SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1374 (38), Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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TITLE: Spy Charges Fuel Russian, Georgian
Tensions
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu 
and Alexander Osipovich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Federal Security Service said Friday that its agents had caught a Georgian spy and accused Tbilisi of aiding rebels in the North Caucasus in an episode likely to heighten tensions between the countries. 
On Sunday, the two sides continued to snipe at each other as Georgia accused Russia of deploying heavy weaponry alongside its peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia and briefly detained a group of Russian soldiers in the breakaway region. 
Unidentified FSB officials said a Chechen man working for Georgian intelligence had been giving money to fighters in the unstable North Caucasus, news agencies reported Friday. 
“This confirms the participation of Georgian special forces in subversive terrorist activities in the North Caucasus,” an FSB source said, Interfax reported. 
The source said the agent had admitted that he was working for Georgian security services. 
He identified the man as Ramzan Turkoshvili, an ethnic Chechen born in the Georgian Soviet Republic in 1974 who holds Russian citizenship. 
“Turkoshvili was tasked with finding armed bands in Ingushetia and other regions of the Southern Federal District to finance and organize armed resistance,” the source said, Interfax reported. 
The source said Turkoshvili was paid in dollars. 
A Georgian government spokes-woman dismissed the accusations Friday as “another provocation from the Russian side.” 
“We don’t finance rebels in any country,” the spokeswoman said by telephone from Tbilisi. 
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili also denied the accusations, describing them as “mere disinformation meant to discredit Georgia,” Interfax reported. 
The Georgian Interior Ministry is in charge of the country’s intelligence service. 
The latest accusations came at a time when the countries are locked in a wrangle over the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and as Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili arrived in Moscow on Friday for a two-day visit to try to find a peaceful solution to the problem. 
Underlining the difficulty of his task, three bomb blasts hit Georgian-controlled areas in South Ossetia on Friday, one of which seriously injured a Georgian police officer, The Associated Press reported. 
Yakobashvili met with Foreign Ministry special envoys Valery Kenyakin and Yury Popov. 
“We have reached agreement to continue the bilateral consultations, with the aim of overcoming the current differences in our positions concerning the problem,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting. 
Yakobashvili also held a news conference in Moscow after the meeting to reaffirm Georgia’s positions on issues like its intent to block Russia’s accession to the WTO. 
Despite the diplomatic efforts, the two sides continued to snipe at each other Sunday after an incident in which Georgia briefly detained a group of Russian peacekeepers. 
Georgia said it had detained the five peacekeepers along the administrative border with Abkhazia after their armored personnel carrier crashed into a Georgian woman’s car in the town of Zugdidi, AP reported. 
Georgia’s Rustavi-2 television station said the peacekeepers had been drunk and had entered Zugdidi with a column of six armored personnel carriers and 42 trucks loaded with ammunition. 
A Russian official said Georgian authorities had staged the car accident as a “provocation,” denied that the detained soldiers had been drunk and described the operation near Zugdidi as routine. 
“The peacekeepers’ commander regards this incident as yet another provocation,” Alexander Diordiyev, a spokesman for the Russian-led peacekeeping force, told Interfax. 
Georgia’s Interior Ministry also released video footage that it said showed Russia deploying heavy weaponry in Abkhazia, which would violate the peacekeepers’ mandate, The Associated Press reported Sunday. 
The footage, apparently taken from a spy plane, showed vehicles parked in rows but gave no other indication about their type or location. 
Relations between Russia and Georgia worsened early last month after Georgia accused the Russian military of shooting down an unmanned spy plane over Abkhazia, a charge Moscow has denied. Several unmanned craft have been shot down since. 
Moscow and Tbilisi accuse each other of preparing for aggression in Abkhazia, and there is serious concern that tensions are so high that a small incident could touch off renewed fighting in the region that has had de facto independence since a secessionist war in the 1990s. 
Abkhazia’s separatist leader, Sergei Bagapsh, called Wednesday for Russia to sign a military treaty with the region, and Russia’s Air Force chief said Thursday that he favored the establishment of a military base there. 
Russia has boosted the numbers of the peacekeeping troops that it maintains in the region, saying it is trying to protect Russian citizens from alleged Georgian plans to seize control of Abkhazia by force, while Georgia says Russia is preparing to annex the region. 
Russia has also dramatically increased support for Abkhazia’s separatist government, lifting trade sanctions and firming up legal ties with the separatists. 
Defense analysts commented in particular on the timing of the espionage charges, saying it was common practice for the FSB to leak information that it wanted made public to news agencies. 
“The FSB always finds the convenient moment to arrest spies or find people who want to prepare terrorist attacks,” said Alexander Golts, deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal. 
“I don’t believe it,” said Alexei Malashenko, senior analyst on the Caucasus at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “We have been listening for years to stories about different spies: Georgian, Polish, French and so on. This is just a typical form of Soviet propaganda.” 
Malashenko said evidence of any linkage to separatist movements in Chechnya would come at an inconvenient time for Georgia. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is looking to take his country into both the European Union and NATO, attempts that have angered Russia, and any link to terrorist activities would hurt the country’s chances. 
According to Golts, Georgia’s intention to join NATO is the main reason Russia has decided to “start tensions in Abkhazia and Ossetia.” He pointed out that strains have intensified since Georgia expressed its desire to join the alliance at a NATO summit in Bucharest in early April. 
In the case of the latest spy allegations, the FSB source said Turkoshvili was recruited by two Georgian security service agents, with the help of “Zemlikhan Khangoshvili, the head of terrorist groups that are now hiding in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia,” Interfax reported. 
The source said Khangoshvili’s group was involved in a 2004 attack in the republic of Ingushetia, adjacent to Chechnya, that left nearly 100 people dead, many of them police officers. 
Golts, however, said he had never heard the name Khangoshvili. 
The FSB source claimed that Georgian intelligence paid Turkoshvili to establish contacts with militants in the North Caucasus and help Georgia finance them, ease their movement and gather information about potential recruits among Russian servicemen and officials. 
He also repeated old accusations that a large number of Chechen militants, including international terrorists, have found refuge in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge.

TITLE: Russia Wins World Hockey Championship
AUTHOR: By Steve Keating
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: QUEBEC CITY — Russia rallied to its first world championship gold medal since 1993 when Ilya Kovalchuk’s overtime powerplay goal gave it a 5-4 win over defending champions Canada on Sunday.
Kovalchuk broke free when it mattered to send the contest into overtime with his first goal of the tournament late in the third period and then notched the winner 2:42 into overtime.
The goal stunned the capacity crowd at the Quebec Colisee, watching in disbelief as the Russian team poured off the bench to mob Kovalchuk.
“During the whole tournament, it doesn’t matter who scores — it’s all a team effort,” Kovalchuk told reporters. “Everyone was asking when I would score.”
The victory capped an unbeaten run through the tournament for Russia and the title was made all the sweeter as it came against their fiercest rivals, who were hosting the championships for the first time.
It was also sweet revenge from a year ago when the Canadian national anthem was played in Moscow following their gold medal win over Finland.
The loss was the first by Canada in 18 world championship games, denying them their bid to become the first hosts to capture the title since the Soviet Union in 1986.
Canada and Russia rolled into the title game with unbeaten records, the two hockey giants providing a classic matchup for the IIHF’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
Strangely, given their long and storied history, it was the first time since the knockout formula was introduced into the world championship in 1992 that the two hockey superpowers had met in a winner-take-all gold medal game.
Not since the 1992 Albertville Olympics had Canada and Russia faced off in a title game.
“Right now we are champions of the world and it feels great,” said Russia’s leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin.
“And it is especially great to win here because this is a hockey mad-country.”
That history added to the electric atmosphere inside the Quebec Colisee.
The opening period was played at a furious pace, the Russians scoring on their first shot of the game, Alexander Semin rifling a feed from Washington Capitals team mate Ovechkin by Cam Ward.
But Canada settled frayed nerves hitting back for three goals, including a pair from Brent Burns and another from Chris Kunitz to take a 3-1 lead into the second.
Burns’ first goal, a rocket from just inside the blueline, was the first surrendered by Russian netminder Evgeni Nabokov in 134 minutes of play after posting back-to-back shutouts in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
In the second period, Russia again struck for another early goal, Semin converting a powerplay for his second of the game.
The hosts quickly canceled that out, tournament MVP Dany Heatley providing relief with his 12th of the tournament, setting the Canadian modern day record for the most goals at a single world championship to restore a 4-2 cushion heading into the final period.
Alexei Tereshchenko sparked the Russian rally with his tally midway through final period before Kovalchuk, who did not play in the semi-finals because of a one-game suspension, struck the equalizer.
“We’re disappointed in losing but you get a game into overtime and it’s flip a coin,” said Canadian coach Ken Hitchcock.

TITLE: Extremist Group Steps Up Pressure on Immigrants
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Members of the nationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) launched a verbal attack on the pro-Kremlin United Russia party last weekend for introducing a series of reforms to the process of obtaining Russian citizenship.
Activists from the radical youth movement staged a protest outside the party’s local headquarters calling for an end to the reforms.
In April, the State Duma voted to support the first draft of the newly amended law on Russian citizenship that cancels the requirement for five-year residence in the country for former Soviet citizens permanently residing abroad and planning to relocate to Russia. 
Under the new law, such applicants would no longer have to pass a Russian language exam or confirm their source of income.
The DPNI said that enabling mostly non-Slavic people to obtain citizenship would be, paradoxically, “a step that would inevitably result in the further growth of xenophobic sentiment in the country.” 
“We do not want to believe that you are fully aware of all the negative consequences of such a move and that you really want this kind of future for the country, and therefore suggest that you use your influence to persuade the United Russia parliamentarians to end the plan,” reads the DPNI appeal to United Russia.
No official reaction has followed from United Russia. 
Over the past several years the DPNI has been notorious for its nationalist rhetoric. Its website publishes a “crime watch” about crimes committed in Russia by non-Slavs. 
The movement has also been involved in a number of street clashes with pro-tolerance movements.
Earlier this month, the Leninsky district court handed down suspended sentences to a group of anti-fascist activists responsible for starting a brawl with members of DPNI in September 2006. 
The members of the “antifa” group — antifa refers to individuals and groups that are dedicated to fighting fascist tendencies — claimed responsibility for the street clash that resulted in three people being sent to city hospitals with stab wounds and head injuries. 
Six members of the movement were tried on charges of a premeditated act of hooliganism. 
Oleg Smirnov, Alexei Kogodovsky and Pyotr Osipov were each sentenced to a year in prison last Thursday, while Vyacheslav Sidorov and Maxim Khorkov were each sentenced to six months in jail. Igor Malyshev received six months in a labor camp. All the sentences were suspended. 
The prosecution, which had demanded six years in prison for Smirnov and tougher punishments for the rest of the defendants, is planning to appeal the verdict.
The street fight was typical of the clashes between the two movements but it has become particularly notorious.
Violence broke out when activists from Antifa tried to disrupt a meeting of the DPNI on Pionerskaya Ploshchad on Sept. 17, 2006. 
The meeting’s participants were expressing support for a race riot in the Karelian town of Kondopoga. The movement campaigns for the immediate deportation of immigrants from CIS countries. 
Some members of the antifa group said they were driven to violence by the murder of Timur Kacharava, a student of the St. Petersburg State University and antifascist activist who was stabbed to death by a group of skinheads outside a bookstore on Ligovsky Prospekt in November 2005. 
Timur’s killer, Alexander Shabalin, received 12 years in jail although the other members of the gang that attacked Timur were given suspended sentences. 
“Yes, we did go there to disrupt their meeting, and yes, we were prepared to fight,” said Andrei, a witness to the fight and antifa member who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his safety. 
“After the murder of Timur Kacharava we realized that fascists and nationalists understand only one language, the language of force,” he added. “If the authorities do nothing, we have nothing left to do but fight. We are aware of the fact that this makes us more vulnerable, but there doesn’t seem to be any other way of drawing attention to the problem. Verbal methods do not work.”
As Russia garners negative headlines worldwide due to a marked rise in skinhead violence against foreigners and minorities, the anti-racist activists have gotten far less attention.
The antifascist movement’s modest numbers are dwarfed by its opponents in the much larger, more vocal and often violent nationalist movement. 
In addition to being subject to vicious assaults from skinheads, they are treated with suspicion and hostility by the police. 
Most of the political elite and general public are either ambivalent about or indifferent to their goals. At their own rallies, police and counter demonstrators usually outnumber them.
Alexander Vinnikov of the Movement Against Racism compared the current political climate to the atmosphere of Tsarist Russia in the 1910s, complete with pogroms and outbursts of anti-Semitism. 
“The hatred is a broader force now and is now directed at Georgians and other non-Russians,” he said. “True, it has not come to the pogroms yet but the degree of violence is steadily growing.”
Vinnikov and other rights activists say there has been a lack of leadership from Russia’s political elite and from law-enforcement bodies, which often appear to be in a state of denial about hate crimes.
The authorities have shown little interest in nurturing civil society or supporting groups seeking to do so. The opposite is often the case. 
Antifascists claim it is the hands-off attitude of the authorities that has propelled them to act aggressively. Originally a peaceful movement, it started showing signs of splitting apart after the brutal murder of Kacharava.
After Kacharava’s death, some of the more radical members of the movement felt the time had come to change tactics and go on the offensive, said Ruslan Linkov, chairman of the small opposition organizaton, Democratic Russia.
Linkov said the police often appear more interested in portraying antifascist activists as extremists rather than combating far-right extremists. This, Linkov said, plays into an overall mood of xenophobia among the general public. 
“The Movement Against Illegal Immigration is an extremist organization, that openly calls for ethnic cleansing. Yet it has not been troubled much by the police,” he said. 
“This shows that the police and many government officials must sympathize with the nationalists. They also seem to be trying to spread the responsibility for street violence more evenly among various political forces,” Linkov said.

