SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1462 (24), Friday, April 3, 2009
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TITLE: Vandals Blow Hole Through Lenin Statue
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A nationally-significant statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in front of St. Petersburg’s Finland railway station was bombed by vandals early on Wednesday morning.
The explosion damaged the monument from behind leaving a large and unsightly hole. The force of the explosive device was equivalent to about 300 grams of TNT, according to the St. Petersburg police press office.
“No matter how anyone may feel about certain parts of our history, on a human level [this act of vandalism] is a crime against a remarkable piece of monumental art, a classic of the Soviet period,” said Vera Dementyeva, the head of the St. Petersburg Monument Protection Committee (KGIOP), reported Interfax.
The statue is set to undergo restoration in situ.
Only the most unstable parts of the damaged monument will be restored in workshops, according to the KGIOP.
During restoration the monument will be covered in a special sarcophagus, it said.
On Wednesday it emerged that an organization by the name of the ‘Zalessky Flying Battle Group’ had taken responsibility for the act, Interfax said.
However, on Thursday the Russian Police Ministry said had no information that the organization had anything to do with the explosion.
Pavel Klimovsky, deputy head of the ministry’s press-service, said that information on the internet linking the group to the explosion could simply be “self-promotion”.
The organization is illegal and not officially registered anywhere. In December last year they took responsibility for the destruction of a statue of Lenin in the city of Ryazan, Interfax said.
Meanwhile, the explosion has provoked indignation in Communist circles.
Vladimir Fyodorov, head of St. Petersburg Communist party office, drew several conclusions from the incident.
“First of all, it is not normal that any explosion can take place so easily in the center of a large city, especially near its busiest railway station,” Fyodorov said.
“Secondly, such a situation does the country’s current administration no favors as it leads to the feeling that if a monument is destroyed today because of the figure’s politics, in the future, someone may target living people with such views,” he said.
Fyodorov said the Communist party had previously requested security for the monument after it suffered a smaller act of vandalism when someone placed a sable into Lenin’s hand. However, no such measures had been implemented, he said.
Vadim Tyulpanov, speaker of St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly, said in his comment on the case that the city’s deputies have in the past suggested toughening the penalties for vandalism.
“I see the incident as the act of vandalism toward one of the city’s monuments. We’ve long been pressing for tougher punishments for such crimes,” Tyulpanov said.
Meanwhile, representatives of the city’s human rights organization, Memorial, said monuments to founders of the Soviet system had no place in Russian cities.
Irina Flige, head of Memorial’s scientific and research center, argued that the only effective method to combat acts of vandalism against statues of Lenin is to remove them altogether.
“We condemn any act of vandalism against any monument, since such acts pose a great danger to people. It’s certainly a crime,” Flige said, Interfax reported.
“However, we think that there should be no monuments to the founders of the Soviet system in the streets and squares of Russian cities. Such acts of vandalism only slow down decisions on the removal of such sculptures,” she said.
The city prosecutor has opened an investigation under article 167 of the Russian Criminal Code -intentional damage to property endangering life.
Sergei Evseyev’s bronze sculpture of Lenin was unveiled on November 7, 1926, and is considered a monument of national significance. The explosion comes in the wake of the defacement of a portrait of the former leader in Pyatigorsk, in the North Caucuses, on March 23-24.
TITLE: Presidents Obama, Medvedev Seek New Start in London
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev announced at their much-anticipated first meeting Wednesday in London that Washington and Moscow would negotiate a new nuclear arms reduction treaty by the end of the year.
The announcement to put together a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty did not come as a surprise after both sides earlier stressed the necessity of a new agreement before the Cold War-era one expires in December after 15 years.
But the pledge is seen as a key step in both leaders’ promises to mend U.S.-Russia relations, which spiraled downward under their predecessors, Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush.
“We ... are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries,” Obama and Medvedev said in a joint statement released just before their sit-down in Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador’s residence, in London.
Obama lamented tensions and the “drift” between Moscow and Washington in recent years. “I have no interest in papering those over,” he said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier in the day.
He said both countries share many interests, including reducing the threat of terrorism and stabilizing the world economy.
“Both sides of the Atlantic understand that, as much as the constant cloud of nuclear warfare has receded, that the presence of these deadly weapons continues to be the gravest threat to humanity,” Obama said.
He said the United States wanted to “press the reset button,” a phrase coined by Vice President Joe Biden in addressing U.S.-Russian relations at a Munich conference in February.
Analysts said mutual mistrust has grown so much in recent years that tackling an obvious issue like START was good news indeed.
“There is nothing automatic in this relationship anymore,” said Sam Greene, deputy head of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
While “ground-level processes” formerly worked quietly in the background, Washington and Moscow came to the conclusion in recent years “that we did not need to have a structured relationship anymore,” he said.
Greene said the negotiations about a new arms treaty were “an excellent first step” because everybody agrees on the importance that both countries regulate their nuclear arsenals.
Obama and Medvedev met on the eve of the G20 summit in London, where world leaders will discuss how to tackle the worst global recession since the 1930s. Expectations were low for much immediate progress on other contentious issues between Washington and Moscow, including missile defense, NATO expansion and last summer’s Russia-Georgia conflict.
“The challenges that lie beyond START are tremendous,” Greene said.
Observers also noted that Medvedev did not take a direct road to London but chose to make a stop Tuesday in Berlin, where he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on the necessity of a new global financial architecture.
Alexander Rahr, an analyst with the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the two showed remarkable trust. “Rarely have Berlin and Moscow shown so well-coordinated positions before a G20 summit,” Rahr said.
Rahr said the European position was at odds with the Obama administration, which has advocated big fiscal spending to fight the economic downturn.
Obama downplayed the rift Wednesday, saying there was “enormous consensus” between leaders.
Analysts said Medvedev’s decision to stick with the Europeans was understandable because Russia would not be the engine to end the crisis.
Medvedev also met Chinese President Hu Jintao and paid a visit to Brown at his residence at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday. In addition, the pre-G20 summit schedule included a get-together with Queen Elizabeth II. But while Obama and his wife, Michelle, were to be treated to a personal audience on Wednesday evening, Medvedev, who was accompanied by his wife, Svetlana, was only to meet the queen at a later reception with about 150 participants from all visiting delegations, said a spokesman for Buckingham Palace.
“There will be handshakes with the royal family,” the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. Asked why the Medvedevs did not get a private audience, the spokesman said, “Everyone will get his turn eventually.”
Russian-British ties have been deeply troubled after the murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and Moscow’s refusal to extradite the prime suspect, State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi.
* Washington and Moscow are quietly resolving a simmering spy spat, with the U.S. defense attache in Moscow, Brigadier General Henry Nowak, leaving the country in January at the request of the Russian government, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Canada had asked the Russian military attache in Ottawa to leave because of suspected spying activities, the report said. When Moscow then tried to accredit the attache in Washington, the United States denied him a visa, prompting retaliation against Nowak.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow confirmed on Wednesday Nowak’s departure.
TITLE: Leaders Of G20 To Beef Up IMF
AUTHOR: By Jane Wardell
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Global leaders made headway Thursday on tackling the world financial crisis, with new clampdowns likely on tax havens and hedge funds and more funds heading to the International Monetary Fund so it can boost loans to struggling countries.
Officials close to the negotiations said the Group of 20 nations could triple their funding for the IMF to $750 billion. The world financial body supports countries whose finances have been hard hit by the global slowdown, supporting their currency reserves and banking systems.
The officials, from a number of delegations, said the funds could include an overdraft facility worth some $250 billion for developing countries. They refused to be further identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
On financial regulation — a sticking point ahead of the gathering — two people close to the negotiations said that France and Germany had persuaded the Group of 20 leaders to back tougher language in the final statement on stronger rules to avoid a repeat of the current crisis.
Another official said the final deal will include proposals making sure companies more tightly link executive salaries to performance, a measure that reflects public outrage about the huge retention payments, bonuses and golden parachutes granted to banking chiefs before the sector collapsed.
Opening the summit in London’s east Docklands district, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there was strong unity among leaders upon the need for action.
“I believe the text that has been circulated already reflects a very high degree of consensus and agreement between all of us,” Brown told his fellow leaders.
Britain’s Finance Secretary Stephen Timms said early discussions had been “lively,” but added that countries would agree on sanctions against countries who refuse to sign up to new rules on regulating tax havens.
“The era of banking secrecy is over,” Timms said.
As President Barack Obama and Brown joined other leaders at a working breakfast, protesters began gearing up for a second day of demonstrations, gathering outside the London Stock Exchange near St. Paul’s Cathedral. Riot police took up positions as well, ringing the stock exchange.
French daredevil Alain Robert scaled Lloyds of London’s high-rise headquarters as office workers below snapped photos. Robert, dubbed the French spider-man, has scaled dozens of tall structures around the world without ropes or harnesses to draw attention to global warming. He was later led away by police.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have been adamant that the G20 meeting must take concrete steps to more closely regulate banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions.
