SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1430 (94), Tuesday, December 2, 2008
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TITLE: Condoms Promoted On World AIDS Day
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As the world marked International AIDS Day on Monday the youth branch of the democratic party Yabloko in St. Petersburg called for condom-vending machines to be installed in or near hostels, universities, clubs and other places frequented by young people. 
“The vast majority of young people who contract HIV in Russia get infected via unprotected sex,” read a leaflet distributed by activists at local universities on Monday. “It is high time that everyone assumes full responsibility for their own health and well-being, especially in issues as simple and straight-forward as getting a condom.”
According to official statistics, there are 400,000 HIV-positive people in Russia, while independent experts say the numbers have already exceeded 1million people. Between 110 and 120 new cases are registered in the country every day.
St. Petersburg has some of the largest numbers of HIV-positive people in the country. Since 2002, between 3,000 and 4,500 new cases have been registered in town annually. According to the St. Petersburg City Center for AIDS Prevention, nearly 50,000 HIV-positive people were registered in St. Petersburg in 2008. 
Yabloko is trying to get the city authorities and the companies that produce or distribute condoms interested in arranging the installation of the vending machines, said Alexander Shurshev, spokesman for the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko.
Vladimir Zholobov, first deputy head of City Hall’s Health Committee, said HIV prevention is one of the top priorities for the Russian state, and for the city of St. Petersburg, in particular. 
“Only half of HIV-positive patients are officially registered, which means they have access to treatment,” Zholobov said. “Even when discovering their diagnosis during an anonymous test, some patients do not seek contact with doctors because they fear the stigma that follows most HIV-positive people in Russia. The state has the money to provide treatment to everyone who needs it now so the biggest challenge at the moment is to convince all HIV-positive people to get in contact with doctors.”

TITLE: Raising Oil Output Still State’s Goal
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Anyone who thinks that oil and wealth automatically go hand in hand obviously hasn’t been paying attention to export revenues in recent months. 
Producers of crude oil lost an estimated $3.3 billion on exports in September and October, according to Alfa Bank, and the losses have continued to mount this month. 
The financial difficulties come at a hard time, as production will fall this year for the first time in a decade, threatening the country’s share in the global market. But the government continues to press for production to grow and guarantee Russia’s place as the world’s second-largest exporter — a factor that has underpinned the country’s growing international clout. 
“Suppose that global crude prices recover in a couple of years and we have dwindling production,” said Alexandra Yevtifyeva, an economist at VTB. “We would lose our significance as a reliable supplier of energy.” 
Falling production would mean a reduced ability to influence international prices, a goal that the government has articulated of late, said Igor Lotakov, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. 
“If we begin a rollback now, our position will no doubt grow weaker,” he said. “If we give up everything, revenues will drop, and we will still be unable to influence the situation [with prices], much as we are unable to now.” 
The reason for the financial difficulties is that while oil prices have fallen by about two-thirds since their summer highs to just below $50, the fall in export duties that the government charges per barrel of oil has lagged behind. 
The strong earnings in the first half of the year mean that the major producers should end up comfortably in the black, but smaller producers have seen those profits wiped out. 
The last time Russian oil traded below $50 per barrel was in the first half of June 2005, when the ruble was trading at about 28.5 rubles to the dollar — less than a ruble off its current value. 
In that sense, the situation today is a virtual mirror of conditions then. 
But costs have soared since 2005, as reserves in existing fields have been depleted and the locations of the greenfields meant to replace them have grown more remote and difficult to exploit. Double-digit annual inflation has also contributed to increased outlays. 
The steep rise in the cost of borrowing generated by the current global crisis has only put further strain on producers. 
Some producers have already scaled back their investment plans for next year, and it is almost inevitable that others will follow suit. Senior executives at LUKoil, the country’s second-largest producer, and Gazprom Neft, in the fifth spot, have predicted further declines in national output next year. 
LUKoil chief Vagit Alekperov, however, has vowed that the company will raise production by at least 1 percent in the year ahead. 
The crisis has also had a chilling effect on the world’s largest gas producer, Gazprom. A company executive said in mid-November that the state-owned giant would extract less gas this year, in part, because of falling domestic and European demand. 
Prices for gas exports, Gazprom’s main source of revenue, are tied directly to oil prices, but with a lag time of six to nine months, meaning that the company is currently reaping the highest export revenues in its history. But these prices will also start to slide in the second quarter of next year. 
Even with lower gas prices, Gazprom is in better shape than companies in the oil sector, as export and extraction taxes are lower than on oil. 
The company has said it will continue developing new Arctic fields in Yamal and the Shtokman deposit in the Barents Sea, and deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said at a recent industry conference that the company’s investment plans depend on a long-term oil price of $45 to $60 a barrel. 
With possible difficulties at Gazprom still off in the relative distance, the government’s focus has been on helping the oil sector. 
Even before the financial crisis struck in full in August, the government had already devised tax incentives for the oil sector to take effect in January, in a move to try to halt the slide in production. 
Following the plummet in world prices, more tax cuts to stimulate production are in consideration, and changes have been introduced to help export duties track prices more closely. The new system — approved by the State Duma on Nov. 21 — would see the duties revised every month, as opposed to every two months, as was the case before. The duties will now also be calculated on prices for the previous month rather than the previous two. 
There is disagreement whether the change would make exports profitable in December. Whatever the case, the percentage of revenues earned going to the government would remain unchanged. 
Moreover, the profit tax reduction proposed on Nov. 20 by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to come into force in the new year, will not be significant enough to prompt oil companies to jack up investment, said Artyom Konchin, an analyst at UniCredit Aton.

TITLE: Masked Protestors Say City is Becoming a Gas Chamber
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: By felling the trees and abolishing eco-friendly trams on Ligovsky Prospekt, the authorities have turned the boulevard into a “gas chamber,” members of the city’s preservationist movement, who held an “unsanctioned” protest there on Sunday, said.
A dozen protesters put on gas masks and respirators to highlight increasing levels of pollution caused by the local authorities’ policy of reducing of the city’s protected green areas and allowing construction companies to fell trees to make way for elite apartment buildings. Activists from the pressure groups Living City, Okhtinskaya Duga, ZOV and ERA as well as unaffiliated individuals took part in the rally.
The sidewalk at 49 Ligovsky Prospect near Moskovsky Train Station was chosen as the location to hold the protest because it was formerly occupied by St. Petersburg’s State Construction Control and Expertise Service, which recently moved into the new offices on Ulitsa Zodchego Rossi.
The organization, directed by Alexander Ort, is held responsible by the preservationists for giving permission to fell trees and remove the tramlines on Ligovsky Prospect, rather than enforcing environmental standards in the city, as it should have.
Placards reading “They Crippled Ligovsky, Will [Ulitsa] Zodchego Rossi Be Next?,” “Give Fresh Air Back to the City!” and “A City Without Trees Is a Gas Chamber for the Residents,” were held aloft by the protesters.
After distributing leaflets demanding that the extermination of the city’s trees and gardens be stopped and the return of trams into the center, the protesters, who had not applied to the authorities for permission to hold the rally on the site, marched along Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main street, some still wearing respirators and holding posters.

TITLE: Assaults on Activists Slammed at City Rally
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Unscrupulous employers and corrupt state officials were behind a recent wave of criminal attacks on social and labor activists in Russia, speakers during a rally in support of the assaulted activists in St. Petersburg said on Sunday. The protestors demanded that the authorities stop the terror and thoroughly investigate every such attack.
“We Won’t Be Intimidated,” was perhaps the most popular slogan at the rally that drew around a hundred supporters, including left-wing and labor activists, on Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa in the center of the city.
Last month saw a series of vicious attacks around Russia. Newspaper editor Mikhail Beketov who was campaigning to save the Khimki Forest from being felled by a construction company in the town of Khimki near Moscow was found in a coma, brutally beaten, near his house, on Nov. 13, and had to undergo a series of brain operations and a had a leg and the fingers on one hand amputated.
Carine Clement, Director of the Independent Institute of Collective Action (IKD) and one of the leaders of the Union of Coordinating Councils of Russia (SKS), was reported to have been attacked by two unknown young men who injected a syringe of unidentified liquid into her thigh in Moscow on Nov. 13. These were among ten reported attacks on activists in Russia last month.
Locally, Alexei Etmanov, the leader of the Ford plant in the town of Vsevolozhsk near St. Petersburg, resisted two attacks with metal pipes and knuckle-dusters on Nov. 8 and 14. Etmanov was behind the successful strike at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk last year and has become one of best-known figures in Russian labor movement.
Etmanov is also a member of the Petersburg-based Committee for Solidarity Actions (KSD), which unites union and left-wing political activists and is the organizer of the support campaign for the workers union at the TaGAZ automobile plant in Taganrog.
Organized by the local branch of SKS, similar rallies were held in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod on the same day.

