SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1361 (25), Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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TITLE: Brenton’s Successor Not New To Russia
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Britain on Friday named a career diplomat with extensive experience in Eastern Europe as its next ambassador to Russia.
Anne Pringle, a former ambassador to the Czech Republic who worked at the British Embassy in Moscow during the Cold War, will replace Ambassador Anthony Brenton when his four-year assignment expires in October, the British Foreign Office announced Friday.
Pringle, 53, is set to become Britain’s first female ambassador to Russia, and her appointment comes at a time of tense relations between the two countries.
“I am delighted and honored to be taking up this appointment,” Pringle said by e-mail Friday.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Friday that Britain hopes bilateral relations will improve after President-elect Dmitry Medvedev takes office in May.
“We hope Medvedev will embark on a fresh start in his relations with us. We want to improve our relationship,” the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. “With a new president taking office, we hope to see greater Anglo-Russian cooperation on a number of issues.”
Relations between London and Moscow deteriorated sharply following the death of former Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko from radiation poisoning in November 2006 in London. Russia refuses to extradite top suspect Andrei Lugovoi, while Britain has refused repeated Russian requests to extradite self-exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
The British Council, the cultural arm of the British Embassy, has also run afoul of the Kremlin and said it was forced to close its St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg offices in January because of security concerns for its staff.
Last week, the FSB announced that it had detained an employee of Russian-British oil venture TNK-BP on suspicion of espionage. TNK-BP subsequently said all foreign employees assigned to the firm by British energy major BP had been suspended because of newly arisen visa problems.
Activists from the Kremlin-backed youth group Nashi hounded Brenton in 2006 after he took part in an August conference of The Other Russia opposition coalition focusing on civil society.
Nashi regularly staged noisy protests outside the British Embassy, which filed a complaint with the Foreign Ministry over intimidation aimed at Brenton.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ultimately met with Nashi leaders to ask them to tone down their activities.
Brenton, who arrived in Moscow in 2004 and will retire from diplomatic service in October, said in a statement Friday that Pringle would do a “wonderful job” as ambassador.
“On a personal level, I shall be sad to leave a country which, regardless of the ups and downs of diplomacy, my family and I will certainly miss,” Brenton said.
“But my departure will not be for another six months,” Brenton said. “And during those six months I have a job to do. So for the remainder of my time here I shall continue to work towards promoting closer bilateral ties between our two countries.”
Pringle, who served as private secretary to two British ambassadors to the Soviet Union from 1980 to 1983, will come to Moscow following a 3-year posting as the head of the Foreign Office’s strategy and information department, which deals with the overall direction of British foreign policy.
She worked in Brussels periodically from 1986 to 1991 with the European Political Cooperation Secretariat, where she moved from a San Francisco-based British trade and investment office.
Pringle held various Foreign Office posts from 1994 to 2001, after which she served as ambassador to the Czech Republic until 2004.
In an interview she gave to the BBC during her posting in Prague, Pringle said her extensive study of Russian had helped her learn Czech.
Friday’s announcement came sooner than expected because Russia had quickly approved Pringle’s appointment, a British embassy spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

TITLE: Security and a NATO Deal for Putin
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Abandoning his bellicose rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin will seek to initiate a meaningful dialogue on security and to sign a political declaration with the NATO-Russia Council during this week’s NATO summit.
The stakes are high at the three-day summit in Bucharest, Romania, which begins Wednesday and is likely to be Putin’s last foreign trip as president. Ukraine and Georgia hope NATO will consider putting them on path for membership, which Washington supports but Moscow opposes. Putin intends to counter the bids with an offer to back NATO in Afghanistan.
“There will be a talk about the philosophy and basis of partnership,” Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in a telephone interview Saturday from Brussels. “If we are partners, we should start to jointly solve problems in the area of security.”
Asked whether Putin, whose presidency ends in May, planned to sign any agreements during his visit, Rogozin joked, “So many documents have already been signed that you could fill a library.”
Rogozin added, however, that Putin expected to sign “a joint political declaration that will cover all topics of cooperation” after discussions with the Russia-NATO Council, which will meet Friday, the last day of the summit. Of the issues to be discussed Friday, Rogozin singled out NATO’s difficult mission to Afghanistan and what Russia could do to help it avoid a “fiasco” there.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Friday promised broader cooperation on Afghanistan if NATO shelved Ukraine’s and Georgia’s membership bids, Interfax reported. He did not say how Russia might assist NATO, which has asked Moscow to permit supplies to Afghanistan to cross its territory.
Reached by telephone Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on whether Putin would sign a joint political declaration or an agreement on the transit of NATO supplies.
“Experts are working, and concrete issues of cooperation between Russia and NATO, including the expansion of this cooperation, will probably be discussed by heads of state at the NATO-Russia Council,” Peskov said.
Chances are high, however, that the Russian delegation will sign an agreement allowing NATO to ship supplies to Afghanistan over and across Russia, several analysts said. It is in Moscow’s interest to help NATO in order to prevent instability from spreading to Russia’s southern frontiers and to reduce the flow of illegal drugs, said Alexander Golts, an independent defense analyst.
Putin also might endorse a deal that would reintegrate the breakaway region of Transdnestr into Moldova on the condition that Moldova end its aspirations to join NATO and remain neutral, said Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the Washington-based World Security Institute. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said recently that he hoped the issue would be resolved during the NATO summit. Moscow has been mediating talks between Moldova and Transdnestr.
Peskov said Putin would discuss increased cooperation with NATO in a “constructive” way, not with the hawkish tone that he used to criticize NATO and the United States in a speech at an international security conference in Munich last year.
“The very fact that Putin has decided to go to Bucharest is evidence of a rather constructive mood,” Peskov said.
“Of course, we have serious differences, but these differences should not make us ignore the formats of cooperation we have,” Peskov said.
NATO needs Russia’s help to fight nonmilitary security threats to its members, such as the proliferation of weapons and drug smuggling, Peskov said. “Only together can we fight these,” he said, calling NATO a “child of the Cold War.”
He said Moscow expected NATO to reciprocate by considering its concerns in areas such as “the alliance’s policy of open doors, including the discussion of another expansion wave.”
NATO has expanded to cover much of Moscow’s zone of influence from the Cold War. The United States, Canada and East European countries want NATO to offer Ukraine and Georgia a Membership Action Plan that sets out the path to full membership. Germany is leading the West European opposition, saying that granting the membership plan would ruin hopes of improving ties with Russia.
Peskov said the expansion of NATO to Georgia and Ukraine would “violate the basic principle of democracy — the power of the people.” He noted that many Ukrainians oppose entering NATO, as do residents of Georgia’s separatist republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Analysts said Putin only decided to attend the summit after learning that Georgia and Ukraine would not be offered the membership plan.
This likely decision from NATO has little to do with President George W. Bush’s interest in securing Putin’s cooperation on U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe, said Graham Allison, a former U.S. assistant defense secretary. The Bush administration is believed to be interested in striking a deal before both presidents leave office this year. Both U.S. Democratic presidential candidates have been skeptical of the missile-defense plans.
Allison said the German-led opposition was making it impossible for NATO, which operates by consensus, to offer Georgia and Ukraine Membership Action Plans in Bucharest.
The postponement of closer ties with Georgia and Ukraine would help to avoid a “train wreck” in relations with Russia and offer the new U.S. and Russian presidents an opportunity to resolve differences over NATO expansion, said Allison, who heads Harvard’s Belfer Center.
Putin is among seven presidents of the countries of the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States that will attend the summit. Among them are the leaders of Uzbekistan and Armenia, which are also members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which Russia hopes to develop into a full-fledged military bloc. Russia also is trying to set up a dialogue between NATO and the organization, whose rotating chairmanship is now held by Armenia.
Peskov said he did not expect any events between the grouping and NATO at the summit, but he stressed that Russia believed the grouping had become a “mature structure” and acquired a “strategic identity.”
Bush will be among the world leaders who attend the NATO-Russia Council on Friday. He and Putin will be joined by President-elect Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi next weekend to discuss the possibility of codifying past achievements in a single broad document and a missile-defense agreement.
Allison and Angela Stent, former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the U.S. National Intelligence Council, said they expected Putin and Bush to sign a new strategic framework document in Sochi. Stent, a professor at Georgetown University, said Bush wanted the document in order to create a positive legacy for his time in office and to pre-empt criticism from the Democratic camp that he had ignored Russia and allowed relations to atrophy at the United States’ peril over the past few years.
Putin, in turn, needs to strike a more conciliatory tone in Bucharest and Sochi in order to win Western recognition of the legitimacy of the transfer of power in the Kremlin, which began with Putin’s saber-rattling rhetoric in Munich in February 2007, said Golts, the independent defense analyst.
Golts predicted, however, that Moscow would not soften its overall rhetoric. “The conflict between Russia and NATO is actually rooted in the fact that NATO represents the ideal paper tiger, which Russia can tear apart and set on fire to demonstrate its anti-Western sentiments,” he said.

TITLE: Draft Age Men Face Threat of Restricted Movement
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An amendment that has passed its second reading in the State Duma is repressive and it restricts the liberty of Russian men of call-up age, argue human rights groups and liberal politicians.
The amendments oblige all Russian men aged 18 to 27 to inform district military commissions every time they leave their places of residence for more than two weeks. 
The men must also register with a local military commission upon arrival at their destination, if they intend to spend more than three months there.
“The amendment essentially treats innocent young men in the same way as those who have received a suspended sentence or have been recently released from prison,” said Ella Polyakova, head of the St. Petersburg pressure group Soldiers’ Mothers.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, who leads the Soldiers’ Mothers’ faction in the democratic party Yabloko, stressed the amendment enables military commissions across the country to draft young men from other regions — if they happen to be in that region during a draft. Until now, conscripts could only be drafted in their towns of permanent residence. 
“The amendment violates the rights of men who have been granted a temporary grace from army service, for example, for the duration of their studies or due to an illness,” Kuznetsova said. “The commissions would be able to grab the men in any place, and the desperate relatives will be forced to search for them across Russia.”
If they fail to inform local commissions, potential conscripts can be fined up to 500 rubles ($21).
In 2004, mobile police detachments were created with the aim of helping to catch youngsters who are trying to avoid military service. Twice a year, during the spring and autumn drafts, the detachments raid metro stations, disco clubs and cafes frequented by young people. 
As Polyakova points out, in many cases when young men are suddenly drafted and literally sent to the army from the street, they are denied the right to communicate the news to their families. The relatives discover weeks later, from a letter sent from a military garrison, that the young man is in the army.
Every Russian man over the age of 18 is required to complete one year of military service before reaching the age of 27. 
This can be postponed if people are in higher education. Fathers, and prospective fathers, and family breadwinners are also exempt.
“If the priority is to make it convenient for the staff of military commissions, the easiest way to handle the problem is to create a well-guarded ghetto for young Russian men of call-up age,” Kuznetsova said with bitter irony.
Human rights advocates are convinced that only the creation of a professional army would put an end to what Ella Polyakova branded as “repressive methods of getting recruits.”
Vladimir Schnitke, an activist with Memorial Human rights group and one of the members of the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council, praised Polyakova’s Soldiers’ Mothers as the most efficient human rights group working in the field of recruits’ rights in Russia.
“The group has made a difference in so many cases of hazing, desertion caused by hazing, violations of conscripts rights and corruption,” Schnitke said. “Most importantly, their relentless campaigning has begun to affect the mentality of the military authorities. The officials know that the rule of impunity will not protect their crimes forever.”
In his position as a human rights advocate Schnitke is invited to attend meetings of the St. Petersburg City Military Commission and monitor its activities. 
“I hear the mention of Soldiers’ Mothers and its head Ella Polyakova every five minutes,” Schnitke said. “The army bosses have begun to show concern about the hell that pressure groups would raise if they find out what is going on. A number of repressive measures against potential conscripts have already been prevented.”
The amendment is set to pass its final hearing at the State Duma and then be signed into law either by President Vladimir Putin or his successor Dmitry Medvedev.

TITLE: Police Seek Assassin of Politkovskaya
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prosecutors said Friday that they were hunting for the man who killed journalist Anna Politkovskaya and that a court had granted their request to keep another suspect in the killing in custody until August.
Police are actively searching for the man who shot Politkovskaya dead at her apartment building in October 2006, prosecutor Vyacheslav Smirnov said Friday, Interfax reported.
Smirnov did not give the name of the suspected killer. Prosecutors first announced in October that they had identified the man who killed Politkovskaya, a fierce Kremlin critic who wrote for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
The Moscow Garrison Court on Friday agreed to a request from prosecutors to keep Federal Security Service Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov in pretrial detention until Aug. 21, court spokesman Alexander Minchanovsky said.
“All of the arguments delivered by the Prosecutor General’s Office were considered and were recognized as well-founded,” Minchanovsky said by telephone.
Ryaguzov, who was arrested in August, is suspected of providing Politkovskaya’s address to her killers. It was unclear whether investigators had established the identity of the person who ordered the journalist’s murder.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee, which is handling the case, declined to comment Friday. Ryaguzov’s lawyers had asked that he be released from custody. Messages left for Valery Chernikov, a lawyer for Ryaguzov, went unanswered Friday.
Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, said investigators “are working professionally and doing everything possible” to solve the crime.
In addition to Ryaguzov, eight other suspects have been detained in connection with Politkovskaya’s slaying.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said last year that Kremlin opponents had masterminded Politkovskaya’s murder from abroad in order to discredit Russia.
The Moscow Garrison Court extended the investigation period for the murder until Sept. 7, Smirnov said.

TITLE: Tunnel Planned to Link Helsinki, Tallinn
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HELSINKI — Helsinki and Tallinn have agreed to explore the possibility of linking the two capitals with a railway tunnel, which could end up the world’s longest, Helsinki’s mayor said Friday. 
“We will start by applying for European Union financing for the study of the tunnel as well as an alternative railway link using ferries,” Mayor Jussi Pajunen said in an interview. 
He said the Finnish and Estonian cities, which are about 80 kilometers apart on the shores of the Baltic Sea, aim to finish the initial feasibility study by the end of 2009, but that a tunnel would take more than 15 years to be completed. Earlier projections for the Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel link, which have widely been seen as unrealistic, have proposed two alternative routes, either 67 or 83 kilometers long. 
Pajunen said the railway could later be connected with a line linking Helsinki with Warsaw and Berlin.

TITLE: Residents Gather To Decry Planning Law
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Protesters condemned the city’s town-planning policies and amendments to the General Plan of the City’s Development proposed by Governor Valentina Matviyenko and which were accepted on the first reading by the Legislative Assembly last month.
Held in Srednaya Rogatka, where Dunaisky Prospekt and Pulkovskoye Shosse, the highway leading to the Pulkovo airport, intersect, the rally was organized by Lunny Serp (Crescent Moon), a pressure group struggling against the destruction of the Hero-Cities Park located there to give way to a planned massive trade and entertainment complex. 
Another group called No to the Overground Express, which protests against a planned overhead rail transport project that, locals worry, will affect their rights and quality of life, also took part in organizing the meeting.
“In the early 1990s they were going to build a sports school there and over the years the pit built for the foundations turned into a small picturesque lake surrounded by trees where people used to walk to relax,” said Georgy Khokhlov of Lunny Serp by phone on Monday. 
Khokhlov said that despite protests, a fence was erected around the pond two years ago and the construction could begin at any moment, even though the project has not passed through all the necessary procedures. He added that the status of another part of the park has been changed from “recreational” into “recreational and sports,” which would allow construction on the site. Lunny Serp said that there are already five malls close to the area fully covering the locals’ needs.
Called “The Meeting Against the Current Town-Planning Policies in the Moskovsky District of St. Petersburg,” the rally, which drew between 250 and 300 protesters, also addressed such issues as in-fill construction, the fate of the Aviators Park, another recreational zone in the district just as endangered as the Hero Cities Park, and a planned 33-floor, 124-meter skyscraper on the site around the Soviet-era Zenit movie theater which was recently demolished.
“Yesterday, residents put it briefly, ‘New skyscrapers for New Districts,’” said Khokhlov. Other slogans included “Hypermarket? Thanks But No Thanks” and “They Hewed Out a Park Today, They Will Grab Your Apartment Tomorrow.”
Khokhlov said the local administration first tried to move the meeting, which was the first in the Staraya Rogatka area, to another site, claiming that the area belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, but in the end agreed on the original site when it became clear that the nearby church does not own the land. However, there were reports that notices announcing the details of the rally had been torn down and destroyed, Khokhlov said.
The meeting drew pressure groups from the city’s other districts such as Okhtinskaya Duga (Okhta Bow), which fights against the planned Gazprom Tower in Okhta. Political parties and movements present included the Communists, Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front, Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and the youth movement Oborona (Defense). The banned NBP, Oborona and Communists came with flags.
Olga Kurnosova, the local coordinator of United Civil Front and pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia, which took part in the rally, said the opposition groups had been approached by the meeting’s organizers to take part.
“Not only [local issues] but also the amendments to the General Plan as a whole were discussed. The amendments will affect virtually every St. Petersburger, even though residents do not know about it now — the amendments are so serious that they can change everything,” said Kurnosova by phone on Monday, adding that the issue only gets covered by a couple of local newspapers and one radio station.
“It’s obviously not enough, because even a list of the green areas that will be deprived of protected status [due to the amendments] is so shocking that any city resident would be horrified if he learned about it.”
Although a speaker at the meeting called for town-planning problems and political issues to be kept separate, Kurnosova said she sees a direct political link.
“In reality, most people understand that it is because we have no elections for governor that the situation is so outrageous,” she said. “Everybody I spoke to at the rally had a perfect understanding of that.”
President Vladimir Putin abolished gubernatorial elections in 2004.