Sarkozy had previously threatened to walk out if the summit didn’t achieve a strong statement on new financial regulations, warning that he considered action on tax havens, hedge funds and ratings agencies as the absolute minimum the negotiations must resolve.
Sarkozy and Merkel want the G20 to publish a blacklist of tax havens and announce sanctions at the end of Thursday’s meeting.
The British official said the boost to the IMF would include significant pledges from China, and in return there would be increasing efforts to give China and other emerging countries greater clout on the IMF.
Obama has acknowledged that U.S. regulatory failures contributed to the crisis in the financial system, but urged a focus on solutions, saying “we can only meet this challenge together.”
European leaders have balked at moving beyond spending measures already announced, arguing that their more generous welfare systems mean their spending levels will rise anyway as more people get benefits such as unemployment insurance.
As leaders met in the Docklands, a former shipping area on the Thames river that was redeveloped as an international business center, protesters began a second day of demonstrations. Security was tight at the summit venue; hundreds of police manned barriers and checkpoints around the security perimeter.
Near St. Paul’s Cathedral in the financial district, protesters played a giant Monopoly game.
“The question is of course who has got the monopoly? It is fairly obvious the G20 are the global financial elite,” said protester Clare Smith, 27. “Meanwhile the poor are getting poorer.”
More than 100 people have been arrested.
TITLE: Editor Says Worker Dead Following Attack in Khimki
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
TEXT: MOSCOW — A newspaper employee in a Moscow suburb has died after being beaten near his home in the latest of a string of attacks on journalists in Russia, his editor said Wednesday.
Sergei Protazanov was found by a passer-by on Sunday as he lay on a sidewalk in the town of Khimki, said Anatoly Yurov, editor of the newspaper Grazhdanskoye Soglasiye. Protazanov, who had a prosthetic arm and worked as a page designer for the paper, died at home Monday a day after doctors discharged him from hospital, Yurov said.
The RIA-Novosti news agency cited police as denying Protazanov had been beaten and saying he died from accidental poisoning. Police refused to comment to The Associated Press.
Yurov said six journalists had been severely beaten in Khimki in the past two years. He said Protazanov had been compiling an issue that included reports on alleged falsifications in local mayoral elections and he linked the attack to Protazanov’s work.
He said that Protazanov had told him by telephone from hospital on Sunday that he had been attacked. Protazanov told him from home on Monday that “Everything hurts — on the inside and on the outside. I cannot move,” Yurov said.
Yurov said that police told Protazanov’s wife that her husband’s death was probably caused either by food he ate at the hospital or medication.
Protazanov was the second newspaper employee in Khimki, on Moscow’s northern suburbs, to be attacked in the past six months. Mikhail Beketov, the editor of the monthly Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, remains in a coma after being attacked in November. He had been charged with defaming local authorities during campaigns against development projects that threatened the environment.
Beketov’s lawyer and a reporter for the prominent independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta were shot to death in January in a daylight attack on a street close to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, prominent human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, 67, was beaten outside his Moscow home by unknown attackers late Tuesday, according to his daughter, Yelena Liptser. She said she believed Ponomaryov, the head of the All-Russia Movement for Human Rights, was attacked because of his rights work and his strident criticism of the Kremlin.
“There seems to be no end to the appalling series of attacks on journalists, especially local journalists, and human rights activists,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Wednesday. “The authorities need to actively intervene instead of just issuing statements.”
TITLE: New Feud With Ukraine: Who Gets Gogol?
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The 200th anniversary of writer Nikolai Gogol’s birth became the latest point of contention between Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday.
Both Ukrainian and Russian leaders named Gogol their national hero, stretching their simmering disputes to include literature. Gogol, the author of “Dead Souls,” was born in Ukraine but wrote in Russian and died in Moscow.
“I think all arguments about where he belongs are pointless and even humiliating to some extent. He no doubt belongs in Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said during a ceremony at Gogol’s birthplace in Mirgorod. “Gogol wrote in Russian, but he thought and felt in Ukrainian.”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin countered by declaring Gogol to be a famous Russian. “He is an outstanding Russian writer who, through his work, inseparably links two brotherly peoples — Russians and Ukrainians,” Putin said at a meeting of his United Russia party.
Gogol was born in the Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a descendant of Polish nobility. His father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendent of Cossacks, belonged to the petty gentry and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright who died when Gogol was 15 years old. As was typical of the Ukrainian gentry of the early nineteenth century, the family spoke both Russian as well as Ukrainian.
TITLE: Dubai Frees Retired Russian Navy Officer
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev, Carl Schreck
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Dubai police on Wednesday released a retired Russian naval officer detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Chechen strongman Sulim Yamadayev over the weekend in the emirate, the suspect’s brother said.
The retired officer, Alexander Musiyaka, was detained Monday evening at his hotel in Dubai, where he was vacationing with his wife and daughter, his brother, Yevgeny Musiyaka, said by telephone from Kiev.
Dubai police said this week that four Russians had been detained in connection with the murder but that none of them had been charged. Detained with Musiyaka were Maxim Dolgopolov, Alexander Mironov and a man with the nickname “Gorbaty,” or “Hunchback,” Dubai police told RIA-Novosti.
But Yevgeny Musiyaka told The Moscow Times that his brother had been released and was at the Dubai airport preparing to fly home late Wednesday. He said his brother was innocent.
“He has never had anything to do with Chechnya, any business with any Chechens, nothing to do with secret services and nothing to do with counterterrorist operations,” he said.
Yamadayev, a former Chechen rebel who commanded the elite Vostok batallion in Chechnya, was shot in an underground parking lot of the posh seafront Jumeira Beach housing complex on Saturday. An unidentified attacker reportedly fled the scene in the BMW sedan that belonged to Yamadayev.
Musiyaka’s release could not be confirmed with Dubai police.
Musiyaka, a businessman based in Yalta, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, was detained Monday evening while he was alone in his hotel room at the Hilton Dubai Jumeirah, his brother said.
He had arrived in Dubai on March 23 together with his wife and daughter on a vacation package and had been planning to fly home to Yalta on Tuesday morning, his brother said.
Also Wednesday, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov put an end to speculation that Yamadayev, who had challenged his authority in Chechnya, might have survived the attack.
“Sulim Yamadayev was buried two days ago by his brother Isa,” Kadyrov told RIA-Novosti. “Isa confirms it.”
Dubai police chief Dalfan Tamim has said Yamadayev died on the spot, while numerous media reports in recent days have cited the victim’s wife, Milana, and brother, Isa Yamadayev, as saying he was alive and being treated in a Dubai hospital.
Tamim said in a statement Tuesday that he expects Russian security agencies to cooperate in solving the murder.
“A thread in the possession of Dubai police could lead to the unveiling of the identity” of those behind the murder, he said.
Kadyrov told journalists Wednesday that Yamadayev might have fallen victim to a blood feud or of a criminal turf war.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Girl in Beaver Attack
KALININGRAD (SPT) — A wild beaver bit a girl in the center of Kaliningrad on Wednesday.
At the close of a celebration of April Fool’s Day held in the city’s central square, children noticed the arrival of a wild beaver. The girl was bitten when the children began to play with it.
When the girl was taken to the emergency room doctors refused to believe that the girl’s wounds had been caused by a beaver, believing that it was an April Fool’s joke, though police later confirmed the girl’s version of events.
Animal rescue workers only managed to catch the animal with great difficulty. Special equipment normally used to catch dogs kept slipping from the beaver’s fur. It was eventually released in forest close to the city, Interfax reported.
ELECTROLUX Washed Up
ST. PETERSBURG, (SPT) – Swedish concern Electrolux is to close its washing machine factory in St. Petersburg in 2010.
“There is strong competition on the Russian market for home appliances. Unfortunately, we can’t produce the products at competitive prices at the plant in St. Petersburg. As a result, the plant will be closed next year,” Electrolux said in a statement, Interfax reported on Tuesday.
Electrolux opened the plant in the summer of 2005 with an initial investment of 10 million euros. The plant has a maximum output of 300 thousand Electrolux and Zanussi washing machines per year.
About 250 people work at the plant at present.
GM Shut Down
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — General Motors Auto has stopped the production of its cars at its St. Petersburg plant until Tuesday, Interfax reported.
The assembly of Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara cars has been temporally stopped, with some of the plant’s workers undergoing training for the assembly of the Chevrolet Cruze and the rest going on leave, with their wages being temporarily cut by a third, the plant said.
The plant’s management had planned to assemble two thousand cars by the end May. The temporary stoppage is expected to reduce that figure by 320 cars, the management said.
GM also plans to hold another temporary stoppage of 20 days from June 8.
GOGOL exhibition
ST. PETERSBURG, (SPT) – St. Petersburg’s largest museums opened a joint exhibition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol in the city’s Manezh exhibition hall on Wednesday.
The exhibition examines Gogol’s multi-faceted personality, his work, his life in St. Petersburg and Rome, his foreign travelling, and the first theatrical productions of his works.
Visitors will be able to see portraits of Gogol, the author’s books, documents and other memorabilia.
There are also portraits of other renowned Russian writers who played an important role in Gogol’s life. The portraits were created by contemporary artists.
The exhibition has been created through the efforts of leading Russian museums such as the Hermitage, the Russian State Museum and the Russian Literature Institute (Pushkin House).
TITLE: Ford Seeks to Reduce Work Schedule
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: Ford Motor Co. wants to cut the workweek at its plant near St. Petersburg, Russia, to four days to avoid overproduction, saying Europe’s second-biggest car market may slump 47 percent this year.
Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, began talks with the union last Friday about reducing output to mirror measures at some European plants, spokeswoman Ekaterina Kulinenko said Thursday by telephone.
“Ford will continue to monitor closely the Russian economic environment and vehicle sales situation, and will consider taking other actions to adjust production further if and when necessary,” Kulinenko said by email.
Carmakers are bracing for a steeper decline in Russia than the 19 percent predicted two months ago by the Association of European Businesses’ automotive group, which includes Ford. The U.S. company’s managing director for Russia, Nigel Brackenbury, called the estimate “a best-case scenario” at the time.
Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, and Japan’s Toyota estimate Russian sales will plunge by as much as a third as interest rates on car loans climb to more than 20 percent and the economy falters.
Toyota halted production Monday at its St. Petersburg factory for a week, citing “the continuing difficult economic and market situation.”
Russian sales of cars and light commercial vehicles declined 36 percent in the first two months of the year as unemployment, a devalued ruble and inflation further shrink disposable income.
TITLE: Foreign Partner On Cards for GAZ Cars
AUTHOR: By Yuriy Humber
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — GAZ is in talks with a foreign partner on setting up a car venture in Russia as the country’s second-largest automaker seeks to tap demand once the economy recovers, billionaire owner Oleg Deripaska said.
Talks were held within the last two days, Deripaska said at a meeting with reporters in Moscow that started at 2 a.m. Thursday. GAZ doesn’t plan to sell new shares, he said.
GAZ, maker of a Russian version of Chrysler’s Sebring sedan, considered partnering with General Motors Corp. last year to develop a $10,000 budget car for the Russian market and also buying into a GM diesel engine venture in Italy.
Deripaska declined to comment on whether the talks were with a U.S. carmaker or to give further details.
“The problem is their situation is even worse than ours,” he said, regarding the potential partner. “As you mentioned, the U.S. auto industry has been in a difficult situation for the last eight years, tied to their pension liabilities, relations with suppliers.”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin this week allocated about $1 billion in state aid to Russian automakers, citing the state’s forecast for a sales drop of as much as 60 percent this year. The economy may contract 2.2 percent this year, according to the government.
U.S. President Barack Obama believes GM, which has lost $82 billion since 2004, and Chrysler would benefit from a quick, negotiated bankruptcy to regain competitiveness, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. posted $52.6 billion in losses last year as fuel prices rose and the credit crunch dried up access to car loans.
GAZ’s financial results for 2008 were “reasonable,” Deripaska said, declining to comment further. Talks on restructuring 45 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) of debts should be completed this month before price terms with the automaker’s suppliers are renegotiated, he said.
GAZ is operating at 30 percent of capacity and demand for commercial vehicles, its biggest market, has plummeted by 70 percent since last summer, Deripaska said. The Nizhny Novgorod, central Russia-based maker bought a stake in Canada’s Magna International Inc. in May 2007 before ceding the shares to banks in October on rising debt repayments.
“Our situation is different from America: they have a fundamental lack of demand” because the population can put off purchases of new models for a few years, said Deripaska, who also controls aluminum producer United Co. Rusal. “We need the new cars, the new roads.”
The company aims to roll out a new product range within six months, focusing partly on clients in agriculture with the new $6,000 Gazelle-Farmer light commercial vehicle.
“We still see demand in this segment, but the price will play an important role,” Deripaska, 41, said. “Prices are returning to 2003 levels. It may be a coincidence but that’s when the stimulated consumer boom started.”
The carmaker also plans to retain the license to produce the Maxus van, which is also assembled in the U.K. by unit LDV Ltd. Deripaska, who is seeking a buyer for Birmingham-based LDV, said he expects to bring in “a couple of new partners who will develop the product with us.”
Stockpiles of cars, vans and buses in Europe, which may be sold in Russia at a discount, present the main competitive threat to GAZ he said.
“Competition will be fierce and bloody,” he said. Still, Gaz, which started production at its main factory in 1932, won’t go bankrupt “under any condition.”
TITLE: Lebedev’s Airline Loses License in Germany
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev’s German airline Blue Wings lost its license after regulators concluded that the discount carrier had “business problems,” a decision Lebedev said he’ll appeal.
“Effective immediately, Blue Wings is no longer allowed to transport passengers, mail and/or cargo,” the LBA, Germany’s aviation authorities, said in a statement on its web site that is dated Tuesday. The LBA in January turned Blue Wings’ license into a three-month permit that expired March 31.
Lebedev, who owns about 48 percent of Blue Wings, said in a phone interview from Moscow on Thursday that concerns over the carrier’s financial health were unfounded and that he plans to appeal the decision. The Dusseldorf-based airline, with a fleet of 10 Airbus SAS A320s, had sales of about 150 million euros ($202 million) last year and revenue growth of 25 percent this January and February, Lebedev said.
“We didn’t give the German government any reasons to behave like this,” Lebedev said.
Blue Wings operated regular flights between Germany and Russia and charter flights to tourist destinations in Turkey and the Middle East. Lebedev, a business and political partner of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, bought London’s Evening Standard newspaper in January and controls about 29 percent of Aeroflot, Russia’s biggest airline.
Lebedev said he’s still committed to uniting Blue Wings with his Russian low-cost carrier Red Wings
TITLE: Tusk Says Putin ‘Open’ To New Gas Proposals
TEXT: WARSAW (Bloomberg) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is “very open” to Poland’s proposals on a new long-term gas contract, his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk said at a press conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo, the dominant Polish gas company, is seeking new supplies after deliveries from RosUkrEnergo AG, the gas trader that sells about 22 percent of gas exports to Poland from the former Soviet Union, were halted earlier this year by a dispute between Russia and transit country Ukraine.
The agreement with RosUkrEnergo was already scheduled to expire at the end of this year, meaning Poland and Russia need a new contract.
Gornictwo and Gazprom have already reached a preliminary agreement to replace the RosUkrEnergo supplies through the end of this year and Putin is “ready” to accept this contract, Tusk said, citing a phone conversation with the Russian prime minister.
TITLE: Magnit to Continue Expansion Plans
AUTHOR: By Courtney Weaver
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Regional food retailer Magnit reported better-than-expected 2008 results for net income and revenue on Wednesday, and it pledged to carry its aggressive expansion plan into 2009.
CEO Sergei Galitsky said in a statement that Magnit opened 385 new stores in 2008, bringing its total to 2,579 at the end of the year. The Krasnodar-based discounter said the openings helped it boost profits 93 percent under international financial reporting standards.
“We have ended the year better than the previous, which is logical due to the increased number of stores,” he said in a statement. “Next year, we will continue our work to improve the efficiency of our business, keeping in mind the expansion rate.”
Magnit, Russia’s second-largest grocer after X5 Retail Group, plans to invest 5.6 billion rubles ($165 million) to open 300 stores this year
as well as six to nine hypermarkets, Galitsky said later in a conference call.
In 2008, net income rose 93 percent in dollar terms to $187.9 million from $97.4 million, surpassing the market’s expectations, Citibank and VTB Capital said in notes Wednesday. Sales increased 45.5 percent to $5.4 billion, from $3.7 billion, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 83.2 percent to $401.7 million.
VTB said Magnit’s EBITDA and net income would likely remain in the black this year because of falling costs for rent, utilities and wages.
The company’s shares rose as much as 10.1 percent on the MICEX and finished the day up 3.7 percent.
Magnit also stands to benefit from its discount model during the economic crisis, analysts said, as consumers turn to big chains in hopes of better discounts.
“Traffic in the company’s stores turned out to be positive in fourth quarter 2008, which supports our view that customers are switching from supermarkets to discounters and hypermarkets,” VTB said.
The company has also set aside a “reserve fund” of 1.5 billion rubles ($44 million) to acquire crisis-priced real estate this year, “depending on market conditions,” Galitsky said.
TITLE: Unique Russian Values
AUTHOR: By Sergei Guriev
TEXT: Russian officials commonly justify anti-market economics by citing the Russian public’s “nonliberal” values. Policymakers often refer to the fact that the majority of Russians would prefer to reverse the privatizations of the 1990s and return to regulated prices.
Is it true? Should — and could — anything be done about it?
Recent research suggests that anti-market sentiment is indeed shared by the majority of Russians. Moreover, it may be a rational response to the country’s economic and societal realities.
Ironically, the research also implies that in order to change these attitudes, the government should commit to fighting corruption, reforming the economy, allowing free public debate and improving the education system.
There is a long tradition to claim “Russian exceptionalism” — especially in terms of “mentality” or “spirituality” or the “mystery of Russian soul” being not compatible with a market economy and democracy. However, many countries have gone through enormous changes in values within reasonably short time spans. East and West Germany, and likewise North and South Korea, managed to build very different values within just one generation. Similarly, it looks as if it is going to take no more than one generation for East Germans’ values to revert back to Western European norms.
Many European countries have lost their colonies and have overcome the post-imperial syndrome. While this process is always painful, it is crucial to make sure there are no reversals. Politicians should be responsible; they must resist the temptation to use imperial nostalgia to solve their short-term problems.
Most important, changes in values can be driven by citizens’ rational interests. Modern political economic literature suggests that there may be situations in which a majority of citizens benefit from the status quo and oppose reforms, even though reforms would create a pro-reform majority after they are carried out. This occurs before reforms happen whenever the majority is certain that there will be benefits from said reforms but is not sure who will benefit from them.
This is known as the “status quo bias” and was spelled out in an influential paper by U.S. economists Raquel Fernandez and Dani Rodrik. It is thought to describe the situation in many European countries where crucial pro-market reforms have been discussed for decades but are never carried out. Recent empirical work suggests that this theory is also relevant for Russia.
A comprehensive “Life in Transition” survey conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in all transition countries in 2006 showed that Russians are rather unique in their negative attitudes toward democracy and markets. Probably the most worrisome result of this survey was the fact that the negative attitude to markets was not only prevalent among the older generation but also among younger Russians, who more strongly opposed markets and private property than middle-aged respondents.
This finding is confirmed by all other recent polls. For example, in FOM data on attitudes to markets and the Western model of society, Russians in their 20s are more pro-Soviet than Russians between 30 and 40 years old.
How can one explain this puzzle? A recent paper by my colleagues Irina Denisova and Yekaterina Zhuravskaya — co-authored with Markus Eller from Austrian National Bank and Tim Frye from Columbia University — sheds light on this question. They look at the “Life in Transition” data on attitudes toward privatization across all transition countries. The major finding is that negative attitudes are explained by very pragmatic benefits from privatization: Nationalization is supported by poor and less educated individuals.
This is perfectly rational because these individuals expect to benefit from state support rather than from a market economy. More interesting, the support for privatization among entrepreneurs is also not universal but depends instead on the quality of institutions in the respective country. Essentially, only in countries with good institutions — a high quality of governance — do entrepreneurs support privatization. If the institutions are weak, then the entrepreneurs fear expropriation and do not support privatization.
What should we make of these results? First and foremost, the government should fight corruption. Second, there should be a free debate on the benefits of a market economy, competition and private property. The current pro-Soviet stance of the state media not only conforms to extant views of the Russian public; it also strengthens stereotypes about the benefits of state intervention by providing false arguments concerning the relative prosperity of the Soviet Union. The argument that the Soviet Union disappeared because it was bankrupt — and not thanks to a CIA conspiracy to bring it down — is obvious for anyone who looks at the macroeconomic data of late 1980s and early 1990s. But this argument is conspicuously absent from policy debates.
Yet another crucial challenge is to reform the education system. Russian students should obtain skills that are adequate for the market economy. Otherwise they will — rationally — support populist interventionist policies and rely on a paternalistic state.
Sergei Guriev is rector of the New Economic School in Moscow.
TITLE: How to Get on Russia’s Most-Wanted List
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Last week, Saak Karapetyan, head of the international cooperation department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, gave an interview to Interfax in which he clarified the most important criminal cases in his agency.
It turns out that the most pressing cases are extraditing former Yevroset chairman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, billionaire Boris Berezovsky, Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev, former Russneft owner Mikhail Gutseriyev and former Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin. And then there is the criminal case against State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi, who faces murder charges in Britain in connection with the 2006 poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko in London.
What do all of these cases have in common? They involve people who are accused of some criminal offense against Russia’s ruling class. One suspect didn’t listen to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, another didn’t kowtow to former Ingush President Murat Zyazikov and a third failed to pay the required tribute to some general or other. It seems the prosecutor general isn’t interested in any other types of crimes.
But Mr. Karapetyan, why did we not hear a word from you about the investigation into the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya? The investigation and court have established that Shamil Burayev, former head of Chechnya’s Achkhoy-Martanovsky district who was loyal to the Kremlin in his own admission, met with the murder’s alleged organizer, former Moscow police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, on Sept. 22, 2006, the day the latter was released from prison. On Oct. 3, 2006, Burayev organized an important meeting for Khadzhikurbanov at the Napoleon Restaurant. On the day of the murder, Oct. 7, Burayev made long and frequent cell phone calls to Khadzhikurbanov. If Khadzhikurbanov did indeed organize the murder, then the loyal Burayev appears to be the point man for the person who ordered the murder in the first place.
Can you tell us, Mr. Karpetyan, why charges have not been filed against Burayev? After all, it is not as if he is hiding somewhere incognito.
And then there’s the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova just two steps from the Kremlin. Could it be inferred from Karapetyan’s interview that the Prosecutor General’s Office is not losing any sleep over these cases, while it is focusing on bringing the former Yevroset owner to justice?
Another case should be on Karapetyan’s most-important crimes list. In April of last year, 25 kilograms of TNT detonated on Akademika Koroleva Ulitsa in Moscow. The authorities initially claimed it had been a domestic gas explosion. Later it turned out that members of the radical Movement against Illegal Immigration had been making a bomb when it accidentally exploded. This should have been an easy investigation to solve: The names of those who died in the accident are known, and their connections to others can be ascertained in a matter of minutes.
There’s one more absurdity that all of Karapetyan’s most important cases have in common: They require absolutely no effort to solve. To bring trumped-up charges against Gutseriyev and Chichvarkin for their supposed crimes, nobody has to dig up any evidence, pore over mountains of mind-numbing documents in search of clues or do anything even remotely resembling detective work. It is enough to simply give a monthly interview with Interfax and blame foreign intrigues for the failure to obtain extradition orders for “Russia’s Most Wanted Men.”
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show
on Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: We are all freaks
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Tiger Lillies never cease to be creative — unlike the many recycled rock veterans who frequent Russia these days. London’s punk-cabaret trio, which works outside music fashion and trends, simply does not need to recycle material from its hey day, because its glory days are not yet over.
In the 12 months that have passed since their last local concert, the trio has produced two new theatrical productions and released them on two double albums, while continuing to perform two older productions as well as concerts of Tiger Lillies songs.
“We’ve been very busy; it’s been a bit mad, actually,” the band’s frontman Martyn Jacques said, speaking by phone from his home in London this week.
The band has just returned from the Netherlands, where it performed “Love and War,” its second performance of the show based on the works of Claudio Monteverdi since the Edinburgh International Festival in 2007. During the past year, the group has also performed “7 Deadly Sins,” a show based on Punch and Judy.
“Crazy! It’s very hard to learn the words to all those shows. When you do five shows, it’s very difficult to remember all the words, that’s the real problem.”
In December, The Tiger Lillies premiered “Sinderella,” a collaboration with New York performer Justin Bond, at London’s South Bank Centre. With all songs and text written by Jacques, the show takes the classic fairytale and remakes it in the band’s distinctive style — dark yet comical.
Bond, who is best known for his “Kiki and Herb” drag show and appears, as himself, in John Cameron Mitchell’s 2006 film “Shortbus,” stars as Sinderella, a twisted crack-whore, while Jacques plays her pimp stepmother, and The Tiger Lillies’ other musicians Adrian Huge and Adrian Stout take on the roles of Sinderella’s horrible ugly sisters.
The band’s web site describes the show, which features songs including “Blow Jobs,” “Ugly,” “Fucked” and “Pull the Trigger,” as a “sordid story of domestic abuse, drug addition and revenge.”
“It’s much darker than the original version of ‘Cinderella,’ it’s kind of pushed into a more Tiger Lillies kind of direction,” Jacques said.
From London, The Tiger Lillies went to Greece, where in January, they performed their latest theatrical work, “Freakshow.” Directed by Sebastiano Toma, who directed “Tiger Lillies Circus,” the show featured a group of actors and acrobats alongside the band.
“It’s a conceptual thing, it’s about freaks, being at a freakshow,” Jacques said.
“It describes who they are and what they do in the freakshow. It’s got one with three pairs of arms, there’s a flipper boy, all these kinds of freaks, it’s pretty much based on all the kinds of freaks you actually used to have in freakshows. A woman with three hearts, there’s a man with three legs, there’s a very small man...
“The whole subject of freaks — on one level it’s literally a freakshow, on the other, we’re all freaks in some way or another, I guess. It’s symbolic as well as being literal.”
Last month, The Tiger Lillies released “The Early Years,” a DVD featuring live footage from 1990 to 1997 filmed by Richard Coldman.
“That’s funny, we were very lucky with that,” Jacques said.
“In our early years, we weren’t very well-known at all, so we just used to play in tiny little bars and tent restaurants. We were very fortunate because we used to have this friend who used to follow us around and film us in these very small bars and restaurants.
“So it’s great, because you can actually watch The Tiger Lillies performing in these really small restaurants, which I think is very interesting. We even played at a beach at one point. For me it’s very interesting and I hope it would be for other people. It was before we had any success, really. I’m very pleased that we had someone there, a cameraman who actually recorded this period of our existence.”
With The Tiger Lillies coming back to perform in Moscow and St. Petersburg this weekend, Jacques was not sure what the band would perform in Russia this time.
“Good question. I really don’t have any idea right now, I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing,” he said.
“I’ll probably try to do some new songs, things that I haven’t done before, and maybe I’ll try to do some very old songs, which maybe I haven’t done before as well. I’ll try to do songs which may be a bit surprising that people haven’t heard. And then maybe towards the end of the show, I guess, we’ll probably do a few requests as well. If people want to shout out one of their favorite songs, then we’ll do a few of those as well.
“You’ve got to try to do some new things, because if you keep coming back somewhere, if you keep doing the same set of songs, then people are going to get a bit bored. So you have to make sure that you’re still doing new things. And, fortunately with us, we have a very, very large collection of songs, we’ve done like 25 albums now, so there’s a lot of songs. So actually the danger of us repeating ourselves, I guess, is a little less likely.
“But I’ll try to do a mixture, I’ll try to do these ‘Freakshow’ songs and maybe a couple of ‘Sinderella’ songs, and then some very old songs that maybe people haven’t heard. We’ll probably do some ‘Shockheaded Peter’ songs, and maybe I’ll do a few ‘Gorey End’ songs as well. Yeah, it will be a mixture.”
Upon their return from Russia, The Tiger Lillies will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a concert featuring songs from their Olivier Award-winning show “Shockheaded Peter” and Grammy-nominated album “The Gorey End” at New Players Theatre in London on April 24.
The Tiger Lillies will perform on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Glavclub, 2 Kremenchugskaya Ulitsa, Tel.: 905 7555. www.tigerlillies.com
TITLE: Chernov's choice
TEXT: Objections to a planned concert on Palace Square by Madonna from the Hermitage Museum, City Hall and the city’s parliament last month sounded vehement, but somehow dubious, considering all the outdoor shows, including concerts by Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Elton John (not to mention a ï“… none other than Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage and a frequent opponent of any entertainment on Palace Square, while City Hall’s culture committee authorized the show, Interfax news agency reported.
Moreover, one or two huge concerts a year will not damage the Hermitage, Piotrovsky said.
“We don’t have a large stadium, and so no more than twice a year, such events can be held on the city’s main square without damaging the monuments and the Hermitage,” he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
As always, we will never know exactly what happened during the past week or two to change their attitudes so spectacularly. What about military parades, complete with armored vehicles — are they not a threat to the Hermitage’s collection?
Of course, there is a lot of boring technical talk. Piotrovsky said that his museum would present the concert’s promoter with its technical stipulations, such as the maximum level of sound, and that the concert would only take place if the demands were met.
Interestingly, the Hermitage also wants to censor the show. “We will also make demands regarding the content of the show, so as not to have any disgrace on the square,” Piotrovsky said. Earlier, City Hall warned that it would not permit the show if it included any “aggressive content.”
This week brings an almost unprecedented wealth of musical competition to the city. The Tiger Lillies (see interview, pages 5 and 6), Kula Shaker and Asian Dub Foundation will all perform on Saturday evening.
As Asian Dub Foundation’s guitarist, programmer and producer Steve “Chandrasonic” Savale told The St. Petersburg Times in 2005 when the multicultural, alternative-electronica British band performed in St. Petersburg, the band’s approach “suggests a different feeling to music, it suggests an alternative view of the world.”
“I don’t like the rock star ideal, I find it very false and very manufactured,” he said.
“My main objection to it is that to be a rock star now usually means that you’re going to make really unimaginative music.”
Asian Dub Foundation will perform at Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa, while British neo-psychedelia band Kula Shaker will perform at Zal Ozhidaniya on Saturday.
— By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: Karelians unite
AUTHOR: By Luke Ritchie
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Culture that blindly replicates tradition is a dead culture!” declared Igor P in 2005 over what he perceived to be Russian street art’s increasing blandness and reproduction of the same images. This is a sentiment with which Yevgeny Orlov, director of the Museum of Non-Conformist Art in St. Petersburg, could easily sympathize.
Orlov recently visited Pskov, a city of about 200,000 people located 280 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, in search of modern artists to help set up an exhibition of modern art focused on Pskov. He barely found three.
He had more luck when he went to search for new talent in the Republic of Karelia and its tranquil capital of Petrozavodsk, home to 260,000 people, and is now planning a festival of Karelian art.
“This will be the first ever Karelfest,” Orlov told The St. Petersburg Times.
The range of work on display will be more than the usual landscapes, traditional Karelian art, and objects based on the great Karelian-Finnish epic poem, “Kalevala.”
“All the artworks here will be brand new,” said Orlov. “There will be paintings, graphic art, photography, art objects, installations and even films. There will also be music — we have invited a contemporary rock/jazz group from Petrozavodsk formerly known as ‘Revolver. ’
“They don’t actually have a new name yet,” added Orlov.
The aim of the exhibition is simple: “We simply want to show the art of Karelia.”
The impetus to hold an event focused on Karelia was the result of mutual idea exchange between Finns and Russians, and work by artists both from the Republic of Karelia in Russia and the Finnish province of Northern Karelia will be showcased.
“It was a purely human reaction, started by both sides,” Orlov said. “You see, no one in St. Petersburg has ever seen this art before. What does Petrozavodsk do? Few people know.”
The exhibition, which is due to open next weekend, has not yet been finalized.
“We don’t know where everything will be yet, due to the installations,” said Orlov. “It’s difficult to say at the moment. With some things, such as the musicians, we might have them playing in the big hall one day, and the next day, in the small hall.”
Orlov said that some clear differences were discernible between the work of Russian and Finnish artists.
“The Russian works are more traditional, whereas the Finns show more innovation and a greater link with European-Scandinavian styles,” he said. “Russian art is a little more brutal than theirs, perhaps as a result of our unique historical experiences.”
The chaotic and comic mischief promised by Karelfest is continued in the other galleries that along with the Museum of Non-Conformist Art are located in the Pushkinskaya 10 alternative arts center, such as the “museum of art on mouse traps.”
Orlov stated his conviction on art simply: “In my view, more people should look at and consider modern art, as some people think that everything has been done already, and we plan to show them this is untrue.”
Be warned then, Establishment. Petrozavodsk might be small, and Karelia sparsely populated, but the Museum of Non-Conformist Art plans to be a medium to shatter predisposed ideas of where the centers of creativity in Russia really lie.
“Karelfest” runs at the Museum of Non-Conformist Art from April 11 through May 17.
Pushkinskaya Ulitsa 10, Wednesday to Sunday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tel. 764 4852, www.nonmuseum.ru
TITLE: Steak escape
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Dausch
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Good Meat...Good Men...Good Life” reads the unusual advertisement in English outside of Steak House, located on Suvorovsky Prospekt. This clearly American-style steak house holds no secrets. Its name lays all the cards on the table and reflects exactly what it does best.
Given the excellence of the meal, the presentation, and the service, it is no surprise that the restaurant has been able to maintain two branches in St. Petersburg, one on Moskovsky Prospekt and the other on Suvorovsky Prospekt.
The latter offers a beautiful view of the Smolny Cathedral cupolas in the Distance — even more stunning to behold in the evening. However, this is the last image of Russia you will see for the next few hours. Walking through the doors of Steak House, diners are immediately transported to America. Menu illustrations and select dishes alike hail directly from New York, and coat racks next to the tables replace the traditional Russian ***garderob***. Photographs of American celebrities, including Jackie Onassis, the Beatles, Cher and others line the mid section of the restaurant.
Aside from this hodge-podge hall of fame collection, the structure and design of the venue is elegant and minimalist. The restaurant consists of two rooms, one serving as a lounge and cocktail area with a small bar, and the other as the main dining room.
In the latter, the floor is slightly raised in the back, giving a few privileged diners a very pleasant bird’s eye view of the restaurant. Dark wood dominates the floor, walls, and furniture, while a deep green complements the remainder of the wall space.
Brown leather loveseats make for very comfortable seating at most of the tables. Scattered across each room, lamps emit just enough soft light to create an intimate atmosphere and to flatter every face.
Not surprisingly, the main event on the menu is steak: Filet mignon, rib-eye, New York steak, and T-bone, ranging from a mere 280 rubles ($8) to a hefty 1,600 ($47) rubles. Highly recommended is the rib-eye steak with pepper sauce, accompanied by potatoes “baked in their jackets” for 980 rubles ($30). The juicy, tender steak was well worth the investment as it is cooked to perfection.
The menu is a bit more adventurous when it comes to starters, featuring ruccola salad topped with tiger shrimp, strawberries and sweet dressing for 430 rubles ($13). This atypical combination of ingredients comes together to create a fresh palette cleanser before being enveloped in the heavy flavor of red meat. Elsewhere in the appetizer section are a beef carpaccio, cheese assortment, and various soups, nearly all of which are under 540 rubles ($16).
Steak House heartily welcomes both meat lovers and those with non-carnivorous tendencies. The menu affords an array of alternative meat, poultry, fish, and pasta dishes. A highlight was pasta Tagliatelli blanketed by a creamy, mushroom sauce for 360 rubles ($11).
All of this can be washed down with a glass of Bordeaux for 250 rubles ($7), or with any of the multitudinous wines and liquors on the drink menu.
The cuisine at Steak House may be superb, but unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the music on the stereo. Diners may be subjected to Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits album, interspersed with melodies reminiscent of Kenny G. Luckily, the location on Moskovsky Prospekt houses occasional live music performances. The general sophistication of the establishment is also marred by the inevitable plasma television screen, which was showing a soccer match on a recent visit. Consequently, depending upon the position of your table, you may find yourself at times competing with the sports game for the attention of your dining guest.
However, this was more than compensated for by the professional and friendly attendance of the servers, who are quick to accommodate diners’ needs.
Though Steak House cannot compare with the caliber and popularity of American steak houses like Morton’s, this restaurant definitely holds its own in the city of St. Petersburg, and with class.
So, bring an empty stomach and a will to enjoy yourself, and Steak House will not fail to deliver.
TITLE: Lukashenko Eases Grip on Belarus Amid Crisis
TEXT: By Yuriy Humber
Bloomberg
MOSCOW — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Russia’s staunchest allies, is inviting an East-West bidding war for his country as he seeks to hold onto power and keep its economy afloat amid the global crisis.
Lukashenko, who has run what the U.S. in 2005 called “Europe’s last dictatorship” for 15 years, agreed in January to accelerate state asset sales and reduce government-ordered bank lending in exchange for a $2.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
He then went to Russia, Belarus’s biggest trading partner and energy supplier, and asked for an additional $3 billion in credit. When that was rejected, he sought $2 billion. The Russians, reluctant to expand existing subsidies before the IMF aid, may now relent to keep Belarus in their orbit.
A Belarusian move toward Europe would likely heighten Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s anxiety over western encroachment in territory once ruled from Moscow. The three Baltic former Soviet republics joined the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004, and Ukraine and Georgia are seeking NATO membership.
“Belarus is trying to reposition itself closer to Europe and further from Russia,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based research group. “Russia may not like it. It may stop it.”
Revolutions
Lukashenko, 54, is keen to exploit Russian fears of instability in a country of 10 million Russian speakers that Moscow-based Gazprom uses to ship a fifth of its gas exports to Europe.
Alongside the IMF cash, Belarus obtained an EU offer of membership in its so-called Eastern Partnership, which would break down trade barriers. Lukashenko will attend an EU meeting on the initiative in May.
Every Belarus election since 1996 has been criticized as unfair by international observers such as the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In November 2007 and again in March 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the overseas accounts of state-run oil company Belneftekhim, citing human rights violations by Lukashenko.
Since then, Belarus has released the last of its political prisoners, prompting the EU to ease travel restrictions on Lukashenko and his top officials and the U.S. to lighten penalties on Belneftekhim.
Price of Aid
Access to western aid comes at a price for Lukashenko. While most governments are taking a greater role in their economies, he is being forced to unwind state controls.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, formed by the U.S. and other western governments to help Soviet-bloc states embrace capitalism after communism’s collapse, says it won’t increase its investments in the country until Lukashenko shows more commitment to privatization and the free market.
Lukashenko visited Moscow last month for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev. The $3 billion in new Russian aid would have come in the form of a currency swap and added to the $3.5 billion Moscow has doled out to its neighbor since 2007.
After Russia rejected the first request, Belarus on Tuesday asked Russia to provide a $2 billion bank loan guaranteed by the Russian government, Interfax reported, citing the Russian Finance Ministry’s press service.
If Russia offers the cash, it will be on condition that Belarus adopts the Russian ruble, initially as a reserve currency, and increases its military cooperation. That might include the deployment of Russian missiles on Belarusian territory should the U.S. go ahead with a planned missile-defense system in neighboring Poland.
Not Stupid
“Russia gives us loans so easily and so cheaply, knowing full well that they go on things we consume and hence can’t be repaid,” said Stanislav Bogdankevich, head of the Belarus National Bank between 1991 and 1995, in an interview in the capital Minsk. “Russian politicians aren’t stupid. In the future, they will take Belarusian assets to cover debts. There is an element of future subjugation.”
Unlike Russia and its $385 billion cash reserve, Belarus is racing to avoid bankruptcy as its economy has been growing at an average of about eight percent since 2000.
The country has about four months to raise more cash from the West or win funding from Moscow and face an “encroaching takeover by the Kremlin,” said Yaroslav Romanchuk, an adviser to the government who runs the Mizes research center in Minsk.
Belarus’s importance to Russia as a “geopolitically crucial location” will make it hard to rebuff Russian pressure, the U.S.-based risk-advisory group Stratfor said. “Russia’s financial assistance is simply too valuable for the economically isolated Belarus to pass up” amid the economic crisis, Stratfor, which is based in Austin, Texas, told clients last month.
Plunging Exports
Belarus’s exports plunged 45 percent in January, leaving the central bank with less than $3 billion in foreign currency reserves, equal to less than a month of imports. Gross domestic debt stood at $14.6 billion on Feb. 1, triple the amount held by the population in 28 banks.
On the list for privatization this year is the Belarusian Automobile Plant, maker of BelAZ trucks, and pipeline operator Gomeltransneft Druzhba, which services part of the Druzhba route that Russia uses to supply 20 percent of Germany’s crude oil.
Belarus is also looking to sell more than 50 percent in two of its largest state-run banks by the end of 2009, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed central bank deputy chairman.
Russia is the biggest export market for Belarusian products and the two countries formed a loose political union a decade ago that helps Belarus save $4 billion a year in discounted natural-gas and oil prices.
Seeking Allegiance
That relationship may change if Belarus finds other donors and diversifies its sources of energy. The nation is seeking to build its first hydropower and coal-fired plants and burn peat, a decayed vegetation matter found in bogs, to cut reliance on gas to 58 percent of total electricity output from 97 percent within a decade, Energy Minister Alexander Ozerets said in an interview.
At their meeting in Moscow, Medvedev sought to ensure Lukashenko’s allegiance.
“We have reached some serious agreements which have economic, humanitarian and regional dimensions,” Medvedev told reporters. “They now need to be implemented. They must be turned into contracts, deliveries, settlement of issues.”
Conditions for more Russian loans may include recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, over which Russia waged a five-day war last August. The EU has said it will make no deals if Belarus officially recognizes the states, as Russia has. Lukashenko has passed on the decision to the country’s parliament, which has delayed voting on it.
‘Two Choices’
“Lukashenko’s game continues in both directions,” said Arkady Moshes, program director for Russia at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. As Russia’s own economy slows, Belarus needs easier access to global markets and “the country’s elite now wants a deal with Europe.”
“But, in the long term, Belarus is only drifting away from Russia,” Moshes said. “Lukashenko has two choices: resist and face being ousted or lead the process.”
TITLE: Rampaging Ax-Attacker Kills West Bank Youth
AUTHOR: By Sebastian Scheiner
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAT AYIN, West Bank — An ax-wielding Palestinian militant went on a rampage in a West Bank settlement Thursday, killing an Israeli 13-year-old and wounding a 7-year-old boy before fleeing the area.
The attack posed an important test for Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised a firm hand against militants and expressed skepticism about prospects for peace. Government spokesman Mark Regev called it a “senseless act of brutality against innocents.”
Police and military units were searching for the attacker, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld and army officials. Israeli TV showed images of a large group soldiers in combat gear gathered at an intersection, and the army said all roads around the settlement of Bat Ayin were closed.
Security guards fired at the attacker before he fled, said Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader. “The security team here managed to shoot and hit the terrorist, but he managed to escape,” he told Army Radio.
A 13-year-old boy was killed and a 7-year-old boy was badly wounded, Israeli emergency services said.
A murky militant group calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail.
The group is named for a Hezbollah mastermind killed in Syria last year in what is believed to have been an assassination by Israeli intelligence. It has claimed a number of past attacks, but Israeli defense officials believe it is likely a name used by other groups to avoid Israeli reprisals.
The e-mail said the militant group Islamic Jihad was also involved, but the group’s spokesman in Gaza would not comment.
The attacker apparently entered Bat Ayin, south of Jerusalem, unhindered. The settlement is home to religious settlers who have refused to build a security fence around their community, as is the rule in most other settlements, saying fences are a sign of insecurity.
Army forces were operating in the nearby village of Safa, searching houses and taking village residents to a central schoolyard.
The attack was likely to heighten tensions between the Palestinians and Israel’s new hard-line government, which has already voiced skepticism about peace negotiations in its first days in office.
“The new Israeli government will have a zero tolerance policy towards these sorts of attacks and will refuse to accept them as routine,” Regev said. “The Palestinian leadership must both in word and in deed too have a zero tolerance policy to this sort of attack to demonstrate its commitment to peace and reconciliation.”
Netanyahu was elected to office on a campaign that criticized his predecessor’s peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Since then Netanyahu has said he will seek peace, but given few details about his vision for a final agreement. He has specifically refused to endorse the idea of an independent Palestinian state — a key demand of the Palestinians and centerpiece of U.S. diplomacy in the region.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Israeli concessions to the Palestinians would only bring more war. He also rejected the previous government’s peace talks, launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference in 2007.
TITLE: Federer, Djokovic Book Semis Clash in Miami
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: MIAMI — World number two Roger Federer overcame American Andy Roddick in three sets to set up a semi-final clash with Novak Djokovic at the ATP Masters 1000 hardcourt tournament here.
The second-seeded Swiss, still in search of his first title of 2009, defeated Roddick 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, avenging a quarter-final loss to the American here last year.
In the semi-finals, 13-time Grand Slam champion Federer will face third-seeded Serbian Djokovic, who beat 10th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4.
Federer, who won back-to-back titles here in 2005 and 2006, closed out the match with a service break, earning a match point with a backhand winner that clipped the net cord and found the corner.
Another backhand found Roddick helpless at the net.
“It’s easier if I would have just played terrible the whole time,” said Roddick, who thrilled the crowd of 14,000 by taking the second set.
But in the hard-fought third, Roddick failed to convert two game points in the final game.
“I at least gave it a go there in the third, and didn’t really catch a break there,” he said.
Djokovic, who had lost his last four encounters with Tsonga, reversed that trend despite receiving treatment for apparent heat-related symptoms in the second set.
Djokovic broke Tsonga to take a 4-2 lead in the second, saved two break points in the eighth game and was under pressure again as he served for the match at 5-4 but closed out the victory in just under two hours.
Djokovic, who said he had been battling a stomach ailment on Tuesday, said that the after-effects, the heat and the pressure of the match combined to affect him.
But he still displayed precise, powerful groundstrokes that had Tsonga on the defensive from the start.
“I have to be very happy with today’s performance, because I have been struggling to find a way to win against him in the last four encounters,” he said. “I just knew that I needed to stick in and try to wait for my chances and be aggressive.
“Today I think I tried to be closer to the line, more in control, and just put the pressure on him. So I think that’s what I did.”
The other men’s quarter-finals on Thursday were due to pit world number one Rafael Nadal against sixth-seeded Argentinian Juan Martin del Potro and fourth-seeded Briton Andy Murray against Spain’s eighth seed Fernando Verdasco.
Nadal, the Australian Open champion, is gunning for his second straight prestigious Masters 1000 title in as many starts after his triumph in Indian Wells, California.
TITLE: Terry Scores Late Winner Against Ukraine
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — England captain John Terry revealed a hair cut from Wayne Rooney helped get him in the right frame of mind to keep his country on course for the World Cup finals.
Terry scored England’s late winner as Fabio Capello’s side consolidated their position on top of Group Six with a 2-1 victory over Ukraine at Wembley on Wednesday.
The Chelsea defender celebrated his goal by mimicking a trim with Rooney and then admitted he had let his England team-mate loose on his hair earlier in the week.
“In the week I needed a little trim up. We’re not allowed to leave the hotel or anything so I asked Wayne and he obliged,” Terry said.
“I’m pleased with it. I might go back next time. He was asking for 10 pounds and I still owe him it!”
Terry’s tale underlined the positive vibes currently surging through Capello’s squad after an impressive run of five consecutive victories, which have put England within touching distance of next year’s finals in South Africa.
Capello has restored England’s shattered morale since taking over in the aftermath of their failed attempt to qualify for Euro 2008.
“I think you can see it in the way the lads are training,” Terry said. “Everyone has got a smile on their face around the camp.
“The manager has made some changes and things are going really well for us. The players are happy and doing what’s right.”
Terry was especially pleased with the way they fought back after Andriy Shevchenko cancelled out Peter Crouch’s opener.
“We showed good desire. At 1-0, I think it was a little bit too easy for us,” he said. “But at 1-1 the desire and fight was shown.
“We could have settled for a draw and walked away half-happy but we got the push from the fans and a kick up the backside from ourselves as well and went on to get the winning goal. So overall we’re very pleased.
“It’s disappointing to concede from a set play. We’ve done a lot of work on that over the last 10 days. But we scored two goals from our set-plays so it seemed to work there as well.”
Terry wasn’t the only one hogging the spotlight with his celebrations.
After his 29th minute volley, Crouch launched into a bizarre shuffling routine based on a comedy sketch from a BBC charity television program that brought back memories of the robot dance that made the Portsmouth striker such a hit when he first burst onto the international scene.
“I’m blaming Rio (Ferdinand) entirely for that. He shouted at me to do it after I scored,” Crouch said.
“It’s a bit of a release. It’s always enjoyable when you score a goal for England so it was just a bit of fun.”
TITLE: Obama Takes on N. Korea Conflict, Economy
AUTHOR: By Mark Smith
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart agreed Thursday on the need for a “stern, united” international response if North Korea goes ahead with a planned rocket launch, as Obama juggled that intensifying crisis thousands of miles away and a global effort to fix the sagging economy.
Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met on the sidelines of a 20-nation summit on the economic crisis, spending the bulk of their time on the latest flare-up with the North, already in international crosshairs over its nuclear weapons program. The two leaders convened before joining their peers in a session aimed at broad, coordinated responses to help the economy recover.
North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket sometime from Saturday to Wednesday, but the U.S., South Korea and Japan call the plan a cover for testing long-range missile technology and a potential violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution banning ballistic activity by North Korea. Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday that the U.S. would consider the launch provocative and that the U.S. would seek punishment at the United Nations in response.
After the Obama-Lee meeting, the South Korean presidential office issued a statement saying that the two leaders had agreed to keep working on a verifiable dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear programs.
The statement added that the two agreed on the need “for a stern, united response from the international community” and to work together to make that happen.
Senior White House officials confirmed that description of the meeting.
As the meeting was getting underway, Obama said in front of reporters that South Korea is one of “America’s closest allies and greatest friends” and he lauded Lee’s leadership. Obama said the two would discuss a range of issues, including defense and “peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.”
A senior Obama aide said that Obama’s very friendly and complementary remarks toward Lee in public were meant as a display of his personal support for Lee’s handling of the North Korean issue. Lee has sought to drum up support from world leaders, including while in London, for punishing its neighbor if the launch goes forward and has been vilified in the North for his efforts.
CNN television said on its Web site that Pyongyang has started to fuel the rocket. The report, citing an unidentified senior U.S. military official, said the move indicates final preparations for the launch. Experts say the missile can be fired about three to four days after fueling begins. The Obama officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to more fully describe the private talks, would not comment on intelligence related to the rocket.
But they said, without elaborating, that the U.S. and Japanese militaries have been consulting closely. Japan is preparing to intercept any debris and regional powers have begun to deploy ships to monitor the launch. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that the U.S. has no interception plans.
The North has countered with its own warnings against any interception efforts — or even efforts to monitor the launch. It says its armed forces are at a high level of combat-readiness.
The leaders also discussed a free trade agreement between the two countries, the official said.
South Korea and the U.S. agreed in 2007 under former President George W. Bush to a free trade deal that would slash tariffs and other barriers to trade. The countries’ legislatures, however, failed to ratify the deal as their farmers and labor groups opposed it, and Obama has hinted he might seek to renegotiate it.
Obama told Lee that he understood there were difficulties with the deal on both sides, but that he wants to “make progress” on it, the officials said.
The G-20 summit brings together the world’s richest and developing economies. Leaders hope to approve language vowing tough, coordinated rules for financial markets.
TITLE: Man Dies at Anti-G20 Protest March
AUTHOR: By Robin Millard
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of London ahead of the G20 summit here in angry protests that descended into violent battles with police and saw one man collapse and die.
After a day of protests Wednesday to mark the summit of world leaders in the capital, a man died in hospital after falling unconscious inside a police cordon near the Bank of England.
Police and the London Ambulance Service said they were alerted by a member of the public and tried to resuscitate the man — despite at one point being pelted by bottles from protesters — but he was declared dead in hospital.