TITLE: Conservatory Less Than Harmonious Over Rector
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Intrigue surrounding the election of the new rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory continued this week as one of three candidates for the post, Alexei Vasiliev, the rector of the Rimsky-Korsakov classical music college, withdrew his name in unclear circumstances.
In June, the Culture Ministry terminated the contract of the Conservatory’s then rector, composer Alexander Chaikovsky, who was accused of financial misappropriation and ousted after a ministerial inspection found financial irregularities and 15 million rubles ($536,000) unaccounted for.
Violinist Sergei Stadler, who had been intended as a temporary replacement for Chaikovsky, was nominally impeached by the institution’s staff as soon as his appointment was officially announced. He has nonetheless remained in the post after the Culture Ministry stepped in to the conflict.
The election will be held on Dec. 29.
With Vasiliev out, Stadler is facing pianist Pavel Yegorov who can boast neither the strong backing of the authorities (as can Stadler), nor popularity with Conservatory’s staff (as could Vasiliev).
Gyulara Sadykh-zade, a prominent classical music critic and a board member of the St. Petersburg Union of Composers, said Vasiliev’s sudden withdrawal seems highly suspicious in view of how active and enthusiastic the candidate had been just days earlier.
“The Conservatory’s bureaucrats had tried to deny him registration on various technicalities — to the extent that his documents were in the end registered with the intervention of the famous singer and Conservatory professor Irina Bogachyova, who used her capabilities as Honored Citizen of St. Petersburg,” Sadykh-zade said. “It is beyond many people’s comprehension why Vasiliev would just suddenly walk off. Some insiders speculate that there may have been pressure put on him to withdraw, but there is no evidence.”
Vasiliev has not yet offered any reason for his withdrawal, either to his colleagues or the media.
Stadler, whom a number of staff of the Conservatory are said to find “intolerable” to work with, had previously attempted to get a teaching position at the Conservatory but failed.
In 1998-2001 the musician served as chief conductor of the Conservatory’s Opera Theater but had to leave after the theater was absorbed by the Conservatory and was no longer an independent company with its own repertoire.
Critics said at the time that the main reason for the unification of the Conservatory and the theater was the need to give students sufficient time to rehearse. The theater’s demanding program interfered with studies, they said.
Most members of the Conservatory’s academic council have made insulting comments about Stadler — calling the musician “childish,” “immature” and “wet behind the ears.” The impeachment articles issued by the staff at the end of June said that they “firmly objected to Sergei Stadler’s appointment.”
The staff at the time also sent a letter to St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko asking her to help resolve the conflict.
The Culture Ministry has been adamant in pushing Stadler for the job, with officials maintaining they are perfectly happy with his qualifications. In the meantime, Stanislav Gaudasinsky, one of the most vocal and influential opponents of Stadler (and, incidentally, the husband of the singer Bogachyova), lost his job as President of the Conservatory.
The venerable musical institution has changed leaders four times over the past five years.
The turbulence began when Vladislav Chernushenko, who had been the Conservatory’s rector for almost twenty years, lost his job amid accusations of negligence, mismanagement and even embezzlement.
His successor, cellist Sergei Roldugin, an old friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left after less than two years, when a financial inspection claimed some of his deputies were responsible for serious financial irregularities. Then followed Chaikovsky, whose tenure was equally short-lived.
Chaikovsky was praised in the classical music industry for creating a coherent artistic policy for the Conservatory and attracting some of the biggest names in the field — including conductor Mariss Jansons and composer Rodion Shchedrin — to its festivals, master classes and other initiatives.

TITLE: Oppositionists Determined to Press Ahead
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A new democratic movement’s local conference was prevented from taking place by the authorities at the weekend and an activist carrying stickers for an anti-Kremlin rally later this month was detained, but organizers behind both events say they will not be deterred.
The conference of united democratic forces, tentatively called Solidarity, scheduled to take place Saturday, was canceled after at least six venues refused to host it. Olga Kurnosova, the local leader of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front and pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia, said the venues’ administrations cancelled either because the authorities directly told them to or because they were simply scared of the consequences of being associated with political opposition.
“There were different situations with different venues,” said Kurnosova by phone on Monday.
“The last was the Ministry of Atomic Energy’s Professional Advancement Institute, where I explained it was for Solidarity’s social-political conference. But five minutes after I’d left the building, they called the rector and the rector banned it.”
However, Kurnosova was confident that the postponed conference, where delegates will be elected for the democratic forces’ national congress, due to take place in Moscow on Dec. 12-13, would be held either on Saturday or Sunday of this week.
“[The authorities] are doing their best to prevent us from holding it, but let’s not raise their hopes; the conference will take place in any event, even if we don’t find any venue for it at all.”
On Monday, Kurnosova submitted an application to City Hall for the next Dissenters March, the latest Other Russia-organized opposition rally. Previous such rallies have frequently been banned by the authorities and dispersed by the OMON special-task police.
According to Kurnosova, the opposition suggested three different routes for the rally this time, with a starting point near the Gostiny Dvor metro entrance, now closed for repairs, leaving it to the authorities to choose an appropriate route. According to the law, City Hall should give an answer within three days of the application's submission.
Dissenters’ Marches are due to be held in both Moscow and St. Petersburg on Dec. 14, the anniversary of the Decembrists’ Uprising against Tsarist autocracy in 1825. The main targets of the demonstrations are President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent proposition to extend terms for both the Russian President and State Duma deputies as well as the aggravated economic situation in Russia.
Meanwhile, as the rally approached, the oppositionists were finding they were “under surveillance,” Kurnosova said, after United Civil Front activist Yury Asotov was detained when returning from a United Civil Front meeting while entering Vasileostrovskaya Metro at around 9:45 p.m. on Sunday.
The police searched him and found Dissenters’ March stickers, United Civil Front’s agenda for Solidarity and four DVDs of “Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case,” emigre director Andrei Nekrasov’s documentary about the Kremlin critic and former Russian security service officer Alexander Litvinenko who was murdered in London in 2006.
Asotov was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department, and after a conversation with an investigator, was allowed to leave, he said by phone on Monday. He spent three hours dealing with the police over the incident, he said.

TITLE: New Generation of Ballistic Missiles Tested
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia has begun producing a new generation intercontinental missile, a senior government official said on Monday, after a successful test launch.
Russia’s military hailed Friday’s test of the Bulava, a submarine-launched ballistic missile that can carry nuclear warheads to targets more than 8,000 kilometers away, after a host of mishaps that had raised doubts about its future.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees defense issues within the government, said another test launch would take place this year and that defense enterprises had already started large-scale production of the weapon.
“By the end of the year another test of Bulava is planned,” Ivanov told a cabinet meeting, state RIA news agency reported.
“At the same time our defense enterprises have started mass production,” he said.
The 12-meter Bulava, which means “mace” in Russian and whose design is based on the Topol-M missile, was supposed to complete testing two years ago. But at least several public test launch failures had raised concerns inside the navy about the weapon.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the Bulava missile can penetrate anti-missile shields such as the one the United States plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic.

TITLE: Medvedev, Castro Hold Talks
AUTHOR: By Anita Snow
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HAVANA — President Dmitry Medvedev met with revolutionary icon Fidel Castro on Friday, discussing Guantanamo Bay and hopes for a multipolar world with Cuba’s former leader during a tour of Latin America aimed at raising Moscow’s presence in the region. 
Medvedev spent hours talking and sightseeing with President Raul Castro before meeting privately with his 82-year-old older brother. 
Medvedev said he was happy with his visit when he left the island Friday evening on a flight from the beach resort of Varadero, east of Havana, Cuba’s Prensa Latina news agency reported. 
“We have defined what we are going to do next, we have cleared up everything regarding credits and in Russia we will await President Raul Castro’s visit,” Prensa Latina quoted Medvedev as saying. The news agency offered no details about what had been defined and cleared up. 
In an essay released hours after the meeting with Medvedev, Fidel Castro wrote that he emphasized to him Cuba’s demand for the return of “up to the last square meter” of land occupied by the U.S. military base at Guantanamo. 
“No country could understand that policy better than Russia, constantly threatened by the same adversary of peace,” Castro added, referring to U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in Europe. 
In the essay, which appeared on the government web site Cubadebate.cu, the older Castro said he and Medvedev also discussed the need for a “multipolar world.” 
Earlier Friday, Medvedev and Raul Castro laid a wreath at a monument to Soviet soldiers who died while serving in Cuba in the early 1960s, a symbol of Cuba’s once-prominent part in the communist bloc and the history of its ties to Russia. 
Russian officials deny that Medvedev’s four-nation trip is meant to provoke the United States, but the chat with Fidel Castro capped meetings with Washington’s staunchest opponents in the region. 
Medvedev toured a visiting Russian warship on Thursday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and earlier met with Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, saying Russia might participate in a socialist trade bloc founded by Chavez and Cuba. 
Medvedev also signed deals with Brazil and Peru, part of an effort to strengthen Russia’s political, economic and military connections across a region long dominated by U.S. influence. 
“We visited states that no Russian leader, and no Soviet leader, ever visited,” he told reporters. “This means one thing: that attention simply was not paid to these countries.” 
Medvedev’s Latin America tour is in some ways a response to U.S. moves in eastern and central Europe, where Russia sees its own security threatened by U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in former Soviet satellite states. 
Medvedev said he and Raul Castro had discussed economic and “military-technical cooperation” — apparently arms sales — “as well as security and regional cooperation.” 
Raul Castro, 77, served as Cuba’s defense minister for nearly five decades, working alongside Soviet military officials. A steadfast communist, he often visited the Soviet Union.

