SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1351 (15), Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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TITLE: Jailed Activist Claims He Was Targeted
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Sergei Gulyayev, the leader of Narod movement, part of the pro-democracy The Other Russia coalition, went on hunger strike on Saturday after being sentenced to 10-days detention on Friday in a move his supporters believe is aimed at preventing the politician from organizing and taking part in a Dissenters’ March planned for March 3.
Gulyayev was one of the organizers of a Feb. 2 picket near the North-West Interior Troops Headquarters at 33 Millionnaya Ulitsa to protest the verdict of the North Caucasus District Military Court that sentenced lieutenants Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev to 17 and 15 years in prison, respectively, for murdering three Chechen civilians in 2003. The protesters believed the guilt of Khudyakov and Arakcheyev — who had been acquitted by the juries twice — was not duly proved.
Detained alongside 20 other activists during an attempted picket which was dispersed by the police within one minute, Gulyayev was charged with “failing to follow a policeman’s lawful orders” and “taking part in an unsanctioned meeting” and was locked in a police precinct for more than 24 hours until a court hearing, but was released when the judge ruled his case should be heard in his local court.
When his case was heard in Sestroretsk District Court on Friday, judge Svetlana Morgunova sentenced Gulyayev to 10 days in prison for “failing to follow a policeman’s lawful orders” which can be punished by up to 15 days in prison, despite his defense providing video footage, which, his lawyer Gleb Lavrentyev said, proves that Gulyayev was obeying orders.
Lavrentyev said he would appeal on Tuesday, because Monday was a national day-off. 
“I will submit a complaint over the judge’s decision, because there was no chance to submit it on Friday, because the hearing ended at 8 p.m. and complains were not accepted at that time,” he said, adding that he was not able to visit Gulyayev in prison because lawyers’ visits are not allowed during days-off.
“The decision is simply unfounded, because it contradicts the case materials, it even contradicts the statements made by the OMON policeman. In its turn, his statement contradicts the video footage shown in court,” said Lavrentyev.
“Only the part of the case dealing with ‘failing to follow [a policeman’s lawful orders]’ was heard, and the OMON policeman stated that the only instance of disobedience was when [Gulyayev was] entering the [police] bus; allegedly Gulyayev started to swing his arms to prevent him from being ushered into the bus, whereas on video, this moment can be seen perfectly — a OMON officer directs him into the vehicle just by putting a hand on his shoulder, without any disobedience. There were many contradictions like that, proved by nothing.”
He added that one defense witness was dismissed by the judge who decided that he was an “interested party.”
Lavrentyev argues that a softer sentence could have been passed because, according to the law, a person can be punished with a fine up to 1,000 rubles ($41) for this offense. He added that there are many mitigating circumstances in Gulyayav’s case that normally would have called for lenient sentencing in the event that his guilt was proved.
“He is disabled, he is an Afghan War veteran, a participant in the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya as a special correspondent, he has three young children who are his dependents, one of whom is ill now — there is a lot of mitigating circumstances. [...] Besides, Gulyayev had already been confined in rather harsh conditions for this offense, in the police precinct where no bed was available. Actually, he had to stand for more than 24 hours, without food or anything.”
According to Lavrentyev, the court did not deal with the issue of whether the picket was sanctioned or not. The protesters argued that the picket was in accordance with the law, because the district’s administration did not reply to the organizers’ letter suggesting a different site of the picket, after the authorities disagreed with the original one.
“The disobedience is unlawful when the order of a policeman is lawful, so it was necessary to find out whether the picket was sanctioned or not,” he said.
“If the picket was sanctioned, then the policemen’s orders to stop it would have been unlawful, and that would mean that the offense did not take place at all. So the judge assumed that the picket was unsanctioned, even if we provided evidence that the district’s administration did not inform the organizers in time that they didn’t sanction [the picket for] the suggested site. But despite all this, the judge assumed that it was unsanctioned, from which the ‘failure to follow’ stems.”
According to Andrei Dmitriyev, the leader of the local branch of Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party, who spent a night in the police precinct with Gulyayev after the police had arrested both men during the picket, Gulyayev went on hunger strike to “demonstrate his solidarity with all political prisoners and to protest the unjust sentence.” 
Gulyayev will also boycott the March 2 presidential election, Dmitriyev said adding that he believes that Gulyayev was deliberately isolated to prevent him from taking part in the Dissenters March the following day. 
The Dissenters March, due on March 3, was not sanctioned by the administration on Thursday, but the decision was reversed on Friday, when organizers suggested a slightly different route.

TITLE: Russia Supports Serbia
AUTHOR: By Douglas Hamilton
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BELGRADE — Serbia intends to rule parts of Kosovo where “loyal citizens” still look to Belgrade for government, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday. 
In a fresh challenge to the West, which backs Kosovo’s independence, and the European Union in particular, which is due to take over from the United Nations as Kosovo’s supervisor, he said Serbia would do all in its power to exert its authority.
“Serbia will do everything to implement its jurisdiction and state prerogatives for all loyal citizens in Kosovo — Serbs and non-Albanians,” Kostunica said.
“There cannot be normalization of relations with the states that recognized Kosovo independence until they annul their decision,” he added. “Protest rallies will not stop as long as illegal independence is not annulled.”
Kostunica won renewed backing from ally Russia, whose likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev, made a high-profile visit to say Moscow would continue to back Serbian sovereignty, despite Western support for the independence of Kosovo.
Medvedev, who also met Western-leaning president Boris Tadic, said there would be no shift in his country’s support for Serbia after the presidential election next week.
“We assume that Serbia is a single state whose jurisdiction covers all of its territory,” Medvedev said. “We will stick to this position.”
Serbia cherishes Kosovo as the cradle of the nation, where Serb history and myth dates back 1,000 years and old monasteries dot the land. But most Serbs have little firsthand knowledge of the poor southern province, now populated by a 90 percent majority of ethnic Albanians.
Serbia and Russia insist that the 1999 United Nations Resolution 1244 is still the only valid international law on Kosovo. It made Kosovo a UN protectorate in 1999 under NATO-led peacekeeping but legally under Serbian sovereignty.
The United Nations in Kosovo says Serbia’s respect for the resolution has been highly selective.
On Monday, UN governor Joachim Ruecker urged Serbia to confirm its respect for the UN mandate, following Belgrade’s endorsement of mob attacks on UN-run border posts and disruption of police and justice in the Serb-dominated north.
Ruecker said he reminded visiting Serb Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic that Resolution 1244 puts the United Nations and the KFOR peacekeeping force KFOR “in charge of the whole territory of Kosovo.”
“I made it very clear to him that the condoning of violence, direct or indirect support for violence, is totally unacceptable,” Ruecker said, referring to a remark by Samardzic saying that attacks on border posts were “legitimate.”
Samardzic said Serbia would do all it could to maintain peace and order “in the areas that it controls, where Serbs live.”
“We will keep convincing Serbs to cooperate with the UN mission,” he said. But the UN must remember that violence against international law begets violence.
Serbia would also provide jobs, schooling and infrastructure in Serb areas of Kosovo, Samardzic said.
“They must enjoy life in the Serbian state as all other citizens of Serbia enjoy that life. Serbia will do everything to achieve that,” he told reporters in central Kosovo. 
In Belgrade, Serbian Education Minister Zoran Loncar proposed government scholarships for all students in Kosovo who attend Serbian schools. 
Tensions have risen in Kosovo’s first full week as a separate state as Serbs vent their anger and determination to reverse the move. But there has been no ethnic violence. 
In the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica, over 1,000 people demonstrated for a seventh day, burning not only an EU flag but also a picture of Serbia’s pro-Western President Tadic.

TITLE: OMON Disrupts Tribute to Late Rock Musician
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dozens of the late Russian punk legend Yegor Letov’s fans were detained as they gathered to hold a memorial procession at noon on Sunday, while the sold-out memorial concert, where several OMON police trucks positioned themselves in the evening, was stopped because of a fire in the venue.
Fans of Letov, who died last Tuesday aged 43, and his band Grazhdanskaya Oborona were planning to hold vigils and memorial processions in around 30 Russian cities, as well as cities in the former Soviet Union and several European countries during the weekend. Dates and locations were announced via Grazhdanskaya Oborona’s fan website, www.gr-oborona.info, and the Russian social networking site Vkontakte.
In St. Petersburg, fans planned to gather in a courtyard on Ligovsky Prospekt, near the rock paraphernalia shop Castle Rock, at noon on Sunday, and then walk down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main street.
Groups of policemen positioned at the nearby metro station stopped and checked the documents belonging to young people who looked as if they may be Letov fans. 
But an estimated 150 to 200 fans arrived at the location to find that the gate of the courtyard where the Castle Rock shop is located was blocked. 
“Your action is forbidden,” was the explanation given by a policeman at the gate.
At around 12:05 the command to detain the fans was given and some 60 teenagers, mainly younger than 18, were promptly thrown into the police bus, according to BIA (the Baltic Information Agency). A few minutes later, an OMON police truck arrived, while the bus departed to deliver the detained fans to a police precinct.
The remaining fans who managed to proceed along Nevsky were stopped near the Khudozhestvenny movie theater about 400 meters from Ligovsky.
“I got out from Mayakovskaya [metro station] at around five minutes past noon and there was a group of people, around 80, maybe 100, so I joined them,” said Roman, who asked for his last name to be withheld, in an ICQ (instant-message service) interview on Monday. A fan of Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Roman said he wanted to “somehow pay tribute to Letov.”
“It was all quiet, no flags, no shouting, but we did take up a lot of space,” said Roman.
“When we reached Khudozhestvenny, [the police] crossed the road to the courtyard with a Gazel truck, and the policemen got out. So the guys turned back, but the police blocked the way again, with most of them going to the pedestrian crossing. Then the OMON police ran out, and circled the group that was crossing the street.
“A friend and I stood near the entrance to the movie theater, and the OMON didn’t touch us because we stood quietly and were dressed normally. When we went to see what happened, there was no trace of the people. It turned out they had been pushed toward the metro, some had been detained.... and some had managed to catch buses.”
Citing photographer Vladimir Shraga, the local branch of Ekho Moskvy radio station said that about 50 fans continued walking intending to hold a memorial gathering on Marsovo Pole. The police caught up with them and they were dispersed again.
Letov had been scheduled to perform a solo concert at Orlandina club on Sunday, but when the news of his death was announced, the concert was transformed into a memorial event. The concert’s lineup included local bands NOM, La Minor, SP Babai, Sergei Selyunin of the band Vykhod and PTVP’s Alexei Nikonov.
According to Andrei Kagadeyev, whose band NOM, was opening the concert at 7 p.m., the event drew about 400 fans, with some more queuing to the box office outside the venue. He said the concert stopped 45 minutes later.
“A young band performed after us, and during their set the lights went out, the wiring caught fire, and then the OMON men divided the crowd into sections and took everybody out,” said Kagadeyev by phone on Monday.
 “[The OMON police] were already outside in three trucks and the event was under their control. Maybe in connection to Letov’s personality, they were expecting some riots or political statements, but in this situation they showed perhaps some professionalism, there was no panic or crowding. It looks like they called the firemen, three fire engines arrived quickly, but there was no need for them.”
Kagadeyev said the public acted peacefully as the concert began. “Actually, the concert has just started and fans kept arriving,” he said.
“We attributed [the incident] to the rebellious spirit of Letov, who made himself known to the authorities to the very end.”
However, musician Mikhail Novitsky of the band SP Babai said the fire was a “provocation.”
“It happened in a very visible spot on the ceiling, right where some ceiling tiles were missing, so everybody could see the flames, and it was very narrow area, around 20 square centimeters,” he said by phone on Monday.
Novitsky said he rushed to the toilet to fetch some water to put out the fire, but the flames had gone out when he returned a few moments later.
“Normally you wait for the firemen for 10 minutes or so, but here they arrived immediately, with the OMON, who ordered the concert to stop,” said Novitsky.
“Obviously, it was a provocation. Even in death Letov doesn’t give them any peace.”
Letov died in his hometown of Omsk at the age of 43 on Feb. 19. He was a vocal critic of the Soviet system in the late 1980s. 
In the early 1990s, he was one of the early members of the now-banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP), whose supporters, with other political groups, now form pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia. 
However, Letov distanced himself from politics in the past few years.

TITLE: Kyrgyz Worried By Killing Spree in Russia
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BISHKEK — Kyrgyzstan, home to a Russian military airbase, expressed “deep concern” on Monday over recent killings of Kyrgyz citizens working in Russia and urged Moscow to do more to protect its people.
Russia has seen a surge in racial attacks in the past few years, especially on immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Eight Kyrgyz nationals have been killed this year, according to Kyrgyz police.
The Kyrgyz parliament — dominated by supporters of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev — appealed for an urgent investigation in a statement issued on Monday.
“Kyrgyzstan’s parliament expresses deep concern and regret with regard to the growing number of killings of Kyrgyz citizens in Moscow,” said the chamber.
According to the Russian monitoring group Sova Centre, two Azeris, two people from the Kabardino-Balkaria region, one person from Uzbekistan and one Tajik national have been stabbed to death in similar circumstances this month.

TITLE: U.S., EU Urge Minsk To Set Free Dissidents
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MINSK, Belarus — The United States and the European Union called again Monday for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus, including an opposition leader on a hunger strike after being denied permission to attend his wife’s funeral. 
Alexander Kozulin, who unsuccessfully challenged authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in the March 2006 elections, was arrested during an opposition protest soon afterward. 
He was sentenced later that year to 5 1/2 years in prison for organizing mass protests.
Prison authorities on Sunday denied Kozulin’s request for temporary release to bury his wife, Irina, who died Saturday from cancer. Her funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.
Kozulin began refusing food and water in protest. His two daughters and three other supporters have joined the hunger strike.
The U.S. Embassy in Minsk offered condolences to Kozulin and their daughters, Olga and Yulia, and said it “repeats its call for the release of all political prisoners.”
“Putting an end to the practice of detaining citizens on political grounds in Belarus would be a significant step on the Belarusian side,” said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union’s commissioner for external relations in urging authorities to release Kozulin.
Washington and Brussels have imposed sanctions against Lukashenko and other government officials for quashing political opposition, shuttering independent media and holding elections that the West has dismissed as illegitimate.
Several opposition figures have been released since the start of the year in what Lukashenko called “an unprecedented step of good will toward the West.”

