 years old at the time of his death, and of his sister Maria, who was 19, were not among those discovered in 1991 and given a state burial in the imperial crypt of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998.
The announcement is likely to rekindle the disagreements among scientists, historians, the state and the church that accompanied those events. The Orthodox Church and members of the Romanov family still question the authenticity of the remains discovered earlier, maintaining there is no clear proof and that results from DNA tests were contradictory.
DNA testing of the new bones, which Pogorelov said were badly shattered, has yet to be carried out.
In an apparent rebuff to Pogorelov’s claim, made first on NTV television Thursday night, officials at a news conference in Yekaterinburg refused Friday to offer any suggestions as to the identity of the remains, Interfax reported. Dmitry Razhev, a senior historian with the local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, merely said the bones belonged to two young people, one of whom was a teenager.
“Initial findings reveal that they were buried some decades ago,” Razhev said.
Nikolai Nevolin, head of forensics for the Sverdlovsk region, told reporters that the male remains would be genetically tested for hemophilia, the life-threatening disease that was passed to him by his grandmother, Britain’s Queen Victoria. He said he hoped DNA testing would be finished by the end of the year.
Nevolin said the remains consisted of 44 bone fragments, from a few millimeters to a few centimeters long, Interfax reported. Also found were seven teeth, three bullets and a fragment of a piece of clothing.
“The remains have been exposed to extreme heat, and the bullets were found close to the bones and must have hit the victims’ bodies,” Nevolin said.
For some, this description provided evidence that the last two members of the ill-fated royal family had been found.
Peter Sarandinaki, president and founder of SEARCH, a U.S.-based foundation dedicated to investigating the fates of the Romanov children, said the discovery was absolutely credible because it matched a report by Yakov Yurovsky, the Bolshevik official in charge of the 1918 execution. The report, first published at the end of the Soviet era, describes how the perpetrators buried the remains while moving the bodies of Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their five children, their doctor and three servants from the mine shaft where they had first been hidden.
Fearing the remains would be discovered, they decided to move them again, Sarandinaki said in a telephone interview from Oakland, New Jersey. But when their truck got stuck in mud seven kilometers from the mine shaft, they decided to bury the bodies right there.
“They took two bodies aside and buried them separately to confuse the White Army, which would be searching for eleven victims,” Sarandinaki said.
This, Sarandinaki said, explains why the remains of only nine people were discovered in 1991.
A merchant marine captain who says he is the great-grandson of Sergei Rozanov, the general in charge of the White Army troops that took Yekaterinburg from the Bolsheviks just days after the murders on July 17, 1918, says the fire the Bolsheviks started at the mine explains the exposure to heat.
“According to the archive reports, the killers tried to burn at least four of the bodies, but settled on burning just two. After the bodies were moved ... nine were dumped in a mud-hole covered with railway-sleepers with their faces horribly disfigured by rifle butts and acid,” he said. “The killers continued to burn the two smallest bodies and thus buried them separately.”
But skeptics remained unconvinced.
“These latest remains do not have any relation to the Romanovs, just the same as those buried in Petersburg,” said Vadim Viner, head of the Sverdlovsk Region Tourist Information Center and a self-styled historian who runs a center that studies the fate of the dynasty.

TITLE: FSB Gives Report On Bombing Investigation
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: FSB director Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin on Monday that inquiries into the bombing of an express train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg earlier this month have yielded “interesting information.” 
“The first results [of the search] have been already considered,” Interfax news agency quoted Patrushev as saying. “Moreover, we have corrected certain versions [of the incident], that had been put forward on the time of the opening of the criminal case.” 
Theories ranging from the so-called “Chechen connection,” a local criminal showdown related to the recent change of the governor of the Novgorod region where the blast occurred and an act of terrorism by nationalists are being considered by prosecutors, according to RIA Novosti. 
The train, the Nevsky Express, crashed near Burga in the Novgorod region on August 13 after a bomb planted under the tracks was detonated. Sixty passengers were injured.
The blast left a crater 1.5 meters wide and had a force equivalent to 4.5 kilograms of TNT, Adolf Mishuyev, head of the Explosion Stability Technical Center at Moscow State Civil Engineering University, said shortly after the incident.
Five of the 20 people initially hospitalized in St. Petersburg remain in the St. Petersburg Railroad Hospital, hospital spokesman Vladimir Zaporozhets told the St. Petersburg Times on Monday.
“There are mainly those patients who have had operations,” he said, adding that “everyone is in satisfactory condition.”
Meanwhile, Russian Railways said rail traffic on the track affected by the accident road section was running normally.
“It’s true that in the area where the accident happened the trains’ speed is limited by 200 kmph because the new tracks are being tested,” Anna Gruzdyeva of Oktyabrskaya Railways press service told the St. Petersburg Times on Monday. “But this doesn’t affect the train schedule.”
The incident cost Russian Raiways more than 215 million rubles’ ($8.37 million), including 16 million rubles ($623,319) to restore the tracks, 82 million rubles to repair seven carriages with five carriages replaced entirely and 5 million rubles ($194,780) to cover expenses related to train delays and re-issuing tickets, Interfax reported Monday.

TITLE: Police Detain Suspected Gang Leader
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Local businessman Vladimir Barsukov, reportedly one of the former leaders of the Tambov criminal group, has been arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal gang, murder, attempted execution-style contract killing and other crimes, the Prosecutor General’s press-office said on Monday.
Barsukov, who changed his last name from Kumarin in the 1990s, was arrested on Aug. 22 during a special raid carried out by a joint team of law enforcement officers from Moscow and St. Petersburg, prosecutors said. The businessman was then transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison and criminal investigation isolation ward, where he is currently being held.
In a comment posted on the Prosecutor General‘s Office website, the prosecutors said Barsukov is suspected, in particular, in “an attempt to organize a contract killing aimed at eventually seizing ownership of the St. Petersburg oil terminal.”
The attempted murder mentioned in the statement refers to a 2006 attempt to kill local businessman Sergei Vasiliev, a co-owner of the St. Petersburg oil terminal.
In the1990s, Barsukov/Kumarin was alleged to be the head of the Tambov gang, one of the most commanding criminal syndicates in St. Petersburg at the time. 
In the October 1999 Viktor Novosyolov, then controversial vice-speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, who was believed to be the Tambov group’s lobbyist in the parliament and known to maintain close ties to Barsukov was murdered, and the powerful Tambov group was suspected in a series of killings of local businessmen. 
Barsukov, who has continually denied being a leader in the criminal community, and has won several cases against Russian journalists who directly accused him of criminal connections in their publications.
However, on Jan. 16 Prosecutor General Yury Chaika announced that the Tambov criminal syndicate “has been exposed” and investigation launched into a series of seizures that the prosecutors believe the gang was responsible for. In January, Chaika said more than 40 people had been charged in connection with the Tambov gang investigation.
According to a statement made Friday, the Prosecutor General is actively investigating a series of raids on large St. Petersburg companies and organizations, and has already launched 15 criminal cases on the seizures of over 30 enterprises. Seventy-six people have already been charged in connection with these crimes. The prosecutors are probing Vladimir Barsukov’s possible involvment in any of the cases.
At a news conference in Moscow on Monday, Chaika said the Tambov gang investigation exposed corrupt networks involving law enforcement officers as well as state executives and the prosecutor’s own staff. 
“When we started digging into these cases, we immediately encountered cases of open, cold-blooded betrayal of professional duties by certain members of law enforcement and high-ranking civil servants,” Chaika told reporters. “The criminal community has existed rather comfortably in St. Petersburg for more than the last ten years.”
Often referred to as St. Petersburg’s most powerful gang, responsible for a series of assassinations and and engaged in a protection racket, the Tambov group was reportedly founded in 1988 by Barsukov and Valery Ledovskikh, another former resident of the Tambov region which gives the gang its name.
In 1994, Barsukov lost his right arm during an assassination attempt.
Born on February 15, 1956, in Tambov Region in Central Russia, Barsukov moved to St. Petersburg after serving in the army. From 1985 to 1988, he served three years in prison for hooliganism, illegal possession of weapons and forgery.

TITLE: Solutions Sought to Stray Dog Problem
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A middle-aged woman stoops over her handbag resting at her feet and finds a small piece of food wrapped in plastic. “Koo-koo-koo,” she calls to a mud-caked mutt that leaps from the bushes to snatch the morsel from her hand. The dog trots back to its lair to share the food with its pack. 
Constantly barking packs of stray dogs prowling the streets in search of food, and potential owners, are a common site in St. Petersburg, either in the city center, wealthy neighborhoods or in the suburbs. 
In the past dog-catchers rounded up and destroyed strays, but now animal protection activists are calling for tolerance and say the problem might better be solved with sterilization. Such a program is already underway in St. Petersburg.
“There are dozens of dogs roving here. It can be quite scary, especially for children. The dogs constantly bark at night and it’s hard to get to sleep — the situation is very frustrating,” a resident of a wealthy Kolomyagi neighborhood, who identified herself as Galina told the St. Petersburg Times.
Despite the fact that the neighborhood is fenced and guarded, the area does not escape the problem of stray dogs. 
“People take pity on them and I think, even though everyone complains, some residents feed the dogs. But we are getting used to the situation little by little,” Galina said. “Anyway, what can we do with the miserable creatures, we can’t exactly kill them, but we don’t know other ways to deal with the situation.”
According Natalia Korkhonen, a member of the St. Petersburg-based society for the protection of animals, the problem is being tackled by sterilizing existing strays so they don’t breed and form feral packs. 
“Very often, it’s one dog in the pack who barks and its normally happens when they are in heat. So what we do is break up the pack by taking that dog for sterilization,” said Korkhonen, who also added that this is the most humane way to deal with the problem of stray dogs.
“There’s a statute in place in St. Petersburg [on the humane treatment of stray animals, accepted by City Hall in 2005], according to which the animals which have undergone sterilization have the right to live in the areas from which they were originally taken,” she said. 
In some situations however, where such dogs continue to harass people, some are taken to a shelter, Korkhonen said.
“For this purpose, we are currently considering negotiating an agreement with the state-run service of animal-catchers so we could take the troubled animals and give them accommodation in our shelter.”
“But we would like to appeal to Petersburgers to express their tolerance as we just don’t have enough space in the shelter to accommodate all the animals that are currently living in the street,” Korkhonen said. 
Although the shelter is for temporary accommodation, it’s extremely difficult to find new homes for stray animals. 
“The most permanent and best place for an animal to be is a home with a family, but it’s extremely difficult to find such place for a dog or a cat,” Korkhonen  said. Only one animal out of ten finds a new owner, she said.
Alexandra Boytsova, another member of the animal protection society, also supports sterilization. According to her, this is currently the only way to stop the ever-increasing numbers of stray dogs. 
“There are many people in the city who are eager to take home the dogs that they see on the street, especially if they see a pregnant dog. But then after she has had puppies, people just don’t know what to do with them — it’s a vicious circle,” she said.
“The city animal shelters, which are already more than full, won’t take newborn animals, because they need more food and care than grown-up dogs,” she said. 
“Not everybody knows that there’s a program to sterilize stray dogs in place in St. Petersburg which is paid for by the city administration, so if you see a dog which is clearly pregnant, just call the program,” Boytsova said.
Olga Skvortsova, an animals right protection enthusiast, said that “the main problem is that supply of stray animals greatly exceeds demand”. 
“Just today I had the return of a kitten for whom I thought I’d found an owner — but they just played with it and brought it back.”
“The solution is definitely the sterilization. And for those who are against it, I can say for certain that the sterilization methods nowadays are humane and there are also ways to preserve animal’s natural instincts,” she said.  
To give an animal a loving home, contact the  Animal Trapping Service Temporary Pound, 16 Glukhoozernoye Shosse (Tel. 964 9603) and the Rzhevka Shelter, 1 Poselkovaya Ulitsa (Tel. 527 3820). Animals are given away free of charge.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Dovlatov Remembered</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A memorial plaque will be inaugurated on Ulitsa Rubinshteina on Monday to commemorate the birth of the Russian short-story writer and novelist, Sergei Dovlatov, Fontanka.ru reported.
The granite plaque, which has been created by Alexei Arkhipov, a member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation, will be put up on the wall of the house where the writer, who died in 1990, lived from 1944-1975. The writer’s widow Yelena and his daughter will attend the ceremony.

<b>River Inspection</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Governor Valentina Matviyenko sent a representative to join environmental group Greenpeace on a tour of the most polluted areas of the city’s waterways on Monday because she was unable to attend in person due to other commitments, Fontanka.ru reported.
Dmitry Artamonov, the director of Greenpeace in St. Petersburg, had wanted Matviyenko to be able to “see the situation with her own eyes, and smell it with her own nose.” 
But Matviyenko’s office sent a letter to Greenpeace on Friday saying the governor would not be able to attend, and recommending that the group invite Dmitry Golubyev, president of City Hall’s environment committee instead.
Golubyev accepted the invitation and toured the River Okhta, considered to be among the city’s most polluted waterways. 
“We only have symbolic fines,” Golubyev said after the inspection, Greenpeace reported. “Because of that, it makes sense [for companies that dump effluent into city rivers] not to build cleaning devices but to pay for excess discharges.”

<b>Beslan Memorial</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) – A memorial to the children who died in the Belsan school seige was due to be unveiled Tuesday in the Church of the Feast of the Assumption, Regnum.ru reported.
Three-hundred and thirty four civilians were killed during the 2004 terrorist attack and the bungled rescue operation, including 186 children. Hundreds more were wounded. 
The memorial is dedicated specifically to the young victims of the siege and is being erected by the Ost-West Business Association.