TITLE: Transstroy Opens Company in St. Petersburg
TEXT: Transstroy Engineering Corporation Ltd, which is part of Transstroy Planning and Construction Holding, has created a sister enterprise to its branch in St. Petersburg — Transstroy Engineering Corporation SPb LLC.
During the last few years, TEC Ltd has successfully built or reconstructed a range of large-scale projects in St. Petersburg and the North West region. These projects include the Congress Palace state complex at Strelna, the Russian State Archives complex, and port facilities complex for the Baltic pipeline network in Primorsk, as well as the trans-shipping distribution base for oil products for export to Europe and America in Vysotsk.
The company is currently working on projects including the flood defense barrier for St. Petersburg, the Sea Passenger Terminal on Vasilyevsky Island and the cargo terminal for refined oil products in the Primorsk port.
The St. Petersburg government and Governor Valentina Matviyenko have lent their support to Transstroy’s decision to move its construction enterprise to St. Petersburg and form its own production base in the region, which will directly contribute to the active development of St. Petersburg’s transport infrastructure. “Transstroy Engineering Corporation Ltd has long been known as a reliable business partner on St. Petersburg’s construction market,” says a letter written by the governor.
“The increased presence and stronger position of Transstroy holding in the North West region is a priority for us right now,” says Alexander Millerman, deputy general director of Transstroy Planning and Construction Company. “The holding is interested in actively participating in private-public partnerships such as the western high-speed link-road, Orlovsky tunnel, Nadex overland express train and reconstruction of Pulkovo airport passenger terminals.”
Mikhail Leontyev, former deputy general director of TEC Ltd, has been appointed general director of TEC SPb LLC.
According to Leontyev, the main tasks of TEC’s St. Petersburg branch will be to create a large construction company in the city. “We already have all the licenses necessary to carry out all kinds of construction work, and have transferred all the branch’s vehicles and mechanisms to the enterprise’s books,” says Leontyev.
TEC SPb LLC plans to increase its own production capabilities in St. Petersburg, enabling the company to work on several major projects at the same time and guaranteeing the quality of its buildings. An office will open in St. Petersburg from which top specialists will be able to make decisions regarding projects in the city, making the construction process more efficient overall.
About the company
TEC is an actively developing company and member of the largest construction holding in Russia, Transstroy Planning and Construction Company (TPCC).
TPCC holding was formed from the U.S.S.R’s Ministry of Transport Construction, and consists of more than 40 legally independent organizations specializing in various kinds of transport and civil construction.
The structure of the company’s holding enables its management to successfully carry out the construction of major transport projects using its significant human, technical and material resources in virtually any part of the Russian Federation and abroad.
TEC Ltd, which is registered in Moscow, is licensed to perform services including:
•	The planning and construction of category I and II buildings and facilities to meet state standards.
•	Engineering survey work for the construction of the above buildings.
•	The restoration of objects of cultural heritage (historical and architectural monuments).
TEC Ltd offers the following services:
•	Railway, civil and industrial construction
•	Tunnel construction
•	Bridge construction
•	Road and aerodrome construction
•	Sea and river ports and terminals construction
•	Transport project planning
The corporation is highly experienced in building difficult and large-scale projects in all kinds of engineering, geological and climatic conditions.
The annual turnover generated from building and reconstruction projects was:
•	In 2007  – 25,322,164,000 rubles
•	In 2006 — 20,757,622,000 rubles
•	In 2005 — 11,407,860,000 rubles
•	In 2004 — 7,429,179,000 rubles
During work on regional projects, if necessary (for example, if projects are located far from the center or are particularly large-scale), branches are founded in that location, ensuring the efficient day-to-day management of work on the project. Transstroy currently has branches in:
•	Aldan in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya)
•	St. Petersburg
•	Gelendzhik in the Krasnodar region
The holding’s production capabilities enable it to perform the necessary work to the highest standards while keeping to tight deadlines.
The corporation has a quality control system in place that fully meets the requirements of the EN ISO 9001-2000 standard. The corporation’s quality control system is certified by InterCert and has an ISO 9001-2000 certificate.
The general director of Transstroy Engineering Corporation is Ivan Nikolaevich Kuznetsov.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Attic Protest</b>
More than 40 people protested against an attic conversion in their building on Malaya Konushennaya Street in the city center, Ekho Moskvy radio reported. 
The demonstrators carried signs bearing such slogans as “We Say ‘No’ to the Attic,” and “In Defense of Our Home.”
Protester Olga Babayeva told Fontanka.ru that, due to the fact that most of the buildings are old, construction only makes things worse (from construction, her ceiling was leaking, thus causing her chandelier to loosen and fall). The protest dissolved peacefully later on.

<b>Akhmatova Burglary</b>
A burglary occurred Monday in the Anna Akhmatova Dacha-Museum, located just outside of St. Petersburg. 
Vladislav Kirillov, a guide at the museum which is house in the former summer house of the Russian poet, told Interfax that this has been part of a series of attempted burglaries. The thieves got away with two books and a table lamp.

TITLE: Instant Remedy for Deficit of Churches
AUTHOR: By Alexander Osipovich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — In recent years, Russians have gotten used to a wide array of easy-to-make products, such as instant borshch, instant noodles and instant blini mix. Now, a group of Orthodox businessmen wants to add another item to the list: instant churches.
The Russian Club of Orthodox Philanthropists, a nonprofit organization founded in 2003, says it has developed a design for a temporary prefab church that can be built in just 24 hours.
The first such church will go up in the Siberian town of Kemerovo on April 6, kicking off a project to build around 10 of the churches throughout the country, Vasily Smirnov, the project’s director, said by telephone Friday.
“We develop innovative techniques in this sphere, for people who want to build churches,” Smirnov said.
Though some might deride the easy-to-build wooden structures as McChurches, they are meant to satisfy what Orthodox priests describe as an urgent need: churches for residential districts built during the Soviet era.
Communism changed the landscape by introducing neighborhoods filled with towering apartment blocks, but because of official state atheism, the new districts almost never had churches, which were usually confined to historic town centers.
“In many densely populated bedroom communities, there are not enough Orthodox churches, and residents must travel to the town center to attend church,” Smirnov said.
Father Vladimir Vigilyansky, a spokesman for the Orthodox Church, said Friday that the church hierarchy approved of the businessmen’s initiative.
“Until we have the opportunity to build stone churches, these wooden churches will save the situation,” Vigilyansky said. “In Moscow there should be at least 200 more churches.”
Things are worse in many smaller cities, where sometimes the only church is located at the cemetery, far from the center of town, Vigilyansky said.
The problem is especially acute for old and disabled churchgoers, he added. 
“Many people, especially the elderly and mothers with children, cannot attend church because they need to go with baby carriages, with canes,” Vigilyansky said. “They need to take the bus and make transfers.”
Help may now be on the way thanks to the philanthropists’ club, whose members are “Orthodox businessmen and politicians” in various regions, Smirnov said.
The club’s proposed solution is a wooden church that can hold 150 to 200 people and can be erected in a day. Smirnov said the design would make it easier for local philanthropists to build churches in their communities.

TITLE: Yabloko Leader Defies Party With Conference
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The St. Petersburg office of Yabloko will go ahead with a forum for liberal opposition politicians and activists in St. Petersburg on Saturday, despite the recent arrest and detention of its leader in what it says was a bid by the authorities to scupper the event. 
Yabloko’s St. Petersburg leader Maxim Reznik, one of the organizers of the forum, said the aim of the conference would be “to discuss a way to collaborate between the country’s democratic forces.”
“In the end, the talk is about the unification of democratic forces. However, the process is very delicate, and we need to respect each other,” Reznik said. “We need to discuss the democratic program in a new model society.”
The conference is to bring together about 200 participants who belong to the opposition, including Other Russia head Garry Kasparov, head of SPS Nikita Belykh, leader of youth Yabloko Ilya Yashin, head of movement For Human Rights Lev Ponomaryov, and Boris Nemtsov, Reznik said.
Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky will also come to the forum from his home in the U.K.
Reznik said he would participate in the conference although he and other Yabloko members could be expelled from the party if they take part in forming political projects that bypass the national party leadership.
Yevgenia Dillendorf, spokesman of Yabloko, said that at a meeting on Friday the party took the decision that “It’s recommended that Yabloko members don’t take part in forming any supra-party projects before the party’s congress in June,” Interfax reported.
“If the aim and the result of the upcoming conference was to form such structures, then people who have gone against a decision of the party’s leadership will be expelled from the party. This is in  particular reference to Maxim Reznik,” Dillendorf said, Interfax reported.
Reznik said that the threat to expel him was heavy-handed.
“Such hysterics do not contribute to normalization of the ‘micro-climate’ between democratic forces. On the contrary, today we need to overcome any confrontation between those forces,” Reznik said.
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg Yabloko member Daniil Kotsyubinsky said he would leave the party because of the “collaborationism” of Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, Interfax reported on Monday with reference to Yavlinksy’s attempts to work with a political system dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
Kotsyubinsky criticized the federal leadership of Yabloko, particularly Yavlinsky, his deputy and his spokeswoman, in a blog.
Kotsyubinsky said he was particularly outraged by the threats to expel Reznik from the party. Kotsyubinsky said he considered Reznik the most promising opposition politician in Russia.
Kotsyubinsky said that in isolating itself from Reznik’s course to unite democratic forces under the aegis of Yabloko, “the party was isolating itself.”
Kotsyubinsky called for other “honest” Yabloko members to leave the party.
Earlier Kotsyubinsky criticized Yavlinsky for meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

TITLE: Seven Women Leave Doomsday Cult’s Cave, 28 Still Barricaded In
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Seven female members of a doomsday cult have come out of the cave where they have been awaiting the end of the world, but 28 people were still underground Sunday.
The members have been barricaded in a cave dug out of a hillside in the Penza region since October. They have been refusing to come out until the end of the world, which they predict will come in May.
A local official said the seven women had been persuaded to emerge after Pyotr Kuznetsov, the leader of their cult, who is undergoing court-ordered psychiatric treatment, was brought to the scene to negotiate with them.
“Seven people have come up to the surface, all of them women,” Penza region deputy governor Oleg Melnichenko said, Itar-Tass reported. “They are all alive and well, so there is no need for medical assistance.”
Officials had agreed to let the women move from the cave to Kuznetsov’s house in a nearby village, where they have spent their time in prayer.
“The women who have come out will continue their isolation until May, when the end of the world will supposedly happen,” he said. “That was their condition, which we promised to respect.”
The cult members started intensive negotiations with officials this week after water from melting snow caused part of their cave to collapse.
Another five women, one of whom has a young child with her in the cave, were to come out Sunday, Melnichenko said.
Kuznetsov, found to be of unsound mind by a psychological evaluation, is facing criminal charges for inciting religious and ethnic hatred.

TITLE: President Tipped to Join Party
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin plans to become the official leader of United Russia and will announce his decision to join the party at its congress next month, sources said, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Friday.
Putin would then be elected to replace current party leader Boris Gryzlov, the newspaper said.
A Kremlin spokesman said Friday that he wasn’t aware Putin had any plans to join United Russia and said the president was not scheduled to attend the congress.
The United Russia congress will be held April 15-16 at Gostiny Dvor, the same venue for Putin’s December announcement that he was willing to serve as prime minister if his protege Dmitry Medvedev became president.
The move to join the party would make sense in relation to comments by Putin last week that “the chairman of the government can and must rely on the majority in the State Duma,” adding that it was an effective power structure.
Suitably, a statement on the party’s web site said the congress would discuss the party’s role in implementation of Putin’s plan for the country through 2020.
In a signal of the control Putin already exerts inside the party, his administration has taken over planning for the event, after rejecting a number of scenarios prepared by the party, the newspaper said.

TITLE: Local Firms Win Prizes at Real Estate Awards
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg developers, consultants, architects and engineering companies were honored Friday in Smolny Cathedral at the Commercial Real Estate Awards. It was the first time the event has been held in the city.
Out of the 50 local projects submitted for the award this year, the winners were those who received the most votes from 200 market experts.
“The award is highly valued by market professionals, and winning a nomination is a real achievement for any company,” said Lev Pukshansky, general manager of Morskoi Facade management company, at the ceremony.
In the industrial category, MLP Utkina Zavod was named the winner. The 200,000-square meter A-class logistics complex was built by Multinational Logistic Partnership in the Vsevolozhsky district on the ring road.
In the retail category, two winners were announced. Yugo-Zapad, a project by IB Group on Prospekt Marshala Zhukova, was named the best small retail center, while Continent, Adamant’s project on Baikonurskaya Ulitsa, received the award for the best medium-size retail center.
The best B-class business center in the experts’ opinion is Alia Tempora. The 8,500-square meter building, which is located on Ulitsa Mayakovskogo just off Nevsky Prospekt, has an archway styled on the Triumphal Arch in Rome. It was constructed by TST Ltd.
“We wanted to make this business center a sort of benchmark. It was only minor details that prevented it from qualifying for class A. Our office is located in this building, and we have experienced all the comfort and convenience it has to offer for ourselves,” said Oleg Barkov, general manager of Knight Frank St. Petersburg, the project’s consultant.
The LangenZipen business center built by Teorema Holding in the Petrogradsky district was named the best project in the A-class category. The complex consists of two adjacent buildings and includes about 12,000 square meters of office and retail space.
LangenZipen was designed by the German architectural bureau Tchoban and Partners. One of the buildings has a unique facade made of 3D-glass featuring a decorative lighting system, while the second is a red brick building.
The Regent Hall complex built on Vladimirsky Prospekt by Fastcom Holding won the mixed-use category. The eight-story Art Deco-style building was built next to Dostoyevskaya metro station without necessitating its closure during the construction process.
Boutique Hotel Repino, constructed by Prosvyaznedvizhimost on the Karelian Peninsular, 45 kilometers from St. Petersburg, won the hotel category.
The head of the Guild of Managers and Developers, Alexander Olkhovsky, was named person of the year, while Colliers International was awarded the title of consultant of the year, and Teorema Holding that of developer of the year.
Teorema’s general director, Igor Vodopianov, added a somber note to the festive atmosphere of the celebration by highlighting the broader context of the development industry.
“In my opinion, St. Petersburg is a huge depressing area that we are heroically trying to develop, and contemporary architectural solutions leave much to be desired. I really hope that in the future it will not be enough to construct a box out of sandwich-panels to be nominated for an award,” Vodopianov said.
Other experts were less critical of local developments.
“All of St. Petersburg might be considered ‘depressing’ if you compare it to central London or Paris or San Francisco. But it’s not East Germany either. It’s just a bit slower in getting ‘modernized’ than other cities,” said Val Jerdes, advisory director at Praktis Consulting & Brokerage.
“The prizes went to worthy recipients, particularly to Colliers, which has done a great job under Boris Yushenkov. I wish Renaissance had got at least something — it was nominated in three categories and has just completed a significant business center on Ulitsa Marata,” he added.
In the future, Jerdes expects local developers to embark on more interesting projects.
“The next few years will produce some great projects that are worthy of nominations, and the effect of such contests of raising the general standards of developers, consultants and projects will definitely be appreciated by investors and consumers,” he said.
Boris Yushenkov, general director of Colliers International St. Petersburg, also expects local developments to improve in the future.
“Many projects participating in the awards were designed and planned several years ago. For example, Regent Hall was projected in 2001. If we take into consideration the winning projects of architectural competitions held in 2007-2008, then there are some very impressive premises that should improve the city’s architectural environment in the next 2-4 years,” Yushenkov said.
Yushenkov also said he was surprised by some of this year’s nominations. “LangenZipen is not actually an A-class business center because of its corridor layout. However, it’s a worthy project and it deserved its award,” he said.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Nevo Tabac Sells Land</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Nevo Tabac has sold its new production complex on the Pulkovskoye Highway to Russky Standard, Interfax reported Friday.
The five buildings occupying a total area of 10,000 square meters were constructed in 2006 in order to move tobacco production out of the city center, but Nevo Tabac never used the buildings. The company did not disclose the cost of the deal. The premises were sold together with a 5.5-hectare land plot.

