SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1327 (93), Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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TITLE: Putin Hits Out at U.S. ‘Meddling’
AUTHOR: By Oleg Shchedrov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin accused Washington on Monday of plotting to undermine December parliamentary elections seen widely as a demonstration of his enduring power in Russia.
Putin, drawing on resurgent nationalist sentiment ahead of Sunday’s poll, also said Russia must maintain its defenses to discourage others from “poking their snotty noses” in its affairs.
Europe, however, joined the United States in voicing concern over a weekend police crackdown on protests by an opposition that says it has been banished from the airwaves and from the streets by an overbearing Kremlin.
Putin, who must step down as president early next year, said he saw Washington’s hand in a decision by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s ODIHR monitoring arm to abandon plans to observe the poll.
“We have information that, once again, this was done on the recommendation of the U.S. State Department,” Putin said at a meeting with activists of his United Russia party.
“Their aim is to deprive the elections of legitimacy, that is absolutely clear,” he said in his home city of St Petersburg. ODIHR has said Russian obstruction left it with no choice but to cancel the monitoring mission.
A poll published on Monday by Russia’s FOM pollster predicted United Russia would win 60.1 percent in the vote this weekend, a dip of two percent from the previous week. The poll put nearest rivals the Communist Party at 7.5 percent.
A high vote would underline Putin’s popularity and help him retain authority in some form after yielding the presidency.
Two weekend rallies by an anti-Putin coalition protesting that the vote would be unfair were broken up by police using truncheons. Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, one of the coalition’s leaders, was one of dozens of people arrested.
Kasparov is serving five days in detention for organizing an illegal protest. A Moscow court on Monday rejected an appeal lodged by his lawyer against the sentence, one of Kasparov’s aides told Reuters from the courtroom.
In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was concerned by the “heavy-handed action” by Russian police. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Russia’s government should explain its actions.
Kremlin officials say the protesters do not have popular support and are dangerous radicals trying to destabilize Russia with help from foreign governments. Kasparov’s coalition barely registers any support in opinion polls.
Putin is running in the election as No. 1 on United Russia’s slate of candidates.
The 55-year-old Russian leader has said he will hand over power to a successor in line with a constitutional ban on a head of state serving more than two consecutive terms as president.
Putin, seen by many as bringing Russia much-needed stability, has said he will endorse one of his lieutenants as a successor. But he has refused to say which one.
Some observers speculate that Putin might step down early and run in the presidential vote, exploiting a legal loophole to get around the three-term ban.
Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, officially named March 2 of next year as the date of the presidential vote, shifting the guessing game over what will happen when Putin’s term ends into its decisive phase.
After the date has been published in the official newspaper on Wednesday, would-be candidates will have 25 days to apply to run in the presidential election.

TITLE: Dozens Arrested During Anti-Putin Demo
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: European politicians have criticized the actions taken by Russian police in response to last weekend’s Dissenters’ Marches in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Riot police detained dozens of opposition activists and citizens during peaceful rallies organized by The Other Russia coalition and supported by the liberal opposition parties.
“I am seriously concerned by the information about the persecution and arrests of opposition politicians and participants in peaceful demonstrations in Russia,” reads a statement by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, presented in Brussels on Monday by EC spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger.
The demonstrations were the latest in this year’s series of rallies aimed at challenging the Kremlin and its policies. This time the focus of the demonstrations was electoral corruption in Russia.
“Under President [Vladimir] Putin, Russia has adopted the shameful practice of witch-hunting that is sending the country back into the 1930s and Stalin’s totalitarian rule,” said Maxim Reznik, leader of the St. Petersburg branch of the democratic party, Yabloko. 
“The rhetoric which Putin and the United Russia party have used during the current election campaign openly threatens the voters. Essentially they have branded anyone who is not with the ruling party as enemies of the state seeking to undermine the stability of Russia.”
Barroso said the policing of the opposition protests in Moscow and St Petersburg had been “heavy-handed.” 
“The right to peaceful free speech and assembly are basic fundamental human rights and I very much regret that the authorities found it necessary to take such heavy-handed action,” the statement said.
Earlier this year politicians from Europe and the United States condemned police brutality in dispersing Dissenters’ Marches. Following a series of rallies in April, Rene van der Linden, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said that it was indefensible for a Council of Europe member country to use excessive force in such situations, and added that he condemned suppression of such demonstrations anywhere.
In Russia, pro-Kremlin politicians have defended the tough line taken by police. Although criminal proceedings were launched against some policemen over excessive use of force, none has yet resulted in a conviction or even reached court. Human rights lawyers representing demonstrators have accused public prosecutors and the courts of deliberately delaying the proceedings in an effort to discourage ordinary people from challenging the authorities.
Representatives of The Other Russia said more than 300 people were detained at Sunday’s rally, while police said they had detained around 100 protesters.
The opposition rally in St. Petersburg started chaotically just after 11 a.m. on Ulitsa Mayakovskogo in the city center. Within minutes police intervened and detained a group of opposition leaders, including Reznik, and fellow politicians from Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces (SPS), including SPS leader Nikita Belykh.
With the leaders in custody and no definite route confirmed, the event continued uncertainly until about 2:30 p.m. The fragmented crowd headed to Palace Square, with more and more people being detained along the way. 
The event’s organizers had failed to reach agreement with City Hall regarding the route of the rally. The organizers had requested to march along Nevsky Prospekt and hold a subsequent meeting on Palace Square. But the authorities turned down the plan on the grounds that it would disturb the traffic in the historic center, a standard argument used to ban rallies at the heart of the city that are not organized by City Hall itself or organizations sympathetic to it. The St. Petersburg administration has been criticized internationally for placing the freedom of road traffic above freedom of expression.
The opposition groups refused to accept an alternative offer from the city authorities to hold the rally on a side street and a meeting in the Chernyshevsky Gardens, an area with limited capacity near Moskovsky Train Station.
The police presence was massive, with dozens of police vehicles ranged along Nevsky Prospekt, on side streets, and outside the State Hermitage Museum. Detachments of riot police were placed along streets, and officers were seen inside cafes and shops around the Palace Square and along Nevsky.
The police vigorously seized both activists and peaceful pedestrians who were neither holding signs, shouting slogans or trying to break through police cordons. 
Those detained were pushed into police vehicles. Among those detained were frail-looking pensioners staring in shock at the chaotic events around them.
Officers also stopped the people for what initially looked like routine document checks. But their documents were perfunctorily scrutinized and a number were thrown into vans.
Boris Nemtsov, one of the leaders of the Union of Right Forces, attempted to talk to reporters outside the Hermitage, next to the Palace Bridge, at around 1 p.m. But, amid flashing cameras, he was quickly grabbed by police before he could speak, and led into a police van.
“The level of brutality and the huge police presence mounted against a peaceful civil demonstration reflects the increasing level of fear among the authorities,” Nemtsov said. “Governors are scared to look their people in the eye and answer any challenging questions. The authorities are cowards.”
Nemtsov was taken to a police station, but was released a few hours later.  Nemtsov was echoed by other democratic politicians who attended the demonstration. 
“One wonders why, considering president Putin’s staggering 70-percent approval rating, the authorities are so frightened by a modest demonstration like this,” said Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the political council of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko. “The answer is simple — the high approval rating is based on ordinary people’s ignorance about how corrupt the authorities are. And those who do take to the streets want to spread that knowledge.”
Critics of the demonstration argued it had failed, since a proper meeting was never held and the event itself ended up in chaos.
But Yevgeny Kozlov, head of the Movement for Civil Initiatives, a St. Petersburg-based NGO, denounced the criticism. 
“What matters is that people did come despite knowing that police act offensively, as it did during all the previous events like this,” he said. “Their presence has shown that it is impossible to beat self-respect out of a person with a police truncheon. It is easier to beat the life out of them, however depressing that may sound.”

TITLE: Ford Workers Stay on Strike Amid Deadlock
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Negotiations between Ford and striking workers at the company’s plant in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Oblast, failed on Monday.
“We haven’t agreed on anything,” Alexei Etmanov, head of the plant’s trade union, said.
“The administration said they were ready to talk about a pay rise but refused to give any figures before the strike is over. In this situation we decided to continue the strike,” Etmanov said.
On Monday about 300-350 workers continued the strike that began last Tuesday, Etmanov said.  He said the workers will also continue to picket the building during the day.
The strike has hit the plant, where the assembly line normally produces 300 cars a day, for a week and the production lines have not been in operation during this time.
On Thursday night the trade union made the decision to temporarily stop the strike at midnight and to begin a new one at the same hour, Etmanov said.
“We needed to do this because of the Labor Code,” Etmanov sad.
At the same time, strikers did not change their demands for a 30 percent pay rise and the cutting of the night shift by an hour, as well other demands.
About 1,500 Ford workers participated in the strike during its first two days. However, about 950 workers from the plant’s 2,200 employees did not agree to join the strike, and 276 were out of action for other reasons.
On Thrusday, the trade union handed the management about 500 applications of refusal to take part in the strike.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party expressed support for the strike. 
“The Communist party strongly supports the fair demands of Ford plant’s workers,” said Gennady Zyuganov, Comminist Party leader, the party’s press service reported.
“The economic situation of the company allows it to completely fulfil the workers’ demands. The cheepness of the cars produced at the plant is conditioned by underpaying the workers who make them. This is the result of extra exploitation,” Zyuganov said.
The company will not pay wages to workers on strike in accordance with the Labor Code, while workers who refused to strike receive two-thirds of their daily pay.
However, Ford dealers in Russia won’t suffer a shortage of cars because of the strike, Yekaterina Kulinenko, Ford’s spokeswoman, Interfax said.
“Dealers have got quite enough Ford Focus cars made in Europe. Those, who ordered the cars made in Russia, will receive them on time, no matter how many days the strike goes on for,” Kulinenko said.
The current strike is a continuation of a preventive strike held by the plant’s workers and the trade union on Nov. 7. The trade union said they decided to go on strike after negotiations they held from July 9 through Oct. 9 failed.
Workers at the plant also staged a 24-hour strike on Feb.14-15 this year.  At that time the strike resulted in the signing of a year-long collective agreement.  
However, a number of social defense measures meant for workers were not taken into account in that agreement.

TITLE: Duma Elections to Deliver Deputies That Are ‘Dull’
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Once a lively venue for arguments, fistfights and hurled objects, the State Duma — a place Duma Speaker and United Russia head Boris Gryzlov once fittingly described as “not a place for discussion” — has become increasingly sedate over the past four years.
And with several charismatic deputies likely to lose their seats after the Dec. 2 Duma elections, the lower house of parliament looks to become even more tranquil, insiders and analysts say.
“The next Duma will be just a bunch of voting robots, a faceless crowd without ideas,” said independent Duma deputy Viktor Alksnis.
Alksnis is one of a dozen or so outspoken, flamboyant or critical deputies who won’t be in the next Duma after Sunday’s election, in which for the first time voters will only be able to vote for parties — not independent candidates.
In the previous four Duma elections, half of the lawmakers were elected in single-mandate districts. But the Kremlin pushed through a law abolishing single-mandate elections in 2004, arguing that it would strengthen the party system.
Alksnis became a kind of a celebrity after he helped lead the 1993 armed defense of the parliament in a bloody conflict against forces loyal to then-President Boris Yeltsin. And he gained new notoriety earlier this year when he tried to sue an employee of a pro-Kremlin think tank who he claimed defamed him on an Internet blog.
But the party whose ticket he joined, People’s Will, was not allowed on the ballot, meaning that will be out of the legislative branch, as will the party’s charismatic nationalist leader, Sergei Baburin, who has been in every Duma since the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Running in a single-mandate helped charismatic candidates get elected because they had to compete with one another for the voters’ hearts and minds,” said Dmitry Badovsky, an analyst with the Institute of Social Systems.
Other outspoken lawmakers on their way out because of the elimination of single-mandate districts include economist Sergei Glazyev, liberal opposition darling Vladimir Ryzhkov, anti-drug trafficking activist Yevgeny Roizman, and strident motorists’ rights advocate Viktor Pokhmelkin.
“We are seeing a reworking of the Duma’s personnel: The less power the Kremlin gives it, the less the demand for people with initiative,” said Glazyev, who was elected in 2003 on the nationalist Rodina ticket but became an independent after the party split into numerous factions earlier this year.
As deputies elected by popular vote are removed from the scene, the Duma is increasingly being filled with lawmakers tacitly selected by the Kremlin, Glazyev said.
Indeed, Kremlin-loyal parties appear increasingly wary of including candidates on their tickets who might offer dissenting voices or irritate the Kremlin.
United Russia, for example, dropped from its ticket incumbent deputy Sait-Salam Gutseriyev, whose billionaire brother, former Russneft chief Mikhail Gutseriyev, is wanted in Russia on charges of illegal business practices and tax evasion and reportedly sought political asylum in Britain last month.
Maverick billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, a member of the United Russia faction in the Duma, was reportedly kept off the party’s ticket after President Vladimir Putin told the party’s convention last month to bar big business from politics.
Other notable exclusions from the United Russia faction include former Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov and former Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Kovalyov.
“These two were really strong deputies with their own opinions on issues related to national security,” said Communist deputy Viktor Ilyukhin, who sat on the Duma’s Security Committee with the former top officials.
Another colorful United Russia deputy left off the party’s ticket is Dagestan’s Gadzhi Makhachev, known for wearing a traditional Astrakhan hat to Duma session.
Makhachev, a wrestler with a criminal record and Dagestan’s former deputy prime minister, earned his proverbial 15 minutes of fame in 2000 when he kicked Chechen rebel envoy Vagap Tutakov in the groin inside the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Brussels.
Also leaving the Duma will be Anatoly Yermolin, a special services officer elected in 2003 with United Russia and later expelled from the party for criticizing Putin’s policies.
Former Vladivostok mayor Viktor Cherepkov, with his fervent promotion of a healthy lifestyle, is another outgoing United Russia deputy, as is Chechen deputy Ruslan Yamadayev, who has taken beatings in the press for purported abuses committed by Chechen police and military officers.
Some of the Duma’s most outspoken nationalists will be gone after Sunday’s elections, including Rodina deputy Alexander Krutov, who gained notoriety for backing bills limiting rights of migrants and the media, as well as a bill banning abortions for married women without their husbands’ written consent.
The nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, traditionally a motley mix of flamboyant deputies, seems to be turning in to a one-man show featuring party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Zhirinovsky’s No. 2, avid party animal Alexei Mitrofanov — producer of an erotic movie featuring look-alikes of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko — has defected to pro-Kremlin party A Just Russia, which analysts say could have problems getting the 7 percent of the vote necessary to gain Duma seats.
Former boxer Oleg Malyshkin, Zhirinovsky’s former bodyguard who was the LDPR presidential candidate in 2004, is not on the party’s ticket this time around. Partyless deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich, who was expelled from LDPR for violating the party discipline, will have no chance to deliver his hardcore nationalist message from the Duma floor after Sunday.
Kuryanovich, a rising star among Russian nationalists, said the future Duma would be faceless and servile, adding that he could secure a seat and earn good money should he agree to play by the rules imposed by the Duma’s United Russia-dominated leadership.
People like Kuryanovich should not be forced out of the Duma because they represent the opinions of a small percentage of the population, said Alksnis. “By allowing people like Kuryanovich as representatives, we keep them in open and public politics. By denying them a voice, we push them to the extremist underground.”