TITLE: Experts Claim Last Romanovs Found
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia on Monday announced that 10 people have been arrested in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including law enforcement officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya, who revealed human rights abuses in war-scarred Chechnya, and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership.
Her slaying blackened the reputation of President Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia and deepened Western concerns about the safety of journalists and government critics in the country.
By pointing to enemies of Russia abroad, Chaika echoed statements by Putin and allies who suggested Politkovskaya’s death could have been plotted by Kremlin opponents who have fled Russia as part of a campaign to besmirch the country’s image.
Politkovskaya was shot to death in her Moscow apartment building. Putin sparked outrage abroad when he seemed to dismiss Politkovskaya shortly after her killing, saying her influence on Russian political life was “very minor.”
Chaika said the slaying was set up by a Chechen native who led a Moscow organized crime ring that specialized in contract killings. He said that those arrested — accused of helping track Politkovskaya and provide her killers with information — included a police major and a Federal Security Service officer, as well as three former police officers.
He said that people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing may have also been involved in the 2004 shooting death of Paul Klebnikov, an American who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition.
“As for the motives for the killing, the results of the investigation lead us to the conclusion that only individuals located outside the territory of the Russian Federation could have had an interest in getting rid of Politkovskaya,” Chaika told a news conference.
“It is in the interest first of all of those people and structures that aim to destabilize the situation in the country, change the constitutional order [and] create a crisis in Russia,” he said, adding that such forces want to “discredit the leadership” and provoke foreign pressure on the Kremlin.
They seek “a return to the former system of rule, under which money and oligarchs decided everything,” he said.
Chaika mentioned no names, but he appeared to be pointing the finger at least in part at Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status.
His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad — often Berezovsky — for the nation’s problems.
Politkovskaya’s killing came less than two months before the radiation poisoning death in London on Nov. 23 of Berezovsky associate and former KGB counterintelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, which further damaged the Russian leadership’s reputation abroad.
Litvinenko, who had been investigating Politkovskaya’s death, had said Putin was behind her slaying and also blamed the Russian leader for his own poisoning.
Days after Politkovskaya’s death, Putin suggested her killing could have been plotted by Kremlin foes abroad to harm Russia’s image, and his allies have made similar remarks about Litvinenko’s death. In November, Chaika said a foreign connection was among several theories being investigated in the Politkovskaya case.
Chaika revealed details hours after telling Putin, in televised comments, that 10 people were arrested and that “literally in the nearest future they will be charged with the commission of this grave crime.”
Chaika did not name those arrested. He said Politkovskaya knew the person who ordered the killing and had met with him.
A Moscow district court approved the arrests of eight of the suspects Friday, city court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said.
Chaika’s remarks were the first announcement of arrests in the killing, which Western governments have urged Russian authorities to solve. In April, the journalists’ advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said there appeared to have been no progress in the investigation.

TITLE: Georgia Says It Fired on a Russian Plane
AUTHOR: By Ruslan Khashig
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SUKHUMI, Georgia — Georgian forces fired at a plane they believe was Russian over Georgian territory last week and may have brought it down, a Georgian official said.
Russia denied the incident occurred. But a senior official of Georgia’s separatist region of Abkhazia said a plane of uncertain origin had gone down over Abkhazia.
Georgia’s claim Friday further escalated tensions with Russia, which soared earlier in the month when Georgia said a Russian bomber dropped a missile on a Georgian village. The missile did not explode. In both cases, Russia denied that its planes violated Georgian airspace. If Georgia did shoot down a Russian plane, it would be the most serious incident in years between the countries.
In the latest claim, Georgia said it fired Wednesday at a plane over upper Abkhazia, a remote, mountainous area.
“The day before yesterday, at 10:24 p.m., a Russian plane was fired on over upper Abkhazia,” Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Friday.
He stressed that Georgian authorities could not confirm that the plane crashed but said residents of the remote area reported hearing an explosion and seeing forest land burning.
On Saturday, the chief of staff of Abkhazia’s military, Anatoly Zaitsev, told reporters that a plane or its fragments definitely had crashed Wednesday and that he had seen the plane himself.
“The aircraft was going down, a volley of bluish smoke was coming after it, and there were two large fragments flying behind its tail from inertia for a while. One of them is believed to have fallen in the lower part of the Kodor Gorge,” he said. The gorge runs from Georgian territory into separatist-controlled territory.
He did not specify what kind of plane it was, but said it was not a type possessed by the Georgian military.
Interfax quoted him as speculating that “most likely it was an American reconnaissance aircraft,” but RIA-Novosti later quoted him as denying making that comment.
A U.S. Embassy press official in Tbilisi, Khatia Dzhindzhikhadze, said there was no immediate comment on the Interfax report.
An Air Force spokesman, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, said on Channel One television Saturday that Georgia’s claim Friday was “the latest provocation aimed against us.”
The Defense Ministry said no Russian military planes were flying in the area at the time, RIA-Novosti reported.
Russia earlier said the Georgian claim of the dropped missile was a fabrication aimed at ratcheting up tensions over the status of South Ossetia, another rebellious region that, like Abkhazia, seeks to become independent or incorporated into Russia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to bring the regions back under his government’s control and has irritated Moscow by pushing for Georgia to join NATO. The United States and other NATO countries have given substantial military aid to Georgia, which Russians widely regard as an attempt to establish a beachhead in territory that historically has been under Russian control or influence.

TITLE: Thrillseekers Ride Rapids on Inflatable Dolls
AUTHOR: By Christopher Hamilton
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: LOSEVO, Leningrad Oblast — Athletes and thrill seekers came from as far away as Samara  for a three-minute wet and wild ride on inflatable women in the fifth annual Bubble Baba Challenge at the Losevo Rapids on the Vuoksa River, about 82 kilometers northwest of St. Petersburg. 
“The rapids here are great and I get a rush from shooting them... so why not share this feeling with your ‘favorite woman’? ” joked five time veteran Igor Spivak.  “Actually it’s a difficult swim, but what really makes this event are the crazy people. The crowd and participants are really enthusiastic. I don't have any ambitions to win, I’m just here with friends having a good time.”
In an atmosphere of smiles and giggles, competitors walked around in wet suits, life vests, helmets, and with their “women” in tow — actually blow-up sex dolls. But in contrast to the audience, participants often approached the race seriously.  
“The course is scary,” said this year’s champion Dmitry Aleksandrov. “There are about one or two people who die in these rapids each year so there is a certain level of fear. I feel a wild rush of adrenaline that fades to fatigue as I fight the waves and swim against the rapids. It’s more difficult than it looks.” 
Aleksandrov and his doll European Champion took first place with a time of 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Sergei Sergeyev and Bromhilda the Beautiful finished second, nine seconds later, quickly followed by third-place winner German Sergeyev and Silicon Valley clocking in at 2:51. 
Baba in Russian generally means “country woman,” but is sometimes used in a sexually derogatory way. Other interesting “baba names” included Grudonosets (Breast Carrier), Barbie, The Queen of the Night, the Eighth of March Icebreaker, TITantic, Milkmaid, Sex Torpedo, Miss Vuoksa 2007, Rubber Mama, Sexana, and the Elastic Lady.  
Aleksandrov is a retired professional swimmer and a four-year veteran of the event. 
“As a professional athlete this event is just a personal challenge. In past years I’ve finished in second or third place and it has always been my goal to win. I won the  European Swimming Championships in 1989 in England and 1990 in The Netherlands. I retired about 10 years ago, so this is just a test to see if I’m still in shape.” 
“My swimming background certainly gives me an advantage,” said Aleksandrov, “But if you don’t navigate and choose a good trajectory through the rapids, you won’t have a chance. You need to pick a fast course through the rapids to make sure you minimize the amount you have to swim against the rapids.”
“We really don’t give any hints,” said the event’s creator and organizer Dmitry Bulavinov. “The most important thing is that people follow the rules. You’re not allowed to attach the doll to yourself, and if you’re moving slow, please yield to faster swimmers.”
“It’s actually impossible to ride on top of the doll,” Aleksandrov explains. “If I could have both hands free it would probably be easy for me to win. Here I have to tightly hold her under one arm while I swim with the other.” 
Heats of about 50 swimmers took place throughout the afternoon at 30-minute intervals. The best five competitors from each heat qualified for the final championship race. 
“Most of the heats are limited to the number of blow-up dolls we have available to rent,” Bulavinov said. “We bought them in bulk online so only paid about half price for them, but the course isn’t kind to them and they usually only last about two seasons. The dolls pretty much pay for themselves [with the 200 ruble rental fee] and [the 150 ruble] entrance fee and [50 ruble] life jacket rentals pretty much covers our costs. The event is staffed primarily by volunteers and the prizes are symbolic from sponsors which include a furniture store and a mobile communications company.” 
This year’s competition saw a record 365 entrants, including 45 women. 
“We originally came up with the idea while drinking during a camping trip. Somehow inflatable women came up in the conservation and someone wondered how well they would float and that we should make a trip on the Vuoksa. Somehow the idea really stuck with me and the following summer we held the inaugural competition, which attracted about 80 participants. 
“After the first year a number of people and friends came forward with new ideas. A friend of mine who is really into cycling started organizing a 75 kilometer bike tour from St. Petersburg where cyclists inflate their dolls and ride with them attached to their backs. As a result, the Bubble Baba Challenge has grown into an all day event.”
“I love the camaraderie,” Bulavinov added.

TITLE: Ten Held For Russian Journalist’s Killing
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia on Monday announced that 10 people have been arrested in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including law enforcement officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya, who revealed human rights abuses in war-scarred Chechnya, and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership.
Her slaying blackened the reputation of President Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia and deepened Western concerns about the safety of journalists and government critics in the country.
By pointing to enemies of Russia abroad, Chaika echoed statements by Putin and allies who suggested Politkovskaya’s death could have been plotted by Kremlin opponents who have fled Russia as part of a campaign to besmirch the country’s image.
Politkovskaya was shot to death in her Moscow apartment building. Putin sparked outrage abroad when he seemed to dismiss Politkovskaya shortly after her killing, saying her influence on Russian political life was “very minor.”
Chaika said the slaying was set up by a Chechen native who led a Moscow organized crime ring that specialized in contract killings. He said that those arrested — accused of helping track Politkovskaya and provide her killers with information — included a police major and a Federal Security Service officer, as well as three former police officers.
He said that people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing may have also been involved in the 2004 shooting death of Paul Klebnikov, an American who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition.
“As for the motives for the killing, the results of the investigation lead us to the conclusion that only individuals located outside the territory of the Russian Federation could have had an interest in getting rid of Politkovskaya,” Chaika told a news conference.
“It is in the interest first of all of those people and structures that aim to destabilize the situation in the country, change the constitutional order [and] create a crisis in Russia,” he said, adding that such forces want to “discredit the leadership” and provoke foreign pressure on the Kremlin.
They seek “a return to the former system of rule, under which money and oligarchs decided everything,” he said.
Chaika mentioned no names, but he appeared to be pointing the finger at least in part at Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status.
His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad — often Berezovsky — for the nation’s problems.
Politkovskaya’s killing came less than two months before the radiation poisoning death in London on Nov. 23 of Berezovsky associate and former KGB counterintelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, which further damaged the Russian leadership’s reputation abroad.
Litvinenko, who had been investigating Politkovskaya’s death, had said Putin was behind her slaying and also blamed the Russian leader for his own poisoning.
Days after Politkovskaya’s death, Putin suggested her killing could have been plotted by Kremlin foes abroad to harm Russia’s image, and his allies have made similar remarks about Litvinenko’s death. In November, Chaika said a foreign connection was among several theories being investigated in the Politkovskaya case.
Chaika revealed details hours after telling Putin, in televised comments, that 10 people were arrested and that “literally in the nearest future they will be charged with the commission of this grave crime.”
Chaika did not name those arrested. He said Politkovskaya knew the person who ordered the killing and had met with him.
A Moscow district court approved the arrests of eight of the suspects Friday, city court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said.
Chaika’s remarks were the first announcement of arrests in the killing, which Western governments have urged Russian authorities to solve. In April, the journalists’ advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said there appeared to have been no progress in the investigation.

TITLE: Gambling Hall Ban Makes Operators Creative
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Legislation banning gambling halls and casinos may end up driving many operators out of business, but for some, it is spurring creative partnerships, while others are seeking fortune elsewhere.
In June, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko signed a decree to abolish gambling enterprises in the city effective Jan. 1, 2008 — exactly one year before the introduction of the federal law. Most of the city’s 21 casinos and 571 gambling halls will close, though 19 will remain open in 2008. She suggested they use their premises for retail stores, banking, and other services and that they retrain their employees.
One such operator is taking the suggestion to heart.
Ritzio Entertainment Group, the country’s largest gambling operator, started talks in July with Moscow-based food retailer Dixy Group in a bid to turn its gambling clubs in St. Petersburg into supermarkets. Both companies hope for a joint venture to open 50 outlets under the V-Mart brand in Ritzio’s former gambling halls in St. Petersburg.
The move suggested that Ritzio has no alternatives, experts said.
“The situation in St. Petersburg was desperate. The company had no chance whatsoever to continue its gambling business,” said Yevgeny Kovtun, president of the Gaming Business Association.
Both parties have confirmed that talks were under way to create a joint venture, but neither side has released any details of the negotiations. 
Dixy is the country’s fourth largest supermarket chain by sales and manages 347 stores, including 336 Dixy stores, five Megamart hypermarkets and six Minimart supermarkets in three federal districts. The company’s main shareholder, Oleg Leonov, controls 52.5 percent, while the rest of the company belongs to investment funds and the company’s executives. 
Experts say the partnership will allow Dixy to expand without incurring extra costs, while Ritzio will branch into retail business with minimum risk.
“It would have been difficult for Ritzio to build a chain from scratch, so they approached Dixy,” Kovtun said.
Andrei Nikitin, retail trade analyst with UralSib, said the deal between Ritzio and Dixy was industry-specific and would hardly be a trend throughout the country.
“This is peculiar to Dixy, which needs some real estate to expand,” Nikitin said. 
Businesses in Moscow and St. Petersburg may have some difficulty locating premises for retail shops, “especially Moscow, where up to 70 percent of available spaces were utilized last year,” Nikitin said.
Moscow City Hall is following the “spirit and the letter of the federal law on gambling and betting” said Valery Ivanov, deputy head of Moscow’s commission on the gambling business. The city has no such law banning gambling before the federal law takes effect. Others have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, hoping that something will transpire to delay implementation of the law.
“If nothing changes with the gambling law, we will likely transform our properties into entertainment venues — restaurants, clubs and bars,” said Lavrenty Gubin, spokesman for Storm International, a casino group that operates the Super Slots chain and several casinos, including Moscow’s Shangri La.
Ritzio has properties that can be transformed into grocery stores, but Storm International has no plans to follow suit. Indeed, not all gambling companies own property that would lend itself to conversion into retail spaces.
“We cannot convert our premises to be used as grocery stores as Ritzio wants to, because they are simply not suitable for that purpose,” said Gennady Plyufnin, director of the Conti Group, which manages six casinos, including the luxurious Astoria and Olympia, in St. Petersburg. 
And no gambling operator is happy about the federal government’s plans to relocate casinos to undeveloped regions with 10-year leases, Plyufnin said.
“We will keep our fingers crossed and see what happens,” he said.
While gambling operators can reposition their businesses, about 500,000 workers will simply be laid off, said Samoli Binder, deputy head of the Association for the Development of the Gaming Business.
Others are more sanguine about the effects that the gambling legislation will have on the labor market, however.
“It could have presented a problem if most of the gambling businesses were located outside of large cities where finding other jobs is difficult,” said Irina Denisova, a professor at the Center for Economic and Financial Research. “As it is, all are concentrated in big cities where changing jobs is relatively easy.”
Yury Andreyev, a senior consultant with the Russian Economic Barometer, said the economy would be able to absorb over half a million workers in the gambling sector when the law becomes operational. 
“The impact should not be overestimated. The gambling industry will not be closed in one fell swoop, and operators can make use of the transitional period to make the adjustment,” he said.

