SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1377 (41), Friday, May 30, 2008
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TITLE: Court Battle Over Army Sex Claims
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Soldiers’ Mothers human rights group and Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper are being sued for damaging the professional reputation of a St. Petersburg military unit for publicizing cases of St. Petersburg recruits being involved in an alleged prostitution racket.
The hearings were held at the Kuibyshevsky Federal Court on Thursday behind closed doors and will be resumed on Monday.
The non-governmental organization and the newspaper — which may have to pay 2 million rubles ($85,000) in damages — insist they have enough evidence to force the entire top brass of the corps to resign.
“We have testimonies from the recruits who deserted military unit 3727 of the Russian Interior Ministry’s signals corps in central St. Petersburg after being forced into prostitution,” said lawyer Sergei Golubok, who represents Soldiers’ Mothers. “These young men had the courage to talk about the horrors they had been through, only to be condemned as deserters.”
Apart from two million rubles in compensation, the military unit has asked for an apology to be published in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The scandal around the alleged forced prostitution of soldiers first surfaced in February 2007 when a soldier serving in military unit 3727  sent a letter to Soldiers’ Mothers claiming that he and dozens of his fellow soldiers were being forced into prostitution by older recruits.
“The victims told us that as night fell, young recruits are ordered up by phone and then delivered to their top-ranking clients, including army generals,” said Ella Polyakova, head of Soldiers’ Mothers.
When the story made a splash in the media, the Leningrad Military District Prosecutor’s Office conducted an investigation into the claims but found no evidence to support them. Later, in September 2007, one recruit, Dmitry Petrochenko, who deserted unit 3727 and sought refuge at the Soldiers’ Mothers offices, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for desertion.
“The investigation into the prostitution charges yielded no results, and the recruit who had originally made the claims told us later that he was manipulated into giving false evidence by Soldiers’ Mothers,” said Vyacheslav Tukayev, an aide to the commander of the Northwestern troops of the Russian Interior Ministry corps.
Soldiers’ Mothers challenged Tukayev by arguing that the recruit was forced to withdraw his testimonies under pressure from the army authorities.
Viktor Andreyev, another lawyer representing Soldiers’ Mothers, said these investigations are infamously inefficient and the system lacks transparency.
“No matter how often we send them files and documents about hazing, physical abuse or rape in the army, the military prosecutors typically refuse to launch an investigation into the facts we have collected,” he said. “They simply claim the evidence is not enough and never open a case.”
Golubok said that a series of written and video testimonies of the victims has been collected to be used in court. 
In these testimonies the recruits compared their army service to brutal slavery. They recalled older conscripts demanding money from them, and forcing the newcomers to earn the money by selling sex on the street. A list of potential clients was always available to the bullied recruits, the victims said.
But before the evidence was shown, the media were asked to leave by the army’s legal aide. Tukayev requested that members of the public and the media should leave the courtroom on the grounds that “the sides will discuss personal and intimate matters concerning a soldier who had earlier been described in the media.”
Soldiers’ Mothers lawyers protested but Judge Anzhelika Panova ruled to close the session to the media.
“We are talking about information that has already been discussed in the media so my guess is that the military command is seeking to restrict the circulation of the facts described by the victims,” Golubok said. “If the people find out a lot more about these shameful facts it would be much more difficult for the military authorities to escape punishment and public ostracism.”
Ruslan Linkov, head of the Democratic Russia pressure group, said the level of brutality exerted against the weaker recruits is enormous.
“A recruit who contacted us told us that he was tortured with electric devices,” Linkov said. “The poor man nearly had a permanent stutter. He really tried hard to avoid prostitution but after one especially severe beating, when he was hit fifteen times on the head with a metal stool, he gave up and took the mobile phone with clients’ contacts.”
According to evidence obtained by Soldiers’ Mothers, the young men were either ordered up by phone, or woken suddenly at night after a client’s contact asked for a man of a certain build and looks. 
The organization said some of the recruits contracted HIV and Hepatitis C through forced sex.
Golubok said that he perceives the charges against Soldiers’ Mothers and Komsomolskaya Pravda as an attempt to intimidate the media and discourage an open discussion on some of Russia’s most sensitive problems — such as violence, torture, hazing and rape in the country’s armed forces.

TITLE: Putin’s Visit to Paris Muddles Policy Picture
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s trip to Paris this week for a two-day visit will be watched closely for the answers that it might provide to a vexing question: Just who is the country’s most important figure when it comes to foreign policy? 
As is the case on the domestic front, there has been no clear indication yet of who will set the tone in the country’s foreign relations after Putin was replaced in the Kremlin by his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Analysts said they remained puzzled as to how power is being shared by the Kremlin and the White House. 
During the working visit to France, his first trip outside the CIS as prime minister, Putin will hold talks with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, but he also plans to meet with his former counterpart, French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The two will have a “working dinner” at the Elysee Palace on Thursday evening, French Embassy spokesman Sylvain Guiaugue said Wednesday.  
It is a rare honor for a foreign head of government to have dinner with France’s head of state. “It is unusual, but it happens,” Guiaugue said. 
Analysts said the trip demonstrated Putin’s extraordinary authority as prime minister. 
“There is no question that he is much more powerful than any other prime minister in Russian postcommunist history,” said Masha Lipman, editor of the Pro et Contra journal, published by the Moscow Carnegie Center. 
Lipman added that Putin had not only formulated, but also implemented the country’s foreign policy during his two presidential terms. 
The White House dismissed all speculation about leadership questions as nonsense. 
“Russia’s foreign policy is determined by the president, as stipulated by the Constitution,” said Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. “There can be absolutely no question about this.” 
Peskov also confirmed that Putin planned to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush in August at the Olympic Games in Beijing. 
He also said that, as prime minister, Putin remained an important international actor. 
“The executive’s range of power in international contacts is also very high,” he said. 
Both French and Russian officials explained that Putin’s visit was the result of an invitation made by Sarkozy. 
“During his visit to Moscow last October, President Sarkozy invited Mr. Putin to come to Paris after his presidential term ends,” Guiaugue said. 
He added that the invitation had been issued regardless of Putin’s future role. 
“It was totally unknown then what post he would hold after stepping down,” Guiaugue said. 
Putin is being accompanied on the trip by a group of government officials and business leaders, including Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko, White House chief of staff Sergei Sobyanin, Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, Vneshekonombank chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev and AvtoVAZ president Boris Alyoshin. 
Putin’s wife, Lyudmila, will not be making the trip. 
“This is a working visit,” Peskov said. 
The talks with Fillon on Thursday afternoon will focus on economic cooperation in the spheres of energy, aerospace, transportation and infrastructure, embassy spokesman Guiaugue said. 
The country’s trade with France grew from $5.8 billion in 2006 to $16.3 billion last year. 
France is one of the world’s biggest producers of atomic-energy equipment. It is also home to some core units of EADS, the European aerospace group, in which Russia’s state-owned Development Bank owns a 5 percent stake. 
Another aspect of the trip will be preparation for negotiations over a new cooperation agreement with the European Union, set to begin at the EU-Russia summit in Khanty-Mansiisk in June. 
France will assume the EU’s rotating presidency in July, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner set out his country’s priorities for relations with Russia during a visit to Moscow last week. 
“The talks should be interpreted as preparation for the French presidency,” said Thomas Gomart, an analyst at the French Institute of International Affairs, adding that energy was likely to dominate the French agenda. 
“Russia may not be at the top of the government’s interests, but energy is,” Gomart said by telephone from Paris. 
He said it was good that the Paris talks were still on after the leadership change in Moscow, but the Carnegie Center’s Lipman warned that the leadership question was still an issue. 
“A year ago, we thought it would be clear as soon as Putin named his successor,” Lipman said. “But as it turns out, we do not have any better answer today.” 
Alexei Makarkin, an analyst at the Center of Political Technologies, said Putin and Medvedev would share powers in both domestic and foreign affairs. 
“They will divide influence in both spheres,” he said, adding that the country’s foreign policy will continue to be focused on both the East and West. 
“Putin goes to France, Medvedev to China, Germany and then the G8 [summit in Japan]. Then someone will go to India and the United States,” he said. 
Medvedev’s choice of Kazakhstan and China for his first foreign trip as head of state last week was broadly interpreted as a signal he would follow an Asia-first strategy. 
The French have also invited Medvedev to visit Paris. 
“Sarkozy invited President Medvedev when he called him to congratulate him on his election, and Foreign Minister Kouchner repeated this invitation during his visit last week,” Guiaugue said.

TITLE: Zenit Coach 2nd Foreigner To Be Honored Citizen
AUTHOR: Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The coach of St. Petersburg’s FC Zenit, Dutchman Dick Advocaat, who led the soccer club to victory in the UEFA Cup two weeks ago, was granted the title of Honored Citizen of the city on Wednesday.
Deputies at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly took the decision to honor Advocaat with the title within a day of the victory. Vadim Tyulpanov, speaker of the city parliament, said all factions supported the move, Interfax said.
The city’s charter provides for granting the title of Honored Citizen to only two prominent people each year.  This year the Legislative Assembly had already given the title to the general director of Metrostroi, Vadim Alexandrov, and to Natalya Bekhteryeva, an academician at the Russian Medical Science Academy.
The granting of the title to Advocaat was, therefore, an extraordinary measure. 
Tyulpanov said that the Assembly had a precedent for such a move, dating from 1996 when deputies gave the title to actor Yevgeny Lebedev.
“We believe that Dick Advocaat really deserved the title. The law says that the first thing we can give this title for is for strengthening St. Petersburg’s role abroad,” Tyulpanov said.
Advocaat is the first foreign citizen in the new history of the city to receive the title, and only the second in the whole history of the award.
In 1866 the City Duma gave the title to George Fox, the U.S. ambassador in St. Petersburg, which was the capital of the country at the time.