TITLE: Man Held For Child Suffocation
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Leningrad Oblast police detained a 19-year-old unemployed man Thursday for the suspected murder and sexual assault of 10-year-old Natasha Rubtsova in the Oblast’s town of Pikalyevo, Fontanka.ru reported.
Vsevolod Porotnikov was detained in his apartment in the town of Volkhov and instantly confessed to the crime.
The police said that on Feb. 9 Porotnikov went to a crowded children’s playground and met Rubtsova.  In a nearby store he bought the girl potato chips and lemonade and offered to play with her on a slide in the playground. After the other children had gone he sexually assaulted the girl and murdered her. The girl suffocated after the offender held her nose and mouth, Fontaka.ru reported.
Porotnikov first attracted the attention of police four years ago in connection with the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in the town of Tikhvin.  However there was not enough evidence to charge him with the crime. In 2007 Porotnikov received suspended sentence of two years for theft.
The conditions of Rubtsova’s death were similar to the previous murder of the girl in Tikhvin so Porotnikov was investigated. His appearance matched that of a photofit put together from witness descriptions of a man Pikalyovo residents had seen saw a few days before Rubtsova disappeared.
Police also detained Vasily Drobysh, 60, who taught math at the local school and was acquainted to Porotnikov. The police said Drobysh knew about the case but he failed to inform anybody and helped Porotnikov to get out of the city, Fontanka.ru reported.
Rubtsova went missing on Feb. 9 when she went to visit her grandmother who lived on the other end of the town.  However, the girt did not arrive. On the morning of Feb. 12 her half naked body was found at the outskirts of the town close to the Delfin swimming pool.
A string of cases of sexual assault on children has recently led to calls for stronger laws.
The country was shocked by the case of Alexander Kuznetsov, a boxer, who killed a suspected pedophile who was caught raping Kuznetsov’s eight-year-old stepson. 
Experts stood up for Kuznetsov claiming that the country’s mild laws may provoke people to take the law into their own hands.
Mikhail Vinogradov, a criminal psychiatrist, said the punishment for raping children should be toughened and that people should have open access to a pedophile database, Moi Raion daily reported.
On Feb. 12 deputies at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly appealed to the State Duma with a legislative initiative to toughen punishments for sexual assault with penalties of between ten years and life imprisonment without parole, Zaks.ru said.
Vadim Tyulpanov, speaker of the city’s Legislative Assembly said the deputies would do everything possible to introduce changes to Russia’s Criminal Code on the matter.
The current maximum term of imprisonment for child rape is four years imprisonment.
In the past few weeks several children have gone missing in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast. Some of them were found or returned home after they did not come back home out of fear for their bad grades at school. 
However, the two first-grade boys Sasha Pronin and Maxim Linkov from Tosno, who went for a walk alone on Feb. 1 and then disappeared, are still missing.

TITLE: Medvedev’s Challengers Play by the Rules
AUTHOR: By Lynn Berry
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Andrei Bogdanov is a democrat in a country where democracy has been discredited, and a leading Freemason where many see Freemasonry as a Western plot to weaken Russia. 
And with the implicit blessing of the Kremlin, Bogdanov is running for president.
His appearance on the March 2 ballot is an example, critics say, of how the Kremlin has created the illusion of a democratic election while weighting the odds heavily in favor of its preferred candidate, Dmitry Medvedev.
Polls confirm that Bogdanov, 38, whose dark wavy hair reaches to his shoulders, has no chance of winning the election.
But his candidacy blunts accusations from the West that Russia has excluded opposition candidates from the race, while posing no danger to the smooth election of Medvedev.
With Russia’s liberals shut out of parliament and the presidential race, it seems only those who play by the Kremlin’s rules may run. One is Bogdanov. The other two are perennials: nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who once pledged “a man for every woman and a bottle of vodka for every man”; and Gennady Zyuganov, the head of the Communist Party, always pitching for more tractors for struggling farmers.
Bogdanov, leader of the small Democratic Party, joined them for an hour-long debate on state television late last week in which they attacked one another but didn’t directly criticize the Kremlin or even mention Putin or Medvedev by name.
Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister, has refused to participate in the debates, citing his busy schedule. But anyway, he gets far more air time than the others on the Kremlin-controlled TV networks.
Recent polls predict Medvedev will win the election with more than 70 percent of the vote. Only Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky are expected to reach double figures, with Bogdanov trailing far behind with only about 1 percent.
President Vladimir Putin has endorsed Medvedev and has agreed to become his prime minister. But he had warm words for all three challengers in his annual news conference this month, calling Bogdanov “an ambitious young man with progressive views” and praising the two others as “patriots” who support a strong Russia. 
Bogdanov and Zhirinovsky proudly posted Putin’s comments on their parties’ web sites.
For the two political stalwarts, this is their third presidential run. Zyuganov came closest in 1996, when he finished second to incumbent President Boris Yeltsin with 40 percent of the vote. But his base has since dwindled mostly to pensioners.
Under Putin, 63-year-old Zyuganov has tempered his criticism in what is regarded as a political compromise that permits the Communists to keep their few remaining seats in parliament.
Zhirinovsky, 61, is more openly critical of the Kremlin, but in parliament his Liberal Democratic Party, having taken the votes of the disgruntled, consistently backs Kremlin initiatives.
He also livens up a lackluster campaign with colorful outbursts. He still rails against an evil West, but his anti-Semitism has faded into the past since he acknowledged that his father was Jewish and visited his grave in Israel.
Bogdanov says he hopes one day to unite Russia’s democrats under the banner of his party, which he emphasizes is not liberal but conservative, along the lines of the U.S. Republican Party.
Bogdanov heads Russia’s largest Masonic lodge but doesn’t like to talk about it. Pressed during the debate, he described it as a “super-patriotic organization.” Political analysts say having three challengers to Medvedev serves the Kremlin in several ways: It splinters the opposition vote, keeps the Communists and nationalists inside the ruling tent, and avoids the embarrassment of Medvedev scooping up so many votes that the election would look rigged. 
Bogdanov has joined Putin in criticizing the democratic parties that thrived in the 1990s, now blamed by many Russians for the rigged privatizations and economic collapse that followed the Soviet Union’s demise. He also praises Putin for bringing stability to Russia during his eight years as president. 
Bogdanov says he understands that his candidacy may serve the Kremlin’s agenda, but wants to grab any chance to broaden his party’s appeal.

TITLE: Georgian Links To Resume
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia agreed to lift its blockade on air traffic with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which was cut off in 2006, the Transportation Ministry said.
Flights between the neighboring countries will resume after Georgia fulfils obligations it assumed in negotiations between Russia’s Federal Air Navigation Service and Georgia’s Economy Ministry, the Transportation Ministry said Thursday on its web site. Georgian airlines have to repay debts to Russian air traffic controllers, the statement said.
Russia cut road, rail, air and sea links with Georgia, as well as halting postal services and blocking money transfers, in October 2006. The dispute erupted when Georgia arrested four Russian servicemen a month earlier and accused them of espionage.
Ties between the two countries have soured since Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, was swept to power in the so-called Rose Revolution in 2003.
Sofia Nikolaishvili, owner of the VIP-Travel agency in Tbilisi, said her business would “at least double’’ if air traffic is resumed between Russia and Georgia.

TITLE: Gardening Supermarket to Open in April
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Eurogarden Management Company has completed construction of its first shopping center, Zelenaya Strana (Green Country). The center, located on the Tallinskoye highway, will start operating in April this year, offering a wide range of products for dachas and gardeners.
Zelenaya Strana will be part of Imperia retail park, which will include several food and electronics supermarkets as well as a boutique arcade, restaurants and cafes. The total area of the retail park will be 70,000 square meters.
“Zelenaya Strana shopping centers should become an entertainment attraction for families. These new gardening centers will offer essential goods, original ideas and the best quality products for enjoying country life,” said Maxim Valetskiy, member of Eurogarden’s board of directors.
Zelenaya Strana will sell plants, gardening tools, pet products, florists’ equipment and products for both landscape and interior design. Consultants will be on hand for shoppers.
Eurogarden has used the planning solutions of Intraruin, the largest European chain of gardening centers and a franchise partner of the project. The company also consulted ACL Consultants, a British firm specializing in gardening centers.
Eurogarden has invested $20 million into the construction of the shopping center, and estimates the pay-back period at 5-6 years.
“We expect shopping centers of this kind to become very popular,” said Galina Smirnova, marketing manager at Eurogarden Management Company.
“Our garden center is located in a developing residential area — a new residential complex is being constructed next to the center. About 20 percent of local dachas are located along the Tallinskoye highway, and the Petergofskoye and Pulkovskoye highways are also in the catchment area of our complex,” Smirnova said.
Several stores and open markets in St. Petersburg specialize in products for gardening, but this market niche is still underdeveloped, according to Igor Luchkov, director of the assessment and research department at Becar Commercial Property SPb.
“There is one particular feature in St. Petersburg — its bad climate makes the sale of gardening products a seasonal activity, and the season is rather short. For most of the year the demand for gardening products is low, almost nonexistent, which explains why this market segment has not 
developed properly,” Luchkov said.
“On the other hand, 90 percent of citizens own land plots or plan to acquire land, so potential demand for gardening products should be rather high. 
Luchkov recommended that gardening products should not account for more than 50 percent of the goods on offer. “I see the prospects of such centers in diversifying the range of products. They should not be narrowly specialized,” he said.

TITLE: U.S. Urges Nabucco Pipeline Over Russia’s South Stream
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Nabucco natural-gas pipeline will ship gas to Europe for as little as half the cost of an alternative, Moscow-backed route from Russia, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said.
The Nabucco pipeline “will be built, I am convinced, because it makes commercial sense,’’ Bryza told journalists Friday in Brussels after meeting with European Union officials.
Nabucco will bring gas from the Caspian region across Turkey to western Europe, reducing the European Union’s dependence on Russian energy exports. The pipeline will ship 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year and begin operating in 2013. Moscow-based Gazprom, which today controls almost all natural gas exports from central Asia and supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas demand, advocates another route under the Black Sea called South Stream.
Shipping gas along the Nabucco pipeline will cost 50 percent to 40 percent less than along South Stream, Bryza said. 
The cost of the two projects is difficult to compare until the exact route is chosen, said Dmitry Loukashov, oil and gas analyst at UBS AG in Moscow. Laying Nabucco across mountains in Turkey would significantly increase the price, he said.
“The undersea South Stream could be cheaper than the on-shore Nabucco, we need to look carefully at the route,’’ he said.
The former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan on the Caspian coast has enough gas to supply Nabucco alone, Bryza said.
The pipeline could also carry gas from northwestern Iraq, and eventually take natural gas from Iran if political relations with Europe and the United States improve, Bryza said. Iran has the second-biggest natural gas reserves in the world after Russia.
Nabucco partners are RWE AG, Turkish state pipeline company Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz AD, Romania’s Transgas and Austrian and Hungarian oil companies OMV AG and Mol Nyrt.

TITLE: Foreign Inflow Doubles
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian foreign direct investment doubled last year to $27.8 billion as the nation’s economic expansion fueled a consumer boom that weathered turbulence in global markets.
Total foreign investment, including credits and flows into the securities markets, more than doubled to a record $120.9 billion, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement Friday. Foreign investment in stocks and bonds rose 31.8 percent to $4.2 billion, it said.
“Given the worsening situation on world markets in the second half of 2007, the numbers are positive,” said Tatiana Orlova, an economist at ING Wholesale Banking in Moscow. “We expect continued economic and political stability. I wouldn’t be surprised if FDI flows intensify in the coming years.”
The Russian economy, the world’s 10th biggest, is expanding for a 10th consecutive year, prompting companies to open new stores and restaurants. The economy expanded 8.1 percent last year, up from a revised 7.4 percent in 2006. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Feb. 10 that growth this year could reach 7 percent, above his previous estimate of 6.6 percent.
Russians go to the polls on March 2 to elect a successor to President Vladimir Putin who is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term. Dmitry Medvedev, who Putin backs, is seen as a shoo-in for the post.
“Consumer optimism is supporting our economy,” Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina said during a meeting with Putin on Jan. 28.
The retail industry, including automotive and household good repairs, received the highest amount of total foreign investment, according to the Statistics Service. Foreign investors channeled $47.3 billion into the industry, including stocks and bonds, the statistics office said.
Campbell Soup Co., the world’s biggest soup maker, plans to start producing broths in Russia and sell them locally by the end of 2008 to take advantage of booming demand. Russia’s food retailing industry will expand on average 17 percent annually through 2010 as rising incomes boost demand for better food, according to UBS AG.
Average wages expanded six-fold since 2000 and retail sales increased at the average pace of 12.2 percent.
Wages increased an annual 15.8 percent in January, reaching 15,059 rubles ($616), the Statistics Service said. Disposable income increased an annual 12.9 percent in January, it said.
Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, opened its first cafe in Russia in September.   
Cyprus is the largest foreign investor in Russia after the Netherlands the U.K. and Luxemburg, according to the Statistics Service.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Cash For Oranienbaum</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The federal budget will supply two billion rubles ($81.8 million) for the reconstruction of the Oranienbaum museum complex to increase its appeal to tourists, Interfax reported Friday.
From 2004-2006, about $19 million was spent on the reconstruction of Oranienbaum, and about $22.3 million last year. Work should be completed by 2011.

<b>Land Plots Bought Up</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Makromir group of companies invested $196 million in land plots in Russia’s regions last year, Interfax reported Friday.
The total area of the land plots is 49.6 hectares. Makromir acquired land in the Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, Yekaterinburg, Perm and Krasnogorsk. In St. Petersburg, the company acquired three land plots at a total cost of $62.2 million.
Makromir plans to build over one million square meters of shops, office space and hotels and over 700,000 square meters of residential housing, investing $2 billion into construction.

<b>Rail Investments Up</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Oktyabrskaya Railways will increase investment by 76 percent this year, Interfax reported Friday.
Total investment is planned at 51.4 million rubles ($2.1 million) this year, compared to $1.19 million in 2007. The majority of the financing will be invested into the railway infrastructure at Ust-Luga sea port ($800 million) and the high-speed railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg ($695 million).

<b>New Turbines For TGK</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Power Machines will deliver three gas turbines worth over three billion rubles ($122.7 million) in total to TGK-2 power generating company, Interfax reported Friday.
The gas turbines will be delivered by the end of 2009. The equipment will be installed at heat and power plants in Tver, Kostroma and Yaroslavl.

<b>St. Pete Office For NY</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — St. Petersburg’s government plans to open an office in New York this year as the city seeks more U.S. investment.
St. Petersburg’s Information Business Center will advise companies interested in entering the Russian market and promote products and technologies developed in the city, Veronika Krasheninnikova, the head of the center, said at a presentation in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
The office will be the city’s first such outlet outside of Europe. It is sponsored by the Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation between Russia and the U.S., a nonprofit organization set up in 1992 to promote business ties between the two countries.

<b>Severstal Aims Higher</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Severstal, Russia’s biggest steelmaker by volume, plans to invest $6 billion in new plants and doubling output at one of its factories, the Times of London reported.
By 2011, the steelmaker plans to raise steel output by 25 percent, the Times said, citing an interview with majority owner Alexei Mordashov.