TITLE: Italy’s Enel Wins Control Of Wholesale Generator OGK-5
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has allowed Italy’s Enel to take full control of wholesale generator OGK-5, which will become the country’s first power utility to be fully owned by a foreign firm.
“The agency has given permission for Enel to buy 70 percent of OGK-5, which, together with its existing stake, represents 100 percent of the charter capital,” an agency spokeswoman said Friday.
CEO Fulvio Conti said earlier that Enel would make a takeover offer for OGK-5 after it won approval from Russian anti-monopoly authorities.
Enel, Europe’s third-biggest power company, could present a formal bid by the end of September, a source close to the operation said Friday. The Italian firm is busy expanding outside its home market where its former state monopoly position makes growth difficult. 
OGK-5 shares rose 10.8 percent on the news to 3.97 rubles.
Alfa Bank called the news positive for Russian generators, as this would be the first time a foreign investor was allowed to gain control over one. “This would also mitigate the risk of discrimination against foreign strategic investors under the ongoing privatization process of the Russian gencos,” it said in a research note.
OGK-5 is one of six power wholesalers spun out from Unified Energy System. Enel became the first strategic investor in the country’s power generating sector when it bought a blocking minority stake in OGK-5 from UES at an open tender in June for over $1.5 billion, or 17 cents per share, paying a premium of more than 15 percent to the market price.
Alfa Bank said it did not rule out that Enel would have to pay a similar premium in the new buyout.

TITLE: Foreign Banks Freed To Acquire Locally
AUTHOR: By Catrina Stewart
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Several foreign banks are poised to make acquisitions after the Central Bank granted them permission to buy stakes of more than 20 percent in local lenders.
Speaking on the sidelines of the eighth All-Russian Banking Forum in Nizhny Novgorod, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Gennady Melikyan told reporters that in the last few days he had “signed several papers permitting the acquisitions of stakes exceeding 20 percent in several Russian banks.” 
Melikyan declined to disclose specifics of possible deals, saying only that the acquisition targets were Moscow-based and among the country’s 100 largest banks but did not include any in the top 30. Among the potential buyers, he said, was a South Korean bank. The Central Bank’s approval is valid for one year. 
In the past 18 months, Russia has relaxed the rules for foreigners investing in the banking sector. Recent changes to legislation oblige both resident and nonresident companies seeking more than 20 percent in a Russian bank to obtain approval first from the Central Bank. 
RusRating chief executive officer Richard Hainsworth said Friday’s announcement likely reflected the fact that the Central Bank had received a lot of requests since the change in the law. “This is probably a technicality rather than an indication of a trend. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next two to three months,” he said.
Foreigners currently hold stakes in 188 Russian banks, Melikyan said. As of July 1, overseas investors have increased their share in the sector’s combined capital to 21.3 percent. This compares with 12.9 percent a year ago, Reuters reported. 
Andrew Keeley, an analyst with Troika Dialog, said the banking sector was “pretty attractive” for foreigners. “Growth is extremely strong, and the market is still relatively underdeveloped,” he said. 
Hainsworth pointed out, however, that while there was a lot of discussion, there had not been many deals. 
The banking sector has this year faced mounting criticism of its consumer credit practices. Russky Standart, the country’s largest consumer lender, has made significant changes to how it charges its customers following a recent probe by the Prosecutor General’s Office. 
Analysts said it was too early to say whether an increase in foreign participation would have a significant impact on these practices. 
But Leonid Slipchenko, a strategy analyst at UralSib bank, said the participation of foreign players should add to transparency and competition in the sector. 
Last week, Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo said it was interested in banking acquisitions in Russia and Ukraine.

TITLE: Exciting Times for Beer Giants
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: AMSTERDAM — InBev NV, the world’s largest brewer, and Heineken NV, which sells beer in more than 170 countries, may report higher profit this week after boosting sales in Russia and Latin America.
Second-quarter net income at Leuven, Belgium-based InBev rose 18 percent to 466 million euros ($637 million), according to the median estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. First-half profit at Amsterdam-based Heineken gained 9.5 percent to 474 million euros, the median estimate of 12 analysts shows.
The brewers and western European competitors have expanded in Asia, eastern Europe and South America, where consumption is growing more strongly than in their local markets. 
InBev, the maker of Beck’s lager and Bass ale, is the second-largest brewer in Russia, where increased wages are enabling more drinkers to buy higher-priced beers. Heineken ranks third in the country. Baltika Breweries is the region’s biggest brewer.
“I expect Russia to be outstanding,’’ said Marcel Hooijmaijers, an analyst at Landsbanki Kepler in Amsterdam.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Italian Power</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Syntez Group development company will order gas turbines for St. Petersburg’s Southwest Power Plant from Italian company Ansaldo Energia, one of the world’s leading producers of power equipment, the company said Monday in a statement.
Ansaldo Energia will supply five gas turbines. Power capacity of each turbine will be 66 MW. The Southwest Power Plant will start operating by 2011.

<b>Lukoil Exports</b>
MOSCOW  (Bloomberg) — Lukoil, a Russian crude producer, plans to increase its supplies of oil to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline to levels last shipped in January to May, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified company official.
The official declined to say how much oil will be shipped next month after supplies were disrupted this summer, Interfax reported Monday.
Dmitry Dolgov, a Lukoil spokesman, declined to comment when called by Bloomberg News. Two refineries, Total Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH in Leuna and PCK Raffinerie GmbH in Schwedt, said last week they had to tap alternative sources of oil to continue supplying their customers in full.

<b>Teachers’ Plan</b>
n TORONTO (Bloomberg) — Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan will vote against a proposal by auto-parts maker Magna International Inc. to share management control in return for a $1.53 billion investment by Oleg Deripaska, the Toronto Star reported.
The pension plan said the agreement by Magna founder Frank Stronach to share control of the company with the Russian billionaire and senior managers leaves Class A shareholders out of the transaction and cuts them out of future changes, the Star said Monday, citing a posting on the pension fund’s web site.
Magna shareholders will vote tomorrow on the proposal, which Teachers’ said would give Deripaska’s Russian Machines control over half of the director appointments while holding 20 percent of the Aurora, Ontario-based auto parts company, the Star said.

<b>Oil-Export Tax Rise</b>
MOSCOW  (Bloomberg) — Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, will raise its tax on crude-oil exports to a record on Oct. 1 after world fuel prices rose in July and August, a Finance Ministry official said.
The tax will probably increase to between $248.50 and $250.60 a metric ton, Alexander Sakovich, deputy head of the Finance Ministry’s customs department, said by telephone in Moscow Monday.
The current duty is $223.90 a ton ($30.55 a barrel). Russia revises its export taxes on crude and oil products every two months based on the previous two-month average price for Urals, the country’s benchmark export blend.

<b>TNK-BP Invitation</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — BP’s Russian venture, TNK-BP, invited bids for as many as 300 workover rigs and services, under contracts that may be valued at $1.3 billion.
TNK-BP is seeking to hire contractors for three years starting in January, with a possible two-year extension, the longest-term contracts tendered in Russia, TNK-BP said Monday in an e-mailed statement. A total of 17 Russian companies and one foreign company are qualified to bid in the tender.
TNK-BP said last month it was seeking as many as 60 drilling rigs that may be valued at more than $2 billion as it develops new fields and extends production at existing fields.
Moscow-based TNK-BP plans to invest as much as $4.5 billion next year to maintain output and search for new reserves as production costs rise, Chief Executive Officer Robert Dudley said July 27.

<b>Plant Moderne</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Nevsky Zavod industrial enterprise and Peterburgskaya Lizingovaya Kompaniya signed an agreement on the modernization of plant equipment, the company said Monday in a statement.
Peterburgskaya Lizingovaya Kompaniya will provide Nevsky Zavod with equipment worth over 700 million rubles ($27 million) total value over the next six months. Within the next 60 month to 80 months will pay back the cost of the equipment and leasing.

<b>Startling Kvas</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Coca-Cola Co. produced its first bottles of Russian drink kvas as it considers starting sales of the bread-based beverage in the country, Vedomosti reported Monday.
Coca-Cola produced a testing batch under the name of Kruzhka & Bochka, or Mug & Barrel, at the Samko brewery in the Volga-region city of Penza, the newspaper said, citing Vladimir Kravtsov, a company spokesman. The kvas was sold in the city of Samara, he said.
The company may produce more kvas next year and is looking for a partner to help produce the beverage, Vedomosti cited Kravtsov as saying.
Kvas, which typically has an alcohol content of about 1 percent, is made from bread, sugar and yeast.

TITLE: Finns Sell-Up After Smolny Share Grab
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Finnish energy concern Fortum has finally sold its stake in St. Petersburg based JSC Lenenergo for approximately 295 million euros ($403 million) to three companies — VTB Bank, I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 and United Energy Systems (UES).
Earlier this year Fortum managers said the company might sell its shares in JSC Lenenergo because the stake was to be diminished as a result of an additional share issue in favor of City Hall. 
“The decision to sell Lenenergo shares is in line with Fortum’s strategy of investing primarily in Russian power assets. Lenenergo is currently concerned with electricity distribution in the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast,” Carola Teir-Lehtinen, Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications at Fortum, said in a statement.
Fortum owned slightly over 1/3 of shares in Lenenergo. As a result of the sale, Fortum will book an after-tax gain of approximately 230 million euros ($314 million) in its third quarter financial results, the company said.
According to a VTB statement issued last week, the bank “acted as a participant in the deal” and does not have any strategic interest in the acquisition of JSC Lenenergo shares.
“The deal was signed to finance the acquisition of JSC Lenenergo shares for one of VTB’s clients. According to the agreement, in three years VTB Bank will sell and the client buy out the shares of JSC Lenenergo,” the VTB statement said.
I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 Ltd is an investment fund and part of the KES Holding, which specializes in the Russian power industry.
The fund directly acquired 4.4 percent of JSC Lenenergo voting shares. RAO UES acquired 3.34 percent of the JSC Lenenergo authorized capital stock. The remaining part of JSC Lenenergo shares was acquired by I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 with the mediation of VTB Bank.
I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 highly estimates the potential of JSC Lenenergo, the company said last week in a statement.
“JSC Lenenergo is one of the basic elements in the economic development of St. Petersburg — one of the leading Russian regions in terms of economic growth. The dynamic development of the city and oblast stimulates growth in energy consumption, which in turn ensures the development of the company in the medium-term period,” the statement said.
I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 will invest into the modernization of power networks, the replacement of depreciated equipment and the increasing of power capacity.
“We have sufficient financing to successfully realize our investment program, especially given that the average Lenenergo tariff is one of the lowest in Russia,” said Konstantin Shevchenko, chairman of I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1.
The new shareholders were positive about the issue of additional shares in favor of City Hall, which “will ensure the fulfillment of the declared business plan.” Last week shareholders approved the issue of 239.9 million rubles ($9.35 million) in shares. The issue will start at the end of 2007 and last till the end of 2008.
As a result, City Hall will own 25 percent plus one share of JSC Lenenergo, RAO UES will own 50 percent plus one share, while I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 and VTB Bank will have 21.62 percent.
Consolidation of power networks will increase efficiency, I.D.E. Electricity Distribution Investments 1 said in its statement.
The generation assets of the original Lenenergo company were integrated into the Territorial Generating Company 1 (TGC-1) in 2006 as part of power sector reform in Russia. The company operates in the region between St. Petersburg and the Kola Peninsula.

TITLE: Businessman Targets U.S. Bomber
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at the MAKS 2007 air show, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported Friday.
The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said.
An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million if it were to be sold on the spot.
“That is no problem. It is such a cool machine,” the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.
The air show closed Sunday, claiming some $3 billion in contracts, three times the amount from the last show in 2005, but far lower than Western shows that Russia wants to emulate. 
The United Aircraft Corporation, an umbrella for the country’s plane makers, signed some $1.5 billion in contracts, Federal Industry Agency chief Boris Alyoshin said in comments on Vesti-24 television. 
Little action was reported for one of Russia’s strongest hopes for the civil air market — the Sukhoi Superjet 100 — which seats 75 to 95 passengers. The regional jet includes Boeing among its subcontractors, but reportedly got no new orders during the show, although Sukhoi and Italian company Alenia Aeronautica signed a joint-venture agreement to sell and service the planes. 
One of the larger deals of this year’s air show was the purchase of four Boeing 737s by Atlant-Soyuz, an airline controlled by the Moscow city government. 
Vladimir Poleshchuk, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, said military-related contracts had totaled around $400 million, Interfax reported. 
Reuters, AP

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Keeping Afloat</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — By 2010 Admiralteiskiye Verfi state shipyard will invest 12 billion rubles ($466 million) into development, RBC reported Friday.
The company will invest the money into production facilities for submarines and large-capacity vessels. By 2009 the company plans to increase its production volume to 22 billion rubles. Founded in 1704, Admiralteiskiye Verfi is the oldest shipyard in St. Petersburg. The company specializes in civilian ships, military ships and submarines.
<b>Capital Sums</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Petersburg budget will spend over 98 billion rubles on capital investment in 2008, over 105 billion rubles in 2009 and over 110 billion rubles in 2010, the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial policy and Trade said last week in a statement. The development program will focus on communal infrastructure, roads and transportation as well as power and water supply. 

<b>VTB Gains</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — VTB Northwest Bank reported pre-tax profits of $166.5 million in the first half of 2007 — a 46 percent increase compared to the same period last year, the bank press service said Friday in a statement.
 By July 1, 2007 bank capital had increased up to $1 billion (plus 29.7 percent). Assets increased by 18.7 percent up to $6.85 billion. Loans and advances to clients grew by 20.9 percent up to $4.9 billion.

TITLE: IMF Envoy Queries Strauss-Kahn Ability
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS — Moscow’s representative on the IMF board said former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn lacked the technical skills to head the International Monetary Fund.
The representative, Alexei Mozhin, told the Financial Times in remarks published Saturday that Russia had also secured the backing of unidentified developing countries for its own candidate, Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech prime minister and central banker.
“There is nothing in Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s curriculum vitae which could make it clear he has the necessary technical skills to do the job,” Mozhin was quoted as saying, adding that the IMF selection process was “deeply flawed.”
“We believe the IMF is facing a severe crisis of legitimacy and that if you want to make the IMF relevant to the needs of developing countries, we must select the best candidate,” Mozhin said.
“We strongly believe that Mr. Tosovsky is the best candidate with the most relevant experience,” he said.
The search for a new IMF head was sparked by the sudden resignation in June of Rodrigo Rato, a former Spanish finance minister. Rato is due to step down formally after the IMF’s next ministerial-level meeting in October.
Rato’s departure has interrupted discussions on how to give developing countries more say in how the IMF is run. Developing countries have in the past proposed candidates of their own — when he was appointed, Rato faced an Egyptian-born rival — but Russia’s motive in challenging the status quo by nominating an EU national has been questioned.