TITLE: Church  Slams Priest For Exhibiting Icon of Stalin
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Soviet leader Josef Stalin might seem like an unlikely subject for an icon, but one priest disagrees — and his stance has sparked an angry response from the church. 
The St. Petersburg Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church said Friday that it had reprimanded a priest who displayed an icon depicting Stalin in a church in a nearby town. 
“We took him to task, and he was so frightened that he became ill,” a spokesman from the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate said Friday. 
Father Yevstafy Zhakov, priest of St. Olga’s Church in the Leningrad region town of Strelna, recently put up an icon showing Stalin standing before the Blessed Matrona of Moscow, a 20th-century saint. 
Father Yevstafy said that, according to legend, Stalin would often talk to the woman and that she gave him advice on how to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. Yevstafy said this is the scene depicted in the icon. 
Father Yevstafy has been quoted in the media in the past calling Stalin one of the nation’s fathers and saying he didn’t think Stalin was an atheist. 
“[Stalin] is in part my great father also,” Yevstafy said, Noviye Izvestia reported. “He didn’t abandon me during my whole life.” 
“I mention Josef Vissarionovich in all my services, when appropriate, especially on the date he died, on his birthday and on those days when he celebrated the victory of our people,” he said. 
A spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate said Father Yevstafy had not displayed an icon of Stalin. 
“It was not an icon of Stalin, but there were two images in the picture representing the subject of Stalin speaking with the Blessed Matrona,” the spokesman said. 
The Russian press reported that church visitors had asked Yevstafy to stop mentioning Stalin in his prayers and to take the icon down. 
Yevstafy first placed it in a remote corner of the church. After further complaints, he took it home. 
A spokesman for the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate, who did not give his name, said Friday that Yevstafy had simply slipped up. 
“He is an old man, and he just made a mistake,” the spokesman said. “He didn’t expect the event to be covered by the media.” 
The controversy over the Stalin icon comes at a time when a slight rehabilitation of the leader’s image is being pushed for from different quarters. 
In July, the St. Petersburg branch of the Communist Party asked the Orthodox Church to canonize Stalin if he won a television poll to declare him the greatest Russian in history. The result of the poll will only be known at the end of the year, but Stalin seems to be already out of the running. 
Millions of people were executed under Stalin, and many died from abuse or disease in the gulag system of prison camps. According to historians, he is responsible for between 20 million and 40 million unnecessary deaths.

TITLE: President Medvedev Applauds New U.S. Stance on NATO Membership
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev praised a U.S. decision to change its strategy for bringing Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, expressing satisfaction Friday that the U.S. administration abandoned a program seen as a key step toward membership.
Medvedev said “reason has prevailed” in the outgoing U.S. administration.
Amid opposition from European allies concerned about angering Russia, the United States dropped efforts to assist the pro-Western leaders of Ukraine and Georgia with preparatory programs seen as a road map toward membership.
Moscow is pressing to keep the two ex-Soviet republics out of NATO, and the issue contributed to tensions leading up to its August war with Georgia. The alliance declined to grant Georgia and Ukraine Membership Action Plans in April but assured them that they would eventually join and promised to revisit the issue at a NATO meeting next week.
However, in the face of continued opposition from France and Germany, U.S. officials have said they would abandon the push to get the action plans this week and try to assist the two countries in joining via different means.
The U.S. ambassador to NATO said last week that he hopes to prepare Ukraine and Georgia for eventual membership by assisting with military, economic and political reforms — without the diplomatic complication of the Membership Action Plan.
But Medvedev, who was visiting Cuba, described the U.S. decision as a retreat.
“I am pleased that reason has prevailed, unfortunately only at the end of the current U.S. administration,” Medvedev said in remarks broadcast on Russian television. “Whether the Americans heeded the Europeans or somebody else, now this idea is not being put forward with such frenzy and senselessness as it was not long ago.”
Medvedev’s remarks were the latest indication that the Kremlin is hoping the administration of President-elect Barack Obama will back down from policies that have aggravated Moscow.

TITLE: Georgian President Defends ‘Difficult Choice’
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: TBILISI, Georgia — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday mounted a fresh defense of his country’s assault on South Ossetia in August, denying accusations that Tbilisi had been the aggressor in the disastrous war with Russia that ensued.
Under fire from opponents who say he started a war that Georgia could not win, Saakashvili defended his actions on the night of Aug. 7 during televised testimony before a bipartisan parliamentary commission probing the war.
Saakashvili remains popular among voters, but Georgia’s fractious opposition is using the five-day conflict to mount a fresh challenge to the pro-Western president, who came to power with the 2003 “Rose Revolution.”
Saakashvili’s defense was aimed primarily at a domestic audience. Western states did condemn Russia’s intervention but have not disguised their dissatisfaction with Georgia’s assault on the rebel region. 
Saakashvili dismissed as “utter nonsense” testimony this week by Georgia’s ex-ambassador to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, who said Tbilisi had been the aggressor, having mistakenly convinced itself that it had the blessing of the United States.
Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told the commission on Thursday that Georgia attacked the rebel capital Tskhinvali on Aug. 7-8 because Russian forces were pouring across the border, and it was a matter of time before they attacked Georgian-populated villages.
But at the time, there was no public statement from the Georgian leadership that Russian forces were invading. The shelling of Tskhinvali after a cease-fire of several hours and the subsequent ground assault was justified as a response to rebel shelling of Georgian villages.
Saakashvili repeated the later claim that Russia had already invaded and forced his hand, recalling “the most difficult choice of my life.” Russia says the claim is nonsense and that it intervened to defend South Ossetian civilians.
Reuters, AP

TITLE: Athletes Face Doubling of Sentences
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — The world governing athletics body has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to double the two-year suspensions imposed on seven female Russian athletes for manipulating doping samples.
A statement by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Friday said an appeal had been filed with CAS against the decision taken by the Russian Federation last month.
“The IAAF considers that the offense committed justifies a heavier sanction and requests that the athletes be declared ineligible for a period for four years,” the statement said.
Two-time world 1,500-meter champion Tatyana Tomashova was one of the athletes banned by the Russian Federation after IAAF testers found that DNA from samples provided in out-of-competition tests in May last year did not match with samples at the subsequent world championships.
World indoor 1,500-meter champion Yelena Soboleva was also banned.

TITLE: Crisis No Problem for Millionaire Fair
AUTHOR: By Ethan Wilensky-Lanford, Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writers
TEXT: MOSCOW — In its brief history, Moscow’s Millionaire Fair has become a symbol of the exorbitant wealth that has been acquired by some during years of an oil-fueled economic boom. 
This year, the glitzy show of mega-yachts, private helicopters and designer villas has been overshadowed somewhat by the global economic crisis, but that didn’t stop the fair’s organizers from seeming like they were in their own little world. 
“Welcome to our anti-crisis event,” It-Girl Ksenia Sobchak exclaimed from the main stage at the opening gala late Thursday. “Everybody else has a crisis, but we have the Millionaire Fair!” 
Visitors were greeted with free champagne flowing out of oversized bottles after entering the Crocus Expo center on the city’s northwestern outskirts for a VIP night that lasted until the early hours Friday. The fair itself continued through Sunday. 
Official ticket sales were not released for the fair, which was held here for the first time in 2005, but according to the event’s web site, 40,000 people visited in 2007. Organizers said they were expecting 50,000 this year. 
All the same, guests inside the airy exhibition halls Saturday said the event seemed less crowded than in recent years. 
“It is nice this year with fewer people around,” said Alexei Shavrin, a real estate investor. 
Part of the feeling that there was more space to go around might have been generated by the difficult economic times, but those on hand were saying the segment at which the fair is targeted is unlikely to feel the bite of a recession. 
“For those who have millions, the crisis is no problem,” said Timor Romanov, who was wearing a fur-lined leather coat and carrying a tiny terrier — Tracey — with a crystal-studded collar. 
Romanov was inspecting a scale model of a 98-house community called Monolit — with its own church and a lake — on Novorizhskoye Shosse. The houses in the development are listed for between $2 million and $5 million. 
For the Millionaire Fair, the homes in this community are facing a tight market — far too pricey for upper middle-class buyers but below the standards of the enormously rich. 
“Today, we are selling houses for above $10 million,” said Igor Sukhov, a consultant with Kalinka Realty. “Three-and-a-half million dollars to $5 million is not good. Nobody is buying.” 
Romanov’s son, Roman Romanov, 17, said he was not doing any shopping because he did not yet have a job. 
“I think there are a lot of beautiful things here,” he said. “Soon, I hope I will make some money to buy an Aston Martin like James Bond and maybe a house in Dubai.” 
Richard Orme, managing director of Large Yacht Solutions, a consultancy based in London and Barcelona, said people could still afford to buy luxury products but were probably too busy these days. 
“A lot of people here are still able to buy, but they are sitting on their hands,” he said. “Buying boats is more of a thing for your spare time.” 
An Italian designer said the crisis was real and it gave the wealthy an opportunity for introspection. Curtailing purchases, he said, was a healthy thing to do. 
“In a time of crisis, I think I take care of something that I have inside,” said Roberto Gallazzi, a designer with Cyrus Company. “I spend because I’m happy to spend, because I like what I’m buying, not just to spend money like I smoke cigarettes.” 
The fair, nonetheless, presented many opportunities for people to spend money on opulent objects. Yachts, jewelry and furs were ubiquitous. Those with more eccentric tastes could be found, for example, browsing at a display of intricately engraved knives. 
“It is a kind of art,” said Nikolai Razgulyayev, resplendent in tan ostrich-skin shoes. “You can actually compare it with a kind of painting.” 
The knife he was admiring was on sale for $30,000. The steel blade had a double-headed eagle on it, with the words “St. Andrew, Patron Saint of Russia” carved in Latin and leafed in gold. Dozens of diamonds sparkled on the scabbard. 
Two booths overflowed with giant bouquets of flowers attached to charred wood. The exhibits were being run by designer Araik Galstyan, who for 25,000 euros ($32,000) will help you name a new breed of flower. 
“Everywhere around the world, it will be sold by your name,” he said. “The crisis is not ours because we have very rich clients.” 
Several real estate agents said they did the most business Thursday night at the special VIP gala. 
Seven people bought inspection tours to a new resort opening on the Cape Verde Islands called Nikki Beach, a part of a chain of elite lifestyle beach clubs. 
“You have to have something very different to make it work,” said Peter Perfect of London-based Stately Partners, who represented the property. “We play on the exclusivity and the fun of having the beach bars and the hotels and everything there. … It’s all for the beautiful people, if you know what I mean, or the people who like to think they are beautiful.” 
Many beautiful people at the event, it turned out, were models working to promote various brands. 
One insurance company model, however, inadvertently commented on an irony of the event — beauty and money don’t automatically go together. 
“I just sit here and look beautiful,” said Darya Novikova, when asked about her job. 
And what did she think of the fair? 
“It’s not very interesting for me,” she said. “Everything’s too expensive.”