<b>LSR Buys 2nd Plant</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — LSR Group is buying an aerated concrete plant in Ukraine for 30 million euros ($47.63 million), Interfax reported Friday.
By summer 2008, LSR will have completed the acquisition of a 97 percent stake in Obukhovsky Plant.  LSR group is currently constructing its first Ukrainian plant 70 kilometers from Kiev. It will start operating in summer this year and will produce 400,000 cubic meters of aerated concrete a year. The total production capacity of the second plant is expected to be more than 700,000 cubic meters.

<b>Petrolesport to Invest</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Petrolesport will invest $886 million into development during the next seven years, Interfax reported Friday.
$404 million will be spent on the acquisition of new equipment and $481 million on construction works. Petrolesport plans to dredge and reclaim 15 hectares of land, construct new mooring lines and reconstruct existing ones. New refrigerator warehouses and container terminals will also be built. 

<b>Lenta to Double Stores</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Lenta retail chain plans to double the number of its stores in 2008-2009, Interfax reported Monday.
By the end of 2009 the St. Petersburg-based company plans to operate 50 stores across Russia, investing about $25.6 million into each one. 12 new stores will be opened this year and another 12 in 2009. Lenta currently operates 26 stores.

<b>Laventa Plans Increase</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Laventa retail chain, which operates stores under the Santahouse brand, plans to increase its turnover by 3.5 times in 2008, Interfax reported Monday.
The company expects to earn 3.3 billion rubles ($140.9 million) this year as opposed to 930 million rubles ($39.7 million) in 2007. By the end of last year Laventa operated 16 stores. This year six new stores will be opened, and in 2009, the company plans to open 25 stores.

<b>Price Freeze Extended</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — The local government in St. Petersburg extended a freeze on bread prices until June 30 as an agreement signed in August expired, the city’s economic development committee said Monday.
Eighteen bread producers and retailers agreed to cap prices on rye and white bread and limit the mark-up in stores to 10 percent.
The agreement shows the “social responsibility” of businesses and contributes to a higher standard of living for people with limited means, Alexei Sergeyev, the committee’s head, said in an e-mailed statement.

<b>Telecom Stake Pays Off</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Northwest Telecom quadrupled its net profit last year, Interfax reported Friday.
According to Russian accounting standards, in 2007 Northwest Telecom earned a net profit of 11.4 billion rubles ($486.4 million), including 8.38 billion rubles ($357.8 million) in the last quarter. The increased profits resulted from the sale of a 15 percent stake in Telecominvest.

<b>Peterstar Profits Soar</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Peterstar increased its net profit by 40 percent last year up to $33 million, Interfax reported Monday.
According to IFRS, revenue increased by 23 percent up to $117 million. EBITDA increased by 20 percent up to $56 million. Most of the profits came from Internet access services (36 percent) and corporate telephone services (29 percent).

<b>More Crude Refined</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom Neft, the oil division of Russia’s gas-export monopoly, will refine 7.4 percent more crude at its refinery in Omsk this year.
Gazprom Neft plans to process 17.5 million metric tons of crude at the plant, the St. Petersburg-based company said Monday in an e-mailed statement. That compares with 16.3 million tons in 2007, according to figures supplied by the Energy Ministry’s CDU TEK agency.

TITLE: RTL Plan Terminal For Gulf of Finland
AUTHOR: By Paul Abelsky
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: St. Petersburg — RTL Group, a Russian logistics and shipping company, will open a $120 million terminal on the Gulf of Finland to handle imports for Europe’s fastest-growing car market, the company’s general director said.
The 60-hectare (148-acre) Novaya Gavan terminal near Vistino Bay, part of the Ust-Luga port located 110 kilometers (68 miles) from St. Petersburg, will handle as many as 50,000 vehicles a year when a 6-hectare section of the site opens this summer, Konstantin Skovoroda said Friday in an interview.
Another 14-hectare portion of the complex will be operational by the end of the year. St. Petersburg-based RTL expects the terminal’s maximum annual capacity to be 250,000 cars, Skovoroda said.
Russians spent a record $53.4 billion on cars last year, 67 percent more than in 2006, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in February. Renault SA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said on Jan. 30 that Russia will surpass Germany as Europe’s biggest car market in two years.
Finnish terminals receive about 75 percent of Russia’s car imports, delivering them to Russia by road and rail, according to the Web-based Portnews.ru agency. As Russia’s market expands, more cargo will be directed through the ports around St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, Skovoroda said.
“Our business is just catching up with Russia’s growing market for cars,” Skovoroda said. The Novaya Gavan terminal is financed with loans and investment from shareholders, he said.
RTL provides logistics services to Oslo Marin Group at the Onega terminal in the port of St. Petersburg, where it operates a former fishing port that processed 41,000 vehicles in 2007, and plans other ventures in the city, he said.
Skovoroda said RTL has reached preliminary agreements with foreign carmakers interested in shipping vehicles through Novaya Gavan, without providing details. The Onega terminal handles cars produced by Nissan Motor Co. and PSA Peugeot Citroen.
RTL operates a terminal in Riga, Latvia, and has branch offices in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don in Russia, and Ukraine. It offers logistics services including stevedoring, vehicle inspection and delivery.
“When the company started in 2001, it provided customs clearance in Moscow for 600 cars a month,” Skovoroda said. “Today we clear a monthly average of 60,000 cars for the Russian market.”
Two more terminals are under construction in Russia’s northwest to handle car shipments. Oslo Marin is spending $100 million to reconstruct the port of Vyborg, which specialized in timber exports. Ust-Luga Company is building the Yug-2 terminal on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland to receive as many as 360,000 vehicles within two years.

TITLE: Tymoshenko Marks 100 Days as PM
AUTHOR: By Maria Danilova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV — Yulia Tymoshenko said Friday that economic growth and more government revenues were clear successes during her first 100 days as Ukraine’s prime minister, but observers warn that spiraling inflation and uncertainty over Russian gas imports threaten to undo her achievements. 
The return of the fiery Tymoshenko last year was viewed as an opportunity for pro-Western forces of the 2004 Orange Revolution to reunite and push through much-needed reforms. 
Tymoshenko told reporters that since resuming her post, she has achieved economic growth, fought corruption, replenished state coffers with customs revenues and moved to clean up the country’s shady gas trade with Russia. 
“You have in front of you a government team that is taking on the ambitious task of bringing true changes to Ukraine, making the reforms and transformations that the country has long been waiting for,” she said. 
Since her appointment, Tymoshenko has begun compensating people for all or parts of savings lost amid the hyperinflation caused by the Soviet breakup, earning praise from Ukrainians. 
She also has scored an important victory in her drive to rid the country’s natural gas trade with Russia of intermediaries, which are believed to be siphoning money into private pockets. 
But observers and critics say the savings compensation program is fueling high inflation, which has soared to more than 20 percent. The new gas agreement with Russia, while bringing more transparency, could leave Ukraine with higher gas prices nationwide. 
Still, many analysts say Tymoshenko’s anti-corruption efforts are noteworthy. 
“To me, it makes a lot of sense that the most popular politician in Ukraine today is the one who takes corruption the most seriously,” said Geoffrey Smith, an analyst at Renaissance Capital.

TITLE: Polyus Gold Announces Reserves Increase of 3.5%
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Polyus Gold, Russia’s largest gold miner, said on Monday its proved and probable reserves had risen 3.5 percent to over 71 million ounces after the completion of an audit of its Chertovo Koryto deposit. 
Polyus, the world’s fourth-largest gold company by reserves, has invested $8 million in the Chertovo Koryto deposit, which means Devil’s Trough in Russian, since acquiring it in 2004. 
Polyus said in a statement proved and probable reserves at Chertovo Koryto, in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, amounted to 2.6 million ounces of gold. Measured and indicated resources amount to 3 million ounces. 
Inferred resources amount to another 109,000 ounces of gold. The calculations were made to Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) standards and based on a cut-off grade of 0.8 grams per tonne and a gold price of $625 an ounce. 
Polyus, which produces a quarter of Russia’s gold, is majority owned by Russian billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov, who are involved in the complicated process of dividing their various assets. 
The company plans to more than triple output by 2015 after bringing several large deposits in Siberia and the Russian Far East on stream. Output in 2007 was 1.2 million ounces.

TITLE: Aurora Declares Net Value Of $163M In First Full-Year Tally
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Aurora Russia, a start-up venture company investing in small and medium-sized firms in Russia, said its net asset value was 82.2 million pounds ($163.3 million) at the end of 2007 as it posted its first complete full-year results on Monday. 
That compared to 71.9 million pounds on Dec. 31, 2006 — nine months after the investment vehicle listed on London’s junior AIM market. 
The company reported consolidated net profit of 4.2 million pounds for 2007 after recording a net loss of 321,000 pounds from incorporation in the previous year. Aurora Russia said it was now “effectively fully invested” in four firms in Russia: international money transmitter Unistream, consumer finance firm Kreditmart, records management company OSG Records Management and DIY retailer SuperStroy. 
“We are well positioned to benefit from the strong growth in the Russian economy as Russia continues to attract foreign investment,” said Aurora Russia Chairman Trevor Chinn, adding he expected rising consumer demand in Russia to drive growth of the investee companies.

TITLE: Gazprom To Invest More
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom is set to increase capital investment by almost 40 percent in 2009 to another record level to speed up development of production and pipeline projects. 
In a memorandum on its forthcoming bond issue, the world’s largest gas producer said its capital investment is expected to rise to 668.6 billion rubles ($28.44 billion) in 2009, up 39.4 percent from the 479.4 billion rubles planned for this year. 
In 2010, the firm’s capex is set to further grow to 849.6 billion rubles. 
It said the main investments are expected to be in the implementation of key projects in the gas transportation and production segments. 
“Over the next several years, we must further improve our natural gas, gas condensate and crude oil production capabilities and natural gas transportation system to meet the anticipated demand of customers in western Europe, Russia and certain FSU (former Soviet Union) countries,” Gazprom said in the memorandum. 
It said it planned to provide annual production of 560-570 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas by 2010, 580-590 bcm by 2020 and 610-630 bcm by 2030.

TITLE: EU Ready to Negotiate New Partnership
AUTHOR: By Marcin Grajewski
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BRDO, Slovenia — The European Union should be ready to start negotiations on a new strategic partnership with a resurgent Russia at a June summit in Siberia, EU officials said Friday. 
They said the election of Dmitry Medvedev as the country’s next president was a chance for a new start in ties with Moscow — as long as the bloc finds a common line in dealing with Russia, which it struggled to do with President Vladimir Putin. 
“There’s a summit in June, which I think provides an opportunity,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told a news briefing after talks with his European Union counterparts in Slovenia. “I felt that there was an EU ... developing its own sense of purpose over how to take forward this relationship with Russia,” Miliband said. 
EU president Slovenia said it was confident that the EU’s 27 states could agree on a mandate next month for talks with Moscow on a broad pact covering trade, energy and human rights after Lithuania signaled that it could drop its objections. 
“I am satisfied with talks today. We are moving in the right direction,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said. 
After Poland earlier this year resolved a dispute with Moscow over meat imports, Lithuania alone has stood in the way of a start of negotiations, saying its concerns over Russian energy dominance and treatment of its neighbors must be addressed. 
Lithuania was aggrieved by Moscow’s cutoff of oil supplies to its Mazeikiu refinery, which was sold to a Polish company rather than a Russian rival. It since added the case of a missing businessman and “frozen conflicts” in Georgia and Moldova to the oil issue, diplomats say. 
Medvedev, elected earlier this month, will take over on May 7 from Putin. The summit, in Khanty-Mansiisk, will be Medvedev’s first with the EU. 
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier noted that Medvedev had spoken of wanting to develop the rule of law, civil rights and the market economy, key EU values around which the 27-member bloc wants to forge a new understanding with Moscow. 
“Russia has voted. There will be a new president, Medvedev, and I believe that is an opportunity that we should use,” Steinmeier said. 
Sweden’s Carl Bildt voiced optimism of better ties under Medvedev but added: “Certain of the things he’s said recently are things we should listen to and see if deeds follow words.” 
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, whose country has long suffered strained relations with Russia, said he expected an early start to negotiations now but added: 
“We must be directed by our values, although Russia is an important partner to us. The partnership must not be based on double standards.” 
Before the meeting, France’s Bernard Kouchner and Miliband sent a letter to the Slovenian presidency arguing that now was the time to put EU-Russia relations on a new footing. 
“But we should be clear that the actual negotiations could be tough and drawn out,” they said in the letter. 
“Experience shows that Russia respects the EU when we are able to adopt united positions, and act accordingly. Conversely, Russia is adept at exploiting disunity among EU member states.”

TITLE: Finland Says It Will Back Russia’s WTO Bid
AUTHOR: By Kati Pohjanpalo and Leon Mangasarian
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: HELSINKI — Finland is prepared to look beyond a dispute with Russia over timber export tariffs and support its bid to join the World Trade Organization, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said.
“We have a lot of interest in getting Russia into the WTO,” Vanhanen said in a Bloomberg Television interview at his office in Helsinki on Friday. “It would benefit the whole European Union.”
Russia has sought membership of the Geneva-based WTO for almost 15 years and remains the largest economy outside the organization. WTO entry, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s major foreign-policy goals, may be in jeopardy if a dispute on duties Russia levies on wood exports remains unresolved.
In a bid to reduce dependence on oil and gas exports, Russia says it will raise export tariffs on unprocessed timber to about 25 percent on April 1 and to 80 percent in 2009 to bolster industries such as wood processing and manufacturing. Vanhanen warned that the increases might lead to pulp and paper mill closures in Finland, which buys about 20 percent of its timber from Russia.
“Of course these export duties on raw timber will damage our forestry industry,” Vanhanen said. “We cannot accept and understand why Russia is doing this. It is our biggest problem with Russia.”
The forestry industry accounts for about 20 percent of Finland’s exports. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin failed to resolve the dispute in negotiations last week, Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in an e-mailed statement.
Finland isn’t waiting for the EU to solve the problem. Vanhanen and Finland’s foreign trade minister, Paavo Vaeyrynen, have sent letters to their Russian counterparts, appealing for a “quick solution,” the foreign ministry said.
Russia, seeking to support its forestry industry, may end up getting hurt by its own tariffs, according to Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, who said Russia’s economy would also suffer from the wood export duties.
“Timber has the potential of being a key export good for Russia, but now its exports are falling,” Erixon said in an e-mailed response to questions. Russia has a fifth of the world’s forested land.
Turning to security issues, Vanhanen said Finland has no plans to seek membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s one of only six European Union members that aren’t part of the bloc.
“We don’t have any reasons now to join NATO,” said Vanhanen. He stressed that Finland doesn’t rule out a possible NATO membership bid in the future. “We want to keep the option. In security policy you never make decisions going far into the future.”
The Russian government opposes NATO enlargement, especially for countries with which its shares a border, like Finland. It’s even fiercer in rejecting NATO membership bids by parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine and Georgia, which will be discussed at an alliance summit in Bucharest from April 2-4.
“Nobody likes the military blocs approaching their borders,” Arkady Moshes, program director at Helsinki’s Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said in a telephone interview. “Clearly Russia failed to stop the first two waves of enlargement, but it’s hopeful it can stop the third.” Finland adhered to strict neutrality during the Cold War and avoided measures that might have angered its powerful neighbor, the Soviet Union, in a policy dubbed “Finlandization.”
“In Finland, there are schools of thought that Russia should not be provoked,” Moshes said. “In a way it’s less important in that sense what Moscow would say, it’s more important how Helsinki would hear it.”
Karl-Heinz Kamp, director of research at the NATO Defense College in Rome, said the alliance doesn’t want an expanded enlargement debate at the present time.
“It’s not just the Finnish government that is cautious about possible Finnish NATO membership — it’s also NATO,” Kamp said in a telephone interview.
Vanhanen said Finland supports the Nord Stream natural-gas pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany. The pipeline is opposed by the Polish government, which says it might allow Russia to shut off gas supplies to eastern Europe while still supplying western customers. Lawmakers in Finland’s western neighbor Sweden have also raised environmental and security concerns.
“For us the pipeline is only an environmental question,” Vanhanen said. “We don’t have any political problems with it.” 
Nord Stream AG, a Russian-German joint venture, plans to build a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany that is scheduled to begin carrying natural gas in 2011.
The company is 51 percent-owned by Russia’s state-run natural-gas producer Gazprom. E.ON AG and BASF AG of Germany each own 20 percent of Nord Stream, while Nederlandse Gasunie NV controls the rest.

