SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1415 (79), Friday, October 10, 2008
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TITLE: Key Part Of Gulf Barrier
Completed
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A key part of the St. Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier was completed on schedule on Wednesday with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin welcoming the inauguration of the barrier’s shipping canal.
The first vessel to sail through the canal was the “Georg Ots,” a ferry en route to Kaliningrad.
The construction of the Flood Protection Barrier — arguably the largest construction project in Europe during the past five years — has dragged on for nearly three decades. 
Work on the structure began in 1978 but construction was suspended in 1987 after a series of mass protests, with environmental activists saying that it would cause catastrophic environmental damage to the Neva Delta and the Gulf of Finland, which would ultimately turn into a swamp. 
Construction was resumed in 2003 although by that time, most of the infrastructure in place had been damaged when a new team had to take into account and apply new technologies. 
Vladimir Kogan, the director of the capital investment department of the Russian Ministry for Regional Development, said at the inauguration that the barrier will be completed by the end of 2010.
Stretching for 25 kilometers, the barrier will incorporate 11 dams and six floodgates.
Over the course of the construction both Russian and international environmental groups have been crying foul at what they called “ecocide” resulting from violations of basic environmental safety standards.
While in recent years no mass public protests against the construction of the barrier have taken place, activists at the local headquarters of Greenpeace said the barrier is surrounded by an ocean of environmental problems.
“To begin with, the construction is illegal,” said Dmitry Artamonov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Greenpeace, citing the Russian law on environmental studies, which stipulates that when construction is resumed following a suspension, a new environmental impact assessment is required. 
“The construction is still using the outdated initial examination, which is no longer relevant, especially considering the use of new technology,” he added.
Environmentalists also say large quantities of construction waste are being discharged into the water, including toxins.
Ecologists warn that the assessment of the ecological impact of the barrier has been superficial. Additionally, the barrier has dramatically reduced natural water flows, by as much as 80 percent according to some calculations, turning the Neva Bay from a self-filtering water reservoir into a storage tank, the ecologists said.

TITLE: Russian Pulls Out of Georgia Buffer Zones
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Solovyov and Margarita Antidze
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: KARALETI, Georgia — Russia pulled back its troops on Wednesday from buffer zones it set up on Georgian territory during a summer war, but Georgia demanded it take further steps before a deadline of Friday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said troops had removed all six of their checkpoints in the buffer zone around Georgia’s rebel province of South Ossetia, ahead of the Friday deadline stipulated by a French-brokered cease-fire deal.
Russian troops remain inside South Ossetia and a second, pro-Russian breakaway region, Abkhazia, which Moscow has recognized as independent states and promised to protect.
“At 2030 Moscow time the last column of Russian peacekeepers withdrew into South Ossetia. The pullback is completed,” Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of the Russian military’s ground forces, told Reuters.
Troops were also seen pulling back from close to Abkhazia.
“Russia seems to have completed most of the withdrawal,” said Hansjoerg Haber, head of an EU monitoring mission, adding that his team was still verifying the situation on the ground.
Russia sent tanks and troops in August to repel a Georgian military assault to retake South Ossetia. Its heavy counter-offensive drew condemnation from the West, and deepened fears over the security of the Caucasus as a transit route for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, bypassing Russia.
A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said the pullback from the buffer zones was complete.
But Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Russian troops still had to quit two disputed enclaves within South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Oct. 10. Tbilisi says the Georgian-populated enclaves — Akhalgori and the Kodori gorge — have for years not been part of the rebel regions.
The dispute underlined the potential for renewed conflict, as more than 200 EU observers patrol the zones to monitor the fragile cease-fire.
“By Oct. 10 ... Russian forces have to withdraw definitely from the territories which never used to be part of the conflict regions of South Ossetia or Abkhazia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union,” Tkeshelashvili told a teleconference.
Russia plans to keep 7,600 troops in the rebel regions, twice as many as before the war that began on August 7 and ran for five days.
“All Russian forces that are here now in Georgia ... that entered the territory of my country from August 7 onwards, they have to be withdrawn,” Tkeshelashvili said.
A Reuters reporter followed a convoy of about 20 military trucks and armored vehicles out of the main Karaleti checkpoint and saw it cross the de facto border with breakaway South Ossetia, 20 kilometers further north.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised the role of the EU in ending the crisis in a speech heavily critical of Georgia’s main backer, the United States.
“When other forces in the world were reluctant or incapable of doing this, it was in the European Union that we found a ... responsible and pragmatic partner,” Medvedev told a conference in the French city of Evian.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Macedonia, said: “I am pleased that Russia appears to be fulfilling its obligation under the cease-fire to withdraw in compliance with Friday’s deadline in Georgia.”
Russia said it would call for an embargo on the sale of offensive weapons to Tbilisi, and for a security mechanism to prevent Georgian attacks at talks in Geneva on Wednesday.

TITLE: Russian Media Downplay Effects of Economic Meltdown
AUTHOR: By Anna Smolchenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — As a wave of grim news swept in from global markets Monday, the MICEX halted trading a record three times, while the RTS shut down twice. The day still ended in a bloodbath, with both indexes plummeting about 19 percent.
But you wouldn’t know that from watching the evening news.
Instead of reports about the markets’ losses, the three main television channels — state-controlled Channel One, Rossia and NTV — showed billionaire Mikhail Fridman telling President Dmitry Medvedev that the global financial meltdown offered new opportunities for Russian companies abroad. 
“I am convinced that the Russian financial system is protected from such a fundamental shock to a greater degree than many other countries,” Fridman told Medvedev at the Gorky presidential residence outside Moscow.
When faced with unpleasant news, the government has often resorted to a strategy that can be summed up as: “If we don’t report it, it didn’t happen.” The tactic led to delays in news about the Beslan attack in 2004, the Kursk submarine sinking in 2000, and even Leonid Brezhnev’s death in 1982. This “silent treatment” now appears to be a government strategy for dealing with the fact that the global financial crisis has reached Russia.
The main channels have either downplayed or ignored altogether Russia’s financial turmoil since it began in mid-September, according to media monitoring companies and research by The Moscow Times, sister paper of The St. Petersburg Times. On Monday, for instance, none mentioned the meltdown in Russia or any possible repercussions from the crisis. Only the smaller Ren-TV and Zvezda channels mentioned the stock plunge, according to Medialogia, a private company that tracks the media.
Channel One and NTV did mention in their Wednesday evening newscasts that trade on Russian exchanges had been suspended after indexes plunged by 10 percent to 15 percent.
The Kremlin recently instructed both state and privately owned television channels to avoid using words like “financial crisis” or “collapse” in describing the turmoil in Russia, said Vladimir Varfolomeyev, first deputy editor at Ekho Moskvy radio.
“Specifically, the blacklist includes the words ‘collapse’ and ‘crisis.’ It recommends that ‘fall’ be replaced with the less extreme ‘decrease,’” Varfolomeyev said in comments posted on his LiveJournal blog late last week.
He said the instruction has been in force since early last week.
Reached by telephone, Varfolomeyev refused to identify his sources. 
Anton Nosik, a pioneer of the Russian Internet, said on his LiveJournal blog that the VGTRK television company, which runs Rossia, banned the broadcast of a recent speech by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin because of its “excessive frankness.” Kudrin, speaking at a financial conference last Wednesday, drew a parallel between Russia’s fortunes and the Biblical story of Joseph and the Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat and seven skinny cows. Kudrin said that just as Joseph saw seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, Russia’s stabilization fund would see an end to the boom years and the start of leaner times.
Channel One and Rossia spokeswomen denied Wednesday that the channels had received instructions and said there were no limits to what they could report. NTV declined immediate comment.
A Kremlin spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was unaware of any instructions that might have been imposed on television. He acknowledged, however, that the television coverage might be out of sync with reality. “So far, nobody is looking at this like a full-blown collapse, which is what is taking place indeed,” he said.
While television channels are ignoring or downplaying news about the crisis in Russia, they are not mincing words about the turmoil in the United States. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly assailed the United States for causing the global financial meltdown, and Putin, in his most recent comments on the topic, accused the United States last week of “irresponsibility” and an “inability to make appropriate decisions.”
Speaking in Evian, France, on Wednesday, Medvedev blamed the crisis on “the economic egoism of a number of countries.”
State-controlled media are not alone in glossing over the Russian crisis. A reporter with RBC Information Systems, a holding that includes a television channel, a newspaper and a news wire, said management instructed reporters in mid-September to avoid citing analysis that might affect the markets negatively.
“We were told that this is not a game” because the entire company and reporters’ salaries depended on a healthy market, the reporter said. 
“Nobody interpreted this as censorship,” he added.
Yury Rovensky, general director of RBC, said the company had received no orders to downplay the financial situation in Russia and said that reporters were responsible for balanced coverage of the market.
“Nobody issued directives to call black gray or white,” he said in e-mailed comments. “But the demand for objective and measured coverage remains despite a desire to give in to panic.”
Other businesses are also pleading for a more positive spin. In an open letter released Wednesday, Sergei Polonsky, billionaire owner of Mirax Group and first vice president of the Builders Association of Russia, asked journalists to create “a positive picture” of the struggling construction market, saying people’s livelihoods and well-being were at stake.
Sidelining news about the crisis appears to be paying off, at least for now. More Russians now believe that the economic situation in Russia is satisfactory than in July, according to the latest survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, a state-connected pollster. 
Fifty-seven percent of respondents polled on Sept. 27 and 28 thought that the economic situation in Russia was satisfactory, up from 53 percent in July. Roughly 20 percent said the global liquidity crunch was a boon for Russia, with respondents explaining “it gives Russia an opportunity to develop independently” and “when America is worse off, Russians are better off.” A quarter of the respondents had not heard about the global crisis at all.
Figures released by the State Statistics Service this week indicate that more than 33 percent of Russians surveyed favor the changes that have taken place in the country this year, up from 30 percent in the same period last year. Twenty-seven percent expect positive economic developments, up from 25 percent last year.
Vladimir Frolov, president of LEFF Group, a Kremlin-connected government relations and PR company, said he did not know whether the government had intervened in television coverage but that any instructions would serve “the public good.” “The last thing that we need is what the English call a run on the banks,” he said.
Mikhail Maslov, of Maslov PR, which works with the Kremlin, agreed that there was no need to talk up the crisis. “A certain calmness wouldn’t hurt our investors,” he said. He declined to discuss the nature of his work for the Kremlin.
He said those who were interested in learning more about the crisis had resources like newspapers and the Internet at their disposal. “He who has ears, let him hear,” he added.

