SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1305 (71), Tuesday, September 11, 2007
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TITLE: Putin Gives Reassurance To Asians At Summit
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: SYDNEY, Australia — President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of China and Japan on Saturday that Russia’s policy toward key partners in Asia would not change after he leaves office next year.
A day earlier, in a meeting ahead of the weekend’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney, Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush came up with nothing more concrete than a Siberian fishing invitation.
On the sidelines of the APEC summit Saturday, Putin reminded Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that it was their last meeting before the presidential election in March.
“It is unlikely we will meet again,” Putin told Hu.
“You and I have achieved the highest level of Russian-Chinese relations,” Putin added. “I have no doubt that Russia’s policy as far as China is concerned will not be changed.”
Putin will leave to his successor an increasingly assertive Russia with a growing economy, and his popularity and grip on political power make a victory for one of his allies in the polls almost certain.
But whether all of Putin’s legacy will stay intact remains one of the hottest discussion points for Russia-watchers.
Putin has made relations with China a strong element of his diplomacy, but it has sparked suspicion in the West that the country is trying to extend its influence in the region.
The Russia-China ties, described by both leaders as “a strategic partnership,” have grown even stronger in the past few years, fed by a common desire to maintain the leading role in ex-Soviet Central Asia, whose rich mineral resources are jealously eyed in the United States and Western Europe.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional group dominated by Russia and China and also including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, claims the role of a security guarantor in Central Asia.
Last month, Putin and Hu attended large-scale military exercises that the organization held in the Ural Mountains.
Despite warm ties, influential Russian nationalists warn that ambitious China, which has a history of territorial conflicts with Moscow, could become an uncomfortable neighbor for the country’s vast but rapidly depopulating eastern territories.
Russian liberals warn from an opposite flank that close ties with China could distance the country from Western democracies.
In another message of foreign policy continuity, Putin told Abe that the next president would not stop efforts to find a negotiated solution to a territorial disagreement that has soured bilateral cooperation since the end of World War II.
Tokyo refuses to sign a formal peace treaty with Moscow, saying Russia should first return four small islands seized by the Red Army in the final days of the war.
Moscow refuses to return the islands, known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. The unresolved conflict puts limits on bilateral economic cooperation.
Opinion polls show that Russians generally back Putin’s tough stance regarding the territorial issue with Japan. But some critics say returning the islands, one of the country’s least developed territories, could be a good solution.
“We will be looking for decisions that would be suitable for Russia and our Japanese partners,” Putin told Abe, adding that the Sydney summit was their last meeting before his departure. “Russia will continue this work ... after the presidential elections.”
Following the Friday meeting with Bush, Putin said the two had discussed a broad range of issues on the bilateral agenda, including U.S. anti-missile defense plans, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization and the Iranian nuclear issue.
But Putin provided no indication that any breakthrough had been achieved on these issues, stressing that work would continue in each of the areas, according to comments from a news conference carried on the Kremlin’s web site.
He did announce, however, that he had invited Bush on a fishing trip to repay him for the deep-sea fishing trip Bush treated him to while Putin visited his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in July.
“We agreed that we would go fishing not only in the United States, but also somewhere in Siberia,” Putin said.

Reuters, SPT

TITLE: Anti-Tower Marchers Take to Streets
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The plan to build a skyscraper to house the headquarters of energy giant Gazprom is driven by an inferiority complex, the tower resembles Godzilla, its completion would be like spitting in the face of Peter the Great and the whole project stinks, angered residents who joined a protest march on Saturday said.
The focus of the March for the Preservation of St. Petersburg, which attracted about 5,000 people according to media reports, was the construction of the 396-meter, $2.3 billion Okhta Center tower for Gazprom. City Hall has pledged to cover half of the construction costs that it has said it will recoup from taxes to be paid by the Gazprom subsidiary company that will relocate to the city.
Protestors carried posters with slogans that included “Authorities, You Stink,” “Gazprom’s Paunch Won Over Its Spirit,” and chanted “City For the Residents,” and “Gazprom, Go Home!”  as well as calling for the resignation of Golvernor Valentina Matviyenko. 
The marchers were joined by Moscow politicians and human rights advocates and the rally was organized was by liberal party Yabloko with support from a number of non-governmental organizations. The protesters marched from Oktyabrsky Concert Hall to Chernyshevsky Gardens, where a meeting was held.
“There is hardly any Russian citizen who can say that the fate of St. Petersburg leaves them indifferent,” Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky said at the meeting. “I still remember my first visit here when I was a little boy when my parents brought me to St. Petersburg to show a city of extraordinary beauty and grace. And of course I was bewildered to learn that a titanic monster, advertised as a modern symbol, is being forced on this beautiful city.”
Yavlinsky called the Gazprom tower a monument to an authoritarian regime. 
“There are so many people in need in your city that are sick, feeble or poor that it is a disgrace to spend millions on the tower, and it is cynical and hypocritical to talk about ‘the interests of the city’ in this context,” Yavlinsky said. “The major beneficiary of this scheme is certainly not your average local citizen.”
The rally was held on the anniversary of the beginning of the Nazi Siege of Leningrad on Sept. 8 1941, and references to various forms of siege were prominent in the speeches.
Garry Kasparov, one of the leaders of opposition coalition The Other Russia, accused state-run television channels of creating an “information shield” against the opposition that leaves the Kremlin’s critics under a siege of silence.
“Russia’s corrupt authorities tend to regard all the country’s resources — its lakes, rivers, woods, palaces, architectural treasures — as their own property,” Kasparov said. 
“Russia’s governors privatize the profits and nationalize the expenses, and regard the country as a bottomless source for state officials to get-rich-quick from. And of course they do not want a word of truth about their corrupt manipulations to sneak out to the masses. They invest a lot of their time and money into silencing the critics.”
Historian Yelena Malysheva, head of the Okhtinskaya Duga movement, the demonstration’s co-organizer, said St. Petersburg is “besieged by construction vandals.” Protesters accused the city of violating citizens’ rights in order to placate deep-pocketed investors.
“Governor Matviyenko seems to believe that the city that she governs is just one big bank account that must grow at any cost,” Malysheva said. “But any city is first and foremost its people. It is a living organism, and it is being ruined. The governor just creates an unfriendly environment for those who live here: in-fill construction is rampant, and instead of restoring architectural treasures, the authorities give way to new concrete and glass monsters.”
The protesters argued that the Gazprom headquarters should be moved away from near St. Petersburg’s historic center.
Rewnowned actor Oleg Basilashvili, a member of the march’s organizing committee, was on tour in Yekaterinburg on Saturday and could not join the march. But he contributed a recorded speech that was played at the meeting. The actor spoke with outrage about the Gazprom tower.
“Our ancestors who built this city — Russians, Italians, French — left this marvel, this gorgeous pearl for us to cherish and preserve for future generations; the angel on top of the Peter and Paul Fortress or the golden ship that crowns the Admiralty are the precious symbols of the city that protect and inspire us,” Basilashvili said. “And when I hear that they have become obsolete and our city needs new symbols, and it should be, of all things, the gigantic, monstrous 300-meter Gazprom tower that looks set to suppress the grace of the historical ensemble, it turns me upside down.”  
Basilishvili said the ambitious project is driven by an acute inferiority complex. 
“The person behind it nurtures a desire to conquer a gorgeous city and bring it to the feet of this giant, despicable corn-on-the-cob,” he said, referring derisively to the tower’s design as it has appeared in architectural drawings. “We won’t let it happen.”

TITLE: Ex-Soviet Neo-Nazis Arrested in Israel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM — The Israeli police announced the arrest of a group of young immigrants from the former Soviet Union on Sunday on charges of attacking religious Jews, homosexuals, Asians and other foreigners.
The eight young men, ages 16 to 21, were arrested between July 23 and Sept. 6 after a yearlong investigation into suspected neo-Nazi activities and connections, a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said. 
The group, centred in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, has had contacts with neo-Nazi groups abroad, Mr. Rosenfeld said, and a search of their homes revealed Nazi uniforms, portraits of Hitler, knives, guns and explosives. The police also found videos of the youths attacking their victims, including one heroin addict who is compelled to get on his knees and beg “forgiveness from the Russian people for being Jewish and a junkie,” the Ynet news agency reported.
Israeli television showed grainy video images on Sunday of youths identified as gang members kicking people on the floor and of a man hit in the back of the head with a bottle.
Russia has a problem with neo-Nazi groups, and the phenomenon arrived in Israel with relatives of Jews who came here from the former Soviet Union but who are not themselves Jewish. Some Russian immigrants have had difficulty adjusting to Israeli life. 
Petah Tikva has a large ultra-Orthodox population, which has been experiencing attacks from neo-Nazis and skinheads for the last few years.
“It’s difficult to believe that Nazi-ideology sympathizers can exist in Israel, but it’s a fact,” Revital Almog, the police official who directed the investigation, told Israel Radio. 
Rosenfeld said that there was no law in Israel explicitly banning anti-Semitism or neo-Nazi ideology or paraphernalia.
The investigation began in 2006 after swastikas were spray-painted on a synagogue in Petah Tikva. The police looked into at least 15 separate attacks. A ninth man whom the police said was involved had fled Israel, they said.
Of the nearly 1.2 million immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, more than 300,000 do not consider themselves to be Jewish, according to government figures. 
Many were brought up Russian Orthodox.
Various legislators on Sunday criticized the “grandchild clause,” which, under Israeli law, allows anyone with one Jewish grandparent to immigrate to Israel and to be granted benefits and Israeli citizenship automatically.
In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League office in Jerusalem praised the arrests but cautioned that the immigration experience was difficult and “that stereotypes are not formed on a whole community because of a small group.”

TITLE: Airport Announces New Plans
AUTHOR: By Evgenia Ivanova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Pulkovo airport is to enlarge its network of long-distance flights by attracting new carriers, the airport’s management has announced, with new routes opened to the U.S and south-east Asia.
St. Petersburg’s rapid economic development and the corresponding increase in passengers using Pulkovo is the major reason behind the initiative, a Pulkovo news release said. 
According to statistics from Pulkovo, China and Thailand are the leading countries in terms of increased passenger turnover. The number of passengers coming to and going to these countries has increased by 184 percent and 115 respectively compared to 2006. 
It is also estimated that by 2010 the number of tourists visiting the city will have increased 40 percent compared to 2006, and reach five million people a year, a statement from Pulkovo Airport said in September last year.   
Jon Woolf, the director and principal consultant of the UK-based company Airport Strategy and Marketing, which is working with Pulkovo to develop the airport, called St. Petersburg “the most dynamically developing city in Russia and Europe.”
“Based on estimates, this growth will continue in the short- and medium run,” Woolf was quoted by Pulkovo as saying. 
 “Being the biggest tourism center and having a vigorously developing market of business tourism, St. Petersburg is able to offer airlines unique opportunities for developing their flight routes,” Woolf added. 
There could also be plans to develop Pulkovo as a hub for passengers whose final destination is not St. Petersburg, although at present nearly 70 percent of such passengers fly through Moscow, Alexei Komarov, the chair of the editorial board of the Moscow-based monthly Aviatransportnoe Obozrenie told the St. Petersburg Times on Monday. 
Moscow’s Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports are already being upgraded for this purpose, Komarov said, while Helsinki airport, the Finnair hub will also compete with St. Peterburg
“They have a very large network, good connections and very good pricing model, it will be very hard to fight with them,” Komarov said.
According to information provided by Pulkovo, 100 foreign carriers, including Iberia, SN Brussels, Turkish Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Norwegian Air Scuttle, Air Berlin, Germanwings, WindJet, Montenegro Airlines and 120 Russian airlines already fly from Pulkovo. 
Komarov said this is an “astounding number of air carriers,” operating from Pulkovo, after the recent division of the company into an airport and an airline, now part of Rossiya Airlines, Pulkovo became “much more open.”

TITLE: Australia Inks Nuclear Agreement
AUTHOR: By Meraiah Foley
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SYDNEY, Australia — Leaders from Russia and Australia signed a deal Friday to export Australian uranium to fuel Russian nuclear reactors, but promised it would not be transferred to Iran’s disputed atomic program.
President Vladimir Putin and Australian Prime Minister John Howard signed the deal during bilateral talks on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Sydney.
While the agreement forbids Russia from selling Australian uranium to any other nation or using it for military purposes, critics of the deal worry that it could make it easier for rogue states to obtain the raw material.
The United States and other UN Security Council members accuse Iran of trying to enrich uranium to develop atomic weapons. Iran says its enrichment program is for peaceful purposes.
Russia, which is building Iran’s first nuclear power plant, has a significant stake in Iran’s nuclear power program and has walked a delicate line in preserving its financial interests while pressuring Tehran to abandon its enrichment program.
Asked whether Russia could be trusted not to sell Australian uranium to Tehran, Putin said his mineral-rich country already had an “excessive” supply of military-grade uranium that it was selling to U.S. power plants.
“If we have a need to sell uranium to other countries, our resources, our own resources, are sufficient,” Putin told reporters through a translator.
He said Russia planned to build an extra 30 nuclear power plants over the next two decades and needed Australian uranium to complete the expansion.
Australia has the world’s largest reserves of uranium, but has no nuclear program of its own. Exporting uranium for nuclear power remains a touchy issue among many Australians, who are uneasy about its environmental impact and potential for weapons use.