TITLE: Procter & Gamble Faces $28.5M Back Tax Claim
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Tax authorities hit Procter & Gamble’s unit in Russia with a back tax claim of $28.5 million, chiefly over its royalties to the U.S.-based parent company, Kommersant reported Friday. 
The distributor paid from 2.5 percent to 7 percent of its sales revenues to Procter & Gamble Co. for the use of its trademark in 2003 and 2004, the report said, citing a document from a Moscow inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service. 
Moscow Tax Inspectorate No. 48 said in the document that producers, rather than distributors, are required to pay royalties. Of the total amount of 670 million rubles being sought in taxes and penalties, 362 million rubles ($15.4 million) was for back taxes on the earnings paid as royalties, the document said. 
The decision to seek the money was made by officials at the inspectorate on Dec. 14. 
Viktor Kromarenko, a Procter & Gamble spokesman in Moscow, confirmed the claims and said the company was appealing them at a higher tax office, the Moscow City Tax Inspectorate. 
The report did not describe how the authorities came up with the rest of the back taxes, saying only that 189 million rubles of the total amount was in penalties. 
Procter & Gamble runs three plants in Russia, according to the local unit’s web site, which describes the company as a “large local producer.” The plants make detergents, including Ariel and Tide, diapers, shampoos and Gillette disposable razors. 
It was unclear on Sunday what unit or units of the U.S.-based consumer-goods maker holds ownership of these plants. 
A call to the company’s Moscow office went unanswered Sunday, but Kromarenko told Kommersant that the Russian unit was only a marketing company responsible for distribution and promotion of the company’s goods.

TITLE: Troika Dialog Seeking $1Bln
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SINGAPORE — Troika Dialog, Russia’s No. 2 investment bank, said on Monday that it plans to raise $1 billion from an infrastructure fund and is seeking Singapore’s state-owned Temasek as a return investor. 
The fund will have its first closing in January 2009 and invest in Russian utilities and logistics projects such as waste management, electricity and water supply, and port terminals, said Troika Dialog Managing Director Andrei Sharonov. 
“We hope most of the investments will come from Asia especially bearing in mind the situation in the U.S. and European markets,” Sharonov told reporters ahead of a Russia-Singapore business conference. 
Temasek had partnered Troika Dialog for the Russia New Growth private equity fund in 2005, which focused on the retail, entertainment and financial industries. 
Sharonov said the bank was in talks with another institutional investor in Asia with experience in infrastructure projects, to become a cornerstone partner in the new fund. 
Troika Dialog is also planning to set up a representative office in Singapore this year to be closer to the Asian market, and is in the process of hiring a person to lead it, said its head of international network Philippe Rakotovao. 
He said the investment bank will not seek a banking license in the city-state.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Price Hikes Reviewed</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, will review scheduled increases in domestic electricity prices and may do the same for natural gas, Federal Tariff Service chief Sergei Novikov said.
Working groups will be formed within relevant ministries to study the issue, Novikov told reporters Monday in Moscow, without saying whether any changes would likely be higher or lower than scheduled.

<b>H&M Will Open Store</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Hennes & Mauritz AB will open a store in one of Ikea’s shopping malls in Moscow, Kommersant reported, citing an Ikea statement.
H&M plans to open its first Russian store in spring 2009, and the outlet may not be in Ikea’s mall, Annacarin Bjoerne, a spokeswoman for the Stockholm-based company, told Kommersant.

<b>‘Yuppie Town’ Planned</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Dekra Group, a Russian developer, plans to spend more than $1 billion on the construction of “Yuppie Town,” a group of commercial and residential properties near Moscow’s new financial district.
Construction of the 8-hectare site close to the Moscow-City area will start this year and be completed by 2012, Chairman Sergei Denisov told RIA Novosti  last week in remarks confirmed by the company’s press service.
Yuppie Town will be “fully self-sufficient and include housing, cultural amenities and road infrastructure,” as well as a 400-room hotel, Denisov said. Most of the financing for the project will be in the form of loans and the money will be recouped through apartment sales.
GAZ May Have Partner</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp., the world’s largest carmaker, said the Russian auto company owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska may become its partner in an Italian diesel engine manufacturer.
GAZ, Russia’s second-largest automaker, is in talks to buy 50 percent of VM Motori SpA, GM spokesman Marc Kempe said on Friday in an interview. The stake is currently held by Penske Corp., headed by race-car team owner Roger Penske. 

<b>Bank Sees Profits Climb</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia’s Vozrozhdeniye Bank on Monday reported a 160 percent rise in yearly net profit to $78 million, above analysts’ forecasts. 
The bank said its own capital grew 131 percent to $484 million after a $177 million public share offering last May, while assets grew 63 percent to $4.5 billion. Vozrozhdeniye’s loan portfolio rose 49 percent with retail loans rising 87 percent. The bank said the return on equity rose to 21 percent in 2007 from 19.1 percent in the previous year. 
The bank plans to boost its earnings by a further 45 percent in 2008 while maintaining a return on equity of around 20 percent. 

<b>Gazprom Assesses Costs</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom expects development of its offshore Shtokman natural-gas field to cost $40 billion, Interfax reported, citing Yury Komarov, head of operator Shtokman Development AG.
The figure is a preliminary estimate of the project’s three phases and may be revised following tenders for materials, equipment and services, the Russian news agency quoted Komarov as saying in an interview with Gazprom’s corporate magazine. The final investment decision will be made by the end of 2009, Interfax said, citing Komarov.
Each development phase will have a capacity of 23.7 billion cubic meters a year, Interfax reported. During the first half of Shtokman’s 50-year life span, the Arctic field will produce 71.1 billion cubic meters a year, Komarov was quoted as saying.

<b>Tax Breaks On Horizon</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia may introduce tax breaks for offshore oilfields as early as next year, Interfax reported, citing Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov.
A special government committee approved the proposal Monday, the news agency said. The government will probably use the same rules as tax breaks for hard-to-develop oil deposits in regions such as eastern Siberia, the news agency reported.
The committee also approved cutting Russia’s crude extraction tax by 100 billion rubles ($4.2 billion) a year to help companies boost output, Shatalov said, according to Interfax.

<b>Alrosa Keen on Africa</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Alrosa, the world’s second-largest diamond miner, said it will vie for control of African resources, including diamonds, oil and gas.
“We should use any chance to increase our resource base in Africa,” President Sergei Vybornov said Saturday at a meeting in Mirny, Russia, where Alrosa is based, according to the transcript posted on the company’s web site. “Control over resources means control over the market.”
The continent is becoming “the key region” for the world’s largest consumers of mineral resources, including China and the U.S., Vybornov said. China has been bolstering its presence in Africa 10-fold each year, he said. Global diamond output is set to fall, making Africa more attractive, he said. 

<b>Lufthansa Airport Swap</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-largest airline, will move its Moscow flights to Domodedovo International Airport from Tuesday to provide better connections with other Star Alliance members.
The airline will shift flights from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, Domodedovo spokesman Eldar Tuzmukhametov said in a telephone interview Monday. Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa said in July that it would operate 69 weekly flights between Moscow and Germany out of Domodedovo.

<b>Rate Regulation to Stop</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian Federal Tariff Service chief Sergei Novikov said the government may stop regulating rates state-controlled Rostelecom can charge for long-distance telephone calls by 2011 to ensure fair competition.
Rostelecom, Russia’s dominant provider of long-distance calls, will have its prices lowered by up to 7.5 percent next year and by 6 percent in 2010 and 2011, Novikov told reporters Monday in Moscow where the company is based.
The Russian government liberalized the market for long-distance calls in 2006 to allow access for more players, including Golden Telecom Inc. and Multiregional Transit Telecom, or MTT, half-owned by holding company AFK Sistema. Rostelecom is the only company to have its prices regulated.

TITLE: Court Postpones Ruling On TGK-11 Asset Split
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — In a step that could jeopardize the sale of southern Siberian power producer TGK-11, a Moscow court on Friday postponed a decision until May on splitting off one of the firm’s main assets, Tomskenergo, in which Rosneft formerly controlled a blocking stake. 
Analysts said the delay would likely help Rosneft either regain its stake in Tomskenergo, or buy up all of TGK-11 at a reduced price. 
The Moscow Arbitration Court was hearing a lawsuit brought last month by Neft-Aktiv, a Rosneft affiliate, contesting the formation of TGK-11 last year. Neft-Aktiv claimed that it had not received an absentee ballot to vote at a shareholders meeting to merge Tomskenergo into the regional power firm. 
On Friday, TGK-11’s lawyer, deputy general director Anna Kaflevskaya, rejected the allegation, saying the company had received all the proper documents in time. 
The judge adjourned the hearing until May 7, after accepting the arguments of a team of several Rosneft lawyers that Neft-Aktiv had not received three large volumes of documents it had requested from TGK-11 for Friday’s hearing. 
The ruling came a day after a Novosibirsk court ruled that the TGK-11 sale could not go ahead until a decision was reached on Rosneft’s lawsuit. 
TGK-11’s shares reacted badly to the court rulings, falling 5.9 percent Friday to 2.81 kopeks. 
The TGK-11 auction, of a state stake of 28.9 percent and an additional share emission of 26 percent, was scheduled to happen before the end of March. Further delays in the case could prevent UES selling off TGK-11 before the national utility is wound up July 1. 
UES had been seeking to raise about $300 million in the secondary offering. 
UES spokeswoman Tatyana Milyayeva said Friday that the court case was taking a toll on TGK-11’s sale price, as investors had previously been willing to pay about $400 per megawatt, but were now only prepared to pay $350. 
“TGK-11 badly needs money as it is building a power station that will provide electricity to 300,000 people in Omsk,” Milyayeva said. “Even if we don’t meet the deadline TGK-11 will be sold off, but the sooner the company gets investment, the better.” 
TGK-11 was formed last year through the merger of Tomskenergo and Omsk Electricity Generation, leaving Rosneft’s Neft-Aktiv with a 5 percent stake in the combined company. 
“It’s quite obvious that Rosneft wants to split the company,” a source close to UES said ahead of Friday’s ruling. “There are two other lawsuits against us. We don’t know what they are yet. Now it’s three, but it may become 23.” 
“Rosneft may be trying to delay the auction because it needs time to raise investment for the purchase,” said Matvey Taits, a utilities analyst at UralSib. 
Neft-Aktiv last year represented Rosneft at several bankruptcy auctions of Yukos assets, which it bought at discounted prices to make Rosneft the country’s largest oil producer. 
Rosneft has an interest in the Tomsk region through one of those assets, its 50 percent stake in former Yukos unit Tomskneft, which produces 240,000 barrels per day. 
No one at Rosneft’s press office answered telephone calls Friday.

TITLE: Tesco Said to Be Planning Entry
AUTHOR: By Denis Maternovsky and Maria Ermakova
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, plans to open its first Russian stores as wages and consumer spending surge, three real estate advisers who have held talks with the retailer in the country said. 
The British retailer is looking for ways to enter the market, said Jeff Kershaw, senior director at the Moscow office of CB Richard Ellis, the world’s biggest commercial real estate company. Tesco is studying possible store sites, said two people at other property firms who asked not to be identified. 
Tesco spokeswoman Lisa Kavanagh said the company does not comment on “rumors and speculation.” 
The retailer owns stores in emerging markets from Turkey to Malaysia and makes more than 25 percent of its sales outside Britain. The company would compete with X5 Retail Group, Russia’s largest supermarket owner, Germany’s Metro and France’s Carrefour in a food-retail market UBS says is worth $191 billion and grew 32 percent last year. 
Tesco is taking its time to enter Russia because “the population is concentrated in cities which are very spread apart, and that is particularly difficult for a food retailer in terms of distribution,” said Chris Gower, an analyst at MF Global in London. Metro, X5’s closest rival in Russia, “has taken a long time to establish itself because of the bureaucratic difficulties,” he said. 
Tesco has considered potential franchise partners in Russia, one of the real estate executives working with the British company said. X5 has said it would potentially cooperate with Tesco as a franchise partner. 
UBS said in a March 4 report that supermarkets and superstores would account for 45 percent of Russian food retailing by the end of 2009, up from less than one-third in 2006, with the rest generated by open markets.

TITLE: Proposed Cut in Oil Taxes Boosts Stock Markets
AUTHOR: By Catrina Stewart
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — While TNK-BP’s troubles may have been grabbing the wrong sort of headlines, last week’s key economic news came from Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who proposed a $4.2 billion cut in annual oil taxes from next year, an eagerly awaited move that provided an overdue boost for oil stocks. 
The proposals, to a meeting of officials at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry on Tuesday, come at a time of soaring oil prices. Shying short of its recent high of more than $109 per barrel, crude oil in New York remained buoyant, closing at $105.62 per barrel by at the close of the week. Oil was closely tracked by other commodities, including nickel and copper. 
“[It’s the] overall sentiment,” said Ivan Mazalov, a director at Prosperity Capital Management, which manages $5 billion in Russia-focused funds. The prospect of an easing in the tax burden “plus oil stocks are beaten down more than should have [been] and the oil price is high. All that put together has created demand for oil stocks.” 
Although the proposed tax breaks are modest — adding 5 percent to 6 percent to earnings, analysts said — there were hopes that it might herald a more focused approach to tackling the sector’s taxation system. 
Oil blue chips have had a rough time of it over the past year, battered by high oil taxes that have prevented them from cashing in on sky-high crude prices. Meanwhile, the windfall profits have accumulated in the government’s stabilization fund, now split into two separate funds, to provide a cushion against a national fiscal shortfall. 
Still, Kudrin’s comments took a little while to feed through into gains for oil stocks. On Thursday, Rosneft moved up 4.1 percent and LUKoil 3.5 percent. Over the week, LUKoil’s stock rose by an impressive 12.3 percent, on hopes that chief executive Vagit Alekperov’s talks in Baghdad would lead to the company getting back into the giant West Qurna oil field in southern Iraq. LUKoil, in partnership with ConocoPhillips, still faces tough competition for the contract, however, as the Iraqi government is also considering bids for the project by Total and Chevron. 
Gas producers Gazprom and Novatek also made decent gains, up 3.6 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, after they were buoyed by signals that there would be no increase in gas taxes in the near term. 
Yet good news for oil was tempered by not so good news for the economy. 
In his comments Tuesday, Kudrin also said that changes to the value-added-tax regime would be put off until 2010 at least, a change that analysts have viewed as an important step toward encouraging economic diversification. 
Metal stocks were also benefiting from higher prices for nickel, copper and zinc, while gold regained some of its luster midweek before dropping back Friday to $930.60 per ounce after a strengthening in the dollar. 
Trading on both Russian indexes remained weak amid the ongoing fallout in Western markets. There was some respite to be gained, though, in JPMorgan’s revised $1 billion offer for Bear Stearns, after the once-mighty investment bank was saved from collapse a week earlier with a much-lower bailout bid backed by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

TITLE: Pernod Ricard Acquires Sweden’s Vin & Sprit
AUTHOR: By Meera Bhatia
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: OSLO — Pernod Ricard SA, the world’s second-largest liquor company, agreed on Monday to buy Vin & Sprit AB from Sweden’s government for 5.28 billion euros ($8.34 billion) to gain the Absolut vodka brand and take on Diageo Plc’s Smirnoff in the U.S. 
Pernod beat out rivals including Fortune Brands and the billionaire Wallenberg family with its bid. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt , in power since 2006, put Vin & Sprit up for sale to reduce the state’s involvement in the economy and pay debt. 
Pernod dropped as much as 5 percent in Paris trading Monday on concern that the company may be paying too much. The purchase will make the producer of Martell cognac the second-biggest spirits seller in the U.S., the world’s largest vodka market by value. Absolut controls about 9 percent of the U.S. vodka market by volume, more than any brand except Smirnoff. 
“It’s a good operation, but the price is high,” said Salah Seddik , a fund manager at Richelieu Finance, which oversees $6.3 billion. “This will increase the debt level of Pernod, even though it’s not a worrisome level.” 
Pernod, the maker of Chivas Regal whiskey, said it is paying 20.8 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, prior to any savings. The company paid 13 times operating profit for Allied Domecq Plc in 2005. 
In addition to the purchase price, Pernod is assuming debt of 346 million euros, taking the total cost of the transaction to 5.63 billion euros, spokeswoman Florence Taron said. The acquisition is being fully funded by debt and will almost double the company’s net borrowings to 12 billion euros, Pernod said. 
“The quick bidding process indicates Pernod’s offer was substantially above the other bidders,” said Lars Soederfjell, head of equity strategy at ABG Sundal Collier in Stockholm. “The Swedish government is being very well paid for the company.” 
The transaction means Pernod’s contract to distribute Stolichnaya vodka will end once the brand’s Russian owner SPI Group has found a replacement. The French company plans to sell Plymouth Gin and some of V&S’s other smaller brands. 
Sweden is selling Vin & Sprit to dispose of assets worth at least 200 billion kronor ($34 billion) by the end of 2010. London-based Diageo, the world’s biggest distiller, dropped out of the running in February after agreeing to form a joint venture with the Dutch producer of Ketel One vodka. Other bidders included Investor AB, the Wallenberg family’s holding company. 
Bengt Baron will remain chief executive officer of V&S after the takeover and the company’s headquarters will stay in Stockholm, Pernod Managing Director Pierre Pringuet said Monday. 
Fortune said Monday it plans to repurchase the stake in the unit from the Swedish government and will also seek to buy back as many as 15 million shares of common stock. 
Pernod’s bid was “among the highest multiples paid for a company in this business,” Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said on a conference call. 
The French company raised the final offer from what it initially indicated it would pay, he said. 
Odell added that Vin & Sprit “won’t be split” and that he expects to complete the sale of the Beam stake in months. 
“This is a good deal for both sides,” Trevor Stirling , an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London, said Monday by telephone. “The price is higher than expected, but synergies are also higher than expected.” 
Absolut is distributed in the U.S. by Future Brands, a joint venture between Fortune and Vin & Sprit. The vodka is distributed elsewhere by Maxxium, to which both companies also belong along with French cognac maker Remy Cointreau SA and Edrington Group, the Scottish distiller of Famous Grouse and Macallan whiskey. Remy is leaving the venture this year. 
The Swedish distiller introduced Absolut in 1979 and now sells almost 11 million cases a year of the vodka, which is made from winter wheat. The U.S. accounts for half of sales. Vin & Sprit has fueled demand with flavored varieties such as raspberry and advertisements designed by artists that began when Andy Warhol painted an Absolut bottle in 1985. 
Absolut accounts for about 40 percent of Vin & Sprit’s sales by volume. The rest comes from alcoholic beverages including Plymouth gin, which must be distilled in the English city of the same name, and Cruzan rum, which has been made since 1760 on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. The company also owns the Level, Fris and Luksusowa vodka brands.