TITLE: Young Musicians Ascend To ‘Musical Olympus’ Summit
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Despite its ambitious, sport-inspired title and then nickname that calls it “a parade of winners,” the Musical Olympus Festival is not so straightforward upon closer examination.
“The musicians need genuine talent and they have to touch my heart,” is how the festival’s founder, St. Petersburg pianist Irina Nikitina describes her criteria for choosing the performers.
Musical Olympus, which is running through Monday this year in Shostakovich Philharmonic, the State Academic Cappella and the Hermitage Theater, and is now in its 13th year, brings the world’s most gifted young musicians to Russia.
“When you scan the repertoires of the world’s leading concert halls, sometimes it strikes you that it all revolves around a handful of musicians that have earned a well-deserved or not so well-deserved place on the world’s ‘musical Mount Olympus,’” Nikitina said. 
Nikitina is one of the people who is out to change this trend.
She is happy to have run a classical music festival that is not based on favoritism or popularity. Nikitina has never sought for her event, which has earned international recognition, to become a money-spinner. Rather, her festival is for curious souls.
All performers are handpicked by Nikitina or the members of the event’s honorary committee which includes, among others, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado and Placido Domingo. The Musical Olympus is nothing like a winners-only enterprise, and a Grand Prix from a prestigious competition does not automatically get young musicians selected.
To find the candidates, Nikitina personally attends some of the most acclaimed international contests, which this time has included the ARD competition (Munich), the Tchaikovsky International Music Competition (Moscow), Michele Pittaluga Guitar Competition (Alessandria) and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Brussels). More than 20 musicians representing 15 countries have arrived in town this week, with the palette featuring, in particular, pianists, cellists, guitarists, violinists, organists, conductors, composers and vocalists.
Only two Russian musical festivals — Valery Gergiev’s Stars of the White Nights and Nikitina’s Musical Olympus — have been invited to join the World Federation of International Music Festivals.
Nikitina’s efforts, however, go against the grain of Russia’s cultural mainstream. Although her festival and its namesake foundation have long since made an international name for themselves, the musician finds that the environment for classical music in Russia is not favorable. 
“The Culture Ministry and other state organizations involved in supporting and promoting culture and the arts seem to be turning into showbiz agencies,” Nikitina said, noting that the tendency of showbiz elements sneaking into classical music has recently been spreading across the globe. 
“Most people tend to value labels, rather than quality, and allow themselves to fall for intrusive promotions, be it in arts or otherwise. Everybody knows that Coca-Cola is not particularly good for your health but their sales are booming.” 
Nikitina, however, is not someone who is easily discouraged. The festival has not only gained an enviable reputation but is now moving on. In coming years, the festival looks set to push the boundaries by launching a series of concerts that would see the emerging musical talent selected by the festival go on to appear at some of the world’s most respected venues in the likes of the Carnegie Hall, alongside the finest orchestras. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has already expressed and confirmed its interest.
For its participants, the festival is much more than a one-off plum engagement. For many of them the Musical Olympus becomes a kind of patron saint. 
“We are watching their careers very closely, and they can count on us, even during a crisis,” Nikitina said. 
Pianist Eldar Nebolsin, who gained fame after his performance at the first Musical Olympus in 1995, disappeared from the stage for  almost two seasons after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness and nearly dropping his artistic career. 
“After the most trying period in his life, he was looking to return to music, and in 2005 he called me asking if I would advise him to take part in the prestigious Svyatoslav Richter International Piano Competition,” Nikitina said. “He had all my moral support, and I was incredibly happy when he won that contest.” 
Now, Nebolsin’s schedule is busy and features performances at the respected Beethovenfest in Bonn, the Warsaw Philharmonic and concerts with the Berlin Chamber Philharmonic, the Royal Sevilla Symphony Orchestra and the Dresdner Kammerphilharmonie. “He had to make a very hard and painful choice, and I am very happy to see him back on stage.” 
The festival’s organizers do not forget their performers once everyone has returned home. One of the festival’s goals is to help the aspiring talent launch their careers and get their first engagements.
Nikitina’s attitude and her choices have been proving right. A string of young musicians, whose first major engagement was with this festival have since become international stars. Examples include violinists Sayaka Shoji, Nikolai Znaider and Sergei Khachatryan. 
Another compelling example is the conductor Tugan Sokhiyev, who was spotted by Mark Hildrew, a director of Askonas Holt, a respected London-based agency that represents many of the world’s leading singers, conductors and musicians, when performing at the Musical Olympus.
Now 29, Sokhiyev is principal guest conductor and artistic adviser to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and a regular with the Mariinsky theater. Over the past several years Sokhiyev has gained high critical acclaim conducting the Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestra of Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Links: www.musicalolympus.ru

TITLE: City Hall To Give Discounts
AUTHOR: By Gleb Krampets and Natalya Chumarova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: City Hall has announced that it will start offering rent concessions to “socially significant” businesses.
On Tuesday, the City Property Management Committee (KUGI) announced that new rules on the rental of city property would be coming into effect.  Information on every premises available to rent must be given to the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade (CERPPiT), which will decide which businesses it would be most appropriate to open there. Grocery stores and food shops that don’t sell any alcohol will be given priority, along with companies providing general services (such as hairdressers, tailors and drycleaners), as officials have classified these businesses as “socially significant.”
The right to rent premises will be awarded at a tender.  The rules will not apply to premises located on main roads. CERPPiT will have two days to decide what kinds of business should be sited there and if no applications are made from enterprises matching the profile decided by the committee, after a month the restrictions on how the premises can be used will be lifted.
KUGI has already compiled a list of 22 premises, of which three have been chosen for tender, according to the deputy-chairman of CERPPiT, Nikolai Arkhipov. “They are located in relatively good places, they are already equipped with the necessary infrastructure, and there are no other businesses of that kind in the surrounding area,” he said.
According to Arkhipov, most of the premises on the list were not suitable for accommodating food stores or general services.  “Many were basement premises, or at best semi-basement premises in courtyards.  Two of the premises were located within a military zone,” he said. 
Arina Sender, head of the retail real estate department at Knight Frank St. Petersburg, believes there will be few willing to rent such premises from the city according to the new rules due to the poor quality of the premises.  However, Nikolai Kazansky, director of investment consulting at Colliers International, suggests that entrepreneurs may be interested in such properties.  “In this situation, there will be no competition from other sectors, which means there will be less competition overall,” he said.
Igor Kolynin, marketing director of the Chainaya Lozhka cafe chain, says that his company will examine City Hall’s proposal.  “There are not enough premises on the market right now, and in theory we are interested in any premises.  And if they are let by the city administration, the rent is usually lower than market prices.”

TITLE: Dacha Rental Prices Reach Record High
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The cost of renting out-of-town cottages (dachas) in popular areas surrounding St. Petersburg for the summer has grown by between 50 and 100 percent this year.
The demand for countryside real estate grows by 30-40 percent every year, but the quality of rented houses rarely improves, according to a report published on Fontanka.ru.
The price of renting a dacha depends on the kind of house, Natalya Khmelnitskaya, director of the large land plots department at the Real Estate Development and Research Agency, told the news agency.
“This year regular dachas can be rented for 25,000 rubles ($1,055) a month.  Better quality houses located outside villages are priced at between 25,000 rubles to 70,000 rubles ($2,950) a month. The most expensive kind are European-standard dachas built no earlier than 2000, which cost from 80,000 rubles ($3,380) to 220,000 rubles ($9,290) a month,” Khmelnitskaya said.
The most popular dachas are those in the middle price category.  Usually tenants begin to look for their summer residences as early as January, and all the best options have already been let in advance by March and April. In May any remaining dachas already cost far more.
The most popular summer destinations outside St. Petersburg are located in the northern Kurortnyi districts (the villages of Olgino, Lisii Nos and Solnechnoye, and the towns of Sestroretsk, Repino and Zelenogorsk) and in the Vyborg district.
Yelena Isayenko, director of the residential accommodation department at Becar real estate agency, said that dachas currently range from the most basic cottages — often little more than glorified sheds in Western eyes — to luxury houses of up to 500 square meters. 
The most popular luxury dachas are two-story business class cottages with two or three bedrooms, and room for  cars and a barbeque. The price for such dachas can reach $5,000, Isayenko said, according to Fontanka.ru.
The main requirement of dacha tenants is the proximity of a body of water or a forest. In previous years, tenants sought dachas located about 80 kilometers from St. Petersburg, while this year they prefer dachas located about 50 kilometers from the city.
The demands of modern tenants are also more comfort and security oriented. Most people want to rent an enclosed territory with a banya and indoor toilet and shower; according to Lyudmila Novikova, manager of the residential department at Peterburgskaya Nedvizhimost, Fontanka.ru reported.  They also want the house to have European-standard facilities.
Families also look for the proximity of a children’s play area.
Meanwhile, in popular areas such as the Kurortnyi district, even fairly old houses are in high demand, and rental prices are not cheap, though the properties may not meet any of the demands listed above.
Tenants can’t always afford to pay such high prices, especially when the asking price is twice as high as they are prepared to pay. Therefore, often people have to either simply give up on the idea of renting a dacha, or rent one abroad.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Oil Blast Kills Worker</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — An explosion at a Russian oil refinery early Thursday morning killed at least one worker and injured four more, regional authorities said.
The blast occurred at Surgutneftegaz’s Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery near St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region administration said in a statement on its web site.
Operations at the refinery resumed following the fire and fuel supplies won’t be disrupted, the administration said.
“We’re trying to figure out what happened,” Surgut spokesman Alexei Artemenko said by phone from Surgut, Siberia, where the company is based. “Call back in three hours, it’s lunch time.” 

<b>Inflation Set to Slow</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian inflation may slow in the third quarter as seasonal prices of food decline, central bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev said Thursday, according to RIA Novosti.
“In the third quarter, starting in June, we can expect a pleasant surprise,” Ignatiev said at a conference in St. Petersburg, RIA reported. Falling prices of grain and vegetables will contribute to the slowdown, he said, according to the report.

<b>Ruble May Appreciate</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia may allow the ruble to strengthen in nominal terms over the coming months, central bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev said Thursday, Interfax reported.
Bank Rossii is “not ruling out” letting the fixed currency, which it manages against a basket comprising dollars and euros, appreciate “in the next few months,” he said at a conference in St. Petersburg, according to Interfax.

TITLE: Food Industry Reacts to Supply and Demand
AUTHOR: By Olga Sharapova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: With the local restaurant and catering industry continuing to boom, hotels and eateries are increasingly discerning in their demands for ingredients, both in range and quality, while foreign food brands are devising new means to promote their products on the local market.
The total turnover of the local restaurant business is about 15 billion rubles ($638 million) per year. The majority of this is produced by hotels, restaurants and cafes, collectively known as HoReCa. St. Petersburg now has about 140 upmarket hotels and more than 500 mini-hotels to accommodate the city’s guests.
As a result, there are now more than 1,000 restaurants and cafes in St. Petersburg that need various kinds of food for their menus.  Not only is the city center full of places where Russians and foreigners can dine, but during the White Nights season, many more summer cafes, terraces and open air restaurants open in the areas surrounding St. Petersburg and along the Gulf of Finland. 
According to official information from City Hall, 234 summer cafes and around 400 terraces will be in operation this summer. Sixty percent of all visitors to St. Petersburg in the summer season are foreign tourists. As a result, the elite food market is also increasing by about 30-40 percent every year. 
Faced with the boom in the Russian HoReCa segment, one of the main aims of the catering and hospitality business is to cooperate with responsible food suppliers. 
Most companies that import food to Russia are located in Moscow, though many of them have offices and subsidiaries in St. Petersburg. Global Foods, Marr Russiya, Cyros and Dimarco Trade are some of the most well-known and successful companies in the Russian HoReCa segment.  
Irina Sazonova, sales director of Dimarco Trade in St. Petersburg — the official distributor of Philadelphia cheese in Russia — says that in 2004, when Dimarco Trade started to work with Kraft Foods, the international brand that produces Philadelphia, the volume of sales per year was a little over 1,000 kilograms. In 2008, the sales turnover by March had increased to 10,117 kilograms. In total, Sazonova continues, Dimarco Trade now has 140 clients who want to buy this product alone. The company’s range of products includes more than 2,000 kinds of foods, including marble beef, frozen and fresh fruit and vegetables, American nuts, and spices. 
Foreign chefs such as the Grand Hotel Europe’s Dominique Ferchaud and Serge Fery from Novotel whose jobs consist of providing luxury services which are oriented primarily at businessmen and well-off tourists, have more of an interest than most in the quality of the ingredients. Novotel’s Fery says that often there is still a negative attitude to Russian food, which is a remnant from Soviet times. Many ordinary shoppers would agree that the quality of food is not always the best, but if a hotel or restaurant has good relationships with retail companies, it will help them to get the best products.
Dimarco’s Sazonova says that her company tries to build individual connections with HoReCa staff and focus on direct cooperation with producers of luxury foods. 
On Friday, Dimarco Trade’s corporate chef, Dmitry Sporkhun, is due to present an international master class at the Ambassador hotel to demonstrate the possibilities of using Philadelphia in preparing a diverse range of desserts, such as cheesecake.  In doing so, the company aims to increase Philadelphia’s profile on the local market.
Peter Gmunder, European Export director of Kraft Foods, which has produced and sold  Philadelphia  since 1928, and his colleague Helmut Brandenburg, Area Manager for EU Exports, are to take part in the master class and aim to attract new clients to the brand. “Our business relationship with Dimarco Trade as the official distributor of  Philadelphia here has been based on trust over the last few years,” says Gmunder. “We hope,” Brandenburg continues, “that with the support of Dimarco Trade we will make the Philadelphia brand more familiar to local people. The hotel chefs know the cheese well, because many of them are foreigners. So the next step for us is to make Philadelphia more attractive to local people.” 
“The main purpose of our visit is to get to know and see the Russian food market from the inside,” said Gmunder.  
One of the main challenges of the local food market and HoReCa segment is the relatively high prices for service and food in restaurants and hotels. This stems from the lack of competition among Russian producers. 
Hence, making the local market more democratic and providing more choice for local people, just as the Kraft Foods managers aim to do with Philadelphia, is vital in the process of stimulating Russian companies to produce better quality products. Experts predict the situation will change for the better in ten years, because Russia is not short of opportunities to make its own food brands. Developing this area of business is simply a matter of time.

