SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1470 (32), Thursday, April 30, 2009
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TITLE: Kasparov Confronts Prosecutor In Court
AUTHOR: By Douglas Birch
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Kremlin opponent Garry Kasparov attended the trial of onetime billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday, getting in a brief, heated exchange with one of the Russian prosecutors during a recess.
The impromptu debate took place a few feet from the glass defendant’s cage where Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, stood watching.
Kasparov, the former chess champion and a leader of the political coalition opposing the Kremlin, said before the trial began that it was his “civic duty” to show his support for Khodorkovsky. The former tycoon has been accused of embezzling $25 billion from subsidiaries of the now-bankrupt Yukos Oil Co., which Khodorkovsky once owned.
Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is already serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion charges. If convicted in this second trial, he could remain in prison for another 22 years.
Yukos, once Russia’s largest oil producer, was declared bankrupt in 2006 and later sold to pay billions of dollars in alleged back taxes. Many Yukos assets were bought by the state-controlled Rosneft oil company, which became the country’s biggest oil producer.
Kasparov and others say the government is pressing the case against the former tycoon for political reasons. Shortly before his arrest in October 2003, Khodorkovsky challenged the growing power of then-President Vladimir Putin.
After the judge called for a recess, Kasparov sparred verbally with one of the prosecutors, Gyulchekhra Ibragimova, as she walked past him out of the noisy courtroom.
During the exchange, Ibragimova said she respected Kasparov but told him he should be playing chess rather than wasting his time in court.
A smiling Kasparov accused the prosecution of seeking “to replace the force of law with the law of force.” Guards with automatic rifles and pistols stood by watching impassively.
After witnessing the encounter from their glassed-in booth, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev both grinned. Lebedev, another former Yukos executive, winked at one supporter.
Many of the roughly 30 spectators in the courtroom were Khodorkovsky supporters, and several shouted at prosecutors as they left the courtroom.
The latest Khodorkovsky case is seen as a test for President Dmitry Medvedev, who has called for judicial and political reforms and for broader participation in elections.
These measures would reverse the course set by Putin, Medvedev’s mentor and predecessor, who rolled back democratic reforms during his eight years as president.
Outside the courtroom, Kasparov mocked the heavy security, calling the trial a “performance.”
“It would be funny if it weren’t a tragedy,” he said.

TITLE: Moscow Police Chief Fired After Bloodshed at Supermarket
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas and Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev fired powerful Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin on Tuesday as heads rolled over a lone policeman’s shooting spree that horrified the city. 
Medvedev has signed an order relieving Pronin of his duties, the Kremlin said in a statement posted on its web site late Tuesday. It did not elaborate. 
Earlier in the day, Medvedev fired the head of Moscow’s southern police district, Viktor Ageyev, and three of Ageyev’s deputies were also dismissed. 
The shakeup came after a blood bath early Monday when police Major Denis Yevsyukov, head of a police precinct in southern Moscow, shot dead a cab driver and then walked into a supermarket where he shot eight more people, killing two. He was captured after a police shootout. 
Investigators said Yevsyukov, who was off duty, went on the rampage after quarreling with his wife on his 32nd birthday Sunday. 
It was unclear late Tuesday who might replace Pronin as police chief. A police spokesman declined to comment beyond confirming that Pronin was no longer in charge. 
Mayor Yury Luzhkov, a strong supporter of Pronin, expressed his dismay over the dismissal in a live television interview. 
“I only just now heard about the decision from you,” he said on TV Center television. “I am sorry about this.” 
Pronin, 60, who was appointed to the post in 2001, submitted his resignation in summer 2002 after riot of football fans killed two people and injured 72, but then-Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov refused to accept it. Gryzlov is now the speaker of the State Duma. 
Pronin came under fire later that year for not preventing terrorists from seizing the Dubrovka theater, but he still managed to hang onto his job. 
As dozens of dark-skinned people were attacked or killed on his watch, he infamously declared twice -- in 2005 and 2008 -- that racially motivated crime did not exist in Moscow because there were no skinheads in the city. His son Alexander Pronin lost the right to work as notary in the city last year after a lawyer filed a lawsuit alleging nepotism and corruption in the awarding of lucrative notary public licenses. 
Pronin has several state medals for his police work, the latest of which was awarded in 2008, according to the Moscow police web site. 
Monday’s shooting spree has sent a shudder through Moscow and led to soul-searching in the halls of power. 
People laid flowers Tuesday outside the Ostrov supermarket in southern Moscow where the shootings took place. 
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev expressed condolences to the victims’ families and offered help with organizing medical treatment and paying for medicine and rehabilitation. 
The deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s public safety department, Nikolai Trifonov, said the shooting was the first of its kind. 
Pronin said Monday that Yevsyukov might be psychologically unstable, saying he was “saucer-eyed,” “out of it” and “crying” when he interviewed him just hours after his arrest. 
Yevgeny Makushkin, deputy director of the Serbsky Institute, the country’s leading psychiatric hospital, said Tuesday that it was too early to say what had caused Yevsyukov’s actions. “We need to study the facts,” he said. 
Similar cases have been studied at Serbsky, but they are very rare, he said. “This has happened in the United States, and Russia is no exception. These are isolated cases because people who work in the security forces go through serious admission tests,” he said. 
“In the Interior Ministry, there is psychological and medical selection to determine professional fitness. They carry out tests,” Makushkin said. 
He called Yevsyukov “an exception to the rule” and said he faces at least a month of psychological tests. “Due to the public impact, the investigators may decide that he should be an inpatient and go through complex testing, which takes no less than 30 days,” he said. 
Nurgaliyev on Monday called for psychologists to play a greater role in police recruitment and staff training.

TITLE: Swine Flu ‘May Hit Russia In A Week’
AUTHOR: By Maria Antonova and Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A senior virologist warned on Tuesday that the swine flu outbreak could reach Russia in a week and said the risk of a global pandemic was “very high.” 
But passengers greeted by mask-wearing health officials at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport brushed off concerns about swine flu, which has been linked to 149 deaths in Mexico and has been confirmed in the United States, Canada, Scotland, Spain and New Zealand. 
The Agriculture Ministry expanded a ban on raw meat imports from the United States on Tuesday to include meat products carried in passengers’ carry-on luggage and food served on planes and ships. 
No cases have been reported in Russia. A Russian woman who recently visited Mexico was hospitalized in Moscow on Monday night, but doctors said Tuesday that she did not have the swine flu virus. 
“The risk of a pandemic in the world is very high. It could reach Russia in a week,” Dmitry Lvov, head of the Institute of Virology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at a news conference. 
No vaccine is available for the virus and scientists say the earliest one will be ready in the fall. Lvov said people could protect themselves in the meantime by taking anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu. 
“We should have masks available everywhere. I would advise against participating in large events and would also advise taking anti-viral medicines ... as a preventive measure,” he said. 
Lvov, however, criticized airport checks and meat bans as methods for preventing swine flu from reaching Russia. 
The World Health Organization — which raised its alert level for swine flu by a notch Monday to indicate that the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission — said Tuesday that it was not recommending travel restrictions and border closures. Infected people may not show symptoms at the airport, so travel limitations are ineffective, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters in Geneva, Reuters reported. “Border controls don’t work. Screening doesn’t work,” he said. 
At Sheremetyevo Airport, health officials wearing white cloaks and face masks met passengers arriving on an Aeroflot flight from New York on Tuesday afternoon. 
A “visual control” has been set up on board all flights landing in Sheremetyevo, said Artur Bunin, the chief doctor for the airport. 
“A flight from New York to Moscow takes about 11 hours. During this time, our well-trained plane staff are able to detect an infected passenger on board,” Bunin told reporters in the airport’s arrival hall. 
Airport custom officers could be seen through the gateway glass wearing face masks, too. 
“We are fearful because we are very serious about this,” Bunin said. 
Passengers, however, seemed unconcerned about the virus, and several said they hadn’t noticed any officials wearing masks at other airports. 
Timur Uzbekov, who arrived from New York, was the only passenger who could be seen wearing a mask at Sheremetyevo on Tuesday afternoon. 
“I just thought it would be safer,” Uzbekov said. “I went from Los Angeles to New York and expected to see panic and people in masks but didn’t notice anything like that.” 
He said he had not experienced any additional hassle at Sheremetyevo other than “some people in white asked what kind of food passengers were carrying in their bags.” 
Passengers arriving from Europe were smiling and relaxed. A few on a plane from Athens said they had not heard about swine flu. “Can you see a swine here?” they joked when approached by a group of reporters. 
The Federal Consumer Protection Service asked travel agencies on Tuesday to alert people planning trips to the Americas about the “possible risk of contacting the flu-like disease,” Interfax reported. 
Meat products will be more thoroughly checked at Moscow’s markets, said the city’s veterinary committee, Interfax reported. Uncooked meat from Mexico and the United States will be isolated, the committee said. 
The Agriculture Ministry’s health watchdog widened the ban on raw meat imports from some U.S. states and Mexico, prompting a protest by the U.S. Embassy, which said there was no reason for the restrictions because the virus spreads from person to person, not from meat. “We look forward to a quick resumption of normal meat trade with Russia,” the embassy said in a statement. 
“It’s an understandable reaction but an overreaction by Russia,” said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. “But Russia is not acting out of the ordinary.” 
The European Union said Tuesday that it would not restrict imports of U.S. meat. “We have no plans to ban any meat, pork or food products from the U.S. since there is no connection between food and the flu at present, and such a move would be unjust,” a European Commission official told Reuters.