TITLE: Schroeder Criticizes U.S. Missile Plan
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — U.S. plans to deploy parts of a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are “politically dangerous,” former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said while promoting a book in Moscow on Saturday.
“From my point of view, the missile defense system is politically dangerous. It is perceived as an attempt to isolate Russia, which is not in Europe’s political interests,” said Schroeder, a personal friend of President Vladimir Putin.
“It is Germany’s responsibility ... to persuade the United States to abandon these plans,” he said at a roundtable discussion with political analysts and journalists. Schroeder was promoting the Russian edition of his book “Decisions — My Life in Politics,” which lavishes praise on Putin’s policies.
The United States wants to base interceptor missiles and a radar system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying it needs protection against possible missile attacks from Iran and North Korea.
Russia says the plan will upset a delicate strategic balance between major powers and poses a threat to its own security. Schroeder said the plan was not in the European Union’s interests either.
“It is presented as though the plans are the business of the countries involved and the Americans. But they concern Europe as a whole,” Schroeder said, adding that the EU should brush aside “narrow-minded nationalistic interests.”
Schroeder, who now chairs a German-Russian consortium building a major gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, is one of only a few Western politicians to publicly side with Russia on many political issues.

TITLE: EU Ministers Call For Tougher Russia Line
AUTHOR: By Mark John and Marcin Grajewski
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal — The European Union must be tougher in its dealings with a newly assertive Russia during the final months of President Vladimir Putin’s rule, EU foreign ministers said.
“We want a constructive relationship with Russia, but we want responsibility shown by Russia,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after EU ministers discussed Russian ties at a meeting Friday in the Portuguese coastal town of Viana do Castelo.
“People wanted to be firm but not macho,” he told reporters.
The EU could play a decisive role in ensuring that Russia wins cherished membership in the World Trade Organization before Putin leaves office early next year, but in return it should insist that Moscow behave more responsibly, ministers said.
The West is at loggerheads with Russia on issues such as its opposition to a UN-backed independence plan for the Serbian province of Kosovo. It has also rattled nerves by restarting patrols of long-range bombers.
“There was widespread concern about a deterioration in Russian behavior,” a British official said of the debate.
Several EU states were dismayed that the bloc did not censure Moscow over a Russian missile that fell on Georgian soil last month. Moscow has called Georgian accusations that the missile was dropped by a Russian jet “a stunt.”
“We failed to address this and tell Russia what our position was on this,” Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks said. “This systematic slowness is because we cannot agree a common approach as we try to make the best deals on a national level. This makes the EU vulnerable.”
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said it was paradoxical that while EU-Russian trade was growing at 20 percent a year, the EU had “increasing questions” about human rights and democracy in Russia.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said the EU should look to better use its political and economic power, notably in supporting Moscow’s efforts to win WTO entry by the end of the year, as part of a firmly pragmatic relationship with Russia.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the EU, which will hold its final summit with Putin late next month, could help him secure WTO membership, but Poland warned it could stand in the way until a knotty trade dispute had been resolved.
“For us, the embargo is a serious matter,” Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga said of a 21-month ban by Moscow on Polish meat products over concerns about poor quality, which Warsaw disputes.
On Kosovo, the foreign ministers vowed to seek a united front on the fate of Kosovo, despite differences among themselves. “I cannot conceive that we could have at the end a situation where there is a strong position of Russia, a strong position of the United States, and where Europe simply does not exist,” said Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency and so must forge consensus in coming months.

TITLE: Uzbek Director Killed In Knifing in Tashkent
AUTHOR: By Mansur Mirovalev
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Mark Weil, a prominent theater director in Uzbekistan whose productions caused controversy there, was stabbed to death in the Uzbek capital, a theater spokeswoman said. He was 55.
Weil, who founded the Ilkhom theater more than 30 years ago, was attacked in front of his apartment building in Tashkent late Thursday, spokeswoman Oksana Khrupun said. She said he died on the operating table at a local hospital.
Actors at the theater, reached by telephone, said Weil was taken to the hospital by neighbors, who said that he saw two young men in baseball caps waiting for the director in front of his building.
Weil was not robbed, and he said before the operation that he did not know his assailants, said the actors, who had rushed to the hospital. They refused to speculate on the motives for his killing.
“To the last minute, he kept talking about tomorrow’s premiere,” musical director Artyom Kim said.
Police were investigating but refused to say whether they had identified any suspects, Khrupun said.
Calls to the police were not answered.
Ilkhom, which Weil founded in 1976, was the first independent theater in the Soviet Union. Long before perestroika was introduced in the late 1980s, Ilkhom gained popularity for staging uncensored productions that combined elements of Uzbek folk theater, Italian commedia dell’arte, absurdist plays and pantomime.
“Our credo is not to repeat ourselves, and each new project obliterates everything we’ve done before,” Weil said in an interview last year.
After the Soviet collapse, Weil and his theater began participating in theater festivals throughout the world, and Weil directed productions in Moscow and Seattle, where he has relatives.
Weil first came to Seattle in 1988 after a group of Seattle theater artists visited Tashkent for a two-week artistic collaboration. A few years later, Weil encouraged his daughter to study in the United States, and she moved to Seattle and entered the University of Washington in 1995. Since then, his youngest daughter and wife moved to Seattle, and Weil had divided his time between there and Tashkent.
Sarah Nash Gates, executive director of the School of Drama at the University of Washington in Seattle, who collaborated with Weil and Ilkhom, fought to keep her composure in a telephone interview as she recalled how he downplayed U.S. State Department warnings of lawlessness in Uzbekistan while welcoming Washington students to collaborative visits with Ilkhom.
“He always felt very comfortable there,” Gates said. “He always said the theater never had any enemies.”
Training as well as directing his company’s actors, many of whom went on to teach stagecraft themselves, “he had a gift for a director of really getting to the core of the material,” Gates said, “and then he could lead actors to demonstrate that.”

TITLE: Mikhalkov Wins Venice Prize for ‘12’
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Director Nikita Mikhalkov won a special award at the Venice film festival last weekend for his film “12,” a Chechen-themed remake of Sidney Lumet’s “12 Angry Men.”
Mikhalkov’s movie tells of 12 jurors who must decide the fate of a Chechen teenager charged with murdering his stepfather, an officer in the Russian army. Though all but one are convinced of the youth’s guilt, the single skeptical juror forces the others to discuss the case, slowly uncovering their personal stories and the emotional involvement behind their decision.
Mikhalkov stressed that “12” was not a commentary on the Kremlin’s policies in Chechnya, although the boy’s story is told through scenes recreating vicious battles between federal troops and separatist guerrillas.
“We are not really speaking about Chechnya in this film,” he told reporters Friday. “These people are judging this young boy, but the viewers can see the way in which this boy has grown up and what he had to go through in life.”
The film stars Sergei Makovetsky and Sergei Garmash.
Mikhalkov, who also stars in “12,” beamed when he was presented with the Special Lion for overall work at the awards ceremony Saturday night.
“Grazie, grazie. I want to thank the magnificent Russian artists that worked with me. ... Italy has always been very generous to me,” he said. 
(Reuters, AP, SPT)

TITLE: Kremlin Speechwriter Puts Words to Pop Music Tracks
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — By day, presidential aide Dzhakhan Polliyeva’s duties include preparing speeches for President Vladimir Putin. By night, she writes pop songs.
Polliyeva, credited for helping write, among other things, Putin’s state-of-the-nation address in April, saw the premiere of her song “What For?” on national television last week, putting her in the ranks of Vladislav Surkov, Kremlin deputy chief of staff, and several State Duma deputies who have put their thoughts to music.
“What For?” a song about love gone bad, was sung by Alexander Buinov on Channel One television’s “Star Factory” song competition on Sept. 2.
The music was borrowed from Italian singer Adriano Celentano, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. But the lyrics were all Polliyeva’s, a Channel One spokeswoman said Friday. The first line of the song goes, “A smoothly shaven snake is nuzzling at my heart with his cold nose.”
A Kremlin spokesman said he did not know whether Polliyeva had written the song but that he would not be surprised if she had.
“As a creative person, Dzhakhan Redzepovna quite possibly does write songs in her free time,” he said.
Polliyeva could not be reached for comment Friday.
Polliyeva is far from the only songwriter affiliated with the government. Surkov, seen as the Kremlin’s main ideologist, wrote several songs for rock band Agata Kristi several years ago.
Other civil servants who have tried their hand at writing lyrics have adopted a political bent, unlike Polliyeva and Surkov.
Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has recorded patriotic and anti-U.S. rap songs as well as Russian folk songs that can be downloaded from the party’s web site free of charge.
Moscow City Duma Deputy Andrei Kovalyov, of the United Russia party, is the lead singer of little-known rock band Pilgrim. 
He writes both music and lyrics, and has said his song “Honor to Russia” should become the anthem for patriotic-minded youth.
State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and pop singer Oleg Gazmanov co-authored a song in honor of United Russia for the 2003 Duma campaign, Politjournal.ru reported.
Music critic Artyom Troitsky said the civil servants were living out childhood dreams of mingling with well-known musicians. “They are happy to make up for lost time and become buddies with the idols of their youth,” he said.

TITLE: A Dagestani Village’s Tightrope Walking Prowess
AUTHOR: By James Kilner
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TSOVKRA-1, Dagestan — By a twist in history, every man, woman and child in the remote mountain village of Tsovkra-1 can walk the tightrope.
For children in this village on the country’s southern fringe, after-school pastimes usually mean time spent balancing on a wire suspended above the ground.
“I’m not afraid,” said Magomed Gadzhiyev, 12, standing in a field at the edge of the village. “My mother was a tightrope walker and I will be too.”
Behind him, an 8-year-old girl wearing a pale green costume gingerly walked across a tightrope about the height of a one-story building and the length of a delivery truck. She held a 3-meter pole by her waist to help her balance, but there were no cushions or mattresses to break a fall.
In its glory years after World War II, Tsovkra-1 provided tightrope walkers for the Soviet Union’s circuses. They entertained crowds around the world with daredevil acrobatics and won the highest award for artists.
That period ended about 30 years ago, but the tradition never died out and now the village is trying to revive its reputation as a world tightrope walking center.
Tsovkra-1 — so called because there is a second Tsovkra nearby — is a farming village in Dagestan, a republic between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea in the North Caucasus.
From Makhachkala, the dirty, sprawling Dagestani capital, Tsovkra-1 is a four-hour drive along asphalt roads and then dirt tracks, over jagged mountains and through steep-sided valleys where villages retain independent languages and culture.
In the center of the village, Nukh Isayev, 72, sat surveying life. Nearby, a simple plaque commemorated the 17 men and women who made the village famous throughout the circus world for its tightrope acrobatics.
“The golden age was from the 1950s through the 1970s,” Isayev said. “The whole world knew about us then, and we could sell out a circus in any European capital with our tightrope walking skills.”
The village’s two most renowned tightrope walkers won the People’s Artist of the Soviet Union award, a prize more likely to be bestowed on writers, painters, ballet dancers and opera singers.
The Gadzhikubanov family team — a father and his seven daughters — used to balance on a tightrope on one another’s shoulders in two columns of four people.
The villagers’ most popular explanation for centuries of tightrope walking is that the young men of the village grew bored with trekking for days to court women in a village on a neighboring mountainside, and instead came up with a shortcut.
They strung a rope from one side of the valley to the other and hauled themselves across. To show off, the most daring began to walk the rope, and the skill became a prized test of manhood.
With the rising popularity of the Soviet circus after World War II, dozens of the best left to entertain crowds with their stunts and acrobatics in cities across the world.
“We had to work hard then, and tightrope walking was a way of escaping,” Isayev said, a smile creasing his wrinkled face. “But now most want to leave the village and, you see, life now is too good, you can eat and live well easily.”
As Isayev spoke, a hunched old woman passed herding a donkey weighed down by bundles of hay, two girls ran in and out of wooden doorways and a swarthy, sun-beaten man lugged a pitchfork from the fields.
The population of Tsovkra-1 has fallen to 400 from around 3,000 since the 1980s, villagers said. But Ramazan Gadzhiyev, 45, Magomed’s father, plans to change that and resurrect the village’s reputation. Eight years ago, he reopened the tightrope walking school.
“The world’s best tightrope walkers used to come from Tsovkra-1, but now they are from China and Japan,” Gadzhiyev said, watching a boy on the rope. The boy bounced up and down in the middle of the tightrope. He crouched down, lay on his back and then gracefully stood up again and walked to the end of the rope.
“I hope one day they will be great again,” Gadzhiyev said. “That Tsovkra’s tightrope walkers will once again perform in America, Britain and Japan.”