TITLE: Kasyanov — From Insider to Fighting the Machine
AUTHOR: By Alexander Osipovich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Mikhail Kasyanov says he is the target of a vast, pro-Kremlin conspiracy to undermine his goal of shaking up an authoritarian political system. Alternatively, the former prime minister might just be the unluckiest presidential candidate on Earth.
The last meeting of Kasyanov’s political movement, the Russian People’s Democratic Union, was disrupted earlier this month when delegates were told that the venue, a trade-union hall in Tver, had been shut down for fire-safety reasons. Two weeks earlier, a similar gathering was forced to leave a cultural center in Ufa because of a telephone bomb threat. Delegates trooped over to a nearby hotel, and minutes later someone phoned in a bomb threat there, too.
Kasyanov’s supporters say these incidents fit into a long-running pattern of harassment in which the former prime minister has been hounded by politically motivated investigations and rowdy protests by pro-Kremlin youth activists. Kasyanov’s troubles date back to 2005, when he first hinted that he might run for president in 2008, they say.
“He made his announcement in February 2005 believing there was a basic level of cultural decency, a framework for civilized political discourse,” said Oleg Buklemishev, a longtime aide who now heads the analytical department of Kasyanov’s consulting company, MK_Analytica.
“I think it was a big surprise for him when this machine — the propaganda machine, the law-enforcement machine, the machine of hooligan youth movements — was turned against him with all of its strength,” Buklemishev said.
In an e-mail interview, Kasyanov declined to discuss his personal feelings about the purported harassment campaign, instead noting how it reflected broader developments in Russia.
“Look around you,” he said. “Just a few years ago, did anyone expect that there would be no independent media left in Russia? That authorities would be fighting ‘non-native inhabitants’? That the main enemies would become Estonia and Georgia? That political killings and wars between the secret services would become customary?”
Kasyanov’s allies say he has the name recognition and government experience needed to be a credible successor to President Vladimir Putin, whose second term ends in May. The Constitution limits presidents to two consecutive terms.
But Kasyanov’s detractors argue that his presidential ambitions were always a long shot, and even some of his colleagues in the liberal camp seem uncomfortable with him.
The position Kasyanov finds himself in today is all the more remarkable given that he was once the ultimate insider. Just four years ago, he held the second-highest job in the government — the same government he now spends much of his time criticizing.

Rising to the Top
Kasyanov was born Dec. 8, 1957, in the Moscow suburb of Solntsevo. His mother was an economist in Glavmosstroi, the organization in charge of building housing in Moscow, and his father was the principal and a math teacher at a local school.
In 1974, Kasyanov began his studies at the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute. When his father died two years later, he switched to the institute’s night division and took a day job as a construction worker. He laid concrete for several months and was then drafted into the army, where he served in an honor guard, whose duties included greeting official delegations at airports.
Kasyanov’s professional career began in 1978, when he became a senior technician and engineer at the Soviet Institute of Industrial Transport, building highways and railroads. In 1981, he joined the State Planning Committee — better known by its nickname, Gosplan — of the Russian republic inside the Soviet Union.
He spent the next decade in this republican Gosplan branch, which was an insignificant backwater compared to the mighty Gosplan of the Soviet Union, according to political analyst Alexei Makarkin, who has studied Kasyanov’s early career. But the budding bureaucrat did gain some skills there: a knowledge of English and a familiarity with foreign debt issues. He also married his high-school girlfriend, Irina, and had a daughter with her in 1984.
Kasyanov was plucked out of obscurity in 1993 when Boris Fyodorov, then serving as finance minister and deputy prime minister in the post-Soviet government, put him in charge of the Finance Ministry’s foreign debt department. 
In 1995, he was promoted to deputy finance minister. After the August 1998 default, he broke the news to crisis-stung Western investors that Russia would not pay back billions of dollars worth of frozen debt.
The next two years saw Kasyanov advancing in leaps and bounds. In May 1999 he was appointed finance minister, and in January 2000 he became first deputy prime minister under Putin, who had just become acting president in the wake of Boris Yeltsin’s resignation. After Putin won the May 2000 presidential election, he made Kasyanov his prime minister.

Family Man
Many believe Kasyanov got the government’s No. 2 job thanks to the influence of the Family, the once-powerful political faction centered around Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko, and tycoon Boris Berezovsky. “He was one of the political figures caught up in the Family’s games,” Makarkin said.
Kasyanov has downplayed his links to Berezovsky and the Family. “I meet with Berezovsky very rarely — perhaps once every six months,” he said at a news conference in April 2000.
Whoever may have helped him climb the career ladder, Kasyanov got ahead because of his talents, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences who studies the country’s political elite. “He is knowledgeable, he knows how to deal with people and he is a good speaker,” Kryshtanovskaya said.
Kasyanov’s career as a debt negotiator climaxed in February 2000, when he clinched a deal to write off $10.6 billion of Soviet-era debt to the London Club of commercial creditors. Although the deal was praised by Putin and other officials, some financiers argued that Kasyanov could have gotten better terms for Russia.
His reputation was also marred by allegations that he had profited from his position within the impenetrable world of government finance. While he was finance minister, the newspaper Versia accused him of taking money from banks in exchange for inside information about upcoming debt-market movements. The paper dubbed him “Misha 2 Percent,” a reference to his alleged cut in the deals.
The nickname has dogged him ever since, even though Kasyanov has consistently denied the allegations, and no charges have ever been filed in court.
Yelena Dikun, a spokeswoman for Kasyanov, blamed the emergence of the nickname on a smear campaign launched by a “television oligarch” who was angered when Kasyanov refused to help him with a business deal.
Dikun declined to name the oligarch in question, but two sources familiar with the situation identified him as Vladimir Gusinsky, who was feuding with Berezovsky and the Family at the time. The sources asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Gusinsky and Berezovsky, both of whom now live in self-imposed exile, could not be reached for comment.

 ‘A Committed Liberal’
Kasyanov became prime minister in 2000 with a reputation as a liberal technocrat. His four years in the White House were marked by steady growth — helped along by high oil prices — and a return to currency stability after the inflation of the 1990s. Several structural reform projects had their genesis during Kasyanov’s tenure, but the only one to be implemented while he was still in office was a much-praised tax reform that lowered the tax burden on businesses and introduced the 13 percent flat income tax.
Kasyanov was “the best prime minister in all of Russia’s postwar history,” Boris Nemtsov, a leader of the liberal political party Union of Right Forces, said at an event organized by Kasyanov’s political movement earlier this year.
“Kasyanov is a committed liberal in the sense that he believes the free market can solve most problems,” said Mikhail Delyagin, who served as an economic advisor to Kasyanov from 2002 to 2003 and now heads the Institute of Globalization Problems.
Kasyanov had no public rifts with Putin until 2003, when prosecutors began a legal onslaught against the Yukos oil company, culminating in the arrest of its billionaire CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The prime minister defended Khodorkovsky and darkly warned that the freezing of 44 percent of Yukos shares was a “new phenomenon” with unpredictable consequences.
Kasyanov was dismissed in February 2004, shortly before Putin was re-elected in a landslide, and replaced with Mikhail Fradkov.
Kasyanov spent the next year outside the media spotlight. A fundamental change in his thinking, he says, occurred with the Beslan hostage crisis in September 2004. After a brutal standoff between Chechen terrorists and federal authorities ended with the deaths of more than 330 civilians, many of them children, Putin called for an end to gubernatorial elections and accused foreign powers of wanting to tear “a tasty morsel” from Russia.
Kasyanov broke his silence in February 2005 with a news conference in which he slammed the government’s course and suggested that he might seek the presidency.

Dachas and Prostitutes
Some liberals hoped Kasyanov would repeat the success of Viktor Yushchenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister who led an opposition coalition to victory in the Orange Revolution of late 2004 — an outcome that shocked the Russian leadership, which had backed Yushchenko’s pro-Moscow rival, Viktor Yanukovych.
“What distinguishes him from other democrats is that he represents a breakaway part of the political establishment,” said former presidential candidate Irina Khakamada. “He is still developing as a politician. His strengths are mainly connected to his time in the bureaucracy, his experience as a big manager. So he is more precise, more careful and more open to compromise.”
But if there was ever any hope that Kasyanov could swing the political establishment to his side, it appeared to be derailed in July 2005 when prosecutors opened a high-profile investigation into whether he had abused his office as prime minister by illegally acquiring a luxury dacha in western Moscow.
Kasyanov has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation a smear campaign.

Divided Democrats
While it may be natural for militant Putin backers to detest Kasyanov, the former prime minister is also viewed skeptically in some circles of the opposition.
“He participated in the creation of the authoritarian regime,” said City Duma Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Moscow branch of the liberal Yabloko party. “He only joined the opposition after Putin fired him. Before that he showed no sign of having democratic values. There is something opportunistic about his political stance. It stems from a grievance against Putin and not from his values.”
Kasyanov’s links to oligarchs and the Family would make him unelectable even in a fair vote, said Delyagin, his former economic adviser, who worked for the nationalist Rodina party after leaving the White House.
“Kasyanov conveys an impression of plumpness, satisfaction and good fortune,” Delyagin said. “While that may go down well in a country like Denmark, it doesn’t work so well in Russia, where 84 percent of the population lives in poverty.”
In July 2006, Kasyanov became a founding member of The Other Russia, the eclectic opposition coalition, which also included former chess champion Garry Kasparov and writer-turned-political activist Eduard Limonov, founder of the banned National Bolshevik Party.
Differences in style were clear from the beginning, with the cautious ex-bureaucrat Kasyanov cutting an unusual figure next to the more radical Kasparov and Limonov. “[Kasyanov] is more level-headed than Kasparov,” Khakamada said. “They are like fire and ice: If Kasparov is fire, Kasyanov is ice.”
Over the next year, The Other Russia organized a series of street protests throughout the country, some of which were violently dispersed by police. Kasyanov left the coalition in July after a dispute over how to select a single opposition presidential candidate. The Other Russia went on to hold a series of regional “primaries,” culminating in a September congress where Kasparov was chosen as the coalition’s candidate.
Kasyanov has been nominated as a presidential candidate by his own movement. Its central council is set to make its final decision Wednesday about whether he should run.

TITLE: Spy’s Widow Heads to Strasbourg
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: LONDON — Alexander Litvinenko’s widow is seeking a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights that Russia was complicit in poisoning the former Federal Security Service officer with radioactive polonium, her lawyer said Friday.
Louise Christian, who represents widow Marina Litvinenko, said she had obtained expert evidence it was “highly likely” the polonium had come from Russia’s Avangard plant, a state facility surrounded by tight security.
“We say that there is evidence ... of either active complicity or connivance by the Russian Federation in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko,” Christian told a news conference on the first anniversary of Litvinenko’s death.
Litvinenko, who became a Kremlin critic in exile, fell ill after drinking polonium-laced tea during a meeting with Moscow-based millionaire Andrei Lugovoi and other businessmen at a London hotel weeks before his death.
He suffered an agonizing death in a London hospital on Nov. 23, 2006. Over a three-week period, the 43-year-old fitness fanatic’s health degenerated, leaving him bald, with yellowing skin and complete organ failure.
If judges agree with the complaint against Moscow, the worst sanction Russia could face is expulsion from the 47-member Council of Europe — a pan-European human rights bloc of which it is a member. No member has been expelled after losing a human rights case in Strasbourg since the organization was founded in 1949.
British-Russian relations have returned to a near Cold War low since British authorities issued an extradition request for Lugovoi on murder charges. Lugovoi has denied responsibility for Litvinenko’s death. Russia refused to hand the businessman over, saying Russian citizens could not be extradited under the country’s constitution.
Christian said the alleged state complicity in murder contravened the European Convention on Human Rights, which states the right to life.
She said an independent nuclear expert — whom she did not name — had testified that British authorities should be able to trace the polonium’s origin by comparing samples from the poisoned teapot with batches produced at Avangard and exported by Russia to various countries.
Boris Berezovsky, a friend of Litvinenko and Kremlin foe whom Russia has tried unsuccessfully to extradite from Britain, said he was “certain that Scotland Yard and the British investigators know the origin of the polonium.”
“Today it’s hidden in the materials at the disposal of Scotland Yard,” Berezovsky told reporters Friday. “But Marina has the right, in the end, to demand an inquest, and then those materials will become public.”
A police spokeswoman declined to comment.
Marina Litvinenko pledged to keep fighting for justice for her husband. “I promise one day we definitely will know who’s responsible for this, because without this knowledge we just can’t feel we are safe,” she said. Earlier, Litvinenko’s supporters gathered outside the hospital where he died to reread his deathbed statement in which he accused President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his death. Moscow has branded the claim as baseless.
“The gangsters who poisoned my son ... are even today cynically trying to show the whole world they can get away with anything,” said Litvinenko’s father, Walter.
Christian said she had filed Marina Litvinenko’s case with the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday.
“They can award compensation, but clearly that’s not the main aim of this,” she said. “The main aim is to force [Russia] to take responsibility and put things right. ... The minimum would be an effective investigation.”
(AP, Reuters)

TITLE: British Travel Advice Update
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The British foreign ministry updated its travel advice for British visitors to Russia on Monday noting that “demonstrations...  have occasionally turned violent.” However its general level of risk of dangers in Russia — most concerned with travel to war-torn Southern Republics, terrorism, street crime and infrastructure safety — remained unchanged.
The new advice was offered a day after riot police violently broke up a  demonstration in St. Petersburg. Hundreds of people were detained. 
The full advice, posted at www.fco.gov.uk,  reads: “General elections for the Russian State Duma will take place on 2 December 2007. Political tensions can be expected to be heightened in the period surrounding the elections. You should avoid demonstrations and large public gatherings as, in the past, these have occasionally turned violent.”
Other hotspots with renewed advice for travelers Monday included Pakistan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as France, which experienced a riot in Paris on Sunday.