<b>New Aircraft For UTair</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — UTair, Russia’s fifth-largest airline, will lease 20 Boeing Co. 737-500 planes by the end of 2009 to replace aging aircraft and boost capacity to meet the country’s growing travel demand.
UTair will lease half the planes in 2008 and half next year, all from Continental Airlines Inc., the Surgut, Russia-based carrier said Friday in a statement on its web site. UTair mostly operates Tupolev aircraft for passenger flights and flew its first Boeing on Thursday.

<b>Sochi Island Approved</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s Krasnodar regional government approved the construction of a $6.3 billion artificial island off the coast of the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
A local government council concluded the island will have a “positive effect on the economy of Sochi,” the St. Petersburg-based developer M-Industriya said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.

TITLE: Gazprom, Partners Sign Shtokman Pact
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Gazprom on Thursday signed an agreement with Total and StatoilHydro to create a company charged with the first phase of developing the vast and remote Shtokman natural gas field.
The agreement was signed with France’s Total and Norway’s StatoilHydro. Both companies last year signed framework agreements for project participation with Gazprom, and the new agreement represents a step forward in extracting gas from the huge field under the Arctic waters off the country’s northwest coast.
Total and StatoilHydro will have shares of 25 and 24 percent in the company respectively, with Gazprom holding 51 percent.
Shtokman is to be the main source of gas for the Nord Stream pipeline, which will take gas to Germany and other European countries. It is also expected to produce liquefied natural gas that will be exported to various countries, including the United States. Plans are for gas to start flowing from Shtokman in 2013.
Tapping the field is technically daunting, and StatoilHydro’s expensive experience in developing remote offshore fields was seen as key to the project’s success. The firm developed Snohvit, the first offshore field in the Barents Sea.
The company had to develop much of the technology needed to produce the gas in harsh Arctic conditions, and in an environment similar to Shtokman.
The new operating company will plan, finance and build the first stage of the Shtokman development, which could eventually produce up to 100 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Shtokman’s first phase was expected to produce about 11 bcm of pipeline gas annually. LNG production would reach 7.5 bcm annually.
StatoilHydro president Helge Lund said the Shtokman project was important “to develop technologies for the oil industry to tackle tougher challenges.”

TITLE: Lufthansa Accounts Frozen in Tax Spat
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Lufthansa is facing a fresh spat with the Russian authorities, after tax inspectors froze several of the German carrier’s accounts in the country in a disagreement over outstanding payments, an industry source familiar with the situation said Thursday. 
The tax authorities froze the accounts Tuesday over demands that the airline pay between $7.4 million and $10.3 million, the source said, requesting anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. “There is disagreement about the interpretation of tax regulations,” he said.
Officials at Lufthansa neither confirmed nor denied the information, explaining that it was not company policy to comment on ongoing cases.
A spokeswoman at the Moscow branch of the Federal Tax Service said she knew nothing about the case and referred inquiries to the service’s head office. No one answered repeated calls to the head office Thursday. An e-mailed request for comment to the Finance Ministry, which oversees the tax service, went unanswered Thursday.
The source said that the frozen accounts were used to make payments for aircraft fuel and for other day-to-day transactions, but that the airline’s operations were not affected, as the cash flow could be handled through other accounts, some of them abroad. 
It was unclear how much money had been frozen, but the amounts were not very significant, the source said. “These aren’t very big sums,” he said.
Lufthansa, which operates more than 200 flights per week to 18 destinations in Russia and the CIS, has had difficulties with the country’s tax authorities before. In 2002, it refused to pay a 20 percent value-added tax on ground handling services, arguing that this amounted to a violation of international agreements Russia was party to.
The industry source said that the current difficulties were similar, and that the 2002 case had been settled by a court ruling in Lufthansa’s favor.
In another spat, the Transportation Ministry last October temporarily imposed a ban on Lufthansa’s cargo division over disagreements about overflight fees.
Germany reacted by briefly barring Aeroflot cargo planes from flying to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, but the dispute was patched up with a November deal that runs until the end of this month. German media reported last week that the deal had been extended until the end of March.
Lufthansa is moving its Moscow operations across town from Sheremetyevo Airport to Domodedovo Airport by April 1.
It was unclear Thursday whether there was any connection between the overflight dispute and the current tax case.
“It is generally difficult to tell about the links between such cases in Russia,” the industry source said.

TITLE: AvtoVAZ Buyer Found Dead
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — AvtoVAZ, Russia’s biggest carmaker, said its chief parts purchaser, Vyacheslav Shirshov, was murdered Thursday.
Shirshov, 37, was found at about 9 p.m. in the entryway of his apartment building in Togliatti, the southern Russian city where AvotVAZ is based, said Irina Doroshenko, a spokeswoman for the regional branch of the Prosecutor’s General’s Office. He was stabbed in the stomach, she said.
Togliatti, a city of about 700,000 people on the Volga River, was known as Russia’s crime capital in the early part of the decade, when contract killings occurred almost weekly, many of them related to the auto industry. Renault SA, France’s second-largest automaker, agreed in December to buy 25 percent of AvtoVAZ for an estimated $1.3 billion.
Shirshov is survived by a wife and two children.

TITLE: Ban Sends Casino Firm Far, Far Away
AUTHOR: By Maria Ermakova
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Storm International, the country’s largest casino company, will open gambling venues in Costa Rica and Armenia this year and may abandon its home market because of restrictions, chief executive Michael Boettcher said.
President Vladimir Putin is forcing casinos out of Moscow and St. Petersburg to reduce gambling, exiling them to four regions outside the two biggest cities. The industry’s revenue has swelled to as much as $7 billion a year in Russia, Boettcher said, after a 10th straight year of economic expansion.
“If the law doesn’t change, we’ll leave Russia,” said Boettcher, a 60-year-old Briton who said he founded Moscow-based Storm 16 years ago with two blackjack tables and a roulette wheel. “Most staff, certainly the management, will come with us,” he said last week at his Jazz Town casino in Moscow.
A law that takes effect in July 2009 permits gambling on the Pacific coast, in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Siberia’s Altai region and around the Azov Sea in the south. The areas are too far from Moscow to draw gamblers, Boettcher said.
Putin compared dependency on gaming to alcohol or nicotine addiction in 2006, the year the law was passed. Gambling mushroomed after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, with casinos popping up everywhere and slot machines installed in the Moscow metro.
Storm is aiming for 12 percent of the $172 billion world gaming market by 2030, Boettcher said.
The company plans to open a renovated casino in the Armenian capital of Yerevan by May and will invest $300 million developing a hotel, concert and exhibition halls, a shopping center and restaurants. In Costa Rica, the company is refurbishing a hotel and building a casino, both scheduled to open by July.
Emerging markets are more attractive than developed nations because they have fewer rules governing gaming, Boettcher said. 
Developing countries have drawn companies from Ladbrokes, the British owner of about 2,600 betting shops, to Queenco Leisure International, which is planning a Cambodian casino.
Storm’s revenue has risen by as much as 25 percent annually in the past seven years and climbed 40 percent in 2007, Boettcher said, without giving figures. The company has five Moscow casinos including Jazz Town, which has its own music club, 30 gaming tables and a leather-furnished VIP room.
“It’s not just a matter of openings,” said Boettcher, who is Storm International’s sole owner. “It’s the GDP growth. Salaries are growing astronomically. In 1992, it was all bandits. People have changed.”
Storm will turn its Moscow properties into stores, offices or hotels and is diversifying into business jets and yacht chartering for the capital’s many millionaires.
Storm, which is also building a resort in Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, has no plans to borrow money, sell a stake or go public, Boettcher said.

TITLE: Kaliningrad Bans Signs in English
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The once-ubiquitous English-language “sale” signs in Russian store windows may soon disappear if the Kaliningrad region’s interpretation of a federal law spreads to the rest of the country.
In recent years, local legislation in cities across the country has banned the use of foreign-language words in stores and on advertising billboards, but enforcement has been patchy at best.
The Kaliningrad Regional Prosecutor’s Office this week served notice on the Yevropa shopping center in the city, telling store owners to take down their “sale” signs in English, citing complaints from passers-by.
“This is a blatant violation of the federal law on the official state language,” Yelena Madyudya, an aide to the city’s prosecutor, said Thursday, referring to the June 2005 law that forbids the use of foreign words or expressions when Russian equivalents are available.
Advertisements on buildings, billboards and shops should be in the Russian language, Madyudya said, adding that other stores would also be served notices demanding that the offending foreign word be removed.
Alexei Pribor, head of advertising at the Yevropa shopping center, said Thursday that the center had been selected because of its city-center location, but added, “Once the campaign starts, there is no end in sight.”
“It is a good omen that our leaders have awoken to the fact that we are Russian and should live by Russian laws,” Pribor said. “Displaying signs and symbols in Cyrillic is part and parcel of this feeling.”
The center is now considering how best to display its sale signs without causing offense. “We may simply use the percent sign, which is noncommittal,” Pribor said. “Or we could translate or transliterate for a better effect.” 
The crackdown in Kaliningrad appeared to be part of efforts to deflect criticisms that the exclave, surrounded on three sides by European Union countries, was being infiltrated by foreign linguistic and cultural influences.
Local legislation banning adverts in foreign languages exists in many big cities, but it is seldom invoked, an advertisement industry executive said.
“Local authorities appear to be waiting for an opportune time to enforce such measures,” said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she did not want to have her company’s name mentioned in the media.
Last year, a law was passed banning price listings in dollars, euros or standard units (which can be interpreted to mean dollars or euros, or an average of the two). A presidential decree broadened the scope of the law, obliging state officials to “desist from using foreign currencies to denote prices” of goods and services.

TITLE: Slavneft Investigated Over Tax Inquiry
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: Feb. 22 — Slavneft, the Russian oil producer controlled by Gazprom and a BP Plc venture, is working “as usual” after police took documents related to alleged tax evasion by a subsidiary in 2003, a spokeswoman said.
Moscow-based Slavneft is cooperating with the investigation into the Kalmykia-registered unit, which the producer bought after the year in question, spokeswoman Maria Gridneva said by phone Friday, declining to elaborate.
Investigators suspect the unit failed to pay about $10 million in taxes, Vedomosti newspaper reported Friday, citing an unidentified Interior Ministry official. The search was part of a criminal investigation into executives suspected of tax evasion, Interfax news service reported Thursday.
Oil producers including bankrupt Yukos Oil Co. and Sibneft, which Gazprom bought from billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2005 and renamed Gazprom Neft, were accused in 2003 of avoiding taxes by selling oil through traders in areas that offered low tax rates, including Kalmykia, a mainly Buddhist region in southern Russia.
Gazprom Neft declined to comment “because it wasn’t a shareholder at the time and has no connection with the managers,” spokeswoman Natalya Vyalkina said. In 2002, Sibneft and Tyumen Oil Co., which later merged with BP Plc’s Russian assets to form TNK-BP, bought the Russian government’s 75 percent stake in Slavneft for $1.86 billion. Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP now share ownership of Slavneft.

TITLE: Japanese Firm Buys Gas Credits From Gazprom
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Marubeni Corp., a Japanese trading company, bought greenhouse gas-emission credits from Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas exporter, to capitalize on growing demand for the rights to pollute air in Japan.
The transfer of the credit will be completed in December, Marubeni said Friday in a statement on its web site. Marubeni and Gazprom’s trading arm also agreed to find ways to jointly implement greenhouse-gas reduction projects, the statement said.
The Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM, allows polluters in developed nations to buy credits from projects that cut the emission of harmful gases in developing countries. The United Nations typically gives an approval, or certified emissions reduction credits, to a CDM applicant following local governments’ endorsement.
“The number of Japanese companies seeking such a carbon credit is rapidly increasing given that the Kyoto Protocol’s five-year period starts this year,” Marubeni said in the statement. “We are capturing rising demand for the credits in Japan by pushing ahead with emission-reduction projects jointly with a Gazprom group.”
Japan pledged to cut annual average emissions of greenhouse gases during the five years starting April by 6 percent from the 1990 level. The nation’s output of greenhouse gases rose 6.4 percent in the year to March 2007 from levels 17 years earlier.
Marubeni is an investor of Russia’s $13 billion Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project. The company has an 11.68 percent stake in Sakhalin Oil & Gas Development, which owns 30 percent of the project.

TITLE: Putin Pledges More Fuel For Tajikistan Emergency
AUTHOR: By Michael Heath
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to help Tajikistan battle what the Central Asian nation’s leader called “catastrophic” cold weather that has left only the capital, Dushanbe, with regular power supplies.
“There has never been anything like it in our country’s history,” President Emomali Rakhmon told Putin at the Russian leader’s residence outside of Moscow on Thursday. “In the east now it is minus 25 degrees.”
Putin promised additional aid on top of the diesel fuel and mobile power generators Russia has sent, according to a transcript on the Kremlin’s web site. Rakhmon said his country of 7 million people has no regular power supplies outside Dushanbe, where electricity is available only eight hours a day.
As many as 1 million children under the age of five are in danger from the cold weather, the United Nations Children’s Fund said last week. Aid agencies estimate at least 260,000 people in rural areas are in need of immediate food supplies and as many as 500,000 may face shortages in the future.
Tajikistan, a mountainous country and former Soviet republic, shares borders with Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The third straight month of freezing temperatures has caused $1 billion of damage, destroyed the country’s winter crop and killed almost 70 percent of livestock, Rakhmon said.
Cases of respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, doubled this winter compared with the same period last year, the UN cited Tajikistan’s Health Ministry as saying. Power cuts and the cold weather contributed to the deaths of several newborn babies in hospitals, the UN said, citing reports.
The Tajik leader wants assistance to build a hydroelectric power station to address the country’s shortage. “There is no other way,” he told Putin. “Tajikistan’s electricity deficit in winter amounts to 20.5 billion kilowatt-hours.”
Ties between Russia and Tajikistan have been strained in recent times.
Rakhmon was known as Rakhmonov until last year when he removed the Slavic “ov” from his name as part of a ban on registering newborn babies with Russian-sounding names, Kommersant newspaper reported at the time.
He has also outlawed gold teeth in Tajikistan because he said it would be impossible to secure loans from international aid organizations when village teachers could demonstrate such wealth, according to the Moscow-based newspaper.
The Tajik president has also sought to build a personality cult in the nation. Seven of Rakhmon’s books, including “Emomali Rakhmonov — the Nation’s Savior,” form part of the national school curriculum.