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Rogozin on List?</b>
MOSCOW (SPT) — Nationalist State Duma Deputy Dmitry Rogozin may get a top spot on the party list of the Patriots of Russia for Duma elections in December, Kommersant reported Saturday.
Party leader Gennady Semigin and former Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov will occupy the top two spots on the list, the report said. Semigin said the party was in talks with Rogozin, an informal leader of the unregistered Great Russia party, over the third spot.
Great Russia leader Andrei Savelyev said Friday that his party and the Patriots of Russia might form a coalition Sept. 14 to run for seats together, Interfax reported. 

<b>Belarussian Jailed</b>
MINSK (AP) — A Belarussian court has sentenced an opposition leader to two years in prison for insulting the president and calling for revolution, an official said Sunday.
The imprisoned man’s wife said she had not been told of the Aug. 1 verdict until last week.
Former lawmaker Andrei Klimov, who has been in and out of jail since helping lead a 1996 drive to impeach President Alexander Lukashenko, was convicted and sentenced by a Minsk court Aug. 1, said Oleg Agafonov, a spokesman for the city prosecutor’s office.
The charges stemmed from articles posted on the Internet. 

<b>12 on Hunger-Strike</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Twelve members of a Presbyterian church in Kazakhstan are on a hunger strike to protest accusations of treason against three of its staff.
Vyacheslav Vorobyov, senior pastor at the church in Karaganda in central Kazakhstan, said members of the Kazakh internal security service raided the church and properties of some of its workers Aug. 24, Interfax reported. The church’s archbishop, his sister and an administrator are suspected of treason, he said. The strike started Friday. 

<b>New Karabakh Leader</b>
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The former security chief of Nagorno-Karabakh was sworn in Friday as the new president of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region.
Bako Saakian, who took 85 percent of the vote in July, had headed Nagorno-Karabakh’s security service since 2001 until he quit to run for president.

TITLE: Experts Pool Strategies At Baltic PR Weekend
AUTHOR: By Yelena Andreyeva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The seventh Baltic PR Weekend took place at the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg from Thursday to Friday last week. 
The conference was organized by the Russian PR Association, SPN Ogilvy Public Relations and the International PR Association. This year, the event gathered a record of more than 450 participants, as well as leading PR experts who gave presentations and led round tables during the two day conference. Among them was Ivan Bunin, general director of the independent fund Center for Political Technologies; Andrei Barannikov, general director of SPN Ogilvy Public Relations and vice-president of the PR Association of Russia; Andrei Braginsky, Marketing Communications Director for Sochi 2014; Vladimir Medinsky, State Duma Deputy and the president of the PR Association of Russia; Andrei Vasiliyev, Editor-in-Chief of Kommersant and Mikhail Umarov, PR director of AO VimpelCom. However, at the press conference held on the first day of the event, Barannikov said that this year “significantly more Muscovites than Petersburgers were taking part in the PR Weekend,” and expressed his hope that the situation would change next year.
Among the topics discussed at the conference were professional issues of PR and its impact on the social and political life of Russia.
One of the key presentations focused on the forthcoming elections in Russia and was given by Bunin. He forecasted that after the 2008 presidential elections Russia’s political system would develop into a new form of diarchy which will limit the authority of the new president (“Putin’s heir”) and allow Vladimir Putin to retain the status of the country’s informal leader, control the state system and continue the further implementation of his reforms. As for the upcoming State Duma elections, Bunin said that “it is obvious now that the new Duma will consist of United Russia, the Communists Party, Just Russia and, most likely, LDPR.” According to him, the open questions are which party will take second place presuming United Russia gets the biggest number of votes, and whether there is a chance that the Union of Right Forces will enter the next Duma. Bunin also talked about changes in the field of political technology, which has been influenced by changes in Russia’s political system, for example, by the abolition of elections for governors. “Before that there were many agencies that worked for the elections and which are gone now. On the one hand, it had a positive influence on the market, where now almost exclusively highly-skilled professionals work. On the other hand, now politicians want not just to win the elections but to maintain their positions, such as the United Russia party which, for instance, would like to get not just 48 per cent but 51 per cent of votes.”
Braginsky talked about the implementation of the “Sochi 2014” project. He emphasized that they started working on the project two years ago, although the project only received major media and social support in February 2007 when Sochi reached the finals. Braginsky said that in their work they used the experience of their colleagues who worked on the other Russian Olympic project “Moscow-2012”.  Asked if he was prepared for the event of Sochi not being chosen to host the Olympics, Braginsky said that their purpose was not just to defeat the other city-candidates, but also to improve the Russia’s image in the world, and so they could not really have lost. “Our slogan ‘Sochi. Gateway to the future’ reflects the idea of our PR campaign in the best way” he said. 
A report by Tony Cowling, TNS president, covered the IT aspects of PR work. He said that the “digital revolution of recent years” had completely changed not only the instruments of PR but also approaches to work. The development of the Internet and interactive elements in the media allows PR professionals to research a wider number of target audiences and their media preferences, and increase the number of methods of promoting media products. Cowling was very positive about the prospects for the development of telecommunications in Russia, due to the significant growth dynamics of Russia’s advertising market and the active, successful implementation of Internet technology. 
Kent McNeley, head of marketing at VimpelCom, continued the topic of technology innovation and talked about his company’s successful PR campaign to win a tender for 3G licenses.
The lack of professionals in journalism and public relations and unsatisfactory university programs were discussed during the round table on professional course strategies in corporate communications and the media. Among possible solutions, it was suggested that practical journalism laboratories should be set up has been done at INGEKON, where students apply all the theoretical knowledge they learn in practice and produce a newspaper, “Para”. Pavel Pletnyov, head of the corporate culture department of “Rosneft” talked about that company’s effective practice — a special service that is in charge of staff teaching and intercorporate communications.

TITLE: Pulkovo-3 to Get 4-Star Hotel
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Avielen company, a joint venture by Warimpex Group and Pulkovo Airport, has begun construction of a four-star hotel and two business centers in proximity to St. Petersburg’s airport.
The hotel and business centers will start operating by the end of 2009, managers from the company said last week, presenting the project at the PROestate-2007 exhibition at Lenexpo.
Warimpex Group will invest $290 million into this project. The Austrian company has been developing hotels and business centers in Central and Eastern Europe for the last 20 years, and now plans to expand its activities in Russia.
“In the future we may consider the possibility of constructing a five-star hotel in the center of St. Petersburg,” said Peter Kutschera, director of Warimpex Group in Russia.
The four-star hotel and the business centers will be located in the Pulkovo III business area, near the international airport.
The 300-room hotel will be located in two buildings. It will be operated by InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts and Holiday Inn brands. The business centers will offer 40,000 square meters of office space.
Avielen expects a return on investment within seven to eight years, and is also considering building two other business centers and a four-story car park for 1,000 cars in the same area.
All the buildings will form a unified complex, as the hotel will be linked to one of the business centers by a covered passage. The building complex, which will be asymmetrical and curved, was designed by the Czech architectural firm DZA.
The buildings will be equipped with a modern water purifying system, ventilation and air conditioning, fire security system and telecom equipment.
“The unique architectural solution for the classical concept of the complex as well as the new technologies and materials to be used in its construction will allow us to create a modern view of St. Petersburg,” said Alexander Nesterov, Avielen’s general director.
“International practice has demonstrated that office centers and hotels in proximity to airports are always in demand,” said Nikolai Pachkov, director for professional activities at Knight Frank St. Petersburg.
“Some airports are surrounded by large clusters of office areas, hotels and business parks. At least three hotels under different operators could be located in Pulkovo-3. As for office areas, in five to seven years about 150,000 square meters of office space could be operated in this area,” Pachkov said.
According to data from Knight Frank, several projects are to be realized in Pulkovo-3 in the near future including the Aeroplaza business center (32,000 square meters of office space), the Technopolis technopark, the Adamant business center at the junction of Pulkovskoye Schosse and Dunaisky Prospekt (50,000 square meters of office space and a 5-star hotel with 1,000 rooms) and a project by Vicus company (a 150-room hotel and office space).

TITLE: Tenneco Opens Local Plant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The American car components producer Tenneco opened a plant in the Leningrad Oblast on Monday. The company has invested $2 million into the enterprise, which will produce car exhaust systems, Interfax reported.
The plant will produce 75,000 units a year, but Tenneco plans to increase production up to 500,000 units in the future. The company will supply components to the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Oblast.
“We are still considering the possibility of producing suspension elements in Russia. We could expand the production facilities that we have near St. Petersburg and launch one more plant here,” Interfax cited Gregg  Sherrill, President and Chief Executive director of Tenneco, as saying Monday.
The new plant occupies 5,000 square meters and is located on territory owned by Kirovsky Zavod.
Tenneco is one of the world’s largest producers of car components. Last year the company reported turnover of $4.7 billion. Tenneco already operates a plant that produces car exhaust systems in Toliatti, Russia.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Severstal to Expand</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Severstal, Russia’s largest steelmaker, plans to spend more than half of a planned $10 billion expansion domestically after first-half profit more than doubled because of surging local demand.
The money will be spent through 2011 on mining and metals production in Russia, Italy and the U.S., the company said in a presentation on its web site Monday. Billionaire Alexei Mordashov, who controls Severstal, has allocated $6 billion to Russia, including two 1 million-metric-ton mills.
“There’s a premium in domestic prices over exports and local demand is very strong, which all leads to more money in Russian mills,’’ said Alexandre Starinsky, manager of the Moscow- based Kalchuga fund, which holds more than $400 million in Russian assets including Severstal.

<b>Telekom Eyes Belarus</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Telekom Austria AG, the country’s largest telephone company, said it is in talks to acquire an unidentified company in Belarus.
There are negotiations on “a potential acquisition in Belarus,’’ Vienna-based Telekom Austria said in a statement Monday, without identifying the potential target. It gave no further information on the talks. Telekom Austria is in exclusive negotiations to buy a company in Belarus for more than 1.6 billion euros ($2.2 billion), the Austrian Press Agency reported Sept. 7, citing unidentified people. 
The company has been expanding in southeastern Europe to find growth as the Austrian mobile-phone market is saturated.

<b>Joint Oz Venture</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Macquarie Bank Ltd., Australia’s largest investment bank, agreed to a joint venture with Moscow-based Vnesheconombank to tap increasing investment in Russia. 
The plan, which follows Macquarie’s joint venture with Moscow-based Renaissance Capital last month, was signed in the presence of Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Sydney last week, Macquarie said in an e-mailed statement Monday.
State-owned Vnesheconombank manages the Russian government’s foreign debt, according to its web site.

<b>Grain Export Duties</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s government may impose a duty on grain exports of as much as 120 euros ($165) a ton and sell supplies from its reserve to help curb inflation as prices hover near all-time highs.
A group of officials and producers will decide this week how and when the government will take action, Sergei Sukhov, deputy head of the Agriculture Ministry’s regulatory department, said at a conference in Moscow on Monday.
Russian Grain Union chief Arkady Zlochevsky said duties of as much as 120 euros a ton are being considered. 
The union is recommending imposing the tax in January, while at the same time starting sales from the state’s 1.5 million-ton reserve, Zlochevsky said.

<b>Investment Boom</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s economy expanded an annual 7.8 percent in the second quarter as demand for goods and services fueled an investment boom.
Gross domestic product growth followed a 7.9 percent expansion in the previous three months, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said on its web site Monday. The figure matched the median forecast of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Growth has exceeded 5 percent for five consecutive quarters, with annual wage growth advancing more than 13 percent every month this year, fueling demand for housing and consumer goods. The economy, the world’s 10th biggest, will expand as much as 7.5 percent this year, topping a government forecast of 6.5 percent, central bank Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said on Sept. 6.

<b>Dow Jones Tempting</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, considered making a rival offer for Dow Jones & Co., to out-bid News Corp., the London-based Times reported, citing an unidentified source.
Dow Jones, which agreed last month to be bought by News Corp. for $5.2 billion, received several other solicited and unsolicited approaches from unidentified parties, the newspaper said, citing a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
One of the approaches was from “an international oil and gas company,’’ the newspaper quoted the filing as saying. No specific proposal was made, the newspaper said. It is not known how advanced the talks were, or whether they were conducted through a third-party, the newspaper said. No specific proposal was ever received from Gazprom, the Times said, citing the filing.

<b>Norilsk Stake Raised</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) —Mikhail Prokhorov raised his stake in  GMK Norilsk Nickel to 29 percent, making him the largest shareholder in Russia’s biggest miner, Kommersant said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. 
Prokhorov paid between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion to buy about 3 percent of Norilsk’s shares on the open market in August, the Moscow-based newspaper said. 
Fellow billionaire and Prokhorov partner Vladimir Potanin, who acquired control of Norilsk from the government in the 1990s, now owns about 26 percent, Kommersant said. Potanin and Prokhorov, a former chief executive of Norilsk, agreed earlier this year to split their joint assets, Kommersant said.

