SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1486 (48), Friday, June 26, 2009
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TITLE: Dovgy Found Guilty After Traffic Police Stop Juror
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Former senior investigator Dmitry Dovgy might have left the court a free man Wednesday if juror No. 10 hadn’t been stopped by the traffic police on her way to the courthouse. 
Dovgy — a former top official with the Investigative Committee whose legal troubles are believed to be part of a bitter power struggle between political clans — was convicted of bribery and abuse of office by a split jury in the Moscow City Court. 
Dovgy looked down at his notes without expression as the jury announced its verdict. 
“Dmitry Dovgy was prepared for such an outcome,” his lawyer Yury Bagrayev said in a sad voice outside the courtroom. 
The trial started with a delay Wednesday morning because one of the jurors did not arrive in time. Juror No. 10, Yelena Zharkova, was detained by a traffic police officer for about 40 minutes as he insisted on checking whether she was driving a stolen car, Zharkova said. 
Traffic police rarely perform stolen vehicle checks when stopping drivers to examine their documents. 
Zharkova, who showed up at the court after the judge had already replaced her with a reserve juror, angrily told reporters that she had shown the traffic police officer a document that grants jurors special status on par with federal judges, but he had ignored it. 
Defense lawyer Robert Zinovyev said the traffic police incident was suspicious. “No policeman should have been able to hold her up for so long, because she had the status of a federal judge,” he told reporters after the conviction. 
It took the 12-member jury about three hours to rule on 10 questions formed by the court. The jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision; by law, only a majority is needed to reach a verdict. But Judge Dmitry Fomin ordered them not to reveal how they had voted, leaving it unclear whether Zharkova’s vote might have saved Dovgy from being convicted. 
Defense lawyers said they believed that Zharkova would have voted for Dovgy’s acquittal. 
The juror who replaced Zharkova was the last available member of the four-person reserve. The other three backup jurors had already been called in to replace original jurors who had left for various reasons. 
Unusual jury activity has raised red flags with defense lawyers in other cases. Three jurors were removed and charged with wrongdoing — including one with public drinking — during the high-profile trial of banker Alexei Frenkel last year in the Moscow City Court. Frenkel’s lawyers denounced the charges as a prosecution ploy to tip the jury in its favor, and the modified jury later convicted Frenkel of ordering the 2006 murder of central banker Andrei Kozlov. 
The jury on Wednesday convicted Dovgy of accepting a bribe of 750,000 euros from businessman Rustam Valitov in exchange for halting an investigation into whether Valitov embezzled 1.2 million tons of oil from the Tomskneft oil firm in 2005 and 2006. 
The jury also convicted a former official from the Military Prosecutor’s Office, Andrei Sagura, of acting as Dovgy’s accomplice in passing the money from Valitov to Dovgy. 
The jury ruled that Dovgy deserves leniency during sentencing Thursday but that Sagura does not. 
Without leniency, Dovgy faces up to 12 years in prison. 
Both defendants have maintained their innocence during the two-month trial. 
The two men sat quietly in the steel-and-glass defendant’s cage Wednesday as the judge monotonously read his closing remarks. Dovgy nervously made notes, while Sagura looked down at the floor and then up at his wife sitting a meter away and wiping tears from her eyes. 
When the verdict was announced three hours later, relatives left the courtroom in tears. 
“Of course we had hoped for the best until the end,” said Bagrayev, the defense lawyer. “There is actually no evidence in the case against them.” 
Dovgy, the former head of the Investigative Committee’s main investigative directorate, has said the charges are an act of revenge by former colleagues. 
Dovgy was suspended from his job in March 2008 after being accused of demanding bribes in exchange for closing two criminal cases. He was dismissed the next month for purportedly disclosing confidential information to the media about the investigation into the murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya. 
When he was fired, Dovgy accused his former boss, Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin, of opening high-profile criminal cases with little regard for the law. He said Bastrykin had forced him to open criminal cases against Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and senior Federal Drug Control Service officer Alexander Bulbov, whom he said were innocent. 
Dovgy was arrested two months after he was fired. Bastrykin still has his job, and testified against Dovgy during the trial. 
The trial is seen as an outgrowth of a larger power struggle between political clans. Since its creation in 2007, the Investigative Committee has accumulated powers to open and conduct investigations, and it has routinely refused to carry out orders from the prosecutor general. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutor general has ultimate authority over the Investigative Committee. 
Prosecutor Maria Semenenko said Wednesday that the prosecution was “fully satisfied with the jury’s decision.” She refused to take any other questions from reporters. 
“I have been completely assured that there is no justice in Russia,” said State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein, who attended the trial on Wednesday and is a muckraking reporter for Moskovsky Komsomolets. He first reported Dovgy’s allegations against Bastrykin.