TITLE: Banks Aim to Help More SMEs to Take Out Loans
AUTHOR: By Natalya Chumarova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Banks in St. Petersburg and the northwest region are trying to make loans more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 
At the end of last year and beginning of this year, Bank St. Petersburg, KIT Finance and subdivisions of Promsviazbank and Alphabank launched loan programs for SMEs and, during the first quarter of 2008, 55 banks and subsidiaries operating in the northwest region gave SMEs 64.9 billion rubles ($2.7 billion) in loans, amounting to a credit portfolio of 236.7 billion rubles ($10 billion), according to the Association of Northwest Banks.  
The interest rate payable for smaller clients is generally 2-4 percent higher than that for large clients.  The average market rate is 16-19 percent per year, according to Dmitry Palkin, deputy managing director of Alpha Bank’s small and medium-sized business division.  
The interest rate depends on the size and time period of the loan, what collateral is available, and the credit history of the client, says Yulia Kostomarova, sales manager at KIT Finance investment bank.  
MDM bank gives unsecured credit at 19-23 percent.  Banks are prepared to cooperate with enterprises that are registered in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, but requirements vary depending on the bank.  The subdivisions of Alpha Bank and Promsviazbank require a business to have existed for more than nine months, whilst Baltinvestbank and Raiffeisenbank stipulate six months, and Bank St. Petersburg three months.
Irina Chernova, general director of the Petergofskaya Nedvizhimost real estate company wanted to take out a loan last year to expand her business.  But she was only offered a year-long loan, and at high interest rates, she says, though ideally she would have liked a loan of one million rubles ($42,238) at an annual rate of 16 percent interest.
Vitaly Demidov, manager of an Absolut Bank branch, predicts that banks will compete for clients by reducing the collateral requirements and increasing the loan periods.
Competition has already forced Bank St. Petersburg to reduce interest rates on unsecured loans from 20 percent to 17 percent, and increase the credit limit from 850,000 rubles ($36,884) to one million rubles ($42,238), says the bank’s director of small and medium-sized businesses department, Irina Grafova.  
According to Alpha Bank’s Palkin, the bank’s division plans to introduce unsecured loans for amounts from 300,000 rubles ($12,665) to 1.5 million rubles ($63,325) and simplify the procedure for obtaining loans.
The demand for loans is increasing, says Alexei Tretyakov, chairman of the Association of Small Businesses in the Consumer Market, but a key part of the sector is comprised of small enterprises, which are reluctant to take out loans, since they are uncertain about the future, according to Tretyakov.

TITLE: When Oil Prices Reach the Break Point
AUTHOR: By Daniel Yergin
TEXT: Oil prices at the current high levels take us into a new world. We are now entering the break point, where the question is not only “How high can the price go?” but also “What will be the response?” Is this the point at which oil begins to lose its almost total domination in transport? 
Yes, the current high oil price may be a de- mand shock triggered by what had been several years of excellent global economic growth and thus more benign than supply shocks caused by 1970s-style disruptions. It is amplified by a dollar shock caused by the fall in the dollar and by the embrace by financial investors of oil (and other commodities) as an asset class. 
What is now unfolding is an oil shock. The fact that the world could take $80 in its stride in the context of strong economic growth does not mean that a price that is 60 percent higher at a time of a credit crunch will be so easily assimilated. 
The economic toll is mounting. Airlines are certainly in crisis as they start charging for checked luggage to find a way to pass on their biggest cost. Carmakers are reeling as well, and retailers are tracking the shrinking wallets of their customers. The rising prices for food reflect, in part, the impact of higher energy costs. 
Oil supply, one might think, should be responding. Yet there are three obstacles. The first is time. These high prices have not been around all that long, and development of new supplies takes many years. The second is access to new resources. 
And the third factor is what is happening to costs. The public focuses on the price at the pump, but the oil industry is preoccupied, and indeed somewhat stymied, by how rapidly their own costs are rising — far exceeding the rate of general inflation. The latest Cambridge Energy Research Associates Upstream Capital Cost Index — the consumer price index for the oil field — shows that costs for developing a new oil or natural gas field have more than doubled in four years. Some costs have risen even more. A deep-water drill ship, for example, might have cost $125,000 per day to rent four years ago, but today it goes for more than $600,000 per day — if you can find one. 
Everything is in short supply — people, equipment and engineering skills. Because of the contractions that came with the price collapses of 1986 and 1998, there is a missing generation in the oil industry. More than half the petroleum professionals are less than 10 years away from retirement. A petroleum engineer graduating this year is likely to receive a higher starting salary than an Ivy League graduate going to Wall Street. This competition for people and equipment has driven up costs dramatically. These costs and shortages are now causing delays to new projects. 
Demand is already responding to the new prices, except in those parts of the world where retail fuel prices are controlled or subsidized. What can be done to improve the supply picture? The International Energy Agency’s work on future supply is getting attention. But the IEA’s message is not that the resources are not there. Rather, it is the likely risk that the required investment will be “deferred” — that is, will not take place in a timely way — because of these rising costs and because governments restrict access or postpone decisions. 
This underscores the basic need during an oil shock — to encourage the timely investment that will relieve the pressures. That means encouraging efficient decision-making by resource-holding countries and facilitating complex projects that bring on new supplies. An example of the difference engagement can make is the support the U.S. administration gave to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Without that new pipeline that has a capacity of carrying 1 million barrels a day, we would not have that additional oil flowing to the Mediterranean. 
The impact of rising oil-field costs and the importance of encouraging investment need to be taken into account when considering a “windfall profits” tax or other new taxes. However attractive politically, the effect would be to constrain investment and to lead to lower production levels than would otherwise be the case. 
Two years ago, Cambridge Energy Research Associates created its “break-point scenario” to explore how supply disruptions and delayed development would lead to oil priced at $120 to $150 per barrel. What was not fully anticipated was the impact of rapidly rising costs. Not anticipated at all was a falling dollar and how it has stimulated a rush by investors into oil. The real question in the scenario was what would be the response to such high prices. Could oil lose its traction? 
That answer is already unfolding in terms of public policy, technology, consumer response and corporate strategies. At the end of 2007, as oil was heading toward $100 per barrel for the first time, the U.S. Congress passed the first bill requiring an increase in automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years. Consumers now want to buy fuel efficiency not sport utility vehicles. Hybrids are going from fringe to mainstream, and a concerted assault has been launched on the problems of battery technology. 
While the backlash against biofuels has gained in intensity with rising food prices, biology is now engaged with the energy business as never before, and biofuels will be a growing part of the motor-fuel pool. If “ethanol” were a country, it would have been ranked fifth last year among countries in terms of production growth. 
The break point is already here. Oil is in the process of losing its almost total domination in ground transport. It is not going to fade away soon. Considering the scale of its use and convenience, it will retain a dominant position for many years. But it will share the transport market with other sources as never before, reinforced by a new drive for fuel efficiency. 

Daniel Yergin is author of “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power,” and is chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. This comment appeared in the Financial Times.

TITLE: Ex-KGB Thugs Ruining Russian Legacy
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: There were a number of noteworthy foreign policy events last week. Mayor Yury Luzhkov announced that Sevastopol is not Ukrainian but Russian territory, and the State Duma came to the defense of Arnold Meri, a former high-ranking official in Estonia’s Communist Party who has been charged in Tallinn with genocide for his role in deporting civilians to Siberia following World War II. 
We are truly living in a society that suffers from the Russian post-imperial syndrome. But what is most important is what is left after the empire falls.
Consider the Roman and British empires. The subjugated people hated their colonialists and revolted. But when those empires collapsed, it turned out that the vast Roman and British cultural heritage continued to dominate even after the local populations gained independence. The Latin language survived longer, and over a broader territory, than did the Roman Empire itself. 
The empires of Genghis Khan and the Ottoman Turks also collapsed, but none of the people they conquered has a kind word for them today. You won’t find a Bulgarian or a Serb eager to show you the ruins of Ottoman defensive fortifications on their territories. 
True, the Mongols greatly influenced the civilizations they defeated. For example, before falling to the Mongols, Afghanistan was a prosperous country with major cities and an extensive agricultural system. It was a highly prized territory, one that dozens of would-be conquerors had tried to seize, including Alexander the Great. But after the Mongols razed all the Afghan cities, decimated the population, and destroyed the country’s complex irrigation system, Afghanistan was reduced to a country of mountains and barren deserts. 
What can the Mongols take pride in today? Where are the gems of science and art that adorn the peoples that fell under their rule? Did the Mongols give them laws? A written language? New rights? 
During tsarist times, the Russian Empire followed the example of the Roman and British empires. With all of its cruelty, it conquered the eastern territories and the Caucasus with valor and bravery. Like the Roman Empire, they gave more to their subjects than they managed to seize from them. 
The Soviet Union, however, was built more along the lines of the Mongol empire. It ruthlessly destroyed everyone and everything, and the first to fall victim were the Russian nobility, peasantry, merchants and intelligentsia. The Soviet Union left the same legacy in Russia as the Mongols did in Afghanistan — destruction. None of the former Soviet republics will ever put up monuments to Pavlik Morozov, the mythical 13-year-old Pioneer who was praised for turning in his own father to the authorities. The former Soviet colonies also do not sing the praises to the NKVD, nor have they adopted the Soviet legal code.
Yet the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union represented Russia’s last historic opportunity. It could have become an attractive metropolis for surrounding countries, a reliable trade partner or a place where other countries’ elite came to study — just as people from Britain’s former empire still come to Oxford and Cambridge. The Soviet Union of Josef Stalin and Lavrenty Beria suffered a crushing defeat, but the Russia of Pushkin and Dostoevsky still had a chance to fill the void. Gogol, though Ukrainian by birth, wrote his masterpieces in Russian. Chechen insurgents who die beneath Russian tanks write poems about the freedom of their people in the Russian language, much like Lermontov before them. 
The former KGB thugs who now control the country are stomping Russia’s last historical chance into the dirt. They are doing everything to show the world that Russia is led not by civilized, respected leaders, but by a street gang from Lubyanskaya Ploshchad.

Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

TITLE: Life and soul
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: U.S. vocalist Jennifer Davis, who has spent the past eight years in St. Petersburg singing with two local bands, the St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, and her own J.D. and the Blenders, will perform farewell concerts with both bands this week and next, before she leaves for the U.S. next month.
Performing with J.D. and the Blenders and as DJ Freakadelka at music bar Datscha, Indiana native Davis has done a lot to plant American soul and funk, a genre of music that had been almost totally ignored by the Russian listening public, in St. Petersburg. 
“This was a long time [ago], this was even before bars like Datscha or all [of] Dumskaya existed, where this music [is] played,” she said.
“You couldn’t even find this music, really, it was very underground, this retro 60s soul and funk, New Orleans funk, deep funk it is called - the 60s stuff. And I was a big fan of that, I love it, it’s still my favorite music. It’s certainly my favorite music to sing.”
When J.D. and the Blenders made their debut in May 2005, the public had difficulty understanding the music at first.
“At first a lot of people were coming to see [ska band] Froglegs or to see me, because they knew me from Ska-Jazz Review so they expected to hear ska music. For a long time people were, like, ‘Why don’t you play ska music? What is this music? What’s going on?,” Davis said.
“[But] we’ve definitely had a steadily growing fan base. We just get more and more people coming to the shows now, of all ages. But a lot of kids, teenagers even, and kids in their early 20s, come and they know the words and music, and they dress the part; it’s really awesome!
“Also I am a DJ, so I play this music, and there’s a lot of other DJs that play it now. There certainly weren’t several years ago. And now that’s all over the place, and I think this type of music just wasn’t heard in Russia, of course, during the Soviet Union, and now it’s just available here for the first time.”
Since then the local club public has grown more accustomed to soul and funk, and even new bands appearedspecializing in this music — something that had not existed before J.D. and the Blenders formed.
“There’s a few instrumental bands, like, for example, Wake & Bake. They’re playing the same sort of music but it’s instrumental, they’re really good. They’re all like in their early to mid-20s, young guys, they’re really into this type of music, and they’re big friends of ours, I think that we’ve kind of really paved the way for a lot of groups. And there’s a lot of young kids now that are really into soul music. Not tons but it’s definitely an up-and-coming subculture, the mod culture and the skinhead culture, 60s music, which is not just beat music, but it is also traditional 60s British mod culture. It also includes soul, blues, all that type of music, and kids are really embracing that now. I’m really happy about that.”
While the St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, which performs at A2 on Friday will be looking for a replacement singer, J.D. and the Blenders will be wound down, according to Davis.
“The Ska-Jazz Review... for now will be on hiatus, but we’ll see, I don’t know what’s going to happen with them. But they are open to the idea of finding another singer, but... it will be hard to find another American, of course,” she said.
“On Saturday, we’ll have a show with the Blenders at Mod and one more on June 8, which is also my birthday, at A2, and that will be the final concert of that project. I mean it will be the end of that band.  Because J.D. and the Blenders is not a band that can exist without J.D.! That just doesn’t make any sense.”
The St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, the band that was formed by members of local bands Spitfire and Markscheider Kunst in 2001, has an album’s worth of new material, composed with Davis.
“They’re going to try to find a replacement singer in the meantime, but they do want to record this album with me, because I mean we wrote all the songs together, so it makes sense,” she said.
Another reason for Davis to leave Russia at this point is the general deterioration of the music club scene in St. Petersburg that occurred in the past few years.
“I feel that I need a change of scenery for a while, and I do feel that the music, the club situation, and live music situation specifically, in St. Petersburg has gotten a lot worse,” she said.
“A lot of rock clubs have closed down, of the old ones there’s only Griboyedov and that’s not a good venue to play live, honestly. Tsokol is nice, but it’s so small, and A2 has just opened. It’s OK, but it’s just a place to play, it doesn’t really give you any sort of atmosphere or feeling of belonging to a community.
“For example, I really liked Platforma and I really loved Moloko, and playing there was always a real pleasure. There was just a really good vibe there, and people, everybody felt they were welcome at those places, I think. Everybody — the musicians, the audience felt really appreciated and happy to be there. There are really no places like that anymore. 
“And any of the new places that have opened, you know, the idea is to hire a DJ because it makes much more financial sense. Bars open up and they are just DJ bars.”
In the past several months, a couple of local clubs have stopped live music programs and switched to DJ parties. 
“People are more interested in making a quick buck,” Davis said.
“You can’t just open a club and make it happen. I mean usually it takes a long time to get there, and you have to have good relationships with the musicians. That’s very important. And nobody understands that, really. You want to have the musicians like to play there, you want to have them come to the club when they’re not playing, you want to have them bring their friends, this is all very important. That’s what makes a good club.”
Davis first came to St. Petersburg in 1996 on a study-abroad program at Herzen University, but stayed for a year teaching English, working at a translation agency and embracing the then-burgeoning and fun local underground scene attending such places as the now-defunct venues Gora, Ten Club, and Art Clinic as well as Fish Fabrique at its former, large premises.
“I really enjoyed it, I really felt very free here. I felt like there’s a lot going on, I thought there’s a really interesting music scene, I thought people are friendly and open, there was really good energy here, then, I think, in ‘96,” she said.
“I went back and I graduated and I worked in the States for a while. I was working in an office, I really hated my job... For some reason I had this feeling, I just had a feeling that I could come to Russia and sing here.”
Davis began to sing with leading local jazz bands, Leningrad Dixieland Band and Alexei Kanunnikov Jazz Band, when she returned to the city in 2000. 
“I have been singing my whole life, I’ve always wanted to perform, and for some reason I had this feeling... I don’t know why, I just thought it might be easier to do that here, take lessons, which I did at Mussorgsky Music School, and it will be less frightening to me somehow, I don’t know, than doing it in my own home country. I don’t know if that makes any sense,” she said.
“So I came here, I was just taking some jazz vocal lessons, and I was living with my boyfriend Misha, which is of course another important reason why I came back here. 
“I was singing with Leningrad Dixieland and Alexei Kanunnikov just for practice, for a year. I just went every week to practice, and practice, and practice — for no money, just to get the experience. And then I started doing these stupid gigs singing jazz standards in kabaki (cheap restaurants), you know, when nobody’s listening... For me it was exciting, anyway, I was like, ‘Wow! This is great!’ You know, then I got bored after a while. 
“And I eventually met the guys from the Ska-Jazz Review, the project that they started, and we started working together. And then I had had this dream since about 2003, even when I first met Mikha Lavit [J.D. and the Blenders musician]. Actually we met each just randomly but we even then discussed the idea of doing a soul band with kind of roots music.”
Davis said performing with two Russian bands was quite an experience for her.
“I think I’ve been in a very interesting and a very unique position here in Russia, as a woman and as an American, and I’ve been in these two all-male bands, and it’s been very educational, what I’ve seen,” she said.
“And my perspective of the Russian music scene is from that position of an outsider, and as a woman.”
Davis, who combined musicianship with journalism contributing as a freelance writer to several local publications, including The St. Petersburg Times, said she is moving to the U.S. to to get her masters in arts journalism at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
“I’ve been kind of writing for the last 6 or 7 years anyway, for The St. Petersburg Times, for Pulse and for a couple of other magazines that don’t exist anymore,” she said.
“It was fun and I really enjoyed it but unfortunately I don’t have the contacts or the experience to get better-paying jobs at Western newspapers or magazines or even just outlets. It’s a year-long intensive program, and it has an internship in New York City for the second part of the program, so I’m just hoping I can really make some good contacts, and if I do decide to come back to Russia, then I will have to be writing about Russian culture and music, etc. for the Western audience in the States, that’s kind of a goal.”
According to Davis, while she lived in St. Petersburg, both the U.S. and Russia survived respective difficult epochs.
“It’s a very emotional time for me to leave Russia, I’ve been here for eight years, I lived here for the majority of my 20s and I feel like I grew up here, honestly,” she said.
“My young adulthood is in this country. You know, it’s really... I don’t even know what to expect. For me, life here is... I mean it’s hard because its Russia, I’m a foreigner, and I still have language issues. At the same time, when you live at a place that long and if you’re a public figure like me... I’m not like some celebrity, but I have my own sort of... notoriety, I guess. And just knowing everyone and feeling a sense of belonging. It’s really home to me now.
“And it’s ironic, I think about how ironic it is that I spent almost the entirety of the Bush administration living in Putin’s Russia. I’m still trying to make sense of that, I mean, its absurd!
“And I’m excited ... I’m hopeful that in the U.S., Barack Obama will be the next president, and I think that’s just the breath of fresh air that that country needs. It feels like kind of the right time to come back.”


<i>Jennifer Davis will perform with St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review at A2 on Friday and with J.D. and the Blenders at Mod on Saturday and at A2 on June 8.</i>

TITLE: Chernov’s
         choice
TEXT: <b>Jennifer Davis</b>, who worked her last shift as <b>DJ Freakadelka</b> at Datscha on Monday, continues to perform her farewell concerts, with both the <b>St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review</b> and <b>J.D. and the Blenders</b> this week. 
Meanwhile, <b>Datscha</b>, the indie bar that celebrated its fourth anniversary on Wednesday, was asked to leave its premises as well as the other businesses located in the historic building at 9 Dumskaya Ulitsa. 
Even though last week owner Anna-Christin Albers hoped that the bar would survive until December, when the rental agreement with the building’s owner expires, on Monday she announced the place would be closed in “a month.”
Launched by Albers and Dva Samaliota musician Anton Belyankin in May 2004, Datscha, was  an instant hit with the local crowd and spawned several similar student-oriented DJ bars specializing in songs rather than techno or house music. Belyankin himself moved on to launch Fidel and, later, Belgrad in the same Maly Gostiny Dvor building.
Earlier this month, the popular summer bar Dunes that Albers had run on Konyushennaya Ploshchad was closed due to similar reasons.
The event of the century, however, is the arrival of <b>Bob Dylan</b>, whose St. Petersburg concert due on Tuesday is the only Russian concert wrapped between a Helsinki date on Sunday and a Tallinn date on Wednesday.
And the question still is how many fans the legendary U.S. singer/songwriter has in St. Petersburg. Although highly influential to more advanced musicians and fans, general Russian audiences have been unaware of his existence.
According to Seva Gakkel, who played with Akvarium, the seminal local band heavily influenced by Dylan in the 1970s and 1980s, Dylan only had a cult following in Russia.
“When everybody listened to everything, only a certain category of people listened to Dylan,” he said by phone on Thursday.
“It did not have mass appeal, unlike Jethro Tull, for instance. In the circle of Akvarium, many of us listened to him, almost everybody, but if I went beyond this circle, I have almost never heard of anybody listening to Bob Dylan.”
Gakkel said it is both a language problem and a difficulty of perception that prevented Dylan from being popular with Russian music fans.
“Not all of his records are homogenious and easy to listen to. I started to like him not from the very first song or album that I heard — it was with ‘Blonde on Blonde,’ that I accepted him and accepted him for ever,” he said.
“It’s difficult to say what the situation is in Russia in general, but I heard that the tickets didn’t sell very quickly.”
Dylan performs at Ice Palace on Tuesday.