<b>I-Free Enters China</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — I-Free, a Russian content provider, will offer mobile content to subscribers of China Mobile Ltd. and China Unicom Ltd. and aims to get 5 percent of China’s market, Kommersant reported Monday, citing the company’s head of international development, Nikolai Matveyev.
I-Free has signed an agreement with international provider Mobile 365 that allows it to offer content to 480 million subscribers of the two Chinese companies, the Russian daily said.
The market for mobile content in China is $10 billion, according to technology-research company China Computerworld Research. I-Free, set up in 2001, holds 15 percent of the Russian market and has 40 million users.

<b>Chubais in Nanotech</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Anatoly Chubais, chief executive officer of  Unified Energy System, will head Russia’s state-owned Nanotechnology Corp., Vedomosti reported Monday, citing an unidentified person close to President Vladimir Putin’s administration.
Chubais was elected to the supervisory council of the company and will head it after leaving his current post in charge of Russia’s national power utility, the Russian daily said.
Putin last week appointed Leonid Melamed, former first deputy chief executive officer at Unified Energy System, to be CEO of Nanotechnology Corp., in which the government plans to invest 130 billion rubles ($5 billion).

<b>Georgia to Sue Forbes</b>
TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) — Georgia said Friday that it would take the Russian edition of Forbes magazine to the European Court of Human Rights for publishing details of properties for sale in its rebel Abkhazia region.
Russian investors are buying land and property in Abkhazia. Tbilisi says the deals are illegal and that in many cases the rightful owners of the properties are Georgians forced to flee during a war in the early 1990s.
Lasha Bregvadze, chief civil servant in Georgia’s Population and Refugees Ministry, said the ministry would be filing its suit against the Russian edition of the business magazine.

TITLE: Power Machines Wins Bid
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Power Machines, the subject of a takeover battle between Oleg Deripaska and Alexei Mordashov, signed a deal on Friday to supply a Siberian hydropower plant the day after securing a contract to provide turbines to Mexico.
The company will install turbines valued at 3 billion rubles ($117 million) to the Boguchanskaya plant in the Krasnoyarsk region, project operators United Company RusAl and Hydro-OGK said in an e-mailed statement Friday. Power Machines will also provide two generators for Mexico’s La Yesca plant, the country’s federal electricity commission said Thursday.
RusAl owner Oleg Deripaska is seeking 82 percent of Power Machines, while Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov aims to take 100 percent control of the turbine maker. Both have received anti-monopoly approval for their bids.
Germany’s Siemens and national utility Unified Energy System each own 25 percent of Power Machines, while Norilsk Nickel billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s Interros holding has 30 percent. Interros said in July that it was in talks with an unidentified Russian buyer for its stake, while UES said it planned to offer its stake to a group of investors.
Power Machines will provide nine generators between 2009 and 2012 for Boguchanskaya, which RusAl and Hydro agreed to complete last year.

TITLE: LUKoil Signs Deal With CNCP on Oil and Gas
AUTHOR: By Maria Ermakova
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — LUKoil and China’s CNPC have a struck a deal to cooperate on oil and gas production abroad and supplying hydrocarbons to China.
LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov and CNPC chairman Jiang Jiemin signed an agreement in Beijing “to expand cooperation in current projects and work on projects for production, exploration and refining of oil, gas and oil products” abroad, LUKoil said Saturday in an e-mailed statement. CNPC is China’s biggest oil company.
The partners will also consider “opportunities to cooperate on supplying oil and gas to China and refining hydrocarbons” in the country, the statement said.
China is seeking energy supplies as its economy expands at an annual rate of 11.9 percent. The leaders of China and Kazakhstan last month agreed to finance and build a new pipeline network.

TITLE: Prosperity: Russian Stocks Set to Rally
AUTHOR: By Douglas Busvine
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian stocks have flatlined this year but are poised to rally and the best prospects are in the power and infrastructure sector, according to $4 billion fund manager Prosperity Capital Management.
Apprehension over who will succeed Russian President Vladimir Putin, due to stand down next year, has contributed to Russia’s underperformance in relation to the booming emerging markets of China and Latin America.
Prosperity Chief Investment Officer Alexander Branis reckons those fears are misplaced, however, and predicts that Russia’s next leader will stick to the growth-oriented policies of the Putin era.
“We can understand that large global fund managers are a bit hesitant to commit significant capital just before the elections,” Branis said in an interview at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.
“We don’t take this concern seriously, so we think that sooner or later this market will continue rerating. We believe there is great upside in this market.”
The Russian Prosperity Fund, the group’s flagship fund, has outperformed its benchmark, the RTS index, by 6.5 percentage points in the year to date.
Over the past five years the fund, which takes a bottom-up stock picking approach, has posted annualised returns of 52 percent. That beats the RTS, which has grown at an annualised rate of 42 percent, according to Prosperity.

POWER PLAY
Prosperity has achieved its outperformance in part by betting on Russia’s power sector, the world’s fourth largest, which is undergoing radical reforms to break up state-controlled monopoly Unified Energy System.
UES is spinning out six wholesale generating companies and 14 regional generators to create a competitive market and raise funds for investment. Once it becomes an empty shell next year, UES will be wound up.
Branis, has taken an active role in the restructuring, serving as an advisor. That expertise has helped Prosperity build stakes in some utilities and generate high returns. Its specialist Quest power fund has achieved annualised returns of 91 percent since 1999.
“We have continued investing in the power sector, which is quite a big field for us. We are extremely excited that restructuring of this sector has progressed very, very well,” he told the Summit.
Across its funds, Prosperity owns 19 percent in one of the regional generators, called TGK-4.
The company, which operate to the south of Moscow, plans a supplementary share issue in December and Prosperity is looking to team up with a Western strategic investor in a bid to secure majority control, Branis said.

ASSET GRAB?
Branis said he was not concerned by a Kremlin push to regain control over Russia’s strategic energy sector, even though Prosperity’s largest holding is in TNK-BP, the Russian venture of British oil major BP.
Over the past year, BP and Shell have ceded control over big projects to gas monopoly Gazprom, while state-controlled oil major Rosneft has bought the assets of YUKOS, once Russia’s largest oil firm, now bankrupt.
TNK-BP has been at the centre of persistent speculation that its billionaire Russian partners may be forced to sell out. And a Kremlin grab for mid-sized oil firm Russneft, whose owner has fled the country, has jangled the nerves of some.
Not Branis: “We feel comfortable about it. In case there is some problem it will most likely concern core shareholders of the company, rather than the company itself,” he said of TNK-BP.

TITLE: Zurich to Push NASTA Into Top Five Russian Insurers
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: By introducing European standards of management to its acquired Russian company NASTA, the Swiss group Zurich hopes to make it one of the top-5 insurance companies in Russia.
In April Zurich Financial Services acquired a 66 percent stake in NASTA insurance company. According to the agreement between the two companies, by 2010 Zurich will own 100 percent of NASTA.
“We want it to be among the top five personal insurance companies in Russia,” said Rainhard Stary, chairman of Zurich and executive director of NASTA.
Zurich group has been operating in Russia for more than ten years and has six branches in Russia’s regions. Zurich Russia will continue to provide corporate insurance while NASTA will focus on personal insurance.
Stary indicated several market segments in which Zurich is interested, including personal property insurance, mortgages and accident insurance. According to his estimations, personal insurance accounts for 80 percent to 90 percent of the insurance market across the world, while motor insurance accounts for about 60 percent.
Unlike in European countries, in Russia motor insurance is unprofitable, NASTA managers said. By decreasing overheads and bringing pricing into line with individual clients’ risk potential, NASTA hopes to make this business profitable.
The company will focus on improving underwriting procedures, its distribution system, operational procedures and debt adjustment.
Last year NASTA, which has 67 branches in Russia’s regions, reported a turnover of $230 million.
“This is a new stage of the company’s development. We are ready to fundamentally restructure the company and to change the business model,” Lutz Christian Bauer, chairman of NASTA and general director for Central and Eastern Europe at Zurich group, said.  He sees big potential for business growth in personal insurance, which is the fastest growing segment in Russia according to Bauer.
As one of the main goals for NASTA he indicated the need to make motor insurance profitable.
Anastasia Zhdanova, analyst at Brokercreditservice investment company, agreed that the insurance market will face a challenge of decreasing profitability in the near future.
“Even in the fund market we do not expect such the same return on investment into insurance companies as before,” Zhdanova said.
The Russian insurance market remains underdeveloped and grows about 30 percent a year, Zhdanova said, which attracts foreign insurers. At the same time, Russian companies cannot compete with them.
“After Russia joins the WTO, Russian insurance companies will either have to go public or sell their shares to a foreign insurance company,” she said.
NASTA reports insurance premiums of over 3.6 billion rubles.

TITLE: Russia and Japan To Improve Energy and Economic Ties
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia, the world’s largest oil and gas exporter, has agreed to development projects to strengthen energy and economic ties with Japan.
President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also decided to continue talks on the disputed control of four islands off Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido that Russia seized at the end of World War II.
The two leaders, who met in Sydney  on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit, endorsed a joint plan to develop eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, which have vast oil and gas reserves. Abe said it was “in the strategic interests of both Japan and Russia’’ to develop a partnership.  Japan is seeking greater access to Russian energy to cut its dependence on Middle Eastern supplies. Russia wants to tap eastern fields to boost flagging output growth at traditional deposits. Japan will help modernize Russia’s railway system, including the trans-Siberian train network, according to an anonymous Japanese official.

TITLE: From Burger King Waitress to Top CEO
AUTHOR: By Julia Vail
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Like many people, Lori Daytner loves to try new restaurants. The promise of new tastes, a new atmosphere, and association with friends over dinner is enough to get a lot of people through a long week at work.
However, while the majority of these people forget the details of their dining experience before their next meal, Daytner takes careful note of the food, service and presentation of each establishment.
“I’m really interested in how people have put together elements, whether it’s the lighting or the design of the furniture ... and of course, I’m interested in what people in the restaurant are ordering.”
As CEO and president of Rosinter Restaurants, part of Daytner’s job is to gather ideas for the company’s new locations, which are cropping up throughout Russia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Some of the restaurants operated by Rosinter include TGI Friday’s, Planet Sushi, Il Patio, Moka Loka and the American Bar and Grill.
She was appointed president of Rosinter last year, after almost 15 years with the company. Five of those years were spent as manager of the Prague branch, where she gave Russian trainees hands-on demonstrations on how to work in Western-style restaurants.  “We lived in the restaurant from morning to evening,” Daytner said.
Daytner, 40, began her restaurant career while still a student at age 17, as a waitress in Burger King. Later, as she continued her studies, she worked part-time for another restaurant, climbing the ranks from waitress to training manager, restaurant manager, senior inspector and other positions.
Though her grandparents were from Belarus, Daytner did not have the opportunity to learn Belarussian or Russian.
“At that time, immigrants fell into two groups,” Daytner said. “Those who kept their language and those who said, ‘We moved to the U.S. We’re going to speak English and that’s it.’”
Eager to learn Russian, Daytner came to Moscow in 1990 for a three-month language program after receiving a degree in public relations from Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania. However, when her stipend was abruptly cut off, she had to find a job fast if she wanted to stay in Russia.
She began working part-time as a service trainer for English-speaking staff at the Hotel Metropol. About a year later she received a call from Henrik Winther, then general manager of Rosinter Restaurants. He offered Daytner a job as training manager at Rosinter, which she readily accepted.
“She knows the restaurant business better than anyone I have ever known, because she has worked in all the positions,” said Jay Blandy, the managing director of environmental engineering company Maccaferri Gabions CIS. He said he has known Daytner for about 10 years, since he worked in Rosinter’s HR department.
“She never avoids hard decisions — or the messy work. 
“She engenders the trust of everyone she works with,” he said.
Daytner said doing business in Russia presents special challenges, including a constantly changing business environment. She said one of the most valuable lessons she has learned is to never settle into a fixed routine.
“Your formula for success will always change, because the world is changing around you,” she said.
Staff Writer Jennifer Chater contributed to this report.

TITLE: Melamed To Head Nanotech
AUTHOR: By Lyubov Pronina
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin has appointed investment company Alemar’s Leonid Melamed to run the government’s $5 billion Nanotechnology Corporation, part of a drive to ease the country’s reliance on energy exports.
Melamed will be CEO and Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko will be chairman of its supervisory council, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a government meeting Friday. 
Melamed was previously first deputy CEO at national utility Unified Energy System and headed the Rosenergoatom concern. 
Putin in February put Ivanov in charge of finding ways to diversify the country’s economy away from oil and natural gas. The creation of the Nanotechnology Corporation is a key part of building “a national innovative” economy, Ivanov said.
The corporation “must reflect the scale of objectives set by the president,” Melamed said, adding that the government would pour 130 billion rubles ($5 billion) into the project to make it comparable to the nuclear and space programs.
Melamed said it would take up to three months for the corporation to map out its strategy.