TITLE: Kazakhstan Orders Eni To Halt Work on Field
AUTHOR: ACBy Nariman Gizitdinov 
and Greg Walters
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: ASTANA — Kazakhstan ordered Eni SpA to halt work at the world’s biggest oil discovery in 30 years as the Central Asian country follows Russia’s lead in seeking greater control over its natural resources. 
The Eni-led Kashagan development was suspended for at least three months because of “environmental violations,’’ Environment Minister Nurlan Iskakov said on state television Monday. Kazakh officials also suspended construction of an Eni refinery for allegedly violating safety rules and opened a criminal probe into alleged customs violations by an Eni unit. 
“This is an attempt to replicate Russia’s success with Sakhalin-2,’’ said Dmitry Loukashov, an oil and gas analyst at Alfa Bank in Moscow. Russia’s environmental watchdog threatened to derail Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $22 billion Sakhalin-2 venture before the Hague-based company agreed to cede control to state- run gas exporter OAO Gazprom in December. 
Kashagan holds 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude, enough to supply the U.S. for 19 months, according to the Kazakh Energy Ministry. Setbacks have pushed the total cost of the project to $136 billion, more than double earlier estimates, according to the government. 

‘Friendly Talks’ 
Eni officials held “friendly’’ talks with Kazakh authorities Monday, a Rome-based spokeswoman for the company said by phone, declining to comment on the suspension or alleged violations. Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said last week that he would fly to Kazakhstan for talks in September, followed by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in October. 
International oil companies including Shell and Eni are being forced to renegotiate exploration contracts with resource- rich countries that demand larger profits from surging oil prices. Kazakh officials last week demanded that Eni, Europe’s fourth-biggest oil producer, give the country a greater share of the profit from Kashagan or risk losing control of the field. 
Eni and bigger rivals Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA and Shell all hold 18.5 percent of Kashagan, while ConocoPhillips has 9.3 percent. Kazakhstan’s national oil company, KazMunaiGaz, and Japan’s Inpex Corp. each own 8.3 percent. 
Alfa Bank’s Loukashov said Eni had created an opening for the government to raise pressure on the “extraordinarily difficult’’ project by accepting contract terms that were tough to fulfill. “I think the operator should take part of the blame,’’ Loukashov said. 

Two-Year Delay 
Eni said in February that production at the field would start two years later than previously scheduled and that costs for the first phase would almost double to $19 billion. The company attributed the delay and higher cost in part to the need to meet environmental standards. 
Kazakh officials said last month the government wants to amend the exploration contract with Eni and its partners to increase its share of profit to 40 percent from 10 percent. 
“Eni will probably have to give up some of its expected earnings from the project,’’ said Patrizio Pazzaglia, who helps manage $400 million at Bank Insinger de Beaufort NV in Rome. 
The government also halted construction of a refinery that Eni’s Agip KCO unit is building to process Kashagan oil. “Gross violations’’ of the fire code were uncovered at the construction site, the Emergency Ministry said in a faxed statement today. The ministry asked a court to uphold its ruling within three days. 
In addition, Kazakh customs officials said in a statement that an Eni unit, TOO Atyrau-Bristou Aue Zholy Servis, failed to pay duties and value added tax on two imported helicopters. A criminal case into “responsible persons’’ at the company was opened into the case Aug. 24, according to the statement.

TITLE: China to Be Net Aluminum Importer by 2009 — Rusal
AUTHOR: By Li Xiaowei
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: SHANGHAI — China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of aluminum, may become a net importer of the metal from 2009, Peter Finnimore, sales director of United Co. Rusal, said in Shanghai Monday.
The country will probably account for 36 percent of global consumption of the metal used in beverage cans and aircraft by 2010, up from 25 percent currently, he told a conference. Rusal, owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, is the world’s biggest aluminum producing company.
Increased demand will lift prices of aluminum, which have lagged behind other base metals in London in the past five years, rising less than half as much as copper and nickel. A reversal in China’s aluminum market may follow a similar path to oil, where the nation’s imports have more than doubled since 2001, contributing to a fourfold gain in prices.
China is the key driver of global aluminum demand which will grow by 3.6 percent annually, according to the Moscow-based company. Rusal expects the metal to reach a record $4,000 a metric ton as early as next year, Alexander Bulygin, chief executive officer, said in March. 
Rusal plans to buy a cathode factory in China’s Shanxi province by the end of the year, Grigory Goryachikh, general manager of Shanxi Rusal Cathode Co., said in an interview at the conference today. Cathode is used in aluminum production.

TITLE: Collusion Over Global Bodies Must Stop
AUTHOR: By Yegor Gaidar
TEXT: On August 22, Russia nominated well-known Czech economist Josef Tosovsky is candidate for the post of International Monetary Fund managing director. It did so because the means for managing the world's financial system, with the
World Bank and the IMF as key elements, is fundamentally out of date and in need of reform.
The essence of the historic agreement struck in the 1940s was that the head of the World Bank would be an American and the head of the IMF, a west European. 
This system is a relic of the colonial empires of Europe; in the past 60 years the world's economy has changed dramatically, with the rise of China, India and Brazil.
It would seem strange if the summer Olympic Games had been held for the past 60 years only in Washington and half the winter ones in Paris. But this is not about games. The issue concerns the institutions that ensure the stability of the world financial system.
The main aim of the IMF has been to manage global financial crises. It makes sense for it to be led by someone with experience of such crises. Most of the big European countries have not dealt with financial disorders in the past 20 years, making it hard to find specialists there with the experience.
The finance ministers of Australia, South Africa and Brazil have sent a letter to the head of the IMF, essentially saying a system in which a country, or group of countries, simply inherits a feudal right to run two leading financial bodies is not in line with the modern world economy. The leaders of many countries share this view. I can suppose that this position is shared by the leadership of my country too.
The world has not had serious financial disorders after the crises in Turkey and Argentina. But they will occur again. Russia's financial situation is now stable. 
We do not borrow from the IMF and have paid off our debts to it. But Russia went through two serious financial crises in the past 20 years, when a constructive position from the two key institutions was important. 
That is why they must retain the trust of the global community.
The main issue is not personalities. Nobody has anything against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French candidate. It is a question of principle: rejecting the monopoly right of one group or another to hold the leadership of the two institutions. 
It is also about how the candidate should be elected by democratic means.
A significant part of the world has reached agreement on this question. We are ready to ignore the political problems existing between our countries: relations between the centre of an empire and its former colonies, for instance relations between Russia and the former Warsaw pact countries, are not always the easiest. But the Russian authorities are ready to put forward and support a candidate from one of the east European countries because his reputation is spotless.
We cannot and do not intend to tell the countries of eastern Europe what position their governments should take. We have nominated Mr Tosovsky not as a representative of eastern Europe but as someone with an impressive reputation. 
For us, it is not so important from which country or group of countries he hails. I will express my own thoughts on this, which have not been discussed in the slightest with the Russian monetary or financial authorities: the countries of eastern Europe should consider ways of increasing their influence in key decisions within the European Union on questions of world financial politics. 
Mr Tosovsky ran the central bank of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic. He has experience in managing financial crises. When he led monetary policy, Czechoslovakia was one of the few countries that survived the collapse of the communist system and avoided hyperinflation.
When Czechoslovakia was divided into two states, he created a Czech and Slovak currency without serious crisis. He is recognised as one of the best bankers in the world.
The IMF's quota system for voting needs reform. The right to make decisions in key financial institutions should be in line with a country's share in the world economy. Western Europe could try to form an arithmetical majority on the IMF board by relying on the promise of US support for its European candidate in return for the support of the Europeans in electing the World Bank head.
In doing so it could try to oppose the rest of the world. But I am convinced: the time for such collusion is past. 

The writer is the former prime minister of the Russian Federation and isdirector of the Institute for the Economy in Transition. 
This comment first appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: 			5 Ways to Protect the Work Force From HIV
AUTHOR: By Daniel Kashnitsky
TEXT: Compared with much of the world, Russia was late to learn about AIDS. In the 1990s, as the disease surged across sub-Saharan Africa, the number of HIV cases in Russia was relatively small. Although the epidemic had already given the first signals of danger, very few people paid much attention to the need for far-reaching prevention programs. Business leaders were concerned with their own survival in the country’s emerging market, and the government was struggling to maintain an infirm health care system that it inherited from the Soviet Union. 
Since that time, the rate of new HIV infections has been increasing much faster than Russian experts had anticipated at the beginning of the epidemic. Russia is now home to the largest HIV epidemic in Europe -- more than 400,000 Russians are living with the virus, according to data from the Health and Social Development Ministry. The United Nations estimates are more pessimistic: More than 1 million Russians are infected with HIV. This difference suggests that most Russians living with HIV are unaware of it. 
As HIV in Russia continues to spread at rates that are among the highest in the world, the epidemic has the potential to become a significant threat to the national economy, the country’s demographic stability, security and social life. A number of social factors are contributing to the spread of this epidemic: widespread drug use, an unwillingness to discuss sexual behavior and, of course, a deep-rooted misconception that HIV and AIDS affect only high risk groups such as sex workers and drug users but not “decent people.” The most depressing issue, however, is the general lack of information about the epidemic, which results in ungrounded fears, unprotected sex and discrimination toward people living with the disease.
When it comes to the business community, not many Russian business leaders realize the risks of the virus on their employees. Only a few of them are ready to act.
According to the World Health Organization’s forecast, the country’s HIV infection rate is likely to continue to increase, and what is most disturbing is that this increase will be greatest among the young working population. In just a few years, this will undoubtedly have a tangible, negative effect on the national economy: increasing health care costs, decreasing productivity and inhibiting gross national product growth. On the company level, high rates of infection will lead to increased work absenteeism and higher staff turnover. This will mean that companies will have to invest more on recruitment and training. Growing costs and declining profits will hurt companies’ competitiveness. 
Some of the most shocking examples of HIV’s destruction can be seen from the corporate experience in African nations. For example, in Zambia and Botswana, 20 percent to 25 percent of the adult population has been infected with HIV. In these countries, the absenteeism rate is so high that some companies have to hire two employees for each position. While one employee is on sick leave because of AIDS-related maladies, the other employee works. 
A workplace prevention program is one of the best recipes that the international business community can share with Russian managers. Timely investments in education, prevention and health projects are an essential part of ensuring long-term financial profit. According to a Boston University research study in six African companies, investments in prevention and treatment saved on average 40 percent on potential AIDS-related losses. DaimlerChrysler specialists in South Africa have calculated that preventing one case of HIV infection saves three to four times the value of the average annual wages. Contrary to some perceptions, expenses related to corporate HIV prevention programs have more to do with safeguarding companies’ economic interest than with public relations or charity. 
To guarantee sustainable results, workplace education programs should be comprehensive and must consist of five key actions:
• Conduct a situation analysis and needs assessment that enables a company to create an appropriate, tailor-made program. 
• Adopt a public policy that clearly states a company’s position of nondiscrimination toward HIV-positive employees. 
• Organize HIV-prevention training programs for employees. Workers tend to respect information that comes from their employer, making it one of the most effective ways to achieve tangible change of behavior. Another benefit of informational HIV training is that it does not require a great deal of expenses — only a classroom, two to three hours of time and a trainer’s fee (in-staff trainers can be prepared to minimize costs). HIV-prevention training has a positive impact on staff morale as they develop a spirit of concern and nondiscrimination. 
• Cooperate with local medical institutions to improve the quality of their services and care — for example, supporting a clinic by buying new medical equipment. This is a good way to build public-private partnerships that have a direct benefit for employees and their families. The company benefits by developing a reputation for being socially responsible and also by protecting its employees’ health, and the state is able to improve its medical infrastructure. 
• Evaluate and monitor the education and prevention programs. This helps companies to constantly improve their programs and to gain insight as to their overall effectiveness.
In the fight to protect Russia’s work force, it is crucial that all sectors — government, business and nongovernmental organizations — contribute their expertise. Government has a vital role to play to engage business in the fight against the virus and to encourage workplace programs. Their importance cannot be overstated. 
The Russian business community has the power to adopt HIV prevention as part of its social responsibility standards. 
NGOs are a good resource for disseminating knowledge and sharing best practices; their experts can serve as independent consultants for government officials and business executives to build HIV/AIDS programs that are tailored to Russia’s needs. 
All these sectors can — and must — not only take steps to fight this epidemic on their own, but also come together in a new public-private partnership to promote best practices in HIV education, prevention, care and treatment. 
Russia may have been late to learn about AIDS, but there are still excellent opportunities to draw on the lessons learned from international experience. Let’s act now to build a powerful cross-sector coalition of government, business and NGOs so we can protect our work force and our children from this disease. It’s not too late to change the course of HIV in Russia.

Daniel Kashnitsky works for the Business and Labor Program of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS/Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (TPAA/GBC).