<i>— By Sergey Chernov</i>

TITLE: Northern neighbor
AUTHOR: By Maria Antonova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Cobblestone streets, ochre roofs and a fortified castle are typical ingredients of medieval towns across Europe. Weekenders drive out to them for brunch, while foreign tourists obediently climb their towers and purchase yet another refrigerator magnet.
This could have been a cozy retirement plan for Vyborg, a town on the Gulf of Finland that was involved in a tug-of-war between Sweden and Russia for 300 years and was consequently involved in some of the world’s largest naval battles. In the first half of the 20th century, the town changed hands between Finland, Russia, and the Soviet Union like a hot potato. In 1944, it officially became part of the Leningrad region.
Although its architectural landscape appears to be changing, Vyborg still bears little resemblance to a typical Russian city. The castle is its main landmark, across the bridge from the historic city center. The Swedes built it in the 13th century during their third military expedition to Karelia, a territory that was fought over for centuries by Sweden and the Novgorod princedom. Despite repeated attempts, Russia didn’t gain control of Vyborg until 1710, when Peter the Great devised a plan that involved marching freezing Russian troops across 150 kilometers of ice from Kronstadt and laying siege to the fortress for three months. The Swedes capitulated and took Russian citizenship. Ethnically, however, Vyborg remained predominantly Swedish and Finnish until the Soviet period.
Today the castle houses a museum that can easily be skipped and hosts annual events that range from “Castle Dance,” one of the biggest raves in northwestern Russia, to “May Tree,” a folk music festival at the end of May. The fortress is pleasant to walk around, and there are great views from the top. You can try shooting arrows from a bow into a straw target. A couple dressed in medieval outfits charges 50 rubles for five arrows.
The clock tower is another landmark offering views across the city. The perennially tipsy tower watchman and clock master Yury will tell you many stories about the tower’s difficult fate across the centuries, as it was transformed from a cathedral bell tower to Vyborg’s “Big Ben.”
Since Vyborg was a key point on the border between two states and strategically located along Russia’s passageway to the Baltic Sea, it has no shortage of military structures, which surround the center on all sides. To the west of the castle, a road runs through the Anninsky fortifications, built during Peter’s reign with the participation of Gannibal, Alexander Pushkin’s African grandfather.
By taking the road further to the northwest, you can reach Mon Repos, one of the largest landscaped English parks in Eastern Europe. Its grandeur was smoothed over in the Soviet period, when it became a recreational area for the proletariat. It was nevertheless the favorite park of Russian academician Dmitry Likhachev, who pushed for its recognition as a museum and nature preserve in the 1980s. The combination of seaside cliffs, ponds, and estate buildings make it a must-see, while 180 hectares absorb the crowds even in tourist season.
The historic center has seen better days; many of the buildings stand abandoned and suspiciously unkempt. Don’t put off your visit to historic Vyborg for too long, or you may end up visiting a very different city.

TITLE: German exchange
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Goethe Institute’s project, “German-Russian Authors’ Meeting,” this week brought to St. Petersburg the Noble-prize winning writer, Guenther Grass, for the second year running, along with five other German contemporary writers. 
The authors arrived in St. Petersburg not only to give public readings on Wednesday night at St. Petersburg State University, but also for a workshop on Monday and Tuesday with six Russian authors, among them Pavel Krusanov and Tatyana Moskvina. 
The idea of bringing together six German and six Russian authors for readings and a discussion of their works was developed last year by Grass and Russian writer Daniil Granin during a much-heralded visit by the German writer. It was suggested that the authors get together for two days, read to each other something they hadn’t published yet, give feedback on each other’s material and take part in follow-up discussions.
From Germany, alongside Grass, the authors taking part included: Thomas Brussig (the author of “Sun Alley,” later made into a film), Eleonora Hummel, Norbert Niemann, Jens Sparschuh and Katja Lange-Mueller. Their Russian counterparts were Ilya Boyashev, who won the Russian “National Bestseller” prize in 2007 for the novel “Muri’s Way,” Dmitry Gortchev, Krusanov (the author  of “American Hole” and other novels), Zakhar Prilepin (author of “Sanka” and “Sin,” and also the editor of Novaya Gazeta in Nizhny Novgorod), Sergei Nosov and essayist, film and theater critic Moskvina.
The author’s workshop lasted for two days, and, according to literary critic Samuel Lurie, “proved to be a big literary event.” 
“After I heard everything that had been read, I felt really optimistic. I had a feeling the world deserves a better destiny,” Lurie said. He added that Granin once expressed the opinion that authors don’t generally tolerate each other and seldom read each other’s works; however, it is only with each other that they can communicate. 
Contrary to this, Grass mentioned a great tradition in German literature in which authors work together, referring to his personal experience of participating in such meetings and literary workshops since 1950s, including with the Group 47 movement of post-war German literature featuring such authors as Heinrich Boell and Ingeborg Bachmann. 
Moskvina was also positive about the two-day workshop. 
“The Russian authors tried their best to understand their German counterparts and vice versa. We all tried to seem better than we were and to make a good impression. I had the amazing experience of traveling through the consciousness of others, through various texts,” she said.
Comparing trends in the contemporary literature of both countries, Moskvina also said that while the specific feature of German literature has always had a close connection to philosophy, Russian literature has always tried to “explain life, since life has always been full of mysteries.” 
Addressing current leading topics in literature, the German authors emphasized “loneliness, melancholy and the speed of time passing.” Popular fiction, meanwhile, is preoccupied with the work of the intelligence services. Moskvina said that in serious, non-commercial literature, there are now fewer “graphomaniacs” — writers concerned with quantity rather than quality. She also mentioned the visual richness of today’s literature, both from Russia and Germany, stating that almost every piece could easily be made into a film.
Summarizing the results of the literary workshop, Lange-Mueller said: “When the times are bad, literature is good.”

TITLE: Lofty Aims
AUTHOR: By Simon Richmond
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: If you haven’t made a trip to Loft Proekt “Etazhi” (Floors Loft Project) yet — or indeed been able to locate the hidden-away exhibition and events space — now is the time to seek it out. In celebration of the complex’s anniversary on Monday, its flagship exhibition space Globe Gallery will debut a new exhibition by celebrated Russian artist Sergey Shutov entitled “Sniper.”
Shutov, whose works typically involve video and mixed media, was one of the artists chosen to represent Russia at the Venice Biennale in 2001, where he showed “Abacus,” an installation of 40 automated, praying figures, dressed in the same black robes, kneeling and bowing to the ground and reciting prayers from different religions, in different languages.
Etazhi is the creative dream of architects Savely Arkhipenko and his brother Yegor and is located in the former Smolensky Bread Bakery dating from 1937 off Ligovsky Prospekt. In its first year, the off-beat space, large and industrial for a St. Petersburg gallery, has been generating plenty of buzz on the local art and social scene, hosting as diverse events as a show by the Japanese fashion house Comme des Garcons, and a reception for the Mariinsky Theater, as well as a dynamic program of exhibitions.
The complex includes a huge exhibition space on its second floor, where steel girder columns frame art to a dramatic effect, and a more intimate space on the third floor, recently used to screen the funky video art of Cao Fei. Also on the third floor is the boutique Backstage showing creations by Russian and Baltic designers by appointment only.
All of this will soon be joined by a new space, Formula, on the fourth floor, the private gallery of Irina Kuksenaite, the Vilnius-born artist whose joint show with Andrew Logan from the U.K. opened up Globe Gallery in 2007. There are also plans to create a summer cafe and a wine bar.

Tel: 611 0095
www.backstage-gallery.ru

TITLE: Follow the leader
AUTHOR: By Walter G. Moss
TEXT: Catriona Kelly’s new book, “Children’s World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890-1991,” offers the most comprehensive history yet of the life of Russian children in the modern period. From the birth of infants, often in bathhouses in the early part of the 20th century, until the end of childhood, which Kelly considers to be age 13 or 14, the range of topics presented is vast. We read of children at home and in schools, orphanages and correctional facilities (including the gulag). We discover their hopes, fears and experiences of poverty, war, famine, Stalinism, de-Stalinization and the changes begun under Mikhail Gorbachev. We learn of everything from potty training and sex education to the impact of housing conditions, various media and parents’ alcoholism, divorce and death. For anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union, this book will awaken numerous memories. It will also be useful for scholars examining 20th-century Russia, or for anyone dealing with children in a professional capacity, particularly if they already have some knowledge of modern Russian history — terms such as zemstvo, samizdat, tamizdat and perestroika are often undefined, and the book contains no glossary. 
Using a wide variety of sources, including archival materials, oral interviews, government proclamations and propaganda, memoirs and fiction, Kelly divides her book into three main parts. In the first part, she relates how government officials, educators, writers and parents perceived children, particularly in European Russia (of the many non-Slavic minorities in Russia, only Jewish and Tatar children receive attention). The second part deals with homeless and institutionalized children, including those in correctional facilities. In the third part, Kelly discusses children in the family and schoolroom settings. She concludes by examining the transition from childhood to the late teenage years (especially with regard to sexuality and romance) and by turning to the post-Soviet period. 
Although it is difficult to present such an impressive amount of scholarship in lively, page-turning prose, Kelly does her best to sustain the reader’s interest. Building on her clear writing and organization, she intersperses her narrative with personal reflections culled from oral interviews and memoirs, and with over 100 illustrations (most of them excellent). History also does its part by providing Kelly with interesting ironies. Among the posters Kelly reprints from the years of Stalinist repressions is one on the cover that proclaims, “Thank You, Beloved Stalin, for a Happy Childhood!” Similarly, she reminds us that Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the feared Soviet secret police, supposedly possessed “a legendary love of children,” and once “vehemently exhorted” his sister “to avoid harsh punishment.” The leading children’s store in Moscow, Detsky Mir, or Children’s World, was later established on Dzerzhinsky Square facing KGB headquarters.
Kelly previously authored a book on the murdered teenager Pavel Morozov, who was made a hero in the 1930s for allegedly denouncing his ideologically deviant father, but she has also written first-rate studies of 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature, women writers and advice literature. And here she frequently quotes and refers to Russian writers and child-care experts. For example, she often mentions Kornei Chukovsky, whose many talents included writing for children (a topic Kelly often addresses) and Anton Makarenko, whose how-to-bring-up-your-children “Book for Parents,” first printed in 1937, remained popular for decades and is still available in English translation. Kelly also notes the different ways in which boys and girls were raised and how children’s social positions affected their upbringing. She notes, for example, that many of those she interviewed complained that, during the Brezhnev era, teachers treated working-class children less well than those from more privileged families. 
Dividing her examination into four historical periods to emphasize the changes that each era brought for children, Kelly nevertheless points out the continuities and deals with what the historian Marc Raeff has called “the messiness of history.” She does not attempt to squeeze all her facts into neat categories, but rather acknowledges exceptions to general patterns. This is especially important given that government intentions regularly went unrealized, and the gap between propaganda and reality was often wide. The Soviet state might, for example, urge parents to bring up their children according to what it considered to be scientific, rational, Marxist-Leninist principles, as opposed to more traditional (often religious) practices, but “in peasant households, the old ways went on until at least the Second World War.” 
One overall impression left on the reader is that caring for children in modern Russia was much more difficult than in most Western countries. “The priority for most parents during the first four decades of Soviet power,” Kelly writes, “was to ensure that their children got a sufficiency of food of any kind.” Kelly documents the tremendous toll on children of such historical factors as economic and educational backwardness, tsarist and Soviet inefficiencies, wars and revolution, famine and Stalinist purges. In a section titled “The Battle with ‘Backwardness,’” we read that the death rate among European Russian newborns in 1913 was 283 per 1,000, and that the film director Alexander Dovzhenko was “one of just two surviving children out of 14.” During the Leningrad Blockade, which took a million Soviet lives during World War II, children similarly bore much of the suffering, including starvation. 
Also significant was the fact that “the Soviet state placed children’s affairs at the heart of its political legitimacy, emphasizing that children were treated with greater care than they were anywhere else in the world.” Although the late tsarist period witnessed increased government and private volunteer efforts to improve child care, the new Communist government greatly stepped up attempts to instruct families on proper child-rearing techniques and expanded state controlled child-care efforts beyond the family, including in schools and preschool programs. By the time Gorbachev came to power in 1985, the Soviet record was certainly a mixed one. From then until the present, the plusses and minuses of it, as well as post-1985 developments, have continued to be debated, as Kelly sums up nicely in the last chapter of this indispensable source on the world of Russian children during the 20th century.