TITLE: St. Petersburg Plays Host to Naval Salon
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: More than 350 firms from 28 countries have been participating in the Fourth International Naval Salon that opened in St. Petersburg this Wednesday, and is set to run through Sunday 28th.
Exhibitors include well-known Russian firms such as United Shipbuilding Corporation, Rosoboronexport, Baltiisky Zavod marine engineers, Northern Wharf, Admiralteisky Wharfs, and the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering. Companies from the Netherlands, India, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, and France are also participating in the salon.
The exposition covers all aspects of shipbuilding and naval weapons manufacture, from propulsion system construction to naval aviation, navigation systems, hi-tech materials and the latest technologies.
The show includes Russian and foreign vessels, two displays by the famed Russian formation flying team Russkiye Vityazi, and shelling demonstrations at the Rzhevka firing range. At the city’s Sea Terminal, visitors will be able to see Russian Navy ships, the British frigate St. Albans, the Spanish anti-torpedo ship Turia and French minesweepers Sagittaire and Pegase.
Competitors will race for the Salon Prize at the sailing regatta taking place in parallel with the show.
The salon also includes four international scientific conferences dedicated to shipbuilding.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov explained that in recent years, the St .Petersburg Salon has made its name as one of the biggest events of its kind in the world.
“The [St. Petersburg] salon is now one of the three major world navy salons,” Ivanov said at the opening ceremony, Interfax reported.
Vladimir Vysotsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, said on Wednesday that in 2010-2011, the Russian Navy will be ready to present samples of new naval equipment at international exhibitions.
 “I hope that 2011 will be a turning point and that we’ll be able to show something that we haven’t ever exhibited before,” Vysotsky said.
Vysotsky added that Russia plans to build aircraft carriers using new technologies that will form the backbone of “naval aviation complexes”.
 “The Russian Navy’s plan envisages the construction of new aircraft carriers, but rather than simply carrying jets, they should form the basis of whole naval complexes integrating space, aviation and navy components,” Vysotsky said, Interfax reported.
Vysotsky said that the Russian Navy is currently at “the very beginning of the process of creating a new image for the Russian fleet.”
Meanwhile, according to a press release from Rosoboronexport, the state company that produces military equipment for export, analysis of the foreign market reveals that up to 40 brand-new Russian submarines could be sold worldwide by 2015, RIA Novosti reported.
 “The export potential of Russia in this sector is very high thanks to project 636 and Amur-1650 submarines equipped with the Club-S integrated rocket system,” the press release stated.
 “These fourth-generation diesel submarines have a long range, good battle capabilities, and high maximum speed, and so they are generating a lot of interest from potential foreign buyers,” said Rosoboronexport.

TITLE: Festival of Festivals Brings Indian Touch to City's Screens
AUTHOR: By Alec Luhn
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Festival of Festivals, as the St. Petersburg International Film Festival is known, opened earlier this week, bringing together old and new in a cinematic combination that will entertain film fans through Sunday. 
The harmony of past and present was exemplified at Tuesday’s opening ceremony, which began with a Charlie Chaplin silent film, continued with Gene Kelly in the title scene from the 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain” (set during Hollywood’s transition from silent films to sound), and concluded with French director Fran?ois Ozon’s new, dramatic attempt at magical realism, “Ricky.”
Asked what’s new about the 17th annual Festival of Festivals, director Alexander Mamontov glibly replied, “100 new films.” But he also admitted that besides its usual 100 to 120 cutting-edge films, this year’s festival includes a unique retrospective program of foreign cinema.  Whereas last year’s event featured a retrospective of Irish films, the latest incarnation showcases past highlights of Czech, Montenegrin and, for the first time in the festival’s history, Indian cinema.  
In addition to the retrospectives, the film fest includes new movies from around the world within the smaller programs “Festival of Israeli Cinema,” “Day of Norwegian Cinema,” “St. Petersburg – Hamburg: Sister Cities” and “A Week of French Cinema,” which counts “Ricky” among its number.
Organizers of the Festival of Festivals typically draw up a roster of prize-winning films from other international film fests, such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Moscow International Film Festival. With few exceptions, all films at the St. Petersburg event have participated in well-known festivals.
“The main goal is to show good pictures, the best of European cinema,” Mamontov said. 
“The concept is that we take prize-winning films and introduce them to the St. Petersburg audience,” he added.
The Festival of Festivals will itself award further decorations, including prizes for best debut film, best actor/actress/director, best staging of a literary work, and best film, as determined by the ratings of viewers and participants in the festival.
Despite the gathering’s traditionally European focus, the main theme of this year’s event is Indian cinema, with the retrospective of Indian movies timed to coincide with the Year of India in Russia, Mamontov said.
In another example of old-meets-new, Indian Consul General in St. Petersburg Radhika Lokesh noted in her introductory comments Tuesday that the program of Indian film reflects the current importance of Bollywood, the largest film industry in the world, while also continuing a tradition of Indian cinema in Russia that dates to Soviet times. 