TITLE: Yushchenko Sets Election Date in Ukraine
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko set a Dec. 7 date for new parliamentary elections Thursday after dissolving the legislature following failed efforts to replace his shattered pro-Western coalition.
The decision was likely to deepen political turbulence in the former Soviet republic, with estranged ally Yulia Tymoshenko’s camp and some members of Yushchenko’s own party vowing to challenge the move.
The dissolution of parliament Wednesday marked a tactical victory for Yushchenko in a fierce power struggle with Tymoshenko, his partner in the 2004 Orange Revolution who has fought to keep her job as prime minister.
Both leaders have turned into rivals before the 2010 presidential vote.
The parliamentary vote will be the third in as many years, adding to debilitating political turmoil in a country battered by the global financial crisis.
Opinion polls indicate that Yushchenko’s party is likely to lose parliamentary seats in the December vote. Tymoshenko, who has fought to revive their coalition and retain power as prime minister, says the president’s only motive for dissolving parliament is to remove her from her job.
Tymoshenko has said dissolving parliament before late November is unconstitutional and has vowed to challenge the decision. Her party has threatened protests.
Tymoshenko has also suggested holding a new presidential election alongside any early parliamentary vote, hinting that she would run.
Yushchenko accused Tymoshenko of betraying the country for the sake of her personal gains and said the early vote was a way to preserve democracy and national interests.
Yushchenko pulled out of the nine-month-old coalition with Tymoshenko last month, after she sided with the opposition to adopt a series of laws that trim his powers. Yushchenko has also accused Tymoshenko of selling out to Russia.
Yushchenko has harshly criticized Russia for its August war in Georgia and assailed Tymoshenko for her reluctance to condemn Moscow’s actions. Tymoshenko says she opposed the war, but calls for balanced ties with Russia.
Yushchenko’s decision was likely to plunge the nation into further chaos.
He has asked parliament to pass a series of laws Thursday needed to hold the election, but it was unclear whether that would be done.

TITLE: Opposition Politician Detained Over Caviar
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg opposition leader Olga Kurnosova was on her way home Thursday after being released from what she called “unlawful” detention for carrying a can of caviar in the city of Astrakhan in southern Russia.
Kurnosova, the St. Petersburg head of The United Civil Front, had been detained in Astrakhan, a city on the Caspian Sea, after going there to work with an organizational committee preparing for a conference of Astrakhan democrats.
After spending nearly two days in custody, Kursonova was allowed leave the city and was on a plane about to depart for Moscow, when she was contacted by mobile phone on Thursday.
“The investigation is still under way,” Kurnosova said.
“After investigative actions were held today, I was ordered to appear for another round on Oct. 17th, so on that day I will have to come back to Astrakhan again.”
Kursonova had concluded her work on the conference on Saturday and was returning on the train to St. Petersburg when she was detained, searched and charged with “receiving [illegal goods]” after the police reportedly found 0.5 kg tin can of black caviar in her belongings.
“I can only say that the detention was unlawful and ungrounded,” said Kurnosova adding that she would release more details after consulting her lawyer in Moscow.
She said she was detained at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday and released at around 6 p.m. on Monday. 
Kurnosova said that before the detention she noticed she was being followed by an unknown car in Astrakhan, where she had arrived on Friday.
“Not only me but all the members of the organizational committee were followed,” she said.
The United Civil Front’s spokesman Mikhail Yeliseyev added the policemen who came to detain Kurnosova on the train had written orders to search specifically her and her compartment.
The local branch of The United Civil Front picketed the Prosecutor’s Office in St. Petersburg, demanding that Kurnosova be freed on Monday, according to Yeliseyev.
Formed and led by ex-chess champion and opposition leader Garry Kasparov, The United Civil Front is, with Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party and other movements and groups, part of The Other Russia, the pro-democracy coalition.
The Other Russia organizes dissenters’ marches, the peaceful rallies that irritate the authorities to the extent that they send OMON special task police to intimidate protesters. The Other Russia is also behind the National Assembly, an opposition structure conceived to serve as Russia’s alternative parliament.
Earlier this year, Maxim Reznik, the local leader of oppositional party Yabloko, was arrested under unclear circumstances and charged with assaulting three policemen on the eve of a March 3 Dissenters’ March he was due to attend. He spent 18 days in custody, but on Sept. 3 the case was dropped “due to the reconcilation of the parties.”

TITLE: Dozens Mourn at Banned Meeting
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More than one hundred people came to mourn Anna Politkovskaya, the political journalist murdered in Moscow two years ago, on the second anniversary of her death, even though a memorial meeting had been banned by the St. Petersburg authorities.
According to democratic party Yabloko’s spokesman Alexander Shurshev, who applied for permission to hold a meeting alongside the party’s local leader Maxim Reznik, the administration refused to grant permission “due to seasonal maintenance works at the [planned] location requiring the use of machinery.” The meeting was planned to take place on Troitskaya Ploshchad on the Petrograd Side.
Although the first anniversary of Politkovskaya’s death was marked at the site, for this year’s commemoration the administration suggested the far-away 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution Square on Prospekt Metallistov instead.
“We just did not reply to that at all. Just nothing,” said Shurshev by phone on Thursday.
Despite the ban, mourners of different ages and social backgrounds went on Tuesday to the Solovetsky Kamen (Solovki Stone), a massive stone brought from Solovki island — the site of the first Soviet concentration camp — and laid on Troitskaya Ploshchad as a monument to the victims of Communist repressions.
No maintenance works or machinery were seen on the square at that time.
People brought flowers, candles, photographs of Politkovskaya and special memorial editions of Novaya Gazeta newspaper, for whom she worked, to the monument, which was established in 2002 and bears the inscriptions “To the Victims of the Communist Terror,” “To the Prisoners of Gulag,” “To Freedom Fighters,” and poet Anna Akhmatova’s line “I’d like to mention everyone by name...”
Although two big trucks with OMON special forces police were parked close to the site and a dozen policemen were present at the gathering, one capturing mourners’ faces on a video camera, no arrests were made. 
“The police turned a blind eye to the gathering, while we turned a blind eye to the absence of maintenance work and machinery,” Shurshev said.
A frequent critic of the Kremlin, its Chechnya policy and then-Russian President Vladimir Putin, Politkovskaya was shot to death in her doorway on Nov. 7, 2006, which was coincidentally Putin’s birthday.
“I think that Politkovskaya’s murder caused more harm to the Russian and Chechen authorities than her publications,” Putin commented at the time of her murder, speculating it was a tactic by his enemies to discredit him rather than a consequence of her reporting.
Politkovskaya’s murder was condemned around the world.
Shortly thereafter ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko claimed to have information about the journalist’s killers, but he died less than two months later of polonium poisoning in a London hospital.

TITLE: Candidates Mull ‘Evil Empire’
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The U.S. presidential candidates assailed Russia in their latest debate, with Democrat Barack Obama saying Moscow had engaged in “evil” behavior and Republican John McCain saying it was “maybe” an evil empire. 
In Tuesday’s debate, the two candidates were asked the barbed question, “Do you think that Russia under Vladimir Putin is an evil empire?” and were asked to reply “yes” or “no.” 
Both stopped short of saying “yes” or “no” but made plain that they have problems with Russia. 
“I think they’ve engaged in an evil behavior, and I think that it is important that we understand they’re not the old Soviet Union, but they still have nationalist impulses that I think are very dangerous,” Obama said. 
“Maybe,” McCain answered, adding, “If I say yes, then that means that we’re reigniting the old Cold War. If I say no, it ignores their behavior.”

TITLE: Sennaya Ploshchad Set to See Pik Part II
AUTHOR: By Nadezhda Zaitseva and Anatoly Tyomkin
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The firm Sovetnik, controlled by Mikhail Mirilashvili, plans to build a second building of the Pik shopping center on Sennaya Ploshchad. Experts do not expect that the project will be short of tenants or shoppers.
The city’s Committee for Town-planning and Architecture (KGA) passed a regulation on Sept. 16 according to which Sovetnik and the state-owned company Metropoliten will draw up a project to plan and survey the plot of land between Sadovaya Ulitsa, Ulitsa Yefimova, Gorokhovaya Ulitsa and the Fontanka embankment.  The City Agency for Property Operations (CAPO), which a year ago received permission from the KGA to develop a planning project on this site, has been excluded from the project. The earlier regulation by which CAPO was to manage the project has been annulled by the KGA, the committee’s press secretary, Irina Bondarenko, said. The company was carrying out the work too slowly, she said, and so it was decided to find another developer.
“For us it makes no difference, we will work with whatever company the city chooses,” said Vladimir Garyugin, the head of Metropoliten.  Officials from CAPO declined to comment.
Sovetnik has some of the same shareholders as Petromir, and both structures are controlled by the entrepreneur Mikhail Mirilashvili, according to a source at Sovetnik. Petromir owns the 35,000-square-meter Pik retail center that opened on Sennaya Ploshchad in 2004.  By 2011, Petromir plans to build a second part to Pik on the square over a 20,000-30,000-square-meter area, a source close to the company said. According to him, the new center will be built on the current site of the car park in front of Pik and around the Sennaya Ploshchad metro station, which will be located inside the building. In addition, the company plans to build a car park for 1,000 cars in the courtyard of no.45 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa, the source said. Petromir intends to complete the plans for the center within a month, and is still negotiating with Metropoliten, but hopes to sign a contract with the state company before the end of the year, he said. 
Sergei Fyodorov, development director at Praktis CB, estimates investment into the project at about $30 million, based on $1,200 per square meter.  Building on the sloping approach to the metro station will increase the cost of the project by 1.5-two times, said Ilya Gamov, marketing director at Makromir. He said the new complex would not have any problem finding tenants, although Sennaya Ploshchad already has plenty of retailers.
“During the last few years, Sennaya has become a new, fashionable shopping hub,” said Gamov. “Even people who live in the bedroom districts, where the huge retail centers are located, come to Sennaya to shop.”
The project will only be successful, however, if the company provides sufficient parking, said Fyodorov.

TITLE: KIT Finance Sold Off for $4
AUTHOR: By Max Delany
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The country’s state railways and diamond monopolies on Wednesday stepped in to jointly buy 90 percent of KIT Finance, three weeks after the investment bank defaulted on its debt obligations amid the country’s stock market crash.
Russian Railways, or RZD, and Alrosa will each take a 45 percent stake in the bank, with 10 percent remaining in the hands of the bank’s management, all three companies announced in a joint statement Wednesday.
The deal comes as an apparent shock to the market, after a statement from KIT Finance on Sept. 17 that Lider, the company managing Gazprom’s pension fund, was in the “final stages of talks” to take over KIT Finance with support from Gazprombank and VTB. 
No total value was put on the deal, but RZD vice president Fyodor Andreyev said in the statement that the deal “does not currently demand any substantial financial expenditure from [RZD].” Analysts estimated that KIT Finance’s liabilities could be as much as 30 billion rubles.
A source at the bank said the stake was purchased for 100 rubles, or about $4, Interfax reported.
KIT Finance was only able to meet its obligations after Gazprombank extended it $880 million of credit support on Sept. 19.
In the statement, KIT Finance general director Alexander Vinokurov thanked Lider for having “helped the bank in discussions with investors.” 
“Gazprombank is our creditor,” KIT Finance’s press office said in a separate statement Wednesday.
The deal comes after RZD president Vladimir Yakunin last week announced that the railways monopoly may have to scale back its investment program by as much as 15 percent over the next few years because of the current financial crisis. 
The KIT Finance sale represents the second major restructuring in the country’s investment banking sector, after billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to buy half of Renaissance Capital for $500 million on Sept. 23.
Explaining the deal, which sees the new shareholders receive control over the KIT Finance group, including the KIT Finance Investment company, KIT Finance Insurance and a stake in a joint venture with international investment firm Fortis Investments, Vinokurov said that RZD and Alrosa are both longstanding clients of KIT Finance and “know the bank’s business and managers very well.”
“Thanks to this, the discussions that took place enabled us to form a consortium and agree to the conditions of the deal in a relatively short period,” Vinokurov said. 
All the deal’s participants talked up the potential of the beleaguered bank.
“Now we are sure that KIT Finance’s business can develop and bring in profit for the shareholders,” said Igor Prokhorenko, general director of state-run diamond producer Alrosa.
But analysts said there were still serious questions hanging over the deal.
“There are questions about what kind of guarantees Alrosa and Russian Railways can provide and what they will do with the assets afterwards,” said Anton Tadakh, a senior analyst at Troika Dialog.
While the market knows that KIT needs to be saved, no one knows the size of the bank’s liabilities, Tadakh said. 