TITLE: BP Agrees to Back Expansion of CPC
AUTHOR: By Tanya Mosolova and Dmitry Zhdannikov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — BP said Friday that it would back the long-delayed expansion of the CPC pipeline from Kazakhstan to Russia as early as December if it faces no obstacles in selling its stakes in the venture.
Most of the shareholders of the Chevron-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which runs to the major Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, have agreed on the expansion terms demanded by Russia.
BP, the only shareholder that still opposes the terms, has said it was considering selling the stake if no compromise was found. The group’s shareholders hope to sign the memorandum on CPC expansion at their meeting Dec. 17.
A BP spokesman said Friday that the company wanted to sell its stakes in CPC to LUKoil and Kazakh KazMunaiGaz but that it needed the sale to be approved by all other private and state shareholders of the consortium.
“BP supports the principles of CPC extension only if it has a clear and unencumbered right to sell its stake to a selected group of companies,” said Vladimir Buyanov, BP’s spokesman in Moscow.
He added that BP was in talks with LUKoil and KazMunaiGaz to sell its stakes in its joint ventures with the Russian and Kazakh companies LUKArco and Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures, which are members of the consortium. 
BP’s stakes in the ventures bring its share in CPC to 6.6 percent.
BP, whose percentage interest in the pipeline was bigger than its percentage interest in the Kazakh fields that feed the route, said it was the least interested in the planned expansion among other CPC shareholders.
“BP supports the principles of CPC extension. However, the terms that were proposed have disadvantages to BP as the only company that has not enough oil to transport,” Buyanov said.
Pipeline monopoly Transneft, which holds Russia’s 31 percent stake in CPC, had long opposed the plan to double the pipeline’s capacity from the current 700,000 barrels per day, but it has now dropped its objections.
Transneft previously argued that the pipeline yielded low returns.

TITLE: Central Bank Devalues Ruble Twice During Course of Week
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Central Bank on Friday allowed the ruble to depreciate for the second time in a week and said it would raise key interest rates in an effort to reduce capital outflows. 
The trading corridor of the dollar-euro basket was widened by 1 percentage point, or 30 kopeks, for the third time this month, continuing on a track of gradual devaluation widely criticized for encouraging speculation and depleting foreign currency reserves. 
“The Central Bank today widened the technical corridor for supporting the exchange rate by 30 kopeks on both sides, just like the last two times,” Central Bank vice chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said Friday, RIA-Novosti reported. 
The bank also raised its key interest rates on Friday, increasing its refinancing rate to 13 percent from 12 percent starting Monday. 
“Our goal [for the interest rate hike] is to destimulate capital outflows. If a devaluation is expected, then the bigger the differential between our interest rates and world base rates, the greater the reason for banks and their clients not to move into foreign currency assets,” Ulyukayev said. 
Raising interest rates in a tight liquidity situation, however, could put additional strain on the economy at a time when a weak ruble continues to drive people to buy foreign currency. 
“This is a highly risky strategy as banks continue to experience deposit outflows and, therefore, ruble liquidity is very tight,” said Elina Rybakova, chief economist at Citibank. 
In a note to investors Friday, VTB economist Alexandra Yevtifyeva said the interest rate hike “will be quite painful for banks.” 
“We think the banks will pass the hike on to deposits and then to lending rates, tightening credit in the economy and worsening growth prospects for next year,” Yevtifyeva said. 
The government is not limiting itself to interest-rate hikes in its quest to slow capital outflows, however. 
Commercial banks will also now be allowed to open euro and dollar accounts with the Central Bank, the bank said. 
Starting Monday, firms eligible to receive collateral-free loans from the Central Bank could open a foreign-currency correspondent account, a statement on the bank’s web site said. 
The country has seen more than $190 billion leave the country since August, according to BNP Paribas estimates, and the ruble has lost more than 20 percent against the dollar since July.

TITLE: Minister: Investment Extension Would Aid Generators
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Electricity generators may get an extension on investment programs that they agreed to, while power distributors facing bankruptcy may be handed over to grid companies or generators to administer, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told journalists Saturday.
“We will prioritize the investment projects. We will consider each case on its own and are ready to postpone some of them,” Shmatko said, in an acknowledgement that the global financial crisis was making inroads into the energy sector.
“But we do not want to dramatically change the investment programs,” he said.
Foreign and domestic investors took on a 4 trillion ruble commitment to build new generating capacity by 2012, when they acquired electricity assets from the state during the privatization of Unified Energy System, which wrapped up in July, just weeks before the financial crisis struck.
The investment program extension was welcomed by generators, which are having trouble securing financing for their plans to increase capacity.
“Almost all of us have appealed to market regulators asking for an extension in almost all of our investment programs because of the slowing demand and a lack of access to the bank loans,” a generating company official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Sunday. 
“So it is very positive news for us.”
Shmatko’s statements were less positive for distributors, some of which teeter on the verge of bankruptcy as the number of delinquent payments from private and corporate customers surges and sources of credit dry up.
“If a distributor faces bankruptcy, it may be given to a grid company or generator to administer,” Shmatko said. “Some distribution companies owe generators more than they are worth themselves.”
Distributors were less than thrilled with the threat. 
“The logic of the reform implied that distribution and generation were to be separated,” Alexander Shkolnikov, deputy chief executive of Smolenskenergosbyt said by telephone Sunday. 
“The investors have put a lot of money in the projects. Their companies can’t be taken away,” he said.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Ukraine Gas Bill</b>
MOSCOW (SPT) — Naftogaz Ukrainy raised almost all the money it needs to pay for its September gas imports to a Gazprom subsidiary, Interfax reported Saturday.
Naftogaz has already paid $100 million out of a total of $380 million that it has agreed to pay by Dec. 1 to RosUkrEnergo, Interfax said.
Naftogaz agreed last week to pay the bill for September and part of October by Monday in order to resume talks with Gazprom on future gas supplies. 

<b>Sitronics Loan</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Sitronics will receive $230 million from state lender VEB to refinance its foreign debt, a source close to the high-technology firm’s parent, conglomerate Sistema, said Thursday.
A $125 million loan from Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG is due on Thursday. Sitronics owes another $75 million to Dresdner, which comes due in March next year, and $30 million to ABN Amro. 

<b>Oil at $50?</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — The average price of Russian oil will hover at about $50 a barrel next year, nearly half a previous 2009 estimate for the country’s main cash earner, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said Sunday.
“In line with our basic scenario, the average price of Urals oil in 2009 will be $50 per barrel, in 2010 $55 per barrel and in 2011 $60 per barrel,” he told an economic forum in Vienna, RIA-Novosti reported. 

<b>Markets Holidays</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian markets will be closed for the first 10 days of next year under the national holiday schedule approved by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 
Putin made Sunday, Jan. 11, the first working day of 2009, allowing for a 10-day break that includes New Year’s Day and Russian Orthodox Christmas, according to a decree signed yesterday and posted on the government’s web site. 

<b>RZD Staff Cuts</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian Railways plans to cut 3 percent of staff, shorten the working week and cancel bonuses to save money, RIA-Novosti reported. 
The firm will use a “natural outflow” of people as they reach retirement age or quit and will limit new hires, vice president Vadim Morozov said.  

<b>Norilsk Reports Output</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Norilsk Nickel said Friday that its nickel output for the first nine months of 2008 was 218,474 tons, broadly in line with about 219,000 in the same period last year.
Palladium output in January-September 2008 was 2.124 million ounces, Norilsk said in a statement.
Norilsk said the figures included output at its Polar and Kola divisions in Russia as well as at its units in Finland, Australia, Botswana and South Africa, but not its U.S. unit Stillwater Mining. 

<b>Kazakh For  Business</b>
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Chevron, which is developing Kazakhstan’s biggest oil deposit, said Friday that it had received a note from the authorities accusing it of neglecting Kazakh as a business language.
The accusation is part of a broader trend in the nation to revive Kazakh as a symbol of the country’s independence.