TITLE: Inflation in Europe Hits 15-Year High
AUTHOR: By Fergal O’Brien
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: DUBLIN — European inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in almost 16 years, making it harder for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates as a global credit squeeze saps confidence among executives and consumers. 
Consumer-price inflation in the euro area accelerated to 3.5 percent this month, the highest rate since June 1992, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said Monday. The euro rose after the publication of the figure, which was higher than economists had forecast. A separate report showed consumer and business confidence declined in March. 
The ECB is refusing to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve and reduce interest rates in response to a global crisis as food and energy prices fuel inflation. ECB council member Erkki Liikanen said Monday that inflation expectations have “hardened” and at the same time is concerned that the growth outlook has “become more subdued,” summing up the central bank’s dilemma. 
“This will surely dash any residual hopes of a near-term rate cut,” said Dario Perkins , an economist at ABN Amro in London. “With inflation this high, it would take a major deterioration in the real economy to prompt the ECB to lower interest rates this year.” 
The March inflation rate compared with the 3.3 percent median forecast of 36 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. 
The Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark rate to 2.25 percent from 5.25 percent in the last six months, and the Bank of England has also lowered its key rate. 
While the ECB has left its rate at a six-year high of 4 percent, it has taken steps to boost liquidity after credit markets seized up. Last week it allotted 216 billion euros ($341.6 billion) in its regular weekly refinancing operation, 50 billion euros more than it estimated was required, and offered further cash over periods of three and six months. 
“They probably don’t think rate cuts would do much to help the problem,” Alex Patelis , head of international economics at Merrill Lynch & Co., said in a Bloomberg Television interview in London. “They view it as a liquidity issue and operating with more micro measures is likely to be more effective in their view.” 
M3 money-supply growth, which the ECB uses as a gauge of future inflation , slowed in February to 11.3 percent from a year earlier after a 11.5 percent gain in January, the Frankfurt- based ECB said Monday in a monthly report. Economists expected the rate to remain unchanged. 
Consumer and business confidence fell to 99.6 this month from 100.2 in February, led by the construction industry, the European Commission said Monday. Economists had forecast a decline to 100 from an initially reported 100.1 in February. The construction confidence measures fell in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, Spain, Ireland and Italy all declined. 
The euro rose as high as $1.5834 after the inflation report and was up 0.1 percent to $1.5813 as of 10:57 a.m. in London. 
The currency’s 11 percent advance against the dollar in the last six months, which makes euro-area goods less competitive, and oil prices above $100 a barrel are hitting confidence in the euro area. At the same time, the worst U.S. housing slump in more than a quarter of a century is slowing the world’s largest economy, damping demand for European exports. 
European retail sales fell in March and consumer confidence in France fell to a record low, according to reports last week. 
Inditex SA , Europe’s largest clothes retailer, said Monday that fourth-quarter profit growth was the slowest in four years and warned that sales probably will miss the high end of its forecast in coming years. 
“While the outlook for growth has become more subdued, inflation in the euro area has gathered pace,” Liikanen, who is also governor of the Bank of Finland, said in a statement Monday. “Inflation expectations have also hardened.” 
Still, there are signs the euro-area economy is so far weathering the U.S.-led slowdown. German and French business confidence climbed in March and unemployment in the euro region was a record low 7.1 percent in January. 
ECB council member Axel Weber said on March 28 there may be a greater case for raising rather than cutting interest rates. Growth is “fundamentally robust” and the ECB “will act” if its price-stability goal is threatened, he said. The ECB’s inflation ceiling of 2 percent has been exceeded in the last eight years.

TITLE: Hong Kong Index Slumps
AUTHOR: By Hanny Wan
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index completed its biggest quarterly drop in more than six years Monday on concern credit market losses will widen. 
Bank of Communications Co., part owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, dropped the most in two weeks, after the Sonntag newspaper said UBS AG will need more capital. China Construction Bank Corp., which held $1.06 billion of securities linked to U.S. subprime loans at the end of June, fell for the first time in five days. 
Esprit Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong-based global clothing retailer, declined the most in more than a week on concern global consumption will drop after J.C. Penney Co., the third-largest U.S. department store chain, cut its earnings forecast. 
“The U.S. credit market remains the biggest uncertainty,’’ said Henry Chan, Hong Kong head of Asian investments at Baring Asset Management (Asia) Ltd. which manages more than $10 billion of equities. “Markets will have to wait till the U.S. credit market has cleared to find directions.’’ 
The Hang Seng Index lost 436.75, or 1.9 percent, to close at 22,849.20, extending its drop this quarter to 18 percent. That’s the gauge’s largest quarterly decline since the three months to September 2001. 
Bank of Communications lost 29 cents, or 3.1 percent, to HK$9.09, its largest decline since March 17. China Construction Bank retreated 16 cents, or 2.7 percent, to HK$5.81, its steepest drop since March 20. Bank of East Asia Ltd., Hong Kong’s third biggest by assets, fell HK$1.05, or 2.6 percent, to HK$38.95, its largest drop since March 17. 
Esprit dropped HK$2.25, or 2.4 percent, to HK$93.40, its largest decline since March 18. Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd., the world’s largest maker of sports shoes for brands such as Nike Inc., lost 55 cents, or 2.2 percent, to HK$24.40. 
All but seven stocks on the 43-member Hang Seng Index declined. April futures dropped 2.8 percent to 22,630. 
Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. (1 HK), Hong Kong’s second-biggest developer by market value, lost HK$1.40, or 1.3 percent, to HK$110.50. Henderson Land Development Co. (12 HK), the third largest, fell HK$1.95, or 3.4 percent, to HK$55.30. Both stocks dropped the most since March 20. 
China Communications Services Corp. (552 HK), the nation’s biggest builder of phone networks, fell 34 cents, or 6 percent, to HK$5.29, its biggest drop since March 17. The company plans to raise HK$1.89 billion ($243 million) to help fund acquisitions. China Communications Services said it will offer 326.7 million new shares and 32.7 million held by China’s National Council for the Social Security Fund at HK$5.25 each.

TITLE: A Little Respect for Medvedev
AUTHOR: By Philip Stephens
TEXT: There are hopes in the United States and Europe that President-elect Dmitry Medvedev could foreshadow a fresh start. After the West’s wearying clashes with President Vladimir Putin, the impulse is understandable. No one has gained from the cold peace.
The U.S. and European response to the changing of the Kremlin guard should be positive without being naive. Both sides would profit from a thaw, but an important line separates sensible conciliation from capitulation.
As Medvedev suggested in his interview last week with the Financial Times, Ukraine and Georgia should be denied route maps to eventual membership in the NATO alliance; they must remain in Russia’s sphere of influence. The response to this must be unequivocal: Moscow cannot have a veto over the choices made by the democracies that have emerged from the former Soviet Union.
Medvedev’s remarks were unsurprising. By recent standards, they were also quite temperate. Not so long ago, after all, Putin was threatening to put Ukraine in Russia’s nuclear sights should it move closer to NATO. Medvedev, we should not forget, is Putin’s chosen successor.
At home, his experience as chairman of Gazprom suggests that he may be wedded to the fusion of state power and personal enrichment, which has been a hallmark of Putin’s rule. Abroad, an assertive, not to say belligerent, posture has provided the second pillar for the revival of Russian nationalism.
For all of that, there may be something to be gained by giving Medvedev the benefit of the doubt. It is hard to imagine this lawyer in the bare-chested, gun-toting poses of his predecessor. And whatever Putin’s intentions, we cannot predict precisely the political dynamics once Medvedev assumes the presidency. He may speak his own mind.
Russia, he will discover, is not as strong as it looks. As two interesting assessments of Putin’s legacy underscore, the boast of reclaimed superpower status has not changed Moscow’s strategic dilemmas.
Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski points out that Russia’s presence in the international arena is essentially negative. It can impede and spoil, but it lacks natural allies. Its neighbors may make common cause from time to time, but China and Iran are unreliable friends. Russia’s present course promises geopolitical isolation.
James Sherr, a lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, echoes the analysis. Putin’s bombast, fuelled by Russia’s energy riches, has been a cover for the country’s demographic, social and economic weaknesses. The Kremlin, Sherr observes, has underestimated both its own shortcomings and its need for help in addressing them. Europe, he admonishes, should not make the same mistake.
It does make sense for the West to seek a less fractious relationship. Washington has already moved in that direction. In an effort to defuse tensions over Kosovo’s independence and plans to site U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, President George W. Bush has suggested a broad compact to revive strategic cooperation between Washington and Moscow. Bush and Putin will meet for bilateral talks after the NATO summit in Bucharest, which starts on Wednesday.
The Kremlin — whether it is Putin or Medvedev — will probably get a better deal from Bush than from his successor in the White House. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have all sounded sharper notes about Moscow’s retreat from democracy.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government has likewise signaled that it wants an end to the freeze in British-Russian relations. Brown hopes for bilateral talks when Medvedev makes his first appearance on the global stage during this summer’s Group of Eight summit in Japan.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has struck an admirable balance between principled resolve and engagement in her relationship with Putin. Those who have watched the two leaders at close quarters say Merkel has the knack of being tough without being offensive. But her coalition partner from the Social Democratic Party is drifting toward appeasement. Many in the SDP yearn for the “good old days” of Ostpolitik. Merkel’s supporters call it “Ostalgia.”
The word that most often falls from the lips of Russian diplomats is “respect.” Putin’s nationalist narrative rests on the myth that the 1990s saw his country’s deliberate humiliation by the West. The offer then of a European future was merely a cloak for a U.S.-led plot to encircle and enfeeble Russia. Now, the story continues, Russia is back. Its energy resources and newly found economic strength is sufficient to demand the respect of the West.
There is more delusion here than substance. That is no reason not to show respect to Medvedev. Russia’s acquiescence in the remaking of Europe’s geopolitical map has sometimes been taken for granted. I have heard senior U.S. officials freely admit that their original plans for missile defense were indeed insensitive to Moscow’s legitimate concerns.
Russia could be more closely consulted on other issues of common interest — though no one could accuse the European Union of neglecting it in the failed effort to secure a negotiated settlement in Kosovo. There are other obvious mutual interests. If Europe depends on Russian gas, Gazprom has nowhere else to sell it. Its pipelines all run westward. In addition, Moscow needs expertise and finance to develop its reserves.
Respect, though, must flow in both directions. If the West has learned anything in recent years, it is that a newly assertive Russia is scornful of weakness. It has gleefully exploited divisions within NATO.
The message from Bucharest must be that, yes, the United States and Europe want a better relationship, but no, they are not about to concede the restoration of Russian primacy in the former Soviet sphere. To do otherwise would be to sacrifice Europe’s security to Russian pride, and this would not earn Medvedev’s respect, but his contempt.

Philip Stephens is a columnist for the Financial Times, where this comment appeared.

TITLE: The Next Collapse Will Be Russia’s Last
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: Though the Constitution does not say it in so many words, the main task of the Russian president is to keep the country from falling apart. In taking the oath of office, the president swears to protect “the security and integrity of the state.”
Russia has collapsed twice in the less than a 100 years, in 1917 and again in 1991, and there is no assurance that it won’t happen again. True, it has come back strong each time — first as the Soviet Union and now as the Russian Federation — but there are only so many times you can pull off that trick. The next collapse will surely be the last.
Though flush with cash and newfound power, Russia’s leadership remains traumatized by the sinking of the Soviet Union. The real shock was how quick and easy it was. That shock and the fear of losing control explain much of the country’s behavior both internationally and domestically — for example, in the recent managed State Duma and presidential elections.
Speculation on who will be calling the shots after Dmitry Medvedev is sworn in is interesting, inevitable and irrelevant — at least as far as the nature of the challenge facing the nation is concerned.
Structurally speaking, the problem the country faces today is much like that the one that tsarist and Soviet Russia faced. By refusing to share power and to adapt to changing conditions, the rulers create a crisis that, unaddressed, ultimately proves lethal. The interests of the nation’s ruling class threaten the very existence of the nation itself.
How does the new Russia avoid the same fate? In a word — diversify.
Economically, Russia can save itself from its overdependance on oil, gas and other commodities by doubling its bet on scientific projects like nanotechnology. Success will not be immediate, but the dividends could prove enormous in the fields of energy, medicine and defense. Success will also restore some of the scientific luster the country enjoyed during the early space age.
Russia has already begun diversifying economically. Russian companies own Getty, a U.S. chain of gasoline stations, and Evraz, Russia’s largest steelmaker, has agreed to pay $4 billion for IPSCO’s North American plate and pipe business. Pepsi recently bought a three-quarter share in Lebedyansky, the country’s largest juice manufacturer, for $1.4 billion.
What’s good about this kind of commercial interdependence is that it will eventually lead to problems and disputes, which will have to be settled by lawyers and in court. Gradually, a body of law and a habit of law will be built up. It can serve as a basis for civil and political law that has so far eluded Russia.
At some point in this process, Russian television will also need to diversify. In practice, this might mean placing blocks of air time outside state control, independent channels owned by oligarchs, or some form of national independent television, though that is harder to visualize. In any case, if the flow of information becomes more constricted, the country’s prestige will suffer an even more precipitous decline. It will also mean that by depriving scientists, businessmen and citizens of information, the Kremlin will be repeating the self-destructive mistakes of the past.
Once business, law and communications have been diversified, genuine political opposition parties can be allowed. This need not be done because freedom is God’s gift to humanity or because it is kinder and nobler to allow people genuine choice in all aspects of life. In the end, a measure of real accountability on the part of politicians, a real fear of losing office in unriggable elections and the heated exchange of ideas that is part of any real campaign debate will have the salutary effect of reducing social tensions and preventing destabilizing concentrations of power.
Democracy is the ultimate diversification. And Russia’s survival will depend on it.

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

TITLE: Opposing an Election 
With Open-Air Chess
AUTHOR: By Matthew Collin
TEXT: A cluster of women stands obstinately in front of the police line, clapping, whooping and belting out a ragged rendition of the Armenian national anthem. As the commanding officer raises his bullhorn and urges them to disperse immediately or face the consequences, officers with riot shields and batons shuffle forward menacingly. Some of the women scream curses or burst into tears, but nevertheless they begin to fall back. An unidentified man with a camera scurries around like a nervous rodent, capturing faces on video.
Political rallies aren’t permitted in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, despite the recent lifting of the state of emergency, imposed on March 1. That was the day when eight people died during battles after riot police moved in to end more than a week of unauthorized protests against the results of the presidential election, which the opposition claims was falsified. More than 100 opposition figures have since been charged with fomenting violent unrest and attempting to stage a coup.
But some of the most committed activists have been trying to use their creative ingenuity to circumvent the protest ban by holding what they call “peaceful daily strolls.” Right after the emergency measures were lifted, several thousand people held a solemn procession through central Yerevan, many carrying flowers, candles and pictures of those who were killed, injured or arrested. In recent days, the shadowy organizers of these supposedly spontaneous gatherings have asked people to bring chess sets and hold casual open-air tournaments or to read aloud from books.
The protesters insist that they are not just supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the Armenian opposition leader whose determination to challenge the election results led to the current political crisis.
I also heard a very different version of events. In the opulent halls of the presidential palace, Ter-Petrosyan is seen as the malevolent instigator of an armed uprising that was righteously thwarted. A spokesman for Robert Kocharyan, Armenia’s outgoing president, said two major opposition parties had just joined the governing coalition, leaving the more radical opposition increasingly isolated, desperate and aggressive.
“It’s clear that they won’t succeed,” he insisted calmly. “But unfortunately it’s also clear that the organizers of these actions are trying to continue their policy of political destabilization, which is very sad.”
Back in the center of Yerevan, an elderly man was sitting quietly on a bench, apparently ignoring the protest. But then he lit a candle, and the police quickly ushered him away.