Maria Levina contributed to this report.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Factory’s Fate Unclear</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Magna International may abandon a plan to build a $50 million car-parts factory in St. Petersburg, Vedomosti reported, citing unidentified consultants and municipal officials with knowledge of the matter.
The Canadian company may scrap the project because of increasing construction costs and insufficient demand for components from carmakers, the Moscow-based newspaper said. 

<b>AvtoVAZ Eyes Contract</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ expects to win a contract from the Health Ministry for 17,000 vehicles for the disabled to counter declining sales, Vedomosti reported, citing AvtoVAZ officials it didn’t name.
AvtoVAZ won a similar ministry order in April for 11,347 Lada cars, the Moscow-based newspaper said. AvtoVAZ and its dealers have stockpiled 95,000 vehicles as demand for the carmaker’s products slumps, according to Vedomosti.

<b>Magnit Share Sale Off</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — A planned sale of three million shares in Magnit, Russia’s second-largest food retailer, was canceled after a 31 percent drop in the stock price on Wednesday, Magnit Chief Financial Officer Khachatour Pombuhchan said.
The shares had been offered by Credit Suisse on behalf of an individual financial investor, Pombuhchan said.

TITLE: Government Promises Banks Cash, Stocks Rally 17%
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson and Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s government will start delivering cash to banks from $186 billion of pledged emergency funds in “the next few days” as it seeks to stem the biggest financial crisis in more than a decade, a Kremlin aide said Thursday.
   “Markets are waiting for money, for cash,” President Dmitry Medvedev’s senior economic aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Moscow on Thursday. “We feel that this will calm the markets.”
   The Micex stock index was suspended for a 10th time Wednesday and rallied as much as 17 percent Thursday in response to coordinated central bank rate cuts and Medvedev’s decision on Tueaday to channel a further 950 billion rubles ($36 billion) into the country’s biggest banks. Some of the money will come from currency reserves, the world’s third largest, and add to $150 billion in loans, cash auctions and tax cuts to counter the credit squeeze.
“We’ll use some of the reserves to calm down the markets,” Dvorkovich said. “No currency crisis, no banking crisis, no fiscal crisis is possible in this situation.”
The reserves of the world’s biggest energy producer fell $16.7 billion last week to $546.1 billion, this year’s biggest decline, as the central bank sold currency to prop up the ruble and the euro declined against the dollar.
Investors withdrew about $74 billion from the country amid the global financial turmoil, according to BNP Paribas estimates. Capital outflows were spurred by Russia’s five-day war with Georgia in August, a drop in commodity prices and the seizing up of global capital markets, which spread after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
“We are confident that we’re in a stable position,” Dvorkovich said. “The reserves are huge, the reserves are above $500 billion and we believe that any figure above $100 billion is good for Russia today.”
For Russia, the “worst case scenario” would be a substantial slowdown in China that could push down oil prices, he said. The government’s “budget is based on the price slightly above $60 per barrel,” Dvorkovich said, adding that experts estimate the average annual price of Urals blend of crude is unlikely to fall below that level “for a long time.” 
Russia’s Urals blend of crude has fallen to $82.15 a barrel, compared with this year’s high of $140.80 a barrel on July 3, according to Bloomberg data.
Central bank reserves have climbed from $12.3 billion in 1998. China has the world’s largest foreign currency reserves, totaling $1.7 trillion at the end of March, according to Bloomberg data, followed by Japan with $970 billion at the end of May.
“In a calm situation reserves of $100 billion are adequate for Russia, but if more than $500 billion in reserves start to turn into $100 billion too quickly it wouldn’t be good,” said Maxim Oreshkin, head of research at Rosbank. “This would affect investor perception and markets depend on expectations.”
Dvorkovich said Russian authorities were “worried about the slow reaction of other countries to the crisis.”
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 3.3 percent Thursday to 624.07, after the coordinated cuts. The Index had lost 23 percent this month.
South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong today joined the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and China in an emergency bid to stem the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression through a sudden reduction in interest costs.
Emerging markets have lost half their value this year, the biggest annual slump recorded in more than two decades by the MSCI Emerging Markets index.
Russia has held “informal consultations” with Iceland on possibly extending a credit of as much as 4 billion euros ($5.49 billion), Dvorkovich said. “It’s a purely central bank discussion,” he said.
“Global turmoil affects Russia a lot. We are part of Europe and we want Europe to be stable.”
Laws that would enable the Russian government funds to be deployed to help local banks and companies could be in place by  “mid next week,” though this would be unlikely to ease the seizure on money markets, said Vladimir Tikhomirov, chief economist at UralSib Financial Corp.
“We have a mirror image of what’s happening globally and what we see globally is that the banks with access to money from the government or the central bank tend to keep it on their balance sheet and don’t pass it on into the economy,” he said.
The MosPrime rate, the average interest rate Russian banks charge to lend money to each other overnight, rose Thursday to 10.14 percent, its highest level since reaching a record of 11.08 on Sept. 17.
“The whole issue here is the issue of trust. And that seems to be becoming more serious by the day,” Tikhomirov said.

TITLE: Price Agreed for Kovykta Deal
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — BP’s Russian venture agreed on the “basic points” of an agreement to sell Gazprom its Kovykta natural-gas field, said Viktor Vekselberg, one of the billionaire shareholders in TNK-BP.
“We have agreed on all the basic points of the agreement,” Vekselberg told reporters in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday. “Some details remain. We’ve agreed on the money.”
The fate of Kovykta, an east Siberian field with enough gas to supply Asia for five years, has been in limbo since state-run Gazprom and TNK-BP reached a preliminary agreement in June 2007. A dispute between TNK-BP shareholders and diverging valuations of the field have prevented the deal from going through.
It’s now a “matter of weeks” before a final agreement, said Vekselberg, who also heads TNK-BP’s gas business.

TITLE: Private Sector Under Attack
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer
TEXT: The current Kremlin team exemplifies an American saying: They were born on third base but believe they hit a triple. After a decade of record oil prices, Russian leaders became convinced that their enlightened policies turned Russia into a robust economic power on par with the Group of Seven. They came to believe that oil and gas give Russia enormous political and economic leverage.
Having touted Russia as a safe haven in the global financial crisis, they were caught off guard when the crisis hit home. As they frantically search for a solution, they may exacerbate the damage and, in a worst-case scenario, destroy Russia’s private sector.
Few people recall that while the United States enjoyed the Roaring Twenties, Soviet Russia went through a modest consumer boom of its own. The New Economic Policy, or NEP, introduced in 1921 permitted small-scale free enterprise, especially in the consumer sector and agriculture. By 1928, Russia overcame the economic devastation of the Revolution and attained pre-World War I levels of industrial and agricultural output.
The NEP was ended by Stalin in 1929 and replaced with forced industrialization and collectivization. Russia would not attain similar prosperity and economic freedom for another seven decades.
The current financial crisis has been called the worst in U.S. history since the Depression — which was ushered in by the stock market crash of 1929. For Russia, this may prove to be an ominous coincidence. Sure, Russia is very different now from the 1920s, but there are troubling similarities.
Even though the NEP was legal, entrepreneurs, or NEP-men as they were known, were harassed by the expanding Soviet bureaucracy, loaded with onerous taxes and harangued by the press. When NEP-men were shut down and expropriated, which was followed by the mass dispossession of prosperous peasants in the countryside, the Soviet public was only too glad to see them get their due.
Today, Russia’s private sector lives in constant fear of the government. Small and medium-sized businesses are throttled by rules and regulations whose sole purpose is to make it easier for officials to collect bribes. Well-connected bureaucrats set up businesses that unfairly compete with genuine entrepreneurs and confiscate companies from legitimate owners. Rich businessmen, such as Igor Zyuzin, the billionaire owner of the metals and coal conglomerate Mechel, quiver like schoolboys before Kremlin despots.
Even though private enterprise creates jobs and fills previously empty store shelves with consumer goods, entrepreneurs are odious figures for many Russians, portrayed by the media as the bloodsuckers of the 1990s brought to heel by Vladimir Putin. 
In the 1920s, the government retained what it called the “commanding heights” of the economy, including industrial enterprises, banks and transportation. Today, the government once more owns Russia’s most important assets, such as energy companies and the largest financial institutions. 
When Russia defaulted on its debt and devalued the ruble in 1998, the crisis didn’t result in any structural changes in the economy. At the time, the government was weak, while the oligarchs, identified by Boris Berezovsky as the Seven Bankers, held the political and economic reins. Moreover, nationalization was out of the question because the nightmare of the Soviet economy was still fresh in national memory.
Now, many Russians are too young to remember much about the Soviet Union, whereas older people reminisce fondly about free sausage distributed by their factories at New Year’s and conveniently forget the dreariness of the Soviet way of life. Suddenly, a Communist path no longer seems so awful to a large portion of Russia’s population.
Finally, there is the xenophobia. Anti-Western and anti-American sentiment ran high during the conflict with Georgia, which was when the current financial crisis began. Russian government officials at the highest level accuse Washington of purposefully crashing the Russian stock market or at least exporting its crisis to Russia. 
This kind of rhetoric is familiar, and financial controls could follow. In 1998, Malaysia imposed stringent capital controls to combat the Asian financial crisis. Venezuela, Russia’s newest friend and economic partner, maintains a peg for its bolivar, as well as restrictions on the movement of capital. It is very likely that if financial turmoil endures, Russia will slap controls on financial flows in and out of the country.
There is more. Even before the advent of the current crisis, the Russian government showed that it prefers to fight inflation with Soviet-style administrative fiat rather than with economic means. Now, state aid to the financial system is being channeled through state-owned banks. The banking system will be reshaped by this crisis — in part out of necessity, but also because state-owned behemoths will jump on this opportunity. Previous crises, such as the run on Guta Bank in 2004, tended to expand the reach of state-owned banking at the expense of private institutions.
Similarly, when private companies experience difficulties repaying their debts or obtaining new loans, they will get state help by putting up their shares as collateral. If the bad debt crisis worsens, as seems likely, the state will end up with equity stakes in a large number of previously independent enterprises.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the demise of the private sector. However, if financial troubles persist, the government may take over entire industries, ranging from agribusiness to construction and retail. After a prolonged crisis, the private sector in Russia may turn into a collection of small-scale cooperatives reminiscent of Mikhail Gorabachev’s perestroika. No wonder the last Soviet leader recently returned to politics and even founded a new party. 
In the early 1990s, I used to send packages of frozen chicken drumsticks, known derisively as nozhki Busha, or Bush’s legs, to my Moscow friends. Many of them have since become well-off and own prosperous private companies. Well, before long I may find myself scouring the back alleys of Brooklyn once more, looking for fly-by-night outfits offering to send Bush’s legs to Moscow.

Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist

TITLE: The Revolution That Wasn’t
AUTHOR: By Georgy Bovt
TEXT: Last weekend marked the 15th anniversary of former President Boris Yeltsin’s siege of the renegade White House. Yeltsin ordered tanks to fire on opposition lawmakers holed up inside and for troops to flush them out. Scores of people died in the ensuing violence.
The question about what lessons can be learned from those events is typically answered with the assertion that Russia’s parliamentary system of government died. Some people go as far as to say that democracy disappeared and the principle of “the ends justify the means” became part of state policy. The authorities’ overconfidence turned into a relaxation of restraint that led to the farcical elections of 1996. This “victory for democracy” was purchased with money from about 15 oligarchs, who were paid back handsomely at auctions for state assets. 
The bloody events of 1993 leave me with a strange feeling that something is incomplete. Did Yeltsin only narrowly avert a civil war? Yes, partly. Here, some thanks to Yeltsin are in order for not hunting down and finishing off the parliament’s supporters after disbanding the body. Thanks are also due to the followers of Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov for not raising up an armed resistance to Yeltsin’s government. 
The October events leave impressions of other unfinished business as well. Russia did not make a final decision then about its future path. It did not decide if it was prepared to suffer through difficult but necessary market reforms to ensure a better future or determine how it felt about its Soviet past. 
While Yeltsin secured a leading role for the presidential office in the country’s political life after dissolving the parliament, he did not seek to destroy the political careers of his opponents. He allowed them to run for seats in the new State Duma and did not ban the Communist Party, condemn socialism or try to purge adherents of Soviet and communist ideas from state institutions — most notably from law enforcement agencies or the army. In fact, the law enforcement agencies remain unreformed to this day. 
Yeltsin proved to be a bad example of the “classic dictator,” however much his former opponents execrate him posthumously for his anti-constitutional coup d’etat.
Despite achieving unprecedented authority, Yeltsin failed to exploit his newfound power to carry out the market reforms so necessary for the country. He did lay the foundations of a market economy and gave certain guarantees for property rights. But these were inconsistent half-measures, and too many opportunities were lost along the way. Significantly, Yeltsin opened the door for state authorities to peddle influence in the market economy, thereby incorporating corruption into the machinery of the state.
Most important — and probably saddest of all — is the fact that October 1993 did not become a turning point in Russia’s history because nobody learned any lessons from it. The politicians whom Yeltsin and his supporters supposedly defeated eventually carried out their own “creeping coup” and are now constructing something reminiscent of the Soviet system. And they are again running up against the fact that such a system is poorly suited to modernization and progress. 
Where have the Russian people been throughout all of this? As always they remain silent, just as many were in October 1993.

TITLE: Mix and match
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Xiu Xiu (pronounced “shoe shoe”), a California-based dark experimental pop band notorious for its frequent lineup changes, has built a reputation for making unusual and memorable songs outside the mainstream after it was formed around singer, guitarist and songwriter Jamie Stewart in 2000. 
Influenced by pop, noise rock and experimental music, the band takes its name from Chinese actress and director Joan Chen’s 1999 film called “Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl,” a Cultural Revolution-era drama about a teenage girl from the city forced by the Communist government to herd horses in the countryside.
Apart from Stewart, the band now features his cousin Caralee McElroy, who performs on keyboards, flute, bass guitar, harmonium, bells, gongs and guitar, and Ches Smith on drums, percussion and vibraphone.
 “Women as Lovers,” Xiu Xiu’s sixth full-length and most recent album, was released by Kill Rock Stars in January and was described by The New York Times as an “utterly original mixture of home-studio goth-pop, confessional singer-songwriter outpourings and chamber music.”
Apart from Stewart’s own material, it includes an unlikely cover of “Under Pressure,” the 1981 hit by Queen that features David Bowie. On the song, Stewart duets with Michael Gira, the former Swans frontman turned folk singer/songwriter. 
The band performed in Moscow at the first Avant Festival, an annual event celebrating post-rock and indie rock, in 2004, and makes its St. Petersburg debut Saturday at A2.
Jamie Stewart spoke to The St. Petersburg Times last week.
<b><i>Q: What are your memories from Moscow in 2004? </i></b>
A: I remember it very well, actually. The night we arrived, Max [Maxim Silva-Vega], our friend and concert promoter, took me to a small, intense bar and we drank mulled wine. Moscow felt wonderful and crazy. The cab we took home seemed to be held together with string. There were no dials in the dashboard — they were all large black holes — and the driver was quietly, in a whisper, singing along to bleak and sad songs from the destroyed radio.
At the show everyone went out of their way to help us and the audience was very sweet to us during and after the show.
The next day Caralee and I went to see the cathedrals, which were of course [unlike] anywhere on earth and on the walk back to our hotel we chanced upon a courtyard filled with massive bells that seemed to be hung from trees and about 15 people were ringing their hearts out on them. It began the moment we walked by and we were engrossed and smashed by this exploding of metal music. Being obsessed with bells and gongs, for me it was a surreal, heavenly chance.
Later we went to a friend’s apartment [to take] photos and looked at skinhead graffiti in the playground.
There was a couple who lived there and I think the man thought I was staring too much at his girlfriend. I hope I did not cause a problem.
<b><i>Q: At that time, if I understand correctly, the band had no fixed lineup — it was more or less you plus some guest musicians (on the tour you performed as a duo with Caralee McElroy.) Was it intentional? Do you have a fixed lineup now?</i></b>
A: There was always supposed to be a fixed lineup but it is hard to keep a band together. People have quit and gotten fired like clockwork. Someone [bassist Devin Hoff] just quit about two months ago. Now, though, the current lineup seems the best and most solid and to me, interesting. It [includes] Caralee McElroy, who was at the first Russia show. She has been in the band since 2004. Ches Smith joined in 2006 and plays percussion. I think, if all goes well, this trio will be the fixed group. But I am a big jerk and very demanding and sometimes people do not want to deal with me and I do want to deal with them. Caralee and Ches are the best though and I hope we can make it together.
<b><i>Q: From what I saw on the web, “Women as Lovers” has been frequently described as Xiu Xiu’s most “accessible” album — is this true for you? What’s new about it?</i></b>
A: I never think of things in those terms. We tried, as always, to make the best record we could at the time. We always want them to be accessible in terms of people being able to get something from them. For some people that is screaming feedback and grinding tree branches and for other people that is experimental pop. For us it is both. We just try to do our best. As for what is different, that is your job to say, no?
<b><i>Q: Your subject matter has often been described as “dark.” Is this something that never changes?</i></b>
A: It is always about the lives of the people the band is close to, my life and politics. Sadly those subjects frequently are dark. But the point is not darkness, the point is to work to be open and to work to be honest.  To try to write about what was and has affected us the most. There is a love song on the new record. An S&M love song but still it is a true love song.
<b><i>Q: There’s a duet with Michael Gira on the album. How did that come about? Please tell us something about how the song “Under Pressure” was chosen for this collaboration.</i></b>
A: He and I met for an evening when I did a tour with Devendra Banhart in 2003 and we have mutual friends from the Italian band Larsen. His voice and drive is so important to me. I have been a fan since I was 18 years old and love Swans, his solo work and Angels of Light very much. Touching and smashing music.
I asked Fabrizio from Larsen if he thought I could ask him but I was nervous as I only knew him a little and I am such a big fan but I was told he was a teddy bear and to go ahead. He agreed and did a wonderful stunning job. More than I could ever hope for. It was all through the mail from New York to California. 
The reason for choosing that song is that when I was starting Xiu Xiu a friend told me he had seen Freddy Mercury in an interview state that people always made fun of him for being so odd, but that in life and music he could only be himself. It was so inspiring to hear someone so famous say something so common, and small almost. He made me want to try and take things too far. He became a huge hero of mine. I heard that Michael felt the same way about David Bowie and as I said I feel that way about Michael so it seemed like a way to say thank you to these singers who have touched me so deeply.
And it is a great song with no story, an unstoppable pop masterpiece.
<b><i>Q: Do you still mostly work at home, in your home studio? Can you tell us a little about your studio and the process?</i></b>
A: Yes, in my tiny ancient 1998 Pro Tools set up that still works, I have no idea how. I just moved to a rotten part of America so the house rents are really cheap so I have a whole room for it now, but until then everything was done in my bedroom or living room. Not in every case, but most songs are a process of improvisation and then an incredible amount of editing on the computer. There is a combination of spontaneous ideas and then meticulous orchestration. Lots of trying and failing. Everything takes a very, very long time and the songs are rung out of effort and toil and detail after moments of blind flailing.
<b><i>Q: It’s interesting that now you are on the Kill Rock Stars label. How did it happen and what’s good about the label?</i></b>
A: Actually the label we were on before in the U.S., 5RC, was part of Kill Rock Stars so when the head of that label quit doing music it was a seamless change. Musically it is odd for us to be there, as aside from Deerhoof, every band on it has been pretty normal punk or folk, but “business-wise” it was already in place.
What is good about them is that they never mess with us. We can do whatever we want and they never bat an eyelid. They are a free group to work with.
<b><i>Q: Is music in general developing in a positive way now? Some musicians complain about the failures of the music industry, and there’s a lot of good music breaking through but without any help from the labels.</i></b>
A: It was good for us, but we were on a supportive label, but now it is hard.  But yes, labels do seem more and more irrelevant due to downloading. We are more well-known than we have ever been but it is harder than ever to be able to do this full time. People take music for granted and forget that the people making it have spent 10,000 hours making it for them. Ten thousand hours that you only hope someday you might get paid for to pay the rent. Ten thousand hours that you were not at a regular job. 
It is not about being rich but about being able to continue to play. If I had a normal job there is no way I could fly for these shows to Europe for two weeks to play. If people decide that music is free then there will be less music. But I am ranting. I am afraid that I am ranting. 
I think if I had started being in a band now I would think [the way the music industry works now] was great, but I have seen things change in a way that makes things difficult for musicians. “I am an ancient 98 year old grandmother and will never give up my sword and shield!”
There is a lot of good music but that has nothing to do with labels not being there. There was good music before.  People make good music, not means of distribution. They are non-aesthetic. The difference is that the people making [good music] could make a living if they were on an honest indie label.

<i>Xiu Xiu performs at A2 on Saturday. www.xiuxiu.org</i>

TITLE: Chernov's choice
TEXT: The two venues whose schedules were thrown into chaos by the authorities for daring to host a gay film festival have reopened and are now functioning as usual.
<b>The Place</b> and <b>Sochi</b>, clubs popular with students, the art crowd and expats, were unexpectedly visited by fire inspectors on Oct. 1, a day before the opening of Side by Side, Russia’s first LGBT film festival, and were taken to court for alleged fire code violations.
The Place was shut down on Oct. 2 and reopened on Wednesday, while Sochi was closed on Monday and was reported to have started working again on Thursday evening. 
In February, fire inspectors closed the European University in a similar manner. The university had become a political target for some of the programs it was offering using a European Union grant, though the authorities denied that the fire inspectorate was being used as a way to harrass enemies.
Meanwhile, the scandal around the film festival, which organizers eventually held in a clandestine, underground fashion, started to gain traction as its international guests returned to their respective countries and began to write reports.
John Cameron Mitchell, the award-winning director of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus,” told this paper that he was writing about the situation for two magazines, while a report by Basil Tsiokos, the outgoing Artistic Director for NewFest: The NY LGBT Film Festival and a Documentary Programming Associate for the Sundance Film Festival, has already appeared on IndieWIRE, a daily news and social networking site for the international independent film community. 
“Then we were called and told to stay away,” Tsiokos wrote, describing the evening of the fraught opening day of the festival when an impromptu press conference was attemped by its organizers outside The Place — one of the venues that closed so unexpectedly.
“The private security firm that Side By Side employed to protect attendees (itself difficult to arrange, as city officials threatened to revoke the licenses of many security companies Side By Side contacted) were monitoring the area and warned organizers that police officers, as well as rapid response teams in light body armor, were in the vicinity, ready to arrest participants for illegal public assembly. 
“Thwarted again, the press conference was postponed until a secure, private location could be found. In a press release announcing these events, Mitchell noted that ‘it’s incredible the lengths those in power will go to to restrict individual thought, association, and exchange of ideas.’” 
More of this kind of thing will follow, no doubt.

<i>— By Sergey Chernov</i>

TITLE: Pilgrimage to Petersburg
AUTHOR: By Kevin O’Flynn, Max Seddon
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Timur Novikov was an avant garde artist and the spiritual leader of the St. Petersburg art scene before his death in 2002. Now he is a tourist attraction.
Airline S7 and collector Pierre Brochet launched a program of “art tourism” late last month with a trip from Moscow to Novikov’s hometown. 
“People are now looking for new emotions, new reasons to travel, new contacts, new friends,” said Brochet, a French citizen living in Moscow who began collecting Russian art almost 20 years ago. “The idea is to bring people closer to the art-scene.”
Meeting artists, collectors and other members of the demi-monde “certainly beats just the hotel, the beach, and the bar,” Brochet said. Further art tourism is planned all over Russia and Europe, he said without giving details.
S7 has named an Airbus airplane after Novikov, embossing the fuselage with the distinctive image of a rising sun that figures prominently in much of his work. 
A party of journalists was flown to St. Petersburg on what would have been his 50th birthday on Sept. 24 to visit a series of retrospectives in his honor. The retrospectives are on display at the State Hermitage Museum, the Marble Palace Museum and the State Museum of City Sculpture and will be open through Jan. 11, 2009.
Novikov was chosen for the first air tourism trip because of the huge influence he had over the Russian art scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
“Timur didn’t just busy himself with his own work. He institutionalized the underground,” said Sergei Bugayev, also known as Afrika, an artist and a friend of Novikov.
Novikov collaborated with pop group Kino and director Sergei Solovyov in the ‘80s, appearing in the influential film “Assa.” He founded the Department of New Movements at the State Russian Museum, which played a major role in the squat-based youth culture that then dominated St. Petersburg.
He was the central figure in a group of artists who became transfixed with the grand motifs of ancient Greece and Rome. This so-called Neo-Academism was not a stuffy retreat to the past but a cutting-edge contribution to Russian art.
Novikov founded his unofficial New Academy of Fine Arts in 1993, and it is still located in the Pushkinskaya 10 art center today. Writer Bruce Sterling described the style in 1988 as “a shotgun marriage between gilt-and-marble classicism grandeur and total, poverty-stricken street-level hippie junk art.”
Three rooms are allocated to the “Timur’s Territory” exhibition in the Hermitage while “Dedicated to Timur” in the Marble Palace displays a small number of rare and unseen works in the same style. One room in the City Sculpture museum is given over “To the Memory of Timur Novikov” and focuses not on Novikov, but his friends. 
Novikov died of pneumonia on May 23, 2002 at the age of 43.

TITLE: Patriotic epic
AUTHOR: By Michael Stott
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s latest blockbuster film hopes to woo big foreign audiences with an epic tale of doomed love set amid the chaos of the Russian Civil War; its politics conveniently chime with a Kremlin-sponsored mood of patriotism.
“Admiral,” which had its world premiere on Monday evening, glorifies Alexander Kolchak, a former naval hero who led White Russian forces into battle against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and briefly became Supreme Governor of Russia before meeting an untimely end at the hands of a communist firing squad.
Despised in Soviet times as a Tsarist enemy of the people, Kolchak is back in fashion as the Kremlin tries to reconnect today’s resurgent Russia with its glorious imperial past and bury the 74 years of communism which came in between.
“It’s very important we talk about our history, our country, our officers,” director Andrei Kravchuk said in an interview.
“If we understand that we had such a history, such people... we can fill ourselves with dignity, and the notion of motherland and patriotism, which can seem worn and tarnished, gains new, concrete, visible meaning.”
The film’s backers hope that the epic, which opened in Russian cinemas on Thursday in a record 1,250 prints, will secure the same success at home and abroad as an earlier hit by the same producers, the 2004 fantasy horror film “Night Watch.”
Boasting a $20 million budget — huge by Russian standards — “Admiral” portrays Kolchak as a fearless naval commander, loving father, dashing lover and principled leader of the doomed White Russians as they make a final stand in the winter snow.
After a fond farewell to his lover — his best friend’s wife — he faces the Bolshevik firing squad bravely in the winter night standing in front of a cathedral and refusing a blindfold. His executioners wrap his body in a white shroud and throw it into a river through a hole cut in the ice.
The film’s promoters are pitching it as Russia’s answer to the Hollywood blockbuster “Titanic,” stressing the common theme of doomed love amid tragedy and also hoping to emulate some of the American film’s huge box-office success.
Like “Titanic,” “Admiral” “is a story of love amid extreme catastrophe but this time it’s not a ship which is sinking, it’s the entire country,” co-producer Anatoly Maximov told Reuters.
As so often in today’s Russia there is a political subtext.
Mostly funded by state-run First Channel television, “Admiral” is the latest in a series of historical epics that resurrect pre-revolutionary Russian heroes who battle bravely against impossible odds, dogged by foreign villains.
Audiences have already been treated to “1612” showing Polish troops thrown back from Moscow and “Alexander: The Battle on the Neva” where the hero fights off marauding Swedes; a new look at Ivan the Terrible is promised.
Echoing the anti-foreigner theme, “Admiral” opens with Kolchak commanding an imperial Russian warship in the Baltic as it lures a German enemy vessel to destruction in a minefield. It closes with Kolchak betrayed to the Reds by a French general who was supposed to be his ally.
The film is not the first attempt at rehabilitating Kolchak. After the fall of the Soviet Union, at least two statues were erected to the admiral and an island named after him, though attempts to pardon him in court have not yet succeeded.
A “Civic Movement For The Legacy Of Admiral Kolchak” tried in August to gain him posthumous membership of the prestigious Academy of Science for his early career as a polar explorer, with backing from an influential ruling United Russia deputy.
“A new historical truth is opening and through this film we are trying to give an emotional argument for this historical truth,” said Maximov.
Historians are not so sure.
“Kolchak has been judged differently at different times in history,” said historian Roy Medvedev. “...Most Russians know little of him so the film will have a big influence on them.”

TITLE: Fight Club
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Vladimir Putin is out on video as a judo master. Russian state-controlled media have already shown the powerful prime minister at the wheel of a massive racing truck, shirtless on a fishing excursion, and tracking a tiger through the Siberian forest — just a few of the he-man presentations designed to boost his public image.
On Tuesday, he presented an instructional judo DVD that bears his name and shows him throwing an opponent to the mat.
“Let’s Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin” is the product of collaboration between Putin — a black belt — and other judo enthusiasts, including former World and Olympic judo champion Yasuhiro Yamashita. It apparently was privately made and intended mainly for Russians studying judo.
Early Tuesday morning, minutes into his 56th birthday, Putin talked about the video at a presentation before journalists and other guests at a state-owned venue. Putin said the video’s title was little more than an “advertising trick.” Anyone who watches it “will be learning not from your humble servant but from real geniuses” of the martial art, he said.
Portions of the promotion and the video were shown on Russian television later Tuesday. The video depicted a black-clad Putin talking about the history and philosophy of judo, as well as a white-robed Putin demonstrating moves against a practice partner — and throwing him to the mat several times.
“In a bout, compromises and concessions are permissible, but only in one case: if it is for victory,” Putin says at one point in the video, as Asian-style music plays on the soundtrack.
Putin is a one-time judo champion of St. Petersburg, called Leningrad at the time, and he doesn’t hesitate to promote the sport. For instance, the former Russian president has disclosed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to take some martial arts lessons.

TITLE: Coming soon
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PARIS — Karl Lagerfeld recreated the facade of Chanel’s headquarters at 31 rue Cambon as the backdrop for his summer show for the house in the Grand Palais gallery last Friday.
He even emblazoned the address on some of the new season’s handbags, going one step further than the logo, in what will surely prove a shrewd marketing ploy.
The global winds of recession may be blowing but the mood on the catwalk was buoyant: after all, Chanel suits are confidence-boosting and can always be written down as an investment.
House hallmark tweeds were waffled, loose-weave in graphic black and white for a coat with elbow-length sleeves and rounded shoulders over a chain-mail tunic, a boxy two-piece cinched by a shiny wide cummerbund and a slim skirt with a candy pink cardigan with cable knit sleeves.
Jackets abbreviated to just below the bosom were held together by reams of chains and necklaces which tucked into low-slung belts.
His New Age gypsies in tiered flouncy skirts in an iridescent floral print in soft pinks and greys, overlaid with sheer black chiffon, carried guitars with their own Chanel quilted case like the iconic bag.
They were shod in clear vinyl platforms with flippant pink or black pompoms at the ankle.
After a turn by four male dandies, festooned with chains, the girls performed a final runway twirl, all swinging little Chanel carrier bags.
Lagerfeld declined to comment after the collection, saying: “I have overdosed on myself.”
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s answer to the economic downturn is faith and optimism.
“We have been treating luxury as the answer to the recession, but I believe it is having convictions. I believe in hope, beauty and a sense of humor,” he said after his show which was brimming with fun and vibrant with color.
He set the jolly mood with a backdrop and floor painted with white clouds in a brilliant blue sky, also used in his opening numbers.
Catsuits with wide flappy legs, harem pants, cheeky shorts and shifts, tumbled out in deckchair stripes, a print that looked like children’s Lego bricks and another like spattered paint, all in bold primary colors.
Models had rainbow bracelets up to their elbows and triple stacked platform heels on their feet in combinations of red, blue, yellow and green.
As well as his usual favorite Disney characters Goofy and Mickey Mouse, Castelbajac stuck a portrait of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the front of a black and yellow sequined mini dress, with the slogan “I have a dream today” on the back.
The designer took his runway bow with a ‘bride’ completely hidden behind shaggy platinum blonde wigs.
St. Petersburg-based Alena Akhmadullina’s summer collection was refined and feminine, with some quirky touches.
She showed lots of dainty frocks with off-the-shoulder necklines and drawstring hems in a sprigged floral print in dusty pastels, also used for floaty harem pants and layered dresses cut like flower petals.
But the lightness was sometimes spoilt by rather heavy-handed use of elaborate trimming for halternecks as thick as ropes, or wound into cages enclosing the top of dresses, and even statement earrings and weird antler-like protuberances perched on the models’ heads.

TITLE: The beat goes on
AUTHOR: By Elmira Alieva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A ritual action takes place in a spacious dance hall. A group of barefoot people follow the instructions of their leader very attentively. They repeat his movements and ask the spirits to give them energy. This is not witchcraft or sorcery; this is a warm-up for an African dance lesson.
Anyone in St. Petersburg can now feel the rhythm of real African dances at a recently opened new school that came about after an idea from producer Armen Oganezov.
“I watched African dances on the Internet. Then I wanted to learn to dance for real, but I couldn’t find any school for African dancing in St. Petersburg. It was at that point that I decided to open such a school,” Oganezov said.
The lack of teachers was the biggest problem that Aganezov faced. After six months he found Dea Thierry Innosan, a native of Ivory Coast and a student at the Polytechnic University. Innosan learned African dances in his early childhood.
“The special rhythm and music make African dances so specific. These dances are very energetic, but they don’t require any physical exercises or stretching. They resemble a colorful and cheerful theatrical performance,” Oganezov said.
Both treditional and modern African dances are taught at the school. Organizers say that ethnic dances attract more people, because they are more exotic and traditional. 
“The moves in ethnic dances might resemble animals. These dances are devoted to important events, such as the harvest, hunting, wedding or birth of a child. As for modern African dances, we chose Soukous and Coupe Decale, since they are very popular in Europe now,” said Oganezov.
There are no age restrictions for learning African dances. The classes take place in DK Lensoveta at 42 Kamennoostrovsky. One lesson costs 300 rubles ($11.50).
www.afrodance.by.ru

TITLE: Bolshoi bound
AUTHOR: By David Kelly
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: LOS ANGELES, California — In his tough San Bernardino neighborhood, Matthew Leonardi doesn’t talk much of his graceful pirouettes or evenings spent dancing with girls in pink tutus.
He’s not ashamed; he just doesn’t need the grief. And the tights are completely off-limits.
“When they first told me I had to wear tights, I said, ‘Women wear tights’,” the lanky 14-year-old said.
His mother, Valerie, had a ready response: “Superman wears tights.”
Matthew is no Superman, but he has accomplished a pretty super feat. He has been asked to attend the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, a rare invitation from one of the best dance schools on Earth. According to the Russian American Foundation, which organizes auditions for the Bolshoi, Matthew Leonardi is the only American male accepted this year.
“I would say it is uncommon globally because they only invite the best dancers,” said Rina Kirshner, vice president of the foundation. “The academy needs a combination of physical features, talent and training, and Matthew has all three.”
The polite, good-natured boy with the wild head of hair and mouthful of braces has never left the country. He is supposed to arrive in Russia early next month.
His mother, a kindergarten teacher and single parent of four, is trying to line up sponsors to help pay the $18,400 annual tuition.
But it’s an uphill battle.
“I was calling New York looking for donors and when I told this one lady that not many people here had heard of the Bolshoi, she said, ‘Naturally, Californians tend not to know very much about the arts’,” Valerie Leonardi said.
San Bernardino is known for many things — the birthplace of McDonald’s, the Hells Angels. Ballet isn’t one of them.
Still, Cecilia Hering, Matthew’s dance teacher, said famed dancer Twyla Tharp once lived and trained in San Bernardino.
“When I was dancing, maybe one in a thousand could go to the Bolshoi,” she said. “It goes to show that it isn’t where you come from.”
Even Mayor Patrick Morris, 70, has dancing chops. He and his daughter belonged to a ballet company for years. They danced in “The Nutcracker,” an annual performance done with the 80-year-old San Bernardino Symphony.
Finding Matthew Leonardi in his city delights Morris but doesn’t surprise him.
“From the capital of the Inland Empire come a lot of great people,” he said. “And I don’t think we are underrepresented in the world of great talent.
“I am hoping I can tell his story in a persuasive way so the good citizens of San Bernardino can help make his dream come true.”
Ruddy-cheeked, with an easy smile, Matthew was noticed in August while participating in the Bolshoi academy’s Summer Intensive Program in Connecticut. Several top professors were impressed.
“They were looking for those with talent and natural ability,” said Kirshner, of the Russian American Foundation. “A handful of people were selected. He was the youngest and the only boy.”
The course in Moscow lasts about four years. It includes academics, and when he graduates, Matthew will receive something akin to a bachelor of fine arts degree, his mother said.
Matthew seems somewhat overwhelmed by the prospect. Prior to this, he wasn’t even certain he wanted to be a professional dancer — maybe an architect or engineer. That’s all changed now.
“I never thought it would come to this,” he said. “I’d like to be a professional ballet dancer. I want to be the best at what I do.”
Matthew began dancing at age 4, when his sister’s ballet teacher asked him into the studio so he would stop crying in the hallway. He immediately began imitating the moves.
“A teacher took me aside and said, ‘He’s very good; he could be a dancer’,” his mother said. “He began dancing at the Inland Dance Academy and did ‘The Nutcracker’.”
A chronic ear infection rendered him partially deaf for years, and he didn’t start talking until he was almost 5. He danced before he could speak.
Soon he was winning competitions, but he felt isolated.

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“I was the only boy, and I was around all these girls,” he said. “I felt funny doing it, and the girls didn’t want to play with Transformers.”
In middle school, he played football and basketball and didn’t talk much about ballet. Other students teased him when they found out, he said.
“I just walked with my head down, I didn’t look at the other kids,” he said. “Some carried knives.”
His mother recently transferred him to a Catholic school.
One of Matthew’s ballet teachers was Spencer Gavin, a member of the State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara. He understood his pupil’s plight.
When Gavin was in high school in Riverside, he, too, kept his ballet a secret.
“I played sports, and the last thing I wanted to tell my friends was that I was wearing tights on the weekend,” he said. “Matt is probably the only boy dancer in a 30-mile radius of his home. I worked with him for a year, choreographing contemporary pieces. He’s a sponge who really soaks it up.”
Matthew comes from an artistic family. His mother ran a puppet theater, his grandfather headed the music department at Northern Arizona University and his grandmother taught music at Phoenix College.
The family’s San Bernardino home is in a neighborhood that’s seen its share of crime. Iron bars cover the windows and gang activity can be found close by.
Matthew stood outside recently talking about a break-in and other incidents.
“I saw a group of guys on the street once and one of them was holding a weapon,” he said, sounding both excited and frightened.
His mother frowned.
Despite financial challenges, the Leonardis have excelled in academics and sports. Matthew’s older brother attends Johns Hopkins University on a scholarship, and his 17-year-old sister hopes to get a scholarship to Princeton to study medicine.
Valerie Leonardi works three jobs. She teaches kindergarten, teaches children too sick to attend class and runs an after-school program.
Most evenings, Matthew trains at Hering’s School of International Ballet in Redlands, often arriving at 3 p.m. and staying until 8.
Once inside, the limber teenager sheds any sense of self-consciousness and dances slowly, deliberately around the room.
“I love to travel across the floor because you can show your emotions without saying anything,” he said. “When you jump in the air, you feel this total sense of freedom.”
On a recent evening, Hering put him through his paces.
“One, two, three, pirouette!” she shouted. “Arabesque turn!”
He sweated as he kept up with the commands.
“Nothing is more refined or defined as a ballet dancer,” Hering said approvingly.
“Matthew has a natural ability for artistry. When he sees something he can imitate it,” Hering said.
After class, she asked if he was ready for the challenge of the Bolshoi.
Matthew nodded.
“I heard they go easy on Americans,” he said.

TITLE: Young at heart
AUTHOR: By Elmira Alieva
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Young film directors, actors and cinematographers from all over the world will attend St. Petersburg’s first international youth film festival that started Thursday and runs through Sunday (Oct. 9-13) in an event its organizers claim is new for Russia.
“The festivals that take place in Russia are either only for Russian artists or for world professionals of all ages. What makes our festival unique is that it is organized for young people below 29 years of age from any country,” said Yekaterina Faldina, PR director of the festival.
The goal of the festival, which is organized by “Insight In” Art-Center and the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics & Optics, is to discover and showcase young filmmaking talents, professionals and amateurs, and to give them an opportunity to present their work to a wide audience of professionals and cinema aficionados. 
“We’ll have nominations for fiction and documentary film competitions and for out-of-competition screenings, as well as different prizes, such as a people’s choice prize,” Faldina said.
There will be about 90 screenings from more than 20 countries presented at the festival. The program includes fictional, documentary, animation and experimental films. 
“There will be special French, Spanish and German film days. We have received many films from these countries. We’ll also have out-of-competition screenings, exhibitions, a fashion show by a talented designer from St. Petersburg, parties and other cultural events,” Faldina said.
The principal venues of the festival are Mirage Cinema center, Yesod cultural center and Loft-Project Etazhi. At night, films will be shown at Griboedov nightclub. The working languages of the festival are English and Russian with simultaneous translation.
The festival comes a week after an independent lesbian and gay film festival encountered problems when two of its venues were closed by fire officers. Nevertheless, Faldina hopes her festival, which counts City Hall among its sponsors, will strike a tolerent note.
“The screenings we received are very different. They all have different ideas and subjects. There is a social topic, a theme of tolerance. Young directors, who will come, will make one-minute videos on tolerance,” said Faldina.
The opening film of the festival was “Nomadak TX,” the work of the young Spanish director Raul de la Fuente, about an eventful journey that begins when two musicians carve a txalaparta out of wood and travel the world to combine the sound of this xylophone-like Basque instrument with local music from Finland to India.
The closing film is “Mayak,” directed by Maria Saakyan, which portrays war in the Caucasus through the eyes of a young woman.

www.iyfest.org

TITLE: Din Din at Chin Chin
AUTHOR: By Rachael Levasseur
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Chin Chin Cafe 
Mytninskaya Nab., 3  //  Tel: 232 1042  // Open daily from noon until midnight // Menu in English and Russian // Mastercard and Visa accepted // Dinner for two with alcohol 2,470 rubles ($94) 

What you won’t find at the Asian fusion restaurant Chin Chin Cafe are your typical Russian tastes or service. Original Asian-themed flavors are served by a pleasant wait staff to the St. Petersburg sophistiquees, who come here as much for the fresh food as for the refined ambience and exemplary service. 
Music, lighting, and decor create the perfect setting for Chin Chin Cafe’s degustative delights. 
The lighting is soft without being too dark while candles illuminate diners’ faces as they lounge in stylish, comfortable chairs to admire the muted greens and light browns of the exposed hardwoods of Chin Chin’s interior. 
Elegantly wrought chandeliers, and Euro-chic decor with subtle Asian accents, such as the wooden birdcage hanging from the ceiling and the rough texturing along one wall, are highlights. 
Would-be empty windowsills eclectically display seemingly random treasures — a tiny Roman bust, a candle, a vintage photograph. Attention to detail is paid right down to the placing of a mandarin on each table, waiting to be peeled and eaten. 
In a separate room, plush couches are placed around solidly built tables as an even more comfortable option for large groups, and the whole place has the feeling of a living room. 
The restaurant features a full bar with a wide selection of wines, including a few Chinese wines, liquor, and ingenious cocktails, such as the Pineapple and Ginger Martini (200 rubles, $8), which is comprised of ginger flecks swimming in a luscious swirl of vodka and pineapple juice. The Mango Margarita (300 rubles, $11.50), made with fresh mango, is an intriguingly tropical take on the standard Margarita. Drinks were served with a cheery “chin chin!” from the waitress. 
Those avoiding alcohol need not fear boredom from the standard soda offerings, as Chin Chin also offers homemade fruity lemonades (150 rubles, $6). The fact that they pour your water for you does not compensate for its price, which, at 150 rubles ($6), is excessive for the size of the bottle (0.25 liters).
Starters include a collection of Chinese and Asian-inspired dishes, such as dumplings, spring rolls, and soups, which range from 180-700 rubles, as well as such tried and true standards as green salads. The servings are generous and great quality for the price. The Caesar salads were a temptation, however, the Salmon Tartar turned out to be a delectably savory choice and was topped with chunks of ripe avocado, fresh arugula, and red caviar, although it wasn’t prepared “tableside” as indicated on the English menu. Also available are Asian noodle-based and fried-rice dishes (210-360 rubles, $8-$14). In addition to standard meat, poultry, and seafood options, Chin Chin has a selection of vegetable entrees, making the restaurant a good choice for vegetarians. 
The Salmon Teriyaki (400 rubles, $15) was cooked to melt-in-your-mouth perfection and delicately bathed in its sauce, allowing it to accent, rather than overpower the salmon. The Chicken in Yellow Curry (350 rubles, $13) was a delight — moist, succulent pieces of chicken nestled alongside potatoes and lemongrass in a bowl of exquisitely delicate, thick and potent curry sauce. The scent alone is enough to make any curry lover dizzy. 
To round off your dining experience, you may want to finish with one of the alluring desserts, such as the Lemon Lime Sorbet or the Mille-Feuille (60-480 rubles, $2-$18). Or, you may find yourself perfectly sated by the healthy portions of an appetizer and entree and the ambience. Whatever you choose, savor your meal, and “Chin chin!”

TITLE: In the spotlight
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The first season of Channel One’s reality show, “The Last Hero,” hasn’t aired yet, but it made headlines last week after two disgruntled contestants told Ekho Moskvy radio station exactly why they walked out of the show. And it wasn’t because they had to eat worms.
The show is the Russian version of “Survivor,” where contestants have to carry out tasks on a desert island to win a money prize. Now in its fifth season, it has previously featured such luminaries as the pop star Zhanna Friske — who even appeared in two seasons. The new season is currently in production.
One of the latest contestants was novelist Viktor Yerofeyev, which is somewhat surprising. He’s not one of your reclusive authors, since he hosts a talk show about books on Kultura channel and goes to soirees with his much younger wife, but it’s still quite a leap to picture him on a beach in his swimming trunks. 
Sadly, we won’t be seeing much of Yerofeyev, as he and actor Nikita Dzhigurda walked away right at the beginning. They were supposed to swim to an island, with the contestant who got there last being eliminated. That was unfair, since several contestants were young women. They complained and refused to go on. 
In the radio interview they gave a list of grievances. First, they arrived at the hotel in Panama and weren’t met by a welcoming committee. Then they had to stay longer than planned and ran out of food. At one point, the organizers went into the rooms of the non-celebrity contestants and removed all their possessions without warning. 
The show was “fascist,” Yerofeyev said. When filming began, the contestants were transported in a cattle cart and placed in a barbed-wire enclosure with a watchtower. They had to march and had mug shots taken. The show’s director, who had been quite pleasant on the plane, put on a uniform and started shouting at them. Then the host, It Girl Ksenia Sobchak, appeared in an S&M outfit with a naked bottom. “She looked like a blow-up doll from an Amsterdam sex shop,” Yerofeyev said.
When the two contestants refused to carry on, they were offered large sums of money to change their mind, Yerofeyev said. That was on top of the monetary compensation that they were already receiving for giving up work to appear on the show.
Yerofeyev talked a lot about the show being immoral and encouraging people to act in the worst way, but on the other hand his protest is likely to boost ratings for a show that’s getting a bit long in the tooth. I’ve never watched an episode all the way through, but might do so now. 
Plus, people walking out of reality shows never really look as much like heroic crusaders as they think they do. I can’t remember now why feminist academic Germaine Greer walked out of “Celebrity Big Brother,” but I think it was over the dirty state of the kitchen. 
In any case, no one likes the slaves climbing out of the lions’ pit. 
If this show is fascist, then I don’t know what to call TNT’s latest reality show, “Who Doesn’t Want to Be a Millionaire,” which started on Saturday. The contestants are trapped in a bunker 300 meters underground. They have to negotiate and agree which of them will receive the $1 million prize. The catch is that every time one of them leaves, the prize halves in size. 
The host will be Ksenia Sobchak again, but possibly without the naked bottom.

TITLE: German Goalie Surrenders to Hand Injury
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BERLIN — Germany will be without first choice goalkeeper Robert Enke for Saturday’s World Cup qualifying match against Russia after the Hanover player broke a wrist bone in training.
The German football federation (DFB) said on Thursday that Enke had sustained the injury during a closed doors training session on Wednesday afternoon.
Enke has kept goal in all three of Germany’s matches since Jens Lehmann’s retirement following Euro 2008.
Germany coach Joachim Loew will now have to choose between uncapped reserve goalkeepers Rene Adler and Tim Wiese for Saturday’s match in Dortmund.
Germany’s reputation for defensive solidity will face a stern test from Russia in Saturday’s 2010 World Cup Group Four qualifier and Loew expects any lapse in concentration to be severely punished.
Loew said on Wednesday he had seldom seen a side that can change gears as fast and that the fluidity and pace of Guus Hiddink’s team rivaled European champions Spain.
“There are often only a few moments between them winning the ball and completing an attack,” Loew said at a news conference.
“They have a balanced and disciplined team and their approach has become much more structured and organized. If we make too many mistakes we will be punished without mercy.”
Euro 2008 runners-up Germany could only manage a 3-3 draw with Finland in their last qualifier in Helsinki, but still lead the group with four points from two matches. Russia are in second with three points from their only match so far, a 2-1 home win over Wales.
Hiddink is suffering something of an injury crisis of his own ahead of the Dortmund tie, with striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, defender Denis Kolodin and midfielder Dmitry Torbinsky ruled out.
Pavlyuchenko has been Russia’s key striker for the past 12 months, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over England in a crucial Euro 2008 qualifier last October and netting three goals at Euro 2008 during Russia’s run to the semi-finals.
“Pavlyuchenko’s injury is a huge blow for us, the same goes for Kolodin,” said Hiddink, who has added striker Dmitry Sychev and midfielder Denis Glushakov as cover.
“Injuries are part of the game and, no doubt, we’re going to overcome any problems,” he added.
Loew can call again on the experienced central midfield pairing of captain Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings, who both missed the Finland match. Defenders Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrich are also back in the squad.
“I am happy that the return of Ballack, Friedrich, Frings and Mertesacker gives me more options but I will look closely at each player in training and then decide who plays,” he said.
Hiddink said Russia’s performance at Euro 2008 had given his side a huge confidence boost.
“My players are no longer afraid of any team, although Germany are always a tough opponent,” the Dutchman said. “So if we get a draw there I’ll be fully satisfied.”

TITLE: Ten Killed in Roadside Bomb Attack in Pakistan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Bombings killed 10 people and wounded at least four in Pakistan on Thursday, including an attack in a police complex in the capital the same day lawmakers huddled for a private briefing on the militant threat facing the country.
The deaths happened in the nation’s volatile northwest, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have established bases near the Afghan border.
Four children, two police officers and four prisoners died when a roadside bomb exploded under a prison vehicle in the Dir region, said government official Sher Bahadur Khan. Initial reports indicated a school bus was caught in the blast, but others said the children were walking. Ten people were wounded.
In Islamabad, an apparent suicide car bombing severely damaged an anti-terror squad building and wounded at least four police in the heavily guarded Police Lines neighborhood. The explosion occurred just moments after a man delivered candy to the facility and police were examining whether the events were linked.
Some body parts were found that might belong to a suicide bomber, Islamabad Police Chief Asghar Gardaizi said.
In recent weeks militants have stepped up attacks on security, government and Western targets in Pakistan, reaching well beyond the northwest border areas. A Sept. 20 suicide truck bombing in Islamabad killed 54 and severely damaged the Marriott Hotel.
The latest incident in Islamabad happened amid tight security for the briefing of lawmakers at the Parliament building. No one immediately took responsibility.
Ambulances streamed into the smoke-filled police complex after the blast.
The front section of the three-story, red-brick building was destroyed and a staircase had collapsed. Shoes were strewn among the rubble. Gardaizi said at least four people were hurt; others put the wounded toll as high as nine.
Police commando Gulshan Iqbal told The Associated Press he was sitting at a nearby barrack when a “Suzuki car hit the anti-terror squad barrack and exploded with a big bang.”
He said the main building was largely empty because many officers were guarding Parliament and other areas of Islamabad.
“About 10 people were inside at the time, and we saw six or seven injured,” he said.
Gardaizi said a man in a green car had driven up to the building, entered and handed boxes of candy to a person inside. He later left the building and within moments the explosion occurred, Gardaizi said.
It was unclear what happened to the delivery man. Gardaizi said authorities would probe why a civilian vehicle was allowed in the area.
The attacks in Islamabad and Dir drew condemnation from the prime minister of Pakistan, where the military says suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people since July 2007, most of them civilians.
The statistics also said 1,368 security force personnel had been killed since late 2001, when Pakistan’s former military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, allied the country with Washington in its war on terror.
The young civilian government called the joint Parliament session in an effort to build a national consensus on the Muslim nation’s role in the U.S.-led war on terror.
Many in Pakistan believe the alliance with the U.S. has increased violence in their nuclear-armed country. The U.S. has shown impatience with Pakistan by launching cross-border missile strikes in the northwest, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is rumored to be hiding.
On Wednesday, lawmakers were shown images of militants killing people, according to two attendees who requested anonymity because like others at the meeting they were sworn to secrecy. Statistics on militancy were also given, one said, declining to divulge specifics.
Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, an army general tapped to take over Pakistan’s main spy agency in the coming days, gave the briefing. The topics included Pakistan’s military offensives against insurgents in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
Speaking in general terms, some politicians said the briefing Wednesday was superficial.
“It was more like the description of the symptoms than diagnosis of the disease,” Khurram Dastagir, a member of the opposition party of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, told Dawn News TV. “I am seeking to find out what is causing this extremism and how did it come about.”
Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa said Thursday’s session was arranged to allow lawmakers to ask questions. He said the meetings could go on for several more days.
Concrete barriers and barbed wire ringed a wide perimeter around Parliament. Members of the media were not allowed in.

TITLE: China Says It Will Not Torture   Muslims if They Are Returned
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — China on Thursday rejected concerns that it would torture Chinese Muslims held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay if they are returned to China, saying they will be dealt with according to the law.
China has called on the U.S. to repatriate 17 Chinese Muslim detainees who were to have been released this week, saying they are terrorists and should be brought to justice, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.
“Some people may worry whether these people could be tortured in China, I believe this is biased. China is a country under the rule of law, and forbids torture by any Chinese authorities, be they judiciary or public security,” Qin said.
The Bush administration is trying to find a country to accept the group and has said the detainees might be tortured if they are turned over to China.
In a 19-page emergency request to a federal appeals court, the Bush administration argued for the postponement of the detainees’ release, maintaining there would be only “minimal harms” if the detainees were to stay at Guantanamo a while longer.
On Wednesday, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed to put off the group’s release for at least another week.
The move came a day after District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ordered the government to free the detainees by Friday, saying they have been cleared of wrongdoing.
The detainees, captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001, are Uighurs from Xinjiang — an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations — who say they are oppressed by the Chinese government.
“We have raised our position to the U.S. and we hope they will take this position seriously and repatriate these 17 people to China shortly,” Qin said.
The U.S. Appeals Court set a deadline of next Thursday for additional filings, when it will be left up to the judges to decide how quickly to act — and in whose favor.
Qin said the men are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which China says is an Islamic terrorist group that seeks to split the western region of Xinjiang from China. The U.S. listed it as a terrorist organization in 2002.

TITLE: Kremlin Cup Claims  More Scalps
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Ana Ivanovic became the second high-profile player to tumble out of the Kremlin Cup in two days after losing to Dominika Cibulkova 3-6 6-2 7-6 on Wednesday.
The Serbian fourth seed followed Wimbledon champion and sixth seed Venus Williams, who was ousted by Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in the first round on Tuesday.
World number five Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game but the unseeded Slovak fought back to force a tiebreak, where she held her nerve to clinch a memorable victory.
“It was my first match against Ana so I really didn’t know what to expect from her,” Cibulkova told a news conference.
“In the first set I was nervous and played defensively but in the second and third sets I became more aggressive, putting pressure on her. In the tiebreak, I knew I had to stay aggressive to win the match and that’s what I did.”
Second seed Dinara Safina avoided the exit after outlasting former world number one Amelie Mauresmo 6-7 6-4 6-4 in the last match on centre court which finished near midnight.
Safina led 5-2 in the decider before the Frenchwoman, who has dropped outside the top 20 because of injury and poor form, staged a late rally.
She broke the world number three in the ninth game to get back on serve 5-4 but the Russian hit right back to seal a hard-fought victory.
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva also showed her fighting qualities to outlast Slovenian qualifier Katarina Srebotnik 6-3 4-6 7-6 to reach the quarterfinals.
The Russian third seed hit two successive aces in the tiebreak to end a contest that lasted nearly three hours.
“I’ve played her several times this season and every time I have had problems with her game,” said holder Dementieva who lost to Srebotnik in their last encounter in Tokyo last month.
“I was prepared this time, so it paid off.”
Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also reached the last eight, the Russian eliminating Italian Sara Errani 7-6 6-1, but compatriot Anna Chakvetadze, seeded eighth, disappointed home fans at the Olympic sports complex.
Chakvetadze, who has struggled for form for much of the year, lost to Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 2-6 6-1 6-4.
Men’s third seed Mikhail Youzhny was also shown the door, going down to fellow Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5 4-6 7-6.
World number 22 Youzhny was expected to beat his lesser-known compatriot but paid the price for losing his cool in the tiebreak as he allowed the 66th-ranked Gabashvili to reel off the last seven points in the match.
Second-seeded Russian Igor Andreev, who won here in 2005, also bowed out, losing to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 3-6 7-5 6-4.
Russia lost another seed when fifth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, who won his fifth ATP title in Metz on Sunday, withdrew from his first-round match without hitting a ball with a shoulder injury.

TITLE: Russia Sets Up New League To Compete With NHL
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MOSCOW — Intent on challenging the pre-eminence of America’s National Hockey League (NHL), hockey powerhouse Russia has established a rival organisation — the Continental Hockey League (KHL) — uniting 24 clubs from four countries.
The question now, say devotees of the sport, is whether the upstart will give the august NHL a run for its money.
“This new continental league will take our hockey to a whole new level,” Russian hockey federation chief Vladislav Tretiak said recently as he welcomed the creation of the new league.
“It will become, I believe, the factor that will help us win the world and Olympic titles on a regular basis.”
The KHL project was unveiled earlier this year by Russia’s former sports minister Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexander Medvedev, the deputy chief of state-run gas behemoth Gazprom, with backing from the Russian government.
The new league, built on the foundation of the Russian Superleague, also includes sides from three former Soviet Republics: Latvia (Dynamo Riga), Kazakhstan (Barys Astana) and Belarus (Dynamo Minsk).
Ukraine’s top club, Sokol Kiev, currently play in the Russian minor league but may also join the KHL in the future.
Unlike its predecessor Superleague, which was controlled by Russia’s national hockey federation, the new league is completely independent.
The KHL won the right to hold the Russian Open championship and to determine the national champion from the Russian Ice-hockey Federation for the next three years.
As for financial support, the new league can count on backing from top Russian firms that have in recent years emerged as among the wealthiest corporations in the world.
In addition to Gazprom, these include: metals giant Magnitogorsk Metal Complex, oil company Transneft and a number of the country’s largest banks and insurance companies.
Together, they have endowed the new league with a year’s budget exceeding 100 million dollars, according to league officials.
“The new league has colossal prospects,” Fetisov said.
“And we are set to keep on working to make these prospects even brighter. At the end of the day, it is the spectators and the game itself that will be the main winners.”
Fetisov and others involved in the project do not hide the fact that they modeled the new league largely on the NHL. At the same time, they are confident that their league will soon outstrip its North American rival.
“We have completed a tremendous work,” Fetisov told reporters shortly after the formal launch of the new league this summer.
“At the beginning, the concept of the new league and its organising principles were not well balanced. But we continued talking and finally worked out a plan accepted by all involved in the project.”
The new league’s regulations include annual draft procedures, overall club salary limits and many other features borrowed from the NHL code.

TITLE: U.S. Report on Afghanistan Bleak
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies conclude in a draft report that Afghanistan is in a downward spiral and they doubt whether the Kabul government can stem the Taliban’s rise, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The classified report says corruption inside President Hamid Karzai’s government and an increase in attacks by militants operating from Pakistan have accelerated the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan, the Times said, citing U.S. officials familiar with the document.
Asked to comment on the intelligence report, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had not seen it herself, but she confirmed that intelligence agencies had been asked to have a close look at Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is a difficult place. It has made progress since 2001. We have all talked about new circumstances that have arisen there and we are doing a review to look to see what more we can do,” Rice told reporters before a meeting with Latvia’s foreign minister.
Agencies across the U.S. government, including the State Department and Pentagon, are conducting a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan seven years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government.
“We are looking also at what we can do to be both supportive of the ministers that President Karzai has put up. We are looking to see where some of the strengths are and how we need to support those strengths and also how we can help the Afghans where there are weaknesses,” Rice said.
The New York Times said the intelligence report, a nearly completed version of a National Intelligence Estimate, is set to be finished after the November elections and will be the most comprehensive U.S. assessment in years on Afghanistan.
An NIE is a formal document that reflects the consensus judgments of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Most NIEs remain classified.
Beyond the cross-border attacks launched by militants from neighboring Pakistan, the intelligence report asserts that many of Afghanistan’s most vexing problems are of the country’s own making, the Times quoted the officials as saying.
The report cites gains in the building of Afghanistan’s national army. But the officials said it also laid out in stark terms what it described as the destabilizing impact of the booming heroin trade, which by some estimates accounts for 50 percent of Afghanistan’s economy.
U.S. Army General David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan gripped by the intensifying insurgency.
Petraeus, the former commander in Iraq who is credited by U.S. officials with saving Iraq from civil war, is scheduled to take over U.S. Central Command on October 31. In his new post, he will oversee American military interests across the Middle East and into South and Central Asia.

TITLE: Armstrong’s Return Gets Green Light From ICU
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA — Cycling’s governing body is relaxing its own rules to allow Lance Armstrong to make his road race comeback in Australia in January.
The International Cycling Union said the seven-time Tour de France champion can compete in the Jan. 20-25 Tour Down Under, his first race since coming out of retirement after three years.
A strict application of dope testing rules would not have allowed the 37-year-old American to compete until Feb. 1, 2009, six months after he filed paperwork with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
But the UCI said on Wednesday that Armstrong could return early because its drug-testing standards have improved since the rule was drawn up four years ago.
“Riders are now subject to a much-reinforced system of monitoring compared to that of the past,” the governing body said in a statement. “Lance Armstrong has and will be the subject of very strict monitoring throughout the period running up to his return to the peloton.”
Armstrong’s comeback is meant to draw attention to his global campaign to fight cancer, a disease he survived before winning seven straight Tours from 1999-2005.
It is also a defiant stand against critics who doubt he could have achieved those victories without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Now he is liable to be tested at any time without notice and will have his own biological passport as part of a UCI-backed scheme to monitor possible doping offenses.
Riders must give a series of blood and urine samples which allow a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory to measure abnormal fluctuations in body readings.
Armstrong said last month he was tested in late August, and has enlisted a personal anti-doping expert in Don Catlin, who will make his test results available to the public.
Catlin, who ran the first anti-doping lab in the United States at UCLA for 25 years, will freeze and keep samples of Armstrong’s blood to be analyzed in the future.
Armstrong will not be paid for returning to the saddle and the testing costs will be covered by his Kazakhstan-based team Astana, which is managed by his cycling mentor Johan Bruyneel.
His comeback race, the Tour Down Under, is the first event on the UCI ProTour calendar in 2009 and is likely to be followed by the Tour of California in February.
“It was a great decision based on the up-to-date information in respect of profiling that is required for riders,” Tour Down Under director Mike Turtur, a former Olympic cyclist, said on Thursday from Adelaide. “I think the UCI has made a wise decision for the promotion of the sport in the Oceania region.”
The political leader of South Australia state also welcomed the news.