TITLE: Tigers, Diamond Hubcaps and a Place to Chill
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: KRASNOGORSK, Moscow Region — Toward the back of the cavernous exhibition hall, Alexander Svalov leaned nonchalantly against the body of the 2-meter-long saber-toothed tiger and smiled.
“Why shouldn’t someone have this in their living room?” he asked, patting the fur of the snarling taxidermic model. “You don’t have to worry about feeding it, and it’s easier to look after than a real cat.”
Svalov then cheerily explained how the model was made. The skin had come from a real tiger, and the huge, curved front teeth are genuine, he said. And, for 1.8 million rubles ($75,000), the cat could be yours.
Svalov’s company, Ice Age, was just one of dozens offering an eclectic range of eye-catching and pricey luxury goods Friday afternoon at the city’s third annual Millionaire Fair, which ran Thursday through Sunday.
This year’s extravaganza of excess, held in the Crocus Expo exhibition center on the city’s northwestern outskirts, was the biggest in the event’s brief history. Over 200 brands from around the world were on display, and organizers expected around 45,000 visitors.
Svalov’s stand was cluttered with a macabre collection of extinct animal parts, including chess pieces carved from mammoth tusks, a mammoth’s skull and the giant skeleton of a Siberian bear priced at 750,000 rubles.
While most of the items he sells abroad usually end up in museums, in Russia they are far more likely to decorate the homes of the super-rich. And there is certainly an increasing demand for such products in the country.
According to Forbes magazine, Moscow now has more billionaires than any other city in the world, and the Russian rich are younger, more willing to spend and, apparently, less discerning than in some other countries.
Standing in a beige ball gown, Lidia Pozdnyakova posed demurely next to a glittering white Mercedes sedan for sale at her stall. Under the bright lights of the exhibition center, the $350,000 car sparkled ferociously: It was, after all, covered in swirls of Swarovski crystals.
“We recommend that the owner only use the car on special occasions,” Pozdnyakova said as one of her colleagues, crouching by the car, hurriedly glued back on a handful of crystals that had fallen off. “It’s not been sold yet, but we already have some potential customers lined up.”
Similarly striking was a set of diamond-encrusted hubcaps on display at a nearby stand. The set of four hubcaps sells for $1 million, but you also get a $250,000 Bentley Coupe and a round-the-clock security guard thrown in for free, said Andrei Postnikov, a sales representative for Kosmos Zoloto.
“They are on sale both here and in the United States,” Postnikov said. “So far no one has bought the wheels in Russia, but I’ve heard that they have sold some in America. If they can sell there then I am sure that someone will buy them here.”
For companies selling luxury goods, Russia is fast becoming a vital marketplace — rapidly catching up countries such as Saudi Arabia — thanks to its rate of conspicuous consumption.
“We have been coming to the exhibition since it started three years ago,” said Anna Shelgunova, advertising manager for helicopter dealer Aviamarket. “It’s a very important way for us to publicize our company.”
Shelgunova conceded, however, that she was unlikely to sell any of the U.S.-made, four-seat helicopters — priced at $600,000 — directly at the exhibition.
“You can’t exactly expect people to show up at the exhibition with suitcases stuffed with money,” Shelgunova said.
In four years the company has sold around 100 helicopters in Russia, she said. “There would be more [sold] if they would permit people to fly over Moscow to avoid the traffic jams,” Shelgunova said. There’s a waiting list of several months for the helicopters, she added.
The bulk of the fair consisted of traditional luxury goods, such as real estate and sports cars.
But from pianos that play themselves to diamond-studded pocketknives, there was something for everyone, and even an unusual offering for the more health conscious among Russia’s rich.
At one stand, Anton Yerganokov’s company, Criohome, was selling the latest in German-made, personalized “cold rooms.” A sort of giant refrigerator for people, the contraption goes down to minus 85 degrees Celsius and is meant to act as a panacea for a host of ailments, including hangovers.
As he ushered three lightly dressed female models into the machine, Yerganokov explained that one should strip down to swimwear and spend at least three minutes in the freezing conditions every day. The private cabins sell for 160,000 euros each, he said. Larger versions can be found in hospitals around the world, but now the company has decided to manufacture private units exclusively for the Russian market.
Yelena Raumova, a stocky blonde from a nearby stand, braved a temperature of around minus 80 degrees Celsius to try out Yerganokov’s machine. “It feels good, and it really isn’t too cold,” Raumova, standing inside the tank, said stoically. “I don’t think I’d have space for this in my apartment though.”

TITLE: Suicide Bomber Suspect in Blast
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A suicide bomber could have been responsible for a blast Thursday that tore through a commuter bus in North Ossetia and killed six people, a law enforcement source said Friday.
A homemade bomb containing around 300 grams of TNT and stuffed with ball bearings detonated inside the bus as it approached a police checkpoint between North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria, authorities said.
The timing of the explosion, at exactly 7p.m., suggests the bomb was either equipped with a timer, or that a suicide bomber had instructions to detonate at this time, the source said, Interfax reported.
A woman, a nine-year-old girl and a border guard were identified among the dead. The bodies of three men remained unidentified as of Friday evening, and 10 people remained hospitalized.
Investigators have classified the explosion as a terrorist attack and are following up on reports that someone left the bomb in a bag as he got off the bus in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. 
A composite sketch of the suspect has been drawn up, investigators said, Interfax reported.
The bomb could have been held in the lap of one of the passengers, Kommersant reported, citing sources in the forensic team that examined the bus. The experts had recovered the lower jaw, parts of the scalp and a gold chain of the passenger, the paper reported Saturday.
The bomb went off in the rear of the bus, while most of the passengers were sitting in the front, the paper said. The location and the fact that the bomb went off before the bus arrived at a police checkpoint led investigators to assume that it was not a suicide attack.
The bomb’s organizers could, however, have detonated it via remote control and the carrier of the bomb might have been unaware of the fact, the paper said.

TITLE: Leader of KGB Coup Dead at 83
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former KGB chief who spearheaded a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, has died, officials said Sunday. He was 83.
Kryuchkov died Friday in Moscow of an unspecified illness, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said.
Kryuchkov worked with future Soviet leader Yury Andropov in the Hungarian Embassy in the 1950s. When Andropov became head of the KGB in 1967, he helped Kryuchkov rise through the ranks.
Kryuchkov in 1974 was appointed chief of the KGB’s First Main Directorate in charge of spying abroad. In 1988, Gorbachev appointed Kryuchkov as KGB chief.
In August 1991, Kryuchkov joined other hard-line Communists who ousted Gorbachev and declared a state of emergency. The coup collapsed after three days, and Kryuchkov and other coup plotters were jailed but freed on an amnesty in early 1994.
Last month, Kryuchkov warned of “big trouble” if a turf battle between security agencies continues to fester.

TITLE: Storchak Says He Is Not Guilty as Charges Pressed
AUTHOR: By Darya Korsunskaya
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prosecutors charged Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak on Friday with attempting to embezzle $43 million, in a case that may damage his boss, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
Storchak is the country’s foreign debt negotiator and oversees a $148 billion budget Stabilization Fund, making him a key player in managing the windfall reaped from the global boom in oil and commodities prices.
“Storchak was questioned for over four hours. He gave testimony but did not admit any guilt,” defense lawyer Alexander Petrov said after a hearing at Moscow’s Lefortovo jail. Petrov said he would probably appeal the charges.
Kudrin leapt to the defense of Storchak, 53, a trusted aide who was also charged with forming an “organized group” with two businessmen in a bid to embezzle budget funds after failing to collect a debt owed by Algeria.
“Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will file a petition seeking the release of Sergei Storchak from detention under his personal guarantee,” a ministry official said. “With this the Finance Minister will guarantee appropriate conduct and prompt attendance when the accused is summoned by investigating prosecutors.”
Kudrin’s gambit amounts to an attempt to bail out Storchak by vouching for his good conduct, rather than pledging money as would be typical in many countries.
Under the charges, Storchak can be held in custody for at least two months. Prosecutors could not be reached for reaction to Kudrin’s request, but may turn it down if they fear any attempt to flee or influence witnesses.
Prosecutors earlier confirmed that the charges had been presented to Storchak. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in jail.
The high-profile corruption case comes as the country prepares to hold State Duma elections on Dec. 2, which the dominant United Russia party is poised to win by a landslide. President Vladimir Putin is leading the United Russia ticket as he seeks to create a platform to retain political influence after voters elect his successor next March.
Putin has yet to name a preferred candidate, but Kudrin had been named as one possible contender after he was promoted to the rank of deputy prime minister in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Kudrin was out of the country when Storchak was detained Nov. 15. The two other men charged are Vadim Volkov, president of Interregional Investment Bank and Viktor Zakharov, head of a company called Sodexim.
According to the Finance Ministry, Sodexim was selected in 1996 as an agent to collect a $26 million debt owed by Algeria through a barter trade deal.
Algeria failed to deliver the promised goods, however, and Sodexim turned to the government in 2006 to seek repayment of the debt, plus interest, under a $4.7 billion debt-forgiveness deal between Russia and Algeria, the ministry has said.
Storchak served as a Finance Ministry official in the 1990s before a spell at Vneshekonombank. He later returned to the ministry and was appointed deputy minister in 2005.
Storchak negotiated the early repayment of $22.5 billion in debts to the Paris Club of creditor nations last year and several write-offs of debts owed to Russia.

TITLE: Accor Opens New 3-Star Hotel
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Accor, the European leader in hospitality and tourism, opened its first Russian Ibis hotel Friday. The newly built nine-floor Ibis Hotel offers 221 rooms, five meeting rooms, a restaurant and bar. The hotel is located at 54 Ligovsky Prospect, close to Vosstaniya Ploshchad.
“At the moment we operate three hotels in Russia — two Novotel hotels in Moscow and one Novotel in St. Petersburg. Today we are opening an Ibis hotel in the Northern capital,” Interfax quoted Alexis Delaroff, director of Accor in Russia, as saying Friday.
The Ibis brand is aimed at leisure and business travelers. Ibis St. Petersburg Moskovsky Vokzal is the first economy international chain hotel to be opened in the city. The initial rate will be about $114 per night.
The rooms are equipped with flat screen televisions, satellite, Wi-Fi Internet connections, a work desk, telephone and bathroom with shower cabin and hairdryer, as well as individual air-conditioning systems.
For conferences and social events, Ibis hotel has 170 square meters of meeting space — five individual meeting rooms and is equipped with underground parking.
In a statement released Friday, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko stressed that the new Ibis hotel does much to ease the shortage of economy class hotels in the city.
“Our goal is to make St. Petersburg one of the five most attractive cities in the world in the near future. The city should receive five million tourists a year. Interest in St. Petersburg is growing faster than we can provide new premises to house the increasing number of guests,” Matviyenko said.
“The city lacks cheap and comfortable hotels located close to the city center. At the moment, we have about 20,000 hotel rooms, and we need at least 15,000 more. Half of these new rooms should be in three-star hotels,” Matviyenko said.
The three-star Ibis Moskovsky Vokzal is owned by Kesko company, which invested $20 million in its construction.
Kesko is a part of Atek group, which combines oil processing companies, wholesale distributors of oil products, chemical enterprises and tobacco companies. Kesko combines property management, investment and construction projects in several regions of Russia.
Accor operates over 4,000 hotels in nearly 90 countries, offering 475,000 rooms. There are more than 750 Ibis hotels in 38 countries around the world. In the near future, more Accor hotels are scheduled to open in Russia: in St. Petersburg, Moscow and surrounding regions.
During the next five years Kesko plans to construct 15 hotels in Russia, which will be operated by Accor.
“Over the next four to six years, we will construct and open between 20 and 30 hotels in Russia under Accor brands,” Delaroff said.
The new hotels will appear in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Krasnodar, Ufa and Yekaterinburg. Accor will introduce the Sofitel and Pullman brands which have not been represented so far in Russia. Sofitel and Pullman hotels are also planned for the center of St. Petersburg.

TITLE: 4 Agricultural Officials Face Charges of Accepting Bribes
AUTHOR: By Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Interior Ministry said in a statement Friday that it accused four Agriculture Ministry officials of accepting a bribe worth more than 16 million rubles ($660,000) and said arrest warrants had been issued.
Alexei Volkov, the chief of the ministry’s oversight agency, the Federal Service for Veterinarian and Vegetation Sanitary Supervision, for Moscow and the surrounding regions, and three of his colleagues — Roman Slesarenko, Vyacheslav Ragulin and Andrei Orlov — took a payoff this year for the renewal of a license, Interior Ministry investigators said in the statement.
The allegations raise “more questions than answers,” service spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko said in a telephone interview. He declined further comment. Volkov, Slesarenko, Ragulin and Orlov couldn’t immediately be reached for comment and the service could not provide the names of their lawyers.
The service froze the operating license of Zabolotskoye hunting reserve in July, investigators said. Volkov and his three colleagues “abused their professional capacity” and offered to renew the license in exchange for the bribe, the statement said.
President Vladimir Putin has said corruption is one of the country’s most pressing problems. The allegations come a week after Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak was detained on suspicion of trying to embezzle $43.4 million from the federal budget.
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who headed the state money-laundering watchdog before his promotion two months ago, pledged to intensify the fight against graft in the run-up to the State Duma and presidential elections.

TITLE: X5 Retail Group Raises Net Profits
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Net profit of X5 Retail Group, a company that operates the Pyatyorochka and Perekrestok supermarkets, increased by 50 percent during January-September 2007 compared to the same period last year — up to $54 million, Interfax reported Monday.
Sales increased by 50 percent up to $3.6 billion. Gross profitability was reported at 26.2 percent. EBITDA increased by 78 percent up to $311 million. By the end of September net debt amounted to $1.48 billion.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>4 Stores for Konsul</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Konsul, one of the largest retailers of Swiss watches in Russia, will open four new stores by the end of 2007, the company said last week in a statement.
The new stores will open in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar and Kemerovo. At present, Konsul operates 35 watch stores in 12 cities in Russia distributing premium-class and medium-price watch brands and jewelry. New stores are planned for Perm, Ufa, Volgograd, Novorossiisk and Rostov-na-Donu in 2008.

<b>$584M for Metro</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The federal and regional budget will invest about $584 million in the development of the St. Petersburg metro system, Interfax reported Saturday.
The regional budget will supply $534 million and federal budget — $50 million. The funds will be spent on the construction of the Frunzensky Radius and the purchase of new carriages. Over the last four years, the federal budget has provided $177 million for the development of the St. Petersburg metro.