TITLE: A Tricky Passage
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: A helpful friend once asked me in 2003, “Would you like to meet a Russian gangster?” The conversation proved comfortable, intelligent and wide-ranging. I was especially interested in his thoughts on power and relations between states, of which he took a very Darwinian view: to the victor — the spoils; to the loser — bitter humiliation. Speaking of the Cold War, he said: “You won and we lost. We have to bow down to you. You have the right to teach us how to live.”
It was that last phrase (which I translated literally) that I found particularly striking. The winner not only gets to tell the loser what to do and how to act, but it has the right to instruct the other on how to live life itself.
I was intrigued to see that same expression pop up again in a spring 2007 interview with Valentina Matviyenko, the governor of St. Petersburg. “For so many years we felt injured, people taught us how to live, where to go.” But she was quick to point out that’s all changed. “Today Russia’s self-respect has returned. It’s important that it be consolidated in people’s minds.”
That last line would, however, seem to indicate that this newly recovered self-respect is not as solid as might be hoped. In any case, the point is that for the near future much of Russia’s actions at home and in the international arena will be conditioned both by the exhilaration of new-found strength and by lingering doubts about its enduring solidity.
Under the Soviets, the Kremlin’s behavior was largely conditioned by ideology and self-interest, although the psychological element was also always present. For example, the Soviets were ideologically obliged to aid Cuba, but ultimately self-interest motivated them to withdraw their weaponry during the missile crisis. But it was the psychological component — namely, the sense of national humiliation — that led to Khrushchev’s downfall and the return of the hard-liners.
The current Kremlin has no ideology to guide or inhibit its actions. Russia has yet to rediscover its sense of national myth and purpose. Therefore, its actions are currently shaped only by self-interest and collective psychology.
Recent actions like the submarine expedition beneath the North Pole, the resumption of bomber patrols, the veiled threats to stay out of the neighborhood that emanated from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization war games in the Urals and President Vladimir Putin’s beef-cake photos are all part of this pattern.
But there are two other elements at play in the process at present. Of course, Putin is well aware that he has little more than half a year left in office. Unlike U.S. President George W. Bush, who is both a lame duck and a cornered rat, Putin can go out in grand style. Some of what happens between now and March must be seen as Putin’s attempt to fix his place in the long line of those who have ruled the country. It’s also the fireworks, the finale. More substantively, Putin is also preparing a framework of trajectories and faits accomplis for the next leader to operate in. The political elite and the people both want continuity. Putin will have everything in place, up and running, for his successor. In principle at least, it will be a turnkey presidency.
This could go awry if Putin’s successor feels the need to make his own mark by being much more the reformer or tyrant than his predecessor ever was.
Either way, the tricky period is going to be between the election of the Russian president in March 2008 and the inauguration of the U.S. president in January 2009. It will be a subtle task to distinguish among acts of Moscow’s genuine self-interest, its continued healing of psychological wounds and the new tone and tenor that the next president will establish.
If we get through that transition, we will have a shot at better relations.

Richard Lourie is the author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “A Hatred For Tulips,” a new novel about Anne Frank’s betrayal.

TITLE: It Comes With the Territory
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Russia’s intrepid underwater conquest of the south side of the North Pole earlier this month raised some bemused eyebrows. If you’re under a pole, one observer asked, do you plant the flag upside down? Another wondered if the Antarctic Treaty means the reverse can’t happen: Russians in a blimp can’t claim the north side of the South Pole, can they? Jokes aside, however, Russia’s summer Arctic adventure — though not a formal territorial claim — may indeed carry real significance. Americans probably understand this better than anyone.
Russia and the United States have traditionally sought expansion into perceived vacuums. Both nations are big-time land grabbers and proud of it, sharing a common heritage of continental-scale acquisition artfully cast as a natural prerogative of the great power status that, well, comes with the territory.
U.S. real estate practices have been nicely framed. The Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny and the Turner Thesis together provided a serviceable rationale and road map for 19th-century expansion. The Doctrine essentially put the United States in charge of the New World. The Destiny explained why this should be so, proffering unique U.S. qualifications for the job. And the Thesis offered a conveniently quasi-Darwinian explanation for the success of the first two and provided a smooth enough segue into pan-Pacific endeavors. The challenges of an expanding frontier made Americans rise to the occasion. In short, it was an expansionist ideology that worked, whatever other people said.
Other people said plenty, of course, and are still saying it. But Americans have been selectively deaf to their critics and remarkably self-forgiving. They have also at times been disarmingly candid about certain ethical and legal inconsistencies in their early empire-building — the opportunistic hustling, the fast-and-loose approach to treaties and even the outright heists. President Theodore Roosevelt simply noted, “I took the [Panama] Canal Zone and let Congress debate,” leading one senator to proclaim the canal to be America’s because “we stole it fair and square.”
Of the things Americans are good at, claiming goodness may be the best. The chutzpah of the Roosevelt Corollary and its ilk was often justified as “advancing democracy” and “ensuring free markets,” assertions that bore elements of truth even as they infuriated other peoples and nations — usually the ones doctrined, destinied or thesis’d out of business or those who wished they had thought up these fine rationales first.
Russia’s expansion saga ran parallel to America’s but in reverse. Located at the far edge of an established Europe, the Russian Empire grew in the opposite direction — west to east. The result was a reverse Manifest Destiny with a correspondingly opposite outcome: the east Slavs’ drive for resources, markets and great power-dom over the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries propelled them across an enormous territory that they could neither control nor exploit sufficiently to prevent the 20th-century state they ultimately produced from failing. Twice.
The official rationales behind this overexpansion and mismanagement — the Divine Right of Kings and the dictatorship of the proletariat — have rightly landed on the ash heap of history. In the meantime, the successor state has wisely adopted a cryptic slogan no one can parse (“sovereign democracy”), which gives Moscow enough ideological wiggle room to rationalize dramatic new assertions of power — such as deep-sixing a State Duma deputy-explorer in a mini-sub to plant a flag and declare, “The Arctic is ours.” Some nations chuckled, but everyone took notice.
Appearances aside, Russia’s polar ploy is not forcing Americans into a rapid-preparedness mode to ensure a good slice of the future Arctic energy pie. The forthcoming U.S. “response” expedition has been booked for well over a year. Still, our common acquisitive history and the symmetry of a 50th anniversary practically beg speculation. It was the Soviet Sputnik launch in 1957, after all, that spurred the United States to a new commitment to expansion, one that led surprisingly quickly to a U.S. flag on the moon. Could some new feat of Yankee ingenuity be in the offing?
Russian and U.S. officials soberly insist that there is no Arctic land rush and that territorial claims will be adjudicated by the United Nations. Bravo. But just because we’re both paranoid, it doesn’t mean we aren’t out to get each other.
The origins of the Monroe Doctrine, it will be recalled, lay in discouraging Russian expansionism. If references to a “little-known Arctic Corollary” to the Doctrine start appearing in the next few months, be assured that somewhere Teddy Roosevelt is smiling.

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

TITLE: Testing New Waters In Azeri Popular Culture
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: Azerbaijan may be a secular Muslim country, but morally it is still a distinctly conservative kind of place. That is why it has been both thrilled and scandalized by the libertine lifestyle and provocative posturing of Roya Ayxan, an Azeri pop princess with the shock value of a feisty young Madonna.
Why all the fuss over Roya?
Well, she has been known to swear like a drunken sailor on live television. And she thinks little of stripping off and flashing her breasts. “Her attitude is basically punk,” commented a colleague, after Roya breezed into our Baku office in designer sunglasses, killer heels and an electroshock hairstyle, leaving a trail of expensive perfume and turning heads at every corner.
Some people have speculated that Roya represents a new, liberated generation of Azeri youth, those who have grown up during the post-communist oil boom. Others say she is just a nasty slut who should get the hell off stage before she corrupts any more young minds. And yet she insists her act is not meant to scandalize. “When I leave the house, I’m thinking, ‘I will go and sing and then come back home and say nothing,’” she explains. “But it’s impossible. When I go out on stage, I could take off some of my clothes or I could swear. It’s impossible to change me. And I don’t want to change because I like it.” Then she laughs — a dirty, loud laugh that fills the room.
But Roya goes on to admit that there are some things she still feels she cannot do because of the constraints of Azerbaijan’s traditionalist culture, although she insists that this is slowly changing. “At the moment it’s still too early,” she says. “In five years it will be OK for our people to understand.”
Nevertheless, she decided to send her younger brothers away to Turkey in case they were victimized over the outrageous antics of their celebrity sister. “If my brothers lived here, someone would definitely tell them, ‘Hey, your sister did or said something wrong on stage.’ They would have problems in their lives because of me, so I got some money together and sent them to live in Turkey.”
Although some Azeri singers have condemned Roya’s behavior, others have copied her flamboyant style. While the local imam would probably disagree, Roya sees herself as a role model for teenagers because she does what she wants to do, whatever people think of her. “I want even little girls to be like me,” she insists. “I want them to be normal, open people like me — people with principles.”
Roya may have principles, but in Azerbaijan, she is anything but normal.

Matthew Collin is a Tbilisi-based journalist.

TITLE: Democracy With a Kazakh Twist
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Petrov
TEXT: Until now, Kazakhstan, which has generally been viewed separately from other Central Asian republics, stood on its own in the political sense as well. But with the recent parliamentary elections there, which President Nursultan Nazarbayev called “the final act of constitutional reform and a reference point for the new political history of Kazakhstan,” any distinctions between Kazakhstan’s political system and those of its neighbors have become a thing of the past.
The elections give a clear picture of where Nazarbayev is going with his political reforms. Rather than redistributing some of the president’s authority to the parliament, he has only further concentrated power in his hands. The elections did not strengthen the political system at all. They created a regime of almost absolute personal authority that may appear successful in the short term but poses a dangerous risk of destabilizing the country in the medium and long term.
How does Astana’s political system look today? Nazarbayev is the head of state and holds all of the nation’s executive authority. He was first elected to that post in 1990 but has been in power since 1984, when he first became the chairman of the Council of Ministers and later the first secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party during the Soviet period.
The parliament consists of two chambers. The first is the Mazhilis, the lower house. It is formed on the basis of a proportional system of representation consisting of 98 deputies appointed by the ruling Nur Otan party, which Nazarbayev heads. In addition, the Mazhilis consists of nine deputies from the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, a 366-member organization that has constitutional status but is really only a decorative body whose main function is to represent the nation’s various ethnic groups. The assembly members are appointed by the president, who serves as its chairman for life. According to recent constitutional changes, the mandate in the Mazhilis lies not with the deputies, but with the party. If a deputy leaves or is thrown out of the party, he loses his mandate. Thus, the deputy’s authority is totally dependent upon the president.
The Senate is the upper house of parliament, and the president appoints one-third of its members directly. The other two-thirds of the Senate are appointed by the regions (two representatives from each region), but Nazarbayev also influences this process indirectly because he appoints the governors of each region.
In addition to these bodies, the country has a Constitutional Council, which is appointed by the president, the Senate and the Mazhilis in equal proportions. It also has a Supreme Court, which is elected by the Senate based on the president’s recommendations.
If you look at each individual element of Kazakhstan’s electoral system, it is not all that unique or terrible. After all, many countries have a proportional system of elections — some having higher thresholds than others for parties to gain seats in the parliament. Some countries conduct elections by closed party lists, so that the final election results are determined not by the voters, but by party functionaries. The absence of an imperative mandate, which prevents deputies from changing parties, is nothing new, nor is the domination of the parliament by a single party — although the complete absence of other parties is unusual. Taken separately, any one element would not be alarming. The problem, however, is that when they are combined, this leads to an increase in political risk. This is because there is no dialogue between the citizens and government, power is concentrated in one person, there is a fundamental lack of checks and balances, and not all of the country’s political and ethnic groups are represented in the government.
Let’s take a closer look at one of the political risks connected with the radical reconfiguration of Kazakhstan’s political system. This risk derives from the lack of communication between the deputies and the voters. It also derives from the fact that regional clans and ethnic minorities have been shut out from the process of forming the central government. Kazakhstan, much like Russia, is one of the most multi-ethnic countries of the former Soviet republics, and it is widely recognized for its harmony and peaceful relations among various ethnic groups. For quite some time now, the country has successfully developed the concept of a single people without regard to individual ethnicity.
Under the previous majority electoral system, about 30 percent of the seats in the second Mazhilis were held by Russians, the second-largest ethnic group after the Kazakhs; this breakdown mirrors their proportion of the general population. When the Mazhilis switched to a mixed election system in 2004, the number of Russian deputies fell to 20 percent. Under the current proportional system, even if every Russian on the Nur Otan party roster were to become a deputy, they would make up just 14 percent of the lower house of parliament; in reality, the percentage would be even lower. More important than the ethnic aspect of the issue, however, is that the interests of the voters are not taken into account when political decisions are made. This is a much larger problem for the country.
One of the biggest controversies hanging over the recent elections involved the issue of whether they met international standards. But the discussion concerning the honesty and fairness of the elections is somewhat of a moot point. More apropos in this case is a saying by Lenin, “Everything is correct in form, but when you get down to the substance, it is a mockery.” Asking international election observers to monitor such a farce is like asking a world-class referee to judge a boxing match between a heavyweight fighter and a featherweight. The result is a foregone conclusion.
At issue is not whether the parliamentary elections were conducted fairly. The most serious problem is that this is not a parliament at all, just a consultative body that serves the president.
Many Russian observers have taken some jabs at the elections, sarcastically describing it as democracy with a Kazakh twist. The problem, though, is that Kazakhstan is in many respects a copy of Russia, albeit in a more parodied form.
In the past, Kazakhstan served as a center for political innovations of sorts: New political ideas and mechanisms were developed that later spread to other former Soviet republics. For example, harsh laws regarding nongovernmental organizations and political parties were first introduced in Kazakhstan. Not long ago, Nazarbayev, who is also chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States, advised his younger colleague President Vladimir Putin to stay on for a third term and to disregard any subsequent criticism that would undoubtedly arise from abroad.
The only thing left to do now is to hope that the State Duma elections in December, which will be based for the first time on a proportional representation system for all deputies, will not develop according to Kazakhstan’s scenario.

Nikolai Petrov is a scholar in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

TITLE: Taiwan’s Acer Plans to Acquire U.S. Giant Gateway for $710 Million
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TAIPEI, Taiwan — Acer Inc. plans to acquire U.S. computer maker Gateway Inc. for $710 million in a deal that will push the Taiwanese company to pass China’s Lenovo Group as the world’s third largest vendor of personal computers, Acer said on Monday.
Acer is offering to buy Gateway for $1.90 per share in a deal expected to be completed by December, pending regulatory approvals in Taiwan and the U.S., Acer said in a statement.
The offer price amounts to a premium of 57 percent to Gateway’s Friday closing price of $1.21.
The acquisition has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Gateway and Acer and is subject to standard closing conditions, it said.
Irvine, California-based Gateway is the third-largest PC vendor in the U.S. by market share after Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.
The acquisition will create a multi-branded computer company with over $15 billion in revenues and shipments in excess of 20 million units per year, Acer said in the statement.
“This strategic transaction is an important milestone in Acer’s long history,” said J.T. Wang, Acer’s chairman, in the statement. 
“This will be an excellent addition to Acer’s already strong positions in Europe and Asia.”
Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said the merger will allow Acer to implement an “effective multi-brand strategy and cover all the major market segments.”
The merger will result in reductions in per unit procurement and component costs, and also create an opportunity for the cross-selling of product portfolios, he added.
Ed Coleman, chief executive of Gateway, welcomed the move.
“Joining with Acer will enable us to bring even more value to the consumer segments we serve and capitalize on Acer’s highly regarded supply chain operations and global reach,” he said in the statement.
In the second quarter, Acer was the world’s fourth-largest PC maker behind U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard, No. 2 Dell, and third-ranked Lenovo Group Ltd. of China, according to research company Gartner Inc.
Bryan Ma, an analyst at U.S. market research firm IDC, told Dow Jones Newswires that Acer’s acquisition of Gateway is expected to help the Taiwan company’s relatively weak presence in the U.S. market.
“Acer ranked sixth in the U.S. market, while Gateway ranked third as of the second quarter. Combined, they are expected to double their shipments,” he said.
Citigroup Inc. is the financial advisor for Acer, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is acting as the financial advisor for Gateway.