TITLE: A Rich Blend Of Folksy And Foul Putinisms
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: In my apartment you can always tell when it’s Putin news conference time. My desk is covered with 14 dictionaries. I’ve got seven Internet windows open on various slang and language sites. I’ve also got hundreds of pages of printouts of the official transcripts in Russian and English with sections highlighted and annotated. 
Too bad the Kremlin’s English translation is so bland. This year’s crop of news conference ÔÛÚËÌÍË (Putinisms) is a particularly rich blend of folksy and foul. 
On the folksy side, we have this comment about continuing to work after his term as president ends: äÓ̘ÌÓ, ÏÓÊÌÓ, Í‡Í Û Ì‡Ò ‚ ÌÂÍÓÚÓÐÞ¦ ÏÂÒÚ‡¦ „Ó‚ÓÐËÎË, “òËÎÓ ‚ ÒÚÂÌÍÛ — Ë Ì‡ ·ÓÍÓ‚Ûþ Á‡Î˜¸.” ÑÛχþ, ˜ÚÓ Ð‡ÌÓ‚‡ÚÓ. This translates literally as: Of course I could, as people used to say in some parts of Russia, “Stick my awl in the wall and lie down on my side.” But I think it is a bit early for that. 
The expression òËÎÓ ‚ ÒÚÂÌÍÛ — Ë Ì‡ ·ÓÍÓ‚Ûþ Á‡Î˜¸ is definitely obscure. Most specialists think it’s a shoemaker’s expression, but the guy in my local shoe-repair shop had never heard of it. The image is a cobbler who finishes his work, sticks his awl into a piece of wood (so he doesn’t lose it or sit on it) and then curls up to go to sleep. Since we English-speakers like our folk sayings to have a bit of alliteration, I’d translate it as: hang up my hammer and hit the hay.
In another response about the work of state officials, Putin seems to have combined two expressions: 
ä‡Ê‰ÞÈ ‰ÓÎÊÂÌ ÏÓÚÞÊËÚ¸, Í‡Í Ò‚¾ÚÓÈ îЇ̈ËÒÍ, Ò‚ÓÈ Û˜‡ÒÚÓÍ, ·ÛÏ-·ÛÏ, Âʉ̂ÌÓ, Ë ÚÓ„‰‡ ÛÒÔ¦ ·Û‰ÂÚ Ó·ÂÒÔ˜ÂÌ. (Everyone should be like St. Francis and hoe his own garden — Whack! Whack! — every day, and then success will be assured.) 
This seems to be a mix of the Russian expression ÍÓÔ‡Ú¸ Ò‚ÓÈ Ó„ÓÐÓ‰ (dig in one’s own garden, mind one’s business or do one’s own work) and a reference to St. Francis who, when asked what he’d do if he learned he was to die at sunset, replied (in the English translation): I’d finish hoeing my garden. But the sound effect — ·ÛÏ-·ÛÏ — is Putin’s editorial addition.
And then: èÛÒÚ¸ ÊÂÌÛ Ò‚Óþ Û˜ËÚ ×Ë ‚‡ÐËÚ¸ Ú‡Ï! (A man should teach his own wife to make cabbage soup over there!) This, blandly rendered as “They take a schoolteacher approach to some countries” in the official translation, is a quote from the popular Soviet-era television miniseries “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.” 
The question of his personal wealth provoked the strongest reaction. óÚÓ Í‡Ò‡ÂÚÒ¾ ЇÁ΢ÌÞ¦ ÒÎÛ¦Ó‚ ÔÓ ÔÓ‚Ó‰Û ‰ÂÌÂÊÌÓ„Ó ÒÓÒÚÓ¾Ì˾, ¾ ÒÏÓÚÐÂÎ ÌÂÍÓÚÓÐÞ ·ÛχÊÍË Ì‡ ýÚÓÚ Ò˜½Ú ... 
Here the use of the diminutive ·ÛχÊÍË instead of ·Ûχ„Ë (papers) belittles the source of information. It might be translated as something like: 
“Concerning various rumors about my financial status, I looked at some poop sheets on that.” Putin continued: èÐÓÒÚÓ ·ÓÎÚӂ̾, ÍÓÚÓÐÛþ ÌÂ˜Â„Ó Ó·ÒÛʉ‡Ú¸, ÔÐÓÒÚÓ ˜Û¯¸. (It’s just blather that isn’t worth discussing, just rubbish.) 
And in case we had missed the point: ÇÒ½ ‚ÞÍÓ‚ÞоÎË ËÁ ÌÓÒ‡ Ë Ð‡ÁχÁ‡ÎË ÔÓ Ò‚ÓËÏ ·ÛχÊ͇Ï. (They just picked it out of their nose and smeared it on their little sheets.) The Kremlin translators gave this vivid image a pass, rendering it as: “They just made it up and included it in their papers.”
I look forward to language lessons under Dmitry Medvedev. But my life will be easier if his translators don’t leave out the juicy parts. 

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based interpreter and translator.

TITLE: Putin Saved My Career
AUTHOR: By Mark N. Katz
TEXT: I do not approve of what President Vladimir Putin has done over the past eight years. But I am grateful to him because he single-handedly saved my career.
   This requires some explanation. During the latter part of the Cold War, I was a specialist on Soviet foreign policy toward the Third World. This was such an important topic that studying it provided a living to many scholars, including myself. I received fellowships and grants enabling me to write books and articles on this subject as well as travel both in the United States and abroad to give lectures and do research. I even received a fair amount of attention from the media, which was engrossed with this subject. My two main classes — Soviet politics and Soviet foreign policy — regularly enrolled 50 to 60 students each every semester.
But things changed when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started withdrawing Soviet forces from the Third World. As a result, interest in this subject started to decline in the world of academia. In 1991, I wrote a comment in The Washington Post titled “Gorbachev Ruined My Career.” Little did I know just how thoroughly he would accomplish this.
President Boris Yeltsin picked up where Gorbachev left off. In the ‘90s, Moscow’s foreign policy continued to be less and less threatening — and hence the subject became less and less interesting. Fellowships, grants, and consulting all dried up. Reporters no longer called me, and newspapers ran fewer opinion pieces on the subject. 
Student interest also dropped. The low point came in the fall of 1997, when only 10 students signed up for my course on Russian foreign policy. My department chair asked me to combine this class with one on Russian politics to form a single course. “After all,” she said, “we only offer one course on most other regions of the Third World.”
The quieter Russia of the ‘90s made life miserable for me in a professional sense. Things began to change, though, shortly after Putin became acting president at the end in the beginning of 2000. Slowly at first, but then with increasing frequency, I found myself being asked to write articles and do consulting on Russian foreign policy. During the Putin era, I have lectured and spoken to people about this subject on many occasions in the United States and other countries, including Britain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Russia itself and even Iran. Funding has also picked up, as has student interest. My “Government and Politics of Russia” course this spring enrolled 45 students. I think there would have been even more if the schedulers had given me a bigger room, but they apparently have not forgotten the enrollment fiasco from that fall semester in 1997.
Remembering, though, how Gorbachev and Yeltsin ruined my career in the early ‘90s, I worried for much of last year that the same thing would happen again if Putin kept his promise not to run for a third term as president and free elections were held in Russia. 
But it turns out that there was nothing to worry about. Putin is not really going away, and the elections to “replace” him will not really be free. So we can expect his assertive, perhaps even belligerent, foreign policy to continue — thus keeping me and many of my Russia-expert colleagues in demand to analyze it.
To be honest, I do not think that a continuation of Putin’s assertive foreign policy is going to work very well for the country. When the Kremlin takes actions that other governments find threatening, it does not result in warmer relations with Moscow; it only pushes them closer to Washington instead. 
But I, for one, have no interest in Putin, Medvedev & Co. realizing this — at least until I retire.

Mark N. Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University.

TITLE: Kremlin Scores An Own Goal
AUTHOR: Editorial
TEXT: By denying Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, a visa, the Kremlin did succeed in preventing him from presenting a critical report in Moscow. The report criticizes the authorities for intentionally shackling nongovernmental organizations with burdensome restrictions.
Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said the business visa applications filed by Roth and two colleagues identified them as “managers” for McKinsey & Company who were invited by the Agriculture Ministry. The real purpose of their visit, the ministry said, was to meet activists at Russian nongovernmental organizations and journalists. 
If true, this is a fair pretext for denying Roth a visa. But the actual reason that Roth was unwelcome was probably linked to Human Rights Watch’s years-long criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
Roth’s visa denial did little to stanch his group’s criticism. Its staff went ahead with the presentation on Wednesday anyway. 
By refusing Roth entry, the Foreign Ministry actually shot itself in the foot. Articles about Roth’s report, which was far from sensational, would have likely been buried deep inside newspapers. The visa refusal made the story more interesting, moving it to the front page of Kommersant and The Moscow Times.
If the Kremlin wants any of the millions of dollars it gives to Western PR agencies to improve the country’s image to have any effect, it will have to abandon its heavy-handed approach to independent NGOs that criticize its conduct.
The authorities also must realize that, as the latest incident makes clear, the denial of a visa to one NGO activist — even the head of an organization — will not diminish the criticism. There are other employees, Russians included, ready to fill the void.
Roth says this is the first time someone from Human Rights Watch has been denied a visa to Russia and only the second time — after Nigeria — that he has been barred from visiting any country. 
But Roth is not the first to have been locked out; dozens of human rights activists and journalists have been told they are not welcome in Russia.
The government would do best to choose one of two options. First, it should learn to tolerate foreign and domestic criticism, because pretending to be a democracy while moving toward autocracy can’t escape watchful eyes, inside or outside the country.
Alternatively, if it isn’t ready to tolerate criticism voiced inside the country, it should abandon the pretenses of democracy, shut down all independent NGOs and critical media and pull the Iron Curtain down again.

TITLE: Sharapova Claims Second Title of 2008
AUTHOR: By Barry Wood
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DOHA  — Maria Sharapova claimed her second title of the year and the 18th of her career when she defeated unseeded Vera Zvonareva 6-1 2-6 6-0 in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open on Sunday.
The Australian Open champion, who extended her unbeaten run this year to 14 matches, lost to Zvonareva in their last meeting at Indian Wells 11 months ago and after dominating the opening set once again found herself in trouble against her former top ten opponent.
“I had a really slow start,” Sharapova told reporters. “I was kind of sleeping in the beginning of the match. I had to get myself going somehow and I did, and I played really, really well.”
Playing in a packed 5,000-seat stadium, fourth seed Sharapova made a dreadful start, dropping the opening game to love.
But she repaired the situation immediately, leveling at 1-1 and then overwhelming her opponent with her deep groundstrokes and powerful forehand.
Moving with increasing fluency, her aggressive play forced a number of errors from Zvonareva and allowed her to break twice more for the set, and it appeared as if she would continue on to an easy victory.
But the second set saw a complete reversal.
A double-fault gave Zvonareva a break for 2-0 after Sharapova had led the game 40-0, and her aggressive groundstrokes forced the struggling favorite into a succession of errors.
Making just three unforced errors, Zvonareva dominated the set and broke again to level the match on her fifth set point.
The pendulum swung again in the final set, as a determined Sharapova raised her level once more, taking control from the first game and surrendering just eight points in the remainder of the match.
“I had so many opportunities in the beginning of the second set but I didn’t take them, and she’s the type of opponent that’s going to play her best tennis when she’s playing from behind and has nothing to lose,” said Sharapova.
“Her level just comes up, and mine dropped. I felt like my energy was going down. I wasn’t moving or hitting the same way, and I think that first game of the third set was very important. It gave me a lot of confidence.”
Zvonareva agreed the beginning of the final set played a crucial part in the outcome of the match.
“It was a tough one,” said Zvonareva. “She started off really well and I didn’t really know what to do. She was really aggressive and didn’t give me a chance. Then I found my game a little bit better and caused her trouble in the second.
“I think the first game of the third set was an important game on my serve. I lost it and then she took a 3-0 lead and it was really tough to stop her after that.”

TITLE: Cotillard, Coens Crowned by Hollywood
AUTHOR: By David Germain
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES, California — The Coen brothers completed their journey from Hollywood’s fringes to its mainstream on Sunday with their crime saga “No Country for Old Men” winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavor.
Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in “No Country,” which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honor as producers.
Accepting the directing honor alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they got their start in a career that has seen them advance from oddballs with a devoted cult following to broader audiences. He noted they have been making films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called “Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go.”
“What we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then,” Joel Coen said. “We’re very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox.”
Daniel Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Oscar for the oil-boom epic “There Will Be Blood,” while “La Vie En Rose” star Marion Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for “Away From Her.”
All four acting prizes went to Europeans: Frenchwoman Cotillard, Spaniard Bardem, and Brits Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, the supporting-actress winner for “Michael Clayton.”
The only other time in the Oscars’ 80-year history that all four acting winners were foreign born was 1964, when the recipients were Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Peter Ustinov and Lila Kedrova.
As a raging, conniving, acquisitive petroleum pioneer caught up in California’s oil boom of the early 20th century, Day-Lewis won for a part that could scarcely have been more different than his understated role as a writer with severe cerebral palsy in 1989’s “My Left Foot.”
“My deepest thanks to the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town,” Day-Lewis said.
The Coens missed out on a chance to make Oscar history — four wins for a single film — when they lost the editing prize, for which they were nominated under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.
“The Bourne Ultimatum” won the editing Oscar and swept all three categories in which it was nominated, including sound editing and sound mixing.
Past winners for their screenplay to 1996’s “Fargo,” the Coens joined an elite list of filmmakers to win three Oscars in a single night, including Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather Part II”), James Cameron (“Titanic”) and Billy Wilder (“The Apartment”).
With $64 million domestically, “No Country” is the biggest box-office hit for the Coens, whose tales often are an acquired taste appealing to narrow crowds. Their films include the modest hits “Fargo” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and such lesser-known yarns as “The Hudsucker Proxy” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”
Cotillard, the first winner ever for a French-language performance, tearfully thanked her director, Olivier Dahan.
“Maestro Olivier, you rocked my life. You have truly rocked my life,” said Cotillard, a French beauty who is a dynamo as Piaf, playing the warbling chanteuse through three decades, from her raw late teens as a singer rising from the gutter through international stardom until her final days in her frail 40s.
“Thank you, life; thank you, love. And it is true there are some angels in this city.”
A relatively fresh face in Hollywood, Cotillard has U.S. credits that include “Big Fish,” “A Good Year” and the upcoming “Public Enemies,” featuring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.
With a heartbreaking turn as a woman succumbing to Alzheimer’s in “Away From Her,” Christie had been expected to win her second Oscar. She won best actress 42 years ago for “Darling.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The Austrian Holocaust-era drama “The Counterfeiters” won the Oscar for best foreign language film on Sunday.
The film, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, is the first win for Austria in this category and the second Academy Award nomination.
It beat out films from Israel, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia in a year in which the Academy has come under heavy fire for excluding top films like Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.”
“The Counterfeiters” shows the concentration camps from a different perspective. Based on real-life accounts, a master counterfeiter and other skilled prisoners are put to work by the Nazis to manufacture foreign bank notes.
The Germans want to use fake money to flood and bring down the U.S. and British economies, but the prisoner counterfeiters try to thwart the plot.