It was not clear how he died, but several people were earlier injured when protesters held in a police cordon surged against the barriers, following violent clashes and an attack on a bank that led to 63 arrests.
The independent police complaints body, the IPCC, has been informed of the death and could decide to investigate.
Thousands of protesters rallied outside the Bank of England ahead of Thursday’s summit, where world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama will seek a response to the global financial crisis.
Anti-war activists also peacefully protested outside the U.S. embassy across town.
Police said about 4,000 protesters, including anti-globalisation, anti-war and environmental activists, converged on the City to demand more help for the poor and the punishment of bankers they blame for the crisis.
Some of the demonstrators smashed their way into a branch of the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) near the Bank of England, breaking the windows and hurling out office equipment including computer parts.
Riot police protecting the main doors of the building came under a hail of glass bottles, beer cans and eggs, while other officers entered the bank to try to repel anyone attempting to get inside.
“Scum” and “Beat inflation — eat the rich,” were sprayed in graffiti on the windows of the office, which had been closed for the day as a precaution.
Outside the Bank of England activists scuffled with police, hurling taunts, paint bombs, firecrackers and glass bottles, while baton-wielding police responded with occasional charges to keep masked demonstrators at bay.
“Build a bonfire, build a bonfire. Put the bankers on the top,” protesters chanted, while others taunted staff watching from the Bank of England balcony and urged them to jump.
Metropolitan Police Commander Simon O’Brien said: “It did seem to us from CCTV and police on the scene that they tried to find a way to ramp up the protest and hijack it into violence.
“We saw a determined attack on the RBS where... there was a clear attempt to throw lighted material in that premises.”
The violence calmed briefly but flared up as dusk fell, with protesters held in by police cordons charging the lines. Some tore down the crash barriers and dragged them towards the police, before riot officers surrounded them.
TITLE: Hamilton Stripped of Third
AUTHOR: By Chris Lines
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Thursday for giving misleading evidence to race stewards.
The McLaren driver was awarded third place after the season-opening GP when stewards ruled Toyota’s Jarno Trulli breached regulations by passing Hamilton during a safety car period in Melbourne on Sunday.
Trulli was reinstated to his original third-place finish Thursday, while Hamilton and McLaren were excluded from the results and receive no points.
A new hearing into the matter, convened by motor sport world governing body FIA, interviewed both drivers and teams, and heard new evidence which included radio transmissions between teams and drivers in Melbourne, as well as technical data from the race.
After deliberating for several hours, FIA released a statement which said Hamilton and McLaren “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards.”
“We’re disappointed by what’s happened, but in the circumstances we aren’t going to appeal,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said.
“I believe it was a harsh decision. Experience has told us you’ve got to accept these decisions,” he said. “These things come along, and you have to build on your concentration for this weekend and the races to come.”
In the safety car period, brought about by a late crash, Trulli was in third place when he briefly ran off the track. While passing is prohibited during safety car periods, a driver can move up if a car ahead goes off the circuit.
McLaren, having not seen Trulli run off, were told over the radio by Hamilton that he had the Toyota driver. The team tried to get clarification from race control about whether Hamilton could remain in third.
When that clarification was not forthcoming, McLaren told Hamilton to give back third place, which he did.
Post-race, the stewards — without the benefit of McLaren’s radio communication — ruled that Trulli should not have taken back the third spot, and penalized him 25 seconds, dropping him from third to 12th.
McLaren claimed Thursday they thought race authorities already knew the content of the radio transmission, which can be heard during the race.
Whitmarsh denied that the stewards’ ruling amounted to an allegation that McLaren and Hamilton lied to the Melbourne hearing, saying only that the team erred by not being more forthcoming about the radio communication between team and driver.
“There’s no indication that Lewis lied,” Whitmarsh said.
“There was no lie within that hearing. We, the team, made a mistake, that we didn’t supply a full account of a radio conversation we believe was being listened to in any case and we don’t believe was material to the decision being made by the stewards.”
Trulli’s reinstatement to third now gives him six championship points and puts Toyota second in the constructors’ championship with 11 points, after teammate Timo Glock finished fourth in Melbourne.
“I didn’t break the rules,” Trulli said. “It was just a question of making sure they could see it and understand it.”
TITLE: 16 Die in North Sea Air Crash
AUTHOR: By Ben McConville
PUBLISHER: Associated Press Writer
TEXT: EDINBURGH, Scotland — Police said Thursday that 16 people were killed when a helicopter went down off Scotland’s northeast coast, announcing that the search for eight people still missing was now a recovery rather than a rescue operation.
Eight bodies recovered from the sea were brought ashore Thursday morning.
“The grim reality is that the crew of 16 on board has been lost,” said Colin Menzies, assistant chief constable of Grampian Police.
The Super Puma helicopter was returning to Aberdeen from a North Sea oil platform when it crashed Wednesday afternoon in calm and sunny conditions, 14 miles (22 kilometers) off Peterhead in northeast Scotland.
BP said the helicopter, carrying 14 oil workers and two helicopter crew, was coming back from the company’s Miller oil field.
Operator Bond Offshore Helicopters rejected calls by a trade union for all its Super Pumas to be grounded. The company said it had “every confidence in the Super Puma.”
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said two lifeboats and seven other vessels, including ferries and fishing boats, were searching for the missing. Experts from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch were traveling to the scene of the crash on Thursday.
Helicopters have been used to ferry workers to and from the oil and gas fields off the Scottish coast since the construction of platforms there in the 1970s.
Wednesday’s crash was the second such incident in the North Sea this year, both involving the Super Puma. A Super Puma ditched in the North Sea in February, but all 18 people on board were rescued.
In Canada, 17 people died March 12 when a Sikorsky S-92A helicopter ditched in the Atlantic after declaring a mechanical problem. The chopper was carrying workers to two offshore oil platforms.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said a death toll of 16 would make this Britain’s second-deadliest helicopter disaster.
The worst was in 1986 when 45 people died after a Chinook crashed into the sea off the Shetland Islands north of Scotland.
Safety was improved after the Chinook crash, and all offshore workers in the North Sea now have to complete tough training in a crash simulator. All wear survival immersion suits and are equipped with personal beacons and floatation devices.
The Super Puma is fitted with air bags, similar to those in cars, that deploy on contact with the water.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his thoughts were with the families of those involved.
“It’s at times like this we remember the risks and dangers people have to undergo working to meet our energy needs,” he told reporters.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that Queen Elizabeth II has sent a private letter of condolence to the families of the victims.
TITLE: Maradona: Bolivian Win Was a Just Humiliation
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LA PAZ — Argentina coach Diego Maradona refused to blame the negative effects of competing at altitude after his side was humiliated 6-1 by Bolivia on Wednesday, thus registering its worst defeat in 60 years.
Bolivia’s goals came from a Joaquin Botero hat-trick and Marcelo Martins, Alex Da Rosa and Didi Torrico while Argentina found the net through Luis Gonzalez at La Paz’s high-altitude Hernando Siles’s stadium.
But the former World Cup winner, who suffered his first defeat since taking over as coach last year, refused to explain his faltering team’s performance on playing at 3,650 meters above sea level.
“No, the altitude was not an issue. We came up against a team that gave very little away and basically, they were the better team,” said Maradona.
“It seemed to me that Bolivia gave everything they had, they played well and showed us good football.” That remark prompted applause from media representatives, apparently for Maradona’s sense of fair-play.
He added: “Whoever played against that Bolivian team would have suffered the same fate as us. I suffered with them (players). Every Bolivian goal was a dagger in my heart.”
Argentinian keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo, who had a memorable night for the wrong reasons, was first beaten in the 12th minute by striker Marcelo Martins, who plays for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukraine.
However, the Argentinians, twice world champions, were level in the 25th minute when Porto’s Luis Gonzalez hit a shot from 30-metres without much conviction but an unexpected bounce meant it went past Bolivia keeper Carlos Arias and into the net.
Bolivia went further ahead in the 34th minute through hat-trick hero Botero of Mexican club Correcaminos, Mexico.
An inspired and motivated Bolivia went 3-1 ahead just before the break through Da Rosa and then Botero got further goals in the 50th and 66th minutes. Torrico scored the sixth and final goal with three minutes to go.
Angel Di Maria was sent off in the 63rd minute to make a terrible night even worse.
Meanwhile, striker Lukas Podolski has escaped a German Football Federation (DFB) fine despite his on-field spat with captain Michael Ballack in the 2-0 win over Wales, it was revealed Thursday.
Ballack and Podolski clashed in the second half of the World Cup qualifier at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Wednesday, but despite the Bayern Munich star arguing fiercely with his captain, the DFB will not fine the 23-year-old.
Germany coach Joachim Loew revealed that the argument erupted when Ballack gave Podolski a tactical instruction and laid the blame firmly at the striker's door.
"If the captain gives a player a tactical instruction, then that player must obey," said Loew.