TITLE: Capgemini to Recommend Google
AUTHOR: By Michael Liestke
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN FRANCISCO — Technology consultancy Capgemini will begin recommending Google Inc.’s online suite of office software to its corporate customers, bolstering the Internet search leader’s effort to drum up more sales to big businesses.
The partnership, due to be announced Monday, represents the first time one of the world’s top technology consulting services has embraced Google’s software bundle, which includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and calendar management.
Capgemini, based in Paris, France, influences the type of software used on more than 1 million personal computers in companies worldwide. Its major customers include drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Capgemini also will continue to support business software made by other vendors, including Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp.
Hoping to diversify beyond the online advertising market that generates most of its revenue, Google in February began selling a souped-up version of its office applications for a $50 annual fee per user.
While the low cost has appealed to small businesses and universities operating on tight budgets, Google has had a tougher time winning over large companies — a market segment more likely to worry about other key issues than price, such as security and reliability.

TITLE: Curbs Proposed On Sales of Used Phones
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The government is proposing tougher curbs on the sale of mobile phones as a new report shows that stealing handsets has become the country’s top economic crime. 
“The Interior Ministry has proposed that used handsets must only be bought and sold in a few selected shops or retail outlets,” a spokesman for the ministry’s crime department, who refused to give his name in line with official policy, said Thursday. “Because of the gravity of the situation, the crime department believes those selling used handsets must produce receipts and instructions for them.”
The official would not say to whom the proposals were submitted, but he did say “relevant authorities” were in possession of them and were giving them “due consideration.” He said the police also wanted every transaction involving handsets to be registered and fines imposed on individuals or retailers who bought used handsets without the necessary documentation.
In the past, investigators argued that such measures would stem the crime rate, adding that thieves were mainly attracted to handsets because they could sell them so easily.
Russia’s homegrown solution would be more effective than one used in Britain, the spokesman said. British police have teamed up with the cell phone industry to create a national database of stolen phones. Once reported, a phone is blocked from all networks nationwide.
About 250,000 handsets were reported stolen in Russia last year, but officials estimate that the real figure was twice that, with teenagers in particular falling prey to mobile phone theft, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported last week. One in every five crimes committed is related to mobile phones, the newspaper quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying. The crime is on the rise, he said, adding that 160,000 cases of stolen handsets were registered in the first half of this year alone. “The latest Interior Ministry statistics are based on crimes reported to the police, while the actual figures could be much higher,” the spokesman said of the numbers, which also indicate that women and children are five times more likely to become victims of mobile phone theft than men.
“These groups are more vulnerable because they are more likely to show off their handsets and it is also easier to snatch handsets from them,” the spokesman said. “In our country, there are also sleek, top-of-the-line models that are often studded with expensive gems. These are magnets for thieves.”
In recent years, he said, mobile phone theft has become more dangerous, as thieves are more unscrupulous about killing their victims. The only way to stop this trend is to outlaw the sale and purchase of used handsets, he said.
Officials said drug addicts in need of a quick fix and unemployed immigrants often saw cell phone theft as the only solution to their problems, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
Hot spots for mobile phone theft are usually bus stops, train stations, traffic lights and sidewalks.

TITLE: Yukos Firm Approached
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Western investors who bought a Yukos firm that is the subject of a protracted legal battle in the Netherlands contacted former Yukos managers who claim effective control over the firm and sought their agreement to take it over, the Financial Times reported Friday.
Daniel Feldman and David Godfrey said the investors had called them before Dutch-registered Yukos Finance BV was sold in a Russian bankruptcy auction last month and made it clear that they had an arrangement with state oil firm Rosneft, the newspaper said.
Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov last week denied that his company was interested in Yukos Finance assets.
U.S. firm Monte Valle paid $305 million for Yukos Finance.  The latter firm holds $1.5 billion from the sale of a Lithuanian refinery and a 49 percent stake in Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol. 
Investors behind Monte Valle include Renaissance Capital vice chairman Bob Foresman and president of U.S. hedge fund VR Capital Richard Deitz, a former head of fixed income at Renaissance. Foresman and Deitz approached Godfrey, Feldman and former Yukos CFO Bruce Misamore days before the auction. According to Feldman, Foresman told him, “[If] we can work out a compromise, you can come back and work in Russia,” the newspaper said.

TITLE: Severstal To Enter Gold Rush
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Miner and steelmaker Severstal has signaled its intent to enter the gold-mining sector by winning an auction Thursday to develop a deposit in eastern Siberia.
A Severstal subsidiary paid 268.8 million rubles ($10.5 million) to secure a 25-year license for the Uryakh deposit in Irkutsk region, said Sergei Loktionov, spokesman for Severstal Resurs, the company’s mining division.
The deposit is Severstal’s first wholly owned gold asset and raises the company’s exposure to the metal after its purchase last month of a 22 percent stake in Celtic Resources, a London-listed miner with gold mines in Kazakhstan.
“The acquisition is a continuation of our diversification strategy,” Loktionov said. “We are looking at the attractive proposition of other minerals.”
Severstal, majority-owned by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, is the country’s largest steelmaker including foreign assets and its second-largest miner of coking coal, used to make steel.
The company has previously said it is looking at other metals, and it formed a joint venture with Anglo American in October to prospect for nickel, copper and zinc in northwest Russia.
The starting price for the gold auction, which was won by Severstal subsidiary Severnaya Zolotorudnaya Kompania, was 48 million rubles ($1.87 million), a document issued ahead of the auction by the Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency showed.

TITLE: One Approach to IMF Reform
AUTHOR: By Dominique Strauss-Kahn
TEXT: In the weeks to come, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund will have the responsibility of appointing its managing director for the next five years. Regardless of nationality, what truly matters is that whoever is selected to run the IMF should embrace a number of vital changes within the organization. That is why, as the candidate of reform, I have recently embarked on an extensive tour of world capitals, listening to the points of views of all IMF members, not just the largest, and building consensus on the need for change.
More than ever, we need the IMF to help us face the challenges of our times. Our world is very different from what it was when the founding fathers met at Bretton Woods. International trade and capital flows have grown exponentially, contributing to our prosperity and, at the same time, making our economies increasingly dependent on each other. Exchange rate regimes have diversified. Capital markets have developed, both domestically and internationally. And, last but not least, a new economic geography has arisen, with emerging economies becoming major actors in the world economy, a fact that has yet to be reflected in their voting power in the fund.
It seems to me, however, that the fundamental purpose and mission of the IMF remain the same: to enable all countries, whether rich or poor, big or small, to embrace fully the process of globalization and reap the benefits of an open international economic and financial system. Of course, our environment has changed, and IMF methods and tools should adapt accordingly. Interdependence has increased the spillover effects of our national policies. For this reason, we should build on progress made in recent years in developing new approaches to multilateral surveillance.
Recent events have shown, furthermore, that domestic and international financial stability cannot be taken for granted. It is very encouraging to see how emerging economies have withstood current episodes of market turbulence, thus reaping the benefits of past efforts to strengthen domestic financial systems and implement sound macroeconomic policies. Nevertheless, the fund should stand ready to play its role and bring necessary assistance, if needed, to countries hit by external financial shocks. Its mission remains, as ever, to ensure world financial stability and promote sound domestic policies.
Finally, poor countries should be encouraged in their endeavors to integrate better into the world economy and must be able to count on the fund’s support. The fund’s role is not to substitute development agencies. But, in light of how important macroeconomic stability is to poverty reduction, there is no doubt in my mind that the IMF should remain active in low-income countries. I discussed this issue in depth with the African governors in Maputo in July and with Latin American governors in August, together with the ways to improve the coordination between the IMF and development agencies, first and foremost the World Bank.
A key issue in the current debates is that we must find a multilateral approach to our problems. This renewed approach towards multilateralism does not mean that other approaches are to be turned down, and indeed, as an unflagging champion of the introduction of the euro, I welcome the various initiatives to promote regional integration. But these initiatives will be even more successful if there is a place where common rules can be discussed and agreed upon.
The main asset the fund can tap to become that place is the exceptional dedication and quality of its staff, which helps it provide adequate intellectual impetus and state-of-the-art analysis. There is certainly scope to include more diversity in the staff, in order to ensure that the fund develops the right expertise on countries to which it gives advice.
Another key issue is legitimacy. Let us be clear: The emerging and developing world does not feel sufficient ownership in the fund. In order to re-assert the legitimacy of the IMF, these countries must be granted a greater voice and more effective representation. This is linked to the so-called “quota issue,” on which some progress had been achieved at the annual meeting in Singapore last September. 
We should go much further and aim to agree swiftly on significant further increases for those countries whose dynamism and growing role in the world economy is not appropriately reflected in the quota distribution, while ensuring that all categories of countries are given sufficient voice.
But quota reform may not be enough. I believe the dynamic of decision-making has to be changed in order to increase the input of developing and emerging economies decisively. To achieve that, new voting rules may be worth considering. For example, for a handful of crucial decisions, a double majority of quotas and countries could be required, thus ensuring that those decisions affecting key aspects of the institution command unquestionable support. A system of double majority voting would entail two sets of criteria for assessing a majority, for example possibly using the existing “quotas” — the IMF votes weighted by size of the economy — as well as a single vote per country.  Lastly, the IMF needs both a resource-efficient budgetary framework and a more sustainable in-come model. In that respect, I find most of the recommendations of the recent Crockett report, which contained various suggestions on how to establish sustainable revenue sources for the IMF, to be eminently sensible.
As the candidate of reform, I would aim to steer the IMF on a path to confront and surmount its major challenges: adapting the institution to a changing world while reflecting the views and needs of all members.
In a welcome break with past practice, the IMF executive board said on July 12 that all candidates should be assessed on their merits rather than on nationality. Although I was invited by the European Union to stand for the job, I believe it has been crucial to ensure the broader international support for this vital position. 
During my recent world tour, I have learned much and I feel confident that, if appointed, I would find the necessary support to implement an ambitious reform program to ensure the enduring relevance of the IMF in a rapidly changing world economy.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, is a candidate for the post of managing director of the International Monetary Fund. This comment appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

TITLE: Reforming to Handle Gazprom
AUTHOR: By Katinka Barysch
TEXT: Europeans cannot decide what they fear more: relying too much on Russian gas or not getting enough of it. We worry about the Kremlin’s political machinations and Gazprom’s underinvestment in equal measure. But restricting Russian investment in Europe will not solve either problem.
More than a third of the European Union’s gas imports already comes from Russia. Of course, this dependence is not one-sided. For Russia, these sales are a significant source of foreign exchange. All the big Russian gas pipelines go to the EU. It will take years to build the pipes and liquid gas terminals to ship Russian gas eastward to China or the United States.
Yet Europe is worried, and rightly so. The presidential succession in 2008 could trigger a wrangle for power and property. The Kremlin controls Gazprom, the gas monopoly. Or is it the other way around? Collateral damage to the energy industry cannot be ruled out. Political uncertainty may be one reason for low investment in new gas fields during the past 10 years; the Kremlin’s tightening grip may be another. Rather than welcoming foreign cash and technology, Gazprom has pushed out Western companies from projects such as Sakhalin-2 and Kovytka. Gazprom’s output has been flat for years, while domestic demand is rising. Experts say Russian underinvestment could open up a ”gas gap” in Europe as early as 2010.
The EU has come up with a possible solution: reciprocity. Gazprom gets a direct stake in European gas markets. European companies get upstream investment opportunities in Russia. Reciprocity sounds good; it has connotations of mutual advantage.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and President Vladimir Putin have proclaimed it as the way forward.
The trouble is, it means different things in Europe and Russia. The EU wants an agreed legal framework to facilitate two-way investment. The Kremlin wants assets swaps. Europe wants openness; Russia wants control. For now, reciprocity is working in Russia’s favor. Gazprom has investments in most of the 27 EU countries. It owns distribution networks in some, it builds gas storage facilities in others, and since last year it has struck big bilateral deals with German, French and Italian companies that give it direct access to gas users in the EU. Meanwhile, the EU has made no progress in persuading Russia to ratify the energy charter treaty, which would oblige Russia to open up its energy sector a bit.
The European Commission is now thinking about banning Gazprom from investing in the EU until Russia allows more European investment upstream. However, the EU cannot adopt the Russian approach to reciprocity without compromising its own free-market principles. EU rules forbid discrimination against an investor on the basis of nationality. It would also be hard to pull off in practice. Would Gazprom’s joint ventures in Europe become illegal? Who would tell European energy companies which assets they could and could not hand over to Gazprom?
The only way forward is to make sure that if Gazprom invests, it plays by European rules. Given the company’s record of shoddy management, asset grabbing and political meddling, Europeans may be forgiven for asking whether it understands market principles. Thankfully, the EU has the instruments to enforce competition, transparency and fair play. In March, EU leaders asked Neelie Kroes, the competition commissioner, to investigate whether Gazprom’s growing role could impede energy market liberalization. When Putin complained, Merkel is said to have replied that Gazprom should consider it “an honor to be treated like Microsoft.”
If the Europeans are worried about Gazprom’s role, they need to back the commission’s efforts to speed up liberalization of their own gas market. On Sept. 19, the commission will release a new draft law on “unbundling,” to prevent a single company from producing, transporting and selling energy. So far, Germany and France have opposed unbundling. They should think again. By giving competing energy companies access to Europe’s pipeline networks, unbundling would all but rule out market abuse by big, vertically integrated companies — not only EU ones such as Gaz de France and E.On Ruhrgas, but also Gazprom. Moreover, since more competition would mean lower profits in downstream markets, Gazprom could lose interest in EU assets and instead invest at home, where it is needed.