The five Indian films on the schedule, which include the 2007 drama “Stars on Earth,” directed by and starring Bollywood favorite Aamir Khan, are meant to show a “kaleidoscopic view of India and what it means today,” said Lokesh.
The Indian film director Madhur Bhandarkar, whose latest film “Fashion” shows at Dom Kino on Friday, was in town this week to take part in the festival. In an interview with The St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday, Bhandarkar, whose films have all won awards in India and include “Chandny Bar,” “Page 3” and “Corporate,” said he hoped “Fashion” would be as successful in St. Petersburg as it was when it was shown in Moscow recently.
“The film played to a packed house and got a standing ovation,” he said. “I’m sure people here will like the film too, because it’s about the fashion industry and the modeling world in India, how the models struggle to survive, and the competition among the girls. People all over the world have loved it, and I’m sure St. Petersburg will be no exception.”
Bhandarkar is known for his gritty, realistic films. “My films all have social elements,” he said. “They’re all very real, they’re about human emotions.”
For the director, the Festival of Festivals was a chance to fulfill a childhood dream. “It has been my dream to come to St. Petersburg ever since I was a child,” he said. “I’m very happy and proud that I’m here. I love the people — they’re so hospitable,” he said.
Of course, the Festival of Festivals wouldn’t deserve such a title without the best and brightest of Russian cinema, and the 2009 event features a program of eight Russian films produced in 2008 to 2009.  This grouping includes renowned Russian director Alexander Proshkin’s son, Andrei, and his 2009 sport drama “Minnesota,” which tells the story of a hockey player from a provincial Russian town who is invited to play in the U.S. state of Minnesota.
Mamontov said that in terms of Russian themes in this year’s festival, he expects the most out of a Czech/Polish production of “The Brothers Karamazov” — director Petr Zelenka’s “The Karamozovs.”
“It’s based on a novel by Dostoevsky, so the subject matter will be well-known to Petersburgers … for St. Petersburg, it’s a theme that’s close to the heart,” Mamontov said. Dostoevsky spent much of his adult life in St. Petersburg and set many of his works, including “Crime and Punishment,” in the city.
To complete its already eclectic cast of films, the festival also comprises a competition for short films by new directors, a sampling of notable children’s cinema and a showcase of German director Alexander Kluge’s body of work.
Although the organizers have not developed any concrete plans for next year’s festival, Mamontov does not doubt that the festival will continue to move beyond its initially humble beginnings in 1993, when it was started as an alternative to American film-festival rejects that were being shown in Russian movie theaters at the time. 
“Americans were selling us fifth-grade films to show in theaters,” Mamontov explained. “We wanted to show better European cinema.”
***The International Film Festival of St. Petersburg runs through Monday at Dom Kino, Rodina cinema, the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center, and the Kaskad Cultural Center in Petrodvorets. Festival news and schedule can be found at filmfest.ru.
Organizers of the Festival of Festivals typically draw up a roster of prize-winning films from other international film fests, such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Moscow International Film Festival. With few exceptions, all films at the St. Petersburg event have participated in well-known festivals.
“The main goal is to show good pictures, the best of European cinema,” Mamontov said. 
“The concept is that we take prize-winning films and introduce them to the St. Petersburg audience,” he added.
The Festival of Festivals will itself award further decorations, including prizes for best debut film, best actor/actress/director, best staging of a literary work, and best film, as determined by the ratings of viewers and participants in the festival.
Despite the gathering’s traditionally European focus, the main theme of this year’s event is Indian cinema, with the retrospective of Indian movies timed to coincide with the Year of India in Russia, Mamontov said.
In another example of old-meets-new, Indian Consul General in St. Petersburg Radhika Lokesh noted in her introductory comments Tuesday that the program of Indian film reflects the current importance of Bollywood, the largest film industry in the world, while also continuing a tradition of Indian cinema in Russia that dates to Soviet times. 
The five Indian films on the schedule, which include the 2007 drama “Stars on Earth,” directed by and starring Bollywood favorite Aamir Khan, are meant to show a “kaleidoscopic view of India and what it means today,” said Lokesh.
The Indian film director Madhur Bhandarkar, whose latest film “Fashion” shows at Dom Kino on Friday, was in town this week to take part in the festival. In an interview with The St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday, Bhandarkar, whose films have all won awards in India and include “Chandny Bar,” “Page 3” and “Corporate,” said he hoped “Fashion” would be as successful in St. Petersburg as it was when it was shown in Moscow recently.
“The film played to a packed house and got a standing ovation,” he said. “I’m sure people here will like the film too, because it’s about the fashion industry and the modeling world in India, how the models struggle to survive, and the competition among the girls. People all over the world have loved it, and I’m sure St. Petersburg will be no exception.”