TITLE: Hiddink Looks Toward The Future
AUTHOR: By Gennady Fyodorov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Guus Hiddink has revealed that managing the Russian national team could be his last active coaching job but is keeping his options open.
“It is possible I might step out of coaching and have a more advisory role with a club or a national association after 2010,” Hiddink told Reuters in an interview during his team’s training camp on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast earlier this month.
“Well, to be honest, I just don’t know at this time,” said the 61-year-old Dutchman, who last year agreed to extend his Russian contract for two more years beyond the Euro 2008 finals and through the 2010 World Cup.
“If I don’t become a bitter old jealous man by then I might continue. Actually, I’m enjoying my job right now. I get a lot of positive energy working with young people, teaching them a few things. It’s a big motivation for me to keep going.”
Hiddink has already done some consulting work for FIFA and UEFA, the sport’s world and European governing bodies.
“I’ve been regularly asked to speak at their workshops and seminars, to give presentations to other coaches,” he said. “I find it a very good way to exchange ideas, to stay tuned to the latest technical and tactical developments in football.”
The highly successful coach, who led his native Netherlands to the 1998 World Cup semi-finals before repeating the feat with South Korea four years later, has been constantly linked with top coaching jobs round the world.
“Rumors are always going around football,” he said. “I hear some tabloids mention my name almost every time there is a coaching vacancy, but that doesn’t bother me.”
More than any other club, Hiddink has been linked with Chelsea because of his acquaintance with the English Premier League club’s Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, who was instrumental in helping to lure the Dutchman to Moscow.
“All I can say for sure that for the next two years I’ll be coaching Russia, what comes after that I just don’t know,” he said.
Hiddink’s work in Russia has often been compared with that of his countryman Dick Advocaat, who last year, in his first full season with Zenit St. Petersburg, steered them to their first national title in nearly a quarter of a century.
In an interview with Reuters in November 2006 about his long-lasting legacy in St. Petersburg, Advocaat simply stated: “I just want to achieve results and win trophies with this club.”
Asked the same question, Hiddink said: “Most of all, I would like to be remembered as an open, direct person, who also had the great pleasure of working in Russia.
“I’ve been very well received here by people and the warmth of the ordinary Russian people is the one thing I will probably remember the most.”
Hiddink reportedly earns two million euros ($2.9 million) a year, paid for by Abramovich through his National Academy Fund.
But he said: “If I didn’t like it here I wouldn’t stay, no matter how much they pay me.
“I always try to find my motivation from other things. Here, it is helping build Russian football, its infrastructure. As for the national team, I get a lot of a kick from teaching young guys, helping them grow to become top-class players.”
The Dutchman added: “Also I want Russia to learn to play a more attractive, attacking game, not be too defensive and not fear anybody. If I can achieve all that it could be my legacy to Russian football.”

TITLE: Cuba Confirms Castro Brother as President
AUTHOR: By Will Weissert
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HAVANA — Raul Castro, Cuba’s first new president in nearly half a century, crushed hopes that a new generation would shape the country’s future by promising to defer to his ailing brother Fidel and the Communist Party’s old guard on major matters.
Shunning younger candidates, the island’s parliament tapped 77-year-old revolutionary leader Jose Ramon Machado for the government’s No. 2 spot, meaning Raul Castro’s constitutional successor is even older than he is, by a year.
The retirement of 81-year-old Fidel Castro capped a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him. But despite finally emerging from his brother’s shadow, Raul made it clear that Fidel will continue to play a key role in running Cuba.
“Fidel is Fidel, we all know it very well,” the younger Castro told parliament after lawmakers unanimously approved the succession with a show of hands. “Fidel is irreplaceable and the people will continue his work when he is no longer physically with us.”
He suggested that no quick or major economic or political overhauls are in Cuba’s future, and that the Communist Party collectively would take over the role long held by his brother, who still has the important position of party head.
Fidel’s power in government has eroded since July 31, 2006, when he announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding his powers to Raul. The younger Castro has headed Cuba’s caretaker government in the 19 months since then, and Fidel Castro has not appeared in public.
The parliament vote ended the elder Castro’s 49 years as ruler of the communist state in America’s backyard, but kept many of the oldest leaders in key positions. It also represented a triumph for a carefully managed campaign to smoothly transfer power from Fidel, even as the U.S. lobbied for a quick “transition to democracy.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the Castros’ succession, saying Cubans have a right “to choose their leaders in democratic elections.”
She also urged the Cuban government to “to begin a process of peaceful, democratic change by releasing all political prisoners, respecting human rights and creating a clear pathway toward free and fair elections.”
Though the succession was not likely to bring a major shift in the communist policies that have put Cuba at odds with the U.S., many Cubans had hoped it would open the door to modest economic reforms that might improve their daily lives. Many had also hoped younger leaders would assume more important roles.
On Sunday, some Cubans appeared dejected.
“I guess nothing’s going to change then,” said Yuniel, a 22-year-old waiter in a restaurant near Havana’s Central Park. Like many Cubans, he declined to give his last name when criticizing the government. “There’s no reason people should hope for anything.”
Marleen Rodriguez, a 25-year-old store clerk in the central city of Santa Clara, said she had hoped Cuba’s 42-year-old foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, would be chosen president.
“Fidel talked about young people, and then they choose Raul,” she said.
But others said they had gotten used to Raul as head of state, and the country has been calm with him at the helm.
“I’m very content,” Luis Cuevas, a 43-year-old locksmith in the central city of Ciego de Avila, said of Raul’s presidency. “This is what was expected.”
Raul Castro had called for debate on how to shape Cuba’s economic future and even endorsed unspecified “structural changes” to the communist system. But he said Sunday that anyone hoping for radical change “overlooked the fact that it was debate and criticism within socialism.”
He indicated that at least one change is being contemplated: the re-valuation of the Cuban peso, the currency most people use to pay for government services and the small amount charged for their monthly food ration. But he also noted that the government spends too much money maintaining the ration program, saying that it was “irrational and unsustainable.”
The overwhelming majority of Cubans work for the state, and many complain that the government pays them in Cuban pesos but sells goods in government-run grocery and retail stores in Cuban Convertible Pesos - largely available only to tourists and foreigners, and worth 24 times more.
Reinaldo Garcia, a 49-year-old mechanic, said he could live without a ration card if the regular peso gets stronger.
“If there were only one currency instead of two, Cuban money would be strong enough and the ration card wouldn’t matter,” Garcia said.
The new No. 2, Machado, fought alongside the Castro brothers in Cuba’s eastern mountains in the late 1950s.
New members on the governing Council of State also include two top generals close to Raul and another aging revolutionary commander. The head of the military’s economics ministry will replace Raul Castro as defense minister.
Cuba’s young guard apparently will have to wait a little longer.
Cabinet secretary Carlos Lage, 56, who is associated with the modest economic reforms of the 1990s, had been among the most visible Cuban officials since Fidel Castro fell ill. He will continue as a regular vice president.
Raul’s rise caused little sensation Sunday on the sweaty streets of Havana, where children continued to play baseball with improvised bats and gloves. During his speech, military reservists in olive-green uniforms were stationed on major street corners, but many were later recalled.
“The people didn’t elect anyone,” said Alejandro, a 33-year-old who was drinking rum Sunday night with friends near the capital’s seaside Malecon boulevard.
“There is no democracy, no human rights,” he said. “And with that old guy (Raul), there won’t be any in the future.”

TITLE: Diver, 13,
Set To Be Youngest Olympian
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BEIJING — Diving prodigy Tom Daley, aged 13, is poised to become Britain’s youngest male Olympian after finishing seventh in the 10-meter platform at the World Cup, a qualifying event for the Beijing Games.
“To finish in seventh place is amazing and I am absolutely over the moon,” said the schoolboy from Plymouth late Sunday.
Daley finished one place ahead of teammate Peter Waterfield, who won a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in the 10-meter synchronized event.
“My goal for the Olympics is just to get out there and enjoy myself,” Daley said. “But I will be aiming to put together six good dives.”
The teenager will be 14 years and 80 days old when the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games begin, and barring injury he will beat the record for the youngest British male Olympian by more than a year.
But his real target is London 2012, when he hopes to be among the challengers for gold.
“I will be a little bit older and a little bit stronger so I will be able to do the more difficult dives,” said Daley, who started in the sport as a seven-year-old.
“Add to that the experience I will gain at the Beijing Olympics and I hope I will be able to go for the gold in London.”
Daley has already drawn the attention of international rivals and has won praise from China’s coach Zhou Jihong. Asked about foreign divers who had impressed him, he said: “Daley will be 14 this year. I saw his performance at the 2007 World Series in Britain. He is talented, with clean executions. The degree of difficulty of his dives will increase as he grows older.”
On Friday, Daley and his partner Blake Aldridge won a bronze medal in the 10-meter synchro and he could appear in that event also at the Beijing games.
However, each nation gets only one slot in the doubles event and Waterfield and his partner Leon Taylor are also vying for that spot.
“In the trials in June we’ll find out who takes up the place out of me and Blake or Leon and Pete,” he said.
The record for the youngest British Olympian was previously held by Fred Hodges, also a diver. 
Hodges was 15 years and 94 days when he went to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

TITLE: Nader Joins Presidential Contest
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Ralph Nader on Sunday announced a fresh bid for the White House, criticizing the top contenders as too close to big business and dismissing the possibility that his third-party candidacy could tip the election to Republicans.
The longtime consumer advocate is still loathed by many Democrats who accuse him of costing Al Gore the 2000 election.
Nader said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. He also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.
“You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected,” he said. “You go from Iraq, to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts.”
Nader, who turns 74 later this week, announced his candidacy on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In a later interview with The Associated Press, he rejected the notion of himself as a spoiler candidate, saying the electorate will not vote for a “pro-war John McCain.” He also predicted his campaign would do better than in 2004, when he won just 0.3 percent of the vote as an independent.
“This time we’re ready for them,” said Nader of the Democratic Party lawsuits that kept him off the ballot in some states.
Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly sought to portray Nader’s announcement as having little impact.
“Obviously, it’s not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is. But it’s a free country,” said Clinton, who called Nader’s announcement a “passing fancy.”
Obama dismissed Nader as a perennial presidential campaigner. “He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush and eight years later I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about,” Obama added.
Republican Mike Huckabee welcomed Nader into the race.
“I think it always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not the Republicans,” the former Arkansas governor said on CNN.
Nader said Obama’s and Clinton’s lukewarm response was not surprising given that political parties typically treat third-party candidates as “second-class citizens.”

TITLE: Sports watch
TEXT: <b>Zenit Advance </b>
LONDON (Reuters) — The Russian FA has complained to UEFA president Michel Platini about poor officiating in the UEFA Cup first-round tie between Zenit St. Petersburg and Villarreal.
Russian champions Zenit advanced on the away goals rule despite losing 2-1 to the Spaniards in Thursday’s second leg after having two players and coach Dick Advocaat sent off.
“We feel Austrian referee Stefan Messner’s work was not up to the game’s high standards,” the Russian FA said in a letter to Platini posted on its web site.

<b>39th Game Idea ‘Dead’</b>
LONDON (Reuters) — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the Premier League’s plan to play a 39th round of matches overseas from 2011 looks fatally wounded by opposition from the English FA and governing bodies FIFA and UEFA.
“The idea looks to be dead, maybe because the idea came out in a brutal way and maybe the PR was not done,” Wenger told Sky Sports News television.

<b>Ronaldinho To Stay Put</b>
LONDON (Reuters) — Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck is not expecting Barcelona’s Ronaldinho to join the English Premier League club any time soon.
“Ronaldinho? No, I don’t see it being likely Ronaldinho will be here next year,” he told Sky Sports News. “Anything was a possibility and certainly there had been rumours and discussions of that but I don’t see it happening.”

TITLE: New South Korean President Sworn-In Promising Change
AUTHOR: By Jonathan Thatcher
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SEOUL — Ex-construction boss Lee Myung-bak was sworn in as South Korea’s new president on Monday, promising business-like pragmatism after a decade of ideological policies he said had left the world’s 13th largest economy adrift.
His inauguration speech stuck closely to the campaign pledges for radical change that helped him to a landslide election win in December, ending 10 years of liberal rule his supporters say kept the South Korean economy from reaching its real potential.
“Although it is going to be difficult and painful, we must change much more and much faster,” the 66-year-old conservative told an estimated audience of 60,000 people that included Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“Economic revival is our most urgent task,” he said. “At times over the last 10 years, we found ourselves faltering and confused ... we must move from the age of ideology and into the age of pragmatism.”
Analysts say he will have a tough time reaching his target of an average 7 percent annual growth over the next decade and will certainly miss it in his first year, as a global economic slowdown cuts into South Korea’s export-dependent economy.
Lee, who also promises to double per-capita income to $40,000 a year, is limited by the constitution to a single 5-year term to push through his ambitious plans.
Though the average growth rate of more than 4 percent under the outgoing government is one many countries might envy, South Korean voters had come to expect much higher figures.
“The potential growth rate of the Korean economy is estimated to be closer to 4-5 percent. One of the risks of the incoming president’s 7 percent growth target is public dissatisfaction if the target is missed,” said James McCormack, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings.
Lee, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” from his construction days and whose move into politics included a popular stint as Seoul’s mayor, said the country was at a crossroads and urged South Koreans to accept change.
He pledged to cut away bureaucracy to make life easier for business.

TITLE: Sarkozy Exposes Temper, Tells Man To ‘Get Lost’
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — With his poll numbers sinking, is French President Nicolas Sarkozy losing his cool?
An opposition leader pounced Sunday and Web surfers gawked by the hundreds of thousands over video footage showing Sarkozy snapping at a man in a crowd at a Paris trade fair.
“Casse-toi alors, pauvre con, va,” he said, a phrase whose mildest translation is: “Then get out of here, you total jerk.”
On Saturday while the president was working a crowd to intermittent boos, a freelance cameraman caught on tape an unidentified man telling Sarkozy not to touch him. The man accused Sarkozy of “dirtying me.”
Sarkozy briskly snapped at the man and then moved on, continued to smile and shake hands with others along his path, saying “merci.” AP Television News received a copy of the video from the freelance cameraman.
Le Parisien newspaper posted a video of the incident on its Internet site, and it tallied more than a half-million views by Sunday afternoon.
The president’s spokesman, David Martinon, did not respond to a call to his mobile phone, and a lower-level official in the presidential press office declined to comment on the incident.
It is not likely to be welcomed by Sarkozy’s fellow conservatives, who are already concerned that his sinking popularity rating could damage their chances in next month’s municipal elections.
Socialist leader and frequent Sarkozy critic Francois Hollande, speaking Sunday on Canal Plus TV, said Sarkozy was out of line and that it was “intolerable ... that the president isn’t exemplary.”
Sarkozy bared a short fuse last year by calling Martinon an “imbecile” before storming away from an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes.”
Sarkozy has engaged in public shouting matches and used tough language from time to time over his political career. While interior minister in 2005, he angered many residents from poor housing projects by calling young delinquents “scum.”
The president has seen his popularity sink in recent months. Some voters have been put off by Sarkozy’s flaunting of his romance over the last few months with former supermodel Carla Bruni, whom he wed Feb. 2.