Matthew Collin is a journalist in Tbilisi.

TITLE: Americans Are Not Stoopid
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Various Russian commentators expressed irritation or dismay earlier this month when a Pew Research Center survey indicated that a majority of U.S. citizens could not name the province that had just proclaimed independence from Serbia. You can see why this rankled. The Kosovo issue is important to many Russians — historically, politically, even emotionally — and the United States has played a key role in its divisive endgame. But for Russians, the Pew story actually got worse. Fully 9 percent of the U.S. respondents believed that this newly self-proclaimed ex-Serbian republic was called, um, Chechnya.
To Russians tempted to denounce Americans as stupid, let me offer some conciliatory advice: Bite your tongue, take a number and get in line. Denouncing American ignorance is a venerable tradition among many peoples of the world, especially Americans. And this Kosovo-Chechnya gaffe is, trust me, small potatoes.
Consider some other recent survey data: 20 percent of U.S. adults think that the sun revolves around the Earth. And 25 percent of U.S. teenagers, fresh from studying their nation’s history, believe that Columbus arrived in the New World after 1750. Even allowing for the absurdities often produced by multiple-choice polling formats, the obtuseness of America’s vox populi, smugly belittled for centuries by elite Europeans, may now be reaching truly awesome proportions.
Media accounts of a new wave of “serious intellectual trouble” and “stunning ignorance” among the rising generation point out that President George W. Bush’s ill-conceived education program, called No Child Left Behind, has predictably left most children behind. It does not require schools to test pupils in “noncritical” subjects such as geography and history.
What has this produced? A lot of dumbness, as an internationally popular YouTube video — with nearly 13 million viewings and a rising ranking among the most-discussed videos in history — deftly illustrates. Ironically titled “Americans Are NOT Stupid,” the clip features deadpan Australian “reporter” Julian Morrow intoning, “A lot of people give Americans a bum rap for being stupid and knowing nothing about ... the very world their country runs.” Morrow then “refutes” this canard by posing questions to random Americans on the street.
Asked to name a country that begins with the letter U, these citizens of the United States answer Yugoslavia, Utah and Utopia. One young fellow can’t name the location of the Berlin Wall; another can’t identify the religion of Buddhist monks (after first guessing Islam); a third maintains that Fidel Castro is a singer; a fourth locates Italy in the Middle East. A nice middle-aged woman recalls that the United States won the Vietnam War. Asked how many sides a triangle has, a thoughtful gent answers four, which is later disputed by an even more thoughtful teenager who initially claims none and then settles on one.
Now, would anyone else like to share dismay over Americans’ confusion about Serbia, Kosovo and Chechnya?
Lest you fear that these responses signal a U.S. breakaway in some imagined “Cold War II” stupidity race, let me remind and reassure you of Russia’s many demonstrations of ignorance as strength. This country celebrated its national reincorporation in 1922 by expelling 160 of its finest philosophers, scientists, scholars and writers, thus becoming the first modern state to voluntarily lower its national IQ.
That this end had been well met was impressed on me in 1978 and 1979, when I spent seven months on a U.S. cultural exhibition here talking daily with thousands of average Soviet citizens — the late-’70s Russian equivalent of Morrow’s interviewees. Having weathered comments from them about the Americans faking moon landings, wearing transparent blue jeans and dressing cows in pajamas during cold weather, I know from stupid Russians.
As to the new millennium variety of Russians, whose vast majority either blandly acquiesces or positively revels in a “sovereign democracy” — now famous for its phony parliament, phony judiciary and phony elections, all glowingly hyped in phony newscasts — would you call this a nation of rocket scientists?
That said, I remain confident of America’s near-term superiority in dumbness. While it would be, well, stupid to blame our tsunami of young dullards solely on one old one, consider the wise Russian saying, “The fish rots from the head.” For another eight months, America will be guided by one of the stupidest fish heads ever washed up by the Potomac.
Of course, I could be wrong about Bush. I’m an American and may well be stupid.

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

TITLE: Today’s Russian Freemasons of a More Modest Order
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Aspiring for world supremacy? Then the Russian Freemasons are not the group to join.
“Many walk away disappointed when they don’t find buttons to operate the world behind my armchair,” Russia’s top Freemason, former presidential candidate Andrei Bogdanov, said jokingly in his office in central Moscow.
Freemasonry — whose obscure origins have been traced to sometime between the building of King Solomon’s temple in the 10th century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. — once boasted an elite following in Russia, including 18th- and 19th-century nobility, poet Alexander Pushkin, architect Vasily Bazhenov and war heroes Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov.
These days, however, it is a more modest order. Indeed, the secret fraternity does not count any billionaires or senior politicians as members, said three Freemasons and two historians.
“There are people close to the ruling circle among us, but they are in the second tier, and you will rarely see them on TV,” Bogdanov said, declining to provide any names.
Most members are middle-class intellectuals, retired military officers and small-time businessmen, said Sergei Karpachyov, a historian who has authored several books about Russian Freemasonry.
Bogdanov, the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Russia, as the order calls its governing body, is perhaps Russia’s best-known Freemason, after he ran for president on March 2, placing last with 1.3 percent of the vote. He first took the spotlight in late 2007 when his Democratic Party ran in State Duma elections, winning a miniscule 0.13 percent.
Bogdanov made no secret of his association with Freemasonry during both campaigns, although he said in the interview that his decision to participate was his own and not backed by his Grand Lodge.
“We don’t talk politics or religion,” he said of Grand Lodge meetings. “These are the two issues that may strain relations between brothers.”
Freemasonry has been viewed with suspicion for centuries, largely because of its reputation as a clandestine, male-only society that uses secret handshakes and passwords to recognize members. To be in good standing, Russian Freemasons, like their counterparts elsewhere, must belong to a “regular” lodge — one where members are all male, believe in a “supreme being” and do not engage in politics, said Georgy Dergachyov, grand master of the first lodge, Northern Star, to open in post-Soviet Russia.
Members who do not comply attend “irregular” lodges, which are not considered part of the main group.
Bogdanov’s decision to dabble in politics, however, has not affected his status. Bogdanov explained that Freemasons did not impose their views on one another and that he had run on his own, not as a Freemason.
There are an estimated 5 million Freemasons worldwide, including 2 million in the United States, but just over 500 people have joined in Russia since the first regular lodge opened in 1992, said Vladimir Nikitin, the grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Russia.
Half of all new Freemasons stop being active members within two years, Nikitin said.
The Grand Lodge oversees 28 regular lodges. The first post-Soviet lodge, Northern Star, was irregular when it opened in 1991, allowing women and atheists as members, said Dergachyov, a university professor. Dergachyov grew interested in Freemasonry in the late 1980s when he, then in his mid-30s, befriended a French Freemason in Russia. The Freemason invited him to France, where he was initiated into Freemasonry by an irregular lodge, the Grand East of France.
To set up a national lodge in any country, seven Freemasons holding the rank of master are needed, said Karpachyov, the historian.
After Dergachyov, six more Russians were initiated in France, and the seventh set up the Northern Star lodge in Moscow. A year later, it became regular. “Then as I learned more about Freemasonry, I decided that it would be better if Russian Freemasonry became regular,” Dergachyov said.
The first Freemasons on Russian soil were British. The earliest documents about Russian Freemasonry date back to 1731, when Captain John Phillips was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England as the provincial grand master of Russia and Germany, said Andrei Serkov, a historian studying Freemasonry at the Russian State Library.
Freemasonry was popular among Europe-oriented Russian nobility until 1822, when Alexander I banned it by an edict that also ordered state bureaucrats to give an oath not to get involved with Freemasons. Freemasonry continued in a semilegal manner, Serkov said.
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church and many other faiths, the Russian Orthodox Church has never openly criticized Freemasons, although it has viewed them with suspicion, Karpachyov said.
Many Freemasons fled after the Revolution and kept lodges abroad. In 1922, Leon Trotsky made a call at the Fourth Congress of Comintern for Communists around the world to abandon Freemason lodges. After that, remaining lodges in Russia were targeted by the Soviet authorities together with all other secret organizations.
Freemasons remain quite secretive today, with Dergachyov, Nikitin and Bogdanov refusing to name fellow members. 
The Grand Lodge of Russia has had four grandmasters, but Derchachyov and Bogdanov are the only two who have revealed themselves to the world of profanes, as Freemasons call nonmembers.
Lodges convene once a month and have a joint assembly every year. Bogdanov was elected grand master at such an assembly in June 2007, attended by some 100 delegates. Lodge meetings usually begin with presentations dedicated to the arts or science, followed by a discussion and a social talk, which continues during the agape, an informal dinner, Freemasons said.
Nikitin said an informal rule required Freemasons to socialize with other Freemasons and that this was the only way to be promoted in rank, by demonstrating knowledge and communication skills. 
The Grand Lodge follows 33 graduses, or steps, from the Scottish Masonic charter.
To become the legitimate Grand Lodge of Russia, it needed to be established by a foreign grand lodge, and this happened in 1995, when the Grand National Lodge of France established the Grand Lodge of Russia. Since then, Bogdanov said, more than 90 foreign grand lodges have recognized the Russian lodge.
Bogdanov’s presidential bid stirred public interest in Freemasonry, said Nikitin, with the number of visitors to the lodge’s web site soaring and the number of e-mails — some with requests to join — increasing to several dozen per day.
“Still, we initiate no more than 10 new members per month,” he said. Initiation is preceded by numerous interviews by Freemasons.
The lodges were officially registered with the authorities as public organizations in 1993, and after a new law on nongovernmental organizations went in effect in 2006, they were re-registered as noncommercial partnerships. Bogdanov said the re-registration went without a hitch. Many NGOs have complained of cumbersome paperwork required for re-registration, and some have had to close.
The lodges are funded by annual fees of around 2,500 rubles, paid by members, Bogdanov said.
“We have also a lodge in Moscow where all communication is in English for the convenience of visiting brothers from abroad,” he said.
In the years since its rebirth in the 1990s, Russian Freemasonry has not managed to grow into a phenomenon and probably never will, historians said. “Freemasonry has no big future in Russia. It belongs to a European culture that is still alien for most Russians,” Karpachyov said.

TITLE: Food Prices Soaring Around The World
AUTHOR: By Katherine Corcoran
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MEXICO CITY — If you’re seeing your grocery bill go up, you’re not alone.
From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions.
Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.
The world’s poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon earlier this month.
But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.
“It’s not likely that prices will go back to as low as we’re used to,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO. “Currently if you’re in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It’s a very brutal scenario, but that’s what it is.”
No one knows that better than Eugene Thermilon, 30, a Haitian day laborer who can no longer afford pasta to feed his wife and four children since the price nearly doubled to the local equivalent of 57  cents a bag. Their only meal on a recent day was two cans of corn grits.
“Their stomachs were not even full,” Thermilon said, walking toward his pink concrete house on the precipice of a garbage-filled ravine. By noon the next day, he still had nothing to feed them for dinner.
Their hunger has had a ripple effect. Haitian food vendor Fabiola Duran Estime, 31, has lost so many customers like Thermilon that she had to pull her daughter, Fyva, out of kindergarten because she can’t afford the $20 monthly tuition.
Fyva was just beginning to read.
In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize. Farmers will grow more grain for both fuel and food and eventually bring prices down. 
Already this is happening with wheat, with more crops to be planted in the United States, Canada and Europe in the coming year.
Consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food, however, according to preliminary FAO projections.
Among the driving forces are petroleum prices, which increase the cost of everything from fertilizers to transport to food processing. Rising demand for meat and dairy in rapidly developing countries such as China and India is sending up the cost of grain, used for cattle feed, as is the demand for raw materials to make biofuels.
What’s rare is that the spikes are hitting all major foods in most countries at once. 
Food prices rose 4 percent in the United States last year, the highest rise since 1990, and are expected to climb as much again this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As of December, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had imposed some sort of food-price controls, including Russia.
For many, it’s a disaster. 
The UN’s World Food Program says it’s facing a $500 million shortfall in funding this year to feed 89 million needy people.
In Egypt, where bread is up 35 percent and cooking oil 26 percent, the government recently proposed ending food subsidies and replacing them with cash payouts to the needy. But the plan was put on hold after it sparked public uproar.
“A revolution of the hungry is in the offing,” said Mohammed el-Askalani of Citizens Against the High Cost of Living, a protest group established to lobby against ending the subsidies.

China’s Pork
In China, the price hikes are both a burden and a boon.
Per capita meat consumption has increased 150 percent since 1980, so Zhou Jian decided six months ago to switch from selling auto parts to pork. The price of pork has jumped 58 percent in the past year, yet every morning housewives and domestics still crowd his Shanghai shop, and more customers order choice cuts.
The 26-year-old now earns $4,200 a month, two to three times what he made selling car parts. 
And it’s not just pork. Beef is becoming a weekly indulgence.
“The Chinese middle class is starting to change the traditional thought process of beef as a luxury,” said Kevin Timberlake, who manages the U.S.-based Western Cattle Company feedlot in China’s Inner Mongolia.
At the same time, increased cost of food staples in China threatens to wreak havoc. 
Beijing has been selling grain from its reserves to hold down prices, said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JPMorgan.
“But this is not really solving the root cause of the problem,” Ulrich said. “The cause of the problem is a supply-demand imbalance. Demand is very strong. Supply is constrained. It is as simple as that.”
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says fighting inflation from shortages of key foods is a top economic priority. Inflation reached 7.1 percent in January, the highest in 11 years, led by an 18.2 percent jump in food prices.
Meanwhile, record oil prices have boosted the cost of fertilizer and freight for bulk commodities — up 80 percent in 2007 over 2006. The oil spike has also turned up the pressure for countries to switch to biofuels, which the FAO says will drive up the cost of corn, sugar and soybeans “for many more years to come.”

Japan’s Mayonnaise
In Japan, the ethanol boom is hitting the country in mayonnaise and miso, two important culinary ingredients, as biofuels production pushes up the price of cooking oil and soybeans.
A 900-gram bottle of mayonnaise has risen about 10 percent in two months to as much as 330 yen ($3), said Daishi Inoue, a cook at a Chinese restaurant.
“It’s not hurting us much now,” he said. “But if prices keep going up, we have no choice but to raise our prices.”
Miso Bank, a restaurant in Tokyo’s glitzy Ginza district, specializes in food cooked with miso, or soybean paste.
“We expect prices to go up in April all at once,” said Miso Bank manager Koichi Oritani. 
“The hikes would affect our menu. So we plan to order miso in bulk and make changes to the menu.”
Italians are feeling the pinch in pasta, with consumer groups staging a one-day strike in September against a food deeply intertwined with national identity. Italians eat an estimated 27 kilograms of pasta per capita per year.
The protest was merely symbolic because Italians typically stock up on pasta, buying multiple packages at a time. 
But in the next two months pasta consumption dropped 5 percent, farm lobbyist Rolando Manfredini said.
“The situation has gotten even worse,” Manfredini said.
In decades past, farm subsidies and support programs allowed major grain exporting countries to hold large surpluses, which could be tapped during food shortages to keep prices down. But new liberal trade policies have made agricultural production much more responsive to market demands — putting global food reserves at their lowest in a quarter century.
Without reserves, bad weather and poor harvests now have a bigger impact on prices.
“The market is extremely nervous. With the slightest news about bad weather, the market reacts,” said economist Abbassian.

France’s Butter
That means that a drought in Australia and flooding in Argentina, two of the world’s largest suppliers of industrial milk and butter, sent the price of butter in France soaring 37 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Forty percent of escargot, the snail dish, is butter.
“You can do the calculation yourself,” said Romain Chapron, president of Croque Bourgogne, which supplies escargot. 
“It had a considerable effect. It forced people in our profession to tighten their belts to the maximum.”
The same climate crises sparked a 21 percent rise in the cost of milk, which with butter makes another famous French food item — the croissant. Panavi, a pastry and bread supplier, has raised retail prices of croissants and pain au chocolat by 6 percent to 15 percent.
Already, there’s a lot of suspicion among consumers.
“They don’t understand why prices have gone up like this,” said Nicole Watelet, general secretary at the Federation of French Bakeries and Pastry Enterprises. “They think that someone is profiting from this. But it’s not us. We’re paying.”
Food costs worldwide spiked 23 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the FAO. Grains went up 42 percent, oils 50 percent and dairy 80 percent.
Economists say that for the short term, government bailouts will have to be part of the answer to keep unrest at a minimum. 
In recent weeks, rising food prices sparked riots in the West African nations of Burkina Faso, where mobs torched buildings, and Cameroon, where at least four people died.