Katinka Barysch is chief economist of the Centre for European Reform. This comment appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: China Arming With Technology
AUTHOR: By Drew Thompson
TEXT: After years of political, social and economic chaos under Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping set a new course for China, determined to build the economy first and the military later. He sought a low-key foreign policy where China would not take the lead in world affairs and the nation would “bide time, hide capabilities.” Almost 30 years later, China has emerged as an economic power and is slowly becoming more assertive militarily. However, broad questions remain about the Chinese military’s capabilities, doctrine and intentions as it evolves into a more technically advanced force. 
China’s military has received a technological upgrade paid for by double-digit budget increases over the past 20 years. This has enabled the People’s Liberation Army to increase its access to technology, both by importing high-tech equipment and weapons platforms and by recruiting more technically adept soldiers. This represents a significant shift from a largely illiterate peasant army that followed a “people’s war” doctrine, where generals were confident the PLA had more soldiers than the enemy had bullets. 
Reports of the PLA hacking into U.S. and German government computer networks are part of this modernizing trend, just as China surprised military analysts when it carried out a successful anti-satellite test in January, demonstrating a technical capacity that was previously underestimated. Most importantly, these activities reveal that Chinese military planners and their civilian leaders recognize that to overcome technically superior militaries, they must resort to “asymmetric” strategies that exploit the adversary’s weaknesses. 
However, the hacker attacks on a Pentagon computer system and several German government networks should be kept in perspective. Based on reports that the compromised Pentagon data were unclassified, the Chinese have not demonstrated the capacity to disrupt critical military computer systems by hacking. The fact that the attackers were reputedly traced by investigators is an indication that Chinese technology has its limits as well. While the Chinese foreign ministry denied the Pentagon attack (though not the German ones), it is likely that the intrusions are part of a broader strategy to acquire information that furthers China’s technical development. The Chinese military, like the commercial sector, has a poor record of innovation and is highly dependent on imported technology acquired by legal and illicit means. Until the Chinese improve their indigenous research and development capacity, there is little threat that they will surpass the West in technology. 
China’s military modernization strategy is based on the premise that its adversary is technically superior. While building its capacity to confront the enemy head on, it also must exploit vulnerabilities. China’s current strategy was shaped by the allied victory in the 1990 Gulf War, where U.S. technology overwhelmed an Iraqi military equipped with Soviet-designed platforms very similar to Chinese ones. However, the present Iraq crisis has demonstrated some of the limits of U.S. military technology and perhaps exposed some vulnerabilities in U.S. dependence on the Internet, satellites and information-centered warfare, compared with China’s dependence on large numbers of troops. 
China has sought to reassure regional neighbors and the West that its military modernization does not pose a threat and that it is seeking to be a responsible world power. China has recently sought to assuage concerns by touting its efforts to be more transparent. Arguably, there has been progress. China has published defense “white papers” and has committed to make annual reports to the United Nations on its military budget and international arms sales. However, the accuracy and reliability of China’s self-reporting do not diminish the suspicion of many critics, who point out that China’s revelations contain little substance. China’s efforts appear part of a comprehensive propaganda effort that attempts to shape global perceptions that its rise is peaceful, as well as assure Chinese citizens that growing investment in the military is justified, despite widespread rural poverty and underfunded social services. 
The Chinese acknowledgement that greater transparency is necessary to improve its international relations also reflects growing confidence in its own capabilities and enhances its deterrent potential. The United States and regional allies will be more deliberate when considering direct military confrontation over the most likely conflict, Taiwan, when faced with greater evidence that a conflict would be costly to both sides. 
A more technologically capable PLA does not necessarily mean a military conflict is inevitable. What China wants most is to ensure it can build its economy in peace and prevent internal unrest. Taiwan is the focus of its military buildup, but Chinese leaders link Taiwan to their domestic security situation, arguing that the Chinese people could rise up and overthrow the Beijing leadership if Taiwan declared independence. There are indications that China is genuinely interested in avoiding a military conflict as well as increasing transparency. 
These incidents perhaps indicate that China has moved beyond “hiding its capabilities” to reflect President Hu Jintao’s vision of establishing a “harmonious world.” These sentiments give U.S. and European allies an opportunity to capitalize on China’s professed interest in increasing transparency and military-to-military exchanges. 

Drew Thompson is director of China studies and a Starr senior fellow at The Nixon Center in Washington. This comment appeared in the Financial Post.

TITLE: Unhappy Anniversary
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: This year marks the 200th anniversary of official relations between Russia and the United States.
Of course, the two nations had relations that preceded 1807. Benjamin Franklin was in correspondence with Russian scientists about his theories of electricity and magnetism. Trade relations were also established early, with the first U.S. merchant ship arriving in Russia in 1783. Perhaps the most famous date in the years preceding official relations is Sept. 23, 1776, when Catherine the Great denied King George III of England’s request to provide military assistance to quell the American Revolution, forcing him to hire the Hessian mercenaries of which every schoolchild learns.
The negotiations may have begun in 1807, but it was two years before the first official U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Quincy Adams, arrived in St. Petersburg. He had been assigned there before as a 14-year-old boy, chosen because his French was so good. Adams, who went on to become the sixth U.S. president, was friends with Tsar Alexander I, and his dispatches written during Napoleon’s invasion are read to this day. His infant daughter died and was buried in Petersburg.
Another ambassador to Russia, James Buchanan, also went on to the presidency. Others of distinction include George Dallas, after whom the city in Texas is named, and Cassius Clay, after whom the boxer Muhammad Ali was originally named. Clay, a southern emancipationist who freed his own slaves, served twice in Russia, from 1861 to 1862 and 1863 to 1869. He was sent the second time to keep Russia from siding with the Confederacy. The Russian Navy ultimately paid calls to San Francisco and New York in 1863, causing jubilation in the war-weary North. There were giant parades in New York and the secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, wrote in his diary, “God bless the Russians.”
The reality was a little less exalted. Fearing the outbreak of war, the Russians wanted their fleet out of European waters. They were killing two birds. The United States was the first country to recognize the provisional government in 1917. Once the Bolsheviks took over, it was a different story. The United States had no ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt played an important diplomatic role, initiating the idea of summits by meeting with Stalin at Tehran and Yalta.
George Kennan may be the best known of all the ambassadors to Russia, but he served less than a year in 1952 before incurring Stalin’s displeasure.
In any case, his famous “Long Telegram” positing the concept of containment was written in 1946, well before he became ambassador.
What this little retrospective of the 200-year relationship reveals is that the two countries are hardly bound to any one paradigm. Relations are always a function of circumstance and self-interest, with passions clouding judgment.
It is unfortunate that relations are so slack and nasty in this bicentennial year, but they are not as bad as they sometimes seem and could be improved quickly, if not greatly. The principals must, however, have some fairly definite idea what they want from each other and what they can reasonably expect. Russia will remain Putinesque after the March election whether Putin himself retains a position of power, operates from behind the scenes or withdraws altogether. The Leningrad KGB alumni will continue to run the show. Russia will remain a country with more social than political freedom. The price of oil will keep the economy strong. It is the realities of business more than diplomatic maneuverings that will bind Russia to the West and Western ways. U.S. diplomacy should focus on economic relations in the hope that a Russian judiciary that grows used to dealing fairly with economic issues will in time expand its scope to the political. Democracy may have failed in Russia, but the rule of law has yet to be tried.

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

TITLE: Russsians Are Welcome But Georgians Are Not
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: The seafront at Sukhumi, in Abkhazia, is full of ghosts. Ghosts of those killed in the war and of those who fled, taking whatever they could with them. Ghosts of the people who played, loved and fought there. Ghostly buildings, like the once-grand Hotel Abkhazia, gutted by rocket fire and stripped to a skeleton. If bitter memories of the desperate Abkhaz war still fester here, 14 years after the ceasefire, it’s partly because the evidence of the destruction also remains.
Not much of this seems to disturb the Russian tourists who return to Sukhumi year after year. For them, this is still the subtropical Black Sea playground of the Soviet years, if a little more downscale now. “I like the wildness of this place, and its feeling of freedom,” one woman remarked to me blithely. A man sitting on the grass nearby offered a sharper analysis: “Generally speaking, it’s so good here in Abkhazia that everyone wants to have this piece of land.”
The Russians even have their own sanatorium complex, with its own bars and restaurants — part of the huge beachfront compound occupied by the Russian peacekeepers who been here since the war. A little piece of the South Caucasus that will be forever Russian — or so they seem to believe. Russian soldiers police the compound’s main gate, where a huge portrait of Lenin gazes down sternly at the vacationers.
The compound caters mainly to military types, and the night I went for a meal there, sunburned soldiers and their wives were grooving drunkenly to a Russian pop hit celebrating army life. For some of them, the ruins of Sukhumi are just an unusual backdrop for vacation snapshots. Near the compound, I watched a tanned, blue-eyed youth taking a photo of a blonde in a tiny bikini amid the rubble of a half-demolished cottage. A family used to live there before the war. They were likely Georgians, and are unlikely to return any time soon. The ruined houses are the only signs that there was once a Georgian population here.
A few months ago, I dropped in to a little cafe in Sukhumi’s brutalist Soviet-style suburb, Novy Rayon. Back in the early 1990s some of the worst fighting took place in the thick of this forest of apartment blocks. Many of the building are still battered and burned-out, like weird apocalyptic sculptures looming out of the grubby streets. Inside the cafe, an old man offered vodka and camaraderie. But when the talk turned to the Georgians, his mood soured instantly. “They will never be able to come back and live here,” he growled. “If they try, they will be killed.”

Matthew Collin is a journalist in Tbilisi.

TITLE: The Inconsistent Succession
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Trying to guess the identity of President Vladimir Putin’s choice as his successor and how he or she will come to power is a game that just continues to grow in popularity. Speculation is also swirling over whether the next president will use the system Putin has created to determine national and international policy, ditch the system altogether, or keep parts of it.
Analysts at Renaissance Capital, for example, believe the successor will either follow the “Brezhnev model” and try to maintain the status quo, or will be a reformer, following what they label the “Peter the Great model.” These comparisons are a bit surprising, but not because of the nature of historical parallels.
The approaching transfer of power is only partially reminiscent of the procedure by which the successor was named in imperial Russia or chosen in the higher councils of the Communist Party during the Soviet period. A true case of continuity being maintained in domestic and foreign policy as power passes from father to son is really only evident in Kievan Rus and Muscovy. Vladimir Monomakh’s son Mstislav, for example, was a faithful guardian of his father’s policies after his death in 1125.
The closer we come to the modern era, however, the fewer the examples of a smooth conversion of the political system from one leader to the next. The comparison to Peter the Great, for example, is not an apt one. Peter carried out his own reforms by liquidating the institutions that he had inherited from his father, Alexei. 
He got rid of the Boyar Duma and the Streltsy and voided many of his father’s orders. He changed the entire system, along with the whole character of the country and its people, in the process stamping out the shoots that had grown out of the reforms begun under his brother, Fyodor.
Peter himself broke the line of succession by eliminating his own son. Thereafter, successors to the throne, regardless of their oaths of loyalty to their predecessor’s policies or conditions attached to their assumption of power, introduced significant policy changes and reformed institutions to reflect those changes. 
Favorites under the previous rulers were eased out of authority and often ended up being tried or banished. New favorites then moved in to take their places.
This lack of consistency in policy as power passed from one ruler to another was particularly evident in the second half of the 18th century and into the 19th. Just look at the zigzags in domestic and foreign policy that accompanied the handing down of power along the chain beginning with Catherine the Great and running right up to Alexander III.
Nicholas II tried to break the trend, but in an attempt to save the traditions of monarchy inherited from his father, Alexander III, he was forced to allow for the creation of a parliament and the limitation of his power after the revolution of 1905.
The idea of consistency of policy being maintained by successors didn’t fare much better in Soviet times, and Brezhnev is no exception. He came to power by overthrowing his predecessor, in keeping with the tradition of palace coups in the mid-18th century.
There are better historical parallels for the current succession in the first century in the Roman Empire, when emperors with little faith in the abilities of their own offspring would hand power over either to more distant relatives or to high-profile figures already working within the state, like consuls or senators. They would often adopt their successors so that the principle of succession through the male line of the family would at least formally be maintained.
The process of grooming a successor was often an extended one. Emperor Trajan, for example, watched over his younger cousin, Hadrian, for almost 30 years. The succession was consolidated by Hadrian’s marriage to Trajan’s granddaughter in 100 A.D. With Trajan’s death in 118, Hadrian was called from Syria, where he was serving as governor, to Rome for his coronation.
Hadrian, in turn, adopted Antoninus Pius not long before his own death in 138. Hadrian managed to set the course of succession even further ahead. 
When he adopted Antoninus Pius, he also committed him to adopting Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 180.
There is, of course, the idea of Moscow as the third Rome. If that really is the case, then it would make sense to try to recreate for ourselves the conditions of that era.