TITLE: Students Spread Their Wings
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The number of Russians receiving an education abroad has grown significantly over the last few years, with English language programs being the most popular courses according to data released by AcademConsult, a local company that organizes study abroad for Russian students.

The greatest numbers of Russians studying languages abroad come from the country’s capital, Moscow, and other major cities — in particular St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Krasnodar, Tyumen, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov-on- Don.  
Language courses are available in various packages. The typical package consists of language teaching and excursions, but there are now a number of more unusual combinations available to suit all tastes. Language learning can be combined with soccer in Manchester, Liverpool, Barcelona and Brazil, with skiing in the Alps, and with many other hobbies and activities in cities all across the world.
The thirst for language learning and broadening one’s career horizons is taking Russians beyond mere language courses — increasing numbers of Russians are choosing to complete their higher education and MBA programs and even attend high schools in a foreign country. Although some might tremble at the thought of sending their children abroad at the tender age of seven or 11, it makes studying at a foreign university considerably less complicated, and the prestige associated with a foreign education is sure to impress potential employers.
At a recent exhibition in St. Petersburg of British boarding schools organized by IQ Consultancy, a firm specializing in arranging for Russian students to study abroad, representatives from four schools were available to answer questions and talk to potential applicants about studying in their schools.
Sidcot School in Somerset, which charges students $12,300 per term (including board), received its first Russian students ten years ago, and currently has six Russian students between the ages of 14 and 18. Kate Hargreaves, a representative of Sidcot School, says that the Russian students at the school usually do very well and go on to study at Britain’s top universities. She said that the Russians integrate very well into life at Sidcot, citing the example of one student who became Head Boy, before studying at the London School of Economics, one of Britain’s top universities. He now has a highly regarded job in London.
Christopher Alcock, headmaster of Queen’s College in Somerset, has seven Russian students between nine and 17 currently studying at his school, which charges $13,000 per term including board. Like Hargreaves, he says that Russian students usually integrate well into the broad curriculum offered at Queen’s, including sport, music and drama. According to Alcock, the most popular subjects among Russian students are usually business and economics, although one female A-level student from Novosibirsk, who applied to the school independently, is hoping to study medicine at Cambridge. 
When asked why they were in Russia actively recruiting students to study at their schools, both Alcock and Hargreaves said that having an international dimension is highly positive for their schools. Hargreaves highlighted the advantage for students later on in their careers of having business contacts from all over the world, especially in today’s era of globalization, while Alcock said the benefits for students of talking to people with firsthand experience of world events.  He stressed that the school’s representation in Russia was not so much a marketing opportunity as an educational experience for himself and the chance to meet and talk to his students’ parents, who also attended the event.  According to him, many new applications come from students whose parents have had the school recommended to them by acquaintances already studying there. On the other hand, Alcock believes taking more than four Russian students per year could be counterproductive for the students themselves, since if there is more than one student in each house of the boarding school, they may be tempted to spend time together talking in Russian which can impede their integration and slow their acquisition of English.
An even greater number of Russian students choose to study abroad at university level. IQ Consultancy does not only send students to Britain, but has clients as far away as the Australian National University and Czech and Hungarian state universities. AcademConsult sends students to Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland and China as well as the more usual options of Britain, Canada and Australia. Fifty-four percent of AcademConsult’s students attend language courses, eight percent attend high school, 12 percent attend university on undergraduate programs, 17 percent study postgraduate programs, another eight percent attend Pathways programs at university and one percent does none of the above.
The most popular subjects studied by Russian students at foreign universities have traditionally been Business and Management courses, but the number of students studying these disciplines is now declining. Those who do study economic subjects tend to have a more specific specialty such as risk management or real estate management, while the number of those choosing technical subjects is on the increase, according to Irina Sledyeva, director of AcademConsult. 
“The demand for technical specialists is growing at an amazing pace, so getting a job after graduation is guaranteed,” says Sledyeva.
Humananities and arts subjects, on the other hand, are in decline, since it is difficult to predict the professional prospects for graduates of these subjects. Those who do not have an affinity for math or science usually study tourism and hospitality, sports management, social sciences or personnel management — disciplines that combine non-technical abilities with market demand.
Of course, studying abroad can be expensive — although not always (see article, page ii.)  Most students (90 percent) are funded by their families, five percent are sponsored by their employers and another five percent receive scholarships from educational institutions covering 50-100 percent of tuition fees, including accommodation. 
But is it worth going all that way or do Russian universities provide students with just as good an education? The growing numbers of students taking the study abroad option suggests that they at least believe it is worth it. Upon graduation, some choose to stay in the country in which they studied, while others get good job offers from Russia and return home. This may depend on their specialty, according to Sledyeva — IT specialists tend to receive better offers from abroad, while financial specialists often return to Russia.
“The most popular countries in which to receive a higher education are Great Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia,” says Sledyeva.
“More than half of all Russian students going abroad to study go to these countries. The reason is that firstly, they can study in English, which students have usually learnt at school and will stand them in good stead for the future, since English is the universal language of business communication almost all over the world. The second reason is the academic image of the country. A long history of being renowned for the best teaching and research centers is a guarantee that the degree received will be accepted and respected all over the world.”

TITLE: Counting Costs And Payback
AUTHOR: By Irina Sledyeva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: On the one hand, Russians are becoming more and more prosperous, and the number of parents prepared to pay for their offspring to study at foreign schools and universities is increasing. On the other hand, the cost of higher education in Russia is becoming more expensive, and is already approaching the cost of private institutions in Europe. 
Meanwhile, Russians have the right to study at state universities in Spain, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia where study is virtually free. Russians are attaching increasing importance to getting a high-quality, prestigious education, which is possible abroad as well as in Russia.
It is worth analyzing the return on higher education programs. According to data from the site www.rian.ru, the cost of one year of studying finance in St. Petersburg is around 78,800 rubles ($3100), while studying management costs 75,600 rubles ($3000) and law 150,000 rubles ($5900.) Courses are five years long.
The average wage for a manager in St. Petersburg is around $1000, those in the finance sector earn around $1200 and lawyers earn around $1300. Therefore the cost of studying the most popular subjects brings a return on average after two years of working.
The cost of studying the same subjects in Canada, Ireland or New Zealand is from $15,000-$20,000 a year. Courses last four years, but students can undertake paid employment while they are studying. The average starting salary for graduates of these subjects in Auckland and Vancouver, for example, ranges from $2500-$3500, so the cost of studying brings a return within 2-3 years. Therefore, the higher cost of studying leads to a correspondingly higher salary. 
The country that receives the most tuition fees from Russian students studying abroad is Great Britain, where 48,000 out of an estimated 60,000 Russians studying abroad go every year, bringing the country an estimated $100 million.

TITLE: Finding Your Perfect Match
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There are so many options available that some students considering studying abroad may feel overwhelmed by the range of countries within their reach. 
Many factors may influence the final choice, not least the language spoken in the country, the opportunities opened upon completing study in that country and the work options available during and after studying there. AcademConsult, a St. Petersburg firm specializing in sending Russian students abroad to study, offer some guidelines and information that may help prospective university students in various countries.
British Universities
• After the second year of study, students on certain courses have the opportunity to work for a year (known as a sandwich year) to obtain work experience and put into practice the knowledge learned in a real sector of the economy. During this year, students are paid a normal market wage for the work they are doing.
• After finishing university, graduates have the right to stay in Britain and work for 12 months. They also have the right to work while they are still studying.
• England is the best place to study the English language — the language of international communication.
Australian Universities
• When choosing an Australian university, it is important to remember that Australia does not have an official rating system. Instead, Australian universities are awarded stars, like hotels, from one to five. Their ratings are calculated on the basis of the academic achievements of students, the number of lecturers with academic degrees and research grants and, of course, the job prospects for graduates in the first three months after graduation.
• There are very strict rules in place concerning getting an Australian visa.
German Universities
• Study is free or inexpensive (120-600 euros, $175-$875, a semester) at state universities.
• Students can study in German or in English.
• Students can create their own study programs.
• It is possible to study in other countries for a semester or longer, as universities have agreements with universities in the U.S., France and England.
• Students can get paid work as trainees in German companies.
• Students have the right to work while studying.
• After graduation, students are entitled to work in EU countries.
Irish Universities
• For many years, Irish universities have been overshadowed by their British counterparts. However, they are no less prestigious than the latter for their quality, ancient traditions and facilities.
• Many Irish universities accept Russian academic qualifications and take Russian students from the age of 17.
• There are fewer foreign students in Ireland than in Britain, ensuring total immersion in the culture and language of the country (which is English) for Russian students.
• Tuition fees are 20-30 percent lower than in England.
Spanish Universities
• Study costs from 2,000 euros ($2,900) a year.
• Spanish degrees are recognized all over the world.
• Spanish is the second most popular language used in business.
• It is also possible to study in English.
• Students have the right to work while they are studying.
• Getting a Spanish visa is a very long procedure.
Italian Universities
• The cost of studying at state universities in Italy is around 500 euros a year ($730), while private universities set their own prices (from 9,500-22,000 euros, $13,900-$32,150).
• Italy is rated the top place to study fashion and design.
• At private universities it is possible to study in Italian or in English.
• Getting official documents from state universities is a very long procedure.
• There are few places available in student dormitories.
• The process of getting a visa is very complicated.
Canadian Universities
• The standard of living in Canada is very high — UNESCO named Canada the best place to live in the world.
• The Canadian government spends more on the education system (per head) than any other country. Consequently, the quality of education in the country’s top colleges and universities is very high, and Canadian diplomas and degrees are considered to be as prestigious as American qualifications and are recognized all over the world.
• The cost of living in Canada is lower than in the U.S., including the cost of studying, by two or three times.
• Almost all Canadian universities accept Russian students straight out of high school from the age of 17.
• Canadian universities give students the option of studying for shorter periods of time by allowing them to study during student vacations if they wish.
• Students can choose a “Co-op” course in which they work for a year as a specialist, which counts as a year of academic study.
• Foreign students at Canadian universities have the right to do paid work on the campus of their university.
• Canada is one of the few English-speaking countries that allows university students to stay and work there after graduating. It is relatively easy to obtain a residency permit for “independent immigrants” — people with a good education and/or good professional skills.
Chinese Universities
• Studying in China is not expensive (from $1,500-3,000 a year).
• Living in a student hostel costs from $600 a year.
• It is becoming increasingly popular to learn East Asian languages — China and Japan are Russia’s neighbors, and their influence in the world is growing day by day, so learning an East Asian language will be an asset for any employee.
• All faculty activities are free of charge, and students can study ancient Chinese skills such as calligraphy, Chinese cooking, martial arts and dance.
• Students have the chance to learn other foreign languages, both East Asian and European.
French Universities
• One in ten university students in France are foreign. France has the third highest number of foreign students in the world, with around 125,000 foreigners.
• The French education system is more mobile and flexible than the Russian system. University education is divided into three periods, after each of which students receive a corresponding diploma.
• Studying at state universities is very inexpensive — from 500 euros a year ($730). In addition, students are entitled to various discounts on transport, museum entry and other services.
• Students have the option of studying in English.
• It can be a long, slow and difficult process to get all the necessary documents from French universities.
Swiss Universities
• Switzerland was the first country in the world to develop education in the hospitality industry, and Swiss hospitality and tourism courses are considered to be the best.
• One of the advantages of a Swiss higher education is its practicality. Training in the hospitality and tourism business (which is generally well-paid) is one of the most important parts of an education in this industry.
• Switzerland also offers top courses in banking and finance. The best bankers and economists graduate from Switzerland’s private colleges and business schools.

TITLE: State Business School Looks to Future
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University aims to combine a traditional university education with the latest innovations and business practices. By joining forces with leading education centers and international corporations, the Graduate School of Management hopes to create “new knowledge and a new model of business education”.
In contrast with the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, which is financed exclusively by private companies, the Graduate School of Management is a state-run project. In addition to private donations, the school receives considerable funding from the state budget. Its advisory board includes a number of high-ranking state officials.
“The mission of our business school is not only to train skilled managers for private business, but also to supply good managers for the public service sector and social institutions. For example, we are planning to introduce a special program for health care managers,” said Valery Katkalo, dean of the Graduate School of Management.
In 2006, the Management Faculty of St. Petersburg State University began to transform into the Graduate School of Management. A new campus is being constructed at Mikhailovskaya Dacha palace and park ensemble in Strelna and about 100,000 square meters of facilities should be created there by 2010, worth about $329 million in investment.
The Graduate School of Management currently employs 65 tutors and about 1,400 students are enrolled on its programs. By 2015 the school expects to have 1,800 students and 400 graduates of MBA and EMBA programs a year.
To meet the demands of increasingly fastidious students, the school is expanding its range of programs. In addition to the existing post-bachelor, MBA and EMBA programs, in the near future the school will introduce International EMBA and full-time MBA programs. PhD and Master of Finance programs will be set up and corporate programs will be developed.
The International EMBA will be run in cooperation with HEC-Paris. Graduates will receive diplomas from both business schools, which Katkalo claims is a unique phenomenon on the Russian education market.
The dean listed several advantages of the school. “St. Petersburg State University is known for combining innovative educational techniques with a traditional university education. For a business school it is an advantage to be based within a university. Management is an interdisciplinary science, and we can use the resources of other faculties,” Katkalo said.
“Most of the world’s leading business schools are based at universities,” he added.
Business games and projects, case studies and lectures given by world business leaders are among the innovative techniques exercised at the Graduate School of Management.
As another advantage, Katkalo named the school’s orientation on international standards of business education. The school was founded in cooperation with the Haas School of Business at Berkeley.
The Graduate School of Management currently has student exchange programs with 26 partner schools. “These are leading European business schools, and we plan to enhance our cooperation with CEMS (Community of European Management Schools),” Katkalo said.
The school also plans to get all its programs accredited by the European Foundation for Management Development.
For a business school, it is important to cooperate with leading Russian and international corporations and monitor essential business practices, Katkalo said.
“In 1993 we were the first business school in Russia to establish an international advisory board comprising managers of international companies. It was chaired by a Procter & Gamble executive,” Katkalo said.
Current members of the advisory board include heads of Russian and foreign companies, multinationals and state officials. 
Starting from this year, Citibank managers will give lectures at the school, and managers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM will soon join the team of tutors.
Katkalo aims to make the Graduate School of Management a global educational center to rival top European business schools. For that purpose he plans to increase the number of foreign students and foreign tutors.
Jean-Paul Larson, deputy dean of HEC-Paris, expects executives of international companies that operate in Russia to enrol the joint International EMBA program and account for about one third of its students.
At the moment 20 percent of tutors at the school come from Berkeley, Cambridge, LBS and HEC. About two thirds of lectures are held in English.
Larson sees the advantage of international programs as their “wider exposure to Russian and international business”. By 2015 the school plans to increase the proportion of foreigners among students to 30-50 percent and among tutors to 30 percent.
More exposure to global business models will be combined with in-depth knowledge of Russian business. Simon Commander, director of the Management Research Institute at the Graduate School of Management, plans to develop collaboration with other research centers. Research will focus on the future of business in Russia.
The researchers will try to define which parts of the Russian economy will be competitive in five to six years, Commander said.