Price Control Fallout
But attempts to control prices in one country often have dire effects elsewhere. 
China’s restrictions on wheat flour exports resulted in a price spike in Indonesia earlier this year, according to the FAO. 
Ukraine and Russia imposed export restrictions on wheat, causing tight supplies and higher prices for importing countries. 
Partly because of the cost of imported wheat, Peru’s military has begun eating bread made from potato flour, a native crop.
“We need a response on a large scale, either the regional or international level,” said Brian Halweil of the environmental research organization Worldwatch Institute. “All countries are tied enough to the world food markets that this is a global crisis.”
Poorer countries can speed up the adjustment by investing in agriculture, experts say. If they do, farmers can turn high prices into an engine for growth.
But in countries like Burkina Faso, the crisis is immediate.
Days after the riots, Pascaline Ouedraogo wandered the market in the capital, Ouagadougou, looking to buy meat and vegetables. She said a good meal cost 1,000 francs ($2.35) not long ago. Now she needs twice that.
“The more prices go up, the less there is to meet their needs,” she said of her three children, all in secondary school. 
“You wonder if it’s the government or the businesses that are behind the price hikes.” Irene Belem, a 25-year-old with twins, struggles to buy milk, which has gone up 57 percent in recent weeks. “We knew we were poor before,” she said, “but now it’s worse than poverty.”

TITLE: Mugabe Under Threat in Zimbabwe Poll
AUTHOR: By Angus Shaw
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s Election Commission released a handful of results Monday from presidential and legislative elections, announcing an equal number of wins for both parties after a delay that raised tensions amid fears of rigging.
But the opposition party claimed unofficial partial results showed it had garnered 60 percent of the vote, compared with only 30 for President Robert Mugabe’s in the toughest challenge yet to the leader’s 28-year rule.
In an early morning nationwide broadcast on radio and television Monday, deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana declared results for six parliament seats — three for Mugabe’s ruling party, three for the opposition.
Then he went off the air, saying, “We’ll be back with you when we have more results.”
Four hours later, the commission announced results for another 18 parliament seats — nine each for the ruling and opposition parties. Those results included Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa losing his seat in a former ruling party rural stronghold.
The piecemeal announcements could not be explained. Election observers have said some initial results were known as early as 11 p.m. Saturday night, some four hours after polls closed. In previous elections, partial results have been announced within hours of voting ending.
“Clearly the delay is fueling speculation that something might be going on,” said Noel Kututwa, chairman of several civic, church and other groups.
Following the initial announcements from the government, Secretary-General Tendai Biti of the opposition Movement for Democratic Changes told reporters that the party had won 96 seats in the House of Assembly. Biti said the results were based on vote counts posted on polling stations for 128 of the Assembly’s 210 seats.
Voting in Saturday’s elections was generally peaceful. But discontent with Mugabe has grown around the country, where unemployment stands at 80 percent. The same percentage of Zimbabweans survives on less than $1 a day. Inflation is the highest in the world at more than 100,000 percent and people suffer crippling shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.
Running against Mugabe is chief opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections, and former ruling party loyalist and Finance Minister Simba Makoni, 58.
If no presidential candidate wins 50 percent plus one vote, there will be a runoff.
While in general results were posted outside of polling stations, none were posted at stations in Mugabe’s birthplace of Zvimba, southwest of Harare. Independent monitors suggested that was because the ruling party has lost at least one parliament seat there — a loss that would amount to a crushing blow.
The monitors, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release results, said six Cabinet ministers — among them some leading members of Mugabe’s inner circle — had lost their parliament seats. They include Vice President Joyce Mujuru; Didymus Mutasa, minister of state for security and land; Defense Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, and the justice minister.
“We’ll give Mugabe time to accept defeat,” opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa told The Associated Press on Monday. “Even if they are trying to rig, they won’t succeed. Our victory is overwhelming.”
Security and government officials loyal to Mugabe have warned Tsvangirai against declaring a victory. “It is called a coup d’etat and we all know how coups are handled,” chief presidential spokesman George Charamba was quoted as saying in the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.
On Sunday, Electoral Commission chairman Judge George Chiweshe was forced to flee a Harare hotel after he was mobbed by journalists and citizens. “We want results,” they yelled.
Chiweshe said the counting was taking time because Zimbabweans — for the first time — voted for president, the two houses of Parliament and local councilors at on time, requiring four ballots to be counted for each voter instead of one.
The head of the Pan-African Parliament observer mission said Sunday that the delay was creating “anxiety.”
“These are the delays that start causing problems,” the observer leader, Marwick Khumalo, told South African Broadcasting Corp. TV. He said he was sure the Electoral Commission knew most results.
Earlier on Sunday, people celebrated in the streets, dancing, singing and giving each other the openhanded wave that is the opposition party’s symbol. Mugabe’s is a clenched fist.
But by sundown, as frustrations grew, riot police and other security forces were patrolling the capital’s densely populated suburbs.

TITLE: Kuznetsova Replaces Sharapova
AUTHOR: By Gennady Fyodorov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — World number four Svetlana Kuznetsova will lead Fed Cup champions Russia in next month’s semi-final against the United States in Moscow.
In the absence of Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova, who will skip the April 26-27 tie, captain Shamil Tarpishchev also named world number six Anna Chakvetadze, 13th-ranked Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva (20) and Elena Vesnina (53).
World number five Sharapova won both of her singles matches in her Fed Cup debut against Israel last month to help Russia to a 4-1 victory quarter-final victory.
“We had an agreement with Kuznetsova and Sharapova that one of them would play against Israel and the other against the U.S.,” Tarpishchev told Reuters on Monday.
“Sharapova had already played in Tel Aviv, so now it’s Kuznetsova’s turn. It was sort of a trade-off because both of them have very busy schedules.
“They have to juggle individual tournaments with the Fed Cup. It’s not easy as both Kuznetsova and Sharapova are also hoping to become the world number one this year,” Tarpishchev added.
“Besides, this is an Olympic year, so it’s even more difficult to fit in all your commitments. So I’m very thankful to all our girls for their support of the team’s cause.”
Tarpishchev also said he might call up Elena Dementieva depending on her availability. The 11th-ranked player beat Kuznetsova in an all-Russian final in Dubai earlier this month.
The Americans will be without Serena Williams and Venus Williams in a side spearheaded by rejuvenated former world number one Lindsay Davenport.
“It doesn’t matter who they are going to bring, we’ll be ready,” Tarpishchev said.
The Russians are aiming for their second Fed Cup title in a row and their fourth triumph in the last five years.

TITLE: McCain To Tour U.S.
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MERIDIAN, Mississippi — Republican presidential candidate John McCain takes a walk down memory lane this week by visiting the places that were important to the upbringing of an impetuous youth from a military family.
While Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle for their party’s nomination, Arizona Sen. McCain has the luxury of spending the week re-introducing himself to the American people.
A weeklong “Service to America” tour for McCain starts on Monday in Mississippi, where generations of McCains were born and raised on land that had been in the family since 1848.
It will also take him to suburban Washington, where he attended high school, to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he had a reputation for bucking authority and finished near the bottom of his class, and on to Florida, where he trained as an naval aviator. He ends up in his home state of Arizona.
The McCain campaign hopes to not only give Americans a fresh look at his service to the country, but also allow McCain to grab some of the spotlight of the presidential campaign from the Democrats, who are getting most of the headlines with their closely fought battle.
McCain comes from a storied military family.
“We trace my family’s martial heritage back to the Revolution. A distant ancestor served on General (George) Washington’s staff, and it seems my ancestors fought in most wars in our nation’s history,” he will say on Monday.
The naval airfield in Meridian, where McCain was once a flight instructor is named for his grandfather and namesake, John Sidney McCain. Both his grandfather and his father of the same name were admirals.

TITLE: Brawling Could End Swimmer’s Hopes
AUTHOR: By Julian Linden
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SYDNEY — Australian swimmer Nick D’Arcy is facing expulsion from the Olympic team for Beijing after being arrested and charged with assault on former Commonwealth Games champion Simon Cowley.
Australian police released a statement on Monday confirming a 20-year-old man had been charged with two counts of assaults after an incident at a Sydney pub in the early hours of Sunday morning.
D’Arcy was among a group of Australian swimmers who were at the nightclub celebrating their selection in the Olympic team for Beijing after the completion of the national trials.
Local media reported that a fight broke out and Cowley was punched in the face, suffering serious injuries including a broken jaw, broken nose, fractured eyesocket, crushed cheekbone and fractured palate.
“The doctors were amazed what one punch could do,” Crowley’s father Peter told the Daily Telegraph.
D’Arcy, who had qualified for his first Olympics in 100 and 200 meters butterfly, was due to fly to Britain this week to compete in next month’s short-course world championships in Manchester.
But the Brisbane university student withdrew from the short-course team to consult his lawyers before being interviewed by police about the incident.
He appeared at a Sydney police station on Monday and police later released a statement saying they had laid assault charges, but did not name D’Arcy.
Swimming Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) had confirmed that they were carrying out their own investigation and were considering whether to charge D’Arcy with bringing the sport into disrepute and ban him from the Olympics.
“Swimming Australia is aware that swimmer Nick D’Arcy was involved in an incident in a Sydney nightclub early on Sunday morning that is now the subject of a NSW Police investigation,” Swimming Australia said a statement.
“Swimming Australia has begun its own internal investigation into the matter and will be assisting the NSW Police to gather further information.
“Swimming Australia will consider disciplinary action upon completion of the police investigation and its own internal inquiries.”
The incident has received huge media coverage in Australia after eight world records were set during last week’s national trials, raising expectations of a golden haul in Beijing.
While nightclub fights are commonplace in Australian football and rugby teams, they are rare in swimming.
“I think we take a lot of pride in the behavior of our athletes and I don’t think that one incident will take away from that,” Australia’s head swimming coach Alan Thompson said.
“Certainly I’m disappointed after such a great week, we were on a very big high, and it’s disappointing that an incident such as this occurs.”

TITLE: Argentina’s Romero Clinches Zurich Classic
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AVONDALE, Louisiana — Argentina’s Andres Romero played a solid golf game, then he played the waiting game. He won them both.
Romero, in just his 12th PGA Tour start, won the Zurich Classic with a 4-under 68 on Sunday-a one-stroke victory over Australia’s Peter Lonard.
“It was very important to put that score two hours and a half before the end,” Romero said through an interpreter. “It was great because they had to reach that score.”
Romero, a shot behind John Merrick on Sunday morning after the completion of the third round, had a 13-under 275 total on the TPC Louisiana and earned $1,116,000. Then all he had to do was sit back and watch the chase.
“I was in the players’ lounge having some lunch and chatting with my friends,” he said. “I had some lunch and called home and told my mom. They had to do the job because I had already done mine.”
Lonard had a chance to force a playoff, but missed a long birdie putt on 18.
Lonard opened with a pair of birdies, bogeyed Nos. 3 and 10, then birdied Nos. 8, 11, 14 and 16 to tie Romero at 13 under. The Australian’s putt for par on 17 stopped 4 inches short of the cup, and he then failed to birdie 18.
 “I think in a perfect world you’d rather come down the stretch together,” Lonard said.

TITLE: Prince Philip Did Not Kill Princess Diana, Judge Rules
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — The coroner investigating the death of Princess Diana said Monday there is no evidence she was murdered by British intelligence, as claimed by her boyfriend’s father.
The assessment by Lord Justice Scott Baker came as he began summing up the inquest into the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed, which began in October.
“There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana’s execution, and there is no evidence that the secret intelligence service or any other government agency organised it,” he said.
Mohammed Al-Fayed, the tycoon owner of London’s Harrods department store, believes Diana and his son Dodi were engaged and has claimed Prince Philip was linked to an establishment plot to kill them and stop her marrying a Muslim.
Specifically he has claimed that the prince, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana’s former father-in-law, ordered the killing of the couple, who died with chauffeur Henri Paul in a 1997 Paris car crash.
But starting his summary of the inquest, the coroner said many of Al-Fayed’s theories were “demonstrably without foundation.”
“Various propositions ... have been shown to be so demonstrably without foundation that they are no longer being pursued by Mohamed Al-Fayed’s lawyer, even if he still continues to believe in their truth in his own mind.
“They are not being pursued because there is not a shred of evidence to support them.”
Two previous police investigations — one French and one British — have concluded that the couple’s death was a tragic accident fueled by a chauffeur who was over the drink-drive limit speeding to get away from chasing paparazzi.
Since opening on October 2 last year, the inquest into Diana’s death has heard some 250 witnesses, while the jurors also travelled to Paris to see the scene of the accident for themselves.
Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell was among the most high profile witnesses to take the stand.

TITLE: Teen Wins Pen-Spin Title
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TOKYO — A pen is spun in the hand, flicked from the little finger to other fingers, then tossed and bounced off the thumb before being twirled in the palm.
Ryuki Omura, a 16-year-old Japanese high school student, has become the first nationwide pen-spinning champion with such slick maneuvers, a group devoted to the pastime said on Monday.
Omura was among the 16 finalists chosen from 276 video entries to showcase his moves in Tokyo on Sunday in a contest organized by the Pen Spinning Association Japan. “The most important thing is to make the combination of tricks as smooth as possible,” said Mitsuhiro Nakamata of the group.
Contestants, performing a 30-second routine in front of a crowd of 400 including journalists and other pen-spinning aficionados, were assessed for technique and artistry.
Toy maker Takara Tomy Corp has even designed a pen specifically for spinning, which is longer than ordinary pens and has adjustable weights on both ends.
According to the Pen Spinning Association’s web site, spinning tricks range from “normal” — resting the pen on the side of the middle finger, then flicking it to writing mode — to “sonic” — holding the pen between the middle and ring fingers, and twirling it so it rests between the middle and index fingers.
Champion Omura went a step further, showing off a quick combination of tricks that takes the pen from his little finger to the rest of his fingers, then to his palm and the back of his hand.

TITLE: Frenchman Wins Architecture ‘Nobel’
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Jean Nouvel, the French architect whose hyper-modern buildings have been acclaimed for their eclectic nature and departure from tradition, has won the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was announced Sunday.
Nouvel joins Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and I.M. Pei in receiving the top honor in the field in recognition of his high-rises, museums and performance halls around the world.
“I think they understood very well that I fight for specific architecture against generic architecture,” Nouvel said by phone from his office in Paris. “Every project is an adventure.”
Nouvel, 62, became the second Pritzker laureate to be chosen from France after Christian de Portzamparc, the 1994 recipient.
A formal ceremony will be held in June at the Library of Congress in Washington. Nouvel will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.
The Pritzker jury of architects, critics, academics and others praised Nouvel for his “persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation.”
Nouvel said his structures reflect time, place and occupants rather than simply adhering to stylistic dogma or historical precedent.
“I think every site, every program, has a right to a specific work, to a complete involvement of the architect,” he said. “I am always researching the missing piece of the puzzle, and I like to analyze the site and conditions and give my answer after.”
Among the 200 projects singled out by the Pritzker jury were Arab World Institute in Paris, which is festooned with motor-controlled apertures to control natural light.

TITLE: Cross Country Dominated By Africans, Europe in Crisis
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: EDINBURGH — Top athletics officials were meeting on Monday to discuss how to arrest Europe’s precipitous decline in cross country running after Ethiopian runners dominated the world championships.
Ethiopia, led by Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba in the senior events, won all four individual gold medals and two of the team titles on Sunday — Kenya taking the other two.
That was no surprise as Africa, and those two nations in particular, have totally dominated cross country for 25 years.
The senior men’s team race has been won by Ethiopia or Kenya every year since 1981 in both the long and now-discontinued short races and the same two have shared the junior men’s team race since 1982. On the women’s side only Portugal, in 1994, have interrupted the African dominance in the last 17 years.
Nobody in the sport is complaining about that — East Africa’s commitment to cross country is what has kept it buoyant for two decades.
What worries those who run the sport, however, is that much of the rest of the world, and particularly the former stronghold of Europe, appears to have given up trying to compete.
In the senior men’s race on Sunday there were only two Europeans in the top 50 — Spaniards Juan Carlos De La Ossa and Ayad Lamdassem.
The women fared slightly better with two Britons, Liz and Hayley Yelling and France’s Saadia Bourgailh Haddioui in the top 30, as well as fifth-finisher Hilda Kibet, who converted to the Netherlands from Kenya a year ago.
In the junior races the highest finishing man was France’s Sidi-Hassan Chahdi in 23rd while Charlotte Purdue of Britain was 16th in the women’s event.