This appeared as an editorial in Vedomosti.

TITLE: Giuliani Talks Up 9/11 Response in Campaign
PUBLISHER: The New York Times
TEXT: ORLANDO, Florida — During a Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, Rudolph W. Giuliani asserted, “The reality is that I’m not running on what I did on Sept. 11.”
Two days later, a crowd of nearly 1,000 filed into a ballroom here for a 9/11 Remembrance Luncheon. Graphic images of the exploding towers, dust-covered survivors and even a series of photos that showed someone leaping from a tower were flashed on two giant screens flanking the stage where Giuliani was about to speak.
“America must never forget the lessons of Sept. 11,” Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, later told the crowd.
As the anniversary of the attacks nears, Giuliani has been talking in more personal detail than usual about that day. In so doing, there have been renewed questions about the fuzzy line between sombre remembrance and political exploitation, this time amplified by his presidential candidacy. 
While Giuliani invokes Sept. 11 in nearly every speech and town hall meeting he attends around the country — many times after being asked about it — in the past he has often refrained from discussing his well-catalogued personal experiences that day.
So when he visited Pearl, Mississippi., on Tuesday, it was somewhat surprising to hear him talk about how he had watched in disbelief as someone leaped from a World Trade Center tower.
With the Sept. 11 commemorations now coming in the heat of a presidential campaign, the symbolism of that day will naturally merge with the politics of the present. 
On Saturday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was at ground zero recalling that she had been there the day after the attacks. And Friday, John Edwards gave a speech just a few blocks away on handling the terrorism threat.
Anthony V. Carbonetti, a senior adviser to the Giuliani campaign, said Giuliani had turned down more than 50 invitations to speak at events related to Sept. 11 in the days around the anniversary.
“There is kind of an understanding between us and Hillary and anyone who lived through that day that we don’t politicize it,” Carbonetti said.
  Giuliani’s aides acknowledge that there is a line that should not be crossed — although their definition of that line is probably different from that of his opponents. And recently, his invoking of Sept. 11 has boomeranged, as others have raised questions about his claims of being at ground zero more than rescue workers who have said their exposure to the site made them ill.
When the Republicans held their nominating convention in New York City in 2004, the party swathed itself in Sept. 11 imagery, and Giuliani gave a speech that mixed his experiences that day with a broadside attack on the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry. While Democrats complained about what they saw as a blatant exploitation of the attacks, few prominent figures criticized Giuliani directly.

TITLE: Easy Wins for Russia, England in Euro ’08
AUTHOR: By Trevor Huggins
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Italy drew 0-0 with France in their World Cup final repeat, Germany and England notched easy wins and 10-man Spain were frustrated by a 1-1 draw in Iceland in Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifiers.
The battle to reach the finals in Austria and Switzerland also saw the Netherlands beat Bulgaria 2-0, while the day’s other upset left Turkey with only a 2-2 draw in Malta.
The showcase game was at Milan’s San Siro stadium, where 2006 World Cup winners Italy took on the French in a game that provided plenty of tension and passion.
The best chance fell to Filippo Inzaghi, whose goals won this year’s Champions League final for AC Milan against Liverpool but whose touch deserted him at his home ground when he hit the bar on the half-hour mark.
Chances also fell to team mates Alessandro Del Piero and captain Fabio Cannavaro, while Nicolas Anelka had the best opportunities for the visitors, who finished up by putting a small dent in Italy’s qualifying hopes.
France coach Raymond Domenech, who watched from the stands due to a UEFA touchline ban, kept his side top of Group B with 19 points.
Scotland, who beat Lithuania 3-1 in Glasgow, are a point behind, while Italy to third on 17 after eight matches.
Germany showed the rest of Europe how it should be done. Their 2-0 Group D win over Wales in Cardiff gave them 22 points from a possible 24 and at least one foot in the finals.
Striker Miroslav Klose, top scorer at the 2006 World Cup on home soil, claimed both the goals, a neat low finish after five minutes and a second-half header.
The Czech Republic staked their claim to the runners-up slot, beating 10-man San Marino 3-0 to move clear of Ireland, who conceded a stoppage-time goal to draw 2-2 in Slovakia.
England coach Steve McClaren could afford a smile after his previously misfiring side trounced Israel 3-0 at Wembley to move up to third in Group E. Goals from winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, striker Michael Owen and teenage defender Micah Richards will lift the pressure on McClaren before Wednesday’s key game in north-west London against second-placed Russia.
Group leaders Croatia stayed on course for the finals, their Brazilian-born striker Eduardo da Silva scoring both goals in a 2-0 win over Estonia. The day’s upsets were in Iceland and Malta.
Spain lost midfielder Xabi Alonso to a 19th-minute red card for stamping and fell behind to Emil Hallfredsson’s strike shortly before halftime.
Just as embarrassing defeat beckoned, Spain snatched a point through Andres Iniesta’s equaliser in the 86th minute.
The draw will have provided a crumb of comfort for Northern Ireland, who stay second in Group F but level on 16 points with the Spaniards after they lost 1-0 to Latvia courtesy of a Chris Baird own goal.

TITLE: Britney Bombs at MTV Awards
AUTHOR: By Nekesa Mumbi Moody
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: As in most train wrecks, it was hard to focus on just one thing as the Britney Spears disaster unfolded. There was just so much that went wrong.
Out-of-synch lip-synching. Lethargic movements that seemed choreographed by a dance instructor for a nursing home. The paunch in place of Spears’ once-taut belly. At times she just stopped singing altogether, as if even she knew nothing could save her performance.
Designed to drum up excitement for her upcoming album, Spears’ kickoff to the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night became another example of how far she has fallen. It would have been understandable if MTV’s show had been crushed under the weight of the opening fiasco — yet somehow it rebounded, and even flourished.
The show banked heavily on its own reinvention. After poor reviews and a decline in ratings over the last few years, MTV moved the show to Vegas, shortened it from three hours to two, went to a hostless format and focused more on performances than awards.
Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, Kanye West, Fall Out Boy and the Foo Fighters hosted separate suite parties where most of the performances took place.
But the performance most people will be talking about was Spears’. And unlike her last VMAs appearance, when she locked lips with Madonna in 2003, this time it will be for all the wrong reasons.
“It definitely could have been a lot better,” the hitmaking singer and producer Akon commented afterward. “She seemed nervous... you could tell by the expression on her face. Instead of just blocking everybody out and doing her thing, you could tell she was thinking about it.”
After that, though, the changes to the show worked, leading to several exciting performances and some watercooler drama. An off-camera fight between Pamela Anderson exes Kid Rock and Tommy Lee led Jamie Foxx to quip: “Stop all this white-on-white violence.”
Timberlake’s suite was flooded with revelers, alcohol and eight lingerie-clad stripper types on raised platforms. Before Timberlake accepted the Quadruple Threat of the Year award at his suite, the DJ summoned the partygoers to watch the monitor and go crazy if Timberlake won. He did, they did, and Timberlake said: “I want to challenge MTV to play more videos!” Then he was whisked away by bodyguards and disappeared.
Timberlake was the night’s big winner, with four trophies. After accepting the award for Male Artist of the Year, he jabbed at the video issue again: “We don’t want to see the Simpsons on reality television.” Apparently he’s not a fan of either Jessica or Ashlee’s MTV shows.
Rihanna won the coveted Video of the Year award, plus Monster Single of the Year for “Umbrella.” The Best Group was Fallout Boy, and Gym Class Heroes won Best New Artist.
Beyonce and Shakira won Most Earthshattering Collaboration for “Beautiful Liar.” Beyonce’s shimmering gold dress barely contained her top; immediately after she picked up her trophy she asked an assistant backstage to help fix her dress, apparently to prevent a wardrobe malfunction.
Other performers appeared on the show’s main stage, in front of an industry-only audience seated at tables, like at the Golden Globes. Chris Brown gave one of the evening’s most extravagant performances — hopping from table to table in a dance spectacle that channeled Michael Jackson, right down to a brief “Billie Jean” imitation.
Alicia Keys had the evening’s most rousing performance, debuting her new song “No One” and then an inspired, choir-backed cover of George Michael’s “Freedom.”
While performances like Keys’ and Spears’ were delivered on the main stage, others came in snippets: Akon crooned a bit of his “Smack That” before an award was announced, while the cameras zoomed in on Fall Out Boy and the Foo Fighters mid-performance in their suites, giving viewers the sense that they had happened upon an intimate concert.
Choreographed or not, Timberlake and Timbaland’s suite looked the most exciting with 50 Cent performing “Ayo Technology” with Timberlake and Timbaland.

TITLE: Federer Moves Closer to ‘Best-Ever’ Status
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — Swiss virtuoso Roger Federer captured his fourth successive U.S. Open title with cold-blooded efficiency on Sunday, proving to young Serb Novak Djokovic that he is not yet ready for a changing of the guard.
Though far from his fluent best, world number one Federer won his 12th career grand slam title, wearing down the third-ranked Serb 7-6 7-6 6-4 in two hours, 26 minutes.
Djokovic had five set points in the opening set and two more in the second but failed to convert any against the player who has held the world’s top ranking for 188 weeks.
“He had his chances today, many of them,” Federer said. “You could sing a song about it. It’s a tough one for him to swallow, especially with him losing in the end straight sets.”
The 20-year-old Djokovic was bidding to become the second youngest champion in U.S. Open history, behind Pete Sampras who captured his first title at the age of 19.
“He’s been there,” lamented Djokovic, whose Arthur Ashe Stadium box included 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova and actor Robert De Niro.
“He has this experience. He knows what it feels like to be in that kind of situation. He knows how to cope with the pressure.
“For me, this is something new. I have to look positive. Next time I hope I’m going to hold that trophy.”
Federer survived five set points at 5-6 in the opening set, a Djokovic double-fault forcing a tiebreak in which the Swiss was down a mini-break before clinching it 7-4.
In the third set, Federer broke Djokovic in the 10th game to claim his 27th successive win at Flushing Meadows and become the first man to win four straight Wimbledon and U.S. Opens. The 26-year-old is two grand slam wins shy of the all-time record set by American Pete Sampras.

TITLE: Rumsfeld: ‘Don’t Blame Me’
AUTHOR: By Richard Pyle
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan “a big success,” but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq’s government to establish a foundation for democracy.
“In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets,” Rumsfeld says in the October issue of GQ magazine.
While “that’s been a big success,” he said, the Baghdad regime “has not been able to ... create an environment hospitable to whatever one wants to call their evolving way of life, a democracy or a representative system, or a freer system. And it’s going to take some time and some effort.”
Rumsfeld stepped down as Secretary of Defense in November, a day after congressional elections that cost Republicans control of Congress. 
Dissatisfaction with his handling of the Iraq war was cited by many as a major element of voter dissatisfaction.
Rumsfeld said the Department of Defense and the U.S. military are not responsible for any failures there or in Afghanistan.
“In a very real sense, the American military cannot lose a battle, they cannot lose a war,” Rumsfeld tells the magazine.

TITLE: Henin Blasts Kuznetsova in U.S. Open Final
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — Belgian Justine Henin demolished Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1 6-3 on Saturday to win her second U.S. Open title and seventh grand-slam crown.
The top seed was right on top of her game, scorching to victory in one hour, 22 minutes to become the first woman to win the title without losing a set since Serena Williams in 2002.
“This one is maybe the most important one for me,” Henin told reporters. “The quality I’ve played at in the last few matches was amazing.
“I didn’t lose a set in Toronto and then here. It’s great what I did and I’m really proud of it.”
With 2004 champion Kuznetsova struggling, Henin broke in the opening game of the match and never looked back, breaking twice more to surge ahead.
Kuznetsova improved in the second set but Henin broke for 3-1, saved two break points in the next game and three more in the ninth on the way to becoming the first woman to beat both Williams sisters in a grand-slam event and win the title.
Kuznetsova won the first two points of the match but netted a forehand to lose serve in the first game and squandered a game point as Henin broke again to lead 3-0.
St. Petersburg-born Kuznetsova had a break point in the fourth game but Henin saved it with a big forehand and although the Russian got on the board in the fifth game, the Belgian broke again to clinch the opening set.
“I was a bit nervous in the last game but finally I could win it and it’s great,” Henin said.
Kuznetsova admitted she had been outplayed.
“Just when I go to play finals I wish I would play at my best, and today I didn’t do so,” she said.

TITLE: Powell Breaks 100m Record
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RIETI, Italy — Asafa Powell  lowered his world record by .03 seconds to 9.74 on Sunday at the Rieti Grand Prix.
“I was much more fluid,” said Powell, who had run 9.77 three times. “Zero tension, zero pressure.”
Powell set his latest record in the second of two heats, and even eased up at the end to save something for the final, which he won in 9.78.
“This means that I can do even 9.68,” the Jamaican said. “I’m worth that time, I know it.”
The record was set with a strong wind at his back, but it was below the maximum allowed by the IAAF to make records valid.
In the final, Powell won with no wind recorded in the stadium. 
Jamaican teammate Michael Frater was second in 10.03, followed by Jaysuma Saidy Ndure of Norway in 10.10.
“Today I ran like I should have done at the worlds,” Powell said. 
“At Osaka, I was too tense, I was thinking about the race and the time I had to set. Instead, here I was relaxed.”

TITLE: Flooding in N. India Leaves 2.5 Million People Stranded
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: GUWAHATI, India — About 2.5 million people have been made homeless in India’s northeast state of Assam after a second wave of flooding caused by heavy rains over the past three days, an official said on Monday.
The flooding has affected about seven million people and killed 12 people since Friday and has washed away thousands of homes, bridges, electricity poles and telecommunications towers — disrupting power and phone networks in many areas.
“This is the worst flood we have ever experienced. The damage caused is unbelievable,” said Bhumidhar Burman, Assam’s relief and rehabilitation minister.
“Right now we are concentrating on rescue operations and the army has been called to help us ... people will find no respite until the rains stop.”
Since the annual monsoon rains began in June, about 50 people have been killed in Assam and more than 12 million people affected, including in the latest wave of flooding.
The second spell of flooding in less than a month has also spread across parts of Bangladesh, killing seven people, forcing half a million from their homes and leaving thousands stranded.
The worst affected were farmers who had replanted crops lost in earlier flooding.
In Assam’s main city, Guwahati, several residential areas are under waist-deep waters, forcing many residents to move into hotels or into relatives’ and friends’ houses.
Landslides in parts of the northeast region blocked highways and stranded thousands of trucks carrying essential goods, such as food supplies.

TITLE: Morocco Delivers Snub To Politicians
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: RABAT — Morocco’s conservative Istiqlal party won the most seats in parliamentary elections, allowing it to form the next government with its current ruling coalition allies, final results released on Monday showed.
Istiqlal (Independence), a ruling coalition member, won 52 seats, ahead of the opposition Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD) with 46 seats, the Interior Ministry said.
The final figures showed a record-low turnout of 37 percent, an apparent snub of a political system whose leaders are widely seen as aloof and out of touch.
Islamist PJD had hoped to take the top spot and a role in the next government. When it became clear the party would only take second place it accused unnamed opponents of buying votes to skew the results.  The government dismissed the claim but said it would investigate.
“We are waiting for the appointment of the next prime minister and for his proposals. If he would invite us to be in the next cabinet, we would discuss that and decide whether to enter the government or remain in the opposition,” said Abdelilah Benkirane, PJD’s top official.

TITLE: Wembley Clash Could Be a Classic
AUTHOR: By Edgar J. Morse
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russia enters its match against England on Wednesday in confident mood following an impressive win over Macedonia in Moscow on Saturday. Russia is one place and one point above England in the table and only two points behind group leaders Croatia, and a positive result against England at London’s newly reopened Wembley Stadium will put them in a strong position to qualify for the European Championships in Switzerland and Austria next year.  
England will also enter the match with confidence following an assured 3-0 win over Israel despite fielding a team severely weakened by injury woes. Gary Neville, Jonathon Woodgate, Ledley King, Wayne Bridge and David Beckham are all out of the Wembley game, and Frank Lampard and Owen Hargreaves are struggling to be fit. Crucially, England will be without the inspirational Wayne Rooney upfront. Wigan Striker Emile Heskey or Liverpool’s Peter Crouch could take his place up front alongside Micheal Owen, while Shaun Wright Phillips and Gareth Barry are expected to deputize in midfield.  
However, Liverpool star Steven Gerrard has declared himself fit after playing most of the game against Israel.
“The toe is fine. I haven’t trained much for the last two or three weeks. I will be a lot stronger on Wednesday for getting that 70 minutes in,” he told Reuters. “The toe is healing well and that is behind me now. I’ll be fine for Wednesday.”
England Manager Steve Mclaren was pleased with his side’s win over Israel and feels that the Russians will have to be at their best to beat his team. 
“We made Israel look ordinary. I’m sure Russia will watch our video and not relish coming to Wembley on that performance,” he told Reuters. 
“We made it a comfortable win against a difficult side. Russia will be as tough and we need the same performance.” 
Russia put in an impressive performance against Macedonia, and confidence is high going into the crucial qualifier. Zenit St. Petersburg goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev will keep his place after his penalty save and Seville striker Alexander Kerzhakov is in line to start. The Russian press is in a bullish mood. 
“I can’t see why our team should travel to Wembley with eyes popping out full of fear,” wrote Igor Rabiner, a columnist in the daily Sport-Express.
“Take into account that even when injury free they don’t have strong keepers and why should such a highly successful coach as [Gus] Hiddink fear McClaren, who has yet to achieve anything worthy of note with England.”
With an estimated 300,000 Russians living in London, Russia can count on strong support and Hiddink has vowed to win the game.  
“I am pleased about the way we played against Macedonia. From my first day as Russia national coach I have chosen the attacking style of the game, and think that we have succeeded in that,” he told Reuters. “From now on our style is attacking... I think that it is going to be a fast and open game in which both teams will try to score.”

TITLE: Parents of Missing Child May Be Charged
AUTHOR: By Henrique Almeida
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LISBON/ROTHLEY, England — Portuguese police said they would hand evidence against the parents of missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann on Monday to the public prosecutor, who would decide whether to charge them.
Gerry and Kate McCann returned to Britain on Sunday after police named them as suspects last week.
“The papers are being prepared and will be handed over to the public prosecutor today,” Portuguese police spokesman Olegario de Sousa told Reuters on Monday.
He would not discuss details of the evidence, in accordance with Portugal’s secrecy laws in criminal investigations.
“The prosecutor will then have to decide whether he has enough evidence to charge the McCanns or whether the police need to carry out more inquiries or gather more evidence,” he said.
If the prosecutor decides there is sufficient evidence to charge the McCanns with involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, he could ask that the couple return to Portugal and possibly then order their arrest.
The prosecutor could also decide there is insufficient evidence to do anything and may ask police investigators to find more evidence.
Gerry and Kate McCann, both 39, returned to Britain on Sunday four months after Madeleine went missing while on holiday in the Algarve.
The couple has consulted lawyers in Britain after the Portuguese police declared them formal suspects on Friday, she added. Detectives questioned the couple for hours but did not charge them.
Police changed their line of inquiry after receiving partial results of forensic tests on evidence collected from various sites including the holiday apartment from which Madeleine vanished on May 3. 
Kate McCann told a Sunday newspaper detectives pressured her to confess to having accidentally killed her daughter.
“They want me to lie. I am being framed,” she was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mirror. “They are basically saying, ‘If you confess Madeleine had an accident and that I panicked ... I’d get two or three years’ suspended sentence.’ It is ridiculous. The worst nightmare.”
The couple is at home in the village of Rothley, Leicestershire, with crowds of journalists camped outside.
However, they are ready to face more questioning in Portugal and will fly back from time to time regardless of the police investigation, Madeleine’s aunt Philomena McCann said.
“They absolutely will co-operate with the police,” she added. “They are more than prepared to undergo more questioning. “It is their intention, regardless of whether they are asked ... to return at regular intervals to try and put pressure on the Portuguese police to change the direction of the investigation to look for Madeleine alive.”
She told the BBC: “The Portuguese have turned this investigation round and they are no longer looking for a live child; they are assuming on spurious evidence that Madeleine is now dead.
“We don’t agree with that in any shape or form. We want the investigation changed round to look for Madeleine alive, as we reckon she is.”

TITLE: Exiled Pakistani PM Deported on Return
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ISLAMABAD — Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia on Monday within hours of arriving home from exile vowing to end the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
Authorities imposed a major clampdown before he flew in from London, detaining many leaders, spokesmen and activists of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party, stopping supporters from traveling to the capital and sealing off Islamabad airport.
Some of Sharif’s supporters clashed with police as they tried to make their way past police barricades to get to the airport to greet their leader. Five people were hurt in an exchange of fire but protesters later dispersed.
Sharif’s supporters said they would fight the government in the courts and politically.
Army chief Musharraf is preparing to seek another term in a presidential election in the national and provincial assemblies some time between September 15 and October 15.  A general election is due around the end of the year.
“For all practical purposes there is now martial law in Pakistan and Pervez Musharraf is the chief martial law administrator,” said Sharif party spokesman Siddiq Farooq.
“We are going to take this issue up with the Supreme Court as well as with the people of Pakistan. We are exploring all legal and political avenues,” he said.
The Supreme Court said last month Sharif had the right to return and the government should not try to stop him.  vernment spokesman were not available for comment.
Sharif was arrested after a melee in an airport lounge where he and his supporters were taken after a tense 90-minute standoff with authorities on board the aircraft he arrived on.
He was deported to Saudi Arabia about four hours after flying in. A Saudi source said he would be accepted back into exile and was expected in the Red Sea port of Jeddah at 1230
Another former prime minister in exile, Benazir Bhutto, is also expected to try to come home soon.  But she is in talks with Musharraf on a power-sharing deal that the president, whose popularity has slumped since he tried to dismiss the Supreme Court chief in March, hopes will help him secure another term.
Sharif’s return from seven years in exile, most recently in London, was always going to spark a confrontation with Musharraf, who ousted Sharif in 1999 and cast him into exile in Saudi Arabia the following year.
Musharraf sent Sharif to Saudi Arabia under what the government says was an agreement that he stay in exile for 10 years. In return, he avoided a life sentence on hijacking and corruption charges.
Sharif was dogged by accusations of corruption during his two terms as prime minister in the 1990s. An anti-corruption court last month reopened three cases against him at the request of the government.
Before his arrival, authorities had detained about 4,000 Sharif supporters and party leaders, as well as three leaders of an allied religious alliance, party officials said.

TITLE: Maliki Defends His Record As U.S. Congress Mulls Iraq Plan
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his government had stopped Iraq sliding into civil war and said violence in and around Baghdad had plunged under a U.S.-backed security crackdown.
Maliki spoke in a formal address to parliament hours before American officials were due to deliver a vital progress report on Iraq that could influence future U.S. strategy.
He said security gains had been made across Iraq, but added his forces needed more time to take over full security responsibility from U.S.-led foreign soldiers.
U.S. President George W. Bush is under mounting pressure to withdraw some troops after more than four years of war that has killed more than 3,700 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis as well as forced millions to flee their homes.
Bush’s top officials in Iraq, military commander General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, will give their assessment later on Monday to the Democrat-controlled Congress on the president’s decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq.
Their testimony could be a turning point and is considered crucial to any move by Bush on force levels as he faces demands from Democrats and some Republicans for U.S. troops to leave.
Maliki, a Shi’ite Islamist, defended his government in the face of blistering criticism from both Iraqi and U.S. lawmakers. Some Democratic legislators in the United States have even called for him to be replaced.
“We succeeded in stopping Iraq from sliding toward civil war, which was threatening our beloved country,” Maliki said.
He said levels of violence had fallen by 75 percent in Baghdad and surrounding areas since the start of the U.S. troop “surge” in February. Maliki also pledged his commitment to reconciling the country’s majority Shi’ite and Sunni Arabs.
“We are absolutely confident that national reconciliation is our only choice, which will take Iraq to safe shores,” he added.
A U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said on Sunday that Petraeus and Crocker were likely to argue that a major pullout of forces would hurt progress made since troop levels were increased to 168,000.
Petraeus and Crocker were expected to have highlighted improved security but to have criticized the country’s politicians for failing to pass laws seen as vital to healing deep sectarian divisions.
Bush’s top officials in Iraq speak before a joint session of the House Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. Petraeus’ testimony was due to start at 4.30 p.m. local time.
Maliki has resisted demands from the influential political bloc loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“Despite improved security, we still realize we need more time and effort so our security forces can handle security from the multinational forces,” Maliki said.
Maliki has also been combative in recent weeks, appearing regularly before the media to respond to his detractors.

TITLE: Germany Ponders Homegrown Terrorism
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BERLIN — They grew up as middle-class Germans with the ordinary names Fritz and Daniel. They had by and large sound family backgrounds and attended good schools. They even once played American football and basketball.
But somewhere along the line — according to a portrait of the two Germans that has emerged in local media reports since their arrest — Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider went off the usual track and became Islamist militants.
Their alleged plan to launch massive bomb attacks on U.S. targets in Germany was foiled by police on Tuesday. They were arrested along with a Turkish man raised in Germany, Adem Yilmaz, and police said they had enough material to make bombs with a force equal to 550 kilograms of TNT.
Allegations of their plot have stunned Germany, a country largely spared the violence from Islamist militants that has hit the United States, Britain and Spain.
It has been hard for Germans to fathom why anyone raised in their prosperous country might choose to follow the path of Mohammed Atta, a radical Arab student who lived inconspicuously as a student in Hamburg before leading the 9/11 hijacked plane attacks on the United States in 2001.
“A country is struggling to understand why — and Germans are asking themselves if they could have possibly known what was happening,” wrote Der Tagesspiegel on Sunday.
Gelowicz, who prosecutors have said headed the German cell, had earlier demonstrated his leadership skills as the quarterback of an American football  team called the Neu-Ulm Barracudas, according to Bild am Sonntag newspaper.