Walter G. Moss teaches history at Eastern Michigan University and is the author of “A History of Russia” and “An Age of Progress? Clashing Twentieth-Century Global Forces.”

TITLE: WORD’s
         WORTH
TEXT: <i>Àë÷íîñòü: avarice</i>
If expats want to understand the country they're living in, they need to understand what is deemed right and wrong in the local culture. And if they want to fit in, they have to get with the program — do what's right and don't do what's wrong. 
Of course, that isn't to say that all the natives in your adopted country are with the program. For example, traditionally one of the great wrongs in Russian culture is <i>àë÷íîñòü</i> (avarice, greed). 
But as I look at the mansions going up on Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Shosse, the six-figure cars and seven-figure bling, I'd say that a lot of locals have forgotten No. 6 on the list of <i>ñåìü ñìåðòíûõ ãðåõîâ</i> (seven deadly sins). 
In Russian, <i>àë÷íîñòü</i> is related to the verb <i>ëàêàòü</i>, which is what your pet does in hot weather — he laps up lots of water. Figuratively, when folks get greedy, they slurp up stuff like a thirsty hound after a hunt in July. 
This is also described in Russian as <i>íåíàñûòíîñòü</i> (insatiability). As one Russian writer put it, <i>Àë÷íîñòü — ýòî êîãäà âñ¸ óæå åñòü, íî ýòîãî âñ¸ ðàâíî ìàëî</i> (Avarice is when you have everything, but it's still not enough.)  
The adjective <i>æàäíûé</i> (greedy) and verb <i>æàäíè÷àòü</i> are very down to earth. When a Russian mom offers her kids some candy and little Sasha grabs a handful, Mom might say, <i>Íå æàäíè÷àé!</i> (Don't be greedy!) When grown-up Sasha grabs the biggest slice of cake at the office party, his colleagues might snigger, <i>Îí æàäíûé!</i> (He's greedy!) 
Another related concept is <i>êîðûñòü</i>, which is any kind of self-interest, selfish desire or greed. It can refer to both the quality of seeking personal gain as well as the material gain itself. For example, when greedy Sasha offers to finish a report for a colleague, his suspicious workmates might ask, <i>Êàêàÿ åìó â ýòîì êîðûñòü?</i> (What's in it for him?) But someone else might point out, <i>Áåç êîðûñòè ðàáîòàòü íåëüçÿ</i> (There's no work without self-interest.) 
<i>Êîðûñòíûé ÷åëîâåê</i> is a selfish person, someone who always holds his or her own interests above all else. <i>Êîðûñòíûé</i> can also refer to actions: <i>Ïîäàðîê ó÷èòåëþ — êîðûñòíûé æåñò</i> (A gift to a teacher is an act of self-interest.)
Another bad thing about greedy people is that they want to keep everything all to themselves. In Russian culture, <i>ñêóïîñòü</i> (stinginess) is the lowest of the low and soundly condemned in folk sayings and expressions. <i>Ñêóïîñòü — ìàòü ïîðîêîâ</i> (Stinginess is the mother of all vices.) 
But Russians believe that stingy people get their comeuppance because they never get to enjoy what they have. <i>Ñêóïûå ðîâíî ï÷¸ëû: ì¸ä ñîáèðàþò, à ñàìè óìèðàþò</i> (Stingy people are like worker bees: they may collect the honey, but they die [before they can enjoy it].) 
Now that might make a great billboard on Rublyovka.

<i>Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.</i>

TITLE: In the spotlight
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: Three comedians sitting round a table commenting on newspaper headlines is nothing out of the ordinary in Britain and the United States, but it is a tiny revolution on Channel One, where purse-lipped Yekaterina Andreyeva gives us the nightly news with a heavy Kremlin slant. 
People aren’t likely to be streaming onto the streets demanding their democratic rights after the first episode of “ProjectorParisHilton” on Saturday. But the show is definitely a step away from the sort of scripted comedy that brings in the bacon on rival Rossia television — men in shiny suits telling jokes about the disabled, the mother-in-law and her indoors. 
I missed the beginning of the show, but read that it started abruptly without the presenters saying hello to the viewers or explaining the concept. The set was as simple as it could be — the three hosts sitting around a table with a pile of newspapers, some of which had been highlighted with marker pen. Whatever the show’s name means, it didn’t seem to have much to do with the content. Paris Hilton didn’t feature, and the presenters concentrated on Russian stories.
The jokes were about topics from the spy planes over Abkhazia to the U.S. elections, the wedding of George W. Bush’s daughter and the Eurovision song contest. No one said anything to give President Dmitry Medvedev sleepless nights, but Channel One is so tightly controlled that the apparently spontaneous tone came across as rebellious.
The presenters compared the action over Abkhazia to an episode of Star Wars, and one made a joke about how Bush’s new son-in-law is doing to his daughter what many people would like to do to Bush, which was a lot more blue than Channel One would normally allow. 
The show was presided over by Channel One host Ivan Urgant, while two other comedians, Garik Martirosyan and Sergei Svetlakov, ad-libbed. Martirosyan moved to the channel from the “Comedy Club” stand-up show on TNT, while Svetlakov stars in the same channel’s “Our Russia” sketch show. 
For some reason, the show went ahead without one of the announced comedians, Alexander Tsekalo. The presenters joked that he couldn’t come this time because he was the M.C. at the Bush wedding — Russian television stars, including Urgant and Tsekalo, have a lucrative side line in hosting such events.
I don’t know if the presenters are friends, but the show flowed well. Svetlakov, who looks quite different without the thick makeup he wears on “Our Russia,” seemed to get a kick out of telling deadpan jokes, even if they weren’t that fantastically funny, screwing up his mouth to stop himself laughing. Martirosyan kidded Svetlakov about his advertising career — he promotes a make of sofas in a tie-in with one of his comedy personas. 
Channel One didn’t give the show much advance promotion, and I guess Saturday’s episode was a kind of pilot. The channel sent out a press release on Tuesday saying lots of people had written in to ask what was going on. It included a quote from Martirosyan calling the show “a collective flow of consciousness.” 
Apparently the channel wasn’t sure the three comedians could sustain a half-hour show because the first episode included some filmed sketches, which were pretty unmemorable. The best one showed a long line for a minibus. The man at the front stepped forward, lost his balance, and then you heard the offscreen sound of squealing brakes and an impact. All the people in the line calmly stepped forward one pace. 
The presenters laughed politely, although I guess it’s a long time since they traveled by minibus.

TITLE: Strange but true
AUTHOR: By Gareth Arnison
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Carpisa // 44B Shlapernaya Ulitsta // Tel: 273 5813 // Open daily 12 p.m. until 11 p.m. // Dinner for two without alcohol 2,900 rubles ($122) 

Descend the stairs of number 44B Shlapernaya and the rugged unconventional decor may well make you think that you have just stepped into Aladdin’s Cave. The pale stone walls are covered with tiny magical little lights in multiple colors and various shapes. The theme is continued along the bar and the walls and is added to by low hanging lamps. On one side of the restaurant there are several alcoves, which provide slightly more privacy from the rest of the room and enhance the cave-like feeling of the place. Along with the plush sofas lining the walls this creates an arabesque feeling. 
However, this is a stark contrast to the disco ball, disco lights and plasma television that suggest this place could host a lively party at the weekend. Again old meets new as the disco equipment clashes with the gramophone that sits on one end of the bar. As if this isn’t enough, paintings by 17th century Flemish painter Frans Snyders overlook the room and add to the clash of cultures. Although, to be frank, the scene of the fish market is enough to put anyone off their meal, and Room 245 of the Hermitage is a much more appropriate setting to view this painting. My dining companion described the place as “almost kitsch,” but this is harsh. Bizarre and cosmopolitan, in some ways the mystical interior can be rather appealing.
The unconventional theme continues in the toilet, where you have to look upwards to see into the mirror placed on the inconveniently slanting wall. It is also equipped with, yes you guessed it, another television, so that guests can do their business while watching the latest teenage pop-star prance around.
There was no need to rub the low-hanging lamps to make a genie appear, as the professional waiter was very attentive. The selection on the menu, which was not too large but also not too small, could be described as a mix of European cuisine. The Caesar and Greek salads (310 rubles, $13 and 230 rubles, $9.70 respectively) were satisfactory as was the leg of lamb (480 rubles, $20.20), which was ordered with a side-dish of ratatouille (180 rubles, $7.60). But the highlight of the meal had to be the hearty steak (650 rubles, $27.50), which although slightly over-salted, came with a creamy mushroom sauce that was excellent. 
After all of that you may feel quite full, so think twice before ordering dessert as we had trouble finishing our generous portions of ice cream (230 rubles, $9.70) and tiramisu (260 rubles, $11). The cheesecake was not available, and the inability to serve every dish on the menu, particularly desserts, seems to be becoming more and more common. Having said this Carpisa should be commended for the presentation of its dishes, which obviously showed a certain amount of effort and care from the chef.
Alcohol was not sampled on this trip, but if you are hoping to enjoy a bottle of wine with your meal, expect the bill to increase by at least 50 percent. A decent bottle of Villa Antinori will set you back 1,750 rubles ($74). 
Type Carpisa into Google and it will give you the link to an Italian handbag/luggage brand. But the only things remotely Italian about the restaurant are the four pasta dishes and two pizzas available on the menu. However, it is interesting to note that if transliterated from the Russian then the restaurant would in fact be called Carpiza, the name of a tiny village situated in Peru. The name is a mystery — to the waiter and us alike.

TITLE: The need for speed
AUTHOR: By A. O. Scott
PUBLISHER: The New York Times
TEXT: Many of us who grew up watching television in the 1960s and ‘70s have fond if vague memories of “Speed Racer.” Those big-eyed characters (Trixie! Speed! Racer X!), their mouths never quite moving in sync with the dialogue; those bright colors and semiabstract backgrounds; those endless, episodic story lines. Whether we knew it or not, the series was a primer in the aesthetics of Japanese animation, the love of which we could later pass along to our children.
Failing that, I suppose we could subject them to Warner Brothers’ new live-action feature film, also called “Speed Racer,” which was written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, the maestros of “The Matrix.” Like so many other expensive, technologically elaborate big-screen adaptations of venerable pop-culture staples, this movie sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity. The childhood experience the Wachowskis evoke is not the easy delight of lolling in the den watching one cartoon after another, but rather the squirming tedium of sitting in the back seat on an endless family car trip, your cheek taking on the texture of the vinyl seat as some grown-up lectures you on the beauty of the passing scenery.
And yes, some of what you see in “Speed Racer” is indeed beautiful (as is the slyly old-fashioned orchestral score by Michael Giacchino). The colors pop off the screen as if someone had burst a giant bag of digital Skittles. Look at those red socks young Speed is wearing! Did you ever see a dress as yellow as the one on Susan Sarandon? (She plays Speed’s mom. John Goodman is his dad.) Or a classroom so brilliantly orange? These hues occur nowhere in nature. And I’ll grant that it is mildly interesting to sit back and contemplate the philosophical and artistic implications of having human actors populate a completely synthetic environment in which the familiar laws of optics and physical movement no longer apply.
You could, come to think of it, spend a pleasant hour in a museum looking at still images and short, looping video installations culled from the hectic, 2-hour-15-minute morass of this movie. And there may be a perverse integrity in the way the Wachowskis approach the material, which is to focus relentlessly on visual style while dispensing almost entirely with credible emotion or intelligible narrative. But this would be an easier case to make if the visual style itself were not so busy and incoherent.
Yes, the colors are hot, the set design is cool, and the sidekick chimpanzee is cute, but the action sequences — the hyperreal video-game kineticism on which the Wachowskis’ reputation for virtuosity has rested — are chaotic and nonsensical. The sleek computer-animated racecars flip, jump and slide from side to side, but few of their feats elicit anything like the amazement or surprise of, say, watching moderately skilled teenage skateboarders in a parking lot. To be truly sensational, action needs to make sense and to convey the tension and grace of real physical movement, however fanciful the objects in motion may be.
But at least those cars — including Speed’s Mach 5, faithfully replicated from the old cartoons — move. When it comes to storytelling, “Speed Racer” has nothing in common with its title. Not only does it surpass the grinding tedium of “The Matrix Revolutions,” but it does so with far less excuse. Back in the early years of this century, it was possible to pretend that the grim-faced expository noodling of the later “Matrix” movies was the vehicle for profound insights into — well, something. Go look it up on Wikipedia.
But “Speed Racer” is about a boy driving a car, surely a subject that cries out for linearity, simplicity, velocity. Instead the first half-hour layers flashbacks with portentous foreshadowings, generating pointless confusion about who is doing what and why. After his beloved older brother, Rex, is killed in an accident — or is he? — Speed (Emile Hirsch) is wooed by the oleaginous head of the Royalton company (Roger Allam), and also by Trixie (Christina Ricci).
There are, to be sure, some vague intimations of an allegory about the tension between art and commerce, between the mystical love of racing for its own sake and the mercenary impulse to subordinate that love to the profit motive. But this parable would be more compelling if “Speed Racer” were not so transparently trying to have it both ways, to be at once profoundly visionary and punchily commercial, and failing on both counts.
On just about every possible count really. The moments of wisdom embedded in the dialogue (Racer X: “Racing will never change. What matters is whether we allow racing to change us”) are as fatuous as the kicky catchphrases (Trixie: “Cool beans!”). Speed’s mischievous little brother (Paulie Litt) and his pet chimp are annoying rather than endearing. The mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) looks tired and grumpy, and the teen-idol charisma of the South Korean pop star Rain (he plays another daredevil driver) is wasted. Mobsters, detectives, sportscasters and ruthless rival racers all parade across the screen, but none of them generate the sparks of humor, danger, energy or nobility that would ignite a sense of pop magic. “Speed Racer” goes nowhere, and you’d be amazed how long the trip can take.

TITLE: U.S. Unbeaten Streak Ended by England
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WEMBLEY, England — David Beckham and England showed the United States how far it has to go if it wants to join soccer’s elite.
Beckham’s trademark curling free kick to John Terry set up the go-ahead goal in the 38th minute, and England outclassed the United States 2-0 in an exhibition game at Wembley on Wednesday.
It was a humbling experience for the U.S. players, who were coming off a five-game unbeaten streak-including an impressive 3-0 win at Poland. And it won’t get easier from here.
Next up are two more exhibition matches against world-class teams — against Spain next Wednesday, and against Argentina on June 8 at East Rutherford, N.J.
“The opportunity for us to play three games like this doesn’t come along that often,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “We need to take advantage of these games and get the experience to see some different combinations of players. Yet at the same time the next goal is to learn from certain things in this game and apply it next week against Spain.”
While England was not good enough to qualify for the 16-team European Championship next month, it easily dispatched the Americans on the world’s most famous soccer field.
Steven Gerrard scored the second goal in the 59th minute off a through-ball from Gareth Barry that exposed the U.S. defense. With 10 minutes to go, England’s long-suffering fans were belting out choruses of “God Save the Queen.”
The tough match schedule for the U.S. leads up to the start of World Cup qualifying against Barbados on June 15-a much easier opponent than England, Spain or Argentina. But it’s by playing the world’s best, that the Americans are hoping to take the next step forward.
“Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney and others are perfect examples of what we are shooting for,” Bradley said. “We have players who play in Europe but we don’t have seven players starting tonight who played in the Champions League final. It’s important for us that our players move up the ladder, move on to better clubs, who play in better games and get under greater pressure week in and week out. Then when you get them in the national team you can apply that. That’s what we still take away from these games.”
The match drew 71,233 to Wembley, the lowest figure in any of England’s eight games at the 90,000-capacity arena, which opened in 2007 following years of reconstruction.
The United States dropped to 2-7 against the English, winning at the 1950 World Cup and in a 1993 exhibition game at Foxborough, Mass. This matchup came three years to the day after England’s 2-1 win at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Beckham was given a standing ovation before kickoff when he received a golden cap from English great Bobby Charlton in recognition of Beckham’s 100th international appearance, in March against France.
Landon Donovan, Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy teammate, missed out on a chance to become the fourth-youngest player with 100 international appearances. The 26-year-old didn’t dress because of a tight groin.
“I’m more disappointed with the result. But yeah, it would have been nice,” Donovan said, adding he did not sit out to appease the Galaxy. “We all sat down this morning and decided that it wasn’t the best thing to do. It didn’t have anything to do with them.”
Fabio Capello, who took over as England’s manager after the team failed to qualify for Euro 2008, fielded nearly all his top stars. Beckham only played the first half, but that was enough to give Capello plenty of reassurance that the 33-year-old midfielder remains in contention for World Cup qualifiers in the autumn.
Beckham, who joined the Galaxy last year after starring for Manchester United and Real Madrid, nearly put England ahead in the 11th minute, when Gerrard tapped his free kick past goalkeeper Tim Howard. But Greek referee Kyros Vassaras ordered the kick to be retaken.
Terry, whose missed penalty kick cost Chelsea the European Champions League title last week, scored when he outjumped several defenders inside the penalty area and beat a diving Howard with a powerful header. Barry, who had just entered the game, created the second goal when his cutting pass to Gerrard caught defender Oguchi Onyewu upfield. Gerrard beat substitute goalkeeper Brad Guzan with a sidefooted shot inside the left post.
The Americans had few good chances in only their second match at Wembley- the first was a 2-0 loss in September 1994.
Freddy Adu, also a second-half substitute, charged the goal toward the end and fired a shot with the right foot-his weaker side-that forced a diving save by James.
“I would’ve loved for that ball to be on my left foot, but at that moment it was on my right,” Adu said. “But I think I took a pretty good shot and it was a good save.”
Despite the loss, Adu was thrilled about the chance to play at Wembley.
“Unbelievable. These are the guys I looked up to growing up, so it was unbelievable to be on the same field as them,” the 18-year-old said. “I want to be at their level one day, and that’s what I’m working toward.”

TITLE: UN: High Food Prices To Remain for Decade
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS — Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records, meaning millions more risk further hardship or hunger, the OECD and the UN’s FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday.
Beyond stating the immediate need for humanitarian aid, the international bodies suggested wider deployment of genetically modified crops and a rethink of biofuel programs that guzzle grain which could otherwise feed people and livestock.
The report, issued ahead of a world food summit in Rome next week, said food commodity prices were likely to recede from the peaks hit recently, but that they would remain higher in the decade ahead than the one gone by.
Beef and pork prices would probably stay around 20 percent higher than in the last 10 years, while wheat, corn and skimmed milk powder would likely command 40-60 percent more in the 10 years ahead, in nominal terms, it said.
The price of rice, an Asian staple expected to become more important also in Africa in the years ahead, would likely average 30 percent more expensive in nominal terms in the coming decade than over the 1998-2007 period.
“In many low-income countries, food expenditures average over 50 percent of income and the higher prices contained in this outlook (report) will push more people into undernourishment,” the report said.
Millions of people’s purchasing power across the globe would be hit, said the report, co-produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN food agency in Rome, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.
The cost of many food commodities has doubled over the last couple of years, sparking widespread protests and even riots in some of the worst affected spots, such as Haiti.
Millions of people’s purchasing power across the globe would be hit, said the report.
The cost of many food commodities has doubled over the last couple of years, sparking widespread protests and even riots in some of the worst affected spots, such as Haiti.
Many factors, including drought in big commodity-producing regions such as Australia, explained some of the acceleration in prices, as did growing demand from fast-developing countries such as China and India, the report said.
But it singled out the big drive to produce biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, a push the U.S. government is sponsoring heavily, and Europe as well.
“Biofuel demand is the largest source of new demand in decades and a strong factor underpinning the upward shift in agricultural commodity prices,” said the report, adding it was time to consider alternatives.
The benefits at environmental and economic level as well as in terms of energy security were “at best modest and sometimes even negative”, the report said.
Under U.S. plans, about a quarter of the U.S. corn crop will be channelled into ethanol production by 2022 while the European Union is also aiming for as much as 10 percent of road transport fuel to be produced using crops by 2020.

TITLE: Italians Fear Exodus of Immigrants
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ROME — Italians have belatedly realised that Silvio Berlusconi’s crackdown on illegal immigrants could deprive them of hundreds of thousands of foreigners who clean their homes and look after their children and elderly relatives.
Having elected the conservative media mogul to a third term as prime minister in April, thanks partly to his vows to crack down on illegal immigrants, they are now pleading for foreign cleaners, nannies and care-workers to be exempted.
Their pleas may be falling on deaf ears.
“Why should a housekeeper have rights but not a bricklayer?” asked Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, architect of draft laws to be rushed through parliament, which have caused concern in Europe that the right-wing government may be fomenting racism.
Italy saw a record rise in immigration last year, new data shows, with 454,000 newcomers making a total 3.5 million out of a country of 58 million people.
Of these, the biggest groups were Romanians whom many locals blame for crime, especially Roma people.
Amnesty International warned politicians and media against “racist language”, saying: “Italy risks becoming a dangerous country not just for Roma and Romanians but for all of us.”
The number of foreign domestic workers is impossible to verify because so many are illegal. But consumer groups estimate they total 1.7 million, of whom only 745,000 are registered with tax authorities and many do not even have residence permits.
In Rome about 100,000 foreigners looking after the old and disabled are illegal, says consumer body ADOC, which gets calls from worried families “who don’t want to live outside the law”.
Some live in grim conditions, forced to sleep in the kitchen and be on call 24 hours a day, for 600-800 (480-630 pounds) euros a month.
Most are women from countries like Peru, Ecuador, the Philippines and Romania, some of whom say they fear for their future under a government which includes the anti-immigrant Northern League, whose deputy leader is Maroni.
“I read the newspapers, I watch television, so I see what they want to do and of course I am scared about what will happen to me and my family,” said one Philippine woman, who works as a house cleaner and babysitter — illegally, so far — in Milan.
Afraid to give her name, the 27-year-old said she arrived a year ago and her employer is helping her apply for residency.
“I want to have everything in order but these people, the government, they make it even more difficult for us to try to be here,” she said. “It feels impossible for us to make our home here because we are looked down upon.”
The new measures will make illegal immigration a jailable offence, confiscate apartments rented to illegal immigrants, speed up expulsions, extend the time they can be held and turn some camps into detention centres.
Some centre-left opposition figures accuse Maroni of rushing out “improvised” legislation.