<b>Evraz Loan</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Evraz Group, the country’s largest steel maker by domestic volume, has secured a $3.2 billion structured multi-tranche credit facility from a group of 10 banks led by ABN-AMRO, the company said Friday.
Evraz said in a statement that the loan had an interest rate of LIBOR plus 1.8 percent and comprises a $2.7 million, five-year tranche and a $500 million, three-year tranche. 

<b>Gazprom Offer</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom has offered to pay over market price to acquire half the equity offered through an additional share issue in power company OGK-6, a source close to the transaction said Friday.
The shares, which Gazprom has offered to buy at 3.7 rubles (15 cents) per share, would be enough to give Gazprom control of OGK-6, one of several companies being spun off from former power monopoly, Unified Energy System. 

<b>Enel May Buy Into OGK-5</b>
ROME (Bloomberg) — Gazprom may sell its 5 percent stake in power generator OGK-5 to Enel, Italian newspaper Finanza e Mercati reported Friday, citing people familiar with the situation in Moscow.
Gazprom would sell Enel the stake it received from the Russian government in September and register a gain of 194 million euros ($288 million), Finanza e Mercati said.
Enel, Italy’s biggest utility, on Nov. 15 offered as much as 98.4 billion rubles ($4 billion) to buy the stock it doesn’t already own in OGK-5. 
Rosneft in China</b>
SHANGHAI (Bloomberg) — China National Petroleum Corporation and Rosneft will jointly build an oil refinery in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, Xinhua News Agency said Friday, without saying where it got the information.
The plant will be able to process 10 million metric tons of crude every year, the state-run news agency said. The refinery, pending approval from the Chinese state government, may be in the Binhai Industrial Zone, it said. 

<b>Gazprom Eyes Firm</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom and Electricite de France have their sights on RWE, Germany’s second-largest utility, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Friday, without saying where it got the information.
With a market capitalization of 52 billion euros ($78 billion), RWE is affordable, the newspaper wrote, citing Matthias Heck, an analyst at Sal. Oppenheim Jr. 

<b>Ritek Shares </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — The Federal Financial Markets Service said preferred shares of oil producer Ritek were manipulated.
The regulator said Palmaris Holding Limited had manipulated Ritek stock, according to a release from the Russian markets watchdog. No further details were disclosed.
Ritek is an oil company mostly controlled by LUKoil. 

<b>West Siberian License</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — West Siberian Resources, the Stockholm-traded Russian oil producer, is not under threat of losing the license to its biggest field, the Natural Resources Ministry said Friday.
West Siberian’s Nortoil unit pledged to start initial production at the Kolvinskoye field in Russia’s far north by the end of the year in compliance with its license, after an October inspection found the unit may be behind schedule, the ministry said. 

<b>Beef Ban Over</b>
SAO PAOLO, Brazil (Bloomberg) — Russia, the biggest importer of Brazilian beef, ended its partial embargo on meat from the South American country, Brazil’s agriculture ministry said Friday in a statement.
Russia had banned the purchase of beef from some Brazilian states because of foot-and-mouth disease. 

<b>Kashagan Deal </b>
ROME (Bloomberg) — Kazakhstan expects to reach an agreement with Eni and partners developing the Kashagan oil field by Nov. 30 that will give the state a larger share of the deposit’s profit, Deputy Finance Minister Daulet Ergozhin said Saturday.
“They have to present a real proposal that brings mutual benefits to both parties,” Ergozhin said. “On Nov. 30 we expect to see the exact numbers.” 

<b>Coal Field Stake</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Vostochnaya Stroitelnaya Kontraktnaya Korporatsia began a tender for the sale of its stake in the Elga coal field, Kommersant reported Friday.
The company is offering 28.8 percent in Elga at the starting price of $210 million to $230 million, Kommersant reported, citing unidentified bankers familiar with the plan.

TITLE: No Escape From Global Market Blues for Russia
AUTHOR: By Catrina Stewart
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian stocks suffered a battering across the board last week, challenging the perception that the country is a safe haven from the storm in the United States.
“Many commentators and market participants thought the crisis would not have an impact in Russia at all,” Eugene Belin, head of fixed income, currencies and commodities at Citibank Russia, said last week. “People called Russia a safe haven.
“These predictions proved false as the crisis developed. Russia today is far more connected to the world economy than it was before.”
If evidence of that is needed, one can merely cast a glance over some of the figures released by the State Statistics Service last week. Foreign direct investment fell by 0.4 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, a massive drop on first-quarter and second-quarter FDI year-on-year growth of 154 percent and 134 percent, respectively.
Yet more bad news, combined with fears of a U.S. recession, pushed stocks lower. Even with an 11th-hour recovery Friday across the board, the MICEX shed 2.19 percent this week, to finish at 1793.03 points, while the RTS dropped 1.34 percent to 2159.89 points.
Telecoms and energy stocks both suffered knocks last week. Arguably more surprising, banking stocks were down on the back of global sentiment, despite having virtually no exposure to subprime paper.
VTB, which has disappointed investors and analysts for several months now, continues to flounder. So much so that a group of minority shareholders, many of them individual Russian investors who bought into the bank during its much-hailed “people’s IPO” in May, sent a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov last week, asking the state to buy back their shares at the IPO price of 13.6 kopeks each. The stock has fallen by more than 20 percent since then.
Sberbank, which over the long term has performed remarkably well, was facing losses over the week, a reflection of the short-term drag on stocks.
Eric Kraus, managing director of the Nikitsky Fund, said the past week’s drop was just a question of sentiment. “The short-term market has as much to do with Russian fundamentals as it has to do with the weather on Jupiter,” Kraus said. “Russia is trading entirely in line with global liquidity flows.”
By Friday, things were not looking quite so dismal. In spite of falling base metal prices, Norilsk Nickel led a recovery after speculation that Oleg Deripaska’s RusAl was waiting to pounce on Mikhail Prokhorov’s blocking stake, should Vladimir Potanin fail to agree on terms to buy it. RusAl and Prokhorov’s Oxenim confirmed late Friday that a conditional deal had been struck. If Potanin were to fail to come up with the money, Deripaska would get the blocking stake, while Prokhorov would get 11 percent of RusAl.

TITLE: Novolipetsk To Control Maxi Group
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: YEKATERINBURG — Steelmaker Maxi Group said Friday that it would sell a 51 percent stake to Novolipetsk Steel by the end of the year after a deal to sell to billionaire Alisher Usmanov fell through.
Alfa Bank, which is organizing the deal, said it would involve Novolipetsk supplying an immediate $400 million loan to Maxi as well as refinancing debt incurred by its subsidiaries and funding an expansion program.
Maxi spokesman Alexander Popov said the firm’s owner, Nikolai Maximov, planned to close the deal by the end of 2007. Novolipetsk is owned by billionaire Vladimir Lisin.
Novolipetsk said in a statement that it had reached an agreement in principle on the acquisition of a controlling stake in Maxi and that a deal was expected by the end of the year, subject to shareholder approval.
Yekaterinburg-based Maxi plans to build a network of steel furnaces and rolling mills with annual capacity of up to 10 million tons of finished products — five times what it currently produces.
The company said this month that it had signed a deal to sell a 50 percent stake to Usmanov, the main owner of steel maker and iron ore miner Gazmetall. But Usmanov’s company issued a statement on Thursday saying the deal had been scrapped.

TITLE: Prokhorov Strikes a Deal With Deripaska
AUTHOR: By Douglas Busvine
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov agreed Friday to sell a strategic stake in Norilsk Nickel to Oleg Deripaska’s United Company RusAl, pressuring his erstwhile partner to close a deal first.
But the transaction could only happen if Vladimir Potanin, co-owner of Norilsk, failed to take up an earlier offer to buy a one-quarter stake in Norilsk from Prokhorov’s Onexim Group for $15.7 billion.
A tie-up between RusAl and Norilsk would be a step toward creating an all-Russian major that could take on acquisitive global titans such as BHP Billiton.
“This strategic transaction paves the way to develop the enlarged RusAl into a global, diversified metals, mining and energy group,” RusAl CEO Alexander Bulygin said in a statement. Under the deal RusAl, controlled by Deripaska’s Basic Element, would acquire 25 percent plus one share in Norilsk.
Onexim, a $25 billion investment group, would become an 11 percent shareholder in an enlarged RusAl, with the balance to be paid in cash.
RusAl said it had received a commitment letter from ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch to provide a credit facility to finance the cash component of the deal. No details on price were revealed.
Onexim Group CEO Dmitry Razumov said, “The potential combination of RusAl and MMC Norilsk Nickel into a Russian metals and mining giant ... will provide superior value to both companies’ shareholders.”
Prokhorov owns 28.2 percent of Norilsk and Potanin 25.3 percent. Deripaska owns 66 percent of RusAl; Viktor Vekselberg and associates, 
22 percent; and trading house Glencore, 12 percent.
Prokhorov offered the one-quarter stake in Norilsk to Potanin on Wednesday at a price of $293.60 per share plus a 12.5 percent premium but has said he could talk with other parties if Potanin did not accept his terms.
Potanin has 45 days to close a deal. Potanin’s Interros holding declined to comment, but he has said a Norilsk-RusAl merger could make sense. “A big company would have more serious capabilities for financing its projects. It would have a big potential for further international mergers and acquisitions,” he told the Financial Times in a recent interview.
A unified metals major would probably get a warm welcome in the Kremlin, which is eager for strategic industries to remain under Russian control.
And, with voters due to elect a successor to President Vladimir Putin next March, Russia’s industry barons will want to get their house in order in good time. That has proved difficult, however, as Potanin and Prokhorov have struggled all year to separate their business empire, built up during the chaotic 1990s, after falling out with each other.
Sources familiar with the matter said Prokhorov and Deripaska had signed their agreement Tuesday, triggering the Prokhorov offer to sell out to Potanin on Wednesday.
Shares in Norilsk closed nearly 5 percent higher on Friday at 7,085 rubles ($292), valuing the company at $56 billion.

TITLE: Strabag Signs 2 Steelwork Deals
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: VIENNA — Austrian builder Strabag, whose IPO last month relied on investors’ hopes for growth in Russia, has signed two steelwork deals worth a combined 484 million euros ($722 million) in Russia, it said Friday.
The building group, of which billionaire Oleg Deripaska owns around 25 percent, said in a statement that it had signed a 334 million euro deal to build a steelwork facility for steelmaker OMK in Vyksa near Nizhny Novgorod. Building is planned to commence in January and to be completed in 2010.
On top of that, Strabag also signed a 150 million euro deal to build a 550,000- ton-per-year steelworks in the Tyumen region for the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which will be completed in April 2010.
Strabag sold 1.3 billion euros worth of shares in Austria’s biggest initial public offering ever last month.

TITLE: International Law Firm Celebrates 15 Years in City
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Baker & McKenzie is one of the few international law firms to operate two offices in Russia, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Maxim Kalinin, a partner at Baker & McKenzie who manages the staff of 30 at the St. Petersburg office, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, speaks about legal consulting in Russia and the company’s prospects in St. Petersburg.
I came to Baker & McKenzie in 1994. At that time the St. Petersburg office was very small. Besides its founder Arthur George, it employed only two Russian lawyers. But in a few months the number of lawyers had tripled.
It was an interesting period. Foreign businesses started coming into Russia. Many of them chose St. Petersburg rather than Moscow to establish a Russian branch. Mayor Anatoly Sobchak wanted to make St. Petersburg a banking capital. Many banks opened offices here, including Drezdner Bank and Credit Lyonnais.
Was that period similar to recent years, when the St. Petersburg administration has been attracting foreign investors?
The foreign investors that are coming into Russia now deal with an almost comprehensive package of laws. We have balanced corporate legislation, tax legislation and a balanced judicial system. And there are privileges being granted to enterprises in particular industries, such as automakers.
In the early 1990s, the legislation was still only being drawn up. Before the new Civil Code was introduced in 1994, the country was using a Civil Code adopted back in the Soviet era.
Investors came to a country that had no legal practice. Privatization had only started. That was a completely different environment. Foreign companies were ready to take some risks, but the size of their projects here were rather small.
What is similar today is that the city administration at that time also supported foreign companies. We can recall cases like the Coca-Cola and Wrigley projects.
Now foreign investors realize significantly larger projects here than in the 1990s. Economic reforms have contributed to that a great deal. 
It must have been difficult for a foreign law firm to operate in a country with unstable legislation and uncertain business prospects. 
It was even more uncomfortable for investors, but we didn’t scare them off. Our mission was to show that it was possible to run a business in Russia. But investors should be wary of risks related to the gaps in the legislation, changing laws and any absences of a real market.
When foreign companies came into Russia knowing nothing about the country besides the fact that, in their opinion, it offered huge opportunities, they tried to practice the business models that they were used to. Our objective was to explain the differences between Russian and Western business realities.
When did the company start consulting large Russian clients? 
In the early 1990s, Russian companies employed lawyers as ordinary clerks giving them instructions. Law bureaus mostly didn’t give consultations to private companies. It took time to develop a new generation of businessmen who understood the importance of professional legal advice.
In Moscow, the market started developing earlier. Our Moscow office has regularly been getting large Russian clients since late 90-ties. In St. Petersburg, for the last three to four year the growing local economy has provided us with Russian clients, but foreign clients still predominate.
Which legal services are in demand among the Russian companies? 
Usually, Russian companies apply to us when they are planning international corporate financing, cross-border M&A deals and development projects that require complex international financing or the sale of the business to a foreign investor.
What goals have been set for the company for the next few years in Russia? 
We will continue developing our business. We are selling knowledge, and our goal is to attract and retain the best lawyers to serve the clients and expand our client base.
I think that M&A practice will keep expanding. Real estate consulting will develop, especially on project financing deals. Large infrastructure projects will multiply. The development of St. Petersburg is impossible unless we solve transport, communal and energy problems.
Those three areas — M&A, development, corporate and banking financing — will drive our legal practice. But the development of these areas is impossible without basic things such as tax planning and intellectual property protection.
Labor relations are becoming an interesting issue. Employees are getting more educated. Trade unions are getting stronger. That’s an objective reality, and our task is to provide our clients with essential legal instruments.
Do you suffer from competition for specialists between law firms? 
The basic problem is retaining good specialists. From time to time, most of my subordinates and colleagues are offered jobs by our competitors. So far, we have stood firm. We have a positive work environment in the company.
Another problem is that a growing business requires “fresh blood.” One of the options is to train specialists inside the company. We cooperate with universities, mainly with the law faculty of the St. Petersburg State University, offering internships to students. Many of them are then employed in the company.
Another option is to “steal” or “win over” specialists from our competitors. The most important thing is to show the person opportunities involving a more interesting job and faster career development. Material compensation is also important, but not the most crucial element as market leaders, as a rule, offer competitive salaries.
Does the company plan to open offices in other cities in Russia? 
It depends on whether the economy will develop outside the Garden Ring in Moscow and the Ring-Road in St. Petersburg.
Most international law firms have only one office in Russia — in Moscow. A single project in any particular city does not require the opening of an office. We monitor the development of cities with populations of over a million, such as Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.
Some of our competitors are looking closely at Sochi. But I doubt if opening an office there is a rational step. At the moment, besides Moscow and St. Petersburg there are no other centers in Russia that can provide a constant flow of clients and legal practice.