TITLE: EuroChem Ups Stake In German Potash Maker
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: FRANKFURT — Russian fertilizer maker EuroChem raised its stake in German potash and salt supplier K+S on Friday, raising questions over its plans for the rival company.
EuroChem, controlled by investor Andrei Melnichenko, said earlier that it had lifted its stake in K+S to 15 percent from 10 percent.
K+S said the move made EuroChem a “strategic investor,” even though the Russian company had previously described its holding as financial. 
“This will revive speculation about a cooperation or even a tie-up,” between the two companies, said analyst Heino Ruland of FrankfurtFinanz.
K+S shares have lost almost two-thirds of their market value from record highs in June as the financial crisis brought the boom in agricultural commodities to an abrupt end and weighed on demand for fertilizer.
A spokeswoman for EuroChem said the company had not yet decided whether to further increase its stake in K+S.
The recent drop in global stock markets had created an opportunity to buy a stake in a “good company in an industry that EuroChem knows very well,” she said. “Ideas are being discussed, [but] there are no specific plans for joint projects at the moment.”
K+S, which ascended to Germany’s benchmark DAX Stock Index in September, also said EuroChem’s move was a sign of confidence in K+S’s mid- to long-term prospects.
The purchase would have cost EuroChem about 290 million euros ($375.2 million) based on K+S’s closing price Thursday.

TITLE: RusAl Nominates Prokhorov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — United Company RusAl has nominated Onexim Group president Mikhail Prokhorov to the board of Norilsk Nickel, RusAl said in an e-mailed statement Friday. 
Norilsk Nickel confirmed the information, saying it had accepted Prokhorov’s candidacy in a list with the other RusAl candidates Wednesday. Prokhorov, a current Norilsk board member, has an interest in the company through his 14 percent stake in RusAl, which owns 25 percent plus two shares of Norilsk. 
The announcement conflicted with Vladimir Potanin, Norilsk’s chairman and a 30 percent shareholder, saying at a news conference Wednesday that neither he nor Prokhorov nor RusAl majority owner Oleg Deripaska would join the new Norilsk board. 
“What Potanin said Wednesday had not been coordinated with us,” a source in the Onexim Group said Friday. “According to the agreement that Prokhorov and Deripaska signed in April, when RusAl bought its 25 percent stake in Norilsk from Onexim, a representative from the group has to be nominated to the miner’s board every time a new board is elected.” 
Potanin and Deripaska, who have been fighting for control over Norilsk since late last year, announced a truce last week, saying the financial crisis had brought them closer together. 
Shareholders will vote Dec. 26 on members for the expanded, 13-member board. The current board is to agree on a list of candidates Monday. 
Potanin’s Interros refused to comment Friday. RusAl spokespeople were not available for comment.

TITLE: Russian Coal Plugged in Asia
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia is promoting its coking coal producers in Asia to boost exports and help offset a slump in demand from domestic steelmakers, Raspadskaya said. 
“We understand how Russian coking coal can reach Asian markets and now is a good time to expand market share,” said Alexander Andreyev, the firm’s deputy CEO. Russian suppliers want to target buyers in Japan, South Korea and China, he said. 
Raspadskaya, the country’s second-largest producer of coking coal, and rival producers Belon and Sibuglement lobbied the state for help earlier this month as coking-coal stockpiles mounted. Raspadskaya stopped mining for a week because of a delay to payments from customers and after demand fell to “almost zero,” Andreyev said. 
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said this month that the government would cut taxes and extend loans to stimulate demand for metals and other commodities. Evraz Group said Thursday that it received $1.8 billion in loans from a state-owned bank to help refinance debt.

TITLE: The Future of Commercial Property in Petersburg
AUTHOR: By Boris Kamchev
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Real estate experts and consultancy agencies are unanimous — despite the negative blow of the credit crunch, Russian commercial real estate has reaped excellent results over the last couple of years and, driven by confidence in the market and expanding investment possibilities, is expected to continue to grow.
Direct investment into Russian commercial real estate assets to the end of September 2008 reached $5.9 billion, increasing by 184 percent year-on-year, according to the latest survey by real estate service and management firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Meanwhile, the European market for the same period has seen a 10-15 percent fall, or $105 billion in direct investments in  the first half of 2008, as against $171 billion a year earlier.
“Russian properties still offer significant yield spreads, and we believe the investment market will continue to perform well,” the Jones Lang LaSalle survey concludes. 
Thanks to the early warnings and prompt government financial intervention in many sectors of the country’s economy, Russia was among the last countries in Europe to feel the financial crisis: developers have only recently faced financing and refinancing obstacles. This has led to uncertainty that has reached all segments of commercial real estate and a business slowdown, felt most severely in the Russian regions.
“We believe investment in commercial real estate will remain frozen until the second quarter of 2009, and that emphasis will be on the main markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg,” said Charles L. Voss, managing director of Aberdeen Property Investors in St. Petersburg. 
According to analysts, 2008 has been a record year for St. Petersburg office real estate because the volume of high quality office space increased by 50 percent over the previous year.
“The total new volume of Class A business space expected to be put into operation in 2008 is 92,000 square meters, whereas the volume of Class B office space for the whole year will be 126,000 square meters,” Dmitry Kuznetsov, director of the office real estate  department at Colliers International, said. He added that levels of occupancy are high: 92 percent for Class A and 98 percent for Class B business centers.
“Developments and changes in financing will lead to a general slowdown in the sector over the next year and a half – only a few new buildings will be introduced,” said Kuznetsov, adding that some of these projects would be either frozen or curtailed.   
According to the most conservative estimates, a decline in business activity as a consequence of the financial crisis may last two or three years. 
“Among the many options available, the investor is likely to undertake one of the following a search for additional sources of project funding (attracting co-investors, borrowing funds, etc.), a sale of assets and mobilization of proceeds to complete the project and a reduction in project expenses or gradual halt of the project development in its entirety,” Irina Onikienko, senior attorney at Capital Legal Services, said.
Some experts believe that 2009 will be a very important year for the warehouse and storage sector. The second half of 2008 has seen the postponement of the completion deadlines for many big warehouse projects, which has led to decreasing volumes of potential supply.
“The total new volume of high quality offers in the third quarter has been increased to 89,200 square meters — 94 percent of this is Class A warehouse floor space,” Nikolai Pashkov, Director of professional services at Knight Frank in St. Petersburg, said. 
Real estate analysts confirm that St. Petersburg Class A and B warehouse supply is limited — totaling only 988,400 square meters. 
“Almost half of this area fully meets international Class A standards. Most of the announced projects are Class A and we expect that completion of some of them will be delayed for various reasons,” the Jones Lang LaSalle survey states. Analysts estimate that quality warehouse supply in St. Petersburg will increase four times by 2010. 
The vacancy rate in quality warehousing is less then 2 percent, resulting in high rents —probably the highest in Europe.
“In 2008, prime rents reached $160 per square meter for a year (excluding VAT and operating expenses). Base rents for Class B were $115-150 per square meter for a year. However, with a delivery of large volumes of quality space the market will balance off by 2010, which will stabilize the rents,” estimates the survey.
In the long-term, the warehouse segment remains very attractive. “This year one of the biggest developmental deals in St. Petersburg’s real estate history was finished and it is namely in the warehouse segment: the British firm Raven Russia purchased the warehouse complex of AKM Logistics, located in Shushary, for $216 million,” said Valery Trushin, head of the research and analysis department at Colliers International. He added that Colliers’ prognoses are that out of 1.2 million square meters announced for 2009, only 360,000 square meters will be put into operation.
St. Petersburg’s retail sector has a seen tremendous boost in the last few years. People involved in the industry say that the Northern Capital’s retail market is evolving as a new generation of retail projects appears and new formats are introduced. The fact that St. Petersburg has more shopping malls per head than Moscow and other Russian cities illustrates this retail boom.
“In accordance with our summarized results for 2008,  around half a million square meters will have been put into operation over the course of the year and the total volume of shopping areas will approach 4 million square meters,” confirmed Roman Evstratov, vice-director of the retail real estate department at Colliers.
Recently launched projects include Piter Raduga (the largest project in 2007), Severniy Mall, Atlantic City, Felichita and Atmosfera. 
About 1.3 million square meters in shopping mall space has been scheduled to be put into operation by the end of 2010.
“A key developmental project in the segment is that retailer Lenta, one of the leaders on the St. Petersburg market, intends to sell 89 percent of its company’s shares. The sale of Lenta may bring to Russia one of the following international retail giants: Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Kesko or Agrokor Group,” said Pashkov.
The supply of quality retail space will become more diverse, as a new generation of shopping centers appears, including multifunctional complexes with a significant entertainment component and multi-phased projects such as Leto, Graf Orloff and the Nevsky Kolizey.
The hotel market this year expects to see a significant increase in the quality supply. 
Apart from the recently opened 221-room Ibis, the 278-room Holiday Club, the 348-room Sokos Hotel Olympic Garden and the 255-room Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky, more than 300 mid-price rooms are anticipated (a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, and a Domina project). These will all be run by international hotel operators. 
Experts predict positive developments in the hotel sector as a result of the gradual repositioning of the city as a business destination.