TITLE: Jankovic, Venus Williams Make 4th Round at French Open
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic reached the third round at the French Open on Thursday, one easing through her match and the other playing through pain.
The eighth-seeded Williams used a six-game run to beat 241st-ranked qualifier Selima Sfar of Tunisia 6-2, 6-4. Jankovic, seeded third and a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, was bothered by her right arm but defeated Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-2, 7-6 (5).
Jankovic called for a trainer after holding to lead 3-2 in the second set.
“It started gradually, little by little,” the 23-year-old Serb told the trainer after grimacing through a massage. “It’s humid, and the balls are big and heavy. We’re not used to it.”
Jankovic refused to get a bandage on her arm.
“I don’t want tape because I cannot play with tape. Just massage it,” Jankovic said. “I prefer to play with the pain.”
Jankovic broke in the next game to take a 4-2 lead, but Erakovic broke back to 4-3 and held to 4-4. At 5-all, the pair again traded breaks, and the New Zealander led 5-3 in the tiebreaker but Jankovic won the final four points to advance.
Williams trailed 2-1 after being broken early in the first set, but she didn’t drop another game until leading 1-0 in the second set. The American made 16 more unforced errors than Sfar, but made up for that with strong play at the net. Williams won the point on 24 of her 35 trips forward.
Later Thursday, top-seeded Roger Federer and three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal were scheduled to play in the second round.
With the light fading on center court Wednesday and Serena Williams facing the possibility of heading into a third set at the French Open, the eight-time Grand Slam champion started to get a little peeved.
She quickly took care of that problem.
“I didn’t want to go three sets today,” said Williams, who won the last four games to beat Mathilde Johansson of France 6-2, 7-5 in the second round at Roland Garros.
“I’m tired of playing so late and in the dark, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to close it out before then,”’ she added.
Joining Williams in the third round on Day 4 of the French Open was second-seeded Ana Ivanovic, who beat Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-2.
The younger Williams, the only past women’s champion competing at Roland Garros, has made it to the third round at 33 of the 34 major championships she’s entered during her career. The only time she didn’t was a second-round loss at the 1998 Australian Open in her Grand Slam debut.
Since then, she has won eight major titles and gotten 10 years older. For a while now, she has found herself facing players who want to make a name for themselves by beating her.
“Especially if they’re younger then they want to win,” Williams said. “Everyone seems to want to beat me.”
Johansson is only three years younger than the 26-year-old Williams, but she was playing in just her sixth Grand Slam tournament.
“Of course, I was nervous,” said the Frenchwoman, who reached the second round at Roland Garros for the third straight year. “But I was not petrified.”
Maria Sharapova struggled with her serve in the wind in her first-round match on center court, hitting 17 double-faults and barely managing to defeat 103rd-ranked Evgeniya Rodina 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.
The top-ranked Russian, trying to complete a career Grand Slam at the clay-court major, landed only 64 percent of her first serves in the match.
“I was very close to losing this match,” Sharapova said. “Not many things were working for me today after the first set.”

TITLE: Russia Win In Euro ’08 Warm-Up
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia recorded a 2-1 win in a Euro 2008 warm-up match with Serbia played in the German town of Burghausen on Wednesday.
Recently crowned UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg’s marksman Pavel Pogrebnyak and Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko scored one apiece for Russia, while Hertha Berlin striker Marko Pantelic was on target for Serbia.
In the 12th minute Russia went into a 1-0 lead through Pogrebnyak, who fired a 35-metre freekick inside the left post, the ball flying in off the woodwork.
Six minutes later Pantelic missed a clear chance to equalise, heading over the crossbar from six yards from Dejan Milovanovic’s well-struck freekick.
Russia dominated the play but Pantelic nevertheless levelled at 1-1 five minutes before the break, clipping in from close range past helpless goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev following a Russian mixup in defence.
Russia replied positively and began peppering Serbia’s goalie Vladimir Dislenkovic with shots but failed to restore their lead before the interval.
But three minutes after the restart Pavlyuchenko made it 2-1, firing in from seven metres following a short Dmitry Sychev cross from the left.
In the closing stages Russia were in control, stifling Serbia’s attacking efforts and easily holding their advantage to the final whistle.
Russia coach Guus Hiddink on Tuesday unveiled his final selection of 23 players to play in the Euro 2008 finals.
Hiddink said he had to exclude midfielders Oleg Ivanov of Samara and Spartak Moscow’s Alexander Pavlenko from the team’s line-up.
“I was satisfied with all of my 25 players attitude to our preparations,” Hiddink said. “They all worked hard and productive.
“But I could select only 23 of them to play in Austria and Switzerland. We decided that Ivanov and Pavlenko would not be included in our squad. However, we asked Ivanov to stay with the team until the end of the championship.
Russia open their Euro 2008 campaign against Spain on June 10 followed by holders Greece (June 14) and Sweden (June 18) in the group stage. 
n 
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeyev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Perm), Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg)
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Alexei Berezutsy, Vasily Berezursky, Sergei Ignashevich (all CSKA Moscow), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Renat Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moscow)
Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Dmitry Torbinsky (both Lokomotiv Moscow), Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), Yury Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Konstantin Zyryanov, Roman Shirokov (both Zenit St Petersburg), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Sergei Semak (Kazan)
Strikers: Roman Adamov (FC Moscow), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), Pavel Pogrebnyak, Andrei Arshavin (both Zenit St Petersburg), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg)

TITLE: Pressure Mounts on Israeli PM
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: JERUSALEM — Israel was abuzz with speculation on Thursday after the country’s defence minister warned he would force early elections if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not resign over graft allegations.
“What does all this mean? Very simple: Elections in November. Why? Because the prime minister does not intend to take leave, resign or declare incapacitation,” the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said in an editorial reflecting a widespread view.
Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak on Wednesday held a news conference to demand the prime minister resign over allegations he illegally received large amounts of cash from a US financier for his electoral campaigns and possibly for personal use.
Olmert, whose term ends in November 2010, said he had no intention of quitting, although an opinion poll on Thursday found that 70 percent of people surveyed thought he should go.
“I am going to continue to exercise my functions,” the embattled prime minister said on Wednesday.
“Some people think that each time an investigation is launched, it has to lead to a resignation. But I don’t share that opinion — and I am not going to give up.”
Olmert, 62, has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations that have been simmering since police first questioned him in the affair on May 2, although he has admitted receiving campaign donations.
But support for Olmert appeared to be waning rapidly even within his centrist Kadima party.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is believed to be first in line to replace Olmert if he resigns, has made oblique references to the damage done by the allegations.
“Israel must defend itself for its physical survival but must also defend its moral values,” she said. “The state must have a vision and values that apply to itself and the citizens.”
Barak, himself a former premier, said on Wednesday that unless Kadima acts to form a new government, with Labour’s support, “we will work to decide on a new agreed early date for elections.”
Without the support of Labour’s 17 MPs, Olmert’s coalition government would lose its parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Barak dropped the political bombshell one day after Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky testified before a Jerusalem court that he had given Olmert vast amounts of cash.
Talansky said he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years before he became prime minister in 2006.
Housing Minister Zeev Boim, who is considered very close to Olmert, denounced what he called “a settling of scores” but added: “One must admit the Talansky’s testimony caused great embarrassment.”
Media said that even Olmert’s closest aides were pressing him to quit.
“The people closest to him are telling him: ‘Ehud, for your self-respect, get up and go,’” Yediot Aharonot said.
“When a prime minister has such problems, his attention is elsewhere,” said political analyst Efraim Inbar of the Bar Ilan university.
Experts point out it will be difficult for Olmert to focus on peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect negotiations with Syria while fighting for his own political survival.
Opposition lawmakers have also claimed that the scandal-tainted prime minister lacks the moral authority to lead peace efforts that could shape the future of the Middle East.
And more than two-thirds of Israelis believe the premier must go.
Seventy percent believe Olmert should resign against 17 percent who do not think he should step down, according to a survey of 500 people published by the Israel Hayom daily.
Olmert, who became premier in 2006, faces three more police inquiries into suspected corruption involving potential conflicts of interest, fraudulent property transactions, and abuse of power linked to political appointments.

TITLE: Australian Muslims Decry Council Ruling
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: SYDNEY — An Australian Muslim group charged Wednesday that a Sydney council’s refusal to allow an Islamic school to be set up in its area was a “victory for racism”.
Camden Council, on Sydney’s south-western outskirts, unanimously rejected the application for a 1,200-pupil school on Tuesday night, prompting cheers from hundreds of residents who attended the meeting to oppose the plan.
While the council said the decision was based on planning issues, the proposal sparked ugly protests, including two pigs’ heads impaled on spikes at the school site last November with an Australian flag draped between them.
Muslim community organisation Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations (FAIR) said it did not accept the council’s explanation.
“Planning grounds is only a smokescreen for the real issues which were related to community tensions and potential social upheavals if the school was approved,” executive director Kuranda Seyit said.
“I see this as a victory for racism.”
Resident Kate McCulloch, who attended Tuesday night’s meeting in a wide-brimmed bush hat wrapped with an Australian flag, said Muslims were not welcome in the semi-rural area.
“We just don’t want Muslim people in Camden,” she told reporters after the meeting.
“We don’t want them not only here, we don’t want them in Australia. They’re an oppressive society, they’re a dictatorship.”
Australia has more than 340,000 Muslims, according to the latest 2006 survey, with many concentrated in Australia’s largest cities Sydney and Melbourne.
One male resident expressed concerns Muslims would take over the area if the school was approved.
“My kids can’t read Islamic, how are they going to go to that school, it’s all crap,” the man told ABC radio.
“The next thing there’ll be a mosque, then there’ll be the little town that comes with it. It’s not appropriate for the area at all and common sense has prevailed.”
The school’s backer, the Quranic Society, has said it will appeal the council’s decision in the courts.
It has previously denied any links to extremism, saying it wants to provide children in Sydney’s growing Muslim community a good education and religious instruction.
In 2005, anti-Muslim sentiment boiled over into riots on the Sydney beach suburb of Cronulla, where rioters targeted people of Middle Eastern appearance.
And in 2004, a severed pig’s head was impaled in front of a Muslim prayer centre in Sydney’s northwest.