TITLE: Hawaii SuperFerry Launches New Era
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KAHULUI, Hawaii — Loaded with people paying a discount fare of just $5, the $95 million Hawaii Superferry made its maiden run Sunday with a rushed launch for a three-hour voyage to Maui — the first passenger ferry service between the islands.
Legal problems threatened to beach the giant catamaran like one of the whales that environmentalists fear it will run over, so the company moved up the debut by two days.
More than 500 passengers and crew, and 150 cars, were aboard when the four-deck, blue-and-white vessel emblazoned with manta rays pulled away from the dock to a chorus of cheers.
“It’s beautiful,” exclaimed Stephen Imamoto of Honolulu, who was traveling with his wife and 6-year-old daughter. “I don’t like to fly ... You can’t beat the price.”
Imamoto said he wanted to try the first voyage to see if he gets seasick. Choppy water and strong wind between the islands have scuttled previous attempts at interisland ferry services with much smaller ships.
Even in seemingly calm seas, the Alakai swayed at times Sunday as the ferry passed the green, rugged mountains of Molokai and Lanai.
Inside the 349-foot (106-meter) Alakai built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama, passengers browsed the gift shop, played cards and ordered breakfast while watching live NFL Sunday football games on high-definition TV screens as the ferry sailed past Aloha Tower.
Alan and Terry Kahanu, of Kailua, arrived to board the ferry at 4:20 a.m. They and their four children sat in the first-class cabin, eating doughnuts and sushi.
“It’s spectacular,” said Alan Kahanu. “It’s so nice to be able to walk around instead of having to be buckled in.”
Before Sunday, the only way to travel among the Hawaiian Islands was with highly competitive local airlines now engaged in a fare war.
Superferry sold out its first voyage in 30 minutes Saturday. More than 400 of those aboard got right back on the Alakai for the voyage back to Honolulu.
Superferry Chief Executive John Garibaldi, who mingled among passengers, said one reason for the service was to avoid a repeat of the effect of the grounded U.S. airplanes after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, island residents and tourists dependent on air travel were stranded for several days.
Garibaldi said the voyage “went very, very well and the response was phenomenal from passengers.”
The launch, originally set for Tuesday with fares 10 times that much, was moved up after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the state should have required an environmental review before the Superferry started service. Three environmental groups have sued, concerned that the vessel could collide with humpback whales, spread invasive species and create long traffic delays.
A dozen protesters greeted the hundreds of enthusiastic passengers after the ferry docked at Maui’s port.
Among the protesters on Maui was Joyclynn Costa of Haiku, who held a sign, “Respect our home.” She said the company did not consult with Maui residents about the service, which she said would pollute island waters.
The environmentalists’ attorney, Isaac Hall, said he would seek an injunction Monday to prevent the Superferry from doing business until environmental studies are completed. Environmental reviews are typically required of projects that use state money and land, such as harbors, and they can take months or even years to complete.

TITLE: China Defends Quality of Toy Exports
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — China strongly defended the quality of its exports Monday, saying some problems were a result of varying global product standards and that a mass recall of toys was largely a result of faulty U.S. designs not Chinese workmanship.
Li Changjiang, the head of one of China’s quality watchdogs, said “the different standards that China and the United States apply to different products” have been at the root of some of the recent tensions.
“That would lead to difficulty in defining whether a product is problematic,” Li, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said at a news conference. He did not elaborate.
Li’s comments were the latest in China’s attempts to prove it is working to overcome its safety woes and is a trustworthy manufacturer for both its people and the world. But continuing discoveries of high levels of chemicals and toxins in Chinese goods — from toothpaste and clothes to fish and juice — have made salvaging its reputation an uphill task.
Earlier this month, Mattel Inc. recalled almost 19 million Chinese-made dolls, cars and action figures because they were contaminated with lead paint or contained small, powerful magnets that children might swallow and damage their organs.
“About 85 percent were directly designed by the American company and produced according to requirements of the American importer,” Li said.
“I personally have seen some of the toys. There are serious problems in their design, so they are highly dangerous for children. These types of toys would be recalled in any country,” he said.
Li added: “While we recognize that Chinese producers should be blamed for those problematic toys, what kind of responsibility should the U.S. importers and U.S. designers take in this respect?”
He did not give details on the alleged design problems. Chinese officials said last week that 18.2 million of the recalled products — including popular Polly Pocket dolls and Barbie play sets — were pulled off the shelves because of a revision of international standards in May involving magnets.
Mattel first announced a recall targeting magnets in November 2006, after several Polly Pocket-related injures were reported.
It extended that recall this month following the change in industry standards that required safety warnings for toys with magnets or magnetic components not attached tightly.
Another 436,000 “Sarge” cars based on the character from the movie “Cars” were also recalled because they contained lead.
Li said that overall Chinese-made toys were safe, and that the number of recalled toys were a small part of the 22 billion toys exported from China last year.

TITLE: Russian Language Gets a Boost From New Campaign
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia has launched a campaign to promote the national language after almost two decades of retreat — to match the country’s increasing economic and political confidence.
The Kremlin believes it can start rebuilding the credibility of Russian as a means of communication outside its own borders, with business and not communist ideology driving the revival.
One recruitment expert has advised expats that if they want a top management job they should learn Russian.
In Moscow this week, ministers announced a series of plans, such as expansion of an international cultural foundation comparable with Germany’s Goethe Institute or the Alliance Francaise.
“Russian was the first language spoken in space,” said Education Minister Andrei Fursenko referring to the first cosmonauts and their Cold War-era space race against English-speaking U.S. astronauts. Once the common language across most of the communist world, Russian has been sidelined, especially in Eastern Europe where English has replaced it as the favored second language. Russian also suffers from an image problem there, with Czechs, Poles and other former Warsaw Pact member states resentful at being forced to study a language linked with an occupying foreign power.
Across former states of the Soviet Union, only Belarus still recognizes Russian as a state language. In many others, notably Turkmenistan, the post-Soviet leadership has sought to erase all traces of Russian.
The number of mother-tongue Russian speakers also continues to decline. Russia’s population is falling by 700,000 every year and now stands at 142 million.
Spearheading the campaign, President Vladimir Putin linked the country’s linguistic fate to its morals and values.
“Looking after the Russian language and expanding the influence of Russian culture are crucial social and political issues,” he told Russian parliamentarians in his annual address.
Putin said he backed proposals to develop “the Russian language at home, support Russian language study programmes abroad and generally promote Russian language and literature around the world”.
The Russian government has launched a web site in both Russian and English to promote Russian, www.russian2007.ru. It provides details on more than 100 international festivals and events, as well as publications and plans to build libraries.
Russian is one of six official languages at the United Nations and is still used widely in many former Soviet states.
“In the mid-90s we could put up with people not speaking Russian, because they had other experience and expertise. Now, Russians are catching up,” said Anton Derlyatka, a partner with executive search consultants Ward Howell International.
“The complexities of the Russian market have increased so much that you can’t work without understanding the mentality of the people and the Russian context. In order to do that, you have to speak Russian.”
The image of Russian can benefit from Russia’s current economic and political resurgence, said Culture Minister Alexei Sokolov.
“The evolution of the Chinese society was the reason behind the changes in attitudes to language,” he said.
“Russia is also currently on the brink of a significant breakthrough in the areas of nanotechnology, science and culture, and that is why it should be expected that the language will benefit.”
Foreign ballet dancers, U.S. astronauts and Moscow-based ambassadors who speak Russian were photographed for a new public exhibition in central Moscow to promote the campaign.
Japanese dancer Morihiro Iwata said he was proud to promote Russian but didn’t speak it when he first arrived in the country 17 years ago.
“I think more foreigners should learn Russian,” he said as he stood in front of a large photo of him performing in a ballet. At home, Iwata only speaks Russian with his wife and fellow Bolshoi Theatre dancer, Olga. He had to learn the language quickly when he first arrived in the country, he recalls, because rehearsals for performances in the Bolshoi Theatre are conducted in Russian.
Convincing foreigners to learn Russian is not an easy task due to the complexity of Russian grammar and to the spread of English. Russian’s main competitor abroad has also cast its corrosive spell inside Russia, with Russians using numerous English words, such as “biznesmen” and “kompyuter,” every day.

TITLE: Merkel Pressures China On Climate
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BEIJING, China — German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged China on Monday to do more to halt climate change, prompting the response that the developed West has been polluting the skies for much longer than the newly developing Chinese.
Merkel is on her second visit to China as chancellor and the trip comes four months before world environment ministers meet in Bali to try to launch new talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.
She pressed for stronger protection of intellectual property rights and said the ground rules for gathering resources should be the same worldwide, an apparent criticism of China's relations with Sudan.
China has sizeable economic interests in Sudan and has been under pressure to take a more critical approach to Khartoum after accusations aid from Beijing feeds violence in Darfur.
Premier Wen Jiabao said China would do everything it could to fight product piracy but that there were differences concerning climate change.
“The Chinese wish, like all people, for blue skies, green hills and clear water,” he told a joint news conference. “China’s development is an opportunity, not a threat,” he said earlier.
He said the task of reducing emissions was tougher in China than in Germany because it had more people and had not yet reached economic growth of industrialized countries in terms of GDP per capita.
“China has taken part of the responsibility for climate change for only 30 years while industrial countries have grown fast for the last 200 years,” he said.

TITLE: Fire Threatens Greek Villages
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: KRESTENA, Greece — Desperate Greek villages encircled by flames appealed for help on Monday as strong winds continued to fan forest fires sweeping through the country, killing 63 people in three days.
People sought refuge by river banks as towering flames engulfed homes, farms and forests and firefighters battled scores of blazes across the country, which has declared a nationwide emergency.
“The fire is just outside our village. Absolutely nothing has been done. We are on our own,” a desperate resident of Frixa village in the hardest hit southern Peloponnese region told Antenna TV.
“A lot of people have gone down to the river. For God’s sake, something must be done so no more people die.”
A woman from the village of Porthyo made another frantic appeal. “The village is surrounded and we are trapped. Please help. I have invalids in the house and I can’t move them.”
The worst forest fires in decades have cut a swathe of destruction across Greece from the southern tip of the Peloponnese to the northern town of Ioannina, razing hundreds of villages and almost destroying the ancient site of Olympia.
The four-day inferno has left thousands homeless and 63 people have been killed, with more feared dead, trapped in villages cut off by flames, the fire brigade said.
The government, facing snap elections on September 16, offered rewards of up to a million euros ($1.4 million) on Sunday for help in tracking down arsonists who it suggests have played a major role in the fires.
Many local mayors have accused rogue land developers of setting fires to make way for new construction on virgin forest and farm land. So far, police have arrested two elderly people and two boys on suspicion of starting fires.
Thinly stretched fire brigades, aided by planes from EU countries, soldiers and local volunteers were trying to stop a large fire front from reaching the Peloponnese town of Krestena, with a population of 5,000.
“There are 10 fire engines and one helicopter at the edge of the town trying to stop the fire from coming through,” Reuters cameraman Vassilis Triandafyllou said. “The sky is black with smoke, you can hardly see anything.”
On Sunday, firefighters managed to save the nearby temples and stadiums of ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, as flames licked the walls of the site’s museum.
But the blaze continued to ravage neighboring villages on Monday and thousands of people have fled, seeking temporary refuge in schools, hotels and regional health centers.
“There are strong winds in the area and all villages there have a big problem,” a fire department spokesman said.
The fires covered Athens in white ash that swirled around the temples of the Acropolis.

TITLE: Burmese Opposition Stages Protest March
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: YANGOON, Myanmar (Burma) — Around 50 members of Myanmar’s main opposition party staged a protest march in a provincial town on Monday, witnesses said, as a major junta crackdown failed to stifle rare displays of public anger at soaring fuel prices.
Gangs of men from the army’s feared Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) shadowed the march through Bago, 50 miles north of Yangon, taking pictures and video footage but did not intervene.
The protesters, all from the National League for Democracy (NLD) party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, agreed with police and town officials to halt their march after an hour, one of their leaders said. Nobody was arrested.
“We came to realize later that about 200 USDA thugs were waiting for us a couple of hundred yards away from where we were stopped. If we hadn’t stopped, something could have happened,” local NLD secretary Ko Thein Tan told Reuters by telephone.
As with similar protests last week in Yangon, people cheered the marchers and offered them water, but did not join in, suggesting the string of small protests over the last week is not about to snowball into a repeat of the 1988 anti-junta uprising.
In Yangon, the former Burma’s main commercial city, USDA trucks which had parked in back streets near the NLD headquarters withdrew, easing fears of another move against the major vehicle for anti-junta sentiment.
Around 30 NLD members marching to their party headquarters during a rare series of protests last week were arrested by men believed to be from the USDA. Witnesses said some were slapped and punched as they were forced into trucks.
In addition, the junta arrested 13 leading dissidents, including Min Ko Naing, a student leader during the 1988 uprising who still carries a great deal of influence. Relatives of the group say they have been transferred to Yangon’s infamous Insein prison, where they are awaiting trial on sedition charges carrying up to 20 years in jail.
Min Ko Naing, a nom de guerre that means “Conqueror of Kings” in Burmese, spent 15 years in jail after the 1988 uprising. 
Htay Kywe, another prominent member of the so-called “88 Generation Student Group, remains in hiding.

TITLE: U.S. Attorney General Hands in Resignation
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CRAWFORD, Texas — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned, officials said Monday, ending a monthslong standoff with critics who questioned his honesty and competence at the helm of the Justice Department.
Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his resignation over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend until accepting his resignation Friday, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department planned a news conference for 10:30 a.m. EDT, in Washington. Bush planned to discuss Gonzales' departure at his Crawford, Texas, ranch shortly thereafter.
Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement.
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was among those mentioned as possible successors. However, a senior administration official said the matter had not been raised with Chertoff. Bush leaves Washington next Monday for Australia, and Gonzales' replacement might not be named by then, the official said.
“Better late than never,” said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, summing up the response of many in Washington to Gonzales' resignation.
Gonzales served more than two years as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general.
Bush steadfastly — and at times angrily — refused to give in to critics, even from his own GOP, who argued that Gonzales should go. Earlier this month at a news conference, the president grew irritated when asked about accountability in his administration and turned the tables on the Democratic Congress.
“Implicit in your questions is that Al Gonzales did something wrong. I haven't seen Congress say he's done anything wrong,” Bush said testily.
Gonzales, 52, called Bush on Friday to inform him of his resignation, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to not pre-empt Gonzales' statement. The president had Gonzales come to lunch at his ranch on Sunday as a parting gesture.
Gonzales, whom Bush once considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, is the fourth top-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006. Donald H. Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary one day after the November elections. Paul Wolfowitz agreed in May to step down as president of the World Bank after an ethics inquiry. And top Bush adviser Karl Rove earlier this month announced that he was stepping down.
Reacting to Monday's developments, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that Gonzales' department had “suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence.”
Gonzales could not satisfy critics who said he had lost credibility over the Justice Department's handling of warrantless wiretaps related to the threat of terrorism and the firings of several U.S. attorneys.
As attorney general and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers. Gonzales declared himself upset and frustrated over the findings. But lawmakers said they had begun to lose confidence in him.