TITLE: One in 5 Generals Fails Examination
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — About one in every five military generals will be fired for failing to pass a proficiency test, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said Tuesday.
Fifty of the military’s 249 generals failed the unannounced test, which is part of ongoing defense reforms, said Pankov, who holds the rank of general.
“We do not intend to leave officers who are not up to par for their positions and high titles in the armed forces,” Pankov said at a news conference, RIA-Novosti reported.
Sixty-six generals who passed the test will be kept on, while the remaining 133 will be dismissed amid cutbacks envisioned in the reform, Pankov said.
The main criteria for the dismissals, besides failing the test, are poor health and old age, he said, Interfax reported.
The test has also been given to 85 percent of army officers so far, Interfax said.
The Kremlin says the reforms aim to turn Russia’s outdated army into a mobile fighting force. Under the reforms, the armed forces will be cut to 1 million servicemen from more than 1.1 million.

TITLE: NATO Reopens Formal Talks With Russian Side
AUTHOR: By David Brunnstrom
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BRUSSELS — NATO resumed formal contacts with Moscow Wednesday, eight months after they were frozen over Russia’s war in Georgia, but said the two sides were not suddenly about to resolve their differences.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Russia was an important player with which the defense alliance must work on global security issues including nuclear non-proliferation, the war in Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism.
He was speaking before ambassadors of the 28 NATO member states met Russia’s envoy to the alliance in Brussels on Wednesday, the sides’ first formal meeting since the five-day war in Georgia last August.
The meeting will prepare the way for a ministerial meeting expected in the second half of May.
“I am looking forward to this meeting...but it does not mean we will suddenly agree on everything — we have interests that do not always converge,” de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.
He said NATO and Russia should not shy away from issues on which they fundamentally disagreed.
These include differences over Georgia — which has been promised eventual NATO membership by the alliance — and the future of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.
The CFE treaty limits the number of tanks and other military equipment stored between the Atlantic and Russia’s Ural mountains but Russia suspended its participation in 2007, saying NATO countries were flouting it.
Russia regards improving ties with NATO as part of a broader effort to improve relations with the West and in particular with the United States. Ties with Washington sank to a post-Cold War low under U.S. President George W. Bush.
Even so, Moscow has criticized NATO plans to hold military exercises next month in Georgia and urged other countries to boycott them. NATO says the exercises, which will run from May 6 to June 1, pose no security threat to Russia.
Russia, which crushed an attempt by Georgian forces to retake control of the pro-Moscow region of South Ossetia last August, has protested against the exercises by calling off a meeting with NATO military chiefs that was planned for May 7.
Russian’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin was quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency as saying Tuesday he would raise the issue of the exercises in Wednesday’s meeting, as well as ways to improve political dialogue between Russia and NATO.
NATO is keen for more cooperation with Russia over the war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan. T
Russian and NATO already have an agreement to allow transit of non-lethal NATO supplies via Russia to Afghanistan, and NATO wants to build on this deal.

TITLE: Sparks Fly at Council Of Europe Over Candidate
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s delegation at the Council of Europe is in an uproar after it emerged that its favored candidate for the organization’s next secretary-general, Belgian Senator Luc Van den Brande, might not be shortlisted for the position. 
The council’s Parliamentary Assembly, which will elect the new secretary-general in June, decided to call an urgent debate on the election process for Wednesday. 
Its deputies, currently gathered at the spring session in Strasbourg, are upset that ambassadors from the 47 member states have halved the number of candidates from four to two. 
The ambassadors decided after a series of votes last week to propose former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland and former Polish Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, deputies told The St. Petersburg Times on Tuesday. 
Van den Brande and Hungarian lawmaker Matyas Ersi were taken off the list after finishing third and fourth during the votes and because they lacked political prominence, Kommersant reported last week. 
The head of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Kosachyov, chief of the State Duma’s International Relations Committee, told the newspaper that as a sign of protest the assembly might refuse to elect a secretary-general altogether. 
Attempts to reach Kosachyov in Strasbourg were unsuccessful Tuesday. 
The council’s Committee of Ministers, which represents the member states’ governments, will finalize the shortlist at a session on May 12, the organization said on its web site. 
The council’s regulations, published on its web site, stipulate that ministers must propose the candidates for the secretary-general and that their list must contain at least two names. 
Sergei Markov, a State Duma deputy for United Russia, said having the list of candidates reduced by the executive was deeply undemocratic. “To have just two candidates approved from the executive reminds me of the Iranian Guardian Council that has often disqualified candidates from running for office,” Markov told The Moscow Times. 
But Wolfgang Wodarg, a deputy in the German Bundestag and a vice president of the assembly’s Socialist Group, said while he was unhappy about the shortlist it was necessary to promote more high-profile politicians for the job. 
“The Council of Europe needs a beacon in order to enhance the visibility of its work,” he said by telephone from Strasbourg. 
Wodarg referred to a regulation adopted in 2007 that says candidates must have previously served as heads of state or government or held senior ministerial posts.

TITLE: Russians Hose Down Pirates
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The crew of a Russian oil tanker managed to repel a pirate attack in the waters off Somalia, the company said Tuesday, apparently by hosing them down with water.
Three small pirate vessels attacked the Aframax class NS Commander, owned by Novorossiisk Shipping Company, and its crew of 23 Russians on Monday afternoon in the Gulf of Aden. The would-be hijackers, armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, opened fire on the vessel but were outmaneuvered, the statement said.
Online shipping portal Maritime Bulletin reported that the sailors repelled the attack with the tanker’s fire hoses. The company said only that the crew managed to fend off two attempts by the pirates to approach. 
“The captain quickly notified the coalition of naval forces in the region of the attack. Direct communication was opened with Russian naval ship the Admiral Panteyev, which was 120 miles from the site of the incident,” the statement said. 
No one onboard was injured.
The Liberian-flagged ship and its cargo of 83,000 tons of mazut fuel oil are continuing to Singapore, the statement said. An initial inspection of the tanker found no damage. 
The attack highlights the problems facing shippers in the key Gulf of Aden shipping route, which has been plagued in recent months by attacks from increasingly dangerous and well-equipped Somali pirates. 
Pirates are holding at least six Russian citizens hostage, Prime-Tass reported earlier this month, citing sources in Kenya and Russia. 
In February, hijackers released the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, along with its crew and cargo of 33 tanks, for ransom after holding it for five months. The ship’s captain died of a suspected heart attack shortly after the seizure.
The Navy has joined other military powers in stepping up patrols in the region. Four Russian ships, including the Admiral Panteyev, were recently deployed to the waters off Somalia, each with a military team trained in anti-piracy tactics, Itar-Tass reported.

TITLE: Local Charity Event Raises Cash for City's Homeless
AUTHOR: By Alec Luhn
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A charity event held at the Peter and Paul Fortress on Saturday raised over 460,000 rubles for a St. Petersburg homeless shelter, according to event organizers.
Saturday’s International Jazz Benefit in the Atrium of the Peter and Paul Fortress attracted almost 200 guests and earned 460,743 rubles ($13,925) for the Nochlezhka organization, which runs St. Petersburg’s largest homeless shelter. This amount included 88,000 rubles in proceeds from ticket sales at the door and from the auction held during the event, said head organizer Jennifer Gaspar, the event coordinator for the International Women’s Club of St. Petersburg.
The women’s club, a social and charitable organization consisting mainly of expatriates, held the event in conjunction with the Russian charity Milost Foundation. Nochlezhka plans to use the funds for the renovation of its 50-bed shelter on Borovaya Ulitsa, which houses up to 200 people through the use of tents on the shelter grounds.
Guests danced to the music of three local jazz groups and sampled international cuisine and alcohol, which was donated courtesy of local consulates and businesses. Chefs from the U.S., British and Turkish consulates and the Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel were on hand to serve food and drink.
The IWC was pleased with the proceeds in light of the current economic climate, Gaspar said.
Several notable faces from St. Petersburg’s business and diplomatic communities attended the benefit, with several consuls general and the CEOs of local and international businesses. 
During the course of the night, event-goers bid on items up for auction, including a painting by American artist Matt Lamb that sold for 92,400 rubles ($2,790) and a St. Petersburg-Moscow cruise that went for 39,600 rubles ($1,195).
Gaspar said she hopes the IWC will make the benefit an annual event, with the funds going to support a different cause each year.
The management at the fortress was also pleased with the fundraiser and plan to host similar functions in the future, according to Vitaly Lissunov, the Department Director of the Peter and Paul Fortress Foundation, who also was in attendance.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Police On Alert</b>
ST PETERSBURG (SPT) — Police in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast has been put on a stepped-up regime for the May holidays, the Central Directorate of Internal Affairs announced Tuesday.
From April 27 to May 12, the central directorate will increase the number of its officers on duty in connection with the national holidays on May 1 and May 9, Interfax reported. Transport police have also begun patrolling in greater numbers as of Monday, with at least twice as many personnel on duty at all metro stations and on trains to the suburbs and farther destinations.
In addition, transport security officers, from the OMON special forces agency, some with dogs, will patrol various modes of transport during this period.
May 1, or May Day, is traditionally observed in Russia with political demonstrations and labor union activities. May 9, or Victory Day, honors the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 and traditionally features military parades, including the iconic parade on Red Square in Moscow.

TITLE: Progress Made on South Stream
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russia and Bulgaria bridged their differences over the planned South Stream pipeline after two days of intensive high-level diplomacy, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Bulgarian counterpart Sergei Stanishev said Tuesday. 
Putin also said Russia saw no point in continuing to be a signatory to the European Energy Charter after it failed to regulate Moscow’s dispute with Ukraine over transit to Europe in January. 
In addition, Moscow will also consider lending Sofia several billion euros to fund construction of a 4 billion euro ($5.2 billion) nuclear power plant in Bulgaria by a Russian company, Putin said. 
South Stream appeared to have consumed most of the diplomatic efforts during Stanishev’s visit, which saw two days of talks with Putin over the issue and a delay in meeting President Dmitry Medvedev. 
As a result of the deal, Russia dropped its intention to use Bulgaria’s existing pipelines to transit gas to Europe as part of South Stream, instead agreeing to consider other options, Putin and Stanishev said without naming them. Putin downplayed bilateral contentions in the matter. 
“How did we overcome the tensions?” he said, repeating a question from a Bulgarian reporter at a news conference, before adding, “With our inherent laid-back brilliance. It was easy. ... We didn’t even notice them. There were no tensions.” 
Stanishev was more reserved in his assessments. “It may not be with brilliance, but we are coping successfully,” he said at the same news conference. 
Under a contract running to 2030, Bulgaria now handles 17 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year, transporting most of it on to Greece, Turkey and Macedonia and keeping 3.5 bcm for domestic needs. 
South Stream, to be laid on the bottom of the Black Sea and to surface in Bulgaria, is planned to have an annual capacity of 31 bcm. Gazprom and partner Eni of Italy want to complete constructing the undersea stretch in 2013. 
Bulgaria insisted that Gazprom must build a new pipeline to carry South Stream’s gas, saying it needed the existing network to continue handling the current transit and remain available for any alternative supplies from projects such as Nabucco. 
Putin said further talks were needed on transiting gas in excess of the current amount. He suggested a solution during a Monday meeting with Stanishev, and they came to a preliminary agreement, Putin said. He did not elaborate on the nature of the deal. Stanishev said only that the agreement comprised all the points that Bulgaria had pressed for. 
Gazprom and the Bulgarian Energy Holding company will sign the deal by mid-May, the prime ministers said. 
Putin used the news conference to suggest again that Russia might withdraw from the European Energy Charter. “Today, it’s possible to say definitely and expressly that we don’t see a point in maintaining our signature under that document,” Putin said.

TITLE: Domain Owners Must Show Proof of Identity
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Internet regulators are cracking down on domain owners who publish illegal information on web sites by requiring them to provide their passports or another form of verifiable identification. 
The regulating body, the Coordination Center for TLD RU, will require people to provide a copy of their passport, driver’s license or work pass to the registrar, Ru-Center, coordination center spokeswoman Maria Mokina said Tuesday. 
The new rules are to be unveiled next month and may come into force in June, she said. 
“It will be easier to fight unscrupulous domain owners, and there will be fewer of those who would want to violate the law,” Ru-Center spokesman Andrei Vorobyov said. 
Ru-Center can already cancel the registration of a web site if it obtains proof that the personal information provided by the domain owner is false, a process that takes up to three months, Vorobyov said. 
Currently, “very many” domain owners provide false personal information to the registrar and then use their web sites to publish information that violates copyright laws or contains pornography, libelous information or other material that violates the law, Vorobyov said. 
Because domain owners don’t confirm their personal data, it is hard for police to track them down, he said. 
In one example, Vorobyov said, unidentified people registered the domain Yanclex.ru under false names in late 2007. 
They used the domain in order to gain access to the logins and passwords of Money.Yandex.ru users, profiting from the similarity between the Yanclex and Yandex names. 
The Interior Ministry’s department fighting Internet-related crimes has opened a criminal case on fraud charges, and the domain’s registration was canceled, but the fraudsters have not been found, Vorobyov said.

TITLE: Milk Prices Expected to Fall After Discounts Announced
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Milk prices are poised to tumble after one of the country’s top producers announced price reductions starting next week.
Unimilk, Russia’s second-biggest dairy producer, said it would lower prices for its upmarket Prostokvashino brand by 10 percent, and by 15 percent to 30 percent for the middle-market brands Letni Den and Selo Lugovoe.
The reductions would take effect after the May 1 holiday and would mainly affect basic products like drinking milk, cream and kefir, Unimilk said in a statement released late Monday.
Mikhail Krasnoperov, a retailing analyst with Troika Dialog, said Tuesday that the step was logical after prices for unprocessed milk have dropped since shooting up last year.
“Milk prices rose by 45 percent in 2007, but this year they have come down quite a bit,” he said, adding that they fell 10 percent in ruble terms.
Unimilk said the price cut was aimed at keeping its market share. “With declining incomes, customers more often choose cheaper goods,” company spokesman Pavel Isayev said.
Krasnoperov said high retail prices had recently led to a 6 percent reduction in the overall market volume.
It was unclear whether market leader Wimm-Bill-Dann would follow Unimilk’s example. Calls to the company’s spokespeople were not answered Tuesday.
Both companies control about 40 percent of the national dairy market and have high bargaining power over retailers, Krasnoperov said.

TITLE: Potash Producer Says Profits Rocketed 172% in 2008
AUTHOR: By Courtney Weaver
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Uralkali said Tuesday that 2008 profit rose 172 percent year on year to 21.9 billion rubles ($653 million), despite waning demand for its potash fertilizer in the fourth quarter. 
Revenue was up 113 percent to 62.8 billion rubles for the year, the company said in an e-mailed statement. Uralkali’s shares closed down 2.1 percent Tuesday afternoon on the MICEX, in line with the exchange’s 30-stock index. 
Uralkali, the country’s second-largest potash producer, paid 2.3 billion rubles to the Perm regional government on Thursday to reimburse the state for damage caused when a flood at Mine 1 caused a giant sinkhole. Of that sum, 1.8 billion rubles will be allocated to the federal government. 
The company said in its earning report that it had set aside 7.8 billion rubles for any future expenses related to the 2006 accident, including the 2.3 billion rubles to reimburse the government for resettling local residents. 
An additional 5.5 billion rubles has been put aside to help Russian Railways finance a railway bypass and the construction of a new 53-kilometer line. 
In November, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reopened an investigation into the mine collapse, prompting Uralkali to warn at the time that its “future existence is in doubt.” 
The company has revised its $3 billion project to build Mine 5 at Ust-Yaivinsky field and is instead in the process of linking it to Uralkali’s existing Mine 2, CEO Vladislav Baumgertner said on a conference call Tuesday evening. 
The company abandoned the first project on concerns that it would lose its license from the Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency. 
Uralkali will spend 5.2 billion rubles in expansion in 2009 and 5.5 billion rubles on maintenance, after capital expenditures rose 127 percent to 14.3 billion rubles last year, Baumgertner said. 
While the company enjoyed an “exceptionally favorable market environment” during the first three quarters of 2008, Uralkali was forced to reduce production by as much as 25 percent in the fourth quarter, he said. 
In first quarter, Uralkali operated at 35 percent, the capacity it needs to break even, he said. 
Uralkali currently has an option to extend its $420 million credit line by $500 million, which would allow the company to have a “strong position in negotiations with China and India” to set contract potash prices for 2009, chief financial officer Kuzma Marchuk said on the conference call. 
While India’s potash inventories have become very low, China has enough inventory for several months, making it less anxious to settle, said Oleg Petrov, head of sales of the Belarusian Potash Company, in which Uralkali controls a 50 percent stake. 
The three executives said the price of potash was facing heavy downward pressure as global farmers delay their purchase of the fertilizer, hoping that prices will drop further.

TITLE: Agalarov Wins Major APEC Project
AUTHOR: By Bela Lyauv and Yevgenia Pismennaya
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Aras Agalarov’s Crocus Group is going to build a university in Vladivostok for the 2012 APEC summit, and the state has pledged 284 billion rubles ($8.5 billion) in support for the undertaking, making it Russia’s second-largest construction site after the Sochi Olympics project. 
Crocus was selected as general contractor for the construction of the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island, two sources in the Cabinet told Vedomosti. The information was confirmed by Gennady Nikolayev, a spokesman for the far eastern branch of the government’s construction agency, which is overseeing all of the summit’s building projects.
Nikolayev said Crocus was presented as the contractor for the university during a Regional Development Ministry meeting on Wednesday, even though a government order had yet to be signed. The government chooses all contractors in a no-bid process for major projects for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, he said. 
“We were invited into the project and asked to join. It’s a difficult project, but we prefer difficult tasks: building on an island, massive proportions and tight schedules,” Agalarov, the group’s president and sole owner, told Vedomosti. He said the 500,000-square-meter development would be on a 200-hectare plot and was scheduled for completion in three years.
Initially, Agalarov was brought in as a consultant, but he offered to build the complex for less than planned by the Regional Development Ministry, a source in the government said. Under a state development project for the Far East and the Baikal region until 2013, 41.67 billion rubles is earmarked to build the university.
The university’s administrative and academic buildings (200,000 square meters) will be used as conference rooms and a press center during the summit, and hotels with a combined 5,500 rooms will be redesigned as apartments for teachers and students after the summit. Agalarov must finish the complex, which will also include parking, stadiums and a pool, by December 2011, Nikolayev said.
If the company begins work immediately, it should be able to finish on time, said Alexander Ortenber, general director of Strabag’s Russian unit. He said the size of the investment — about $2,500 per square meter — was “entirely justified,” since the contractor will be required to provide decorating and furniture. A general contractor can earn about 5 percent to 10 percent on such projects, Ortenberg said.
Agalarov has been in the real estate business for more than 10 years, and his main asset is the Crocus City Mall at the intersection of Volokolamskoye Shosse and the Moscow Ring Road. It includes Russia’s largest exhibition complex, Crocus Expo, the luxury goods mall Crocus City Mall and the Tvoi Dom hypermarket. The development is currently expanding: Agalarov’s expansion plans include 14 skyscrapers, a furniture center and a concert hall.

TITLE: Deripaska Returns His Stake in Strabag
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Strabag’s biggest shareholders will agree this week to take over Oleg Deripaska’s 25 percent stake in Central Europe’s biggest construction company. 
Raiffeisen Holding and Strabag chief executive Hans-Peter Haselsteiner will gain the holding from Deripaska, who will keep one share in the company and hold a call option on his stake until December 20, 2009, Raiffeisen chief executive Erwin Hameseder said Monday at a briefing in Vienna. Deripaska will remain a “partner” of Strabag for now, Hameseder said. 
“The Russian growth story has already gotten more than a few scratches in the past,” said Franz Hoerl, an analyst with Erste Group in Vienna with a “hold” rating on the stock. “The exit of Deripaska is still not positive news.” 
Deripaska two years ago agreed to buy a stake in Strabag to help the Austrian builder expand its business in Russia, which was set to become the company’s biggest single market. A falling stock price has forced him to either give up the stake or pledge more collateral on the loans that he used to purchase it. 
Deutsche Bank provided the original loans for the purchase, but Strabag’s other shareholders — Raiffeisen and the family of Haselsteiner — refinanced the loan last year.
Deripaska was granted an extension on his delinquent loan last month, when the shareholders gave him until April 3 to find a source of financing.
“We are confident that Deripaska will manage to consolidate his finances and make use of the call option,” Hameseder said at the briefing. If that doesn’t happen, the investors?may look for another partner, he said. 
Deripaska, once Russia’s richest man and the majority owner of aluminum producer United Company RusAl, has lost 88 percent of his fortune in the past year, according to Forbes magazine. He has surrendered his stakes in German builder Hochtief and Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International to lenders. RusAl owns a 8.95 percent stake in Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s biggest mining company, according to Bloomberg data.  
He is locked in sensitive debt restructuring talks with foreign creditors over $7.4 billion loaned to aluminum giant RusAl. RusAl has until early May to reach an agreement with bankers on restructuring terms.
Strabag shares peaked in November 2007 at 54.85 euros ($72.08), about two weeks after the company’s initial share sale, on prospects that growth in Russia will boost the company’s profits. 
The stock fell 63 percent over the past 12 months and closed at 15.73 euros in Vienna on Monday. 
Hans-Peter Haselsteiner’s family will hold about 32 percent of the company, while Raiffeisen and its affiliated Uniqa Versicherungen will each hold 21.5 percent, according to Hameseder.

(Bloomberg, Reuters, MT)

TITLE: Cyprus Tax Treaty Targets Developers
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Kazmin, Bela Lyauv and Daniil Zhelobanov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: A new double-taxation treaty between Russia and Cyprus includes a section that will make it more difficult for developers to use offshore firms to minimize their tax payments, according to a copy of the document.
Earlier this month, finance ministers from both countries agreed on a protocol that will alter the current bilateral agreement on double taxation. The main changes involve better information sharing between the countries’ finance ministries and help in collecting taxes, but several of the alterations will have a direct effect on the real estate market.
Developers typically register their projects as part of a separate firm so that it is easier to sell, said Alexander Zakharov, a partner at legal firm Center YuSB. As a rule, he said, those firms are registered offshore, frequently in Cyprus.
For example, 85 percent of Mosinzhstroi, which counts Okhotny Ryad among its projects, is controlled by the Cypriot-registered MIS Holding Limited, in which investment company A1 tried to purchase a controlling stake last year. When developers sell a property, they usually sell the shares in the company that controls the project as well, said Dmitry Shmelev, commercial director of Snegiri Development. If the share sale takes place in Cyprus, Zakharov said, it is a tax-free transaction, whereas in Russia a 20 percent profit tax would need to be paid after deducting the construction expenses. 
Changes to Article 13 of the agreement with Cyprus allow Russia to collect a profit tax on the sale of companies registered there if more than half of the firm’s assets are in Russian real estate. The main problem is being notified of such deals, a tax official said, adding that they had to hope that the Cypriots would start informing the Finance Ministry under the rules spelled out in the protocol. 
The result could be hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue. According to Colliers International, the 10 largest commercial real estate projects in Moscow last year alone were worth $2.72 billion. 
Knight Frank vice president Andre Zakrevsky said developers would face some difficulties, but by 2014, when the changes take effect, they will close their offshores in Cyprus and remove their assets?—?most likely into other offshores.  The Cypriots, however, likely demanded that Russia make similar changes in its agreements with the more than 60 other countries it has such treaties with, which is probably why the changes start from 2014, said Vladimir Gidirim, a partner at Deloitte. 
A Finance Ministry spokesman said the ministry was already working on additional protocols for its agreements with other countries to gain access to tax information. “With help from the Interior Ministry, we are working with Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and Malta,” he said. Lawmakers in both countries must still ratify the new Cyprus treaty.
The new agreement also strengthens oversight of revenue from property management, which will take effect sooner but no earlier than Jan. 1, 2010. Many properties are managed through closed investment funds whose shareholders are Cypriot-registered firms, Gidirim said, adding that such funds do not pay tax in Russia. 
Profit from such investment funds can be listed as “other income” of a Cypriot company, he said, meaning that under the current agreement, it is not taxed. After changes to Article 6 of the agreement, these payments will be subject to Russia’s 20 percent profit tax.

TITLE: The Mother of All Deals
AUTHOR: By Amitai Etzioni
TEXT: I arrived in Moscow from Washington highly optimistic, a day after the vigorous, historic handshake between Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in London on April 1. I left — after visits with officials and colleagues — more than a bit concerned. My optimism was not based on cheerful gestures such as pushing reset buttons, although such tone-setting steps have their place. I believed that a major deal between the two countries could be made, based not on identical or even complementary interests of Russia and the United States, but on profound differences in saliency.
Allow me to explain. When Party A has some things that Party B deeply desires but Party A does not care much about, and Party B has some things Party A keenly wants but Party B is not much invested in, a mother of all deals is plausible. The fact that this notion has some legs became clear when the Obama administration, which is far from invested in building a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic while Russia is rather troubled by it, offered, in effect, to trade it in. That is, to exchange it for Russia’s help in encouraging Iran to give up on its nuclear arms program. As the United States sees it, an Iran with nuclear bombs would gravely endanger the United States and U.S. allies — not just Israel, but also Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. Iran’s nuclear program is highly important for the United States, but at the same time Russia is also not interested in having a nuclear-armed Iran on its southern border, to put it mildly.
In addition, it seemed that another exchange could be built into the mother of all deals: The Obama administration’s interest in expanding the membership of NATO in the foreseeable future is quite apparent, but this issue matters a great deal to Russia. At the same time, the United States is very interested in accelerating the Nunn-Lugar programs that aim to neutralize fissile material from which terrorists can make nuclear bombs, and further improve the security of tactical nuclear arms. These are matters that Russia has little reason to oppose. Voila, the conditions of a major deal seem to be in place.
Why did I leave Moscow less optimistic than when I arrived? Both sides seem to have decided to pile on a large number of additional items, some of which have a rather different profile of needs and interests than those mentioned above, including items that gravely concern both sides — especially the quantity and quality of nuclear arms to be maintained. On top of that, Russia seems keenly interested in changes in trade and economic policy, such as the additional opening of U.S. markets to Russian products and membership in the World Trade Organization, an issue that is particularly difficult to deal with currently, given the recent tendency to increase rather than lower national barriers to trade. Half a dozen additional items have been raised, ranging from the incentives that Russia apparently provided to Kyrgyzstan that led it to close a major supply line for American troops in Afghanistan to helping Russia secure its “territorial integrity.” 
The escalation of ambitions and expectations is by no means one-sided. Obama’s trademark is thinking big and moving on many fronts at once. Up to a point, one cannot help but admire such a drive, not just to remake the United States internally, but also to build a new global architecture. A partnership with Russia is a key element in this new model. But such ambitions become problematic when they pay little mind to matters of relative importance and respective pace.
Thus, it is rather obvious that the more items that are thrown into the mix, the more complex the negotiations will become and the less likely they are to succeed, especially as they involve items of similar rather than different weight. Even more detrimental is the fact that some of these processes and policies have internal clocks that run at very different speeds.
This is especially true when one considers Iran’s nuclear program, which may well cross a red line within a year, while matters of trade or even those concerning the conflict in Afghanistan have a significantly longer trajectory. It would be much better to focus first on those items that have hard and short deadlines rather than mixing them up with those that do not. Finally, all items that require action by the U.S. Senate — such as approving treaties or changing Jackson-Vanik and other laws — must be assumed to face a slow journey, even with the Democratic majority.
I have not lost faith in the dawning of a new era in U.S.-Russian relations. I am especially encouraged to find mountains of goodwill (mixed with some residue of feelings of distrust). I just hope that matters that need to be and can be settled in short order will not be undermined by those that cannot and those that must be allowed time to be worked out.

Amitai Etzioni is professor of international relations at George Washington University. This comment appeared in Vedomosti.

TITLE: The Jason Bourne of Russia
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Last week, The Independent solved the mystery of the 2002 terrorist attack on the Dubrovka Theater. OK, maybe it wasn’t solved, but a few good hints were dropped. For the investigation, Shaun Walker, the newspaper’s correspondent, had to travel to the “quiet, provincial town of Zherdevka,” near Tambov, where “court proceedings began in April against five natives of the Caucasus and one ethnic Russian.” 
All six are charged with robbery. “But the Russian man on trial is no ordinary criminal,” writes Walker. “His name is Andrei Yakhnev, and until his arrest in 2008 he was a high-ranking operative in Russia’s secret war on terrorism.”
Walker then describes the biography of his hero. Yakhnev was the commander of the Vityaz unit that “was thrown into combat situations with Chechen rebels.” Next, he became an agent of the “T Center, one of the most secret [agencies] in Russia,” Walker writes. In short, Yakhnev was a Russian Jason Bourne in “the front lines of the battle against terrorism,” Walker writes. 
At this point, Walker weaves a lyrical line into his story. After the Dubrovka terrorist attack, Russian-born English actress and playwright Natalia Pelevine decided to write a play about the tragedy and met Yakhnev, who had participated in the storming of the theater, through a common acquaintance. 
In short, Pelevine and Yakhnev started seeing each other and were both swept away by fatal passion. He was a Russian secret agent and she a British playwright. He wanted to tell her the truth about the Dubrovka siege, but the bloody Moscow regime was ever vigilant. It seized our fearless hero and framed him to the court in Zherdevka.
“Why does Yakhnev sit in prison?” Walker writes. “Because of his relationship with Pelevine, because of the things he told her, because of his attempts to resist his secret puppeteers or simply because he knew too much.” 
Now let’s switch to a story told to me by acquaintances from Makhachkala 1 1/2 years ago, right after the robbery in Zherdevka. There was a major in Dagestan — a Russian, but who seemed just like someone from the Caucasus. He was always running around asking, “Do you need to have anyone killed?” Then the major happened to learn that three Dagestanis had gone to buy some wool and had taken 25 million rubles in cash with them.
The major grabbed a couple of bandits he knew and drove off to rob the Dagestanis. Everything went as they had planned. They took the money and shot their victims up a bit. But because they were riding in the major’s car, cameras at a gas station captured his license plate number.
The police set up a blockade and surrounded the major’s car. But he was carrying a card issued by the very highest authorities saying that neither he nor his vehicle could be searched or seized. The cops were in a quandary. On the one hand, this was a criminal’s car. On the other hand, he was officially an “untouchable” with such spotless credentials that nobody would risk crossing that line. 
In the end, the thieves were starved out of their car. Their Dagestani victims did not want to file a police report against them. “Nobody robbed us,” they said. “We won’t testify against them. Just hand them over to us.”
Alas, Russian life is no Jason Bourne film. Anyone could create a story line for a Bourne flick, but nobody could dream up the improbable but real drama of an “untouchable” FSB major, a British playwright and a secret intrigue, playing itself out in a city few have ever heard of. For that movie, Quentin Tarantino should play the lead. 

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

TITLE: Taking a stand
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The city’s central Bukvoyed bookstore was surrounded by the police on Monday, with several police vehicles parked on Ligovsky Prospekt and Ploshchad Vosstaniya, camouflaged OMON special-task officers waiting around the corner and a group of senior police officers picketing the entrance. 
The event that drew the police presence was not a political rally, but a poetry reading. The poet, who came to St. Petersburg to showcase his new anthology of poetry, was Eduard Limonov, who alongside former chess champion Garry Kasparov, is one of the Kremlin’s biggest irritants. The  impression created by the heavy police presence and Bukvoyed’s packed room was that poetry is important and, once again, dangerous.
“When I saw the OMON, I thought for a minute they had come to listen to my poems,” Limonov joked before starting to read. Eight members of the public — and Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP) — were arrested for no apparent reason as they were entering the bookstore, and eleven more were detained later that day after a group of NBP members went to Police Precinct 76 to find out what had become of their missing comrades.
“I think it should be attributed to the madness of the regional police authorities,” Limonov said in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times at a central coffee house on Wednesday, the third and final day of his visit, during which he also planned to meet local members of the NBP, take part in a discussion on “the tactics and strategy of the opposition during the economic crisis” and present his presidential program for the 2012 elections.
“Of course, it looked shocking to me as well,” he said. “It’s understandable when there are political protests — that’s not normal either, but maybe they’re afraid of some outbursts of emotion or whatever. But in this case it was a totally peaceful event. They’re madmen, what else is there to say? The authorities are already very afraid of simply my name and face, because there have been cases in which people in the provinces have been prosecuted for having my books or pamphlets in their possession under article 282 [of the Criminal Code], for extremism — on the basis of my name. At the same time, maybe that’s a good thing, because it suggests I am not insignificant as a politician.”
Limonov’s new book of poetry is called “Boy, Run!” (Malchik, Begi!) and is published by the St. Petersburg publisher Limbus Press. Limonov, 66, described it as a message to his two-year old son Bogdan, who was born on Nov. 7, 2006. 
“The dramatic story of my family is in there, among other poems,” Limonov said.
“We have two children now (although when I was writing the book, there was one, but nevertheless), I am not on the best terms with my wife, but this happens in the world pretty often. I blame my wife entirely, rather than myself. This book is written in order to get my son on my side, morally. 
“But that’s not the only reason. There are a lot of so-called ontological poems of a universal character, and a story of a family drama at the same time. There’s a photo of my son, who was wearing his older sister’s hat for some reason, on the front cover, and then there’s me wearing a hat and looking extremely evil on the back cover. No, not evil – rather sort of fiendishly content — smiling, laughing.” 
But Limonov couldn’t help touching on social and political issues in his recent poems.
“There’s a lot [of political poems in the book]. There are several poems about Natsbols (NBP members), it’s basically all the poems that I’ve written since my previous book of poems, from 2006 to 2008,” he said.
Limonov said he stopped writing poetry for a long time after he emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but resumed while he was in prison in Russia on charges of illegally purchasing firearms in the early 2000s.
“My first poetry work was in the late 1960s and early 1970s,” he said. 
“Then I didn’t write for a long time, when I moved abroad. There was one collection called ‘My Anti-Hero’ (Moi Otritsatelny Geroi) written abroad, but really I started writing again in prison, and after I got out of prison.”
At the packed Bukvoyed on Monday, the audience was predominantly young. Most appeared to be university students, and applauded vigorously after the poems were read.
“It means it’s interesting for them, and the book is dynamic, emotional and strong, in my view,” said Limonov.
“You can’t always evaluate your abilities concisely, but in this case it turned out to be an emotional, fast-moving book. The critics accused me of everything — from madness, to being graphomaniac and God knows what else. But in reality, poems like the ones I write are very difficult to write. 
“They only appear to be simple — people get deceived by exact rhymes, because they think that  exact rhymes are something very simple. In fact, it’s a great art to put completely unusual content into rhyme. I think it’s a very successful book in this sense.”
For those familiar with his prose, essays or speeches, the poems are unmistakably Limonov’s. “It’s my own particular vocabulary and stance. It’s a success — I never thought that I would be writing poems at my age and that they would be like this,” he said.
But the main reason for Limonov’s visit to St. Petersburg was not to present his poetry, but to declare his intention to run as an oppositional candidate in the 2012 presidential elections. 
“Why so early? To convince people that I am serious as a candidate and, first of all, to make the opposition realize that I am the most appropriate candidate at this historical phase,” Limonov said.
“I hope that during the next three years I’ll be able to silence the skeptics. Of course, I would not be allowed to present my presidential program at Bukvoyed, so we showcased the book of poetry.”
Limonov was asked to speak about literature rather than politics during his visit to the city — and not only at Bukvoyed.
“100TV channel kept calling [local NBP leader] Andrei Dmitriyev yesterday evening requesting that I refrain from talking about politics this evening. Apparently I have to talk about Gogol,” he said.
“It’s all fear of the authorities. They are scared of my personality. I am very happy about that, because it opens up great opportunities for me.”
During his visit to St. Petersburg, Limonov discovered that he was being closely followed by the police. Around 30 NBP activists were waiting to meet the politician at offices provided by the local branch of Kasparov’s United Civil Front (OGF), but he had to cancel the meeting due to the police surveillance. The activists were told to leave “in small groups,” so as not to attract the police’s attention and get arrested like on Monday.
“Yesterday, I was followed by lots of cars — we were jotting down their number plates — for many hours,” he said.
“Then we made a break. I was speaking on Radio Liberty, but afterwards, they started following us again — we spotted at least three cars. There was a car with police agents in front, a car behind, and one alongside us. I decided that I didn’t want to endanger the opposition activists and bring that crowd of agents there. The risk to me is the same in either case, but I didn’t think I had the right to put them at risk. So we were forced to cancel the meeting. Nevertheless, they didn’t leave us, and continued to follow us for hours.” 
A smaller meeting did however take place later in the evening. In Moscow, Limonov going outside does not put the police on panic alert, but he said he has always felt the attention of the police there too.
“It happens in Moscow, too, they are constantly eavesdropping on me — not only the telephones, but it’s most likely that my apartment is also bugged. I was visited by an American friend with a device for detecting bugs, and we found out that it’s located somewhere in the attic. There was always some knocking coming from there (I moved into this apartment recently) and I suggested that he stood on the chair and tested that area. And there was a horrifying crackle. But since after my first arrest, 34 tapes of my conversations were presented in court, I have every reason to insist that this is indisputably eavesdropping.”
Limonov, who was frequently described as an “extreme nationalist” in the 1990s but joined Kasparov’s United Civil Front to form the pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia in 2005, came with his presidential program, which claims that the first thing he would do if elected would be to restore democracy in Russia.
“I decided to take this step after I observed the presidential elections in 2008, when oppositional leaders failed miserably in the presidential campaign,” said Limonov. Former Soviet dissident and political prisoner Vladimir Bukovsky and former prime minister-turned oppositionist Mikhail Kasyanov ran for presidency in 2008, along with Kasparov.
“All of them tried, but none of them tried in a serious way, it was somehow lighthearted,” Limonov said.
“When you’re taking such a serious step as running for president, you have to be extremely serious, otherwise next time people will shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Why should we vote for a candidate who even didn’t try seriously?’ 
“For instance, Kasparov was denied a room in which to hold a meeting of his initiative group, 500 people, and he calmly announced on Dec. 13 without even speaking to us, his allies who were helping him, that he had been denied the room and so he had decided not to run. You don’t do things that way. It’s offensive to people, both to voters, and to those who worked for him, including us, because we were helping him to get elected as a single candidate —perhaps not only from the whole opposition, but from The Other Russia coalition. We made him our single candidate, we tried and we worked.”
Unlike Kasparov, Bukovsky did manage to hold a meeting of his initiative group. “But he didn’t even start to collect signatures, which is also neglectful,” Limonov said. Bukovsky was not allowed to run in the end on the grounds that he allegedly has a British passport and is therefore not qualified to under the Russian law.
“He simply didn’t take it any further,” Limonov said.
“You have to be determined to resist all these tricks. Tomorrow you’ll be told that you have to have all three buttons on your jacket, and if you lack one, you can’t become president. It’s absurd, complete absurd. There should not be things like that. I will be stubborn and determined, I have said we will press for registration even under a hail of bullets, because no pretext will work in my case.
“I’m a very well-known man, and if they don’t want to register even me, if they find a ‘missing button,’ I won’t tolerate that. We’ll be rioting, we have people. You simply have to have real determination that Kasparov and Bukovsky, as it turned out, lacked.
“Kasyanov went further, but the signatures he collected were declared false. They should have foreseen such a possibility. And Kasyanov started his election campaign  too late, just like Kasparov and Bukovsky. It was announced just over a month before the deadline. That’s no good, people have to know in advance, to weigh everything up, to make their choice in advance and decide whether they should help or not. I want to try and mobilize people, to convince them.”
Limonov believes he has the qualities to become the united opposition candidate for the Russian presidency.
“It’s not about me,” he said.
“I simply want to say to people, ‘See, every protest movement had a leader, and these movements were personified by their leaders — Solidarnosz in Poland had Lech Walesa, Czechoslovakia had Vaclav Havel. Havel is not the finest playwright in Czechoslovakia, and Walesa was not the most profound mind at that time. But they were deliberately selected and people stood by them. It’s like a flag. 
“A leader is like a flag, people gather around them. They should have overall merits, they might have some drawbacks too, of course, as Walesa had — these should be considered negligible, obviously. Power is personified; for eight years it was Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Now it’s personified by two people — this is also not bad, because people know who. They always say ‘Putin’ but they mean the whole system, the whole regime. The opposition should be personified, too.”
Limonov’s first task is to be recognized as a candidate by the opposition, including Solidarity, the democratic movement that Kasparov launched last year.
“Liberals have many leaders, they’re all highly intellectual, they have more access to the media, but what does ‘many leaders’ mean? They all argue with each other,” Limonov said.
“Kasparov came fifth after voting in the Solidarity movement when they were electing co-chairmen. I think [Boris] Nemtsov came first. But this is a narrow circle, not a country.”
Limonov, who described himself as “a democrat, but not liberal,” praised liberal politician Irina Khakamada who said she had left politics because “it’s not our time now.” He said liberals could only expect 12 percent of the vote in Russia, and that Nemtsov’s 13.5 percent in the recent Sochi mayoral elections was an absolute maximum.
“I’m not perfect, I’ll have to convince many, but from the results of past elections I have become convinced that as a person of rather left-wing views, as more of a people’s person than, say, Kasparov and Kasyanov, I have more chances than them, no doubt.”
“We thought for three years that Kasparov would be our leader, we wanted to promote him and actively helped him. But when we saw him wavering, making a lot of mistakes, that he had no determination — he stopped going to Dissenters’ Marches — it hurt our people a lot.”
As Limonov’s party was banned for “extremism” in 2007, he now officially goes as the chairman of The Other Russia’s executive committee. Despite his criticism of Kasparov, Limonov said that he was prepared to keep cooperating with him. But he admitted it was not the best time for The Other Russia.
“Kasparov’s interest has gone into Solidarity, which I consider an imprudent move,” he said.
“To leave a broad coalition for a narrow one is not rational, it’s not clever. But nevertheless, the overall energy and finances that Kasparov has — unlike us — they have all been rechanneled into Solidarity.
“It’s natural that The Other Russia should suffer from that. Yesterday I was informed that the OGF has decided not to participate in the May 24 meeting that we’ve been planning — we wanted to have a sort of Dissenters’ Meeting.”
Presidential elections differ from other elections, and their nature ensures that Limonov is in with a chance, he said.
“It’s the only place left where personality means something, because parliamentry elections are fully party elections, as the one-vote districts were cancelled,” Limonov said.
“My party has long been banned, but here there’s a chance to use the overall goodwill of people that I’ve managed to accumulate. I have opponents, but I believe that there is much more goodwill, and I can use it as capital.
“We should take advantage of my notoriety. Have we together spent an unimaginable number of years in prison in vain? Was all that suffering for nothing? 
“I’ll have to win people’s hearts. I’ve already won many, because by working with Kasparov, we showed that we are civil people, we didn’t try to get ahead of the rest.”
Despite the problems of The Other Russia, Limonov is positive.
“It’s bad in one sense, but it’s very good in another sense,” he said.
“We’ll stop creating endless organizations, and will try to unite under the flag of one man, one personality — in this case, under my name and under my flag. If there is another person, let there be another one, but for some reason I have become convinced that I’m stronger than my allies — even by seeing how the authorities are afraid of me.”

TITLE: Vive la France
AUTHOR: By Aimee Linekar
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: La Marseillaise promises a great deal: Authentic Provencale cuisine courtesy of a homesick Frenchman and his Russian business partners, quaint Riviera decor, ample space for the children to frolic after a hard day at the fairground, and a wine list comprehensive enough to humble a Rothschild. In short, not simply a restaurant, but an experience.
Perched on the edge of an (albeit high-class) construction site, the reality is a shade less romantic. La Marseillaise is, however, undeniably well put-together. From the light and airy walls to the blessedly quiet, but entirely authentic francophone easy-listening soundtrack, the display of provencal earthenware dishes and quintessentially Mediterranean tiled floor, the designers have clearly considered every detail. For the younger (or possibly lonelier) diner, some tables even come complete with an endearing teddy-bear escort.
The Frenchness of the whole affair was tainted only by the distinctly Petersburg-like view from the window and miniature ‘kulich’ — traditional Russian Easter cake; hardly cause for complaint — gracing each table.
According to the first three pages of the menu, devoted to the restaurant’s 7-month history and philosophy, La Marseillaise has already been around long enough to establish its own tradition of sorts: a nightly 7 p.m. rendition of its namesake. And this is not the only nice touch — many dishes come with their own wine recommendation (a glass will set you back from 250 to 430 rubles; $7.50 to $13), and any wine not on the menu — the management stresses any — can be ordered in advance.
We were pleasantly surprised by a complimentary gazpacho, an elegant affair with slivers of tricolor bell-peppers, neatly dished up in a cocktail glass, as we attempted to negotiate the comprehensive selection of soups (340 to 450 rubles; $10 to $13.50), salads (around 470 rubles; $14), pasta (400 to 450 rubles; $12 to $13.50), fish (around 750 rubles; $22.60) and meat dishes (650 to 870 rubles; $19.50 to $26.20). 
The quiche lorraine (250 rubles; $7.50) was moist, rich, oniony and creamy, and might well have served as a main course in itself; cream of celery soup with pancetta (360 rubles; $10.80, plus 150 rubles; $4.50 for bread) was also a voluptuous experience, though it could have been more equitably-priced. For the better-heeled client, there is also a particularly enticing starter of foie gras with Armagnac and walnuts (670 rubles; $20).
Your reviewers were both, alas, allergic to seafood, but this proved far less of a problem than it might have in Marseille itself thanks to La Marseillaise’s respectable selection of meat dishes. The pork medallions with white mushrooms and green pea puree (650 rubles; $19.50) proved that the erstwhile mushy pea need not limit itself to the fish and chip shop, and was as filling as it was elegantly presented. The lamb with ratatouille and fig sauce (850 rubles; $25.60), meanwhile, provided a glorious conjunction of sweet and sour. 
Dessert was a slightly over-sweet experience, with a tarte-tatin (170 rubles; $5.10) that might have benefitted from a little less sugar, a dash of lemon, and some genuine vanilla-pod ice-cream. The profiteroles (250 rubles; $7.50) were, however, perfectly decent with their home-made parfait and ample lashings of chocolate sauce.
Krestovsky Ostrov still has some way to go before it matches up to St. Tropez — but with its friendly staff, sophisticated ambience and satisfying cuisine, La Marseillaise might just make you believe, if only for a moment, that you’ve exchanged the Gulf of Finland for the French Riviera. Bon appetit!

TITLE: North Korea Threatens Nuclear, 
Missile Tests
AUTHOR: By Jae-Soon Chang
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Wednesday to conduct nuclear and missile tests unless the U.N. apologizes for criticizing its April 5 rocket launch, dramatically raising its stake in the worsening standoff over its atomic programs.
Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement the country “will be compelled to take additional self-defensive measures” unless the U.N. Security Council apologizes immediately. “The measures will include nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
The North’s ministry also said the country would build a light-water nuclear reactor and start developing technologies to produce nuclear fuel, a threat that experts said indicated the country would start enriching uranium — which can be used in the production of a nuclear bomb.
The current nuclear standoff flared in late 2002 after Washington raised allegations that Pyongyang had a clandestine nuclear program based on enriched uranium in addition to a separate one based on plutonium. The North has strongly denied the allegations.
North Korea is known for brinksmanship and harsh rhetoric, but it is unusual for it to threaten a nuclear test.
Pyongyang conducted its first-ever atomic test blast in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least half a dozen nuclear bombs. But experts have said the country is not believed to have mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile.
The U.N. Council adopted a statement this month denouncing the North’s April 5 rocket launch and calling for tightening sanctions. Pyongyang has claimed the rebuke is unfair because the liftoff was a peaceful satellite launch. But the U.S. and others believe it was a test of long-range missile technology.
Wednesday’s threat came days after the North said it had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex — a move aimed at harvesting weapons-grade plutonium. That announcement came hours after the U.N. blacklisted three North Korean companies.
The Security Council should apologize for infringing on the North’s sovereignty “withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative resolutions and decisions” against the North, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Later Wednesday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed “serious concerns” over the North’s threat, accusing the country of “directly challenging” the international community.
“We make it clear that the international responsibility for worsening the situation will be entirely on North Korea,” the ministry said in a statement.
Professor Kim Yong-hyun at Seoul’s Dongguk University said the North’s threat “appears to be rhetoric for now.”
“The North is trying to maximize the stakes as the United States keeps ignoring it,” he said.

TITLE: FC Barcelona Unhappy With English ‘Fair Play’
AUTHOR: By Tim Hanlon
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BARCELONA — Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola reacted angrily at what he saw as the referee’s leniency towards English side Chelsea’s physical approach in their 0-0 Champions League semi-final first leg match.
Chelsea went away with mission accomplished after they stood firm against a barrage from Barcelona at the Camp Nou and become the first side this season in the competition to stop Barca from scoring at home.
As expected Barca took the game to Chelsea and enjoyed the vast majority of the possession but they were unable to find a way through to goal for the first time at home this season in the competition.
Petr Cech made a couple of important blocks from Samuel Eto’o and substitute Alexandr Hleb but too often they were restricted to strikes from distance.
“It is difficult to play against a team which doesn’t want to play football,” stormed 37-year-old Guardiola, who has worked wonders with the side since replacing the sacked Frank Rijkaard for this season.
“It was a game in which Chelsea had five defenders and the ball was always Cech to (Didier) Drogba and then backwards and forwards again.
“The result was fair, though, because neither side scored but there is something wrong when we ended up with the same number of yellow cards as they did and yet they committed 20 fouls compared to seven,” added the former Barcelona and Spain playmaker.
Guardiola, who cleared out stars such as Deco and Ronaldinho last summer, believed that German star Michael Ballack was fortunate to have remained on the pitch.
“Chelsea played very physically and I thought it was scandalous that (Michael) Ballack did not receive a second yellow card for a foul on (Andres) Iniesta on the edge of the area,” said Guardiola.
“That is something you would expect in any normal game during the season and it is these small details which did not go our way which will end up deciding the tie.
“Referees need to take an overall look at games and if that had happened then he would have seen that we were not the team which was fouling and we were looking to play football.
“Anyone looking at the match will know there was only one team looking to attack, we were always looking for a goal but Chelsea are a good side who have been together for a long time and won trophies.
“We now have to go to Stamford Bridge, play the football we always play and try and win.”
The Barca players were similarly forthright with Xavi Hernandez complaining: “so that is what the English call fair play,” while Toure Yaya also hit out at Chelsea’s tackling.
“It was a difficult game and some of their tackles were outrageous while we would just touch a player and there would be a free-kick or a booking. We now have to go there (Stamford Bridge) and get a win, the tie is still not decided,” said Toure, who was one of those booked.
Barca were also dealt a blow with the news that centre-half Rafa Marquez is set to miss the rest of the season after picking up what appears to be a serious knee injury. His replacement Carles Puyol will also be absent from the return leg through suspension after accumulating his third yellow card.
Eto’o, who it has been denied is subject to a 40million pound bid from Manchester City, said that there was hope for Barcelona as playing at home Chelsea will now have to come out and attack.
“We had all the chances,” said the Cameroon marksman.
“I would imagine they won’t be able to play in the second leg like they did tonight by sitting back in their half.
“We will see how they are going to approach it. We will try and score the goal that we need to get us to the final.”
Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink, though, praised the character of his players for the way they stood firm and prevented Barca’s star-studded forward line from scoring.
“This was a good result but the tie is not decided yet and we have another very hard game ahead of us. It was not an easy match to play and we will have to improve in some areas for the next game but overall I am happy as we defended very well,” said Hiddink, who won the what was then the European Cup as coach of PSV Eindhoven in 1988.
“Barca keep the ball very well and so it meant we had to defend a lot but we defended very well and I have to praise (John) Terry for his courage. They put us under a lot of pressure but we never yielded and we managed to neutralize the threat from (Lionel) Messi.”

TITLE: Yankees Slash Seat Prices
AUTHOR: By Ronald Blum
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — Turns out a few more fans might be able to buy those empty front-row seats at Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees slashed prices on more than 40 percent of their front-row seats by up to 50 percent Tuesday and announced many of those who bought tickets closest to the field for $325-$2,500 will be eligible for additional free seats.
Those initiatives could help pack previously unfilled areas that were an eye sore on television broadcasts during the opening homestand at the $1.5 billion ballpark.
“There are a few hundred suite seats in our premium locations that have not been sold on a full season basis,” Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. “As a result, and for many of our fans who have already purchased full season suite seats in such premium locations, the Yankees are announcing today a program that adjusts certain prices and benefits.”
While most of the cheaper tickets in the second and third decks were sold for the opening six games, entire sections of cushioned blue seats with teak arm rests in the first nine rows in 25 sections went empty, areas that cost $500 and up. In addition, many of the non-premium seats between the bases, which cost $325 as part of season tickets and $375 individually, also went unfilled.
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who owns three $850 Legends Suite season tickets, was unhappy prices were cut only for those with front-row seats while others will be given additional tickets.
“If they’re offering only selective refunds, depend upon it: There are going to be lawsuits,” he said. “Great, more tickets nobody wants. The silver lining here is that even more charities are going to be getting even more tickets from me.”
The price of first-row season seats in nine sections of the Delta Sky360 Suite one deck up behind home plate was cut from $750 to $550.
Among the top non-premium seats in the lower deck, the Yankees announced a buy-three-get-one-free program for new $325-a-seat season tickets in the 15 sections between the bases.
Steinbrenner said the Yankees had sold 85 percent of their premium seats and 37,000 full-season equivalents, more than 3.4 million tickets in all. But it was apparent most of the unsold seats were closest to the field.
In response, the team cut the price of first-row Legends Suite seats in four sections on the outer half of the dugouts and photo cages from $2,500 to $1,250. 
In addition, seats in the first row in the final three sections down each foul line were slashed from $1,000 to $650. That affects 68 seats.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester, a frequent and vocal critic of the Yankees, said the reductions weren’t enough.
“It’s the public that built Yankee Stadium, and even at these prices, the public has been excluded from the very stadium they built,” Brodsky said. “It’s a continuing disaster.”

TITLE: Germany, Austria Confirm Swine Flu Cases
AUTHOR: By Patrick McGroarty
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BERLIN — Germany and Austria confirmed cases of swine flu Wednesday, becoming the third and fourth European countries hit by the disease. As the United States reported the first swine flu death outside of Mexico, the World Health Organization called an emergency meeting to consider its pandemic alert level.
Germany confirmed three swine flu cases and Austria one, while the number of confirmed cases rose to four in Spain and five in Britain.
Swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there. WHO has confirmed at least 105 cases in seven countries. Over half of those — 66 — are in the United States and U.S. health officials reported Wednesday that 23-month-old child in Texas has died from the disease.
In Geneva, WHO was convening its emergency committee Wednesday to discuss, among other things, the current pandemic alert level. It now stands at phase 4, two levels below the threshold for a full pandemic outbreak.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agency’s director-general Margaret Chan “has seen a jump in cases and she wants to have that evaluated by the outside experts.”
He says that does not automatically mean there will be a change in the pandemic alert level.
This comes in addition to a WHO scientific review meeting Wednesday to determine exactly what is known about how the disease spreads, how it affects human health and how it can be treated. Experts will take part via telephone from the United States, Mexico and other affected countries.
Dr. Nikki Shindo, a WHO flu expert, said the review will focus particularly on a large trove of data coming from Mexico, believed to be the epicenter of the virus, and from a school in New York City that has been hard-hit by the outbreak.
Germany’s national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said the country’s three cases include a 22-year-old woman hospitalized in Hamburg, a man in his late 30s being treated at a hospital in Regensburg, north of Munich, and a 37-year-old woman from another Bavarian town. All three had recently returned from Mexico.
Austria’s health ministry said a 28-year-old woman who recently returned from a month-long trip to Guatemala via Mexico City and Miami has the virus but is recovering.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said health officials were ordering extra medicine and “several million more” face masks to deal with the virus.
“We’ve decided to build stocks of anti-virals, from 35 million to 50 million,” Brown said, adding that the government had put in enhanced airport checks and was preparing to mail swine flu information leaflets to every household in Britain.
In addition to a couple in Scotland who got swine flu on their honeymoon in Mexico, new British cases confirmed Wednesday included a 12-year-old girl in the southwest English town of Torbay. Brown said her school had been closed as a precaution.
He said the other two cases were adults in London and in the English city of Birmingham. All three had visited Mexico, were receiving anti-viral drugs and were responding well to treatment, Brown said.
Media report said the U.K. was seeking up to 32 million extra masks.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Cabinet ministers to discuss swine flu and Minister of Health Roselyne Bachelot said France will ask the European Union to suspend flights to Mexico. She said flights from Mexico can continue.
The U.S., the European Union, and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico, Cuba has banned flights to and from Mexico and Argentina has suspended flights arriving from Mexico.
New Zealand’s number of cases rose to 14, 13 of whom were among a school group that recently returned from Mexico. Officials say the swine flu strain infecting the students is the same as that in Mexico. All were responding well to treatment with antiviral drugs and in voluntary quarantine at home.
New Zealand has 44 other possible cases, with tests under way.
Mexico was taking drastic measures to fight the outbreak. It has closed all archaeological sites and allowed restaurants in the capital to only serve take-out food in an aggressive bid to stop gatherings where the virus can spread.

TITLE: 27 Suspects Go On Trial For Murder Of Jew in France
AUTHOR: By Pierre-Antoine Souchard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — The presumed leader of a group of 27 young people charged with participating in the torture and killing of a young French Jew took his seat in juvenile court Wednesday with the defiant declaration, “Allah will be victorious.”
The 23-year-old victim, Ilan Halimi was found naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris on Feb. 13, 2006. He died on the way to the hospital after being held captive for more than three weeks.
Youssouf Fofana, 28-year-old presumed leader of a group of 10 young women and 17 young men, stands accused of a crime that shocked the nation. He is charged with premeditated murder, demanding ransom, and acts of torture and barbarism, and faces a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
He smiled as he took his seat in court and said, “Allah will be victorious.”
After the opening, the judge ordered the trial be held behind closed doors, with the public and media excluded, as some of the accused were minors at the time of the crime.

TITLE: Athletes Stripped of Medals Following Tests
AUTHOR: By Eddie Pells
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Add the Beijing Games to that growing list of Olympics where winners and losers are still being sorted out long after the torch goes dark.
The reason is familiar: Doping.
This time, the International Olympic Committee caught six athletes after retesting their Beijing blood samples for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting hormone EPO.
Among those caught Tuesday were three track and field athletes, two cyclists and one weightlifter, a person familiar with the results told The Associated Press.
The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the names haven’t been released by the IOC, said a male track and field athlete who won only one gold medal was one of the athletes. The other medalist was in cycling.
The IOC did not identify the athletes or sports involved, saying it was notifying the competitors through their national Olympic committees.
But once the names come out, the appeals are over and final judgement is handed down, it’s a good bet we’ll see some redistribution of medals. Olympic fans should be used to that by now. The Sydney Games have been over for almost a decade, and medals involving teammates of Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery are still in limbo.
The World Anti-Doping Agency welcomed the IOC findings. Under the WADA code, athletes can be disciplined up to eight years from the date of a doping violation.
“We suggest that athletes who may be tempted to cheat keep this reality in mind,” WADA president John Fahey said. “We believe that retrospective testing serves as a strong deterrent.”
The Italian Olympic Committee confirmed Wednesday that Olympic cycling silver medalist Davide Rebellin was one of the athletes who tested positive. CONI said it has suspended Rebellin and its anti-doping prosecutor has opened an investigation.
In an interview with an Italian daily on Wednesday, Rebellin rejected the doping accusations, saying the result was “certainly a mistake.”
The Bahrain Olympic Committee also said Wednesday that 1,500-meter gold medalist Rashid Ramzi tested positive.
It appears no Americans will get caught up in the CERA retests.
U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation hadn’t received notification from the IOC of any adverse findings involving a U.S. athlete.
“Unless we hear otherwise, we are treating no news as good news,” Seibel said.
The IOC reanalyzed a total of 948 samples from Beijing after new lab tests for CERA and insulin became available following the Olympics. The testing began in January and focused mainly on endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.
“The further analysis of the Beijing samples that we conducted should send a clear message that cheats can never assume that they have avoided detection,” said Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC medical commission.

TITLE: Armstrong Back In The Game
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT:  LOS ANGELES — Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will return to competition at this week’s Tour of the Gila in New Mexico after recovering from collarbone surgery, race organizers said Tuesday.
The 37-year-old American, who broke his collarbone in four places during the first stage of Spain’s Vuelta Castilla y Leon last month, will compete with Astana team mates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner.
In a statement released by Astana, Armstrong said: “I’m excited to get back to competitive racing. The recovery training has been going well but nothing compares to getting back into the bunch and racing.”
Armstrong, who had a stainless steel plate and 12 screws inserted to stabilize his fractured right collarbone a month ago, was given the go-ahead to compete this week after USA Cycling reached an agreement with the UCI.

TITLE: Taliban Kidnap Dozens of Security Forces
AUTHOR: By Munir Ahmad
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ISLAMABAD — Pakistani airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban fighters in a fierce struggle to drive them from a district near the capital, while the militants took over police stations and kidnapped more than 50 security forces, the army said.
One member of the security forces also died in the fighting, the top military spokesman said.
Pakistan is acting under intense U.S. pressure to take a tougher line against Islamist militants expanding from strongholds along the Afghan border, where al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden may also be hiding.
In recent days, government forces have begun trying to force the Taliban back into the Swat Valley, from where they had pushed out in the direction of an increasingly nervy Islamabad under the cover of a controversial peace process.
Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said helicopters inserted commandos into the main town in Buner, a once-peaceful farming region in the northwest, on Wednesday morning just as ground troops fought their way in from three directions.
Militants were putting up stiff resistance and detonated three roadside bombs near the Ambela Pass, a key gateway to the mountainous region. Three more troops were injured, he said.
After warplanes carried out airstrikes late Tuesday, attack helicopters engaged “miscreants” and killed more than 50, Abbas said at a news conference in Rawalpindi, a garrison city south of Islamabad.
Rather than fleeing, militants seized three police stations in the north of Buner on Tuesday and kidnapped 70 police and paramilitary troops, he said. Eighteen of the troops were “recovered” on Wednesday, he said giving few other details.
Security forces prevented some reporters from entering the area and telephone services were interrupted, making it hard to verify the army’s account of the fighting.
The Taliban advance into Buner brought them to within 60 miles (100 kilometers) of the capital, Islamabad, raising concern about the stability of the nuclear-armed country. The army also says troops have killed scores of militants in recent fighting in Lower Dir, another area neighboring Swat.
Both lie within Malakand, the region covered by the government’s much-criticized peace deal. Officials agreed to impose Islamic law in return for peace in a region devastated by two years of bloody fighting.
Pakistani officials said the Islamic law concession robbed the militants of any justification for retaining their arms. They insist they will use force against militants who defy the government.
But officials in Washington, which is propping up Pakistan’s army with billions of dollars and worrying about the rising insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan, have slammed the peace process as a surrender and welcomed the resumption of military action.
The Pakistani offensives are “exactly the appropriate response” to the Taliban advance, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday.
“We are hopeful and encouraging of the Pakistani military that they are able to sustain these operations against the militants and to stem this encroachment on the more populated areas of Pakistan.”
The Obama administration has an opportunity to reiterate that demand when Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari joins his Afghan counterpart in Washington for talks next week.
Pakistan has waged several offensives in the border region since turning against its former Taliban allies and allying with the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
But the operations resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the flight of hundreds of thousands of others, and were often halted by short-lived peace deals from which militants emerged stronger than before.
Amnesty International estimated Wednesday that at least 33,000 civilians have fled their homes to avoid the recent clashes in Lower Dir alone.