TITLE: Job Cuts Rampant as Developers Slow Down
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: The country’s real estate developers have started slashing staff as funding for their construction projects has dried up, industry sources and headhunters said on Thursday.
Personnel agencies said that in several cases, up to half of company staff was shown the door, though the developers themselves said sackings had not yet reached that scale.
“We are falling and falling, and we can’t see the bottom,” the vice president of one Moscow developer said. “So it’s hard to get a fix on the situation.”
PIK, one of Russia’s largest mass market housing developers, which also operates a mortgage business and manufactures construction panels, is cutting staff by 15 percent to 35 percent, depending on the region and business line, spokeswoman Natalya Konovalova said.
Sistema-Hals, the real estate unit of billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s Sistema services conglomerate, has already slashed staff, a source at a large local headhunter said.
“In the middle of October, the company already had the first wave of sackings, mainly of mid- and low-ranking personnel in all departments. About half the employees left the company,” the source said.
Sistema-Hals declined official comment, but two sources close to the management of the company confirmed that it had enforced a significant staff cut.
“For now, it isn’t 50 percent,” one of the sources said.

TITLE: Despite Crisis, Russians Hunt Foreign Property
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Vacationing abroad has become something of a tradition for Russians who can afford it, and now many are also choosing to invest in property in other countries. This trend is being affected by the global financial crisis and new conditions for investment. 
The geography of Russian interests is wide and in almost every corner of the world one can meet Russians who own real estate there. As well as seeking out properties in traditional hotspots in Western Europe and the Mediterranean, the global financial crisis has exposed opportunities in, for example, such Latin American markets as Brazil, Panama and in the Dominican Republic. 
Meanwhile, Southern European markets such as Cyprus, Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro remain popular among Russian investors for the climate and emergence of Russian emigre communities. Last month The New York Times reported that up to $13 billion of Russian money has been invested in the Montenegrin resort town of Budva alone. 
Among the biggest investors, wrote The New York Times, is the Russian developer Vyentseslav Leibman, a young millionaire who is pressing ahead with investments of $310 million, including plans for a 27-floor modernist hotel, luxury seaside villas, docks for the pleasure boats of the Russian superrich and a water park for their children.
Despite the financial crisis, “the money keeps coming,” Leibman told The New York Times.  “And hopefully the global financial crisis will help sober up the cost of land here, which is now more expensive than in Monaco.”
Russian investors have also made a beeline for Cyprus, Dmitry Tolasov, general director of the foreign real estate agency Europe Real Estate, said in an interview.
“In spite of the fall in economic activity in the whole of Europe, Cyprus continues to demonstrate positive economic indicators. This happens because of the big interest in the real-estate market of these countries,” Tolasov said. 
“Cyprus attracts more and more customers who have an investment fund but do not want to invest it in other markets where the situation is more negative.”
The island is considered to be both an attractive vacation destination and a place to make a good return on a property investment.
Cyprus has joined the Schengen Agreement — which allows Russians to visit on a visa obtained from a consulate of any Schengen area country — and has a favorable tax regime.
Other popular countries include Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Greece.
“The crisis has definitely had an impact,” said Olga Plyukhina, senior lawyer at Pavia e Ansaldo, a legal firm specialising in Italian real estate. “Many of our clients have put off their real estate purchases until the spring of 2009,” she said, “but purchases are attractive here as real estate prices in Italy have remained stable.” 
The credit crunch and traditionally low take-up of mortgages by Russians means that the most common method of investment in foreign real estate is using savings to buy off-plan or new developments, thus favoring markets where such opportunities exsit.
Finland is for these and other reasons, including its proximity, is popular with St. Petersburgers. There is high demand for housing close to the border, but the coastal zone on the south-east of Finland and flats in Finnish cities are becoming popular too.
Inflated prices on real estate in Russia also makes investing abroad feasible for Russians who can afford it.
“A square meter of residential real estate in Europe is comparable in price to the Russian market. It gives an opportunity to a wide circle of people to think about the acquisition of foreign property,” Tolasov said. “Residential real estate in Russia became unprofitable for many investors because of the excessively high initial payment and following reinvestments.”
“Let’s compare,” Tolasov continued. “A one-room flat in Nevsky district in St. Petersburg near Dybenko metro station in an apartment block built in 1970 without any refurbishment costs 3.3 million rubles [$118,000]. Nowadays. And one should remember that the prices on St. Petersburg real estate have decreased during last several months. The same flat would have cost about 4 million rubles [$143,000] at the height of the boom.
“For the same money you can buy a one-room turnkey flat in Cyprus or three-room fully decorated flat with built-in domestic appliances in Turkey, and the house will be close to the sea.”

TITLE: Year-Round Rural Residences
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A country house for Russians is no longer necessarily an old hut built by his grandparents on a standard 600-square meter plot with outdoor “facilities,” large vegetable garden and a small farm with domestic animals. 
These days many aspire to own comfortable cottages that are not just summer residences but a place where their owners live all year around. 
According to YIT Lentek statistics, up to 15 percent of St. Petersburgers are thinking about moving to the country. 
“The segment of the village complexes has just started to develop”, said Olga Semenova-Tyan-Shanskaya, head of marketing, YIT Lentek. 
There are many reasons for this, not least because out-of-town real estate has always demonstrated a steady and predictable growth in value. This year’s season for such purchases has already finished and most clients prefer to buy a house in spring or summer.
“Although previous years there were few customers in fall-winter, this September the amount of sales decreased,” said Yekaterina Grineva, sales department manager at Estate House. “People who were intending to buy a country house are now afraid to make large purchases because of uncertainties over the financial crisis.”
However this may in fact be the best time to invest. 
“Prices have fallen by 500,000 to 600,000 rubles on each site,” said Grineva. 
In spite of the good prices, some customers continue to  be afraid that developers may have financial problems and won’t finish the projects. Such investment is regarded as risky thanks to a number of scandals involving swindled investors in the past.
Many promising projects have in fact been put on hold due to the financial crisis. 
“I suppose, the freeze on some projects can be put down to the credit crunch and is caused by fears of a pessimistic turn of events on this market,” said Enje Badretdinova, marketing director at QuickHouse, who said that there as many as 4,000 ongoing out-of-town developments near St. Petersburg.
Banks have introduced stringent requirements for house-buyers who need a mortgage, with interest rates having been increased to 18-20 percent. As a result, some people have stopped buying.
“Most clients need to take out a mortgage, and they do not have enough money to pay it off,” said Grineva.
“Many new elite houses are still waiting for owners. Companies do not build new ones because, first of all, they need to sell the finished buildings, even if its more cheaply than at their usual market price,” said Grineva.
Another problem is that the land available is not supported by infrastructure and expensive bank loans make projects viable for only a minority of companies. 
The experts at Estate House predict that the crisis will abate soon but could reappear in 2010. However, many market watchers believe that when the stresses and strains go away, purchases will increase, and as a result there will be a leap in prices. 
“The price competition could become more severe,” said Badretdinova.
“The main players on the out-of-town real estate market will be large companies. They have lots of resources and it will be easier for them to realize their projects. Small companies will stay in the market but they will deal with individual orders,” she said. 
“Increasing demand should be expected in the next 2-3 years,” Semenova-Tyan-Shanskaya said.

TITLE: 5 Ways to Manage Russia’s Crisis
AUTHOR: By Boris Titov
TEXT: Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin always considered himself an advocate of the free market, while the members of Britain’s Labor Party have often been criticized for being too socialist. Now it turns out that Kudrin is even more left-leaning than his British colleagues are.
At a time when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is preparing to reduce that country’s value-added tax by 2.5 percent, to 15 percent, Kudrin is fighting hard to keep Russia’s VAT at current levels.
The crisis has forced Britain to shift its policies toward the right. Its members now understand that it is unwise to overburden the business community with taxes and, at the same time, expect it to drive the economy. When businesses are slapped with too many taxes, they become heavy and sluggish. They think only about how to survive and not how to develop and modernize.
The global financial crisis is similar to a fire. When your house is burning, the first, immediate response should be to use every means at your disposal to extinguish the flames. Most other countries are using their high-powered hoses to contain the fire. But Kudrin is carrying water in buckets, because he is worried that the well might dry up in a year or two. But if the house burns down today, that water won’t save it later. 
The authorities have promised the business community that they will lower the tax on profits. But during a crisis, 90 percent of businesses are not earning a profit, so what good is this tax benefit now? Whatever income businesses earn is quickly eaten up by runaway expenses, including rising interest rates, value-added tax, social taxes, property tax and so on. 
Delovaya Rossia, of which I am the chairman, has five main proposals for managing the crisis. 
First, the authorities should eliminate or reduce VAT, because our studies have shown this particular tax to be the most burdensome for businesses and most susceptible to corruption.
Second, the authorities should institute a 50 percent tax deduction on innovation-related expenses, such as purchases of new equipment and technologies. 
Third, we suggest increasing the number of manufacturers that can use the simplified tax system by expanding the eligibility requirements to include companies with revenues up to 60 million rubles ($2.2 million) per year.
Fourth, we suggest that businesses should be given a two-year deferment on VAT and profits taxes for the third and fourth quarters of this year. This is a necessary emergency measure for companies buried in debt — particularly in those cases where banks have recently increased interest rates on adjustable-rate loans to 25 percent. Without this tax deferment, a huge number of companies will face bankruptcy.
Finally, the state should provide credit guarantees to manufacturers. The guarantees would cover up to 50 percent of loans received from commercial banks at annual interest rates not exceeding 15 percent. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has supported these proposals.
Delovaya Rossia’s proposals could provide a tangible stimulus to production. The top priority is to stimulate the development of manufacturing enterprises, and this calls for industry-specific initiatives. 
To his credit, Kudrin did a great deal to combat the chaos of the 1990s when he instituted budgetary discipline, eliminated wide-scale corporate tax evasion and reduced the negative impact of the Dutch disease on the country’s economy. He deserves credit for winning these tough battles. 
The current financial crisis, however, presents a new set of problems. Unfortunately, Kudrin is fighting nonexistent phantoms. Applying yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems will only make the crisis worse. The new challenges facing us call for new solutions, new policies and new people — possibly including a new finance minister. 
The business community will be powerless to fight the crisis if the government does not rethink its approach to Russia’s manufacturers and continues to rely on corporate behemoths in the oil and gas sectors to be the main engine for the economy. 
Countries and the world typically emerge from such crises with a new economy. Does it, therefore, make sense to count beans by calculating how much money the federal budget will lose by lowering VAT? 
If Russia wants to reduce the negative effects of the crisis, the government needs to improve the business climate for private companies. Russia was able to overcome the negative consequences of the 1998 default thanks to the millions of Russians who decided to go into business, and the 13 percent flat income tax was a key innovation that helped spur economic development and growth in this sector. But in 2008 and beyond we will need new innovations, and one of the best places to start would be by eliminating or sharply reducing the value-added tax. 
Low taxes for a crisis-stricken economy are like life-saving drugs for a seriously ill patient, but to be effective they must be administered in time. If the patient is already dead, it is meaningless to offer him or her medicine.