TITLE: Serbia: EU Encouragement Would Speed Balkan Reform
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BLED, Slovenia — The European Union could change the Balkans at a stroke by giving membership candidate status to countries still uncertain whether the bloc really wants them, Serb Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said on Monday.
Jeremic told leaders at the Slovenian Strategic Forum in Bled that lack of a clear incentive from the EU was hindering political and economic reform.
“Some 20 million inhabitants of the European continent, here in our region, await a signal: is it business as usual, or will we be galvanized by the prospect of imminent candidacy and membership?,” he said.
“If it is business as usual ... we will have the usual politics of transitional states. Because the future does not beckon, the past will likely prevail.”
Croatia and Macedonia are already EU membership candidates.
Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania are potential candidates, as is Serbia, whose progress towards the 27-member bloc is heavily burdened by the unresolved status of Kosovo and failure to arrest war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.
The EU wants all of them to join eventually but is trying to balance incentives with conditions. Some critics say there is not enough carrot and too much stick from Brussels.
“If we do have that prospect, the prospect of imminent belonging, then everything changes,” said Jeremic, a member of the most pro-EU party in Serbia’s coalition government.
“All our economic incentives will be turned on their heads. The corrosive isolation of visa restrictions that currently hangs over us like a thick fog will be lifted,” he added.
Jeremic's Democratic Party, led by President Boris Tadic, is regularly outpolled in elections by the ultranationalist Radical Party, which extols the image of a fortress Serbia heroically resisting the West’s humiliating conditions.

TITLE: Sarkozy Relaxes Stance on EU Entry for Turkey
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: PARIS, France — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, softening his opposition to Turkish accession to the European Union, said for the first time he’d be willing to discuss terms for the nation’s membership in the 27-nation bloc. 
Sarkozy said his agreement to negotiations would require the EU to establish a panel of ‘wise men’ to study the future of Europe. 
‘If the 27 undertake this discussion about the future of the EU, France won’t object to opening new chapters in the negotiations between the Union and Turkey in coming months and years,’ Sarkozy told French ambassadors in a speech today in Paris. 
Sarkozy, who was elected on May 6, made opposition to letting Turkey into the EU a key foreign-policy plank during his campaign, saying the mainly Muslim nation of 72 million people, where living standards are about a third of the EU average, is in Asia. In June, France blocked the start of EU talks with Turkey on economic and monetary affairs. 
In the foreign policy speech today, Sarkozy called on the U.S. to show leadership in protecting the environment; criticized Russia for what he termed the ‘brutal’ use of its oil and gas assets in diplomacy; backed a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; and said Iranian possession of nuclear weapons was ‘unacceptable.’
The French president also backed broadening the United Nations Security Council’s permanent membership and expanding the Group of Eight industrial nations that set global economy policy to include China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

TITLE: Afghanistan Increases Opium Production
PUBLISHER: The New York Times
TEXT: LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released on Monday.
The report is likely to touch off renewed debate about the United States’ $600 million counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been hampered by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government. 
“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report’s overall findings. “And I think that we are finding one.”
Wood said the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods should be intensified, but he added that ground spraying poppy crops with herbicide remained “a possibility.” Afghan and British officials have opposed spraying, saying it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.
While the report found that opium production dropped in northern Afghanistan, Western officials familiar with the assessment said, cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers to grow poppies.
Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade, opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public support by protecting farmers’ fields from eradication, according to American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from traffickers they protect.
In Taliban-controlled areas, traffickers have opened more labs that process raw opium into heroin, vastly increasing its value. The number of drug labs in Helmand rose to roughly 50 from 30 the year before, and about 16 metric tons of chemicals used in heroin production have been confiscated this year. 
The Western officials said countrywide production had increased from 2006 to 2007, but they did not know the final United Nations figure. They estimated a countrywide increase of 10 to 30 percent.
Afghanistan produced a record 6,100 metric tons of opium poppies last year, 92 percent of the world’s supply. 
In Helmand, the breadth of the poppy trade is staggering. A sparsely populated desert province twice the size of Maryland, Helmand produces more narcotics than any country on earth, including Myanmar, Morocco and Colombia. Rampant poverty, corruption among local officials, a Taliban resurgence and spreading lawlessness have turned the province into a narcotics juggernaut.
Poppy prices that are 10 times higher than those for wheat have so warped the local economy that some farmhands refused to take jobs harvesting legal crops this year, local farmers said. And farmers dismiss the threat of eradication, arguing that so many local officials are involved in the poppy trade that a significant clearing of crops will never be done.

TITLE: Liberia War Crimes’ Trial Stalls in The Hague
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS, France — When Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, was arrested 17 months ago on war crimes charges and ordered to face international judges, it was heralded as a milestone for justice in Africa.
His trial, the first war crimes trial for an African president, was to start in April.
But having barely begun, the case has already lost its momentum. Last Monday, hearings were postponed for the fourth time this year, and the court is now set to reconvene in January.
The latest disruption was the result of Taylor’s dismissal of his court-appointed lawyer, Karim Khan. His new lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, told the court that his team needed at least four months to study the 40,000 pages of evidence already before the court. And he said that Taylor’s personal archives, about 50,000 pages, had only just surfaced and needed to be examined.
The delays have caused much fingerpointing about who at the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone is most to blame.
The responsibility is variously pinned on the judges for trying to schedule the complex case with undue haste, on the court administration for being inept and short of funds, or on Taylor — who has denied all criminal charges — for stalling. 
One problem that has dogged the trial is that it was moved from the relatively inexpensive Sierra Leone to the much costlier city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. 
Several countries, including the United States, which was deeply involved in creating the tribunal, feared that a trial in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, for such an influential politician could cause unrest in West Africa.
Court officials say that the move has created more bureaucracy while driving up salaries and travel bills for staff and witnesses.

TITLE: African Players Make Strides in Premiership
AUTHOR: By Timothy Collings
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Mali midfielder Mohamed Sissoko scored his first goal for Liverpool to help his side register a 2-0 win at Sunderland on a weekend where African players made decisive contributions across Europe’s major leagues.
Sissoko’s long-range strike came 75 games into his career at the English Premier League club as the Merseysiders maintained their unbeaten run to the start of the season.
Also in England, Egyptian striker Mido scored his second goal in as many games for new club Middlesbrough as they drew 2-2 at home to bitter rivals Newcastle.
Mido capped his home debut with a well taken goal on 28 minutes after Frenchman Charles N’Zogbia had given the visitors the lead.
The powerful Egyptian latched on to a Fabio Rochemback through-ball and rounded the goalkeeper to slot into an empty net.
Australian Mark Viduka put Newcastle back in front before Julio Arca’s late volley rescued a point for Mido’s side.
On the opening day of the Spanish Primera Liga, Mali and Sevilla striker Frederic Kanoute continued to impress in front of goal.
After scoring a hat-trick in the Spanish Super Cup final, Kanoute wasted no time in opening his league account, poking home Sevilla’s third goal in a rampant 4-1 win over Getafe on Saturday.
In the Netherlands, Ghanaian defensive midfielder Eric Addo scored a rare goal as champions PSV Eindhoven maintained their 100 percent start to the season by cruising to a 5-0 home victory over NEC.
Addo scored the second goal with a neat header and Otman Bakkal, a 22-year-old Dutch forward of Moroccan descent, scored the fifth a minute from time.
Elsewhere in the Eredivisie, talented Moroccan pair Nordin Amrabat and Samir El Gaaouiri each scored second-half goals for newly promoted VVV Venlo as they dispatched Excelsior 3-1.

MALONGA STRIKE
In France, Congolese midfielder Chris Malonga set AS Nancy on course for a 4-1 home win over Auxerre that put them top of Ligue 1.
Malonga opened the scoring with a powerful 37th minute drive and Nancy roared into a 4-0 lead, showing all the power and pace that has earned them 13 points from a possible 15 in the opening stages of the season.
Goals from Algerian Rafik Saifi and Tunisian Hamed Namouchi earned FC Lorient a valuable point at Girondins Bordeaux.
Valenciennes’ Algerian midfielder Yassine Bezzaz scored a crucial 11th minute equaliser after visitors Sochaux took an early lead through Julien Quercia. The home side built on Bezzaz’s strike and eventually won 3-1 through goals from Frenchmen Eric Chelle and Steve Savidan.
A goal from Mali midfielder Sidi Yaya Keita could not prevent Racing Lens losing 2-1 to Racing Strasbourg.
The result prompted the resignation of veteran coach Guy Roux, who will be replaced by former France striker Jean-Pierre Papin.
An audacious goal from Mamadou Niang helped Olympique Marseille to a 2-1 victory at Caen.
Early in the second half, France forward Djibril Cisse crossed for Niang who bemused the Caen goalkeeper with a cheeky dummy before rolling the ball into the empty net.
Lille picked up a point at Paris St Germain courtesy of a goal from Cameroon midfielder Jean Makoun.
Makoun’s athletic header looked set to give draw-specialists Lille a precious three points but Pierre-Alain Frau followed up a missed penalty to earn PSG a draw in the 85th minute.

TITLE: Powell Admits Giving Up In 100m
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: OSAKA, Japan — Jamaican world record holder Asafa Powell admitted on Monday that he gave up during his world 100 meters final showdown with new champion Tyson Gay.
“When I saw I wasn’t in gold medal contention, I gave up. I just stopped running,” Powell told Reuters in an interview on Monday, less than 24 hours after he lost to the American.
“I said to myself there was no coming back from this.”
The loss was a major disappointment since Powell has never won a global title despite having run a world record 9.77 seconds three times.
“I am not sure what is happening, but I can’t be negative right now,” said Powell, who failed to medal in the 2003 world championships and 2004 Olympics before missing the 2005 worlds through injury.
“I felt very free, very relaxed before the race,” he said, reflecting on Sunday night’s drama.
“But when Tyson came on and gave me a little pressure, I just panicked.”
The leader through the first half of the highly anticipated race, Powell faded to third behind Bahamian Derrick Atkins as Gay roared to his first global title.
“In the middle of the race, the pressure got me,” Powell said.
He promised to make amends by breaking his world record before the end of the year.
“I didn’t get to run fast at these world championships but I am going to bounce right back,” Powell said. “I am going out there and I am going to give a world record.”
He said he looked forward to racing Gay again soon, perhaps in Brussels next month.

TITLE: Barcelona’s New Squad Fails to Impress
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MADRID, Spain — Millions of euros were spent remodelling squads at the top end of the Primera Liga during the close season yet the weekend’s opening round of matches had a familiar feel.
Champions Real Madrid snatched the title from under the noses of Barcelona last June with a series of stirring comeback wins, and took up where they left off by coming from behind to beat city rivals Atletico 2-1 at home on Saturday.
There was, however, a change in style under new coach Bernd Schuster, who has promised entertainment at the Bernabeu after Fabio Capello’s largely unpopular defensive tactics of last season.
“The Real fans left the Bernabeu rubbing their eyes. Real shot at goal 13 times. To reach this total under Capello last season they needed three matches,” said one commentator in Monday’s sports daily AS.
Long-suffering Atletico fans have not seen their side beat Real since October 1999, and could be forgiven for believing another false dawn was breaking for them after a positive pre-season.
But their expensively-assembled side did play an open attacking game which could finally see them breakthrough this year.
It was a familiar story in Santander as well when Barcelona’s much-vaunted new line up drew a blank in a goalless draw against a spirited Racing.
Coach Frank Rijkaard did not bend to popular demand and field the so-called “Fantastic Four” of Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o and new signing Thierry Henry all at once.
Frenchman Henry made a second-half substitute appearance in place of Messi but could not make an impact as Barca put in a passionless performance reminiscent of last season’s stop-go displays.
“Fantastically boring” said sports daily Marca on Monday, while Rijkaard repeated the line he had taken through the latter half of last season saying the side needed to work harder.
Villarreal romped to an impressive 3-0 win at Valencia shrugging off the loss of last season’s top scorer Diego Forlan in style and extending a winning streak in the league started last term to nine.

TITLE: Hamilton’s Lead Cut by Massa in Turkey
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ISTANBUL, Turkey — Ferrari’s Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday while a late puncture slashed Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead to five points.
Hamilton finished fifth, two places behind his McLaren team mate and closest rival Fernando Alonso, after the 43rd lap blowout robbed him of a safe third.
The 22-year-old British rookie now has 84 points to double world champion Alonso’s 79.
Brazilian Massa moved up to third overall on 69 points with Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen, runner-up on Sunday, a point further back.
Massa led from pole position, just as he had last year, to beat Raikkonen by 2.2 seconds and secure Ferrari’s second one-two of the season with the Italian team’s home race at Monza next on the calendar.
It was his third victory in 12 races.
Alonso, who started the race seven points adrift of his rookie team mate, slipped from fourth on the starting grid to sixth at the first corner behind both BMW Saubers.
But the Spaniard made his way back up the order after Poland’s Robert Kubica and Germany’s Nick Heidfeld pitted and was perfectly placed to take advantage of his team mate’s misfortune.
The Spaniard, who cleared the air with Hamilton this week after leaving the previous controversial race in Hungary with the two not on speaking terms, could only have been delighted at the sudden stroke of good luck.
Heidfeld finished fourth for BMW Sauber.
Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen took sixth for outgoing champions Renault, and led for one lap, with Germany’s Nico Rosberg seventh for Williams and Kubica eighth for BMW Sauber.
Ferrari cut the gap with McLaren in the constructors’ championship to 11 points.