TITLE: Northwest Region Leads Russia’s Technology Push
AUTHOR: By Nikita Savoyarov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Two significant European Community-backed information and communications technology (ICT) projects for northwest Russia took place in St. Petersburg within the last month, with the final conferences of the EU-sponsored “Development of Interactive Services of Internet-based Government to Business in Northwest Russia (G2B-NWR)” project, led by Steinbeis GmbH&Co. KG Technologietransfer at St. Petersburg State University on October 26 in connection with IMS-2007 (5th All-Russian Internet & Modern Society Joint Conference). 
The team leader Jean-Jacques Kudela summarized deliberations by restating the basic issue of the project: that any kind of G2B services consist of three elements: two actors (the administration and business) and the Internet; G2B services improve and make easier a mutual exchange of information; and finally that they contribute to removal of barriers to business. 
The use of internet makes it possible for the administration to reach citizens and companies everywhere and provide them with detailed information. The exchange between administration departments at different hierarchical or geographical levels is also benefitted.
The use of the internet makes it possible for companies to gather practical business information from different departments they are working with, as well as send requested information when bidding for contracts. G2B services treat small to medium enterprises (SMEs) on an equal footing with big companies and small city firms with big city firms. Four electronic services (URLs) with this aim have already implemented.
But how far is small business ready to use the services offered by the state and by the EC-countries? The parallel development of another ICT project helped answer this question.
Before the final conferences of the EU-sponsored project “E-Skills for Russian SMEs — Phase II,” team leader Christian le Blanc spoke about the projects outcome.  
The current conference relied on the experience of previous “E-Skills for Russian SMEs” project, which covered only St. Petersburg and Novgorod during the years 2005-2006.  The new project expanded theseoperations that included nine regions in the Northwest Federal District. Its main aim is to prepare SMEs for Russia’s upcoming joining of the World Trade Organization and to improve their competitiveness in this new environment. 
The project’s team and the partners network reached this outcome through the following plan:
n the elaboration of strategies to assist SMEs in learning the potential profitability of e-economics and conduction of the training to convert opportunities into real revenue.
n the elaboration of strategies ensuring the creation of an SME’s support network structures for the best practice dissemination and the learning of successful business-models using the assistance of 50 locally trained consultants.
n the elaboration of strategies to assist SMEs in entering e-economics (for example by Internet solutions implementation for small businesses).
n the elaboration of strategies of regional administrations to support  local SMEs in enforcing ICT implementation by resource centers with regional budget funding.
The basic principle of the regional strategy is the “Seven Steps” principle, which assumes the movement of the company from a zero level of ICT use to a full-fledged e-company and then toward the creation of an information society. When a company reaches step four — electronic trading — and during the further steps, it is able to utilize the G2B services described above. 
However, statisticians, economists, and accountants still face severe problems measuring the effects of ICT investments. Quantifying a company’s investments in computers and software is quite simple, but calculating the effects of such investments is extremely difficult. Contrary to specific equipment such as a crane or a truck, a computer does not seem to have any consequence for productivity at first glance.
Vladislav Sokolov, an ICT project consultant and deputy dean of the mathematics faculty at Petrozavodsk State University, gave a positive example of ICT implementation with the calculated effect of such investments on a self-service food shop occupying 500 square meters with a staff of 76, located in the Karelian capital. Before joining the project the shop already had computers connected to a local area network. An ICT-audit conducted on-site showed that the existing equipment and software did not control the business processes in the enterprise properly, which led to the stable monthly losses amounting to 1 million rubles ($41,000). The owner of the shop found this figure acceptable. 
An ICT consultant proposed to buy and install code scanners in order to control the movement of goods in accordance with the accompanying documents: from the truck to the store, from the store to the shopping area and from that area to the cash desk. The data after the first month with the new equipment showed a decrease in losses by half to just 500,000 rubles.
Dr. Hans Van Vliet, head counsellor of the thematic section of the European Commission Delegation to Russia, participated in both conferences and in short speeches emphasized that an e-Government is the one of conditions for the development of civil society in Russia and that the outcome of “E-Skills for Russian SMEs: Phase II” provides an example for other Russian regions.
Sergey Zimin, a speaker from the office of the representative of the President of the Russian Federation in Northwest Russia, who was strongly involved in the projects, spoke on the efforts by authorities to support the competitive development and creation of a middle class as a basis of political and economic stability of the state.

TITLE: Insurance Company Grows But Shareholders Unhappy
AUTHOR: By Simon Shuster
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — The country’s second-biggest insurer, Ingosstrakh, will soon acquire three leading firms in the former Soviet Union, but its growth is being hampered by a shareholder dispute, its controlling shareholder, Basic Element, said.
The acquisitions in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will either be the largest or in the top five in their markets, said Olga Zinovieva, head of financial services at Basic Element, a conglomerate owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
“These talks are in their very final stages. Virtually all we have to do is pay for the acquisitions,” which Ingosstrakh will do in cash in the coming months, she said in an interview last week.
But Czech PPF Investments, which owns a 38.5 percent stake in Ingosstrakh, stands in the way of the insurer’s main strategic goals, such as expanding in eastern Europe and winning large state insurance contracts, Zinovieva said.
“For [PPF] to stay as an investor I think is bad for the company and bad for its shareholders,” Zinovieva said, adding that Basic Element would use every legal means to secure outright control over Ingosstrakh.
It was partly to this end that Basic Element voted to quadruple Ingosstrakh’s capital to 10 billion rubles ($411 million) at an Oct. 8 shareholders meeting, a move that would cut PPF’s stake to below 10 percent, PPF chairman Tomas Brzobohaty said.
PPF filed several lawsuits and regulatory complaints to block the dilutive share issue, and a Moscow court ruled this month that Basic Element’s plans must be frozen until both sides present their cases and a verdict is reached, possibly in December.
When the two sides do sit down to talk about the situation, as they say they have never done, a buyout is the most likely resolution, said PPF’s Brzobohaty: “We are quite flexible and open to talks about that.”
Otherwise, PPF will have the option of buying into the increased capital to keep its stake above 25 percent. “We have no legal means to prevent this,” Zinovieva said. “But for us to move forward with our development strategy under such conditions is just not realistic.”
BasEl’s distaste for PPF’s partnership goes back to September 2006, when businessman Alexander Mamut proposed selling his 38.5 percent stake to the Czechs. Zinovieva said she then went to Prague with a BasEl delegation and was not impressed with what she found, either in terms of the know-how or the insurance assets of PPF Group, the parent company of PPF Investments.
For Brzobohaty it also became clear after that visit that there was no scope for an alliance, but PPF decided to enter Ingosstrakh anyway, “strictly as a private equity investment.” With a foreign investor on the board, Zinovieva said Ingosstrakh stood to lose lucrative state insurance contracts.
The Federal Security Service and other branches of the secret services do not buy insurance from firms with foreign investors, said Oleg Ivanov, adviser to the State Duma committee on credit organizations. “There is nothing in the law that prevents these kinds of deals. But the agencies have fears that foreigners on the board would access private information,” Ivanov said.

TITLE: Moscow’s Three-Ring Approach
AUTHOR: By Philip Stephens
TEXT: There is a discernible pattern to President Vladimir Putin’s calculated confrontations with the West. It is described by three concentric circles radiating outward from Moscow. 
The first of these rings delineates a domestic arena from which the United States and Europe have been locked out. The outermost circle covers more distant ground, where the Kremlin admits the possibility of collaboration. The second circle marks out dangerous territory in the former Soviet space. Here, the ambitions of Putin’s Russia collide head-on with the interests and values of the West. 
If there were residual doubts about Putin’s resolve to exclude outsiders from Russian politics, they have been dispelled by arrangements for the State Duma elections on Dec. 2. We have seen the slide to authoritarianism — the Kremlin calls it “sovereign democracy” — accelerate. 
New electoral rules will deny most opposition parties representation in the Duma. To challenge Putin’s United Russia, a party needs 50,000 members and 200,000 signatures. If it surmounts those hurdles, it needs to win 7 percent of the vote to secure any seats. A party could poll 3.5 million votes and win no seats. 
The Russian president has not been content with gerrymandering. This week he accused his critics of colluding with the West. The opposition parties, he charged, wanted to weaken and divide the state in order to grab its energy riches. To oppose United Russia, in other words, was akin to an act of treason. 
If Putin might have once been embarrassed by Western protests at the return to arbitrary rule, he seems now to exult in it. The international observers of the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the democracy watchdog of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have been forced to abandon plans to monitor the Duma elections. Criticism now invites a lengthy recital of the manifest flaws of democracy in the West in general, and the United States in particular. Remember those “hanging chads” in Florida? The Kremlin does. 
There is a recurring theme here, one that has become the mantra of officials and diplomats in Moscow. The West took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union to weaken and humiliate Russia. It aided and abetted the oligarchs of the 1990s in looting the country’s resources. The West’s agenda was not to promote democracy, but to cripple Russia as a great power. Putin has restored the nation’s self-respect and power — with some unspoken help, of course, from soaring oil and gas prices. 
This increasingly strident, sometimes ugly nationalism does not preclude all cooperation with the West. If Russia is accorded due respect and status — Putin craves, above all, recognition as the leader of a superpower — it will strike bargains with the United States when interests coincide. Thus, there has been close, if sometimes intermittent, collaboration in the fight against violent Islamism. Moscow has been generally helpful in U.S. efforts to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians. It has been less obstructive than it might over Iraq. 
The Kremlin’s attitude towards Iran’s nuclear ambitions has often been more helpful in private than it has sounded in public. Putin’s reluctance to endorse further sanctions has reflected as much a more sanguine assessment of the progress of Iran’s nuclear program as any difference of principle. On a recent, much publicized visit to Tehran, Putin agreed to carry an offer from U.S. President George W. Bush to the Iranian leadership. Bush promised to start talks covering all aspects of the relationship if Iran suspended nuclear enrichment. Nothing came of it, but the episode was a measure of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. 
Iran lies in the third of Putin’s rings. Move into the second, the territorial and political space once occupied by the Soviet Union, and the atmosphere sours. Here Russia is reasserting itself — and it is here that the West must show its own resolve. 
Putin’s strategy is clear enough: to push the West out of Russia’s direct sphere of influence. The tactics are equally transparent: intimidation of the governments of the Baltic states, pipeline politics to undermine the Poles, warnings that the West must stay out of Ukraine, refusal to endorse independence for Kosovo, suspension of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and efforts to destabilize the government in Georgia. 
Russia cannot reclaim the Soviet empire, but it can, in Putin’s mind, re-establish informal hegemony. Thus a friendlier government in Tbilisi would greatly strengthen Moscow’s recovering grip on the Caucasus and Central Asia. It would also protect its monopoly of gas supply to Europe. A proposed gas pipeline under the Baltic should likewise help tame Poland and the Baltic states. 
The decision to suspend participation in the CFE treaty, meanwhile, is calculated to underline the cost to Europe of U.S. plans to site missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. Support for Serbian agitation in Bosnia and Kosovo speaks at once to Moscow’s traditional role as guardian of the Serbs and to its capacity to undermine European security. 
The West is not entirely innocent in some of these disputes. The United States, for example, could have been more diplomatic when it first unveiled its missile defense plans. There have been other moments when Western leaders would have done better by indulging rather than inflaming Russian sensitivities. But Putin sees conflict as a way to command respect. To be at odds with the United States, this rather paranoid logic says, is to be its equal. All this need not, as I have heard it said by some in Washington, amount to the onset of a new Cold War. The present Moscow regime does not want, as did its Communist predecessors, to overturn liberal democracy everywhere. We do know that Putin intends to be around well beyond the expiration of his second presidential term. 
A coherent Western response is long overdue. Little if anything can be done to persuade Putin to restore democracy. That does not mean the West should remain silent. It does suggest that sustained engagement with Russian business and civil society may be more productive than efforts to shame the Kremlin. 
In the third ring, there is nothing to be gained from excluding Putin. Where Russia and the West have shared interests, collaboration makes sense. But it should not define the relationship within the second circle. Here the United States and Europe must show they can be as tough and, when need be, as rough as Putin. Respect is one thing; appeasement quite another. 

Philip Stephens is associate editor and senior commentator of the Financial Times, where this comment appeared.

TITLE: Putin’s True Face
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: I was a bit shocked by the photograph of President Vladimir Putin that the Financial Times ran on the front page of its Oct. 21 edition. The photograph showed Putin with a contemptuous sneer on his face. It was no doubt chosen out of the many available, a selection having clear editorial intent that might not be immediately obvious to the paper’s readers.
A photograph can have the illusion of objectivity, but a caricature never can. The one of Putin in the Nov. 22 New York Review of Books, which accompanied the article “Why Putin Wins” by long-time human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov, depicts a lugubrious tsar with bear-like claws for hands and a missile for a scepter. For some reason, Putin’s nose is bulbous and dark like an alcoholic’s and would seem rather to belong on the face of Boris Yeltsin, the W.C. Fields of Russian rulers. Thus, the caricature attempts to include all of our standard cliches — tsar, bear, vodka, etc. The only thing missing was a snow-covered cupola.
The tsar motif appears again, verbally not visually, in a long New Yorker profile of Garry Kasparov, “The Tsar’s Opponent.”
Putin’s image is clearly deteriorating in the West. This makes him the exact opposite of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who were popular abroad and detested at home.
The image of Putin that emerges in the articles is, of course, more complex and nuanced, but they do tend to the maximalist, a tendency the Russian intelligentsia shares with the rest of its countrymen. Kovalyov, for example, opens his article by declaring Putin “the most sinister figure in contemporary Russian history.” Later, he even stoops to an unworthy ad hominem attack by calling Putin “a homely colonel with fishlike eyes.”
Having served time as a Soviet political prisoner and believing he had lived to see the dawn of Russian freedom, Kovalyov has to be a bitterly disheartened man. I respect his pain, but the kitchen table and the public press are two different things. One of the functions of the Russian intelligentsia in the Soviet and post-Soviet period has been to offer up alternative interpretations of Russian reality to the outside world. When the voice of the intelligentsia turns too harsh and absolute — even if the reality it’s describing is itself becoming more harsh and absolute — a certain portion of the audience, those who know reality is always more layered and complex than it at first appears, will be lost.
In fact, today’s Russia is new, complex and interesting. It cannot be adequately described by the old templates, whether domestic or foreign. There are actually several Russias all jostling each other: politically repressive Chekist-cum-state-capitalist Russia; the Russia where the law and the Constitution play an increasing role in people’s mentality and behavior; and the Russia where people are free to worship, open a business and leave the country. If the president elected in March serves two terms, he will leave office in 2016 — just as the first generation born after the fall of the Soviet Union turns 25. It’s still early in the game.
An unhelpful dynamic tends to exist between the Russian intelligentsia’s tendency to exaggerate for effect and the U.S. proclivity for simple-minded explanations. On the one hand, we have Kasparov saying: “The Cold War was based on ideas, like them or not. Putin’s only idea can be concentrated into the motto ‘Let’s steal together.’“ On the other hand, there’s U.S. Senator John McCain saying that he’s looked into Putin’s eyes and saw three things: K.G.B.
Putin has succeeded in remaining inscrutable and unpredictable after nearly eight years in office — no mean feat. But we will see his true face when he makes the choice history has thrust upon him, one worthy of a Russian opera: either obey the will of the people and stay in power, or honor the Constitution and leave the stage.
Of course, he will try to do both.

Richard Lourie is the author of “A Hatred For Tulips” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”

TITLE: Reflecting on Georgia’s Smoky Rose Revolution
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: White smoke drifted low across Rustaveli Avenue for the second time in a month. But this time it was not the tear gas fired by riot police as they broke up anti-government protests. These were clouds of dry ice, pumped out from smoke machines on a stage outside the Georgian parliament, as a band of aging, frizzy-haired British rockers called Smokie chugged through their back catalogue of 1970s hits.
It was St. George’s Day and the fourth anniversary of the Rose Revolution. Despite all the shock and bitterness caused by the civil unrest of the past weeks, the show clearly had to go on. Despite the band’s supposed popularity across the former Soviet Union, Smokie did seem a peculiar choice to soundtrack the celebration of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s finest moment, while the profane chorus of their best-known song, “Who the [expletive] Is Alice?” did not immediately appear suited to the respectful commemoration of Georgia’s patron saint.
But it was hard to be genuinely surprised after a day of surreal juxtapositions of pop and politics in Tbilisi. Earlier, the slickly choreographed congress of Saakashvili’s United National Movement party had been broadcast live on television from Tbilisi’s cavernous Sports Palace. The camera panned across packed rows of thousands of his supporters, lingering on the smiling faces of famous Georgian actors and musicians.
Between the speeches, there were musical interludes, giving the whole event a kind of cabaret vibe. First a group of singers picked their way through a tune with the refrain, “Georgia will win!” Then a local rock star, who’s also a Saakashvili favorite, took to the stage to read some verse about unity and togetherness, which is what the Georgian leader’s party says this country needs right now. He followed it with a reggae-tinged song on the same theme, which sounded like it had the potential to become Saakashvili’s campaign anthem as he battles for re-election in January.
Finally, just before Saakashvili delivered his keynote speech, a chorus line of Georgian cultural luminaries offered a rendition of a hit tune about Abkhazia. The video for the song shows happy Georgians making their way to the breakaway region, presumably after the government has righteously, but peacefully, liberated it from the unruly Abkhaz separatists.
As the winsome melody lilted onwards, people around the arena waved Georgian flags and held aloft lighted candles. Was there, perhaps, a subliminal message in all this? “Only we, the United National Movement, can bring this shattered country together,” it seemed to urge: “Sing along with us, brothers and sisters, and Georgia will be whole again.”

Matthew Collin is a journalist in Tbilisi.

TITLE: The Legacy of Ilf and Petrov
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Only one book published in Moscow in the spring of 1937 resounded with a good humor and joie de vivre utterly alien to the Great Terror then gaining momentum: “One-Storied America,” a travelogue by the two hallmark Soviet satirists, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. This volume was — and is — an endlessly lively and engaging account of the writers’ adventures and misadventures during their coast-to-coast tour of the United States in a sturdy and much-abused 1935 Ford.
In retrospect, that the book appeared at all seems close to miraculous. Its general disposition was so incomparably sunnier than that of the official “festive” occasions of that year — the 20th anniversary of the ignoble Bolshevik coup d’etat and the 100th anniversary of the inglorious shooting death of Alexander Pushkin — that Ilf and Petrov seem practically subversive by comparison. Or perhaps heretical is the word: The book was rife with the spontaneous wit so abhorrent to clerics of authoritarianism everywhere and included scores of noncanonical reflections on Soviet reality, with the United States serving as both looking glass and funhouse mirror.
Seventy years later, “One-Storied America” continues to entertain and edify, reminding both Russians and Americans of virtues all but forgotten, vices since acquired and mutual misapprehensions we are loath to abandon. Still.
Take Ilf and Petrov’s car accident. Having plowed their Ford into a ditch, the pair find that Americans simply cannot pass by strangers in distress. The first vehicle that comes along stops to help. So does the second, the third and so on, eventually making such a “touching spectacle” that the visitors are “glad that we had this little accident [or] we would never have discovered this amazing American trait.” Would they, Americans should wonder, discover it today?
Or Yankee straightforwardness: “Americans never say anything they do not mean,” wrote Ilf and Petrov. “Not even once did we run across ... what we call ‘talking through your hat.’” Clearly, the hats of former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former vice-presidential aide Scooter Libby, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and their ilk were unblocked. Thus, the visitors could later rhapsodize that “the mere recollection of American sincerity and the American ability to keep one’s word comforts us to this day.” Gulp.
The United States’ “outward forms of democracy” were viewed, moreover, as “splendid” national assets, maintained “with extraordinary meticulousness,” which “should interest [us Soviets] no less than any new machine.” They “help in work, deliver a blow to bureaucracy and enhance human dignity.” How many U.S. laborers today would admit of such democratic splendor in the workplace? Just as significant is a retro question for Russians: How many Soviet writers were suggesting in 1937 that their fellow citizens would benefit from more equality at work, less bureaucratic oppression and a dose of U.S. “democratism” to enhance their dignity as humans? The answer is surely two.
And even more remarkably, how many Soviet writers dared to marvel in 1937 at Americans’ regular access to their leader? Only a willfully blinkered Soviet reader could miss the implications of Ilf and Petrov’s description of a Franklin D. Roosevelt press conference. The Soviet visitors wax eloquent over Roosevelt’s public availability, noble demeanor and savvy media manner — traits resoundingly absent, of course, in the closely guarded, crudely abrasive and endlessly secretive Stalin. In our day, moreover, Americans and Russians can both read this revealing episode and be suitably chastened — Americans because their president cannot honestly be described as savvy, and Russians because their president cannot honestly be described as Roosevelt.
There is much to debate in the panoramic, picaresque “One-Storied America.” But no one disputes its persistent buoyancy, a joy that, sadly, could not be shared in 1937 by its creators: Ilf succumbed to tuberculosis only days after the book’s appearance, leaving his family, Petrov and Soviet satire bereft.
Yet the volume lives on in successive editions, and the larger legacy of Ilf and Petrov likewise flourishes. Their classic novels are still in demand, and Ilf’s parallel career as a photographer has become the subject of two impressive volumes. The latest of these, “Ilf and Photography,” will be introduced this week at the Carnegie Moscow Center, where Alexandra Ilf, daughter of Ilya and keeper of the Ilf and Petrov flame, will share her thoughts on many aspects of her father’s art. When her subject is “One-Storied America,” it seems, “Cold War II” will seem slightly less irreversible and life itself slightly more fun.

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

TITLE: Virgin Takes Lead in Rock Bids
AUTHOR: By Robert Barr
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Northern Rock PLC will hold accelerated takeover discussions with a consortium led by Virgin Group, the mortgage lender said Monday.
Virgin, which wants to re-brand Northern Rock as part of Virgin Money business, says its consortium would repay 11 billion pounds ($22.7 billion) of the 25 billion pounds ($50 billion) the Bank of England has loaned to Northern Rock on the completion of the transaction.
The remainder of the money would be paid “in due course,” Northern Rock said in an announcement to the London Stock Exchange.
The Virgin Consortium also promised additional funding facilities to support the business.
After falling 11.5 percent in early trading on the London Stock Exchange, buyers bid shares up to 111.2 pence ($2.29), a 29 percent increase.
“The share price has rebounded because some investors have taken the view that, with shareholders keeping potentially 45 percent of a company re-energized under a powerful brand like Virgin, it could be worth substantially more in a couple of years than the 25 pence nominal value a share that some had predicted would be all that shareholders would receive,” said Nic Clarke, an analyst at Charles Stanley in London.
But he cautioned that the future for Northern Rock is not sealed.
“This stock is not for the faint hearted and the range of outcomes for shareholders is very wide,” Clarke added.
Investors in the bank have said they would resist any bid that did not offer shareholders value for money. The government has the option of placing the bank in administration if a deal cannot be struck — the worst outcome for stockholders.
Hedge fund RAB Capital holds a 7 percent stake in Northern Rock and RAB’s chief executive, Philip Richards, has backed the Virgin offer, which would allow shareholders to retain around a third of the business and also offer them a share of any future profits.
The Northern Rock Small Shareholders Association, representing about 100,000 of Northern Rock’s small shareholders, said Sunday they were opposed to any “fire sale” of assets.
“The options which we would oppose would be a sale of the company as a whole or piecemeal, or any move such as administration or nationalization, which would expropriate the shareholders’ stake or so dilute it as to be the equivalent,” said the letter signed by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the association’s honorary president.
“We very much deprecate the driving down of the share price to meet expectations about future price, which seems to favor the interests of some potential bidders above existing shareholders,” the letter said.
Virgin’s consortium includes W.L. Ross & Co, Toscafund Asset Management LLP and First Eastern Investment Group. The Virgin proposal includes a new management team led by Sir Brian Pitman, formerly chairman and CEO of Lloyds TSB Group PLC, as chairman; Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money, as CEO; and Sir George Mathewson, former chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC as senior adviser.
Northern Rock, which relied on short-term borrowing, ran into trouble in September when the subprime lending crisis in the United States made banks wary of extending credit. The Bank of England stepped in as a lender of last resort, triggering a run on Northern Rock deposits and a collapse of its share price.
Virgin Money Holdings UK Ltd. and its subsidiaries have rights to use the Virgin brand in retail financial services in the United Kingdom.

TITLE: Toyota Simulator Aims To Eliminate Crashes
AUTHOR: By Chang-Ran Kim
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SUSONO, Japan — Toyota Motor Corp unveiled on Monday what it called the world’s most true-to-life driving simulator to help it develop new safety features and reach its ultimate goal of eliminating all traffic deaths.
In a demonstration of its latest safety technologies at its Higashifuji Technical Center near Mt. Fuji, south of Tokyo, the world’s biggest automaker invited journalists to its new facility which creates a virtual environment to analyze driving characteristics under various conditions such as drunkenness and drowsiness.
The warehouse-sized structure features a dome-shaped pod perched atop a turntable on a track that slides in all four directions at angles of up to 25 degrees, recreating the sensation of accelerating, braking and turning in different directions.
The 4.5-metre-tall, 7.1-metre wide pod can contain any car model and is lined on the inside with a screen that shows a moving, wrap-around view of the surrounding environment, giving the driver and passengers the illusion of moving on the road.
Big carmakers such as Daimler AG and Honda Motor Co have similar simulators, but Toyota’s is the first to move laterally and has the longest range of 35 meters front to back and 20 meters from right to left, engineers said.
“It still needs some fine tuning, but we aim to start putting it to use in earnest from next April,” said Takashi Yonekawa, a senior staff engineer at the centre.
For the first time since the facility’s completion in September, Toyota allowed reporters into the pod, also visible through a glass pane from an adjacent room. The moving graphics, a true-to-life representation of 64 km (40 miles) of road in a 6-square-kilometre section of the surrounding region, were real enough to make spectators feel queasy even when the pod was stationary.
The system will be used to analyze driver behavior under different conditions to gauge what type of safety functions would be useful to reduce accidents in future cars, engineers said.
Toyota also demonstrated safety technology based on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), a safety system using global positioning system receivers and sensors to allow communication between cars and road infrastructure, pedestrians or other cars in an effort to avoid collisions.
Domestic rivals Honda and Nissan Motor Co are also working on similar technology, and the three carmakers plan to test the technology collectively sometime next year, Toyota Managing Officer Takashi Shigematsu said.
Top automakers are competing to develop cutting-edge safety technology also as a tool to lure customers with value-added features. Toyota has introduced its newest technology in high-end models such as the Lexus LS460 sedan, which it equipped with a pedestrian detection system last year.
Once the infrastructure is in place, new ITS-based safety features would be able to warn drivers when they are about to run a red light or stop sign, even braking automatically, or alert them of approaching pedestrians or cars in blind spots.

TITLE: Airbus To Sell 160 Jets to China for $14.8Bln
AUTHOR: By Christopher Bodeen
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — Airbus said it signed contracts Monday to sell 160 commercial passenger jets to China in a deal worth around $14.8 billion.
The order includes 110 of the European company’s A320 jets and 50 of the slightly larger A330 planes, Airbus officials said in Beijing, where they were accompanying French President Nicolas Sarkozy on his first state visit to the Asian trading giant.
Airbus and Chinese partners this summer signed an agreement to produce A320s in China in anticipation of large Chinese orders for the popular single aisle jet that seats 150 or more passengers. Size-wise, the plane is well suited for Chinese domestic routes expected to show strong growth in the years ahead as the economy continues to expand.
Airbus and its American archrival Boeing Co. predict China will become the world’s second-biggest aircraft market after the United States, with airlines buying 1,900 to 2,600 planes over the next two decades.
The order stands to push Airbus past Chicago-based Boeing in total orders for commercial aircraft this year.
Boeing said last week it had received 1,047 commercial airplane orders this year, already beating its 2006 record-setting total of 1,044 orders with more than a month to go. Airbus had logged 1,021 commercial jet orders as of the end of October, the most recent data available on the company’s Web site.

TITLE: Oil Prices Rise Close to $99 as Temps Fall
AUTHOR: By Pablo Gorondi
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — Oil prices rose to near $99 a barrel Monday with temperatures falling in the United States and Europe and continued weakness of the U.S. dollar.
The Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday marked the unofficial start of winter in the United States. Among other areas, southeastern New Mexico got up to 9 inches of snow and experienced colder than normal temperatures over the holiday weekend. Snow also fell in Germany over the weekend.
“The onset of cold U.S. weather is going to boost fuel demand,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery added 75 cents to $98.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midday in Europe.
On Friday, the contract rose 89 cents to settle at $98.18 a barrel, besting the previous settlement record by 15 cents.
January Brent crude added 68 cents to $96.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Meanwhile, the dollar hit a new low against the euro Friday, as speculation continued that the American credit crisis will lead to another cut in U.S. interest rates.
“The weakened U.S. dollar remains at record low levels and so we’ve got pricing trying to test $100 again,” Shum said.
Oil futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the U.S. currency is falling.
Nymex crude prices reached a trading record of $99.29 a barrel on Wednesday, and are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.
“Almost anything could push prices higher from here and we have to expect to see a move to” $100 per barrel this week, said Peter Beutel, president of U.S. energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, in a research note, listing a U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cut, a weaker U.S. dollar, colder weather forecasts or “any petro-political problem” among the factors which could push oil prices to three digits.

TITLE: World Cup Draw Produces Hope, Dismay
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DURBAN — Africa passed the first big test of its ability to stage the continent’s first World Cup finals with a successful preliminary draw that gets the campaign to reach the 2010 finals off in earnest.
Host South Africa put on a slick show, with just one little glitch in Sunday’s draw, sending visiting delegations from more than 150 nations away on Monday in various degrees of hope, expectation and, in a few cases, dismay.
Only 31 will return to join South Africa in the 2010 finals at the end of the two-year qualification trail of twists and turns.
The hosts stuttered a little when the build-up to an announcement of the tournament’s slogan ended in embarrassment. South African organizing committee chairman Irvin Khoza was just about to reveal that “Celebrating Africa’s humanity” was the choice when he was cut short.
Television producers switched over to open the international feed to more than 170 countries, leaving the audience in Durban’s International Convention Centre bemused and bewildered.
The draw itself produced some bemusement, particularly for England whose delegates looked shocked when the fates conspired to land them in the same European qualifying group again as Croatia.
Only four days earlier, Croatia had caused a huge embarrassment by stopping England’s expected progress to the Euro 2008 finals with a shock 3-2 victory at a rain-drenched Wembley.

GROUP ONE 
Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta
Top seeds Portugal and Sweden should both advance from a group in which they have been drawn to play each other competitively for the first time since the qualifying competition for Euro 88. Scandinavian rivals Sweden and Denmark were also drawn in the same qualifying group for Euro 2008. Their match in Copenhagen in June was abandoned when a Danish fan came on the field and attacked the referee.

GROUP TWO
Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
The delegation from the European champions Greece cheered when they were drawn in this group and probably with good reason. Greece won a tougher European qualifying group, which included Norway and Turkey. Israel and Switzerland will probably be eyeing second place behind Greece and a chance of qualifying through the playoffs.

GROUP THREE
(Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino)
The old eastern European rivals from the Czech Republic and Poland should dominate the group, but neither will underestimate a resurgent Northern Ireland, who were in with a chance of qualifying for Euro 2008 until the last round of matches. 
The Czechs also met their neighbors Slovakia and San Marino in the same European qualifying group, winning all four matches with a 16-1 goal difference.

GROUP FOUR
Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
Germany, which has lost only two of the 64 World Cup qualifiers it has played, should top the group with Russia finishing ahead of Finland and Wales. 
Finland, however had an outside chance of reaching the finals of Euro 2008 until the last round of games. Germany beat Wales 2-0 and drew 0-0 in their Euro 2008 qualifying group.
GROUP FIVE
Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia, Armenia, Estonia
Belgium, once one of Europe’s hardest to beat teams have slipped down to 49th in the FIFA world rankings and are unlikely to trouble Spain and Turkey’s progress at the head of a group that looks the least likely to produce any real surprises.

GROUP SIX
Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Just four days after Croatia beat England 3-2 at Wembley to eliminate England from Euro 2008 and cost coach Steve McClaren his job, they were paired together again. Andorra was also in the same group as Croatia and England and lost every match. It is a group that could not have existed 20 years ago: Croatia, Ukraine and Belarus became FIFA members in 1992, Kazakhstan in 1994 and Andorra in 1996.

GROUP SEVEN
France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
France, Romania and Serbia should be involved in a three-way fight for the top two places after Serbia narrowly missed out on qualifying for Euro 2008. France beat the Faroe Islands 5-0 at home and 6-0 away in their Euro 2008 qualifying group. The Faroes have happier memories of Austria, beating them 1-0 in their first ever competitive match in 1990.

GROUP EIGHT
Italy, Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro
World champions Italy should have no trouble in winning this group, with Bulgaria and Ireland likely to be in close competition for the runners-up spot. Montenegro is playing in its first qualifying competition after being admitted to FIFA this year as an independent state after splitting with Serbia.

GROUP NINE
Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Macedonia, Iceland
The Dutch should win the only five-team group, but Scotland pushed Italy and France all the way in their Euro 2008 qualifying group while Norway finished a close third in their Euro qualifier behind Greece and Turkey. 
The Netherlands beat Scotland 6-1 on aggregate in a playoff for Euro 2004 but is unlikely to repeat that kind of result against the Scots who have risen from 88th to 14th in the world rankings over the last two years. 
(Reuters)

TITLE: Mid-East Meeting Underway
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — President Bush was due to lend his clout Monday to help broker an elusive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the contours of long-stalled peace talks the two sides expect to relaunch this week at a high-stakes international conference.
Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been a priority of a succession of U.S. presidents, and late in his two-term tenure, Bush has made that long-coveted diplomatic victory his goal, too.
Bush invited the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to separate meetings at the White House on Monday to prepare for the centerpiece of his Mideast gathering — an all-day session due to be held on Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.
“I remain personally committed to implementing my vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security,” Bush said Sunday in a statement on the international gathering that begins Monday night with a dinner.
“The Israelis and Palestinians have waited a long time for this vision to be realized, and I call upon all those gathering in Annapolis this week to redouble their efforts to turn dreams of peace into reality,” he said.
Bush will open the Annapolis conference with a speech. He’ll make clear that Mideast peace is a top priority for the rest of his time in office through January 2009, but he is not expected to advance any of his own ideas on how to achieve that, Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday.
“It is now time for the parties to get into this process by way of negotiation,” Hadley told reporters. “And I don’t think the president will conclude that the time is right to start offering ideas on outcomes on specific issues. ... This is not a negotiation session. It is to launch a negotiation, and for the parties then to take a lead.”
Hadley also said the joint statement was not as important as it had initially appeared. The two sides had taken the unexpected step of agreeing to negotiations, so the document was no longer a vehicle necessary to bring them to that point, he said.
“If we get something, if they can agree on some things as an input to the negotiations, that would be fine,” Hadley said. “But I think it is really no longer on the critical path to a successful conference.”
The run-up to the meeting has been fraught with disputes, skepticism and suspicion about the opposing parties’ good faith. And expectations remain low.
But Bush has been buoyed by Arab endorsement of the meeting and the possibilities for broader peacemaking. He will be asked to use his presidential heft to promote a joint blueprint for talks that are to follow, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Sunday.
Clinching a joint statement of objectives from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert might prove to be an impossibly tall order because of the charged issues that divide the two sides. On more than one occasion, negotiations have splintered over the key questions of Palestinian statehood — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel following its 1948 creation.
The Palestinians want the statement to address those issues in general terms. But Israel wants to leave them for post-conference talks, and has pressed for a broader, vaguer statement of commitment to two states living side-by-side in peace.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasn’t able to bridge the gaps, even after eight missions to the region this year.
If the two sides can’t even manage to come up with a shared statement of objectives, that could augur ill for the future of peace talks, which are to be renewed after seven years of still-simmering violence.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met late Sunday with Rice in a last-ditch effort to wrap up the task.
“We’re confident there will be a document and we’ll get to Annapolis in good shape on that,” but bargaining may continue behind the scenes on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Still, whatever joint agreement the Israelis and Palestinians present at Annapolis will be a starting point and is likely to sketch only vague bargaining terms. The big questions that have doomed previous peace efforts would come later.
Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said Palestinians hope to work out a joint document, but that an agreement is not essential because of assurances received in the U.S. invitation to the conference.
That invitation, he said, “includes all the terms of reference for the future negotiation.”

TITLE: Croatians: Russia’s New Idols
AUTHOR: By Kevin O’Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — When a national football team qualifies for a major tournament, they are typically greeted as heroes back home. But when Russia last week qualified for the European Championships, it was Moscow’s small Croatian community — not Russian footballers — who were overwhelmed by gratitude from relieved fans.
While only a small crowd of fans met the Russian team returning from Andorra following a 1-0 victory over the home side, hundreds of fans have heaped thanks on local Croatians, whose national team beat England 3-2 at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.
Thanks to Croatia’s win, Russia finished second in its group and will play in next year’s tournament in Austria and Switzerland.
Less than 30 minutes after Croatia’s win, dozens of Russian fans made a pilgrimage to the Croatian embassy on Korobeinikov Pereulok in central Moscow, and flowers soon covered the steps of the entrance. Visitors and messages of support — by phone, fax and e-mail — poured in all day Thursday and on Friday.
“Mostly it is flowers,” Croatian embassy official Sanjin Soldatic said Friday. “One person brought a bottle of vodka and a jar of red caviar.”
The embassy has set aside a separate room to display the flowers and presents — including a teddy bear more than 50 centimeters tall — and opened a book that well-wishers can sign.
“Fans say thank you as if we played and not the footballers,” said Zeljko Blazincic, one of the owners of Moscow restaurant Dorian Gray, a favorite haunt of Croatian national team goalkeeper and, before this year, striker Ivica Olic.
Pletikosa plays for Spartak Moscow, and Olic, now playing in Hamburg, was with CSKA Moscow from 2003 to 2007.
The Croatian National Tourist Office in Moscow has received hundreds of thank-you messages and more than a dozen bouquets of flowers and cake, said manager Yulia Yevstigeyeva, who conceded that she had not thought Croatia would win. Fans call to say “Thank you!” and that they will definitely go to Croatia for vacation, Yevstigeyeva said.
The day after the match, Sovietsky Sport splashed across its front page the headline “Hvala Vam, Hrvatska,” or “Thank You, Croatia” in the Balkan country’s language. Pletikosa’s photograph was on the front page of national daily Komsomolskaya Pravda on Friday, while a photo of bespectacled Croatian ambassador Bozo Kovacevic was shown on the front page of the Friday edition of Moskovsky Komsomolets clutching flowers given by grateful fans.
LUKoil vice-president Leonid Fedun has promised four new Mercedes to Croatian players, and one Russian company has offered free advertisements for vacations to Croatia, Kovacevic told MK.
The Croatian Football Federation turned down the Mercedes offer from Fedun. “Let him give it to his dad,” federation head Vlatko Markovic said, RIA-Novosti reported.
In a reader’s poll in Komsomolskaya Pravda on Friday, 43 percent said they would support Russia at the European championship. But a remarkable 26 percent said they would support Croatia.
“The fans all understand who did the most to get us there,” Boris Bogdanov, a football editor at the Sport-Express daily, said Friday.
And so do the players. “Croatia saved our ass,” Lokomotiv striker Dmitry Sychyov said after the match, national media reported.
“The last two days have been special,” the Croatian embassy’s Soldatic said, adding that fans were coming and giving Croats a hug. “It is very good to be a Croat in Moscow these days.”
Newspapers played up the fact that both Russians and Croatians are Slavic peoples, though their countries have not always been so closely aligned.
During the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Russia was a strong supporter of the Serbs, who share the Orthodox faith with Russia. Croats are primarily Catholics.
The lovefest continued in the national media over the weekend, with Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing a ready-made thank-you card in its Saturday edition that readers can cut out and send to the Croatian Football Federation in Zagreb.

TITLE: Australia’s New Premier Promises Kyoto Support
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd took advice Sunday on how to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and fielded phone calls from world leaders — starting in on work the day after a sweeping election victory.
The emphatic victory for Rudd’s Labor Party swings Australia toward the political left after almost 12 years of conservative rule and puts it at odds with key ally Washington on two crucial policy issues — Iraq and global warming.
After declaring victory late Saturday, Rudd attended church Sunday then held meetings with government officials about the mechanics of signing the Kyoto pact on global warming, an issue he made his top priority during the election campaign.
He also held meetings with top bureaucrats about taking over the levers of government, took phone calls from President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and received congratulatory messages from other foreign leaders.
Britain, New Zealand and Indonesia said Rudd’s election would boost international efforts to address climate change. Ousted Prime Minister John Howard had refused to sign Kyoto.
Rudd declined to give details of his conversation with Bush, and said he plans to visit Washington next year.
The leaders agreed during the call that they looked forward to working together, said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat, accepted Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s invitation to attend a December U.N. meeting in Bali to map out the world’s next steps against climate change.
On Sunday, at his first news conference, Rudd promised “action, and action now” on climate change and made education, health and a high-speed Internet network additional priorities of his government.
He said Labor lawmakers were due to meet Thursday, and he hoped his Cabinet would be sworn in soon after that.
Deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard said Monday that Rudd would act quickly on signing Kyoto, paving the way for Australia to play a greater role at the Bali meeting.
Gillard will become Australia’s most senior woman politician ever when she is sworn in as deputy prime minister, a role that will make her acting leader of the country when Rudd is overseas or on leave.
Rudd’s election brought a sharp and mortifying end to the 11-year rule of Howard, Australia’s second-longest serving leader.
Howard faces the further possible embarrassment of losing his own district seat in parliament — a fate suffered only once before by a sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government.
Howard, 68, reshaped Australia’s image abroad with his unwavering support for Bush’s war on terrorism and in Iraq. But he failed to read the signs that voters had grown tired of his rule.
He campaigned on his economic management, arguing that Rudd, 50, could not be trusted to continue Australia’s 17 years of unbroken economic growth, fueled by China’s and India’s hunger for Australian coal and other minerals.
Aside from Iraq and Kyoto, the bulk of Australia’s foreign, trade and economic policies are not expected to change much under Rudd.
Rudd has pledged to govern as an “economic conservative,” while pouring money into schools and universities, and to curtail sweeping workplace reforms that Howard introduced.

TITLE: Archbishop Critiques U.S. Foreign Policy
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, criticized the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in an interview published Sunday, saying it was worse than the British land grabs of the colonial era.
The spiritual leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion described the situation in Iraq as the “the worst of all worlds,” and compared it to the time when Britain was at the height of its imperial power.
“It is one thing to take over a territory and even pour energy and resources into administrating it and normalizing it,” said Williams. “Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India for example.”
“It’s another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put back together — Iraq, for example,” he told the Muslim lifestyle magazine Emel.
“We have only one global hegemonic power at the moment,” Williams said. “It is not accumulating territory; it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”
A long-standing critic of the Iraq war, Williams has said the U.S. lost the widespread moral support it enjoyed worldwide in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
Last year, around Christmas, Williams wrote a scathing commentary in The London Times saying the U.S.-led coalition’s “shortsightedness and ignorance” in Iraq endangered the lives of Christians across the Middle East.

TITLE: Sampras Beats Federer, But No Comeback in Sight
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MACAU — Pete Sampras notched a win to wrap up a three-match exhibition series against Roger Federer.
Sampras never faced a break point and handed Federer a 7-6 (8), 6-4 defeat Saturday at the Venetian Macao arena, finishing 1-2 against the top-ranked Swiss player.
Sampras downplayed his victory, noting Federer was coming off a long season and he was helped by his big serve and the fast indoor carpet surface. His goal was to win one set during the three-match series.
“Let’s not get carried away,” he said at a news conference.
Sampras ruled out a comeback from retirement, telling the audience after the match, “I had my time in the 90s.”
The two players have won a combined 26 Grand Slam titles, but the 36-year-old Sampras retired five years ago after winning the U.S. Open in 2002. Federer, 26, won three Grand Slams this year and the Masters Cup last week en route to a 68-9 record.
“I’m sort of surprised. This guy can play tennis, you know,” Federer said after his loss.
He put on a positive spin on the match, saying he wasn’t embarrassed to lose to his idol.
“It’s been tough beating my idol the last two times,” Federer said. “I’m happy that he got me at least once.”
Federer beat Sampras 6-4, 6-3 in Seoul on Tuesday and edged the American 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
“I hope we can do it again in the future,” Federer said. “I’d like to get him back.”
Federer said he thought Sampras could beat the top five players on a fast surface. Sampras predicted Federer could beat his record of most Grand Slam wins “if not next year, pretty soon.”
“He’s a great, great player. He’s got things in his game that I couldn’t do,” Sampras said.
On Saturday, Federer outhit Sampras early in the match. But Sampras held his own with the powerful serving and crafty volleying that helped him win seven Wimbledon titles.
The first set went on serve. In the tiebreaker, Federer had set points at 6-5 and 8-7 but Sampras saved both. The American went up 9-8 on a missed return by Federer then took the set with a forehand service return winner.
Federer ran into trouble early in the second set, falling behind 30-40 in the third game, but recovered to hold serve.
At 4-4, Federer fell behind on his serve again. A forehand error gave Sampras break point, which he converted with a forehand winner. Sampras held serve and closed out the match when Federer’s backhand return sailed long.

TITLE: Paris Hit by Riots After Teens Killed in Police Car Accident
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France — Youths assaulted a police station, torched cars and vandalized stores in a weekend rampage that injured 21 police officers in this rundown Paris suburb.
The violence Sunday night, prompted when two teens were killed in a motorbike crash with a police patrol car, was a reminder that tensions that drove nationwide riots in 2005 in immigrant-heavy housing projects remain unresolved.
Questions remained Monday about the crash in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public housing blocks home to Arab, black and white residents just a few miles north of the French capital.
Eight people were arrested and 21 police officers were injured — including the town’s police chief who was beaten in the face after he tried to negotiate with the rioters, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Residents drew parallels with the 2005 riots, which were prompted by the deaths of two teens electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police in a suburb northeast of Paris.
The backlash then against police spread across the nation and raged for three weeks, as youth — many of them black or of Arab origin — torched cars and clashed with police in an explosion of anger over discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream French society.
The mayor of Villiers-le-Bel called for calm Monday, though police appeared to be bracing for more potential violence. The mayor demanded an “impartial investigation” as quickly as possible.
“I ask for a stop to this violence, I ask all residents and especially the youth not to succumb to anger,” Didier Vaillant said on RTL radio.
Sunday’s night’s clashes came hours after the motorcycle crashed into the patrol car. A 15-year-old and 16-year-old were killed in the accident.
Police officials said the motorbike ignored traffic rules and ran into the police vehicle, and that the bike was unregistered and neither teen was wearing a helmet.
The police station stood little more than a shell after youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at the building. Few shops in town were spared the violence. About 15 cars were torched, and several fires were set in garbage cans.
The head of the opposition Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, called the violence the result of “a social and political crisis.”

TITLE: Scots Win Golf’s World Championship
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SHENZHEN, China — Add the World Cup of Golf to Colin Montgomerie’s long resume.
Montgomerie and Marc Warren gave Scotland its first victory in the World Cup, defeating Americans Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum on Sunday with a par on the third hole of a playoff in southern China.
The victory at the Mission Hills Golf Club made up for Scotland’s loss last year in Barbados on the first hole of a playoff with Germany’s Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem.
Montgomerie’s tap-in for par on the third extra hole was good enough for the Scots when Weekley missed a 15-foot attempt to save par.
“It’s been a long time for Scotland to win the World Cup, since 1953,” said Montgomerie, an eight-time European No. 1. “There was pressure to come back after a playoff loss like we did last year, which was disappointing.” 
The Americans forced the playoff on the last hole of regulation in alternate-shot play when Slocum made a 5-foot birdie putt.
On the first playoff hole, Slocum missed a 7-foot birdie attempt that would have won it. Seconds before, Warren holed a 12-footer to save par. A miss would have handed the event to the Americans. On the second extra hole, both teams narrowly missed birdie attempts — Weekley from 20 feet and Warren from 12.
Weekley’s approach shot on the final playoff hole was short, and Slocum’s chip left his teammate with a difficult putt.
“Putting is the strong suit of my game, and I really didn’t have a good putting week at all,” Slocum said. “I was just due for the week to make something.”
Montgomerie chimed in, saying Slocum’s missed putt was the turning point.
“From then on, I felt we were the favorites,” he said.
Scotland shot a 6-under 66 and the Americans — they led by a stroke after each of the first three rounds — had a 67 to finish regulation at 25-under 263. France’s Gregory Havret and Raphael Jacquelin had a 67 to finish a stroke back. England’s Ian Poulter and Justin Rose also had a 67 to finish fourth at 23 under.
Weekley and Slocum were fortunate to be playing in the event. Weekley, ranked No. 43, was invited after 13 Americans ranked ahead of him turned it down. He then picked Slocum, his high-school friend from the Florida Panhandle.
“We weren’t even supposed to be here and that’s even a bonus,” Weekley said. “I know we feel disappointed how we finished up, but overall it was a great week.”
Montgomerie and Warren took a two-stroke lead with an eagle on the par-5 15th after Montgomerie’s approach left Warren with a 6-foot putt. Slocum pulled the Americans within one with a 10-foot birdie putt on 15, and the United States forced the playoff with the birdie on No. 18.
The Americans reached 23 under with four birdies in five holes on the front nine — the last two on Nos. 6 and 7 on putts by Slocum.
But they scrambled after that.
They missed a chance to reach 24 under when Slocum’s 2-foot birdie lipped out at No. 9. Weekley made a 10-foot putt to save par on 12, and Slocum missed a 15-footer for birdie on 13.

TITLE: Musharraf To Step Down As Army Head
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — General Pervez Musharraf will step down as head of Pakistan’s military and be sworn in as a civilian president on Thursday, an army spokesman said.
“He is going to take oath as has been announced by government on the 29th, most probably, so he is going to take off his uniform a day before that,” spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said Monday.
Civilian officials have repeatedly said that Musahrraf would step down imminently as army chief, a key demand of domestic opponents threatening to boycott January’s parliamentary elections. 
But Arshad’s statement was the first from the military naming a date for him to restore direct civilian rule.

SHARIF STEPS IN
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, fresh from a triumphant return from exile, registered Monday as a candidate in the parliamentary elections.
However, he maintained a threat to boycott the January vote and said that, even if he did take part, he would not lead any government under Pakistan’s embattled military president.
Sharif signed his nomination papers at a court in the eastern city of Lahore. Supporters packed into the courtroom chanting “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif!”
His surprise return to Pakistan from exile Sunday poses a major threat to President Musharraf, the man who ousted him in a 1999 coup and became a key U.S. ally against international terrorism.
Musharraf is expected to step down as chief of Pakistan’s powerful army this week and continue as a civilian — a key demand of his domestic and international critics.
But Sharif insisted Musharraf would have to reinstate Supreme Court judges purged under the emergency and obtain their approval before he would be “acceptable” to his party.
He also accused authorities of rigging the elections to benefit the ruling party.
“We don’t want to boycott elections, but if you push someone to the wall ... what options are left?” Sharif said earlier Monday at his country estate outside the eastern city of Lahore.
“We demand restoration of all judges, lifting of curbs on media, lifting of emergency before elections,” he said.
Sharif arrived from Saudi Arabia, where has spent most of his eight years in exile.
In September, Musharraf swiftly booted Sharif back to the kingdom when he flew into Pakistan. 
But Musharraf appears to have lost the support of the Saudi royal family, who provided a special flight to carry Sharif and a host of his relatives home.

TITLE: Elderly Women Are Sex Tourists in Africa
AUTHOR: By Jeremy Clarke
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOMBASA, Kenya — Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.
They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is “just full of big young boys who like us older girls.”
Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.
Allie and Bethan — who both declined to give their full names — said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya’s palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country’s tourism officials.
“It’s not evil,” said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.
“But it’s certainly something we frown upon.”
Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms — finding them too “businesslike” for their exotic fantasies.
The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.
He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.
“We both get something we want — where’s the negative?” Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.
She was still wearing her bikini top, having just pulled on a pair of jeans and a necklace of traditional African beads.
Bethan sipped the same local drink: a powerful mix of honey, fresh limes and vodka known locally as “Dawa,” or “medicine.”
She kept one eye on her date — a 20-year-old playing pool, a red bandana tying back dreadlocks and new-looking sports shoes on his feet.
He looked up and came to join her at the table, kissing her, then collecting more coins for the pool game.
Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers say they are doing all they can to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it is far from the type of tourism they want to encourage in the east African nation.
“The head of a local hoteliers’ association told me they have begun taking measures — like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room,” Grieves-Cook said.
“It’s about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible... But it’s a fine line. We are 100 percent against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it’s different with something like this — it’s just unwholesome.”
These same beaches have long been notorious for attracting another type of sex tourists — those who abuse children.
As many as 15,000 girls in four coastal districts — about a third of all 12-18 year-olds girls there — are involved in casual sex for cash, a joint study by Kenya’s government and UN children’s charity UNICEF reported late last year.
Up to 3,000 more girls and boys are in full-time sex work, it said, some paid for the “most horrific and abnormal acts.”
Emerging alongside this black market trade — and obvious in the bars and on the sand once the sun goes down — are thousands of elderly white women hoping for romantic, and legal, encounters with much younger Kenyan men.
They go dining at fine restaurants, then dancing, and back to expensive hotel rooms overlooking the coast.
“One type of sex tourist attracted the other,” said one manager at a shorefront bar on Mombasa’s Bamburi beach.
“Old white guys have always come for the younger girls and boys, preying on their poverty... But these old women followed ... they never push the legal age limits, they seem happy just doing what is sneered at in their countries.”
Experts say some thrive on the social status and financial power that comes from taking much poorer, younger lovers.
“This is what is sold to tourists by tourism companies — a kind of return to a colonial past, where white women are served, serviced, and pampered by black minions,” said Nottinghan University’s Davidson.
Many of the visitors are on the lookout for men like Joseph.
Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.
“When I go into the clubs, those are the only women I look for now,” he told Reuters. “I get to live like the rich ***mzungus*** (white people) who come here from rich countries, staying in the best hotels and just having my fun.”
At one club, a group of about 25 dancing men — most of them Joseph look-alikes — edge closer and closer to a crowd of more than a dozen white women, all in their autumn years.
“It’s not love, obviously. I didn’t come here looking for a husband,” Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.
“It’s a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn’t pay for anything, and I get what I want — a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?”

TITLE: Raped Girl Got 200 Lashes For Being an Adulteress
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s Justice Ministry said a girl who it sentenced to jail time and flogging after being gang raped by seven men was an adulteress who invited the attack because at the time she was partially dressed in a parked car with her lover.
The statement from the ministry, carried by the Saudi Press Agency late Saturday, defended the court’s decision to sentence the girl to six months in prison and 200 lashes for violating the country’s strict sex segregation laws.
It also sought to ease international outrage over the case by discrediting the woman who had told reporters earlier that she was meeting a friend from high school when the attack occurred.
“The Saudi justice minister expressed his regret about the media reports over the role of the women in this case which put out false information and wrongly defended her,” the statement said. “The charged girl is a married woman who confessed to having an affair with the man she was caught with.”
Known only as the “Girl from Qatif,” the 19-year-old rape victim said she was a newlywed who was meeting a high school friend in his car to retrieve a picture of herself from him when the attack occurred in the eastern city of Qatif. While in a car with him, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area where others waited, and then she and her companion were both raped.
The ministry’s latest account of the incident alleges that the woman and her lover met in his car for a tryst “in a dark place where they stayed for a while.”
“Then they were spotted by the other defendants as the woman was in an indecent condition as she had tossed away her clothes, then the assault occurred on her and the man,” the statement added.
It said the sentence of prison and lashes, handed down last week following an appeal, was legal and followed the “the book of God and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad,” noting that she had “confessed to doing what God has forbidden.”
The woman and her husband were “convinced of the verdict and agreed to it,” it said.
The girl was initially sentenced to prison and 90 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her. When her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, appealed the sentence, he was removed from the case, his license was suspended and the penalty was doubled to 200 lashes.
The increase in sentence received heavy coverage in the international media and prompted expressions of astonishment from the U.S. government. Canada called it “barbaric.”
Under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives. Also, women in Saudi Arabia are often sentenced to flogging and even death for adultery and other crimes.
The seven men convicted of gang raping the woman were given prison sentences of two to nine years. The initial sentences for the men ranged from 10 months to five years in prison.
The case has sparked rare domestic debate about Saudi Arabia’s legal system, which gives judges wide discretion in sentencing criminals, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no lawyers are present.
Justice in Saudi Arabia is administered by a system of religious courts and judges appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council. Those courts and judges have complete discretion to set sentences, except in cases where Sharia outlines a punishment, such as capital crimes.
That means that no two judges would likely hand down the same verdict for similar crimes. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light or no sentence to death, depending on the judge’s discretion.