TITLE: Vatican Says There Are More Muslims Than Catholics
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VATICAN CITY — Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world’s largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
“For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,” Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican’s yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
“It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer,” the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said. Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

TITLE: Hu Welcomes Olympic Torch to Beijing
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — Chinese President Hu Jintao presided over the re-lighting of the Olympic torch Monday in the host city, signaling the start of an around-the-world torch relay that already has become a magnet for protesters.
Hu’s participation in the elaborate ceremony in Tiananmen Square in the heart of the capital underlined the importance China places on the Olympics and its hope to display a confident, strong nation to the world when the games open Aug. 8.
The ceremony, 130 days before the start of the Olympics, came a week after the lighting ceremony for the Olympic torch in Greece was marred by protests.
“I declare the torch relay of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has begun,” Hu said after handing the flame to China’s Olympic gold-medal hurdler, Liu Xiang. Liu jogged off the square as blue, gold and silver confetti flew, Chinese and Olympic flags waved and traditional drums pounded.
After a one-day stop in Beijing, the flame goes Tuesday to Almaty, Kazakhstan, the start of an 85,000-mile journey back to Beijing.
The grandiose relay is the longest in Olympic history and has the most torchbearers — a sign of the vast attention lavished on the games by Beijing, which hopes to showcase China’s rising economic and political power.
But thus far it has provided a stage for activists who have been criticizing China over a range of issues including its handling of Muslims in the far west of the country, its control over Tibet and its relationship with Sudan.
Trouble is expected at stops in London, Paris and San Francisco, where Tibetan and rights groups have promised protests.
Carried in a small lantern, the flame arrived from Greece early Monday aboard a chartered Air China plane, greeted at Beijing airport by hundreds of schoolchildren waving flags.
State television’s live broadcast of the ceremony was delayed by about one minute, apparently to ensure the feed could be cut in the event of any disruptions.
Last week, the China Central Television broadcast cut away from the flame lighting ceremony in Greece when protesters ran behind Liu Qi, the president of the Beijing organizing committee, as he gave a speech. It showed stock footage of the ceremony site instead.
Amid tight security, about 5,000 people, including 220 foreign journalists, gathered for the ceremony in the middle of the vast square in the heart of Beijing.
The ceremony mixed bright colors and a modern look with military music and imagery from China’s imperial past.

TITLE: Baghdad Green Zone Under Further Attack
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD — The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces.
Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
The Shiite leader promised “a decisive and final battle” but made little headway. A key adviser to al-Maliki said the operations against al-Sadr’s followers would end within days.
“Before the end of this week, the operations will come to an end and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be back to Baghdad,” the adviser, Sami al-Askari, said.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, however, that “operations will not end until Basra reaches a secure and acceptable situation enabling Iraqi citizens to live normal and secure lives.”
He did not elaborate on how long that might take.
The rocket or mortar attacks on the nerve center of the U.S. mission and the Iraqi government continued more than a week of near-daily fire mostly from Shiite-dominated areas of eastern Baghdad.
The number of rounds going into the zone has dropped in recent days, but the continuing attacks indicate that al-Sadr may not be able to reign in all Shiite militia factions.
The U.S. Embassy said no serious injuries were reported and the U.S. military said it had no reports of major damage. At least two Americans working for the U.S. government died in attacks on the zone last week.
The clashes between Shiite militias and Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces began Tuesday, when al-Maliki launched military operations against the group and vowed to remain in Basra until the mission was accomplished. The battles there and violence that spread to other southern cities and Baghdad killed at least 400 people.
Al-Sadr’s cease-fire call followed intense negotiations by Shiite officials, including two lawmakers who traveled to Iran to ask religious authorities there to intervene, according to Iraqi officials familiar with the negotiations.
The situation in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, was relatively calm on Monday, although sporadic gunfire could still be heard in the streets and AP Television News footage showed Iraqi troops searching house-to-house apparently targeting militants.
Some supermarkets and stores were open but residents said few people were venturing out.
A citywide curfew was lifted in Baghdad, although a vehicle ban remained on three strongholds of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in the capital.
Sadr City, the Shiite neighborhood where many of the mortars and rockets landing in the Green Zone are believed to be launched, was calm, residents said. Cars and buses were moving within the sprawling area, though they weren’t allowed to leave.
In other parts of Baghdad, shops and schools were open and people were heading to work. Al-Sadr’s order was announced Sunday after lawmakers  reportedly asked Iranian authorities to stop the flow of weapons to al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

TITLE: New London Terminal in Chaos
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: LONDON — British Airways Plc cancelled 54 flights at London Heathrow airport’s new Terminal 5 today as it works through a backlog of about 15,000 pieces of stranded luggage on the fifth day of disruptions.
The carrier abandoned 14 percent of scheduled services from the terminal, affecting travel to short-haul destinations including Paris and Edinburgh. Some 340 flights will operate, said Euan Fordyce, a spokesman for the London-based airline.
British Airways has cancelled more than 250 flights since Terminal 5 opened on March 27 as it struggles to get the baggage check-in system running at full capacity. Goldman Sachs analyst Hugo Scott-Gall cut the stock from “buy’’ to “sell’’ today and set a three-month price target of 200 pence, 17 percent below last week’s close, citing the impact on earnings of a higher oil price and difficulties including Heathrow.
“On revenue, its challenges are the U.K. consumer, the weakness in the financial service industry, the increase in competition on the North Atlantic, the weakness in the U.S. and the ongoing operational challenges of Heathrow,’’ London-based Scott-Gall said in a note to investors.
British Airways fell 13 pence, or 5.4 percent, to 227 pence, the biggest decline since March 6, and was trading at 231.5 pence as of 9:09 a.m. in London. The stock has declined 25 percent so far this year.
The cancellations and disruption at Terminal 5 may cost the carrier more than 20 million pounds ($40 million), the Daily Telegraph reported today, citing analysts. Fordyce said it was too early to comment on the likely expense.
British Airways still plans to transfer remaining long-haul flights to the terminal next month, the spokesman said, provided it’s satisfied that “all of the issues have been resolved.’’
Cancellations today will be restricted to destinations to which the company has multiple frequencies, the company said, so that passengers may be able to rebook onto later flights. It plans to operate about 87 percent of services again tomorrow, with a progressively larger flying program throughout the week.
“The baggage system is now generally working well,’’ British Airways Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh said yesterday. “From time to time problems have developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials. These issues are being addressed as they arise.’’
About 6 percent of the baggage British Airways handled in the past four days has yet to reach its owners, the carrier said last night. Europe’s third-biggest airline is already the continent’s worst for lost luggage and the second-worst for delayed bags, according to the Air Transport Users Council.
British Airways is counting on Terminal 5, which took 4.3 billion pounds and 20 years to plan and build, to help ease journeys and retain passengers put off by Heathrow’s overcrowding. The airline took possession of the complex in September from airport operator BAA Ltd., which is owned by Madrid-based Grupo Ferrovial SA, starting what it described as “exhaustive’’ customer trials that month.
“British Airways and BAA have invested an enormous amount of time and effort to create Terminal 5,’’ Walsh said. “We remain confident that these early difficulties can be overcome.’’ More than 400 extra staff volunteered to help clear the baggage backlog, he said.
Terminal 5 boasts 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) of baggage conveyors designed to handle as many as 12,000 bags an hour. Over 400,000 man-hours went into developing the mechanism’s computer software, which has the ability to automatically sort and prioritize incoming bags.
The disruption comes amid intensifying competition at Heathrow. Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. began flights to the airport yesterday under a new “Open Skies’’ trans-Atlantic air travel treaty.
CEO Walsh has blamed overcrowding for dissuading travellers from using Heathrow and his airline, which is the biggest occupant at the airport and the sole user of the new terminal. Before the opening, Heathrow was handling 68 million people a year in buildings designed for 45 million. Terminal 5 will expand annual capacity to 75 million.
Rival carriers including BMI, the second-biggest user of Heathrow after British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., the third-biggest, have said they’ve seen a surge in customer bookings because of the problems at Terminal 5.

TITLE: Smoking’s A Drag For Host City
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — Cui Dalin, China’s deputy sports minister, told legislators that the Beijing Olympics would inspire Chinese to live healthier lives.
Then he stepped out into a nonsmoking hallway — and lit a cigarette.
The recent incident illustrates the uphill battle China faces as it prepares to take what health advocates hope will be a big step against smoking in what is the world’s biggest tobacco market. A ban on smoking in most Beijing public places, similar to efforts in major North American, European and Asian cities, is expected to take effect in May, aimed at meeting China’s pledge of a smoke-free Olympics.
China is home to 350 million smokers — a third of the global total. More than 150 Chinese cities already have limited restrictions, but the capital would be the first to ban smoking in all restaurants, offices and schools, said health expert Cui Xiaobo, who helped draft the regulations. The restaurant ban may be limited at first.
“There’s no way it will work!” said Jin Xianchun, a co-owner of Little Jin’s Seafood Restaurant, where diners were smoking up a storm as they chose live fish and shrimp from tanks. “Of course it will affect my business... We will try our best to enforce, it but really....” She shook her head.
Cigarettes are woven into Chinese daily life. They’re an icebreaker, a way of greeting a friend, and a means of bribery. A night out typically means a good meal and cigarettes paired with baijiu, a clear sorghum liquor with a vicious kick.
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the late communist founding fathers, were heavy smokers, and their favorite brands are as well known as they are: Panda for Deng and Zhonghua (China) for Mao.
Almost 2 trillion cigarettes are sold every year, at prices as low as 1.50 yuan ($0.20) for a pack of 20, complete with a discreet warning on the side of the box that says “Smoking is harmful to your health.” The government estimates 1 million Chinese die smoking-related deaths annually — projected to double by 2020.
Beijing has had some smoking restrictions since 1995, when the municipal government prohibited lighting up in large public venues such as schools, sports arenas and movie theaters.
The new rules, which were announced in state media Saturday, expand the scope to include restaurants, bars, hotels, offices, vacation resorts and all indoor areas of medical facilities, according to a draft released earlier this year.
“The whole world will be watching Beijing, because its success means a big step toward the success of the whole world, given the large smoking population of China,” said Cui, an associate professor at the Capital University of Medical Sciences in Beijing.
Organizers of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics have said they want smoking bans in all hotels serving athletes and all competition venues and restaurants in the Olympic Village by June.
Last October, Beijing banned smoking in the city’s 66,000 taxis, threatening drivers with a 200 yuan ($28) fine if they are caught.

TITLE: Chelsea Chasing Man Utd for Top Spot
AUTHOR: By Martyn Herman
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Chelsea kept their Premier League title hopes alive with a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough on Sunday but their performance would have caused few alarms for leaders Manchester United.
Ricardo Carvalho’s well-placed header inside the opening six minutes at Stamford Bridge proved sufficient for Avram Grant’s side to cut the gap to five points but they rode their luck as Boro’s Brazilian striker Afonso Alves twice hit the woodwork.
Liverpool later completed a quartet of weekend wins for the top four with a 1-0 defeat of Everton at Anfield. The result tightened their grip on fourth place, which is worth a slot in the Champions League qualifiers.
Spaniard Fernando Torres scored his 21st league goal of the season to defeat a subdued Everton side, who now look destined for a UEFA Cup place.
Chelsea, unbeaten at home in the league for four years, survived a nervy second half to move back above Arsenal into second place with 71 points from 32 games while United, 4-0 winners against Aston Villa on Saturday, have 76.
Arsenal, who beat Bolton Wanderers 3-2 on Saturday, have 70 points, with Liverpool back on 62 and Everton on 57.
Chelsea’s stuttering display did little to suggest they will be able to close the gap in the six games they have left, one of which is against United at home.
“It was important to win at this stage of the season but the quality was not there today,” manager Avram Grant told Setanta Sports. “Maybe we scored too early. We didn’t play our game and sometimes there is no reason for it.”
Carvalho’s powerful header from Wayne Bridge’s free kick suggested an easy afternoon for Chelsea but Didier Drogba, Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips all wasted good chances to put the result beyond doubt.
Alves, still to find the net since signing for 12 million pounds in January, was introduced after 64 minutes and he should have equalized almost immediately when he headed wide from virtually in front of Carlo Cudicini’s goal.
With 20 minutes to go a dreadful error of judgement by Cudicini gifted Alves the ball 25 metres out with an empty goal gaping, but this time his curled shot bounced back off the post.
Alves continued to worry Chelsea’s defense and sent a header against the bar. The ball came out to Wheater, who also sent his effort against the woodwork.
Middlesbrough dropped to 13th place, below Newcastle United who eased their relegation fears with a 4-1 victory at Tottenham Hotspur after trailing 1-0. Nicky Butt, Geremi, Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins were all on target.
Everton arrived at Anfield with genuine hopes of overtaking their city rivals but produced a stale performance and barely had a worthwhile effort on goal.

TITLE: Rice Pressures Both Sides In Mideast Peace Negotiations
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AMMAN, Jordan — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Monday then flew to Jordan for a final session with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan before wrapping up a three-day mission intended to reinvogorate Mideast peace talks.
There was no immediate indication from any of the parties what, if anything, came from her separate morning meetings in Jerusalem with former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Talks with the two sides a day earlier produced Israeli promises to ease restrictions in the West Bank.
Rice made no remarks upon her arrival in Amman, but arranged to brief reporters after her meeting with Abbas.
Afterward, she was flying immediately to Ukraine later Monday to meet up with President Bush for a round of meetings with Eastern European leaders prior to the NATO summit later this week.
Abbas and Rice met Sunday in the Jordanian capital, where Rice also saw Jordan’s King Abdullah II. The king warned that failure to achieve progress toward peace would “threaten the region’s future” and blamed Israel for unilateral actions, according to a statement from his palace.
Rice announced Sunday that Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks and upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank, while the Palestinians pledged to upgrade security.
The Israelis also will give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin and also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits for Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.
In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin “to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror,” according to a State Department statement.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad agreed to what the U.S. termed “concrete steps” at a joint meeting with Rice on Sunday. “We will be monitoring and verifying,” Rice said.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and Abbas restarted peace talks at a U.S.-hosted summit last November, after seven years of fighting. Despite the pledge to reach a final deal by year’s end, negotiators have made no visible progress.

TITLE: Sports watch
TEXT: <b>Kazan Thumps Zenit</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Surprise package Rubin Kazan went top as the only team with three wins out of three following their 3-1 success at champions Zenit St. Petersburg.
Turkey midfielder Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored twice after Sergei Semak’s equaliser to give Rubin the win after Andrei Arshavin had fired the hosts ahead.
Dynamo Moscow won 2-1 at Amkar Perm while city rivals CSKA eked out a 1-0 home victory over Saturn Ramenskoye to stay two points behind the leaders.

<b>Fan Death ‘Accidental’</b>
MILAN (Reuters) — The death of a Parma fan on Sunday was not the result of violence between rival supporters, the club’s president said on Monday.
Matteo Bagnaresi was accidentally knocked down and killed by a bus, forcing Parma’s match at Juventus to be postponed. Police said Parma and Juve fans were trading insults at a service station on the way to Turin where the accident happened.

TITLE: Reform Permits Cubans to Stay in Hotels
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HAVANA — Cuba has lifted a ban on its nationals staying at hotels that were reserved exclusively for foreigners, hotel employees said on Monday.
It was the latest step to liberalize the communist-run state under new President Raul Castro, who has ended bans on Cubans buying computers, DVD players and cellular telephones.
“Anyone can stay at hotels as of midnight last night, as long as they have ID and the money to pay for a room,” said the night porter at the Chateau Miramar hotel in western Havana.
Employees at several hotels owned by Spanish chain Sol Melia confirmed this. Cubans can also rent cars and use other tourist facilities previously limited to foreigners, industry sources said.
The ban on staying in hotels at tropical beach resorts was a source of frustration for Cubans since their country opened up to tourism in the 1990s and gave rise to criticism of Cuba for having an “economic apartheid” system.
Raul Castro, 76, took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro as Cuba’s first new leader in almost half a century on February 24, promising to do away with “excessive restrictions” in Cuban society and its state-run economy.
On Friday, the government announced an end to a ban on Cubans buying and using cellular telephones.
As of Tuesday, Cuban shops will be allowed to sell computers, DVD players and other appliances in a move to improve the standard of living in Cuba by opening access to consumer products.
Raul Castro has also begun restructuring agriculture to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks and boost food production.
Cuba’s tourism industry is a major source of foreign exchange, more than $2 billion a year, but the number of visitors has declined in the last two years.
Foreign hotel managers said allowing Cubans to stay at tourist hotels will help raise occupancy during the low summer season.
It was not immediately clear what Cubans would pay to stay at luxury hotels, which few can afford in a country where the average wage is only $17 a month.
A major public complaint that his government will have to deal with is that wages paid in Cuban pesos are too low, while consumer goods have to be paid for in convertible pesos, or CUCs, worth 24 times more than pesos.
About 60 percent of Cubans have access to hard currency from cash remittances sent by relatives living abroad, mainly in the United States, or through factory and farm bonuses and tips from foreign tourists.