TITLE: Last Cult Members Leave Penza Cave
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — A handful of doomsday cult members on Friday crawled out of the damp cave in Penza region where they spent six months waiting for the end of the world, which their leader had prophesied.
The nine people were the last of a group of 35 men, women and children that had dug into a hillside near the city of Penza in November and threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if authorities tried to forcibly remove them. The last cave inhabitants left their Ural Mountains hideout after officials had found the bodies of two women who died in the cave.
“All of them have left. We ensured their safe exit,” Mikhail Nosachev, head of the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said in televised remarks. 
Police said they offered the hermits food after their exit but that they refused to take it. “We fried some potatoes for them and brought cucumbers from home, but they refused to eat,” police spokesman Alexei Doppel said on NTV television. “They said their religious beliefs don’t allow them to take food on Wednesdays and Fridays.”
Authorities said cult members left the cave after being warned that they could be poisoned by fumes from the rotting corpses. “We could smell the stench through ventilation holes,” said Vladimir Provotorov, a local official involved in the negotiations, RIA-Novosti reported. “As we pulled out the dead bodies, we suggested that the others leave. They agreed.”
Cult members who left the cave earlier told local journalists that the women had died from cancer and exhaustion.
Emergency officials said they found the bodies by accident while trying to strengthen the supports of the cave.
The elaborate structure — complete with sleeping rooms, a makeshift kitchen and religious altars — suffered a series of partial cave-ins earlier this year, caused by melting snows.
Most cave inhabitants abandoned the sit-in in March and April on medical grounds or because they were just sick and tired of sleeping in the dirt that kept falling from above. The cult leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, declared himself a prophet several years ago. He left his family and established the True Russian Orthodox Church and recruited followers in Russia and Belarus.
Kuznetsov reportedly told followers that in the afterlife they would be judging whether others deserved heaven or hell. Followers were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, Russian media reported.
Kuznetsov did not go into the cave. He lived with some of his followers in a nearby house and was hospitalized last month after he had beaten himself over the head repeatedly with a wooden stick in what officials said was a suicide attempt. He faces criminal charges of setting up a religious organization associated with violence.
Meanwhile, a sound engineer with NTV was beaten early Friday by two law enforcement officers who were guarding the entrance to the cave, the Life.ru portal reported. Yevgeny Gorin had been asleep in a tent near the cave when two men approached and asked him to leave, the web site said. Without waiting for an answer, they knocked him to the ground and began punching and kicking him, the site said. Video posted on the web site that was also aired on NTV’s news broadcast showed one man holding the sound engineer to the ground and beating him, while another man watched. The journalist appeared to be guarding a TV camera under his body. Later footage showed him with a bloodied face. A police spokesman said on air that NTV would receive an explanation.

TITLE: Language Festival Opens
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The third Russkoye Slovo (“Russian Word”) festival opens Tuesday and runs through Friday, the society of Russian language and literature teachers and St. Petersburg State University have announced.
“The main goal of the festival is to attract the attention of society to the condition of the modern Russian language, to unite people interested in preserving and developing the language, to demonstrate the best examples of speech, and to promote language and literature,” said Leonid Moskovkin, director of the Russian Society of Russian Language and Literature Teachers. Moskovkin said there is a “lack of culture” in contemporary Russian.
“Such culture is especially important for public figures such as politicians and journalists who often form language standards for society,” he said.
Moskovkin also said that television threatens reading habits among young people. 
The festival is headed by Lyudmila Verbitskaya, president of St. Petersburg State University and an activist for the improvement and preservation of the Russian language.
Russkoye Slovo is held once every two years, and the number of its participants is growing. Around 800 students and schoolchildren from Russia’s 26 regions took part in the first festival in 2004, while 13,000 people took part in 2006. Around 15,000 people from 62 regions of Russia are due to participate this year.
A contest to find the person with the best knowledge of Russian has been run ahead of the festival with a focus on phonetics, spelling, grammar, style and linguistics.
The winner of this contest and others will be announced at the final ceremony of the festival on Friday.

TITLE: Sex Toy Industry on the Rise in Russia
AUTHOR: By Miriam Elder
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Glistening skyscrapers and fancy office buildings aren’t the only things rising across Moscow these days. 
Amid the oil-fueled boom that shows no signs of waning, the splurge in consumer spending has spread beyond iPhones and trips to Paris, to whips and vibrators. 
“It was only three or four years ago that people started to use sex toys and speak about sex toys,” said Roman Glukharyov, imports manager for erotica chain Mon Amour. 
Surrounded by neon pink dildos, lifelike blow-up dolls, and a massive structure called the “Pleasure Machine,” which looked more like a torture device gone wrong, Glukharyov was one of hundreds of people who this weekend attended Moscow’s main sex-toy fair, “X-Show: An Exhibit for Adults.” 
Nestled in the small exhibition hall above the Perekryostok supermarket on Tishinskaya Ploshchad in northern Moscow, the 7th annual X-Show was a far cry from major sex fairs like Berlin’s Venus, which last year notched up nearly 30,000 visitors. 
About 200 people bustled around the hall on Friday, the middle day of the three-day fair, hoping to seal distribution deals and sell to random customers as a rising middle class proves many Russians have money to spare — for all sorts of leisure items. 
“We bring in around $10,000 to $15,000 a month,” said Nadya Zhdankina, 29, who, along with her boyfriend Andrei Krupenya, 28, runs a sex toy web site called Paradis-Amour.ru. 
“Demand is growing, you can tell,” Zhdankina said. “We have a lot of regular clients now.” 
“The ones who order the really crazy stuff are the guys in oil cities like Surgut and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk,” she said. “They’ll easily pay 15,000 rubles to 20,000 rubles per order. They have nothing to do out there and plenty of cash.” 
Svetlana, 41, sat nearby, anxiously watching a catwalk soon to be filled with leggy female models showing off the latest in white lace G-strings and leather corsets. 
She came to the exhibit because she was hoping to open up her own sex shop and wanted to learn the trade. “It’s a normal business just like anything else,” she said. 
The S&M toys on display may not have been exactly the kind of small and medium-sized businesses President Dmitry Medvedev had in mind when he said last week that the sector’s share of GDP should grow from 20 percent to at least 50 percent. 
Most of the sex toys on exhibit were made in China and distributed by wholesalers based in the United States or Europe. But a purely Russian take on the sex toy also exists. 
A firm named Andrei showcased an array of products, including a series of blow-up dolls with names like Nastya, a brunette, Dasha, a redhead and Natasha, a pure blonde. 
“It’s my pleasure to make you happy,” read the boxes into which Nastya, Dasha and Natasha were folded. “Two-hole doll,” the boxes proudly proclaimed. 
“Today, the erotic trade market in Russia is one of the most dynamically developing ones,” reads a pamphlet distributed by the firm. “First, and most important, this is because our citizens are getting richer.” 
The second reason, the pamphlet says, is the end of being raised to believe “that sex is dirty and disgusting, something to be done in total darkness and in the missionary position, only to continue the human race.” 
The growth in the sex toy trade in Russia resulted in part from a liberalization of ideas about sex, particularly among women, said Claudine Seroussi, the Europe representative for B Swish, a Los Angeles-based erotica firm. 
“There are lots of young Russians who want to emulate the West. They watch shows like Sex and the City,” she said. That show made the Rabbit, a two-pronged dildo, a household word in the United States. 
“And now they have more disposable income. It’s a sign of things becoming much more liberal,” Seroussi said. 
Indeed, the days when someone could claim “there is no sex in the Soviet Union” are long gone. 
Alyona Sinitsina, 28, a professional phone-sex operator sat at her booth with a friend, both wrapped in fishnet stockings and seductively eating ice cream cones. 
“One out of every three guys is into phone sex,” Sinitsina said. “Sure, men can watch a video and see a woman with another man, but with us he can imagine himself. We call him by his name.” 
Her friend, who declined to be identified, said she thought Russians were above and beyond American women when it came to giving a man pleasure over the telephone. 
“In your country, it’s ‘Ugh, ugh, ugh,’ and it’s over. In Russia, we know how to take our time,” she said. 
“It’s like therapy,” Sinitsina said. “Maybe he wants to learn how to do something or talk about his family problems.” 
Glukharyov, the Mon Amour imports manager, said he too thought Russians had left far behind the days when sex was a private matter not to be brought into the public domain. 
Yet one gap in Russians’ sexual education, apparently, still troubled him greatly. 
“People in Russia, to tell the truth, can’t feel the difference between water and silicone-based lubes,” he said, staring off into the distance with a sigh.

TITLE: Crime Stats Questioned By Rights Campaigners
AUTHOR: By Ali Nassor
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Human rights activists and members of ethnic minorities have condemned official statistics depicting a drastic fall in the number of hate crimes committed in St. Petersburg as exaggerated and say the decline if anything is cause by the police’s inefficiency in dealing with such attacks.
“About 60 teenagers are currently standing trial on charges of extremism and hate crimes,” Chief of the Investigation Department of the St. Petersburg and Lenoblast Prosecutor’s Office, Andrei Lavrenko told reporters on Thursday. 
He said since last year the police has managed to avert dozens of plots of extremism including an explosion in Dom Kino on 12 Karavannaya Ulitsa and a plot to blow up a bus carrying police cadets. He said the suspects were recruits of the same network of racial extremists responsible for an explosion in McDonald’s restaurant on Nevsky Prospekt last year. 
St. Petersburg and Lenoblast chief beat cop Vyacheslav Kovalenko also said on Thursday that 218 people — mostly teenagers — were apprehended for hate-related crimes this year compared to 433 for the same period last year.
But according to a report by Galina Kozhevnikova of the Moscow-based Sova Information Analysis Center that monitors the nation’s hate crimes in a quarterly report, 37 hate murders were reported across Russia during the period compared to 26 committed during the same period last year. 
However, Vadim Nepryakhin, Prosecutor of the Moskovsky District believes that while St. Petersburg has experienced a decline in hate crimes, his district deserves special credit for not having registered a case of that nature this year. 
“Though I don’t rule out hate incidents in other parts of the city, I am proud to announce that our jurisdictional area is an oasis of peace,” he said.
“It has been quite a long time ever since we had a report of a violent hate crime in our district,” he said. 
In a meeting with a representative of the St. Petersburg African community on Thursday Nepryakhin distributed a copy of safety instructions for foreign students. 
Several incidents of racially motivated attacks had been reported at a student residence on Novoizmailosky Prospekt in Nepryakhin’s jurisdiction.
The meeting with an African representative was one in a series that Nepryakhin has been holding with the leaders of the city’s ethnic minorities this year in his efforts to overcome the problem of intolerance. 
Among others, he has met with representatives of the Indian, Chinese, Arab, Afghan and Tajik communities in what he said were measures to establish a bridge between the targets of hate crimes and the law enforcement organs.
The safety guide Nepryakhin handed out contained more than 30 instructions and was similar to one the city’s Prosecutor’s Office issued in November 2004. 
The Prosecutor’s Office recommend foreign students to stay near the alarm and the driver when commuting on public transport, avoid transport with few passengers, avoid dark courtyards, run away if threatened, shout loudly to attract public attention when sensing danger and not to invite strangers to their rooms.
As in 2004, the guidelines were met with some scorn by students. 
“How can you avoid transport with few passengers and get a place near the driver and the alarm at the same time?,” said Ibrahim Diallo, a student from Guinea. 
“In fact, the whole thing ends up by saying that a foreign student should stay indoors if he wants to be safe in St. Petersburg,” he said

TITLE: Moscow Seeks Talks in Tehran
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Foreign Ministry said Friday that it hoped the six nations negotiating with Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program could meet in Tehran soon to offer the Islamic Republic new proposals for talks.
“We hope in the near future Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, will be able to meet in Tehran EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and deputy foreign ministers of the six countries who must hand Iran a revised package of proposals for talks,” the ministry said in a statement.
Moscow said it was “attentively studying” Iran’s latest proposals and would consult its partners in the “big six.” “During our meetings in Tehran, representatives of the six could give their preliminary reaction to Iran’s proposals,” it said.
The United States said it would not send a representative with Solana to deliver the new incentives. “We are not going to have a physical presence there,” a State Department spokesman said.

TITLE: Medvedev Appoints First New Governor
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev made his first gubernatorial appointment Friday, replacing the long-serving governor of the Stavropol region.
In a decree posted on the Kremlin web site, Medvedev accepted the resignation of Alexander Chernogorov, who fell out with Moscow last year after failing to lead United Russia to victory in regional legislative elections.
Medvedev replaced him with Valery Gayevsky, a former Stavropol official who served as a deputy to Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak.
The decree named Gayevsky acting governor but did not submit his candidacy to the Stavropol legislature for confirmation. Formally, the Kremlin needs to get approval from regional lawmakers in its choices for governor, although in practice no regional legislature has ever turned down a Kremlin nominee.
A Kremlin spokesman said Sunday that Gayevsky’s nomination would eventually be submitted to Stavropol lawmakers for confirmation.

TITLE: Minsk Claims U.S. Sanctions Hurt Ordinary Belarussians
AUTHOR: By Andrei Makhovsky
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MINSK — Belarus accused the United States on Friday of harming the interests of ordinary citizens by imposing new sanctions on the country’s industry in a dispute over human rights.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed punitive measures on Thursday on three Belarussian companies linked to state-run oil refiner Belneftekhim as part of efforts to intensify pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko over purported rights abuses.
Belarus has been subject to various sanctions for several years but is especially aggrieved at moves against Belneftekhim. 
The U.S. ambassador left Minsk last month at the urging of officials and 10 diplomats were expelled.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov, in a statement on the ministry’s web site, said: “Through its actions, the United States has shown beyond all doubt that its measures are aimed at ordinary Belarussian citizens and hit the interests of plants included on the list.”
Popov said the step was all the more striking after Lukashenko’s “unambiguous” call this week for “a dialogue of equals and of mutual respect” with Washington.
“The situation clearly shows just who is working in positive terms and who in negative terms,” the statement said.
The U.S. Treasury banned Americans from doing business with the companies identified as enterprises of Belneftekhim.
It also sought to freeze any assets under U.S. jurisdiction held by the firms — Lidskaya Lakokraska, a paint and varnish producer, Polotsk Steklovolokno, a glass and fiber plant, and Belarussian Oil Trade House, a clearing house for transactions.
The sanctions seek to prevent Belneftekhim from using other corporate entities to skirt the U.S.-imposed sanctions.
Lukashenko earlier in the week accused U.S. diplomats of applying pressure on Belarus and working to worsen relations.
“If the Americans think they can build relations from a position of strength, then we don’t need such diplomats or relations,” he said in an interview. 
“If the United States wants to see us as an independent state and build relations on that basis ... the country is open to them,” he said.
The head of Belarus’ central bank, Pyotr Prokopovich, said the sanctions could persuade potential investors to reconsider their plans.
The United States and European Union accuse Lukashenko of crushing fundamental rights by shutting down media outlets, holding political prisoners and rigging elections.