TITLE: Choosing the Right MBA Program
AUTHOR: By Ross Geraghty
PUBLISHER: QS TopMBA
TEXT: The ‘BSc-work-MBA-work’ versus the ‘BSc-MSc-work’ career trajectory is one of the first choices to think about, but what about those wanting to take their education even further? The postgraduate courses at the upper echelon of education are the PhD, the relatively new EMBA (Executive MBA) and the even more recent innovation the DBA (Doctor of Business Administration). 
One of the perennial concerns for business school deans at the top of the education pyramid is that of rigor versus relevance. The education received by students must have practical applications to the business world, known by some academics as ‘business relevance’, allowing the graduate to take up a desirable position in a company of their choice. Most schools also have a responsibility to push back the theoretical boundaries of education and stimulate renown for exceptional faculty, research and publishing excellence. This is known as ‘academic rigor’. 
The number of MBAs out there in business is increasing incrementally, leading to a flooding effect. Despite evidence that MBAs are in a booming market, some MBAs are beginning to feel that they need to distinguish themselves even more and are considering further executive education. 
EMBA — Executive MBA
A relative newcomer to the business education family, the EMBA concept filled a need in the market for bright leaders and executives who had already accrued some years of experience. Unlike the more established MBA, targeted at a mid-to-late-20s age group and usually full-time, the EMBA provides study flexibility for the more experienced career profiler. 
The part-time and modular nature of most EMBA programs, usually taking place in the evenings, weekends or by distance-learning, allows students to continue in full-time employment and live at home with their families while undertaking a thorough business education.
PhD — The doctorate
The PhD is top of the pile of a research education in any discipline, offering the highest academic rigor without necessarily having relevance to a business career. The doctorate allows the student to analyze one salient and unique aspect of the business world in extreme detail. Based on thorough and guided research, rather than teaching, the PhD requires the approval of a board of academics from a school to agree that the topic is worth studying and funding. The PhD is a full-time and all-consuming research qualification. 
The PhD is largely, though not exclusively, for those who want to pursue an academic career. David Bach, Associate Dean of MBA programs at IE Business School, says: “In the U.S. tradition, a PhD is more for people who want to teach or research in the field of management. In the past in Europe they’ve been pursuing it for different reasons but it’s now based on the US model. They tend to be four to six year programs and are organized around training researchers or scholars.” 
DBA — Doctor of Business Administration
In recent years, business schools have noticed a niche of people who want some of the academic rigor of the PhD, yet do not have the right personal profile to do one. Angel Diaz of IE Business School noticed this when interviewing for PhD places: “We found lots of people who wanted to do a doctorate but didn’t have the profile to do a PhD. In our opinion it’s not worth doing a PhD unless you want to go into academia. Some of these are hyper-achievers who want do more with their lives, to be part-time academics but don’t want to do theoretical research. They are older, do well in life and can’t afford to be out of work full time.”
For this kind of profile, the DBA was created. Most schools have PhDs and DBAs in parallel and both are set at a senior level but oriented to different markets and a different way of delivery, the DBA being part-time and PhD full-time. 
Opportunities at the highest tier of education exist and are expanding. If the idea of more education, to distinguish yourself from an increasing pack, suits you, the question is to decide which will be best for you.

This article was provided by QS TopMBA, www.topmba.com.

TITLE: Language Learning Popular as Ever
AUTHOR: By Ali Nassor
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: When Russia opened its doors to the market economy about one and half decades ago, it took people off-guard and ill-equipped to meet the challenges of a culturally and technologically diversified world. It was a puzzle to the outgoing Iron Curtain generation whose commercial lexicon went no further than that of a centralized planned economy based on the communist ideological doctrine. 
But since communism was no more and the former Soviet satellite states had shunned Russian as their medium of communication, it marked the dawn of a new era and the birth of a new breed of Russians who would adapt themselves to the changing business environment. They needed a new language to win the confidence of the outside business world where Russian was no more than the language of a die-hard communist. 
Now, 16 years later, “a job seeker’s resume in the business sector faces a high risk of being dumped in the dustbin if it lacks a foreign language,” says Christina Shklyar, director of the St. Petersburg-based Best Teach language center. “In the eyes of an employer, a job seeker who speaks at least one foreign language, especially English, is better than two who speak none,” says Shklyar, whose school has an average of 2,000 students learning English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Finnish. 
“Though we don’t look down upon other disciplines, English remains a priority, as about 90 percent of our trainees specialize in the language,” she says. Hers is one among more than a thousand privately owned language schools that mushroomed following Russia’s entry into the market economy. 
Best Teach, currently one of the city’s largest language centers, boasting 30 classrooms in its three branches and a wide network of off-house training has survived hundreds of others “that weathered away, mainly due to wrong strategies” according to Shklyar.
“As an example of the right strategy, you may look at our location... doesn’t it make our clientele immune to bad weather and from the troubles of parking their cars?” she asks, referring to the school’s main campus on the fourth-floor of the city’s largest department store, Gostiny Dvor, where it can be reached by metro commuters without having to go outside. There is also a large free parking lot in the store’s courtyard. “The school’s other two premises are just a stone’s throw from metro stations in the city center,” Shklyar adds.
“We noted the multinational diversity of foreign companies operating in the city about 10 years ago, and extended our curriculum to include languages other than English,” says Shklyar, explaining the tactic behind attracting corporate students, who account for 70 percent of the center’s clientele. 
Shklyar also believes that the schools that did not last for long were unsuccessful because they wanted to get rich quickly, saying they charged unaffordable prices for services they could not offer at a time when the general public could hardly afford their daily bread.
“Even now, when both living standards and operational costs are higher than ever before, I think the 15,000 rubles we charge for a three-and-a-half month term of 102 academic hours are among the lowest in the city,” she says of group tuition fees, which are slightly lower than corporate prices.
A graduate of the State Pedagogical University in Penza who majored in English and German, Shklyar knows how to equip her family business with appropriate staff, which consists of 90 professional teachers, including 20 native speakers of English. 
But the institution she runs is also a project for life, as she puts it. She says it was a bitter experience for her having to deal with more than a dozen cases where elderly women were ready to pay a fortune for beginners’ English classes so that they could serve as baby sitters during their grandchildren’s holidays abroad.
A sign of the times we live in, she says.
But Yury Brandin, a founder and marketing director of one of St. Petersburg’s leading language centers boasting Western-style hi-tech sophistication and a predominantly expatriate team of English teachers, followed a rather different path to reach the standard of which he is now proud.
To bring the Orange Language Center to the popularity peak it currently enjoys, Brandin had to open a window on the West. He conducted a survey on the ways in which countries like Poland and the former Czechoslovakia with similar socio-economic histories to Russia’s had managed to overcome the language barrier and smoothly integrate into the world trading system. 
His endeavor was also eased by the World Trade Organization’s globalization policies; and later, by the growing wallets of ordinary Russians, who began to view commodities and services that were once regarded as optional luxuries as necessities.
Brandin was inspired to establish the language center five years ago, and has become the talk of the town of late thanks to his skills in forging a marriage between promotional techniques borrowed from the West and prevailing dynamics on the local market. 
As a result of these policies, among others, the number of students at Orange “tripled to around 500 in the two and a half years since we moved to this location,” said Brandin. The school moved to 140 Nevsky Prospekt, close to Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station in fall 2005. 
The center currently houses eight classrooms, each with a 10 student-capacity on its first floor, and is currently awaiting the construction of another eight classrooms on the second floor which are expected to open later in the year.
The center’s students, who also include teenagers and the elderly studying both on an individual and group basis, are mostly from corporate organizations and pay an average of 200 rubles (which can vary depending on whether the teacher is a native speaker or Russian) per academic hour in a semester of 120 hours.
The academic year comprises of two semesters — from January to May, and from September until December.
However, the number of permanent students does not include 260 children enrolled on the Center’s “Children’s Language Summer and Winter Camps” in the Leningrad Oblast, where they learn English via the medium of drama, games, sports and other entertainment run by native speakers.
Brandin’s determination to raise academic standards to an international level led him to recruit native English teachers directly from their homelands. As the result of an intensive search for highly qualified language teachers, Orange Language Center’s staff currently includes 15 qualified native English teachers who came to Russia on a working contract in addition to another 10 qualified local instructors.
Daniel Jakubowsky, 26, is one of the expatriate teachers at the center. He came to Russia from the U.S. three years ago on an English language teaching contract after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where he studied Russian. 
“I’m planning to extend my contract for at least one more year because I like it here,” he says, adding that “the working atmosphere is friendly, and I don’t feel like I’m subordinate to someone else.”
“It’s quite a big contrast with the place I worked in before coming here,” he says. Jakubowsky worked for Language Link before moving to Orange.
If Brandin was motivated by prevailing world social and economic trends, it was a quest for independence and freedom that inspired Yelena Yarovaya to launch the EgoRound Intercultural Communication Center in 1994, which was then called “Eurocollege.” 
 “I didn’t want to enslave myself working for the state, which seemed to have nothing to offer in the early 1990s,” says Yarovaya, a graduate of the St. Petersburg State Pedagogical Institute where she studied Philology and Psychology.
She and four other female graduates rented a room at the St. Petersburg State Technological Institute to teach English to a group of 15 private students. 
She took the school through the turbulent times of the last decade, surviving the August 1998 financial crisis that buried hundreds of the city’s business enterprises, to emerge as a stronger and popular institution with a promising bright future.
Yarovaya believes the secrets of her success lie in her ability to combine her language skills and psychological expertise, along with her innovative instincts which have yielded new projects in the long run.
She is respected by the corporate and individual students under her patronage for masterminding a project envied by others and from which the city administration has taken a leaf to implement its program on tolerance. 
The Cross-Cultural program she has masterminded as part of the center’s curriculum is based on the methodology of teaching a language as a business medium and as a means of understanding and tolerating the cultures and values of the native speakers of the language. 
EgoRound charges 1,500 rubles per two academic hours for corporate clients following an 80-hour course. 
According to Yarovaya, corporate clients from more than a dozen companies including Toyota, Elcoteq electronics and Oil Terminal account for 70 percent of the center’s clientele, which has prompted the center to rent additional space in business centers. 
“There are prices to suit everybody,” responds Yerovaya to a question about prices for groups and individuals, saying, “It’s much lower than corporate prices, depending on the duration and intensity of the course, the requirements of a client and whether the client is an in-house or out-house student.”
EgoRound’s center at 57 Ligovsky Prospekt houses four 8-people capacity classrooms and offices. Its staff consists of 20 teachers, including five native English speakers. 
However, cross-culture is “not only about Russians learning about other people and their languages, but also about other people learning our language and our values,” says Tatyana Korepanova, a Russian language teacher for foreigners at Language Studio, one of the city’s multi-profile language centers.
Korepanova, a professional Russian-language teacher, says she has noticed an ever-increasing interest in learning Russian language and literature among foreigners during her three years working at the center.
At Language Studio’s two branches in the city center, Korepanova has taught dozens of top managers from companies including Gillette, Lenta, Ursa and even Gazprom, as well as students from Britain and tourists interested in Russian literature who follow a variety of courses ranging from three to nine months.

TITLE: Collectivism Versus Individualism
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Russian and British education systems are, on the surface at least, much alike. Both begin with compulsory primary and secondary school. In Russia children begin studying at six years of age and finish at 17, while in Great Britain they start at five and finish at 16.
In Great Britain, upon finishing high school young people can choose between further education and higher education. In Russia, similarly, they can choose between institutes, universities, specialized technical colleges and training courses.
However, a look at the methods and purposes of the education systems quickly reveals some differences. In Russia, teachers focus on delivering encyclopedic knowledge, and studying a prescribed set of disciplines is usually compulsory. The British system, on the contrary, allows students a free choice of disciplines and encourages specialization.
“In Russia, education aims to provide students with the maximum information and broaden their “horizon.” The grades received depend on the student’s ability to memorize information. Written research, if there is any, is not usually checked against any criteria other than its volume,” said Nadezhda Golenischeva, marketing manager at St. Petersburg Open Business School.
“In a British university, of course, it is also helpful to know the authors of particular models and concepts. However, students are awarded the highest grades for their ability to apply models, to match real cases with theoretical explanations, to analyze the pros and cons and — most importantly — to recommend improvements,” Golenischeva said.
As a result, logical reasoning and a thorough examination of the problem are more important than the volume, which is usually limited. “Even the most questionable opinion could be highly graded, so long as it is logically substantiated,” Golenischeva said.
In the western approach, students are treated as adults, and every person is expected to actively contribute to the educational process. The teachers see education as an information exchange, rather than a one-way monologue, Golenischeva said.
“Russian students are often surprised that British universities schedule so much time for independent research. In Russian universities students spend more time on listening than on discussing topics, and never “try out” anything,” she said. 
Yelena Kornyshkova, executive director for master programs at the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University, highlighted some cultural differences that can affect Russian and British education practices.
“Education in Britain is often made to suit the toughness of the corporate world, if we are speaking about business schools. Students are graded in such a way that in most classes there is always a very limited number of top ‘winners’ and always a category of ‘losers.’ Only the ‘winners’ usually get the best job offers,” Kornyshkova said.
“The consequence is that students are often far from eager to cooperate with each other. However, their future work will also require strong team spirit, so the British business education puts a great deal of emphasis on team work,” she said.
In Russia, on the contrary, in-born collectivism is still strong. “The downside of collectivism is when Russian students occasionally think of helping each other even when they are competing for the best grades on the courses at our business school, since we use the European and U.S. competitive grading policy,” Kornyshkova said.
“At our school, we do encourage more initiative, an ‘I can do it’ approach and individualism in the best sense of the word. Team work training does not have to play such a crucial role as in the British system,” she said.
Differences are sometimes seen in the students’ attitude toward open discussions and asking questions during classes. “Possibly, in their previous experience some Russian students did not feel that their opinion was of value, or their previous student life taught them not to stick out from the crowd,” Kornyshkova said.
“To ignite discussions as a crucial tool of learning we believe in diversity, respect, and openness from instructors in the classroom, so the Russian students quickly learn to be courageous in expressing their opinions, and the international students learn to be patient and thoughtful from our students,” Kornyshkova said.
The Graduate School of Management also applies the British principle of fairness towards students. “We have practically eliminated any subjectivism in evaluating students. For that purpose, students’ exams and tests are always written and coded, so that professors see only codes, not names on the tests,” Kornyshkova said.
Other best western practices are also used at GSOM. The majority of courses include business case studies, presentations and projects based on analysis and searching for solutions of real business problems. As in Britain, master students have both core (compulsory) business courses and electives.
“We select the instructors carefully. About 30 percent of the teaching faculty comes from leading western universities, and it is a good educative example and cultural source for our instructors as well,” Kornyshkova added.
Quacquarelli Symonds, a global career and education network, completed an applicant survey last year, which proved that 67 percent of Russians interested in business studies abroad are considering Great Britain.
British business schools are second in popularity only to American schools (77 percent). “The U.K. is popular because it’s closer to Russia than the United States. A number of British business schools offer special programs and grants for education for students from Eastern Europe,” said Zoya Zaitseva, QS World MBA Tour European.
She indicated that Russia is strong in the areas of school education and fundamental higher education, while the U.K. is strongest in special programs and master programs.
“Advanced Russian universities are introducing case studies and projects, but the majority of institutes still focus on traditional lectures, seminars and exam sessions,” Zaitseva said.
As a result, Russian business schools are practically unknown in Europe. “So far Skolkovo is the only Russian business school to have received any publicity in Europe. I was proud to read the interview with Ruben Vardanyan about Skolkovo in the Financial Times. But it will still take at least 7-10 years before this school could be included in global rankings,” Zaitseva said.
At the same time, British business schools are unlikely to open campuses in Russia because of political and economic risks and the nontransparent tax system, she added.
The Russian education system is currently undergoing changes which should bridge the gap between Russian and European education practices. From 2009, unified tests for graduates of secondary schools will be introduced, which should be accepted as entrance exams to universities.
Instead of 5-6 years of studying at university before graduation, a “specialist” two-level higher education will be introduced. It will comprise a bachelor course (four years) and a master course (2-3 years).
Education is one of the “national projects” in Russia, and accordingly the Ministry for Education and Science has announced plans to finance the best and most innovative educational institutions and individuals, and to introduce a new management approach.