Boris Titov is the chairman of Delovaya Rossia.

TITLE: Don’t Rush to Declare the U.S. Done
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer
TEXT: Bitter anti-U.S. rhetoric from the Kremlin has been seen as a symptom of Russia’s return to its Soviet past. But while the words may be similar, the gist of today’s anti-Americanism in Russia could not be more different. In the doddering years of communism, Soviet ideology grew hollow, and official predictions of the imminent demise of capitalism could not disguise popular fascination with the United States and its movies, clothes, music, cigarettes and general way of life.
Now there is genuine hatred of the United States among ordinary Russians. The Internet brims with harangues and complaints about pindosy, the dismissive slang term for Americans. In a recent New York Times op-ed aptly titled “From Russia with Loathing,” Cathy Young noted that 43 percent of Russians believe that Washington’s goal is to destroy Russia. 
Early in the current financial crisis, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that it marked the end of the United States as a global economic leader. President Dmitry Medvedev has called for a new financial system and even proposed the ruble as a “regional” reserve currency.
In their criticism of Washington, Russian leaders are actually far more restrained than a large portion of their people. Even on reputable Internet forums, participants’ Schadenfreude can be summed up as follows: “The pindosy got what they deserved, and the sooner their economic bubble bursts and their dollar goes to hell the better.”
The optimal scenario of a post-dollar world, it seems, would be a partnership between Russia and China. I’d be a rich man if I got a penny for every web posting I have read describing an idyllic world where Russia provides raw materials for humming Chinese factories and imports Chinese goods.
This, of course, is a pipe dream. The United States remains by far the world’s largest economy, comprising a quarter of global GDP and an even larger share of demand. U.S. multinationals dominate their industries. The country’s scientific prowess and technological innovation are unmatched; one indicator of this is the number of U.S. Nobel Prize laureates and pioneering high-tech businesses. Moreover, it has the world’s strongest military. Despite the crisis, the United States will surely remain the leader of the global economic and political system for many decades.
To be sure, the presidency of George W. Bush has been very bad for the United States. Under Bush, the country has violated many of its own laws, but it remains one of the world’s first democracies, its Constitution is a model for other nations and its republican form of government has spread worldwide over the past two centuries. Most of the world has welcomed the election of the first African-American as U.S. president, and there is a good chance that Barack Obama will be able to take advantage of this international goodwill to strengthen the United States as a global leader.
China’s government, meanwhile, does not aspire to democracy or liberty. It is the same Communist Party that executed and starved tens of millions of its own citizens. The party maintains tight controls at home, but its nervous reaction to dissent raises doubt about long-term stability. It was not a wise economic leader until the 1990s, and the current crisis will test its competence.
Moreover, China’s foreign policy is blatantly nationalistic. The Chinese drive a hard bargain. China has little concern for foreigners and no respect for Russia. A Beijing-dominated world would not be a pleasant place for its northern neighbor.
If they wish, Russia and China could easily abandon the U.S.-dominated economic and political system and set up shop on their own. They did so once, after the Communist victory in China in 1949. The period was marked by poverty and repression, and in the end the two partners nearly came to blows. Few Chinese want to see those days return.

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

TITLE: Man U Gaining On Chelsea in Title Race
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Chelsea dropped their 12th home point of the season as Arsenal came from behind to beat the Premier League leaders and allow champions Manchester United to gain ground at the top.
Champions Inter Milan took a six point lead in Italy after city rivals AC Milan were humbled 3-1 by mid-table Palermo while Barcelona inched four clear in Spain thanks to Real Madrid’s loss by the same score at Getafe.

ENGLAND
Leaders Chelsea stumbled at home to Arsenal on Sunday as the Premier League title race took a twist.
Two second-half goals by Robin van Persie gave Arsenal a 2-1 victory that allowed champions Manchester United to close the gap on Chelsea to five points with a game in hand.
United beat Manchester City 1-0 with Wayne Rooney on target, although they had Cristiano Ronaldo sent off in the second half after he was shown a second yellow card for deliberate handball.
Liverpool can go top of the table on Monday when they host West Ham United. Arsenal climbed to fourth with Aston Villa slipping out of the Champions League places after drawing 0-0 at home to Fulham.

SPAIN
Barcelona strengthened their grip on the top spot in the Primera Liga with a 3-0 away win against Sevilla on Saturday, when champions Real Madrid fell 3-1 at Getafe.
Lionel Messi scored twice as Barca put on a strong performance at the intimidating Sanchez Pizjuan, but an injury-ravaged Real continued to struggle and were well-beaten by their city rivals at the Coliseum.
Barca have 32 points from 13 matches, four ahead of Villarreal, who beat bottom club Recreativo Huelva 2-1 away on Sunday.

ITALY
Inter Milan romped six points clear at the top of Serie A despite again failing to find top form in a 2-1 win over Napoli.
Ivan Cordoba and Sulley Muntari put Jose Mourinho’s men ahead but fourth-placed Napoli hit back through Ezequiel Lavezzi and could have snatched a point at a nervous San Siro.
Second-placed AC Milan lost ground after crashing to a 3-1 defeat at Palermo where Ronaldinho, in the absence of the suspended Kaka, had a penalty saved at 0-0 and scored a consolation from the spot late on.
Juventus are level with Milan following a 4-0 home win over struggling Reggina in the snow when Alessandro Del Piero netted a penalty for his 250th club goal.

FRANCE
Stade Rennes were Olympique Lyon’s only rivals to take advantage of the leaders goalless draw against lowly Valenciennes in driving rain at Stade Gerland on Saturday.
The Britanny club recorded a 1-0 win over Paris St. Germain which took them to second place, five points adrift of the seven-times French champions.
Nice, second before the start of the weekend’s matches, had their game against Grenoble postponed two days in a row after rain storms hit the Cote d’Azur.
Olympique Marseille, ahead of Nice on goal difference in third, were held to a goalless draw at seventh-place Toulouse while fifth-place Girondins Bordeaux drew 0-0 at struggling Sochaux.

TITLE: U.S. Calls On Pakistan To Help Investigation
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MUMBAI, India — As authorities finished removing bodies Monday from the bullet- and grenade-scarred Taj Mahal hotel, a Muslim graveyard refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized this city over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks.
The United States, meanwhile, has told Pakistan it needs to fully cooperate on investigations into the siege.
Pakistan must “follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a press conference aboard her plane en route to London. “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that’s what we expect.”
Rice said she was cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week.
In Mumbai, security forces declared the landmark 565-room Taj Mahal hotel cleared of booby traps and bodies. The hotel was the scene of the final battle Saturday morning.
“We were apprehensive about more bodies being found. But this is not likely — all rooms in the Taj have been opened and checked,” said Maharashtra state government spokesman Bhushan Gagrani.
The army had already cleared other sites, including the five-star Oberoi hotel and the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group. Israeli emergency workers sorted through the shattered glass and splintered furniture at the Jewish center Monday to gather the victims’ body parts. At one point, one of the men opened a prayer book amid the rubble and stopped to pray.
The only gunman captured after the attacks said he belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, said Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. Maria added that the gunman, Ajmal Qasab, said he was trained at a camp in Pakistan.
Pakistani President Asif Zardari’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, dismissed the claim, saying Islamabad has “demanded evidence of the complicity of any Pakistani group” but has received none.
Qasab was among 10 who paralyzed the city in the attack, which also wounded 239 people.
A Muslim graveyard in Mumbai said Monday it would not bury the dead gunmen, with an official saying they are not true followers of the Islamic faith.
“People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim,” said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee of the influential Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre (three-hectare) Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai. “Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime.”
While some Muslim scholars disagreed with the decision — saying Islam requires a proper burial for every Muslim — the city’s other Muslim graveyards are likely to go along because of the authority of the Jama Masjid trust.
Mumbai returned to normal Monday to some degree, with parents dropping their children off at school and many shopkeepers opened their doors for the first time since the attacks began.
“I think this is the first Monday I am glad to be coming to work,” said Donica Trivedi, 23, an employee of a public relations agency.
The attack revealed the weakness of India’s security apparatus. India’s top law enforcement official resigned Sunday, bowing to growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.
Maharashtra’s top official, Vilasrao Deshmukh, offered to resign Monday, as did his deputy, R.R. Patil, who had sparked outrage by referring to the attacks as “small incidents.”
The announcement blaming militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba threatened to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Indian officials have been cautious about accusing Pakistan’s government of complicity.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash denied a news report that India was preparing to end a 2003 cease-fire with Pakistan. An intelligence official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said there was no unusual mobilization of troops along the India-Pakistan border.
Pakistan has warned that any buildup of troops on its border with India would require troops to be pulled from its western frontier, where it is fighting militants suspected of launching attacks throughout the country and on American troops in Afghanistan.
The group the Indians have blamed, Lashkar, has long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in disputed Kashmir. It was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though that group has denied links to the Mumbai attack.
As more details of the response to the attack emerged, a picture formed of woefully unprepared security forces.
“These guys could do it next week again in Mumbai and our responses would be exactly the same,” said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management and who has close ties to India’s police and intelligence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency.
Singh promised to expand the commando force and set up new bases for it around the country. He called a rare meeting of leaders from the country’s main political parties, hours after the resignation of Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
The death toll of 172 was revised down from 195 Sunday after authorities said some bodies were counted twice.
Among the 19 foreigners killed were six Americans. The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.