TITLE: Popular Bar Dunes Swept Away by New Gate Policy
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dunes, the open-air summertime extension of popular student-oriented bar Datscha, called it quits on Sunday citing the changed policy of the owner of the territory on which the bar was located. 
According to the manager of Datscha and Dunes, Anna-Christin Albers, a new gate will be installed and pass system will be introduced to prevent passers-by from getting into the courtyards of the former Soviet taxi park where Dunes was located, making it impossible for the “beach bar” to operate.
Launched last year, Dunes was an instant hit due to its unique appearance and atmosphere. 
Located amid industrial buildings with a clear view of the Church on the Spilt Blood, the open-air bar could accommodate up to 500 guests. Its first season last year was a hit but this year the place closed less than 3 weeks after it reopened for the summer on May 1.
Although Albers said she is looking for a new location for Dunes, she admitted that the chances of it reopening are unlikely. 
“It’s difficult to find such a place in the center and the warm season is short, so maybe it won’t be worthwhile. But if we find a location, we’ll be able to reopen in just two days,” she said by telephone on Monday.
According to Albers, the land where Dunes was located is owned by St. Petersburg Real Estate Agency (PAN), the same enterprise that owns the historic Maly Gostiny Dvor complex of buildings in which Datscha and other similar bars including Fidel, Belgrad and Vtoroi Etazh are located, on Dumskaya Ulitsa. 
She said they would all have to move out before the year’s end because PAN wants to redevelop the city center site.
But, “[the owners] haven’t said anything concrete as yet,” Albers said.
“They said ‘half a year,’ or maybe a little longer. But I’ve already heard, and have no reason to doubt it, that the rent agreement with Vtoroi Etazh was not renewed. Luckily, our [Datscha’s] agreement won’t expire until December.”

TITLE: HP, Foxconn Join Forces at Computer Plant
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Hewlett-Packard announced Friday that it was teaming up with Foxconn International to build the country’s first foreign-owned computer factory in an effort to capitalize on spiraling demand for high-tech products. 
The $50 million plant on the outskirts of St. Petersburg will occupy a sprawling 32,000-square-meter space and have the potential to churn out half a million personal computers per year. 
St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, said the plant was “central to the city’s development strategy.” 
“This place will become a huge techno-park, producing high-tech electronics and computers to satisfy growing industrial, scientific, and educational needs throughout Russia,” she said. 
When fully operational in spring 2009, the Foxconn Rus factory will assemble 40,000 desktop computers for HP per month and will later expand output to include laptops, LCD monitors and workstations, Jim Chang, managing director of Foxconn International, said Friday. 
Financial details were not released, but Foxconn, which holds a majority stake in the project, said it could invest about $100 million in the next few years. 
HP did not disclose how much it would commit to the project. 
Foxconn — a unit of Taipei-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, the world’s largest contract electronics maker — already produces personal computers for HP in Taipei, where it also makes mobile phones for Nokia and the PlayStation 2 for Sony. 
Matviyenko said HP and Foxconn would join the swelling ranks of Western and Asian companies — especially automakers — that are transforming St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region into the country’s biggest industrial hub. 
She confirmed that she personally made a trip to California to lobby for the deal, adding that with such a factory, St. Petersburg would be stealing the limelight from Moscow as the country’s center of commerce. 
Owen Kemp, director of HP Russia, echoed Matviyenko. 
“The city has become a magnet for Western companies because of its seaport facilities and fast-track rail links to Moscow, the largest market for high-tech products,” he said. 
The plant may become a regional hub, supplying not only the Commonwealth of Independent States, but also the Baltic states and Scandinavia, HP senior vice president Tony Prophet said at the ceremony. “Russian demand for the latest PC technology is developing quickly, and HP is seeing increasing interest from consumers and commercial customers,” he said. 
When production starts next year, the factory will assemble 20,000 HP desktop computers monthly, Foxconn Rus general director Andrei Korzhakov said. 
Initially, the factory will rely heavily on imported components, which are expensive because of unusually large excise duties imposed in Russia. Experts say the duties may offset any economic gains achieved from domestic production, significantly pushing up prices for the factory’s finished goods. 
“Lower distribution costs within the country appear to be the only economic gain from this project,” said Alexander Malyarevsky, editor of Computer Bild magazine. “If the partners use the factory as a strategic base to supply the CIS and the Baltic states, they might save costs on transport and logistics,” he said. 
Pyotr Yakovlev, deputy editor of computer newsmagazine Chip, said the country imposed “heftier excise duties on imported components than on finished goods,” which could deter foreign firms from opening plants in Russia.

TITLE: Georgia To Block WTO Negotiations
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Georgia said Friday that it would block negotiations on Russian entry to the World Trade Organization until Moscow reverses a decision last month to step up ties with two breakaway Georgian provinces. 
“Until this document that undermines Georgia’s right is revoked, it will be an obstacle for Russia’s WTO entry,” Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Iakobashvili told a news conference in Moscow. 
“I know it is a very tough statement to make, but it is a fact,” he said. 
Russia, the largest economy still outside the global trade body, is due to hold a next round of talks with the WTO accession working group on May 26, and Georgia said it would seek a bilateral meeting with Russia on the same day. 
Under WTO rules, candidate countries have to reach agreement with a working party, in which any existing member can take part, as well as agree on a bilateral deal with any member that seeks it. 
Moscow’s support for separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia is the most difficult problem in relations between Russia and Georgia, which is seeking to join NATO and the European Union. 
Tbilisi has condemned as a breach of international law Moscow’s decision to establish legal links with the provinces, controlled since the early 1990s by separatist governments. 
“The Georgian side will not change its opinion. We cannot talk about trade regimes when there are sanctions against Georgia in place, when an attempt to annex Georgian territory is going on,” Iakobashvili said.

TITLE: BRIC to Form Official Club
AUTHOR: By Conor Sweeney
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: YEKATERINBURG — The world’s biggest emerging market economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — agreed Friday to formalize their “BRIC” club for the first time to affirm their global economic clout. 
The four countries, which account for more than one-tenth of the world’s gross domestic product, said they would boost cooperation on a range of fronts and work on ways to ease the burden of soaring global food prices. 
“Building a more democratic international system founded on the rule of law and multilateral diplomacy is an imperative of our time,” foreign ministers from the BRIC countries said in a joint statement after talks in Yekaterinburg. 
They “confirmed the aspirations of the BRIC countries to work together with each other and other states in the interests of strengthening international security and stability.” 
The term BRIC was coined by Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs to describe how the four swiftly growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China are likely to rival and then overtake many of the West’s leading economies in the next half century. 
The Yekaterinburg meeting was the first stand-alone meeting of BRIC foreign ministers. 
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the BRIC countries had cushioned the developed world from a bigger slowdown over recent years. 
“[Large developing countries] have prevented the world from facing a worsening situation. This is a different situation from the past, when there was a global slowdown,” said Mukherjee. “In this area, it is clear BRIC can increasingly play a key role,” he said. 
The four countries, which account for 40 percent of the world’s population, discussed soaring food prices and criticized developing countries for subsidizing their farmers. 
Mukherjee blasted “inefficient producers” in developed countries for subsidizing their farmers, which he said was stifling attempts by developing states to feed their populations, hit hardest by rising global food prices. 
“The main problem with the food crisis is overproduction in developing countries,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, adding that BRIC finance ministers would meet later in the year in Brazil to tighten links. 
China called for more cooperation between energy producers and consumers to reduce volatility on world oil markets. Russia is the world’s second-biggest oil exporter, while China is the world’s second-biggest oil importer. 
“Speculation in world markets has led to soaring world oil prices. The international community should step up energy efficiency and enhance dialogue between oil producers and oil consumers,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said. 
Analysts say that while BRIC countries have swift growth and geopolitical ambitions, their cooperation is hampered by mutual distrust. 
“Russia is groping for a new place in the world. Russia has learned how to be a difficult partner for the West, but hasn’t learned how to turn it towards its own benefit,” Heritage Centre political analyst Masha Lippman said of the BRIC meeting. 
“It’s far from clear if anything can come out of it,” she said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: SZLK Goes Bankrupt
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Northwest Timber Company (SZLK) has applied to the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court to start bankruptcy proceedings, Interfax reported Friday.
On April 28 Sberbank demanded pre-term repayment of all the loans it had granted to SZLK, including a loan of $450 million issued in 2004. The funds were invested in long-term modernization projects, and the company failed to repay its debts at short notice.
Shopping Center Opens
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Atlantic investment company opened the Atlantic City shopping and entertainment center in the Primorsky district last week, Colliers International said Friday in a statement.
Atlantic City covers an area of 75,000 square meters, making it one of the largest premium-class shopping centers in the city. It is part of a 108,600-square meter multifunctional center. The 27-story office center will open by 2009.

TITLE: Peugeot To Open In Kaluga
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-largest carmaker, and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors have agreed to produce sport-utility vehicles and mid-sized cars in Russia to tap demand in what may become Europe’s largest auto market.
Peugeot will invest as much as $545 million in the plant, located near Kaluga, 180 kilometers southwest of Moscow, CEO Christian Streiff said Monday at a Paris news conference. The factory will initially produce 160,000 vehicles a year, of which 50,000 will be SUVs and eventually boost production to 300,000, Streiff said.
“The Russian market is a strong market that will soon hit 3 million and then progress toward 4 million,” Streiff said. “It’s important to be there with high volumes.”
Carmakers including Renault, Paris-based Peugeot’s French rival, have built or are building factories in Russia. Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said on Jan. 30 that Russia will surpass Germany as Europe’s biggest car market within two years.
Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, opened a factory in Kaluga last year in an attempt to triple its share of the Russian market. Ford Motor Co. also has a factory outside St. Petersburg.
The Peugeot-Mitsubishi plant will open in 2011.

TITLE: EU Wants Russia Treaty Before Summit
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen on Saturday said he was confident that talks on a new EU-Russia treaty would begin before a key summit next month, despite opposition from Lithuania. 
Verheugen was speaking after holding extended talks with Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko during a trip to a Sukhoi aircraft plant in the far eastern town of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where state-owned United Aircraft Corporation and leading Western manufacturers are working on Russia’s Superjet-100 project. 
“I’m quite optimistic that the European Commission will have a mandate to negotiate the treaty before the next EU-Russia summit meeting,” Verheugen said at a briefing in Moscow. The two-day EU-Russia summit is to take place in the west Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiisk, starting June 26. 
Verheugen said Saturday that his talks with Khristenko had enabled him to understand the Russian position better. 
“We had almost 20 hours on the plane with Mr. Khristenko to talk about a whole spectrum of issues, and I understand my colleague very well,” Verheugen said. 
The EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, a treaty governing a wide range of economic, trade and political ties, formally expired last December, and no new treaty has been adopted so far. 
Lithuania, which became a member of the EU in 2004, said in April that it would not approve the mandate on the new EU-Russia treaty talks until crude oil supplies cut by Moscow in 2006 were resumed and the frozen conflicts in the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia resolved. Lithuania also called for compensation for its citizens deported by Moscow during the Soviet era. 
“My forecast here is that we’ll find a solution with Lithuania very soon. It will be in the interest of Lithuania not to be seen as a troublemaker,” Verheugen said. 
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister and Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin dismissed Lithuania’s calls for oil supplies to be restored. 
“What claims or demands can they present to us?” Sechin said of Lithuania in his first interview after being appointed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s new Cabinet. “We should we give away our resources?” 
On Saturday, Verheugen also expressed some sympathy for Russia’s stance on export duties on raw timber, an issue that has strained its relations with Finland and Sweden, currently the biggest consumers of Russian timber in the EU. 
“The situation when some European countries import Russian timber, refine it at the border and then sell back by a significantly more expensive price is not acceptable,” Verheugen said. “The importers have been treating Russia as a third-world country.” 
In an effort to promote the domestic timber processing industry, Russia last year hiked export duties for raw timber from 4 euros to 15 euros ($6 to $23) per cubic meter and plans to raise it further to a prohibitive 50 euros ($78) next year. 
The European Commission has previously warned that the dispute over timber export duties could delay Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

TITLE: Korea, Gazprom Renew Deal
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SEOUL — State-run Korea Gas Corp said on Monday it has agreed to extend a cooperation agreement with Russia’s Gazprom for easier access to Russia’s natural gas. 
Under the deal, KOGAS, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer, will continue to discuss and cooperate over importing natural gas from Russia, the firm said in a statement. 
The deal, which was initially signed in May 2003, will be extended by another five years to 2013. 
The agreement comes at a time when KOGAS is seeking to import 1.5 million tonnes of natural gas per year from Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 project. 
Last month, gas export monopoly Gazprom had said it was sticking to its deadline to start exports of LNG from Sakhalin-2 at the beginning of 2009.

TITLE: Siemens Inks Turbine Deal With OGK-1
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — German engineering giant Siemens on Friday sealed a 100 million euro ($155 million) contract to build three power turbines for OGK-1, one of the country’s leading power generating firms. 
The deal will see Siemens, already a major player in the country’s machine-building industry through its blocking stake in turbine maker Power Machines, build two gas turbines and a steam turbine for a new unit at OGK-1’s Perm power station by 2010, with a combined capacity of 850 megawatts. 
“It will be one of the highest-capacity power units in the world,” Siemens’ vice president and Russia head Dietrich Muller said at the contract signing in OGK-1’s head office Friday. 
Muller said he was looking forward to winning new tenders to provide more equipment for the country’s electricity sector. 
Foreign engineering firms may grab the lion’s share of power turbine contracts as the successors to national utility Unified Energy System seek to overhaul the country’s outdated electricity network. 
Power Machines, the leading Russian turbine maker, still has some way to go to match firms such as Siemens and General Electric on high-tech efficiency, analysts say. 
State Duma Deputy Speaker Valery Yazev, an influential energy industry lobbyist, last week sounded alarm bells about foreign producers’ dominance in winning turbine orders for the electricity industry. 
“This alarming trend could lead to a serious dependency of the country’s power generators on foreign companies,” Yazev said. 
Yazev’s comments, at a Duma hearing on measures to support and modernize Russian machine-building, came as lawmakers proposed offering subsidized loans and tax breaks for domestic producers. 
But OGK-1 general director Vladimir Khlebnikov, speaking after Friday’s ceremony, said it was important that state support for Russian machine-building companies didn’t mean that power generators were left with “no choice but to buy their equipment.” 
“We will use equipment from Siemens, GE, Mitsubishi and Alstom until Russian producers can make equipment of the same quality,” Khlebnikov said, saying current Russian-made coal-fired turbines were particularly outdated. 
E4 Group, the country’s biggest engineering company, on Friday said it backed the proposal to support domestic machine-building. 
“We fully support the government proposal and think it is very important to concentrate on domestic producers,” E4 Group general director Pyotr Bezukladnikov said on the sidelines of the deal Friday. 

OGK-1 shares on Friday climbed 4.9 kopeks, or 2.3 percent, to 2.20 rubles, after UES chief Anatoly Chubais said in an interview Thursday that he was seeking to raise at least $5 billion from a group of Russian investors in the sell-off of UES’s 75 percent stake in the power generator. 
Chubais also said the door remained “open for Electricite de France and Gaz de France to come back into the bidding,” Bloomberg reported.

TITLE: Superjet Makes Its First Flight
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The SuperJet, Russia’s first post-Soviet passenger airplane, has completed its maiden flight, boosting government hopes of restoring the nation’s status as a global aircraft manufacturer.
The regional jet flew for more than an hour and reached an altitude of 1,200 meters (4,000 feet), the Moscow-based company said in a statement. The test took place Monday in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the former closed city built by Stalin in the 1930s in the Far East.
“I am absolutely satisfied with the flight, 100 percent,” Mikhail Pogosyan, chief executive officer of planemaker Sukhoi Aviation Holding Co., said in a telephone interview from Komsomolsk. “This is a big success for Sukhoi. Despite many difficulties, we achieved our goal.”
Russia is spending more than $1.4 billion developing the 75-to 95-seat SuperJet in an effort to make its civil aviation industry competitive worldwide. State-owned Sukhoi and partner Finmeccanica, Italy’s biggest defense company, have a target of selling at least 1,800 SuperJets over 20 years, including a bigger version that will compete with Airbus’ A320 series and Boeing’s 737.
The SuperJet made its first flight almost five months later than scheduled. Maxim Grishanin, chief financial officer of the planemaker’s Sukhoi Civil Aircraft division, said last month that difficulties in integrating components from about 40 international suppliers, including an engine co-developed by Safran SA’s Snecma unit, caused the delay.

TITLE: Deal Signed on Helicopter Equipment
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Europe’s third-largest helicopter maker, AgustaWestland, signed a deal with state-run Oboronprom on Friday for the Russian helicopter giant to distribute up to 450 million euros ($700 million) worth of Italian-made equipment over the next four years. 
Oboronprom, parent company of consolidated helicopter holding Russian Helicopters, will market AgustaWestland’s helicopters in Russia and the CIS. A concrete order for 10 helicopters worth 65 million euros has already been struck, company officials announced at HeliRussia-2008, the country’s first exhibition for the industry. 
The deal comes a day after Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov stressed the need for the country to increase its number of helicopters. After years of restructuring the industry, the government has set ambitious targets to triple output to 500 helicopters per year by 2015 and claim 15 percent of the world market. 
Oboronprom and AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica, eventually plan to set up joint production of Agusta helicopters in Russia. The two companies signed a letter of intent in summer 2007. 
“We see the Russian and CIS markets as very important, with the potential to generate significant future business,” AgustaWestland CEO Giuseppe Orsi said at the exhibition. 
The firm already has orders for 14 helicopters in Russia and is targeting corporate and VIP buyers in the booming market. 
Russia is also looking to seal deals with Iran and China to produce helicopters in the countries, Oboronprom general director Andrei Reus said in a separate announcement, Interfax reported. 
Talks are continuing over producing Russian helicopters under license in Iran, while the Russians are keen on co-producing helicopters in China, Reus said. 
Adding that negotiations with Tehran over the issue are “relatively complex,” Reus did not set a timeframe for reaching agreements with either side. 
“In the first instance, this means civilian helicopters,” Oboronprom spokesman Viktor Bordin said. The possibility of co-producing military helicopters in Iran and China could be discussed later, Bordin said. 
Oboronprom will also set up joint facilities to maintain helicopters in China and India “in the near future,” Reus said.

TITLE: Russia Unimpressed By EBRD’s Policies
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Zhdannikov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: KIEV — Russia criticised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Sunday, saying it preferred to spend its profits bolstering reserves instead of making much needed investments in the region’s infrastructure. 
Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin also said Russia was upset that out of the bank’s 33 billion euros ($51.07 billion) of assets, only 13 billion euros were loans and 20 billion euros were in liquid financial assets. 
“Of course you need liquid assets, but not to such an extent,” Pankin told a briefing on the sidelines of the EBRD’s annual meeting, held this year in the Ukrainian capital. Russia has a four percent stake in the EBRD. 
“We in Russia insist that the bank should focus on infrastructure projects such as transport, utilities or communal services instead of giving loans to affiliates of Citi or Raiffeisen,” he added. 
The EBRD said it disagreed with the Russian criticism. 
“The Russian position confuses the EBRD’s banking assets,” a bank official said.  He said existing equities and loans formed the basis of the income that provides for future capital to support the investments to carry on the bank’s mission while the liquid treasury assets were required for the EBRD to make future loans and equity disbursements. 
The EBRD official said the statutory capital requirements only referred to the bank’s portfolio of banking assets of 19 billion euros and taking a different attitude to capital requirements would be not prudent at a time when the financial and economic climate is becoming more uncertain. “The liquid investment levels are important, especially in the current environment where liquidity has been recognized to be of critical importance in the banking industry,” he said. 
Russian criticism comes as the country embarks on an infrastructure development program which will require hundreds of billions of dollars in the next decade to compensate for years of under-investment by the Soviet Union.  
The EBRD, created in 1991 to help post-communist countries reform their economies, is a for-profit bank which had net income of 1.1 billion euros last year, of which 80 percent will go toward reserves replenishment. 
“Fundamentally it is not wrong. But we cannot agree with the reduction of volumes of new operations,” said Pankin, who added the bank’s operations in the region would be capped at 5.8 billion euros in the next two years, slightly up from 2007. 
“There is a big demand for loans from the bank in many countries. It is becoming especially important now, when emerging market economies sometimes cannot raise financing from external markets due to the global financial problems,” he said. 
Pankin said Russia voted against the dividend redistribution plan alongside Belarus, although the two states will not be able to veto the decision: “We are just expressing our concerns.” 
Pankin’s criticism comes as the EBRD faces calls from the United States to decide whether to go beyond its initial mandate of lending to countries outside the former communist bloc, or simply fade away.

TITLE: Finding The Perfect 
Sales Pitch
AUTHOR: By Anna Shcherbakova
TEXT: At least once a week I receive a text message to my cell phone from a luxury boutique. More than a year ago I bought a bag there, and filled out a form that included my cell phone number. Now I’m regularly informed of the arrival of new collections, as well as discounts and special offers. This information is not very useful, but it is tolerable. 
But when the owners of the boutique opened a nightclub, the flow of promotional text messages announcing performances by visiting DJs became a nightmare. It stopped when I called back several times to complain. But then one of the employees left the company and opened their own boutique. 
Along with their experience and connections in the industry, he or she apparently took the list of clients’ cell phone numbers with them. So now I get messages about new collections and sales from two competing shops. 
The total deficit of goods is over, and in an era of market economy and global competition, the client database has become one of the main values. After companies realized that the number of customers is limited, they started focusing on how to squeeze as much money as they can from them. 
Banks promote credit cards to anyone who has ever borrowed money from them. Retailers and telecoms operators divide the customer base into sectors and devise special offers tailored to the possible needs of different kinds of clients. They collect data on every customer, and some of them even send their clients birthday cards. For VIP-clients, it’s important to know their preferences in cognac and cigars. Replacing a lost customer or switching to a new one costs from $50 to $200, depending on the industry. 
Client-relations-management (CRM) is a modern ideology that is supported by a number of training programs, software and other tools invented by talented entrepreneurs. 
Recently my fellow students and I wrote our MBA diploma on the use of CRM-systems in assisting companies to collect information on clients, ranging from previous contracts to the personal tastes of the CEO. 
The company that we were advising on strategy is a successful systems integrator that added a CRM-system to its portfolio, but failed to sell a single system in almost a year. St. Petersburg-based companies are not ready to pay $30,000 for a computer program — they are satisfied with the databases devised by in-house programmers, the company’s sales representatives claimed. Local companies are thrifty, and many of them do not trust new technology and prefer good old Excel or stacks of paper. 
On the other hand, sales people are not willing to share information on their clients with anyone else, and managers are afraid that sales staff will steal the database when they leave the company. That’s all true. 
But we were surprised to find that the company in question had no CRM-ideology itself. The database of its existing clients was not available to the sales team who were promoting the new product. 

Anna Shcherbakova is the St. Petersburg bureau head of business daily Vedomosti.

TITLE: When the Kremlin Tried a Little Openness
AUTHOR: By Philip Taubman
TEXT: A dash of openness can be a dangerous thing in an autocratic state. Mikhail Gorbachev discovered this two decades ago when his campaign to inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on him like a heat-seeking missile. 
Now China’s leaders are playing with the same volatile political chemistry as they give their own citizens and the world an unexpectedly vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the nation’s southwest regions. The rulers of cyclone-battered Myanmar, by contrast, are sticking with the authoritarian playbook, limiting access and even aid to the stricken delta region where tens of thousands of people were killed by the storm. 
While China’s response to its natural catastrophe is certainly more humane, and is only a small step toward openness, it could set in motion political forces that might, over time, be unsettling. That’s especially true in an age of instant communications, even in a nation like China, which tries to control Internet access. 
“When you start opening up and loosen controls, it becomes a slippery slope,” Jack Matlock, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow during much of the Gorbachev period, said last week as he watched the events in China. “You quickly become a target for everyone with a grievance, and before long people go after the whole system.” 
Chinese leaders are well aware of the Soviet experience. The bloody crackdown against the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989 seemed motivated in part by fears that a relaxation of repression would lead to a replay of Soviet turbulence in China. It was no accident that China was the first country to translate and reprint Matlock’s 1995 account of the demise of the Soviet Union, “Autopsy on an Empire.” 
And China has taken a different reform path, in effect offering its people robust economic growth, with a degree of responsiveness when problems can be blamed on local officials, in exchange for continued one-party rule. Playing up the response to the earthquake, even as China restricts coverage of repression in Tibet, could prove a shrewd move, rather than one that cascades into instability. 
Still, it is worth recalling a time when a little openness flew out of control. 
As a correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times in Moscow in the late 1980s, I had a ringside seat to observe the slow disintegration of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. The collapse of the Soviet empire and dissolution of the Communist Party were not exactly what he had in mind when he took power in 1985 and launched his twin policies of glasnost and perestroika. 
As events unfolded, it was like watching a scientist start a nuclear chain reaction that races out of control, eventually consuming him and all those around him. 
Gorbachev realized that his country was rotting from within, paralyzed by repression and ideological rigidity, a backward economy and a deep cynicism among Russians about their government. “We can’t go on living like this,” he told his wife, Raisa, hours before he was named Soviet leader, he recalled in his 1995 memoirs. 
But he clearly had no inkling of where his initiatives were headed when, shortly after taking office, he broke new ground for a Kremlin leader by mingling with citizens in Leningrad and giving unscripted interviews. 
As glasnost gathered force in the years that followed, it ripped away the layers of deceit that were the foundation of the Soviet state. Each step undermined the authority of the party and the government. 
The explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in April 1986 shattered the Kremlin’s credibility — and gave a powerful impetus to glasnost. The Kremlin, like the Burmese leaders after the cyclone, seemed paralyzed by the accident. The first government announcement — an innocuous 44 words — came more than a day after the reactor meltdown, and hours after Sweden detected alarming levels of radiation in its air. 
The glacial flow of information imperiled thousands of people living in the accident area. Gorbachev, embarrassed by the debacle, redoubled his efforts to make the government and party more transparent. 
The truth about Stalin’s brutality, and even Lenin’s, was exposed as a bright floodlight illuminated the hidden recesses of Soviet history. Newspapers and journals wrote honestly for the first time about government corruption and mismanagement. Artists, playwrights, filmmakers and writers looked unsparingly at the abuses of the Soviet system. 
Last week, Svetlana Savranskaya recalled the electrifying days in 1987 and 1988 when the truth about Soviet history trumped the distortions that had long been taught at Moscow State University, where she was a student. 
But resistance to the accelerating change grew as the rivets that held together Soviet society started to snap. Savranskaya, now an analyst at the National Security Archive, a research institution at George Washington University, challenged the traditional history textbooks used at the Moscow high school where she taught history. She was soon forced to teach English instead. 
“Gorbachev thought he could control glasnost, and use it, but in the end, even he turned against it,” she said. 
The scale of opposition became clear in March 1988, when an obscure chemistry teacher named Nina Andreyeva attacked Gorbachev’s reform agenda in Sovietskaya Rossia, a prominent newspaper. The attack, which filled a full page, and its timing — while Gorbachev was traveling in Yugoslavia — had the hallmarks of a Kremlin mugging. 
That was all but confirmed when several members of the ruling Politburo defended the article at a meeting convened when Gorbachev returned to Moscow. 
“A split was inevitable,” Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs about the Politburo gathering. “The question was, when?” 
A striking moment of glasnost came with the killer earthquake in Armenia in December 1988. Faced with the deaths of tens of thousands of Soviet citizens, and desperate for outside aid, the Kremlin lifted restrictions on travel to Armenia. Western reporters in Moscow were stunned to discover that they could just go to the airport and catch a flight to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, no advance government approval required. Foreign relief flights, including U.S. military planes carrying food, water and medical supplies, were welcomed in Yerevan. 
Sounds a lot like China today. 
As the old regime frayed, Gorbachev wasn’t prepared for the assault of long-repressed political forces let loose by his reforms. The most potent was nationalism, the fierce pride in nationhood that Stalin and his successors had tried to suffocate in places like Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; Armenia and Georgia; and throughout Eastern Europe. 
Once uncorked, nationalism essentially overwhelmed Gorbachev, who, to his credit, choose not to try to hold together the Soviet empire by force. 
Russia today, despite the restoration of authoritarian rule by Vladimir Putin, enjoys a degree of freedom that was inconceivable at the height of Communist rule. Glasnost helped make it that way. 
China’s leaders may not take comfort in that thought. 
As Matlock said last week, “If you remove the power of repressive state organs while stirring up a nation with many problems, you will get a process you can’t control.” 

Philip Taubman is deputy opinion page editor at The New York Times, where this comment first appeared.

TITLE: Russia Triumphant over Host Canada
AUTHOR: By Gregory Sandstrom
TEXT: Getting a Canadian to swallow his or her pride after a monumental world hockey championship loss on home soil and to look at the bigger picture is a tough task indeed. Let this Canadian living in St. Petersburg then not wallow in misery after a game fairly played to write on the broader theme of sports and society. Forgive me if I wax a bit poetic in the shadow of defeat.
Canada and Russia have over the years shared a great hockey legacy with both a fierce rivalry and sense of sportsmanship that highlights the positive role sport can play in international relations. When Russians think of Canada one of the first things they speak of is hockey. There is a shared understanding through hockey among our two northern nations with legends and heroes that youngsters have looked up to as role models. An IIHF Centennial All-Star Team was named this year with one Canadian, Wayne Gretzky (“the great one”), and four Russians, Sergei Makarov, Valery Kharlamov, Vladislav Tretyak and Vyacheslav Fetisov.
Though sporting events sometimes reach such a fevered pitch that hooligans react with violence outside of the stadiums and arenas, one message is that competition does not have to be played in a spirit of conflict, but with a sense of mutual respect for the game and for the opponent. It is the triumphalism of “world power” that obscures victory in athletic competitions after the winners and losers are awarded their just due. Let us hope the new-found nationalism in Russia after celebrations on the streets of Russia following Zenit St. Petersburg’s and now the national hockey team’s victory, does not extend to the realm of seeking a return to super-power world-status in an unhealthy way. In sports as in society, sooner or later one’s ego is always subdued.
Watching the tournament, the semifinals and the final, I can say that the best team won. Russia is back at the pinnacle of world hockey once again. The final was a great game, really a wonderful finish for the 100th anniversary of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Canada’s Prime Minster, Stephen Harper was of course on hand in Quebec, anxiously watching the events unfold. Yet there were Russian flags and “Ru-ssi-a” chants echoing through the stadium as well. There was no animosity or fighting among the spectators, just a closely fought match with a rollercoaster of goals and lead changes.
Hockey, it is said, is almost a religion for some people in Canada. “This is a hockey mad-country,” said Alexander Ovechkin, one of the most talented players in the game today; an intimidating force on ice. His 65 goals in the NHL were the first time a player scored more than 60 goals since 1995-1996. 
However, the one who tamed the hockey-mad Canadians was Ilya Kovalchuk. “God was on our side a little more than them,” claimed Kovalchuk. 
Scoring his first goal of the tournament to send the game into overtime and then the overtime winner, Kovalchuk may be the keenest interpreter of the divine inspiration of the current epoch for loyal Russian hockey fans.
It may be fitting for the Canadians to be humbled in front of their home crowd. But not only was this a symbolic event for world hockey, it also sets off events marking the 400th birthday of the city of Quebec, which hosted the final. What better way than at the hockey rink for Canada to be a generous host?
They say pride comes before the fall. Let’s hope this is springtime for Russian sports that will lead to a blossoming of talent in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games and then onwards to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
“We all know that the Olympics are the measuring stick... If you’re talking about supremacy in hockey, you talk about the Olympics,” noted Canadian Coach Ken Hitchcock. The U.S.S.R won an Olympic gold medal in hockey at the 1988 Calgary Games in Canada. Let’s see what happens in Vancouver 2010 and then Sochi 2014! Bring it on!

Gregory Sandstrom is a PhD student in Sociology at St. Petersburg State University, sports fan of all sorts and Olympic Games guest correspondent.

TITLE: Loosening Russia’s Grip
AUTHOR: By Pierre Noel
TEXT: There is a broad consensus in Brussels on the need for an external energy policy to diversify suppliers and routes and loosen Russia’s grip on the European natural gas market. 
Writing recently about the emerging European energy diplomacy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for external relations, said the European Union has signed or was negotiating agreements with Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq, and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In addition, the EU would negotiate with Iran “when the political situation will allow it.” 
The list looks impressive but, in fact, the scheme makes little sense. Almost everything in this vision — the availability of gas resources, the possibility to develop them, the political and commercial feasibility of the transport infrastructure — is hypothetical at best. 
The recent announcements about Turkmen and Iraqi gas exports to Europe illustrate the virtual nature of the EU’s foreign energy policy. It is not clear whether Turkmenistan, given existing contractual commitments, has 10 billion cubic meters of gas available for the EU. But it will not be tested, as the proposed options to ship Turkmen gas to the western shore of the Caspian Sea are nowhere near credible. In any case no commercial contract has been signed. The Iraqi announcement of 5 billion cubic meters annually starting “in the next three to four years” has even less commercial reality behind it. 
The common denominator in these two announcements is the Nabucco project, a new “gas corridor” to Europe through Turkey that is the centerpiece of the European plan to diversify away from Russia. Yet there is no earmarked gas to feed Nabucco, either in central Asia or the Middle East. The pipeline is conceived as an enabling project that, once built, will gather gas from various sources. 
But financing a multibillion-euro international gas pipeline requires a long-term contract between buyers and an upstream company controlling a large resource base. Diplomatic involvement can help reduce noncommercial risk, but it cannot substitute for commercial logic. EU officials are desperate to show that there is potentially a lot of gas that could flow through Nabucco, but even if that is true it does not make it more likely to be built. 
This is not necessarily worrying. The idea that Europe lacks, or will soon lack, access to a diversified and secure — read: non-Russian — natural gas supply is not backed by the data. Even as Russia expanded exports to Europe, its share of European imports (for the 27 current member states) has roughly been halved since 1980, from 80 percent to about 40 percent. Since 1990, 80 percent of the rise in EU gas imports has been from non-Russian sources. Europe already enjoys a diversified natural gas supply. Russia’s failure (or unwillingness) to develop its resource base and expand exports to Europe is bound to make the European market all the more attractive for other exporters in the coming years — though it will also mean higher prices. 
Europe faces three main gas security challenges. The first is to export gas supply diversity from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, where the rate of dependence on Russia is much higher but gas markets are much smaller. Market integration is the only way to do that. A single European gas market would create de facto solidarity between all consumers, and the bilateral dependencies would become largely irrelevant. 
The second challenge is to increase the ability of Europe as a whole to cope with supply disruptions, whatever their causes. Here again, market integration and competition is the way to go. A well-functioning market transforms any localized physical shortage into a universal price increase. Additional measures, such as interruptible contracts and emergency inventories, would help reduce the economic impact of supply shocks. 
The third challenge is to remove the debilitating effect of the EU-Russia gas relationship on EU foreign policy toward Russia. A European integrated and flexible gas market would make Eastern Europe more secure, just as it would make the relationship between Gazprom and large utility importers in Germany, Italy or France less cozy. This is a better position from which to speak with one voice to Moscow. 
Building a well-functioning internal gas market is less grandiose than developing a foreign energy policy, but also more promising. This is what the EU should concentrate on. 

Pierre Noel is a researcher at the European Pipeline Research Group and the European Council on Foreign Relations. This comment appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: Half Steps Backward In Government Reshuffle
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Frolov
TEXT: Two decisions stand out in the recent government reshuffle: the appointment of former Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev as secretary of the Security Council and the creation of a special government agency in charge of CIS affairs. Both represent cases of good intentions gone awry. 
The Security Council needs a revamp, as it has grown dysfunctional and serves little useful purpose. Since the departure of Sergei Ivanov to defense minister in 2001, the Security Council has morphed into something of a retirement home for high-level officials. It has produced a number of doctrinal documents of dubious quality on topics as diverse as Internet security and environmental protection. Some of the “doctrines” and “security strategies” penned by the council’s staff were so poorly prepared that Larisa Brychova, the Kremlin’s top lawyer, reportedly wrote on one of the drafts that it should be immediately classified top secret because “the contents presented a threat to the security of Russia.”
Yet, the Security Council could have played a useful role as an interagency coordinating body on national security, foreign policy and intelligence matters. As such, it could have prevented the feuds between the security services that flourished during Vladimir Putin’s second term as president. Its ability to perform that function, however, heavily depended on who its secretary was or, to be more precise, whether that person was on the ascending (Putin, Sergei Ivanov) or descending (Vladimir Rushailo, Igor Ivanov) trajectory of his political career. President Dmitry Medvedev could have picked an ambitious loyalist to engineer a massive overhaul of the council to turn it into an effective policy-making machine. Patrushev’s appointment, however, signals the continuation of the status quo. 
For Patrushev, rumored to have health problems, it is a dignified retirement. The long overdue Security Council reform will be postponed.
The Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, meanwhile, is a flashback to the 1990s, when Russia used to have an entire ministry for the organization. It fought many turf battles with the Foreign Ministry, which was opposed to treating former Soviet republics as not entirely “foreign.” 
Russia does need a body for interagency coordination of its CIS affairs, which are important. An attempt to place this function within a special unit of the presidential administration in 2005 proved ineffective, as the unit lacked political or bureaucratic clout. Its rightful place is within the Security Council, not the Foreign Ministry. An agency with an unclear mandate subordinate to the Foreign Ministry is a half-step — backward.

Vladimir Frolov is president of LEFF Group, a government relations and PR company.

TITLE: Natural Resources: Blessing or Curse?
AUTHOR: By Konstantin Sonin
TEXT: May 8, the date Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister, might go down in history as the end of Russia’s latest attempt at democracy. That date might stand alongside other similar milestones in Russia’s history — for example, Oct. 25, 1917, when the Bolsheviks overturned the temporary government that was to rule until elections; or Jan. 6, 1918, when the Bolsheviks dissolved the Constituent Assembly in protest over the results of national elections. 
The arguments over why Russia repeatedly runs into roadblocks in its path toward democracy will continue as long as the country exists — which is to say eternally. The excuses used to explain these failures also seemed to be eternal: Russia’s subjugation under the Mongolian yoke; the immensity of Russia’s territory and its need for expansion; or the “unique Russian mentality” that is somehow not conducive to democracy. Even the country’s severe climate is cited as one reason for its backwardness. 
Although the “history and culture” argument gained a strong lead over other theories, the oil argument has also become popular recently and now competes with other attempts at rationalizing Russia’s failure to build democratic institutions. 
Russia’s enormous natural resources, managed by the government on behalf of the people, can be exploited with relatively little effort. The voters have high expectations to receive an economic windfall from the country’s natural-resource wealth, but, at the same time, they don’t hold their leaders accountable. With high oil and gas prices on the world market, the country’s leaders don’t have to bend over backwards to earn the right to stay in power, and the people aren’t overly concerned about how their government is structured, or who controls what. 
The “natural-resource curse,” which is the theory that high oil and gas profits weaken economic and political development in the long term, is not always a given. The true impact of the curse depends on a nation’s particular history and culture. In some countries, governmental institutions are so stable that even a sharp rise in prices for resource exports would not threaten their integrity. Even in a country without successful experience in democratic development, the efforts of the ruling elite, coupled with the proper political awareness on the part of the people, could prevent the country from sliding into a dictatorship. 
Nations blessed with resources receive their wealth from nature and the higher powers that be. Whether or not this good fortune becomes a “curse” depends entirely upon the leaders and citizens of these nations. 

Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the New Economic School, is a columnist for Vedomosti.

TITLE: McCain Is Alone on Russia
AUTHOR: By Edward Lozansky
TEXT: The three U.S. presidential candidates rarely mention Russia. When they do, their remarks are critical — possibly because they are hoping to attract a few more votes from the numerous and well-organized ethnic communities from Ukraine, the Baltics and East Europe. 
Still, Senator John McCain stands alone. McCain, the Republican hopeful with a good shot of winning the election, has practically included Russia in a new axis of evil, along with North Korea, China and Iran. McCain’s advisers are openly lambasting President George W. Bush for being too chummy with President Vladimir Putin and promise that Moscow will be treated a lot more harshly in a McCain presidency. 
I am not sure if the statements from McCain and his camp are making the Kremlin nervous, but they are causing considerable concern among U.S. foreign policy experts. Recently, several mainstream news organizations, including Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune, published articles critical of McCain’s rhetoric, which, they say, might inflame international tensions linked to U.S. actions over Iraq and Iran. The foreign policy experts say a proposal by McCain to kick Russia out of the Group of Eight industrial countries will never happen, because other G8 members would oppose it. Stephen Cohen, a Russia scholar, said the McCain camp’s rhetoric was pushing the world toward a new Cold War. Newsweek went even further, branding McCain’s ideas “schizophrenic.” 
I have assumed a more moderate attitude regarding what should be Washington’s official attitude toward Russia. As the president of the annual World Russian Forum, which opens Monday on the premises of the U.S. Senate, I invited McCain to explain his stance and possibly engage in a debate with leading U.S. and Russian experts, including Thomas Graham, former director of the National Security Council’s Russia Department, and Andranik Migranyan of the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, which is the Kremlin’s first attempt at an NGO in Washington. 
I cannot speak for the other panelists, but personally I would like to ask McCain how U.S. security would benefit from Russia’s expulsion from the G8. Also, I would like to ask McCain about an idea of his to form a league of democracies that would exclude Russia and China. Don’t the Americans need the Russians and the Chinese to cooperate on nuclear nonproliferation and a climate change treaty? Sidelining them with the creation of this new body would do nothing to smooth over cooperation in other areas. Moreover, how would Washington’s Middle East allies like Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia react to such a democratic grouping? 
McCain also recently suggested that the United States should follow the French example of generating 80 percent of France’s electricity with nuclear power. However, some experts say more than 700 huge nuclear power plants would have to be built by 2050 — more than one plant per month — to satisfy McCain’s desire to be like France. Keeping in mind the fact that the Bush administration last month signed a deal permitting reactor fuel to come from Russia, where would the United States get all the uranium required to fuel 700 nuclear power plants if its next president bashed Russia day and night? 
To be fair to McCain, the other two presidential front-runners, Democratic Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have not offered a positive-thinking agenda for Russia either, pledging to be tougher with Russia than Bush and endorsing further NATO expansion by accepting Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance. All three presidential contenders have promised to expand the Bush administration’s effort to “spread democracy,” a policy that an overwhelming majority of Russians see as a thinly veiled smoke screen to strengthen the U.S. position in the world at the expense of Russia. 
At a recent celebration in honor of former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, speaker after speaker stood up to say that none of the major security problems faced by the United States and the rest of the world could have been solved without cooperation from Russia. Even Brzezinski himself, who considers Russia to be little more than an evil genius, echoed this sentiment. Does McCain believe that all of them are wrong? 
We may never know. Neither McCain nor his top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheuneman, have confirmed or declined my invitation to speak at the forum, even though the meeting hall is right next door to McCain’s office in the Hart Senate Office Building. 

Edward Lozansky is president of American University in Moscow and president of the World Russian Forum in Washington.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Goodyear Plans Factory
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. may build a $250-million plant in Russia, Kommersant reported, citing unidentified government officials with knowledge of the matter.
The company plans to make as many as 5 million tires a year at a factory in the Yaroslavl region between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the newspaper said. 
The tiremaker’s representatives met the local governor at the end of April and were allocated a 70-hectare (173-acre) site to build a factory about two weeks ago, according to Kommersant.

Icebreaker to Launch
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Baltiysky Zavod, a Russian shipyard, will launch the second of two diesel-powered icebreakers this month, the first such ships built in the country in more than three decades.
The St. Petersburg-based shipyard will launch the icebreaker May 28, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. The vessel won’t be delivered until later this year. Rosmorport, the state-run port operator, is paying about 6 billion rubles ($253 million) for both ships, said a spokesman for the shipyard, who declined to be named because of company policy.

EU Abolishes Tariff
BRUSSELS (Bloomberg) — The European Union has scrapped an 11.5 percent electrical-steel tariff against Russia’s Novolipetsk Steel, increasing competition for EU producers such as Germany’s ThyssenKrupp.
The EU removed the duty because Novolipetsk in 2006 acquired fellow Russian producer VIZ Stal, which faced no similar levy. The duty aimed to prevent Novolipetsk from selling silicon-electrical steel, used by power-transformer makers such as France’s Areva SA, in the EU below cost — a practice known as dumping.
The merged entity’s structure and prices no longer justify the trade protection, said the EU, which imposed the duty in August 2005 for five years. Novolipetsk and VIZ Stal were Russia’s only known exporters to the EU of the metal.

Bank Declares Reserves
MOSCOW — The Russian Central Bank said on Monday about $100 billion of its reserves were invested in the securities of U.S. agencies, including home finance firms, at the end of 2007, with the majority in short-term paper. 
The disclosure was made via a central bank filing to parliament at a time when investments of wealthier emerging countries are under international scrutiny. 
A poll earlier this year showed a majority of Americans fear the U.S. economy and national security could be hurt if sovereign wealth funds put more money into U.S. companies. 

Russneft Case Develops
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russneft, the Russian oil producer whose shares were frozen over tax claims, bought $1.4 billion of notes before billionaire founder Mikhail Gutseriev quit the company and fled the country, Vedomosti reported.
Russneft bought eight promissory notes of British Virgin Islands-registered Varadero Ltd. on July 10, three weeks before Gutseriev said he’d sell the company, Vedomosti reported, citing Russneft’s first quarter financial statement. Varadero’s beneficiaries weren’t identified, the newspaper said.

TITLE: China Mourns Victims By Standing Still
AUTHOR: By Dessianing Ariyanti
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WENCHUAN, China — China stood still and sirens wailed Monday to mourn the country’s tens of thousands of earthquake victims, as the search for survivors increasingly became a search for bodies.
Construction workers, shopkeepers and bureaucrats across the bustling nation of 1.3 billion people paused for three minutes at 2:28 p.m. — exactly one week after the magnitude 7.9 quake hit central China. Air-raid sirens and the horns of cars and buses sounded in memory of the estimated 50,000 dead.
The confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 34,073, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said Monday. Quake-related losses to companies totaled $9.5 billion, Deputy Industry Minister Xi Guohua said Monday.
The military was still struggling to reach areas cut off by the earthquake, with more than 10,000 discovered stranded in Yinxiui valley near the epicenter, China National Radio said Monday. There was no information on casualties there, and 600 soldiers were hiking into the area.
In an indication of the challenge in dealing with millions of homeless and injured survivors, China said it would accept foreign medical teams and issued an international appeal for tents.
“China requests the international community donate tents as a priority when they donate materials because many houses were toppled in the quake and because it is the rainy season,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement, also thanking the international community for its help so far.
In the disaster area, more than 200 relief workers were reported buried over the past three days by mudslides while working to repair roads in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
An official confirmed mudslides had caused some deaths but gave no details. “The total death toll is still being counted,” said the official at the Sichuan provincial Communications Department who only gave his last name, Shi.
Fourteen Taiwanese escaped a massive landslide in Sichuan. They were located by authorities using satellite positioning data from the group’s tour bus on Friday, Chinese authorities said, and were set to head home Monday.
During three days of national mourning ordered by the government, flags were to fly at half-staff and public entertainment was canceled — an unprecedented outpouring of state sympathy on a level normally reserved for dead leaders.
Rescuers also briefly halted work in the disaster zone, where the hunt for survivors turned glum despite remarkable survival tales among thousands buried. Two women were rescued Monday after being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building at a coal mine in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
A convoy of police cars, ambulances and other rescue vehicles let off a long blast from their horns as the workers in orange jumpsuits stood quietly with eyes downcast, some removing their white hardhats.
“Our hearts are so heavy, so many of our compatriots are dead,” said rescuer Ma Tang Chuan. “As long as we try our best, we have some small hope.”
In Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, thousands of people bowed their heads and then began shouting “Long Live China!” and thrusting their fists in the air. Traffic on the capital’s highways and roads stopped. Some drivers got out of their cars while others blared their horns.
Volunteers at Wangfujing shopping street handed out white ribbons reading, “lovingly remember,” before hundreds of shopkeepers spilled into the street. The period of silence started early and ended up stretching past the three-minute mark, before it was broken by a burst of sound from a construction site next door.
“It’s the first time we’ve stopped,” said Bai Zhenzong, a worker at the site. “This is awful. This shows how importantly the Chinese government is treating this.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Communist Party leaders were shown on state TV bowing their heads, white flowers pinned to the lapels of their dark suits. Hu had spent three days touring the worst-hit areas of Sichuan.
The moment of tribute was also marked in Hong Kong, where double-decker buses sounded their horns. Rides and performances were halted for three minutes at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the daily fireworks show was canceled.
The government order for the mourning period said all Internet entertainment and game sites had to be taken off-line and users redirected to sites dedicated to commemorating earthquake victims, the Chinese news Web portal sina.com said.
China’s National Grand Theater will cancel or postpone all performances during the three days, and media reports said numerous bars, nightclubs, karaoke parlors and movie theaters had shut down beginning at midnight in major cities such as Beijing, Shenyang and Changsha.
Newspapers across China printed their logos in black and some ran entirely without color. Several front pages were covered in black, with simple messages in white text across the middle, “The nation mourns,” “Pray for life,” and “National tragedy.”
The mourning period begins as hope of finding more trapped survivors dwindled, and preventing hunger and disease among the homeless became more pressing.
Hu Yongcui, 38, said she did not care about the official show of mourning as she headed to Beichuan, near the quake’s epicenter, to search for her missing 17-year-old daughter.
“I can’t feel anything. I have no words,” she said. “I just want to go home. I just want to find my daughter.”

TITLE: Mound of Earth Swallows Mountainside Village
AUTHOR: By Tini Tran
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DONGHEKOU, China — Nothing remains of Donghekou.
A mountain sheared off by China’s massive earthquake swallowed the village whole, entombing an unknown number of people inside a huge mound of brown earth. The road to the village ends in a tangled twist of metal and tar. The landscape, eerie and still, shows few signs of human life — a soiled green floral scarf, a rubber pipe, a log.
Wen Xiaoying, 32, held up a hand as she ticked off the family members buried in the muck before her — her father, her mother, her sister and her brother-in-law.
“Oh God! I have lost everything,” she said, her voice shaking as she surveyed the valley for the first time since returning from her job in far-off Guangdong province.
The landslide blocked the valley’s Qingzhu river and a lake was swelling behind the wall of debris, posing the threat that it could break its banks and send torrents cascading into villages downstream.
Fear of flooding in Donghekou and the town of Beichuan, 100 kilometers to the south, sent thousands of survivors fleeing Saturday in a region still staggering from the country’s worst disaster in 30 years.
The government has said it expects the death toll to eventually surpass 50,000.
The flood threat in Beichuan eased Sunday after three waterways near the epicenter overflowed with no problems, the official Xinhua News Agency said. County officials diverted released water as a precaution.
Locals said two other villages further upstream from Donghekou — Ciban and Kangle — suffered the same fate as Donghekou. The three villages were home to about 300 families, locals said.
“When I saw them the last time, we had a good time together,” said Wen, a glimmer of a smile showing through as she remembered happier days with her family. “I didn’t expect it would be the last time I saw them.”
Drizzling rain added to the gloom and to the fears of carloads of people who clogged the twisting mountain roads as they streamed out of the region.
Su Ciyao trudged over the bend in plastic slippers, carrying a plastic rice bag stuffed with salvaged clothes.
“My village is over there,” Su, 44, said, gesturing to the swollen earth behind him. Asked where his family was, he could only shake his head.
“Only me,” he said, and then set off without a backward glance.

TITLE: Country  Sacrifices  To Help Victims
AUTHOR: By Emma Graham-Harrison
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DUJIANGYAN, China — The hairdryers, brushes and shampoo Lang Guanghong unloads from the back of his van each morning aren’t standard disaster relief tools.
The 22-year-old hair stylist wanted to help when his hometown was hit by China’s deadliest earthquake in decades, which officials say may have killed 50,000 people. But relief teams were calling for help from experts only.
So Lang thought of a way to put his skills to use.
“The weather is hot and volunteers’ hair is often quite long, so it is inconvenient,” he said in Dujiangyan, a mid-sized city in Sichuan, where collapsed buildings now line the main streets.
“We give them free haircuts to make their work easier and also help people from town who want their hair cut.”
The disaster has prompted an unprecedented outpouring of public support from across China that has helped feed and clothe people in badly-hit but accessible areas.
Taxi drivers lined up for hours to ferry victims to the hospital, a senior executive trekked into a stricken town with a satellite phone, and thousands of individuals stuffed food and water into their cars and drove towards disaster zones.
Officials coordinating relief efforts say they are so overwhelmed with help that they need only experts with special skills.
They are racing against time to find survivors still trapped in rubble and open roads so that exhausted refugees from flattened villages can trek out to tent camps in the larger towns.
“The main volunteers that we need at the moment are experts in search and rescue, people with medical skills and psychology training,” said a government note to would-be volunteers that asked others to go home and donate money or goods instead.
The enthusiastic but inexperienced volunteers who hurried to Sichuan after watching the tragedy unfold on television are creating some impatience among locals eager to pick up the pieces of their own lives.
Chen Lu, an office worker staffing Dujiangyan’s volunteer center desk who lost family in the quake, said she signed up because she didn’t want to just sit in her tent and grieve.
“Everybody is doing their best to help those who lived move on. We don’t want to just sit around and do nothing while our city has all these problems. We know best what we need.”
Money has been flooding in to support disaster relief from across China, sometimes from novel sources.
In the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang, a couple cut lobster off their wedding menu on Sunday and were planning to send the 4000 yuan ($572.20) in savings to the quake-hit area, state news agency Xinhua reported.
“We’re just eating one less lobster, but we’ll be able to provide one month’s ration for a refugee,” the bride said. “This kind of conversion, I think, has deep significance.”

TITLE: Portsmouth Win England’s FA Cup 1-0
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Portsmouth won the FA Cup for the first time in 69 years on Saturday when striker Nwankwo Kanu’s first-half goal secured a 1-0 win to overcome the spirited challenge of Championship side (second division) Cardiff City.
The first final not to feature one of the current ‘big four’ teams since 1991 was initially open and adventurous, given a magnificent backdrop on an overcast day at Wembley by both sets of noisy fans making the most of a rare moment in the limelight.
The goal came after 37 minutes when midfielder John Utaka whipped in a low cross from the right and Cardiff’s on-loan Finland goalkeeper Peter Enckelman could only push it into the path of Nigerian Kanu, who fired it straight back past him to make amends for an earlier miss when he hit a post.
Portsmouth’s win secured a place in next season’s UEFA Cup.
Cardiff had held their own in a lively first half but the Premier League side took command after the break and were never seriously troubled in the second period with Pompey’s central defenders Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin quick to snuff out any threat from the Welsh team.
Portsmouth took the lead after Cardiff, playing in their first final since their only victory in 1927, had been the better side in the opening spell.
Despite their early running and territorial domination, the best chance before the goal also fell to Kanu.
He should have put Portsmouth ahead after 22 minutes when he outpaced central defender Roger Johnson, took the ball wide of Enckelman, who had a poor first half, then missed a great chance when he hit the post and side-netting from an acute angle.
Portsmouth’s 4-5-1 formation produced few scoring opportunities, apart from the one Kanu missed and the one he scored, but it proved effective in the end.
Cardiff, attempting to become the lowest-ranked team to win the FA Cup since 1901, looked dangerous on the break with Paul Parry having an attempt saved by David James after 13 minutes and creating an opening for Kevin McNaughton five minutes before the break when he might have attempted a shot of his own.
Johnson also went close with a header from a Peter Whittingham free-kick, but despite taking the game to Portsmouth Cardiff failed to score when they were on top.
They did, however, have the ball in the net just before halftime when Glenn Loovens lobbed the ball over James and under the crossbar but referee Mike Dean had already blown for a handball by the Dutch defender.
Portsmouth improved in the second half with Lassana Diarra and Niko Kranjcar dominating in midfield and taking the game to the Championship team with some excellent passes and well-timed runs.
Cardiff, who replaced tiring veteran Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the last 20 minutes, then rallied as time began to run out and only some frantic defending by the Portsmouth back line kept their goal intact in the closing minutes.
Portsmouth’s fifth 1-0 win from their sixth match in the competition this season clinched a UEFA Cup place and meant Harry Redknapp became the first English manager to guide a team to success in the final since Joe Royle of Everton in 1995.
Redknapp said winning the first major trophy of his career felt “fantastic” and he was hoping to celebrate his side’s FA Cup triumph by taking his wife out for an Italian meal.
He said he would also make sure he fed his dogs, if he got back to the south coast in time, then take the plaudits on Sunday with the club’s victory parade.
“It’s a dream come true to win the FA Cup, for me, my family and the fans, it’s fantastic,” he said.

TITLE: Myanmar Still Resistant to Outside Aid
AUTHOR: By Aung Hla Tun
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: YANGON — Southeast Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Myanmar, but the ruling military junta will not allow unfettered access for relief teams, Singapore said on Monday.
“We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar,” Foreign Minister George Yeo told reporters after an emergency meeting of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Myanmar repeated its willingness to accept foreign help, but the entry of aid workers from outside ASEAN would be on a case-by-case basis, Yeo said.
“We have to look at specific needs — there will not be uncontrolled access,” he after the meeting attended by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the world body and ASEAN should together coordinate a ramped-up relief effort for the 2.5 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis, which struck the former Burma two weeks ago.
Ban was due to fly to Yangon this week to tour the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta and is expected to meet with junta supremo Than Shwe, who refused to take a call from the United Nations’ boss on the cyclone, which has left 134,000 dead or missing.
The UN also wants a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to marshal funds for the relief effort in Myanmar, where the military government has refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear it will loosen its 46-year grip on power.
Humanitarian agencies say the death toll from Nargis, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, water, shelter and medicine to the Irrawaddy Delta.
However, Britain’s Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said on Sunday diplomats may have turned the corner in brokering an aid deal that accommodated the generals’ deep distrust of the outside world, in particular the West.
“Like all turning points in Burma, the corner will have a few ‘S’ bends in it,” he told Reuters in Yangon after a series of meetings with top junta officials.
While aid has been trickling into the delta, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says it has managed to get rice and beans to just 250,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.
However, analysts are making much of the reclusive Than Shwe’s first appearance since the disaster in Yangon, the city he deserted in 2005 for a remote new capital 250 miles to the north.
On Monday, state television showed the bespectacled 74-year-old Senior General in the cyclone-hit city meeting ministers involved in the rescue effort and touring some damaged areas.
“It is not insignificant that he has been forced out of his lair,” one Yangon diplomat said. “There are obviously some in the military who see how enormous this is, and how enormously wrong it could go without further support.”
The UN’s Ban was likely to land in Yangon on Wednesday evening and travel to the Irrawaddy Delta, his spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile the UN’s chief humanitarian officer, John Holmes, began a government tour of the delta on Monday after flying in on Sunday night, officials said.
He is expected to meet Prime Minister Thein Sein on Tuesday and deliver a message from Ban to the generals.
Ban has already proposed a “high-level pledging conference” to deal with the crisis, as well as having a joint coordinator from the United Nations and ASEAN oversee aid delivery.
In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceeded the human toll of Nargis — a 1970 storm that killed 500,000 people in neighboring Bangladesh and another that killed 143,000 people in 1991, also in Bangladesh.
At least 232,000 people were killed in December 2004 when a tsunami struck nations bordering the Indian Ocean.
The U. S. and France have naval ships equipped with aid supplies and helicopters waiting in international waters off the Myanmar coast, although Paris and Washington say they will not go in without the green light from the generals.

TITLE: Zenit Star ‘Not Ready’ For Russia
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Zenit St Petersburg midfielder Igor Denisov has turned down an invitation to join Russia’s provisional squad for Euro 2008, coach Guus Hiddink said on Sunday.
Hiddink was so impressed with Denisov’s performance in helping Zenit beat Rangers 2-0 in Wednesday’s UEFA Cup final that he wanted to add the young winger to his 25-man squad.
Denisov, who turned 24 on Saturday, scored Zenit’s first goal in Manchester.
“We invited him to join the team but he rejected the offer. Well, it’s his choice,” the Dutchman told reporters.
Hiddink said he would keep the door open for Denisov in the future, however.
“Probably he felt he wasn’t ready yet to be a regular player on the national team, but we’ll keep him in mind when we start our 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign,” he said.
Hiddink said that Zenit’s UEFA Cup triumph should have a positive effect on his team for Euro 2008.
“The win was a huge boost for all Russian football but more importantly, it showed our young team nothing is impossible,” Hiddink told Reuters as the Russians began their preparations for next month’s finals in Austria and Switzerland.
“If you believe in yourself, have a solid strategy, play aggressive attacking football and not have 10 men behind the ball, then you can overcome even the most improbable odds.”
Unfancied Zenit, coached by fellow Dutchman Dick Advocaat, overcame Villarreal, Olympique Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen in the early rounds before stunning four-time European champions Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-final to qualify for their first European cup final.
Hiddink was especially pleased with the form of Zenit’s six Russian internationals.
Playmaker Andrei Arshavin was voted the Man of the Match after setting up both goals while midfielder Konstantin Zyrianov scored in stoppage time to seal the win.
Striker Pavel Pogrebnyak missed the final through suspension but still finished as the competition’s joint top scorer with 10 goals.
The Russians, who are in Group D with holders Greece, Spain and Sweden, will train for two weeks in Moscow before moving to Germany for their final training camp leading up to Euro 2008, which starts on June 7.

TITLE: Dima Bilan Among Eurovision’s Hottest Tips
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — La La La. Boom Bang-A-Bang. Ding-A-Dong. It’s that time again.
The Eurovision song contest is a shameless celebration of pure kitsch with its tacky songs, camp singers and outrageous outfits that will culminate with a glitzy finale in the Serbian capital of Belgrade this year on May 24.
But however trite the lyrics get and however shamelessly East Europeans keep voting for each other, the annual mishmash of power ballads and bubblegum pop shows no sign of flagging.
“The more people knock and criticize it, the bigger Eurovision gets,” says John Kennedy O’Connor, author of an official history of the contest.
“It is the biggest one ever this year with 43 countries compared to just seven in the first one in 1956. It is growing and growing,” he said before flying out to Belgrade for Eurovision 2008.
Winning can even do wonders for a state’s morale.
Marija Serifovic’s victory at the 2007 contest caused an outpouring of national pride in Serbia, a country more used to rebuffs from Europe over its wartime past than to accolades.
Swedish quartet Abba were Eurovision’s most famous winners, Ireland’s Johnny Logan won it three times.
Spain triumphed in 1968 with a song using the word “La” 138 times — and now it is ranked as a notorious winner.
A Spanish documentary claimed that British singer Cliff Richard was robbed of victory after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco fixed the vote.
Spanish TV executives were alleged to have traveled Europe promising to buy second-rate programs and concerts billing strange acts in return for votes.
The bane of 21st-century Eurovision is tactical voting — but John Kennedy O’Connor insists that it is not political.
“Soviet satellite states now support each other and the Russians. You would have thought they would do the opposite and give the Russians a kicking.”
Representing Russia at this year’s contest will be Dima Bilan, who is returning to Eurovision after finishing second in 2006 in Athens.
Eurovision’s official king of trivia says, “I take it all with a pinch of salt. I enjoy lots of the songs but about half I never want to hear again.”
So who will triumph in Belgrade? It’s time to place your bets.
He proudly boasted: “I get it right every year. I know who is going to win. This year it is between Ukraine, Russia and Ireland.”

TITLE: ‘Blade Runner’ Amputee Sprinter May Yet Run at Olympics
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MILAN, Italy — His Olympic dream suddenly revived, Oscar Pistorius can get back to what he loves most — running.
The double-amputee sprinter from South Africa was cleared Friday to compete in his bid to qualify for the Beijing Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics Federations that barred the 21-year-old runner from the Olympics and any other able-bodied competition because of his prosthetic racing blades.
Pistorius broke into a broad smile to a roomful of applause when the decision was announced. He reached toward his manager, Peet van Zyl, for a victory handshake.
“I am ecstatic,” Pistorius said. “When I found out I was crying. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It’s a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people.”
He is the first to acknowledge it will be a challenge to make it to the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games. He holds the 400-meter Paralympic world record of 46.56, but must reach the qualifying time of 45.55 to compete in the individual event in Beijing.
“My hopes are very big for the Olympics for 2008,” Pistorius said. “I think the time period at the moment is very short. Obviously, I have the opportunity, so I am not going to let it go ... but it is going to be very difficult in order to run those times.”
However, Pistorius also could be invited to join the South African relay team, which would not require him to qualify.
“We are very much hopeful that he will be part and parcel of our team,” said Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa.
If Pistorius does go to the Olympics, he will be competing alongside another amputee South African athlete: Natalie du Toit, who qualified for Beijing in open-water swimming.
Pistorius was born without fibulas-the long, thin outer bone between the knee and ankle-and was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee.
“Oscar Pistorius is a determined and gutsy athlete who will now no doubt put all his energy into reaching the qualification standards for the Olympic Games,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement. “If he makes it we would be delighted to welcome him.”
Pistorius will resume training in South Africa on Monday, before returning to Europe on May 28. Van Zyl said Pistorius will be running in able-bodied races July 2 in Milan and July 11 at the Golden Gala in Rome, and that many other offers have been coming in.
“A lot of the time we’ve had this year we’ve devoted to the court case,” Pistorius said. “Now when I get home my time can be dedicated to training. I am going to have to start thinking about getting my body in shape in order to run those (qualifying) times. I am hopeful there will be enough time but it is going to be very difficult.”
Regardless of whether he runs in the Olympics, Pistorius plans to compete in Beijing at the Sept. 6-17 Paralympics. He will prepare by running in disabled events in the Netherlands and Germany.
Pistorius appealed to CAS, the highest tribunal in international sports, to overturn a Jan. 14 ruling by the IAAF. Track and field’s ruling organization banned him from competing against able-bodied runners on grounds that his carbon fiber blades gave him a mechanical advantage.
A two-day hearing was held before three arbitrators at CAS headquarters last month. The panel said the IAAF decision is “revoked with immediate effect and the athlete is eligible to compete in IAAF events.”
“Oscar will be welcomed wherever he competes this summer,” IAAF president Lamine Diack said in a statement. “He is an inspirational man and we look forward to admiring his achievements in the future.”
Even if Pistorius fails to get the 400-meter qualifying time, South African selectors could add the University of Pretoria student to the Olympic 1,600-meter relay squad if he qualifies for the games among the top 16 in the world.
Pistorius would not require a qualifying time and could be taken to Beijing as an alternate. Six runners can be picked for the relay squad.
The IAAF based its January decision on studies by German professor Gert-Peter Brueggemann, who said the J-shaped “Cheetah” blades were energy efficient
Pistorius’ lawyers countered with independent tests conducted by a team led by MIT professor Hugh M. Herr that claimed to show he doesn’t gain any advantage over able-bodied runners.
CAS said the IAAF failed to prove Pistorius’ running blades gave him an advantage.
“If I had to look at the situation, how many amputee athletes use the exact same prosthetic leg as I do and don’t run nearly close to the same times?” Pistorius said. “I think running has become my purpose in life. It has become my calling in life.”

TITLE: Obama Takes Pole Position
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: EUGENE, Oregon — Attempting to lay a symbolic claim to his party’s presidential nomination, Democrat Barack Obama will mark the latest round of primary voting with a rally in Iowa, where his solid win in January caucuses propelled him to his status as the front-runner.
Obama was campaigning Saturday for primaries Tuesday in Oregon and Kentucky as his aides announced the rally on primary night in Iowa, which they described as “a critical general election state that Democrats must win in November.”
Rival Hillary Clinton has a strong lead in polls in Kentucky, but Obama has the advantage in Oregon.
Obama has built a solid lead in Democratic National Convention delegates over Clinton, and is working overtime to cast an image of inevitability to his campaign for the nomination. In recent days, he has spent more time focused on his differences with certain Republican nominee John McCain than sparring with Clinton.
While touring a hospital Saturday, Obama was asked by X-ray technician Ron Spooner, “How do I know that I can trust you?”
“The nice thing is we’re going to have four more months, five more months of active campaigning where you can watch and see if I am consistent, do I stay honest,” said Obama. “Let me take your advice and let me make sure that I try to stay honest in what is sometimes a dishonest profession.”
Though health care was his theme of the day, Obama returned to a debate launched Friday with McCain on foreign policy. Both President Bush and McCain suggested that Democrats couldn’t be trusted to be tough on terrorists, a charge Obama has rejected.
“The other side is going to keep calling us the same names, making the same cheap shots, using the same fear tactics they’ve used for the last four decades,” said Obama.
Obama argued that McCain would merely follow a failed policy set by Bush.
“If you agree that we’ve had a great foreign policy over the last eight years, then you should vote for John McCain, you shouldn’t vote for me,” said Obama. “That’s what this debate is all about, that’s the choice in this election. Do you want more of the same or do you want change?”
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds argued that Obama’s foreign policy shows “incredibly weak judgment. We’re a nation rooted in a history of sacrifice and achievement, not in lofty campaign rhetoric or campaign promises.”

TITLE: Bin Laden Says Gaza Blockade Must Be Ended
AUTHOR: By Firouz Sedarat
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DUBAI — Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has urged Muslims to break the Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and fight Arab governments that deal with the Jewish state, according to an audio recording.
“The duty to break this blockade falls upon our brothers in (Egypt) as they are the only ones that are on the border,” bin Laden said in the recording posted on Islamist websites on Sunday.
“Each one of us is responsible for the deaths of our oppressed people in Gaza and dozens upon dozens have died due to this oppressive blockade,” he said.
Hamas gunmen blasted open the Rafah border crossing to Egypt for several days early in the year until the Egyptian authorities, reviled by bin Laden for their relations with Israel, moved in troops in February and closed it again.
The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified, but the voice sounded like bin Laden’s previous tapes.
The recording, probably made days or weeks ago, appeared the day U.S. President George W. Bush ended a visit to the Middle East.

TITLE: sports watch
TEXT: Sharapova Injured
ROME (Reuters) — Title holder Jelena Jankovic will meet French qualifier Alize Cornet in the final of the Italian Open after the withdrawal of Maria Sharapova with a calf strain.
The 18-year-old Cornet staged a splendid comeback to upset Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 3-6 6-4 6-3 and earn herself a meeting with Serb fourth seed Jankovic.
Sharapova will become world number one next week after Belgian Justine Henin retired from tennis on Wednesday.

TITLE: California Lifts Ban On Gay Marriages
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres and longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi are jumping at the chance to get married. DeGeneres announced their engagement during a Thursday taping of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” telling the studio audience the news that the California Supreme Court had struck down state laws against gay marriage.
“So I would like to say now, for the first time, I am announcing: I am getting married,” she said during the show, airing Friday.
The studio audience leapt to its feet for a long ovation, and De Rossi (“Ally McBeal,” “Nip/Tuck”) was sitting in the audience, beaming and clapping.
Then DeGeneres cracked: “Thank you. I’ll tell you who the lucky guy is soon.”
The court ruling means same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. However, religious and social conservatives are seeking to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.
DeGeneres, 50, has boldly used TV before to make a stand for gay rights.
In 1997, she brought her character on the ABC sitcom “Ellen” out of the closet, making the show the first on prime-time network TV to have an openly gay lead. The move drew cheers from gay civil rights organizations but was condemned by some religious groups.
A month before, DeGeneres had proclaimed from the cover of Time magazine that she was a lesbian.
DeGeneres, 50, and the glamorous de Rossi, 35, have been a familiar couple at Hollywood events, including the Academy Awards. Previously, DeGeneres had a high-profile relationship with actress Anne Heche.
In a 2005 interview with Allure magazine, the comedian said she hoped she and de Rossi are “together the rest of our lives.”
“I never would have thought my life would have turned out this way,” DeGeneres told the magazine. “To have money. Or to have a gorgeous girlfriend. I just feel so lucky with everything in my life right now.”
Even as same-sex couples across California begin making plans to tie the knot, opponents are redoubling their efforts to make sure wedding bells never ring for gay couples in the nation’s most populous state.
A conservative group said it would ask California’s Supreme Court to postpone putting its decision legalizing gay marriage into effect until after the fall election. That’s when voters will likely have a chance to weigh in on a proposed amendment to California’s constitution that would bar same-sex couples from getting married.
If the court does not grant the request, gay marriages could begin in California in as little as 30 days, the time it typically takes for the justices’ opinions to become final.
“We’re obviously very disappointed in the decision,” said Glen Lavy, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is pushing for the stay. “The remedy is a constitutional amendment.”
With a stroke of a pen Thursday, the Republican-dominated court swept away decades of tradition and said there was no legally justifiable reason why the state should withhold the institution of marriage because of a couple’s sexual orientation.
The 4-3 opinion written by Chief Justice Ronald George said domestic partnerships that provide many of the rights and benefits of matrimony are not enough.
“In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” George wrote for the majority in ringing language that delighted gay rights activists.
Gay marriage opponents, meanwhile, derided the ruling as an example of judicial overreaching in which the opinions of a few justices trumped the will of Californians.
The last time the state’s voters were asked to express their views on same-sex marriage at the ballot box was in 2000, the year after the Legislature enacted the first of a series of laws awarding spousal rights to domestic partners.
Proposition 22, which strengthened the state’s 1978 one-man, one-woman marriage law with the words “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” passed with 61 percent of the vote.

TITLE: New Indiana Jones Film ‘Enjoyable’
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CANNES, France — “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” earned a respectful — though far from glowing — reception Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, avoiding the sort of thrashing the event’s harsh critics gave to “The Da Vinci Code” two years ago.
Yet Indy’s fourth big-screen romp is not likely to go down as one of the most memorable. Some viewers at its first press screening loved it, some called it slick and enjoyable though formulaic, some said it was not worth the 19-year wait since Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford made the last film.
“They should have left well enough alone,” said J. Sperling Reich, who writes for FilmStew.com. “It really looked like they were going through the motions. It really looked like no one had their heart in it.”
Alain Spira of French magazine Paris Match found “Crystal Skull” a perfectly acceptable “Indiana Jones” tale, a sentiment echoed by the solid applause the movie received as the final credits rolled.
“It’s good. It’s a product that is polished, industrial, we’re not getting ripped off in terms of quality,” Spira said. “You know what you’re going to see, you see what you get, and when you leave you’re happy.”
The applause was louder at the outset, though. Fans at the early afternoon showing, which preceded the film’s glitzy formal premiere with cast and crew Sunday night, cheered and clapped wildly at an announcement that the screening was about to start. Some even hummed the Indiana Jones fanfare as the lights went down.
The applause at the end was more subdued.
Cast and crew were unconcerned about how critics might dissect the film.
“I’m not afraid at all. I expect to have the whip turned on me,” Ford told reporters after the screening. “It’s not unusual for something that is popular to be disdained by some people, and I fully expect it.
But, he said: “I work for the people who pay to get in. They are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people.”
The filmmakers kept the movie shrouded in secrecy, skipping the rounds of press screenings often held for big studio movies and going for a big blowout at Cannes.
Spielberg said he and his collaborators decided “that the fair thing to do and the fun thing to do would be to view it where the entire world comes together every year at this wonderful festival, and we thought that was the best place to introduce Indiana Jones to you again after 19 years.”
The film received none of the derisive laughter or catcalls that mounted near the end of the first press screening for “Da Vinci Code.”
There were a few titters from the “Crystal Skull” crowd early on over co-star Cate Blanchett’s thick, Boris-and-Natasha accent as a Soviet operative racing against Indy to find an artifact of immeasurable power. The rather corny romantic ending also drew a chuckle or two.
In between, the film packed a fair amount of action, though some viewers found the middle portion dull. Conchita Casanovas, of Spain’s RNE radio, said she was “bored to death.”
The new movie hurls archaeologist Jones into the Cold War in 1957. He survives a nuclear blast in the desert in typically creative fashion and is reunited with “Raiders” flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
As speculated, the film has an alien connection, though far more subdued than the “Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars” story Lucas once envisioned.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Stuck in Airline Toilet
NEW YORK (Reuters) — A New York man who says he was told to “hang out” in the bathroom on a five-hour JetBlue flight has sued the airline for $2 million over “extreme humiliation.” 
When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for the flight from San Diego to New York, he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit. But he was allowed to board after a flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an employee “jump seat.” 
At one point, the plane experienced turbulence, and Mutlu sat on the toilet seat without a seat belt, causing him “tremendous fear,” the lawsuit said. 

Beetles in the Post 
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — U.S. customs agents seized two dozen giant beetles — some the size of a child’s hand — from a package after postal workers heard the insects making scratching noises. 
The large bugs arrived last week from Taiwan at a post office in Mohnton, northwest of Philadelphia, in a box whose contents were labeled as toys, gifts and jellies, officials said. But the postmaster suspected that the package contained live organisms and notified authorities. It is illegal to ship live beetles into the United States without a permit. 

Woman Faked Cancer 
ARLINGTON, Washington (AP) — A former U.S. state social worker has been accused of faking brain cancer to avoid work. 
Theft charges were filed this week against Sandra Dee Martinez, 40, for allegedly presenting fake letters from doctors saying she had malignant brain tumors. Washington state prosecutors said she received $21,000 worth of paid leave. 
Martinez came under scrutiny after using a neighbor’s computer and leaving one of the letters on the printer. 

‘Snake Man’ Escapes
VIENNA (Reuters) — A man has escaped from his Austrian jail cell by squeezing through a food hatch in the door, police said. 
The 19-year-old Kosovar, who weighed less than 55 kilograms, was being held at the prison in Linz for entering the country illegally, a police spokesman said. How he got through two further doors or possibly over the prison wall is being investigated, the spokesman said, calling the escapee “a snake man.” 

Jedi Spared Prison
HOLYHEAD, Wales (AP) — A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church, was given a suspended sentence this week. 
Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones — aka Master Jonba Hehol — with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors said. Hughes claimed that he could not remember the incident, having drunk the better part of a 10-liter box of wine beforehand. 
Jedi is the faith followed by characters in the “Star Wars” films. In the 2001 British census, 390,000 listed Jedi as their religion.

TITLE: British PM Gordon Brown Courts YouTube Generation
AUTHOR: By Avril Ormsby
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Gordon Brown launched a YouTube version of Prime Minister’s Questions on Monday in an attempt to connect with younger voters and dispel opposition jibes that he is not in tune with the digital age.
Video questions can be submitted on any subject in an “Ask the PM” section on Downing Street’s YouTube website.
Brown will answer the questions which receive the most votes at the end of June, but the plan is to run the initiative on a regular basis via the video-sharing site.
“Politicians get a chance in prime minister’s question time and other question times — I think it’s time the public had a chance,” he says.
The move follows Brown’s pledge to listen and learn after voters gave the Labour Party a drubbing in local elections earlier this month.
On Thursday, his leadership comes under further scrutiny when the electorate of Crewe and Nantwich cast their votes in a by-election, with opinion polls suggesting Labour could lose the seat.
During his YouTube clip, Brown invites questions on subjects such as globalisation, climate change, the health service, jobs and housing.
“I am here to answer your questions,” he says.
Conservative leader David Cameron, who has appeared on live Webcam broadcasts from his breakfast table, has criticized Brown in the past for being an “analogue politician in a digital age.”
Unfortunately for Brown, the first question posted was “Why is it on every single video and on your main page that you don’t allow comments?”
Brown attempted to burnish his online credentials further when he later spoke at Google’s Zeitgeist conference in London, where he said “technological change is transforming the delivery of public services and changing the nature of the relationship between individuals and government.”
You can put your questions to Brown at: 
www.youtube.com/downingst

TITLE: SALON
AUTHOR: By Victor Sonkin
TEXT: In early May, the writer Yury Rytkheu died in St. Petersburg. While all major news agencies reported his death, it has been a very long time since his name made any stir in Russian literary circles.
Rytkheu was born in Uelen, a small Chukchi settlement in the Far East of Russia, the son of a hunter and grandson of the local shaman. Back then, a modicum of “modern” education was imposed on the indigenous people of the Soviet north, and parents were forced to give up their children to boarding schools, which led to the destruction of the traditional family.
After finishing school, Rytkheu decided to continue his education. He was not eligible for the “national quota” practiced by Soviet universities, so he worked his way to higher education as a hunter and worker in geological expeditions. He graduated from a technical school in Anadyr, a major Chukotka town, and finally made it to Leningrad and university. On the way, he “borrowed” a name and patronymic — Yuri Sergeyevich — from a Russian geologist friend; the Chukchis traditionally only have first names, so his name, Rytkheu (‘the unknown’) became his last name.
Rytkheu’s first short stories appeared in the 1950s. He wrote almost exclusively about his native Chukotka, the historical destiny of his own nation and other small populations of the Russian North. And for a while, he was a convenient poster boy for the Soviet national policy, even though anyone who cared to read his books could see that the things he portrayed were far from rosy.
After perestroika, Rytkheu fell out of the loop; even his collected works, then in preparation, did not appear. He thought about emigrating to the United States (he spoke English fluently), but a chance encounter with the Swiss publisher Lucien Leitess changed his mind. Leitess, founder of a publishing house devoted to non-European, “exotic” literature, told Ryktheu, “I promise you won’t starve.” Eventually, the German-language publications of the writer’s books afforded Rytkheu a comfortable lifestyle in St. Petersburg. He still went to Chukotka at least once a year. “It’s the well of my creativity. I can’t just leave it,” he said in an interview.
Rytkheu’s new works were published in Russian too, but apparently the entire print run was always spirited away to Chukotka on the personal orders of Roman Abramovich. In interviews, Rytkheu was politely evasive about his only meeting with the enigmatic oligarch. But he was always proud about the cable from Ernest Hemingway, which he received upon the publication of his first novel. It said, “Way to go.”

TITLE: Where Credit’s Due in Capitalist Revolution
AUTHOR: By Peter Baker
TEXT: History is written by the winners, and so, according to the dominant narrative in Russia, the 1990s were a period of chaos and corruption that nearly destroyed a great nation before President Vladimir Putin came along to set things right. But what if, in fact, history is more complicated? What if some of what took place in the 1990s was actually responsible, at least in part, for the prosperity Russia enjoys today?
Anders Aslund offers this provocative attack on Russian conventional wisdom in his book “Russia’s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed.” One of the smartest and best-known among the Western economists who have specialized in Russia over the years, Aslund has tried to rewrite history in a way that challenges the easy assumptions, oversimplifications and prejudices that have built up about the early days of the new Russia.
Aslund’s argument boils down to this: To the extent that former President Boris Yeltsin’s reformers made a mistake in the early 1990s, it was not that they did too much too quickly, but the exact opposite — they should have done even more, and even more quickly. The Yeltsin team that took over in the dying days of communism quickly liberalized prices and enacted other “shock therapy” reforms in their quest to introduce capitalism, but Aslund argues that they should have gone further. And by making the strategic decision to put off building democratic institutions while they focused first on economics, he concludes, they sowed the seeds of their own doom.
“Russia’s problem was not that the reforms were too radical, but that some key reforms, notably political reforms, were not undertaken during the short revolutionary window of opportunity,” Aslund writes. While Yeltsin’s team should have done more on the economic front, they did just enough so that the fruits would eventually be realized. “The short explanation of why market reform succeeded in Russia, while democracy failed, is that the initial big bang of radical economic reform was sufficient, while democratic reforms were never designed.”
Aslund particularly defends what to many Russians remains indefensible: the privatization of state assets. Without papering over the corruption underlying the process, he argues (much as privatization architect Anatoly Chubais does) that putting property into private hands as quickly as possible was crucial to cementing a market economy.
“A decade after loans-for-shares privatizations, it is difficult to understand the great emotions they aroused,” he writes. “After all, only three significant companies changed management, and all became stunning successes of industrial restructuring. Conversely, only three prominent oligarchic groups benefited, and the loans-for-shares scheme did not make them oligarchs because they were already known as such.” He adds, “Hardly any privatization scheme in world history can record such great economic success.”
Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who has contributed to the opinion section of The Moscow Times, brings a distinct vantage point to this analysis. He was among the Westerners who came to Russia in those early days to advise the fledgling government of young idealists. Many Russians, of course, lay the blame for their fate on these supposedly all-powerful Westerners who tested their theories on real people as if they were guinea pigs. Aslund makes the opposite point — that the West, if anything, did not do nearly enough. 
This is not a memoir, though, and Aslund studiously keeps himself almost entirely out of the narrative, which is a shame. From time to time, he drops tiny crumbs that leave the reader hungry for more of what he saw with his own eyes, such as the reception for 600 guests at the Hermitage Garden midway through Putin’s tenure, featuring three orchestras and hosted by Kremlin political adviser Gleb Pavlovsky, who was dressed all in black as if playing Woland from Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita.” “The Great Gatsby would have felt at ease,” Aslund writes.
He also recalls the unnamed oligarch who, in a conversation in 1999, boiled down Russian capitalism to four cutting sentences: “There are three kinds of businessmen in Russia. One group is murderers. Another group steals from other private individuals. And then you have honest businessmen like us, who only steal from the state.”
But in the end, this is an intellectual history, a corrective to the notion that the rebirth of Russia began the day Putin took office. Taking the reader from Mikhail Gorbachev through Yeltsin and Putin, Aslund believes that the key window for reform opened in August 1991 and closed again in March 1992, a critical seven months that set Russia’s course. The absence of political reform led to Yeltsin’s tanks-in-the-streets confrontation with the hard-line parliament in October 1993, but the beginning of meaningful economic reform during those months ultimately culminated in the ruble devaluation and crash of 1998, which cleansed the old system and put the country on the road to economic revival.
Aslund is not the only one to credit the growth of the last decade to the ruble’s devaluation, financial stabilization and monetization, but his point seems well timed at a moment when everyone is writing Putin’s legacy. “Putin is often praised for these achievements,” he writes, “but the financial stabilization was undertaken in 1998-99 before Putin became prime minister, and Russia was already growing fast. Putin was lucky to arrive at a laid table.”
Aslund frets that Putin and his clique, presumably including President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, are undercutting these economic successes with their consolidation of power at the expense of democratic institutions and private industry, and notes in particular the renationalization of the Russian oil industry. But ultimately, he writes, Russia cannot advance in one arena without advancing in the other. “Russia is simply too rich, too economically pluralist, too educated and too open to be so authoritarian,” he concludes. “This contradiction between an increasingly obsolete political system and a swiftly modernizing economy and society is likely to be untenable even in the medium term.”
That may be, but one thing Russia has proven through its long and tortured history is its ability to continually surprise.

Peter Baker, a former Moscow co-bureau chief for The Washington Post, is co-author with Susan Glasser of “Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution.”