TITLE: Vick Pleads Guilty To Dogfights
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, whose fall from grace has been one of the most sudden in U.S. sport, will formally plead guilty Monday in a dog-fighting case almost certain to wreck his football career.
The 27-year-old admitted in a plea agreement Friday he took part in an illegal, interstate dogfighting enterprise known as “Bad Newz Kennels” from 2001 through April 2007.
In documents filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia, Vick said he knew dogs that did not perform well were killed.
He added that he bought property in Virginia to serve as the main staging area for housing and training pit bulls that took part in the dogfighting venture.
Vick, who has been suspended indefinitely by the National Football League, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.
If he cooperates, he will likely be given a shorter prison sentence that many expect to be between 12 and 18 months in prison.
Vick, who signed a 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons in 2004, is scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia at 10:30 a.m. local time.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson is not bound to accept the deal and will be the one to decide the sentence.
Vick’s decision to plead guilty, announced through his lead attorney, Billy Martin, a week ago, came after his three co-defendants made their own plea deals with the understanding they would testify against the quarterback.
Dogfighting, in which two dogs bred to fight are placed in a pit to attack each other for spectators’ entertainment and gambling, is illegal in the United States.
Prosecutors charged that dogs sometimes fought to the death and that some underperforming animals had been shot, drowned, hanged, electrocuted or killed by being slammed to the ground.
Vick, one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, said he knew that mediocre dogs were killed from 2002 to 2007, including as many as eight dogs in 2007.
“All of those dogs were killed by various methods, including hanging and drowning,” the documents said. While he did not explicitly admit having killed any of the dogs himself, he did say, “These dogs all died as a result of the collective efforts” of him and his partners.
A federal grand jury indicted Vick on July 17. The NFL, which starts its season next month, barred the three-time Pro Bowl selection from training camp after the indictment.
The top pick in the 2001 NFL draft out of Virginia Tech, Vick has made more than $61 million in his six NFL seasons.
A rare talent who threw for 20 touchdowns and ran for more than 1,000 yards last season for the Falcons, he lost major endorsements following his indictment.
Nike suspended the release of a new Michael Vick shoe that had been set to hit stores this month and Reebok stopped selling his jerseys. He has been heavily criticized in the media and by animal rights groups.

TITLE: Roddick Sets Sights on Federer’s U.S. Open Title
AUTHOR: By Howard Fendrich
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — There stood Andy Roddick, owner of one Grand Slam title, swatting shots in Arthur Ashe Stadium a day before the U.S. Open starts.
A few feet away lingered Jimmy Connors, owner of eight Grand Slam titles, looking on and chiming in with the occasional comment.
They have been a pair, player and coach, for a little more than a year now, working on shaping Roddick’s game, trying to make him a more complete player, trying to get him back to where he was before a certain Swiss guy emerged to dominate tennis.
“I’ve been hitting the ball really well in practice. I’ve started serving well in practice. I’ve been playing the right way in practice,” Roddick said after his workout Sunday. “So, you know, there’s no reason why I can’t make a run here.”
He was given the day off Monday, when No. 1 Roger Federer was due to begin his quest for a fourth consecutive U.S. Open title by facing 319th-ranked qualifier Scoville Jenkins of the United States. Federer is aiming for his 12th Grand Slam title, which would tie him for second in history behind Pete Sampras’ 14.
“He’s the favorite,” Roddick said about Federer, his possible quarterfinal opponent. “The way I see it, there’s the favorite and then there’s people trying to unseat the favorite.”
Also scheduled to play on Day 1: top-seeded Justine Henin, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic, No. 5 Ana Ivanovic and, at night, No. 8 Serena Williams and No. 12 Venus Williams.
For Roddick, the U.S. Open represents the site of his greatest success: He won the 2003 championship en route to ending that year ranked No. 1.
Then, last year, helped by five-time Open champion Connors and showcasing a more forward-pushing style, he returned to the final at Flushing Meadows, dropping a four-setter to Federer.
“He plays his best tennis, probably, on this surface, in these conditions,” 2001 U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt said. “He obviously plays pretty well under Connors. Connors likes this place, as well.”
If that helps, Roddick would love to put behind his most recent Grand Slam outing, starting with a strong showing in his opening match Tuesday night against Justin Gimelstob of the United States.
The last time Roddick was seen at a major tournament, last month at Wimbledon, he won the first two sets and was two points away from victory against Richard Gasquet — and that’s when it all fell apart.
Instead of advancing to a semifinal against Federer, Roddick wound up losing his quarterfinal against Gasquet in five sets. How much did that defeat weigh on him?
“Andy is, by nature, an impatient guy, so I think that keeps him in the now, pretty much,” said Roddick’s brother, John, who travels the circuit with him. “We haven’t really talked about it, other than not lifting your foot off the gas when you’re playing well, keep focusing when you’re ahead.”
Roddick, though, acknowledged it was tough to completely ignore what happened at the All England Club.
“You wish you could have a delete button from your thoughts. But you figure out how to do that, let me know. ... It’s a new part of the year. It doesn’t do any good to beat yourself up over it,” he said.
Roddick won a hard-court tuneup in Washington this month, then lost his second match at the Cincinnati Masters.
He got to New York early, giving him plenty of time to work on things, particularly focusing on the idea that he needs to not simply stand way behind the baseline, bludgeoning the ball.
That was a strategy that worked in 2003, but hasn’t been as productive in the years since.
“I feel a lot better about where my game is than I did a week ago,” he said Sunday.

TITLE: Berbatov Stays at Tottenham
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SOFIA, Bulgaria — Tottenham Hotspur striker Dimitar Berbatov has confirmed he is staying at the north London club, ending recent speculation about the Bulgarian’s future.
“I chose to join Tottenham last season, now I’m staying at the club through my own free will. At least for now,” he said on Monday.
The player’s agent Emil Danchev revealed on Friday that Premier League champions Manchester United had enquired about the possibility of the Bulgaria captain joining them.
“No one said that United didn’t have interest in me and my price in general but it has to be clear that there will not be a move for now.”
The 26-year-old marksman joined Tottenham from German side Bayer Leverkusen  in May 2006.

TITLE: Volkova Breaks Championship Record in 3,000m Steeplechase
AUTHOR: By Alastair Himmer
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: OSAKA, Japan — Russia’s Yekaterina Volkova stormed to the world title in the women’s 3,000 meters steeplechase on Monday, going one better than in 2005.
Volkova looked up at the giant stadium screen and punched the air in delight as she came down the home straight to clock a world championship record nine minutes 6.57 seconds, with fellow Russian Tatyana Petrova taking silver in 9:09.19.
“I knew 600 meters before the finish I will win,” Volkova told reporters. “This victory is for my three-year-old son Daniel. He is already trying to call me now for sure.”
It could have ended in embarrassment for Volkova, who almost fell after catching the curb entering the final straight while gazing up at the screen.
But Volkova stayed on her feet and had words of comfort for Olympic champion Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, who trailed home in seventh in 9:30.24 — way outside her world record of 9:01.59.
“To think about world records is something for Gulnara,” smiled Volkova. “Actually this was supposed to be her race today. I qualified also for the 5,000 metres but now I’m not sure I will run. It would be too much.”
Kenyan Eunice Jepkorir, who had won five of her previous six steeplechases this year, settled for the bronze.

TITLE: Mirax Takes Its Brand Of Hotel Luxury to Turkey
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT:  
Leading development firm Mirax Group has taken its first step toward setting up a luxury European and North African hotel chain with the $340 million acquisition of the Sungate Port Royal Hotel in Turkey.
“We are creating a network of world-class hotels in a number of different European countries and the Sungate Port Royal Hotel is the first part of this chain,” Mirax board member Maxim Temnikov said in a statement Aug 14.
“In the distant future we want to transport this brand to markets in Tunisia, Montenegro and Greece,” Temnikov said.
The Sungate Port Royal Hotel is situated in Antalya, a popular tourist destination on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. With almost 2,000 rooms, the hotel complex, which features an aqua park, 14 swimming pools, 11 restaurants and a dolphinarium, can accommodate up to 3,000 guests.
Mirax is specifically looking to lure Russian tourists to the hotel. By the end of the year, the firm is planning to open representative Sungate Port Royal offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev.
“Particular attention will be paid to Russian-speaking clients. This is because the main flow of tourists comes from Russia and the CIS,” Mirax project leader Andrei Kletsko said.
Last year, around 1.48 million Russians visited Turkey, making it the most popular destination for Russian tourists, according to statistics from the Russian Association of Tourist Agencies.

TITLE: Russian Executives Spend Big on Luxury Planes
AUTHOR: By Lyubov Pronina
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian executives may spend $2.5 billion on business jets over the next two years, an aviation trade group said, prompting companies including Bombardier to chase contracts in a country with 60 billionaires.
“It is just the beginning,” Christophe Degoumois, Bombardier director for business aircraft sales in Russia and other former Soviet countries, said at the MAKS 2007 air show. Russia is Bombardier’s largest European market, and the Montreal-based company says it is the top private jet purveyor in the country.
France’s Dassault Aviation and Brazil’s Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica are among the aerospace companies joining Bombardier in seeking business jet buyers at the biennial air show.
Wealthy Russian individuals and corporations have about 300 executive jets and will have about 100 more delivered by the end of 2008.
Russians bought executive planes valued at $1.5 billion in the last two years, triple the amount spent in the previous two years, Yevgeny Bakhtin, deputy head of the Russian Business Aviation Association, said in an interview last week. Of the $2.5 billion in spending expected by 2009, $1 billion is already contracted.
The most popular models are Bombardier’s Global Express, Boeing’s Business Jet, Hawker Beechcraft’s Hawker 850XP, the Gulfstream V from General Dynamics and the Legacy 600 made by Embraer, according to Bakhtin. 
Representatives of all the companies are working the tarmac at MAKS 2007. All but Boeing brought planes to display.
Growth in private jet sales in Russia is “unrestrained,” Bakhtin said.
Customers in Russia and other former Soviet countries placed 90 orders with Bombardier in the last three years for Learjet, Challenger and Global business jets. In the first half of 2007, the company has taken 30 business jet orders from the countries, spokeswoman Danielle Boudreau said.
Dassault has booked orders for 40 aircraft in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the past three years, Alain Aubry, sales and marketing vice president, said Thursday at the show. Half of the planes have been delivered, and Dassault is currently negotiating the sale of 10 private jets, he said.
Boeing has interest from private clients in the 787 Dreamliner, said Craig Jones, vice president for commercial airplanes. The 787, which enters service in 2008, can carry as many as 330 people in a commercial configuration.
Bombardier’s Degoumois said he had set up 15 meetings with customers during the show, which ends Sunday, and that he hopes to sign more contracts than two years ago. Bombardier is the top seller of executive jets in Russia and other former Soviet countries, said Bob Horner, Bombardier vice president for international sales.
The client list is hush-hush, Horner said. Customers are concerned about privacy, and at least a dozen have outfitted planes with missile defense systems, Bakhtin said.
“Take the list of Russia’s 100 richest compiled by Forbes, and they all have a private jet or a helicopter, often more than one,” he said.
Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club and the country’s richest man, outfitted a Boeing 767 for private flying and installed an anti-missile system in 2004, newspaper reports said.
Oleg Deripaska, the country’s second-richest man and owner of the world’s biggest aluminum producer, cruises the world in a Gulfstream V. Billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, with interests ranging from oil to telecommunications, rides in a Legacy. Alexei Miller, chief executive officer of Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer, prefers a Dassault Falcon 900.
“You know, if you have $100 million or $1 billion, it doesn’t create a big difference,” said Felix Lubashevsky, chief executive officer of oil-field-services provider Integra Group Holdings. “You may get some Global Express jet for $40 million if you’re a billionaire,” and people with less money may “get some cheap plane for $6 million.”
Some Russians don’t consider a jet a luxury.
“There are things that are necessary, and there are so-called toys,” says vodka billionaire Rustam Tariko, who owns a Boeing jet. 
“Security has become tighter, you are losing time, there may be no seats left, so I wouldn’t view a plane as a piece of luxury if you are doing business around the world.”
Russians who buy flying offices usually go for the best and biggest, fitted with the most sophisticated facilities and technology, Bakhtin said. The customers spend up to 20 percent more on top of the jet’s original price for the interior and communications package, he said.
While private jet clients ask about security equipment, they don’t display over-the-top fashion ostentation in outfitting planes.
“There is no intention to have gold all over, like with Arab sheiks,” Bakhtin said. “It has to be high-quality and very functional.”
Bombardier’s Horner agrees: “They are extremely tasteful and sophisticated. Some of the very nicest completions I have seen have been for Russian customers.”

TITLE: Russia Seeks 15% of Global 
Helicopter Sales by 2025
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: Russia intends to meet 15 percent of the world’s demand for helicopters by 2025 as President Vladimir Putin attempts to return the country’s aerospace industry to its Soviet-era heyday.
Russian Helicopters, owned by state arms dealer Rosoboronexport, will increase its share of the global market from the current 5 percent, the company said in a statement Friday.
Russian Helicopters will produce 300 aircraft per year beginning in 2015 and make 500 per year by 2025, reaching the volume it had in 1990, the company said. It will make 150 helicopters this year, or 36 more than one year earlier. The company unites the country’s primary helicopter designers and manufacturers. United Aircraft Corporation plans to make 4,500 military and civilian planes worth $250 billion by 2025 and sell half of them abroad.
The companies that comprise Russian Helicopters reported sales exceeding 28 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) last year. More than 5,200 Russian helicopters are in operation in more than 80 countries.
Russian Helicopters may sell shares in 2009, Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov said last week.

TITLE: Elite Brands Drives Vodka Market
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: The value of Russia’s vodka market will increase 5.8 percent annually over the next five years as consumers choose more expensive brands, Renaissance Capital said in a report released Monday.
The $15.2 billion market may reach $20.5 billion by 2011, analysts led by Viktor Dima at Renaissance Capital wrote in the report. Sales of alcoholic drinks in the country totaled $37.5 billion in 2006, with spirits accounting for almost half the total, the investment bank said.
“Consumers will continue to trade up to premium brands as their real incomes grow,” Dima wrote. “Vodka is more than just an alcoholic drink for Russians, rather it is a historical drinking habit that has become part of the cultural tradition.”
The country’s spirits market has been the fastest-growing after India since 1999 and will expand by 6 percent to 7 percent annually in the next five years as rising wages enable consumers to switch to “more expensive, previously unaffordable, spirits,” the report said. 
The country’s average wage rose an annual 15 percent in June, sparking a similar increase in retail sales.
Growth in sales of higher-priced vodka will more than offset a drop of 2 percent to 3 percent a year in spirits consumption caused by a declining population and some people switching to beer and low-alcohol drinks, the Renaissance analysts wrote. 
Renaissance estimates that the market share of so-called “premium” and “super-premium” vodkas will increase to 5 percent by 2011 from 2.3 percent in 2006. Vodka makes up more than 90 percent of all spirit sales in Russia, the report said.
Illegal bootleg spirit sales, which make up about 40 percent of the total market, will slide to as little as 20 percent by 2011 after the introduction of a system to control alcohol production, distribution and trade, the report said.