TITLE: Harrow Beckons
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: BERKSHIRE, England — Eduard Zelkin, a stooped Moscow pensioner, paused momentarily as a group of Eton schoolboys passed by, dressed in their traditional black-and-white uniforms.
“I’ve come to England to visit my daughter and grandson, who live in London,” Zelkin said. “And so we decided to come and see the world-famous Eton College.”
Zelkin then poured out a stream of questions about the 15th-century boarding school, which is near to the British royal family’s home of Windsor: how the boys live, where they eat, whether they go horse-riding, and why there are so few black students. 
When asked if he hoped to see his grandson Daniil, 4, study at Eton one day, Zelkin shrugged.
“Maybe. He’s still young, and there’s still a long time to go. We’ll see,” he said, as Daniil eyed his reflection in the window of a nearby toyshop.
Once only a distant dream, for some Russian families sending their children to schools like Eton, an epicenter of Englishness and exclusivity that has been molding young gentlemen for the best part of six centuries, is increasingly within reach. 
Regardless of the increasingly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, from Harrow to Cambridge, the number of Russian students in Britain has soared. 
And with Russian children starting to attend British schools at a younger age, parents becoming more knowledgeable and more students coming from middle-class families, the trend only looks set to grow.
In the living room of his on-campus Victorian cottage, Eton schoolmaster Peter Reznikov, the first Russian ever to teach at the school, leaned forward in his black blazer and white bow tie.
“Parents used to come to me and say things like, ‘I have a boy and a girl, can they both come to Eton?’” said Reznikov, a native of Rostov-on-Don, who has taught Russian at the school for nearly 10 years.
“Now they’ve become very picky like English families, and they all play this game: Eton, Harrow, Winchester,” he said. “Last year, we had about six Russian students. For Eton, which doesn’t really expect foreigners to make it here, that is incredible.”
Although it is the children of the oligarchs and government officials that grab the headlines — Roman Abramovich’s eldest daughter studies at an elite London day school, while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s daughter went to the London School of Economics — it seems that a new class of Russians have started sending their children to British schools.
At an estimated average of $60,000 per year for school fees and travel, however, it’s still a sizeable investment. 
“I would say they are the upper middle class, who battled through these 15 years and survived and have built up their home, sorted out their businesses and are now looking at educating their kids,” Reznikov said.
“Now the first generation has graduated and come back and is saying, ‘Look, it’s great, we are working in the City [of London] or for big companies in Russia,’ and more and more people started to believe that it is good for their kids, and more people can afford it,” Reznikov said.
Since 1991, Reznikov has run Prince, an agency that helps place Russians in British schools and universities, and what started as a trickle of students has become a torrent.
Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find one of Britain’s more than 2,500 private schools without a Russian-speaking student, Reznikov said. Numbers have more than tripled, he said.
“A lot of Russians say that they want their children to go to schools with no other Russians in them, but it’s difficult,” he said.
From a romantic image of the British educational system to a preference for British teaching methods, the appeal for Russian parents is widespread, former students said. 
“Parents now think that it’s fashionable for their kids to study abroad,” said Stas Ognyev, 21, who has studied in Britain since the age of seven.
And security is also a big issue. 
“With the elections coming up, a lot of people are unsure about the political and economical future in Russia,” Ognyev, whose father made money as a grain trader, said in a recent interview at a cafe behind Harrods in central London.
“A lot of people want to invest money out of Russia anyway, and with the tax advantages and political stability in the U.K., people think, ‘Why not send our children to school here and buy a flat in Knightsbridge?’” he said.
“There are two extremes. Some people come here and become completely Anglicized, and some people don’t change at all,” Ognyev said. “Most people get that feeling of understanding for this culture but at the end of the day they still feel Russian.”
The well-heeled Russian students are, for the most part, a socially cohesive group that lives — and parties — together. “We all hang out at the same places and we all know each other,” said Ognyev, who set up a business promoting parties for Russians while at university in London.
As bastions of the British establishment, most schools are loath to say that they have changed to cater to the Russian influx. But parents of prospective students from Russia do sometimes have some pretty specific demands, one school said.
“[They] request to continue Russian lessons and to land by helicopter, but otherwise no,” said Nina Preece, a spokeswoman for Millfield School in Somerset, where Boris Yeltsin’s grandson studied in the 1990s.
And the vast majority of Russian students who finish British schools stay in the country for university. Over the past few years, the ranks of Russian societies at Oxford and Cambridge, which were originally founded by Prince Felix Yusupov and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively, have swelled. 
Typically, after graduating, the Russians head to banks, consultancies and law firms in the City for a few years before eventually heading back to highly paid jobs in Russia, Yarishevsky said.
“About 5 percent of the people I know want to stay here, but most want to go home,” he said.
And back in Russia, the reaction from potential employers is almost uniformly positive.
“I know that some oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska only hire students with a Western education,” Yarishevsky said. Deripaska himself studied at a specially tailored course at the LSE. 
Some Russian politicians, it seems, are taking a lead from President Vladimir Putin — whose two daughters now study at St. Petersburg State University — and are avoiding the potentially damaging publicity caused by having a child studying abroad.
But Yarishevsky was adamant that many scions of the new elite are currently studying in Britain. 
“This is not a problem. I know people whose fathers occupy really high positions in the Russian government, and I know they study in London,” he said. “I don’t think they’d want me to give out their names, though.”
And with the children of Russia’s movers and shakers studying in Britain, in 15 or 20 years Russia could well be run by a British-educated, Anglophile elite, Yarishevsky predicted.
Asked if one day Russia could have a president who had studied at Eton and Oxford, Ognyev laughed.
“Not Eton, but maybe Harrow,” he said. “But seriously, why not?”

TITLE: Education News
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Two major educational organizations funded with foreign sponsorship and grants have come under fire from the Russian authorities in recent months on what critics see as far-fetched technicalities with an ulterior motive.
All lectures at the European University were suspended for several weeks this year after the city’s fire inspectorate found 52 violations of fire safety regulations. The Dzershinsky district court twice ruled against granting the university permission to hold classes while correcting the violations.
The university is set to resume classes on Feb. 26 following an intervention from the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and an avalanche of indignant protests from internationally acclaimed academics from both Russia and abroad.
The university’s rector, Nikolai Vakhtin, described the situation as a deliberate attack on the institution but declined to guess who could be behind the move. 
Leonid Ravnushkin, deputy rector of the university, stressed that fire inspections are held at the university every year, and until this time the organization has never had any complaints. 
Some “violations” listed by the fire inspection in its 2008 report would take several years to correct. Because the university is located in a historic building protected by the state, any change to either its exterior or interiors would require lengthy cooperation with a number of state organizations dealing with the maintenance of such properties. 
While the situation with the European University seems to be improving, the future of the British Council, which was ordered by the Russian government to shut down its branches in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in December on the grounds that they “had been operating illegally,” looks far less encouraging.
The organization has moved out of its premises, discontinued all contracts with its local staff and given away the books from its extensive library. 
On top of an apparent string of bureaucratic obstacles, the British Council case is surrounded by a wave of politically charged statements that have continued to come from Russian officials, including Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister and likely future president after the March 2 elections. In an interview with the political weekly “Itogi,” at the end of February Medvedev directly accused the British Council of spying in Russia.
“It is common knowledge that government-funded structures of the sort of the British Council are used to carry out intelligence functions in addition to education,” Medvedev said. 
A number of liberal politicians and human rights advocates have alluded to what they saw as a possible connection between the closure of the European University and a recent conflict over an educational project that involved independent monitoring of elections in Russia.
The project was funded with a $983,500 grant from the European Union and had drawn criticism from a United Russia member of the State Duma, who called for an inquiry into the university’s activities and  for the closure of the project. 
On Jan. 30 the university’s Scientific Council voted to shut down the project on the grounds that “part of the activities involved in the project do not correspond to the school’s license.”

TITLE: Giving Children the Gift of Languages
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The first preschool in St. Petersburg specializing in teaching in three languages opened last year to provide a new option both for ex-pat parents anxious for their children to learn Russian while developing their native language and for Russian parents who wish their children to begin learning foreign languages as early as possible. 
P’tit Cref is the local branch of a Moscow school that opened there five years ago, and is attended by children from the ages of two to six. The children are cared for by native speakers of three langauges — English, French and Russian. The preschool currently has up to ten pupils, although the children attend at different times of the day and the week according to their parents’ timetables.
The “trilingual” aspect of the school is what makes it different from other preschools in the city, according to the school’s French director, Benoit Becar.
“P’tit Cref is not just about learning languages, but also about how the mind can be opened through learning languages and trained to learn more things,” says Becar.
Most of the children currently attending the preschool are Russian, though there are also children from Norway, Poland and other countries. Becar said that the Moscow branch of P’tit Cref, which is located on the Arbat in the vicinity of a number of foreign embassies, now has equal ratios of native speakers of Russian, English and French among its attendees, and expressed the hope that the local school will follow the same trend in order for the children to help each other both with language learning, and with learning about each other’s cultures.
The school has two teachers of each language, all of whom are native speakers.  According to Becar, language learning is based on games rather than formal lessons.  “The idea is to surround the children in a language bubble, to immerse them in language and culture,” he explained.
The idea sounds simple, but some parents may feel that preschool aged children could be overloaded by trying to absorb three langauges when most children at that age are dealing with just one.
Alexander Zheltov, linguistic expert and head of the African Studies department at St. Petersburg State University, said it was difficult to predict the results of the program.
“Up to the age of four, children have a special ability for language learning, after which it becomes very difficult for them to learn new languages. However, even after the age of four, it is of course always better to start as early as possible — the earlier children start learning, the easier it will be for them.”
He said that confusion can result if children are spoken to in different languages by the same person at an early age, and can even lead to the child having impaired language development rather than becoming bilingual, let alone trilingual.
Becar said that to avoid such problems, the children are only spoken to in one language by each teacher — the teacher’s native language. No teachers teach more than one language.
Zheltov said that similar methods of helping children to become bilingual have demonstrably proved successful, citing the example of noble children in Imperial Russia who frequently had French governesses and consequently grew up bilingual in French and Russian.
However, he said that there were far fewer examples of trilingual programs, and so the only way to really know the outcome would be to see how the children’s languages had developed by the time they are of school age.
At P’tit Cref, the children spend around half the time doing English language activities, just under half doing Russian language activities and one session is conducted in French, which was recently introduced. Becar plans to eventually spread the activities equally between the three languages. There are also plans to divide the children into two groups according to age in the near future. For now, they can play together in a large playroom filled with toys, games and puzzles when they are not doing group activities with the teachers.
P’tit Cref is flexible to accommodate parent’s various needs and schedules, and children can be left at the school from 8 a.m. At nine the first lesson begins, which is usually painting, modeling, or other activities suitable for small children.  Mid-morning the children have a “second breakfast.”  They also go outside to play — not for long in minus temperatures, but in spring Becar hopes to take the children to the nearby Tavrichesky Sad (Tauride Gardens).  After lunch, the younger children take a nap while the older children are free to play.
The afternoon activities, which are conducted in a different language to that used in the morning, last until 5p.m.  Becar explained that some children attend the preschool only in the morning and others in the afternoon. The school also offers after-school activities every day, including sport, music and arts and crafts. In addition, once every two months, a special theme week is held, during which the children are taken on trips to the theater, oceanarium or other attractions.
Becar says it was no more difficult to set up a preschool in Russia than in any other country. The school has been at its current premises since December last year, but before that it was located on the main premises of Cref, a language school run by the same company for teenagers and adults that offers German in addition to the languages taught at P’tit Cref. The current premises on Prospekt Chernyshevskogo include a large playroom, two smaller classrooms and a room where the children do sport and take their nap. 
Becar readily admits his service is aimed primarily at wealthy Russians and ex-pat professionals — the cost of sending a child to P’tit Cref full-time for one month is around $1,200.  According to Becar, it has also proved popular with bi-national couples, who are keen for their children to become familiar with the language and culture of both parents.
Along with language learning, there is considerable emphasis at P’tit Cref on the teaching of different cultures. The school arranges parties every month or two to celebrate holidays around the world, such as Halloween, Christmas, Epiphany and carnivals.
As parents look toward the globalized world in which their children will live, services like that offered by P’tit Cref offer one way to provide the next generation with the tools they will need. 
“I believe a multicultural atmosphere is important, especially in Russia,” says Becar.  “I was shocked by the prejudice I witnessed when I first came to Russia, and I think multicultural projects such as ours are one way of overcoming prejudice.” www.ptitcref.ru