TITLE: Clinton to Become Secretary of State
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is filling his Cabinet at record speed, choosing loyal friends and one-time foes to guide his wartime foreign policy decisions. Obama planned to appear at a morning news conference Monday in Chicago to announce Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state and say that President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, is staying on.
Democratic officials said Obama will name Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary. He also planned to announce two senior foreign policy positions outside the Cabinet: campaign foreign policy adviser Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador and retired Marine General James L. Jones as national security adviser.
Obama also has settled on former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of Health and Human Services and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be Commerce secretary, but those announcements are not yet official. Last week, he named key members of his economic team, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as Treasury secretary.
The decisions mean Obama has half of the 15-member Cabinet assembled less than a month after the election, including the most prominent positions at State, Justice, Treasury and Defense. With the world grappling with war, recession and terrorist threats that erupted this week during coordinated attacks in India, Obama was moving swiftly to try to bring reassurance and continuity in the federal government when he takes over in less than two months.
Clinton’s nomination is the latest chapter in what began as a bitter rivalry for the Democratic presidential nomination. To make it possible for his wife to become secretary of state, party officials said, former President Bill Clinton agreed to:
¦?Disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997 and all contributors going forward.
¦?Refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference.
¦?Cease holding CGI meetings overseas.
¦?Volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.
¦?Submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.
¦?Submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.
Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.
Lugar said there would still be “legitimate questions” raised about the former president’s extensive international involvement. “I don’t know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but ... hopefully, this team of rivals will work,” Lugar said.

TITLE: High Scores Reached By NHL Stars
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: American ice hockey stars Mike Modano and Keith Tkachuk reached two more milestones— and helped give their last-place teams big victories.
Modano broke a tie on a power play with 2:21 left in Dallas’ 4-3 home victory over Edmonton on Sunday night. The 38-year-old became the 31st NHL player to reach 1,300 points and pushed his record for goals by a U.S.-born player to 537.
“I’ve been blessed to have been around this long,” said Modano, the Michigan native playing his 20th NHL season—all with the Stars.
Tkachuk became the 72nd player to reach 1,000 points, scoring the tying goal late in the second period in St. Louis’ 4-2 victory in Atlanta. The 36-year-old has 511 goals and 489 assists in 17 NHL seasons.
“I’ve played a long time, and this just means I’m just getting older,” said Tkachuk, a former Boston University player from Massachusetts. “I appreciate the game more as I get older. I’ve been fortunate.”
In the only other NHL games Sunday, Florida beat the New York Rangers 4-0, and Anaheim topped Carolina 4-1.
In Dallas, Modano beat Oilers rookie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers from the left circle off a feed from Brad Richards.
“That was a great shot there, especially on a milestone goal that was so meaningful for our group,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “You don’t get 1,300 points without being a great player, and that was a great goal.”
Sean Avery gave Dallas—last in the Western Conference with 20 points—a 3-2 lead with 5:09 remaining off a centering pass from James Neal, but Edmonton tied it with 3:22 left on Kyle Brodziak’s second goal of the game.
Dallas’ Toby Petersen scored his first goal in two seasons, and Mike Ribeiro had a power-play goal. Ales Hemsky added a goal for Edmonton.
In Atlanta, Tkachuk scored his 11th goal of the season for St. Louis, last in the Central Division and just two points ahead of Dallas in a three-way tie for 12th place in the Western Conference.
“It was exciting to celebrate and have the guys come out on the ice,” Tkachuk said. “Just the way the guys reacted was pretty cool.”
Brad Boyes followed Tkachuk’s tying score with the go-ahead goal midway through the third. Jay McClement added an empty-net goal, and David Backes also scored.
Colby Armstrong and Niclas Havelid scored for Atlanta. The Thrashers have lost six of their last seven games.
n In New York, Stephen Weiss and Gregory Campbell scored 12 seconds apart for Florida in the second period, and Craig Anderson made 37 saves for his second shutout of the season and sixth overall in the NHL.
With Florida leading 1-0 on Ville Peltonen’s breakaway goal in the second, Weiss and Campbell connected to knock out Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the second time in three home games. Michael Frolik added a a goal and an assist.
n In Raleigh, N.C., Rob Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne scored in a 1:09 span of the third period, and Niedermayer added another goal for Anaheim.

TITLE: English Cricketers Slammed for Cutting Short Tour of India
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SYDNEY — England’s cricketers were guilty of employing double-standards for quitting their tour of India because of security fears, former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson said on Monday.
Lawson, who was sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board in October, urged England’s players to return to India and complete the series, citing the case of the 2005 Ashes series in England that went ahead despite bombings in London.
“It’s interesting that England are heading home and certain players don’t want to play the test series and yet we go back to 2005, bombs went off in London while there was a big series on there and it didn’t affect one iota the cricket,” Lawson told a Sydney radio station.
“I think a few of the England players should reflect on what happened in their country before they start pulling out of cricket matches in India.”
England’s players returned home last week during the attacks in Mumbai, abandoning the last two matches of their seven game one-day international series.
They are waiting on security reports before deciding whether they will return for the scheduled test series but Lawson said they should.
“If you stop events that aren’t particularly and directly threatened you’re just succumbing to terrorism and they succeed,” Lawson said.
“So far, the facts are, no sporting event, let alone a cricket event, has ever been threatened.”
Lawson, who was highly critical of his native Australia when they refused to tour Pakistan earlier this year, also called on the International Cricket Council to proceed with plans to play the 2011 World Cup on the Indian subcontinent amid media speculation it may be moved to Australia and New Zealand.
“No matter where you hold that event in the cricket world it could be open to terrorism,” Lawson said.
“Whether it’s going to be Christchurch or Alice Springs, it’s not really going to matter. If they want to do something they’ll find a way.”

TITLE: Swiss Vote to Keep Heroin Program On Track
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA — The world’s most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.
The heroin program, started in 1994, is offered in 23 centers across Switzerland. It has helped eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in parks that marred Swiss cities in the 1980s and 1990s and is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.
The nearly 1,300 selected addicts, who have not been helped by other therapies, visit one of the centers twice a day to receive the carefully measured dose of heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.
They keep their paraphernalia in cups labeled with their names and use the equipment and clean needles to inject themselves — four at a time — under the supervision of a nurse, and also receive counseling from psychiatrists and social workers.
The aim is to help the addicts learn how to function in society.
The United States and the UN narcotics board have criticized the program as potentially fueling drug abuse, but it has attracted attention from governments as far away as Australia and Canada, which in recent years have started or are considering their own programs modeled on the system.
The Netherlands started a smaller program in 2006, and it serves nearly 600 patients. Britain has allowed individual doctors to prescribe heroin since the 1920s, but it has been running trials similar to the Swiss approach in recent years. Belgium, Germany, Spain and Canada have been running trial programs too.
Sixty-eight percent of the 2.26 million Swiss voters casting ballots approved making the heroin program permanent.
By contrast, around 63.2 percent of voters voted against the marijuana proposal, which was based on a separate citizens’ initiative to decriminalize the consumption of marijuana and growing the plant for personal use.
Olivier Borer, 35, a musician from the northern town of Solothurn, said he welcomed the outcome in part because state action was required to help heroin addicts, but he said legalizing marijuana was a bad idea.
“I think it’s very important to help these people, but not to facilitate the using of drugs,” Borer said. “You can just see in the Netherlands how it’s going. People just go there to smoke.”
Sabina Geissbuehler-Strupler of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which led the campaign against the heroin program, said she was disappointed in the vote.
“That is only damage limitation,” she said. “Ninety-five percent of the addicts are not healed from the addiction.”
Health insurance pays for the bulk of the program, which costs 26 million Swiss francs ($22 million) a year. All residents in Switzerland, which has a population of 7.5 million, are required to have health insurance, with the government paying insurance premiums for those who cannot afford it.
Parliament approved the heroin measure in a revision of Switzerland’s narcotics law in March, but conservatives challenged the decision and forced a national referendum under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy.