SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1425 (89), Friday, November 14, 2008
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TITLE: Local Group Resists SPS Plans For Dissolution
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As the Union of Right Forces (SPS) prepares to hold a conference on Saturday that would see the democratic party be dissolved, a group of St. Petersburg SPS activists is maintaining a campaign against the move.
Iosif Skakovsky, a member of the St. Petersburg branch of the Union of Right Forces and a prominent human rights advocate, said that for the party to be reborn, a new concept and a new attitude are needed in order to prevent it from self-destruction.
Sunday sees an important meeting of Russia’s liberal forces where a new democratic political party, The Right Cause, is expected to be born that will absorb former members of the Union of Right Forces, the Democratic Party of Russia and Civil Force. At least 90 delegates are expected to attend the gathering.
Leonid Gozman, acting leader of the Union of Right Forces, said the party would be dissolved if two thirds of the delegates at the conference on Saturday vote in favor of disbanding it in order to join The Right Cause.
Skakovsky and another twelve members of the party signed a petition against the plan to dissolve it and merge with the new party, which they feel will be nothing but an artifical and toothless body.
“The Union of Right Forces needs reform, not dissolution,” Skakovsky said. “Unfortunately, for those in the top management of the party it has become an instrument for achieving their individual political goals. For ordinary members of the party, however, SPS is about the cause and the mission, rather than about personal ambitions.”
Talk about the alleged stagnation of the Union of Right Forces has continued since the party dropped out of the State Duma during the 2003 nationwide parliamentary elections, but things became much more shaky for the democrats following a devastating lack of votes at the last elections in December 2007.
There are reservations that new political alliances and new faces will struggle to win even modest media coverage, if any. The risk is that Russian people will never know about such developments in the democratic field of Russian politics in the face of Kremlin controlled media that favors its client party, United Russia.
Some experts argue that the image of democrats is tainted in Russia, and liberals are not in a position to improve it because they have neither financial nor institutional resources to rely on. As with the democratic party Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces is seen by many as belonging to a category of political has-beens.
Critics say that most ordinary people want someone in power who will guarantee them a decent wage — especially in times of financial crisis — and that any liberal parties, the Union of Right Forces included, may make all the right noises but do not convey that impression.
Skakovsky suggested that even if it comes to SPS being disbanded, the former party could naturally turn into a non-government organization. “We have recently created a party council, and we should at least try to keep the council alive,” Skakovsky said.
TITLE: Gates Rejects Russia’s ‘Cold War Rhetoric’
AUTHOR: By Lolita Baldor
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TALLINN, Estonia – Russian threats to position missiles near Poland to counter a U.S. missile defense plan in Europe are misguided, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, suggesting that Moscow’s latest aggressive rhetoric harkens back to the old Cold War era.
Unleashing his own pointed criticism, Gates said that Russia’s missile threat appears aimed at Europe. And he dismissed as not credible Russia’s latest offer to forego its missile plan if the U.S. would agree not to deploy a defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Speaking at the close of a meeting of NATO defense ministers here, Gates and other officials also signaled that it is inevitable that Ukraine will join the international alliance, although there are hurdles and opposition both from within the new struggling democracy and other allied nations.
The meeting was set largely to deal with Ukraine’s membership effort — a move that Russia opposes and sees as part of an unsettling westward shift of former Soviet republics in the region. But overshadowing the meeting were the escalating tensions with Russia in the region as Moscow tries to reassert itself.
The latest missile threat from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev came under fire from NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who called the remarks unsolicited, unnecessary and unhelpful.
And Gates said the threat, made just after the U.S. election of President-elect Barack Obama, was “hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves. Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided.”
“Quite frankly I’m not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad, after all the only real emerging threat on Russia’s periphery is in Iran and I don’t think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad,” snapped Gates, adding, “Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me.”
He said a key reason for his attendance at the meeting was to show U.S. support for Eastern European countries that are looking to align themselves with the West. Those nations, he said, are understandably on edge in the wake of Russia’s incursion into Georgia in August.
At the same time, however, Gates stressed that the U.S.-planned missile defense system is no threat to Russia and he said that Washington would prefer to seek a constructive relationship with Moscow, rather than having leaders there engage in “the kind of rhetoric associated with a bygone era.”
Gates and others talked somewhat optimistically about Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO, despite divisions in that country over the prospect, and continued opposition from several alliance members.
Foreign ministers are expected to discuss the languishing issue at a meeting in Brussels later this year, but as expectations for approval of a membership plan in December have dimmed, NATO leaders have suggested there may be other avenues to follow.
Earlier in the day, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves suggested that the current membership plan process may be outdated. And while Gates and others said that Ukraine must address defense budget shortfalls, improve military planning and reconcile its political divide, they said failure to approve membership in December does not mean it won’t ever be passed.
“There is inevitability about it,” said Gates. “If the Russians see the failure to adopt (a membership plan) in December as a victory, that would be a mistake.”
Medvedev has warned that Moscow will deploy short-range Iskander missiles to Russia’s western enclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, “to neutralize, if necessary, a missile defense system.”
Medvedev also blamed Washington for the war in Georgia and the world financial crisis, and repeated claims that the U.S. missile defense facilities planned for Poland and the Czech Republic are meant to weaken Russia.
U.S. leaders have repeatedly disputed that charge, insisting that the system is designed to protect the region from an Iranian threat.
TITLE: Aging, Dilapidated Navy Is a Clear and Present Danger
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Solovyov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ABOARD THE MOSKVA MISSILE CRUISER — This Russian warship left the shipyard 25 years ago, and it shows: The electronics consoles look like museum exhibits, and its hull carries a thick crust of paint from years of running repairs.
Its shortcomings reflect the Russian Navy’s many problems, highlighted again this month by an accident on a nuclear submarine that killed 20 people.
But looks can deceive. Hidden beneath the decks of the Moskva cruiser are 16 “Bazalt” guided missiles, which travel faster than the speed of sound and can strike an enemy aircraft carrier group 500 kilometers away.
The Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, symbolizes Russia’s Navy: All too easy to dismiss as an aging rust-bucket, it can still pack a formidable punch.
The Navy’s capability matters now more than at any time since the Cold War because the Kremlin is using it to project Russia’s newfound confidence far beyond its coastal waters, bringing it face to face with NATO warships.
“I believe we are treated with respect,” Igor Smolyak, captain of the Moskva, told a group of visiting journalists when asked what foreign navies made of his vessel. He was standing in front of a 130 mm cannon at the bow of his ship.
“They treat with respect the flag, the ship and — accordingly — our nation,” he said during the visit in late September.
When Russia this year sent its nuclear-powered missile cruiser the Peter the Great to Venezuela — the first such maneuvers off the U.S. coast since the Cold War — Washington poked fun.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack quipped that it was “very interesting that they found some ships that could actually make it that far down to Venezuela.”
The jokes are not entirely baseless. For years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, funding for the Navy all but dried up. Building new vessels was put on hold, and the existing fleet had to languish in port because of a lack of fuel.
“We have lost 15 years,” Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said at the Moskva’s mooring in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, home port of the Black Sea Fleet.
“Warships are not tanks. They are far more sophisticated and need proper care,” he said.
But military analysts say what counts with naval power is not the age of the ship but what is inside it.
In the case of the Moskva — originally called “Slava,” or “Glory,” when it was launched in 1983 — its officers say its electronics, sensors and weapons have been constantly upgraded.
One of only three missile cruisers of this class in the Navy, it bristles with weapons, including anti-submarine bombs, anti-aircraft rockets, six-barreled Gatling guns, torpedoes and an on-deck helicopter.
Nick Brown, editor-in-chief of Jane’s International Defense Review, said the age of the Russian fleet did not necessarily mean that it could not fight.
“It’s all about how it’s been maintained,” he said in written comments. “The U.S. Navy’s oldest Ticonderoga-class cruisers were launched in the early 1980s, and they have plenty of life left.”
“I’m not sure that you can say the same about the Black Sea Fleet, because maintenance and upgrade programs have been somewhat haphazard. That’s not to say that the fleet is obsolete by any stretch. It’s still a powerful fighting force.”
According to official data, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet now comprises about 50 warships and other vessels, up to 80 planes and helicopters and some 13,000 servicemen.
More, and newer, ships are promised as Russia spends some of the huge cash pile it has built up from years of high oil prices on beefing up its military.
The officers of the Black Sea Fleet know that they have to be battle-ready because their adversary is getting closer.
In August, the Moskva was put to sea to track NATO vessels dispatched in the aftermath of Russia’s war with Georgia. NATO said it was delivering aid to Georgia, but Moscow saw the alliance as encroaching on its sphere of influence.
Even in the home port that Ukraine’s government — which wants to join NATO — grudgingly rents to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Western military power is hard to ignore.
As the Moskva sat at its moorings in Sevastopol, the U.S. Navy survey ship Pathfinder, invited to visit by the Ukrainian military, steamed past and headed out to sea.
TITLE: Term Extension Put on Fast Track
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A senior United Russia deputy called Wednesday for a bill extending the presidential term to six years to be fast-tracked through the State Duma, and fellow deputies promised to approve it this week.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who some believe wants to return to the Kremlin, gave his backing to the constitutional amendment Wednesday in his first public comments about the proposal since President Dmitry Medvedev announced it last week.
The head of the Duma’s Committee for Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Vladimir Pligin, recommended that the Duma pass the legislation in all three required readings Friday. The committee unanimously supported the recommendation.
Pligin declined to comment about his recommendation through his secretary Wednesday.
First Deputy Duma Speaker Oleg Morozov denied that any laws were being violated in the rush to approve the bill. “Yesterday at 2:30 p.m. I sent the bill to the Duma committees. Thus, we satisfied the requirement that a bill be sent out three days before it is discussed,” he told Interfax.
The legislation has to be approved by two-thirds of the Duma and then by three-quarters of the Federation Council. After that, it must be passed by two-thirds of the regional legislatures before going to the president for his signature.
The regional legislatures “could approve it in a couple of weeks or a month,” said Mikhail Krasnov, head of the department of constitutional and municipal law at the Higher School of Economics.
He said he did not know the exact procedure, noting that it had never been tried before. The Constitution has never been amended since it went into force in 1993.
The Duma has occasionally approved bills in all three readings in a single day in the past. “It’s a political signal about its readiness to accept the law straight away,” Krasnov said. “They are not breaking any laws.” In examining legislation in three readings, the Duma first passes the concept, then suggests corrections and finally puts it through.
“I think we will work quickly and the amendments will go through in the near future,” said Vladimir Pekhtin, the first deputy chairman of the Putin-led United Russia, which has a two-thirds majority in the Duma.
The Constitution is a “living document that can and should be corrected as society develops,” Pekhtin said in an e-mailed statement.
Medvedev submitted the bill to extend the current four-year presidential term to the Duma on Tuesday. The bill also envisions five-year terms for Duma deputies instead of the current four. The new rules would only be implemented after the next elections.
“I support Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal,” Putin said at a news conference after meeting Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. “As far as who can run for the next term and when, it is premature to talk about this.”
It was unclear why Putin used the word “when,” considering that the constitutional changes will not affect Medvedev’s current term, which ends in 2012. A faxed question to the government’s press service asking for clarification went unanswered Wednesday.
“President Medvedev’s proposals regarding the changes to the Constitution have no personal dimension,” Putin said. “We are looking for instruments which would allow us to guarantee sovereignty, to implement our long-term plans … and assist the development of democratic processes in the country.”
The Constitution does not require a referendum in this case, since the changes do not affect the section on citizens’ rights, Krasnov said.
The Communist Party will decide how to vote on the changes Thursday, although its decision is unlikely to affect the outcome, said Duma Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin. “United Russia is capable of solving this question alone,” he said. “I think they can be sure of getting enough votes.”
Communist deputy leader Ivan Melnikov said he suspected that the Kremlin wanted to pass the bill “before the intensification in the financial crisis that is predicted by experts,” Interfax reported.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Pirates Foiled
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Russian and British forces repelled a pirate attack off Somalia in the first action by a Russian warship sent to bolster international forces fighting a scourge of hijackings in coastal waters vital to global commerce, the two nations’ militaries said Wednesday.
Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the Russian missile frigate Neustrashimy and the British frigate Cumberland each sent up a helicopter and foiled pirates trying to take over a Danish cargo vessel.
“The pirates tried to hit the ship with automatic weapons fire and made several attempts to seize it,” Dygalo said on Vesti-24 state television.
TITLE: Court Rules That Bulbov Stay in Jail
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu, Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Moscow City Court on Wednesday ordered senior Federal Drug Control Service officer Alexander Bulbov to remain behind bars for another month on corruption charges in a case widely seen to be linked to a power struggle between feuding clans close to the country’s security services.
After three consecutive days of hearings, Judge Valery Novikov ordered Bulbov, accused of ordering illegal wiretaps, accepting bribes and money laundering, to remain in custody until Dec. 15, thus granting a request by the Investigative Committee for his continued detention.
The ruling came despite the fact that representatives from the Prosecutor General’s Office, to which the Investigative Committee formally reports, had asked the court to release Bulbov, citing a lack of evidence that he had committed any crimes.
It also follows the committee’s decision last month to release Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak in what was seen as a setback for a hawkish Kremlin clan believed to be behind Storchak’s arrest on charges of attempted fraud and abuse of office.
The extension of Bulbov’s detention, however, dealt a blow to a rival clan centered around former Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Cherkesov, analysts said.
Bulbov was indignant after Wednesday’s decision, accusing Novikov in front of a packed courtroom of complicity in a conspiracy to convict him on fabricated charges.
“I believe you have become an accomplice in this crime,” Bulbov told the judge from his glass courtroom cage following the ruling.
Bulbov’s lawyer, Sergei Antonov, said he would appeal the decision Friday. “The court’s ruling is absolutely illegal,” he told reporters outside the courtroom. “They just want it to appear legal.”
The Investigative Committee said Monday that it had wrapped up its case against Bulbov, who is accused of paying $50,000 per month to Interior Ministry officer Mikhail Yanykin to tap the telephones of powerful businessmen, senators and prominent journalists, as well as accepting $4,000 per month in bribes from private companies in exchange for official protection.
If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison, a committee spokesman said.
Bulbov’s wife, Galina Bulbova, was teary-eyed after Novikov’s ruling. “I knew it would end this way,” she said outside the courtroom. “My husband, as a professional, knew the outcome beforehand.”
This week’s hearings, which began Monday, came at the request of the Investigative Committee, which appealed to keep Bulbov in custody after the Supreme Court last week annulled a lower court’s previous ruling to extend his detention.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has publicly sparred with Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin over several high-profile cases, and the two are believed to be close to powerful competing clans.
Bulbov and two other drug enforcement officers were arrested in October last year at Domodedovo Airport after returning from a trip abroad. Bulbov called the arrests — conducted by the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service, or FSB — revenge by the FSB for his investigation into Tri Kita, a Moscow furniture store.
TITLE: Putin Delays Hike Of Timber Tariffs
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev, Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writers
TEXT: MOSCOW — A day before a crucial EU-Russia summit in Nice, France, Moscow offered a conciliatory measure on Wednesday by delaying the introduction of higher export tariffs on timber that have been roiling some of its EU neighbors.
The European Union greeted Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement after a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in Moscow on Wednesday afternoon as a positive sign ahead of the summit, which opens Friday and will have to deal with a worsening of ties since the war between Georgia and Russia in August.
“This ... definitely will be positively assessed by European leaders at the summit,” said Denis Daniilidis, spokesman for the European Commission’s delegation in Moscow.
The more than 300 percent rise in export duties, from 15 euros to 50 euros per cubic meter of timber, was to take effect on Jan. 1 but will be put on hold for nine months to a year.
The rise had greatly complicated efforts to normalize trade relations between Brussels and Moscow on stiff opposition from Finland and Sweden, whose lumber and pulp and paper industries would have suffered.
Timo Hammaren, the head of the EU delegation’s Trade and Economic Section, welcomed the news.
“It gives us time to negotiate a better deal for our industry without disruption of trade in January,” Hammaren said by telephone from Nice.
Sanna Kangasharju, a spokeswoman for Vanhanen, said Wednesday that the timing of the decision was a surprise.
“We were expecting it at the EU-Russia summit,” she said.
President Dmitry Medvedev heads Thursday to Cannes, near Nice in the south of France, where he will address an investor conference. On Friday, he will attend the summit in Nice, hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently heads the rotating EU presidency.
A major issue in the run-up to the summit has been the decision to restart negotiations for a new EU-Russia cooperation agreement.
Brussels postponed the talks in September in protest at Moscow’s actions in the conflict with Georgia.
France and other major EU members pushed for the resumption but faced opposition from some members, such as Lithuania and Poland, who wanted the delay to continue until they were satisfied that Moscow had complied fully with the peace plan brokered by Sarkozy in August.
George Schopflin, a member of the European Parliament for the conservative Hungarian Fidesz party, said some members still had serious doubts about resuming talks.
“I sense that rear-guard action is being fought,” Schopflin said by telephone from Brussels.
He said the bilateral Paris-Moscow relationship was central to the summit, but France could only go as far as the other EU members would follow.
“The French ultimately cannot commit the union to something its members will not contemplate,” he said.
TITLE: Villagers, Brick by Brick, Steal Complete Church
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Wanted: One missing Russian church. Last seen in July. Reward for its return.
Orthodox officials in a central Russian region say an abandoned church building that was to be put back into use has been stolen by local villagers.
Orthodox priest Vitaly of the Ivanovo-Voskresenskaya diocese says officials last saw the two-story Church of Resurrection intact in late July. Sometime in early October, however, people from the nearby village of Komarovo, northeast of Moscow, dismantled the building, he said.
Villagers apparently sold it to a local businessman, one ruble (about 4 cents) per brick, Vitaly said.
Orthodox priests use only one name.
“Of course, this is blasphemy,” he said. “These people have to realize they committed a grave sin.”
Vitaly said police were investigating the theft.
The 200-year-old building, which no longer had its icons and other religious valuables, was a school for disabled children during the Soviet era before it was closed down in 1998 and turned over to the church.
Vitaly said the diocese was thinking of reopening it for services.
The Orthodox church has experienced a major resurgence in Russia and has restored or built thousands of churches.
In poorer, rural regions, vandals or petty thieves regularly steal gilded icons or donations from churches and sell them for alcohol or drugs.
TITLE: Ploshchad Pobedy To Undergo Changes
AUTHOR: By Boris Kamchev
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: City Hall has approved the modernization of Ploshchad Pobedy (Victory Square). Plans for the square, which is dominated by a vast monument commemorating the victims and survivors of WWII and the Siege of Leningrad that was built in the 1970s, include extending the buildings of the Elektrostandard scientific institute located on the east side of the square and the Park Inn hotel located on its west side.
The new project, consisting of two buildings of 40 and 43 meters height facing one another, was presented by the city’s chief architect Igor Sedakov during a recent city construction committee meeting. The existing institute and hotel buildings are 27 and 30 meters high respectively.
The two existing buildings currently form an entrance gate leading to the focal point of the square — the 48-meter high obelisk and surrounding monument constructed in the shape of a vast broken ring, symbolizing the broken siege.
The project’s main task is to reconstruct the existing constructions and build additional ones alongside them, according to City Hall’s press service. Business centers are the most likely solution for both new buildings, as recommended by the committee.
All the buildings will be covered with a glass exterior to prevent them from standing out and dominating the ensemble in which the obelisk is the centerpiece, said Sedakov.
Ploshchad Pobedy is located near Pulkovo Airport to the south of the city and was designed as an architectural symbol of social-realist monumental art and meant to showcase the late Soviet might to foreign guests visiting the city — mainly diplomats and politicians who inevitably pass through the square on their way from the airport to the city center.
“The result of the project is a clear concept which will appear on Ploshchad Pobedy. The project will make the simplified square more complex and interesting, preserving its austerity,” Alexander Viktorov, the head of the city’s construction committee was quoted as telling local news agencies.
The committee recommended that the height of both new buildings should be less than 50 meters, ensuring that they would be a similar height to the rest of the architectural ensemble of the square, without altering its general appearance. The committee also ruled that the new constructions must be identical.
However, some experts fear that the current financial turmoil on the real estate market could affect the project.
“What is the guarantee that construction of the project won’t be frozen, or that only one building will be completed instead of two?” asked architect Timofei Sadovsky. For this reason, the committee plans to closely control each phase of the project to ensure “simultaneous and absolutely identical construction of the buildings.”
TITLE: Frenkel Sentenced to 19 Years
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSOW — A court in Moscow sentenced Alexei Frenkel, a former banker, to a 19-year prison term on Thursday for the murder of Andrei Kozlov, a deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, Interfax reported.
Frenkel, 37, was found guilty last month by a jury of organizing the contract killing of Kozlov two years ago. Kozlov, 41, died Sept. 13, 2006, after he was shot in the head and neck by two gunmen as he left a sports center in Moscow.
The murder occurred three months after Russia’s central bank revoked the operating license of Frenkel’s VIP Bank. Russian prosecutors charged Frenkel in January 2007. Frenkel’s lawyers have announced an appeal to the Russian Supreme Court and to the European Court of Human Rights.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Chubais Slams Onexim
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Holdings Ltd., the biggest investor in Russian utility TGK-4, “risks losing its reputation” after halting a buyout offer to other shareholders, Anatoly Chubais said.
Onexim and St. Petersburg-based energy group Sintez, which also stopped a buyout in the TGK-2 utility, may lose investor support, Chubais, former chief executive officer of national utility Unified Energy Systems, which sold TGK-2 and TGK-4, said Wednesday in a Bloomberg TV interview in Cannes.
“I’m not happy about the position of Sintez and Onexim,” said Chubais, now CEO of Russian Nanotechnology Corp. “They promised this buyout. If you don’t treat minority shareholders well, you risk losing your reputation. Even in times of crisis, you should keep this in mind.”
MTS Revenue Slumps
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest mobile-phone company, reported the first drop in earnings in more than two years because of foreign-exchange losses.
Third-quarter net income fell 21 percent to $515.6 million from $655 million a year earlier, the Moscow-based company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts predicted profit at $521.5 million, the median of eight estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Sales rose 27 percent to $2.81 billion.
Oil Firms’ Outlook Cut
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Surgutneftegaz and Tatneft, Russian oil producers, were cut to “sell” from “buy” at Citigroup Inc. because lower crude prices may hurt earnings.
“Oil prices will fail to generate sustained positive momentum from present levels, while downside risk to demand exists,” Citigroup analysts Alexander Korneev and Ildar Khaziev said Thursday in a note to investors.
The bank reduced its earnings estimates for Russian oil and gas companies by 23 percent on average and cut Rosneft, the country’s biggest oil producer, to “hold” from “buy.”
Kazakhs Seek to Upsize
ALMATY (Bloomberg) — Kazakhstan is seeking to increase its stake in the Chevron Corp.-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium as the venture considers doubling the oil link’s capacity.
KazMunaiGaz National Co., Kazakhstan’s state-run energy producer, is in talks to buy 3 percent of the CPC from Russia, Ilya Pustogachev, a spokesman for the Astana-based company, said by telephone Thursday. Russia bought a 7 percent stake held by Oman, state television reported this month.
The venture plans to expand Kazakhstan’s main export link to world markets at a cost of at least $1.6 billion, almost doubling capacity to 1.3 million barrels of oil a day. Officials from Kazakhstan and Russia intend to explore options after shareholder BP Plc blocked a proposal, Pustogachev said.
President Positive on Oil
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the country’s economy has been sheltered from the impact of sliding oil prices.
“Our economy and our budget overall are quite well insulated against this kind of sudden drop in oil prices,” he said in an interview with French newspaper Figaro that was posted on the Kremlin’s website.
Medvedev predicted that oil prices “will see a rise again.”
TITLE: The Next Bretton Woods
AUTHOR: By Joseph E. Stiglitz
TEXT: The world is sinking into a major global slowdown, likely to be the worst in a quarter-century, perhaps since the Great Depression. This crisis was “made in America” in more than one sense.
The United States exported its toxic mortgages around the world in the form of asset-backed securities. It exported its deregulatory free-market philosophy, which even its high priest, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, now admits was a mistake. It exported its culture of corporate irresponsibility, such as nontransparent stock options, which encouraged the bad accounting that has played a role in this debacle. And, finally, the United States has exported its economic downturn.
The administration of President George W. Bush has finally come around to doing what every economist urged it to do: put more equity into the banks. But, as always, the devil is in the details, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may have succeeded in subverting even this good idea. He seems to have figured out how to recapitalize the banks in such a way that may not result in a resumption of lending. This would bode poorly for the economy.
Most important, the terms that Paulson got for the capital provided to U.S. banks were far worse than those obtained by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (not to mention those that U.S. investor Warren Buffett got for putting far less into the country’s soundest investment bank, Goldman Sachs). Share prices show that investors believe they got a really good deal.
One reason to be concerned about the bad deal that U.S. taxpayers are getting is the looming national debt. Even before this financial crisis, the U.S. national debt was scheduled to increase from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to more than $9 trillion in 2008. This year’s deficit will approach a half-trillion dollars. Next year’s will be even larger as the country’s downturn steepens. The United States needs a big stimulus package. But Wall Street’s fiscal conservatives — yes, the same people who brought us this downturn — will now be calling for deficit moderation. This is reminiscent of U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s policy during the Great Depression.
Now the crisis has spread, predictably, to emerging markets and less developed countries. Remarkable as it may seem, the United States, for all its problems, is still seen as the safest place to put one’s money. No surprise, because, despite everything, a U.S. government guarantee has more credibility than a guarantee from a Third World country.
As the United States sops up the world’s savings to address its problems, as risk premiums soar, as global income, trade and commodity prices fall, developing countries will face hard times. Nations that have large trade deficits, national debts and close trade links to the United States are likely to suffer more than others. Those countries that did not fully liberalize their capital and financial markets, such as China, will be thankful that they did not follow the urging of Paulson and the U.S. Treasury to do so.
Many are already turning to the International Monetary Fund for help. The worry is that, at least in some cases, the IMF will go back to its old failed recipes: fiscal and monetary contraction, which would only increase global inequities. While developed countries engage in stabilizing countercyclical policies, developing countries would be forced into destabilizing policies. This will drive away capital when these countries need it most.
Ten years ago, at the time of Asia’s financial crisis, there was much discussion of the need to reform the global financial architecture. Far too little was done. At the time, many thought that such lofty appeals were a deliberate attempt to forestall real reform. Those who had done well under the old system knew that the crisis would pass, and with it so too would the demand for reform. We cannot let that happen again.
We may be at a new Bretton Woods moment. The old institutions have recognized the need for reform but they have been moving at glacial speed. They did nothing to prevent the current crisis, and there is concern about their effectiveness in responding to it now that it has hit.
It took the world 15 years and a world war to come together to address the weaknesses in the global financial system that contributed to the Great Depression. It is to be hoped it will not take us that long this time. Given the level of global interdependence, the costs would simply be too high.
But, whereas the United States and Britain dominated the old Bretton Woods, today’s global landscape is markedly different. Likewise, the old Bretton Woods institutions came to be defined by a set of economic doctrines that has now been shown to fail not only in developing countries but also in capitalism’s heartland. The forthcoming global summit must face these new realities if it is to work effectively toward creating a more stable and equitable global financial system.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, is coauthor of “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.” © Project Syndicate
TITLE: Putting an End to Offshore
AUTHOR: By Konstantin Sonin
TEXT: Russia is a country with large geopolitical ambitions. Both the Kremlin and the general populace dream of having as much influence on global affairs as during the glorious days of the Soviet Union.
Yet the country produces slightly more than 3 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Thus it will probably not play a major role at the Group of 20 summit to be held in Washington on Saturday. The only chance for President Dmitry Medvedev to make a significant contribution would be if he could bring to the summit some innovative proposals to help solve the global financial crisis.
Unfortunately, up until now, the country’s leaders have focused more on criticizing the way the world order has evolved over the last two decades — and particularly the U.S. role in causing the crisis and its excessive dominance in global affairs — than on putting forward any new, productive proposals to improve the situation.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown heads a country with the same share of the world GDP and roughly the same level of economic clout as Russia. Nonetheless, he has been much more active in offering useful suggestions that have made the headlines of leading newspapers. One of his more practical ideas to help mitigate the crisis is to convince the Persian Gulf states to participate in the International Monetary Fund’s efforts to help countries that are most in need of financial assistance.
This idea could easily have been a Kremlin initiative. Russia, with its huge foreign currency reserves, could make a valuable contribution to Brown’s project. And this would serve as a positive example and stimulus for the sheiks to join in the efforts. For Russia, this project makes more sense than extending a $5.5 billion loan to Iceland, an idea that the Kremlin first floated in early October. (The problem with Iceland’s financial woes is not that it might purposely default on a loan but that the public debt is so enormous the country might never be able to pay it off, even under ideal conditions.)
Here is another area in which Russia could take the initiative. A major portion of the world’s financial operations takes place outside of the G20’s jurisdiction — that is, using offshore holding companies or unregulated markets. The idea of a global regulatory body sounds as implausible as the League of Nations sounded in the aftermath of World War I.
But Russia could propose a program to increase the transparency and regulation of global markets by calling for the gradual elimination of offshore companies. Moscow needs to clamp down on companies that do little or no business in the remote offshore zones where they are registered. This is a sore point for Russia, of course, because many large businesses are owned by offshore companies. The crisis provides a good opportunity to eliminate these complex, nontransparent ownership structures.
There is an ongoing debate in the United States and other countries about the legality of these offshore companies because many are used for tax evasion and money-laundering purposes. But a Russian initiative to crack down on the abuse of offshore companies would stand a good chance of being heard.
No major changes in the global financial order are expected from the upcoming meeting in Washington, if for no other reason than because outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush will represent Washington rather than President-elect Barack Obama. But the fact that China, India and Brazil were invited to the G20 conference — countries of no less importance to the global economy than the members of the G7 — is tremendously important. It is high time to put forward some new ideas.
Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the New Economic School/CEFIR, is a columnist for Vedomosti.
TITLE: Space invaders
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Establishing Desert Planet, a 1980s videogames-inspired electronic music band notorious for its homemade spacesuits and green helmets, was a radical move for Finnish musician Jukka Tarkiainen.
Tarkiainen, after all, had hitherto been the guitarist with punk and alternative guitar rock band Jalla Jalla, once described as the “Ramones meets Rubettes,” which had enjoyed some cult success in Europe.
Although the band faded from view in the 1990s, Jalla Jalla once performed in Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was then known) in the late 1980s at a “Soviet-Finland friendship”-style event (the headline act was a very popular local band playing sing-along stuff, according to Tarkiainen.)
“When I started Desert Planet I was very frustrated and angry music-wise,” said Tarkiainen, who started the band as a solo project (“home-music done with computers”) in 1999, in an email interview this week.
“My career in music seemed to be over: Jalla Jalla was fading away, I was getting older, I was moving to … a little village [in northern Finland]. I thought: this was it.
“As some kind of protest against my situation I decided to do music only with computers, digital music with no real instruments. Something different from what I’d done earlier. Something that my friends would hate.”
The band, whose fifth and most recent album “Moonrocks” was released on the Stupido label earlier this year, now also features Jari Mikkola, a second musician who joined in 2002, while the third member, Antti Hovila, is responsible for live video projections on stage.
Mikkola has also developed software that the band uses in live performances and directed unique home-made science-fiction-style music videos that can be seen on Desert Planet’s website.
Hovila lives in Helsinki, but Mikkola lives in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, and Tarkiainen lives in a very small village (150 people) called Aska in the middle of Lapland, 944 kilometers from the Finnish capital, which means a lot of the band’s music is composed and discussed online, although the members do meet in person to rehearse and tour.
“I was born in Lapland so I’m lucky to live in my home territory,” said Tarkiainen.
“The reason I live here in Aska is that my family lives here. It’s a nice place for family living, very safe, secure and nice little community with lots of common sense in the way of life.
“The weather is kind of arctic — it’s not as arctic as in Murmansk, but it’s close. Long, dark and cold winters and a short summer with lots of light and a midnight sun.”
Desert Planet was born out of a D.I.Y., punk spirit, according to Tarkiainen.
“I wanted to do something with cheap and simple machines — I don’t like the kind of people who tell me how great/legendary/expensive the instruments they have are or how much money they have spent on this and that equipment,” he said.
“I’m not rich, never have been. So I like the idea that I can produce with cheapo things. No pro[fessional] tools.
“After a while I had the idea of [making] older video games-style music. That ‘video-game tune world’ I had forgotten, but seemed to be a good simple/cheap-style concept. Video game consoles had limited resources, limited sound possibilities — so it was a perfect concept and environment for me [in which] to produce new music.”
Although Tarkiainen has never been a hardcore gamer, at the age of 47 he remembers the time when computer games were becoming popular, such as the TV-game Pong that was owned by his cousin in the mid-1970s, or Galaga, Duck Hunt and Missile Command.
“I started to think about the games I used to play back in the ‘80s and start of the ‘90s and started to make music [in] the mood and the spirit of game tunes and the gaming experience I had,” he said.
“So its very personal music — I like to add some humor in the music. Sometimes the humor is absurd, sometimes it’s ironic, sometimes very dark. I’d like to make a personal mixture of retro gaming music.”
Unlike minimalist 8-bit acts, Desert Planet produces danceable electronic music, heavy on melody.
“Desert Planet music is mainly done in the spirit of the game music in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I find the game music of these times very melodic — mostly very traditional pop/rock based,” said Tarkiainen.
“Though I want to add something more to the retro game music mood — maybe Desert Planet has got something unique that is different from everything else: maybe it is the humor; maybe it is traditional/retro approach; maybe it is that we have some perspective in gaming culture; maybe it is that we have a punk/rock background; or maybe it’s our green helmets and toy ray guns.
“One Japanese guy Hally, who is quite an expert in this kind of music, said that Desert Planet has got a ‘unique comical video game sound.’ I believe him.”
Although the type of music Desert Planet produces imposes sound limitations, the band is happy to work within them, according to Tarkiainen.
“Limitations are challenging. When you have lots of limitations — it’s all about the imagination. Also it’s part of the alternative/punk D.I.Y.-culture: Do-It-Yourself with the equipment you have. Make your own catastrophe. Build your own way down.”
With its spacesuits, ray guns and toy sounds, Desert Planet does have a message.
“Well, I think the social message in the case of Desert Planet is that: although you live far away from everything, in a very marginal area, far away from the music business/media, you can succeed if you make music that has something different; though you don’t have the best quality of sound/software/equipment, you can make interesting and fun music,” said Tarkiainen.
“Make your friends suffer from your music! Make your computer scream!”
Desert Planet will perform as part of Electro Mekhanika festival at the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center, 93 Sredny Pr., on Saturday. www.desertplanet.com
The schedule of Electro Mekhanika is available on the website of the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center: http://www.kuryokhin.ru/em/eng/schedule.html.
TITLE: Chernov’s
choice
TEXT: While worrying rumors keep circulating about local promoters canceling international acts in light of the economic crisis, wonderful things can still happen.
Spiritualized, the renowned British space-rock band, arrives, magically, in St. Petersburg on Thursday and will perform at A2 on Friday. The band, whose frontman Jason Pierce was rated No. 38 in the NME’s recent Cool List, has recently made a comeback with the acclaimed album “Songs In A&E.” Pierce described the record as “the work of the devil, with a little guidance from me.”
Electro Mekhanika, the electronic music festival put together by and held at the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center, will be headlined by German band Mouse on Mars on Friday and Finnish band Desert Planet (see interview "Space invaders") on Saturday. Although the official starting time is 8 p.m., be warned that headlining acts will appear very late or, rather, early in the morning.
Also from Finland comes RinneRadio, an electro-acoustic/ambient band that will perform at Griboyedov on Friday.
Skarface, the French ska band that is currently on a seven-city Russian tour, will perform at Sochi on Saturday. The band, which was formed in 1991, cites The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, Laurel Aitken, Toasters, Scrapy and Die Tornados as its influences and performs a song called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Dead.”
Alina Simone, a U.S. singer/songwriter of Russian origin, will return to the city after a great concert earlier this year, to perform at Sochi on Thursday. While she was away, she released an album called “Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware,” a collection of her versions of songs by the late Siberian folk-punk legend Yanka.
The music video festival MuSeek will be held at Rodina film theater and Achtung Baby music bar this week, with Michel Gondry, the French-born director responsible for some videos of Radiohead, Bjork, the White Stripes and the Rolling Stones, as a guest of honor.
There is also an addition to the local club scene. Glavclub, whose name means, modestly, the Main Club, was launched by Moscow impresario Igor Tonkikh with a concert by Leningrad, seen by some as St. Petersburg’s main rock band, on the Nov. 7 “revolution day” — the former main Soviet holiday. So far the repertoire is equivalent to that of a local “palace-of-culture”-type venue, with the No Smoking Orchestra playing on Sunday. The band is a hobby music project by film director Emir Kusturica. Or is it his main job nowadays?
The local music scene’s highlights include the ironic veteran band NOM at Orlandina on Friday, urban folk band La Minor at Griboyedov on Saturday and a poetry recital by Lyokha Nikonov of Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe at Manhattan on Tuesday.
— By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: Gabriela from Buenos Aires
AUTHOR: By Olga Sharapova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: This year marks several significant dates in Latin American music.
Not only is 2008 the 50th anniversary of Bossa Nova, the jazz samba trend orignated in Brazil by, among others, Antonio Carlos Jobim, it is also the 40th anniversary of “Maria de Buenos Aires,” an operetta based on an Argentine tango by Astor Piazzolla.
Bringing these annivesraries together in St. Petersburg this week is singer Gabriela Bergallo who is set to perform in the first staging of “Maria de Buenos Aires” in Russia on Sunday at the Baltiisky Dom Theater and in a concert of Bossa Nova music with St. Petersburg jazz maestro David Goloshchokin at the State Hermitage Theater on Monday.
Jazz, tango and Bossa Nova are “visual” genres where musical and theatrical improvisation meet, said Bergallo, who was born in Buenos Aires.
“I have been engaged with music and theater all my life because I spent 20 years doing Italian opera, where acting is nearly as important as singing,” she said.
“I studied Music and Languages at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires. Then I continued developing my singing technique with different teachers in Europe and I entered the opera studio at Conservatory Schaffhausen.
“In 2003, together with my brother and my husband, we created the Piccolo Musikfestival, which has taken place every summer since then, under my direction, in Embrach, Switzerland.”
Bergallo’s repertoire includes sacred music, tango, Argentine folk, Brazilian pop, Bossa Nova, samba, boleros, jazz and chamber music from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy and Spain.
Bergallo’s first appearance in St. Petersburg was at the beginning of 2008 when “Maria de Buenos Aires,” directed by Giuliano Di Capua in cooperation with AXE Theater, had its Russian premiere.
The setting of Buenos Aires, with its hot mix of tango and passion, smell of beefsteak, coffee, caramel and cigarettes, is the backdrop for “Maria de Buenos Aires,” a surreal story about a prostitute condemned to hell.
“The experience of appearing in ‘Maria’ is extremely exciting for me,” Bergallo said, “because of the sensuality of its music, poetry and a beautiful and original mise en scene.”
As well as Bergallo, the tango-operetta features the Remolino quintet and Russian tango champions Natalia and Alexander Berezhnovy under the direction of Di Capua, an Italian-Swiss who graduated from the St. Petersburg State Theater Arts Academy.
It was Di Capua, Bergallo said, who introduced the singer to Goloshchokin, the jazz multi-instrumentalist and director of the Jazz Philharmonic Hall.
“Last January, when Giuliano Di Capua introduced me to Goloshchokin, I brought him a CD with one of my live Brazilian music performances. After listening to the first song, he asked me to play Bossa Nova with his sextet the next time I came to St. Petersburg.
“We played together in March and June at Jazz Philharmonic Hall. And we will perform on Monday [Nov. 17] at the State Hermitage Theater, in honor of one of the creators of this genre: Antonio Carlos Jobim. We will play some of his most well-known songs. It is a beautiful experience for me to sing with such good musicians in a city where I feel at home, especially this year when Bossa Nova has its 50th anniversary.”
TITLE: A tsar is born
AUTHOR: By Matt Brown
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It’s just what St. Petersburg needs, right? Another throwback eatery celebrating Tsarist-era splendor, a redundant exercise in Imperial kitsch?
But the great surprise at Tsar, an excellent new restaurant nestling in the heart of St. Petersburg on Sadovaya just steps away from Nevsky Prospekt, is the great care and wit that has gone into avoiding the cliches of the Post-Soviet genre of Pre-Revolutionary dining.
With the coaches of yesteryear’s aristocracy now replaced by a squadron of high end Porches parked outside, inside Tsar recalls a scene from Chekhov or Tolstoy. The restaurant’s large but cozy rectangular dining hall buzzes with activity and it fully staffed with a coat check, a statuesque hostess and an army of waiters and waitresses in white shirts and black waistcoats.
Mixing Empire Style furnishings with the sepia tones of the Silver Age, the room is warmed by an open fire in a huge baronial fireplace, rust-colored damask wallpaper and a plush carpet.
A studied air of shabbiness — the menus are printed in a font designed to look faded and rubbed out — hints at Pre-Revolutionary decadence and Romantic doom, but is all the more alluring for it. The tsar in question is surely Nicholas II, Russia’s last, although a series of framed oil portraits features his Romanov predecessors (and one, perhaps, of Ivan the Terrible).
Irresistibly, a soundtrack of lush Jazz and Swing — Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald — gave the place, at least at lunchtime, a lively feel that is unusual in Russia where stuffiness is often mistaken for class.
It is all refreshingly understated — except for the magnificent bathroom, where the design team let rip with each toilet fashioned from a throne-like high-backed wooden chair and faucets made from genuine old samovars.
The menu is very select, with modern twists on Russian classics, many featuring fish.
Oliviye salad — the usually vomit-like mainstay of babushka cuisine made of diced potato, ham and peas in mayonnaise — is returned to its royal roots in the hands of Tsar’s chef (340 rubles, $12). Chilled and molded into a cake shape, it is encrusted with incredibly detailed decorations such as quails’ eggs stuffed with caviar, slivers of sundried tomato and wafer thin slices of a salmon stuffed bliny. A salad of smoked salmon, rice, egg, crab and mayonnaise (370 rubles, $13) was similarly formed into a finely ornamented cake, with a delicate rose formed of radish wafers with leaves of cucumber and bejeweled with single caviar beads (something of the chef’s signature).
Between courses a strange-tasting nastoika — infused vodka-like tipple — was served. It would not be to everyone’s taste but it certainly adds to the atmosphere. A non-alcoholic but equally Russian alternative is a glass of deliciously tart cranberry mors (150 rubles, $5.50).
Main courses were more modestly presented but served with a flourish, at least in the case of the Pozharskaya cutlet with potatoes a la Pushkin (590 rubles, $21) which was delivered direct from a sizzling copper pan. Breaded with mini-croutons, the large cutlet was opened to reveal rich innards of steaming minced pork and onion, complemented with lightly fried potato rounds. Less successful was a dish of fish cakes made of salmon and pike served with quenelles of something brown and vinegary (430 rubles, $15).
The mid-afternoon crowd included sub-oligarchs doing business over brandy and cigars and ladies-who-lunch in Prada and Jimmy Choos. But Tsar isn’t in the least intimidating, with bright, enthusiastic servers ready to wipe away crumbs from the perfect table linen and politely deal with inquiries in English.
But a small description in English of Tsar on the website of Ginza Project, the company that owns Tsar and many other upscale restaurants in Russia and abroad, disconcertingly asserts that “guests unwillingly undertake a trip back to the 19th/ 20th centuries” when they go there.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine anyone being unwilling to make such a delightful journey.
TITLE: Davydenko Through to Masters Cup Semi
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: SHANGHAI — Russian Nikolay Davydenko outslugged Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3 6-2 in a winner-takes-all battle for a place in the semi-final of the Masters Cup on Thursday.
The 27-year-old world number five joined Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in the last four, reaching the knockout stage for the second time in four appearances at the season finale for the top eight players in the world.
Defending champion Roger Federer must beat Briton Murray on Friday to claim the final place in the last four, which will otherwise go to Frenchman Gilles Simon.
Del Potro, who now heads home for next week’s Davis Cup final against Spain, held his own through some long early rallies but once he lost the first set, the long season and a toe injury looked to have caught up with him and he folded.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earlier restored some pride by coming back from a set down to beat world number three Djokovic, who already had clinched a spot in the semifinals, 1-6 7-5 6-1 in a dead rubber match in the same Gold Group.
The Frenchman had lost his first two matches at the $4.45 million tournament and looked on his way to a third defeat when Djokovic, who had already won the Gold Group, took the first set in 25 minutes.
Tsonga, who had beaten Djokovic to win his first title in Bangkok in September and again on his way to winning the Paris Masters, broke the 21-year-old Serbian to even the match up before prevailing in a third set as one-sided as the first.
The 23-year-old Tsonga, who lost to Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open, said he was nevertheless delighted with a season when he broke into the world top 10 despite playing just 15 tournaments and had knee surgery in May.
“For me it’s just very good to have years like this,” he said. “With all my problems I played very well. I hope to play better next year. I’m very happy with this year.”
Djokovic beat Tsonga in the Australian Open final in January for his first Grand Slam title but has lost their past three meetings, including at the Paris Masters two weeks ago.
Tsonga, who has won over fans in Shanghai with passionate play and a powerful serve, was unusually subdued early in the match, showing only flashes of the form that carried him to the title in Paris—an event he had to win to qualify for this tournament.
Djokovic, continuing his efforts to end the stranglehold that Federer and Nadal have had on the top two spots in the rankings, broke Tsonga twice while finishing the first set in just 25 minutes.
Tsonga pulled himself together in the second set, saving two break points while serving at 2-2, then finally broke through as Djokovic served at 5-6. The Serb had four unforced errors in the game, sending a forehand long on set point.
Another four mistakes handed Tsonga an early break in the third set. Tsonga broke again, at love, to take a 5-1 lead. He then held at love, flicking a lob winner on match point.
Four-time Masters Cup winner Roger Federer had to win Friday to get through to the semifinals. He faced Britain’s Andy Murray, who is 2-0 in the Red Group and has already guaranteed himself a place in the semis.
Gilles Simon of France still has a chance if Federer falters. He will play 26th-ranked Radek Stepanek, who replaced Andy Roddick when the American pulled out Wednesday with a sprained ankle he sustained in practice.
Simon got into the elite field when top-ranked Rafael Nadal withdrew before the tournament began with a sore knee. The Frenchman then downed Federer in his first match.
(Reuters, AP)
TITLE: Civilians Killed in Attack On Troops in Afghanistan
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: JALALABAD, Afghanistan — A suicide attack targeting a coalition convoy in eastern Afghanistan Thursday killed an American soldier and at least 10 civilians, including a 13-year-old child, officials said.
At least nine Afghans died at the scene of the blast, near a market in an area often crowded with people, the governor of Batikot district in Nangarhar province told AFP.
Another 74 were wounded, some of them critically, and the provincial health director Ajmal Pardais said a 13-year-old child later died in hospital.
“A total of 74 people were brought to hospitals. Some of them with superficial wounds were discharged after medical care and some are in critical condition,” Pardais said.
The attacker detonated an explosives-laden vehicle close to the convoy on the road between the town of Torkham, on the Pakistani border, and the provincial capital city of Jalalabad.
“One American soldier was wounded in the bombing and he died during transportation,” said Major John Redfield, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Taliban insurgents, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack.
A separate explosion in southern Afghanistan killed two soldiers with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the allied force said on Thursday.
“Two ISAF soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan November 12,” the alliance said in a press statement, without giving further details.
The latest casualties come on top of the 258 NATO and U.S.-led coalition troops the icasualties.org website lists as killed in Afghanistan this year.
There are nearly 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban-led insurgency alongside Afghan troops. The insurgency has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 foreign soldiers and thousands of Afghans.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 when they were removed in a US-led invasion for sheltering their Al-Qaeda allies after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Insurgent attacks are at a record level this year, despite the presence of tens of thousands of international troops and the growing strength of the Afghan security forces.
Taliban militants also attacked the governor of Faiz Abad district in a relatively peaceful northern area on Thursday, killing a local school teacher and wounding six others including the district governor, police said.
Thursday’s attacks came after a bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial council in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing six people and wounding 42.
Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and head of the council, was in the building at the time but was unharmed.
Among the dead were three intelligence employees and three passers-by, including a woman.
TITLE: Liverpool Routed By Tottenham
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Rafa Benitez insisted his ambitions for Liverpool stretch further than the League Cup after seeing his makeshift side thrashed 4-2 at Tottenham in the fourth round.
The Spaniard made 10 changes to the team which had flattened West Bromwich Albion the previous weekend, handing rare starts to the likes of Daniel Ngog, Damien Plessis and Lucas, but the policy backfired as Spurs ran riot at White Hart Lane on Wednesday.
The hosts and League Cup holders cruised to victory thanks to two goals apiece from Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell, and while Liverpool mounted a fight-back of sorts after half-time, they were still well beaten.
It was a meek way for Liverpool’s interest in this tournament — which they have won more regularly than any other side — to end but Benitez, while quietly fuming at the manner of his team’s performance, maintained his priority remains the Premier League and Champions League.
“You have to use the players in this competition,” he said. “You can’t play all the players every game — people need to rest. The guys we picked are internationals, they have quality but we didn’t play well.
“When you have two or three not playing well, it’s hard for the others to keep their levels high. But the youngsters need to play more games like this, win some and lose them, and gain experience that way.
“I am very disappointed with the result and how we played but if the team goes to Bolton on Saturday in the league and wins, we will be at the top of the table and everyone will be talking about our priorities, which are the league and the Champions League.”
The only bright point of an otherwise forgettable night for Benitez was a 55-minute cameo from Fernando Torres.
The Spanish striker was making his first appearance since Oct. 5 after shaking off a hamstring injury and, while his performance did not suggest a striker fully match fit, at least he emerged unscathed.
Liverpool’s capitulation began in the 37th minute, when Campbell scampered to the by-line and cut back to the unmarked Pavlyuchenko, who drilled through Diego Cavalieri’s legs.
Campbell then swaggered into centre-stage himself, capitalizing on confusion between Andrea Dossena and Cavalieri to collect Jamie O’Hara’s lofted ball and casually roll it home, and then nodding in the midfielder’s cross after being left inexplicably unmarked.
The defending was equally chaotic after the interval, although Spurs did their best to share the mistakes around.
Two Ryan Babel corners led to two identikit goals — the first headed in by Plessis in the 48th minute, the other by Sami Hyypia in the 63rd — while sandwiched in between was another routine strike for Pavlyuchenko, who converted Didier Zokora’s cross from close range.
For Harry Redknapp, this thumping win maintained the momentum generated by his appointment last month.
TITLE: Diplomat Abducted in Pakistan
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat and killed his local guard in northwestern Pakistan Thursday, police said, in the latest of a series of attacks in the region.
Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was on his way to the consulate in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, when unknown assailants attacked his car, police officer Banaras Khan said.
“The attackers sprayed bullets, forcing the car to stop and then dragged out the diplomat while his police guard was killed,” Khan told AFP. They took the diplomat away in a different vehicle, another police officer, Abdul Qadir said.
There has been a recent surge in violence in Peshawar blamed on Islamic militants from the Taliban regime, which was ousted in 2001, while Pakistani troops have increased operations along the country’s porous border with Afghanistan.
Iran made it immediately clear that the diplomat’s safety was Islamabad’s responsibility.
“Based on the Vienna convention of political immunity of diplomats, the Islamabad government is responsible for the security of Iranian diplomats,” Iranian ambassador Mashallah Shakeri told the official IRNA news agency.
It said the diplomat was a staffer in the consulate’s commercial section.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a statement “strongly condemned” the incident and assured the government of Iran and the family of Atharzadeh that Pakistan “will take all necessary measures for his safe and early recovery.”
The diplomat was ambushed near where a gunman killed a US aid worker and his local driver on Wednesday. A senior U.S. diplomat escaped an assassination attempt in the area in August.
Suspected Taliban militants also kidnapped Afghan Consul General Abdul Khaliq Farahi in the area nearly two months ago and are still holding him.
Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border, has a population of more than 2.5 million people, in addition to about 1.7 million Afghan refugees uprooted during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
U.S. forces have also launched airstrikes in the region aimed at top militants, causing friction with the new Pakistan government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded Pervez Musharraf earlier this year.
Musharraf turned Pakistan into a loyal U.S. ally after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, when U.S. forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.
Many militants then fled to the rugged area on the Pakistan side of the border, much of which is effectively out of the control of the government and in the hands of Islamist fighters linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
The Pakistan military’s crackdown on the guerrillas — forces moved into the tribal Bajaur region in August — is unpopular with many in the region. Officials say the military campaign has left more than 2,000 people dead.
Peshawar’s police chief Suleman Shah said the spate of killings and abductions was in reaction to the military operations against insurgents in the adjoining tribal belt.
“We have launched operations in Khyber, Darra Adam Khel and Mohmand tribal districts and militants are retaliating by carrying out attacks in Peshawar and adjoining areas,” he said.
He said the bomber involved in a suicide blast in the nearby district of Shabqadar on Wednesday was a young man from the tribal district of Bara.
The attacker blew up his explosive-laden vehicle at a checkpoint, killing three paramilitary soldiers, the military said.
TITLE: U.K. Olympics Minister Accused of Regretting Bid
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has admitted Britain would not have chosen to host the 2012 Games in London if it had known about the economic downturn, according to a newspaper report Thursday.
“Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not,” Jowell told leisure industry bosses at a dinner Monday, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The Bank of England warned Wednesday that the economy was probably already in recession as a global financial crisis takes its toll, although economists will have to wait until early next year for confirmation.
The slowdown is squeezing private contractors involved in the Games and the government has already cut some costs to ensure the project comes in on budget. But ministers insist Olympic spending will help the economy.
Jowell played down her comments in a statement, saying: “I have often observed that we bid for 2012 in one economic climate and are now in another.
“Had the scale of the downturn been anticipated, I am sure there would have been a view from some that this would not be the time to commit significant public expenditure to a project like the Olympics.
“But as I made clear in my speech, the reality is very different. This is precisely the time for this investment to be made. It has the potential to be economic gold at a time of economic need.”
TITLE: U.S. Foreclosures Soar in October
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MIAMI — The number of homeowners caught in the wave of foreclosures in October grew 25 percent nationally over the same month in 2007, data released Thursday showed.
More than 279,500 U.S. homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in October, an increase of 5 percent over September, according to RealtyTrac Inc. One in every 452 housing units received a foreclosure filing, such as a default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession.
More than 84,000 properties were repossessed in October, RealtyTrac said.
A nasty brew of strict lending standards, falling home values and a tough economy is filtering through the housing market. By the end of the year, the company expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.
The collateral damage in the financial markets forced the government to pass a $700 billion financial rescue package last month. The plan was initially to buy bad assets from banks, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that the rescue package won’t purchase those troubled assets.
That plan would have taken too much time, he said, so instead the Treasury will rely on buying stakes in banks and encouraging them to resume more normal lending.
Also Wednesday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston said the government may let more borrowers qualify for a $300 billion program designed to let troubled homeowners swap risky loans for more affordable ones. The program was launched Oct. 1, but there are concerns that lenders won’t participate because they have to voluntarily reduce the value of a loan and take a loss.
In RealtyTrac’s report, three states — Nevada, Arizona, and Florida — had the nation’s top foreclosure rates. Nevada posted the nation’s highest rate for the 22nd consecutive month in October.
In Nevada, one in every 74 homes received a foreclosure filing last month. Arizona saw one in every 149 housing units receive a foreclosure filing, and in Florida it was one in every 157 homes.
Other states in the top 10 were California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio.
However, RealtyTrac noted that, while California had the highest total number of foreclosures in October, the rate in that state was down 18 percent from the previous month.
James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said new laws requiring delays in the foreclosure process have reduced the volume of foreclosure filings in several states. In California, lenders are now required to contact borrowers at least 30 days before filing a default notice. A similar law in North Carolina gives borrowers an extra 45 days.
“While the intention behind this legislation — to prevent more foreclosures — is admirable, without a more integrated approach that includes significant loan modifications, the net effect may be merely delaying inevitable foreclosures,” Saccacio said. “And in the meantime, the apparent slowing of foreclosure activity understates the severity of the foreclosure problem in these states.”
Among cities, Las Vegas had the highest October foreclosure rate among the 230 metro areas tracked in the report, with one in every 62 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.
TITLE: UN Food Program for Gaza Strip in Jeopardy
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: GAZA CITY — The United Nations will suspend its food distribution to half of Gaza’s 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said.
Israel initially said it would allow 30 trucks to deliver supplies to Gaza on Thursday after it sealed off the Gaza Strip on Nov. 5, but later said mortar fire by Gaza militants made it impossible to do so.
“They have told us the crossings are closed today. At the end of today we will suspend our food distribution,” said UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness.
“Our warehouses are effectively empty,” he told AFP.
UNRWA usually distributes emergency food rations to about 750,000 people in the impoverished, overcrowded sliver of land whose economy has been crippled by a tight blockade Israel says is aimed at forcing militants to stop firing rockets and mortar rounds at the Jewish state.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said a truck it sent to the Kerem Shalom crossing was turned back.
Israel usually allows some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but even this has stopped over the past week, leading to harsh criticism from aid agencies.
“Pushing people to the brink of desperation every few months and forcing UNRWA into yet another cycle of crisis management is not in the interest of anyone who believes in peace, moderation and stability,” said Gunness.
Israel also cut off European Union-funded fuel supplies to Gaza’s sole power plant on Thursday, prompting a warning from the Palestinian Energy Authority that it would have to shut down before the end of the day for want of diesel.
“The plant will stop functioning at 6:30 p.m. if Israel does not allow the supply of fuel today,” authority official Qanaan Obeid told AFP.
The plant, which provides between a quarter and a third of Gaza’s power with the rest coming from the Egyptian and Israeli national grids, shut down on Monday after Israel cut off fuel deliveries.
Israel allowed the supply of what it described as “minimal quantities” of fuel to the plant on Tuesday and Wednesday before cutting it off again on Thursday.
ICRC mission chief Katharina Ritz said that “every day the situation is getting more and more precarious for Gazans,” adding that there is a desperate need for medical supplies.
The Israeli military confirmed the closure of Gaza continued.
“The crossings will remain closed today for security reasons,” defence ministry spokesman Peter Lerner said.
TITLE: Van Nistelrooy Out for Season Following 2nd Knee Operation
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MADRID — Real Madrid’s Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy underwent an operation on his right knee in the United States on Thursday and will miss the rest of the season, according to the Spanish club.
“The player had an operation and will be out for the remainder of the season,” the club said in a statement.
The former Manchester United marksman, 32, is expected to be out of action for “between six and nine months,” the club added.
The Dutch striker made the trip across the Atlantic earlier this week to see Richard Steadman, the doctor who operated on the striker’s right knee in 2000.
“Following an exploratory arthroscopic operation on Wednesday, it was determined that Ruud van Nistelrooy had a partially torn meniscus in his right knee,” the club said.
“Real Madrid’s medical staff, Dr Steadman and the player decided to surgically repair the damaged knee, by which he will miss between six and nine months.”
Van Nistelrooy arrived at Real Madrid in 2006 from Manchester United and has scored 45 goals in La Liga, including four this season.
The Dutchman is the second highest scorer in the European Champions League, with 60 goals.
His absence will be a hard blow for the Spanish champions, who have suffered two defeats to Juventus in the Champions League.