Bhandarkar is known for his gritty, realistic films. “My films all have social elements,” he said. “They’re all very real, they’re about human emotions.”
For the director, the Festival of Festivals was a chance to fulfill a childhood dream. “It has been my dream to come to St. Petersburg ever since I was a child,” he said. “I’m very happy and proud that I’m here. I love the people — they’re so hospitable,” he said.
Of course, the Festival of Festivals wouldn’t deserve such a lofty title without the best and brightest of Russian cinema, and the 2009 event features a program of eight Russian films produced in 2008 to 2009.  This grouping includes renowned Russian director Alexander Proshkin’s son, Andrei, and his 2009 sport drama “Minnesota,” which tells the story of a hockey player from a provincial Russian town who is invited to play in the U.S. state of Minnesota.
Mamontov said that in terms of Russian themes in this year’s festival, he expects the most out of a Czech/Polish production of “The Brothers Karamazov” — director Petr Zelenka’s “The Karamozovs.”
“It’s based on a novel by Dostoevsky, so the subject matter will be well-known to Petersburgers … for St. Petersburg, it’s a theme that’s close to the heart,” Mamontov said. Dostoevsky spent much of his adult life in St. Petersburg and set many of his works, including “Crime and Punishment,” in the city.
To complete its already eclectic cast of films, the festival also comprises a competition for short films by new directors, a sampling of notable children’s cinema and a showcase of German director Alexander Kluge’s body of work.
Although the organizers have not developed any concrete plans for next year’s festival, Mamontov does not doubt that the festival will continue to move beyond its initially humble beginnings in 1993, when it was started as an alternative to American film-festival rejects that were being shown in Russian movie theaters at the time. 
“Americans were selling us fifth-grade films to show in theaters,” Mamontov explained. “We wanted to show better European cinema.”

The Festival of Festivals runs through Monday at Dom Kino, Rodina cinema, the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Art Center and the Kaskad Cultural Center in Petrodvorets. For full schedules and information about the films, visit      www.filmfest.ru.

TITLE: 109 Casinos to Shut, Over 10,000 Lose Jobs
AUTHOR: By Alec Luhn
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: All 109 of St. Petersburg’s casinos will be closed starting July 1 as a ban on gambling comes into force, leaving over 10,000 employees without work.
According to estimates from City Hall, 10,000 to 12,000 people in St. Petersburg work in the gaming industry, all of whom will become unemployed under the new rules, said Lidiya Mamon, the head of the Office of Government-Regulated Aspects of the Committee on Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade, Interfax reported Thursday. In addition, 127,000 square meters of retail space occupied by the casinos will become vacant, and the city will lose 3.5 million rubles ($112,000) in tax revenues, Mamon said.
The gaming law, which then-President Vladimir Putin signed on December 30, 2006, restricts all gaming activity to four zones located in remote parts of Russia: the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, the Caucasus, the Pacific coast and southwestern Siberia. The restrictions go into effect on July 1, although the head regulator of Russia’s special economic zones said Thursday that the country will not be able to open the gaming zones in less than four to five years, RIA Novosti reported.
The city will compensate for the loss in tax revenues, which amounts to one percent of the city budget, by allocating the space formerly occupied by gaming venues to various retailers, Mamon said. Some of the casino owners have already been informed of the conversion of their establishments into restaurants or other retail and service-related businesses, she added.
As for the over 10,000 casino workers who will lose their jobs, Mamon said she hoped some will find new employment in their former place of work, while the rest will be able to appeal to government employment services for assistance.
In order to prevent circumvention of the new rules by renaming or remodeling gaming establishments, the St. Petersburg branches of the federal tax service and the Main Department of Internal Affairs will conduct monitoring to ensure that all “lottery technology” conforms to existing laws, Mamon said.

TITLE: Audi Steps Up a Gear on Petrograd Side
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Audi opened its biggest dealership in Russia, Audi Center Petrogradsky, in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
The new car showroom opened in the city center next to the company’s previous premises, Rus Auto, at Prospekt Medikov 8.
The showroom covers 11,000 square meters, making it four times bigger than the previous center. Construction began on the center in May 2007, requiring $35 million in investment.
The entire Audi line, including exclusive models, will be on display at the center, which has a two-story showroom, service area, and storage facilities for cars and manufactured parts, as well as a children’s area and two large underground and above-ground car parks.
“Unfortunately, our previous building had less space and it limited our opportunities to demonstrate the cars and serve our clients,” said Sergei Ryzhikh, director of Audi Center Petrogradsky.
“In the new center we have succeeded in meeting Audi's new standards, and in making our clients comfortable. Audi is not just cars, it’s also a special philosophy, a special approach to clients characterized by a high quality of service,” he said.
The new center has a two-story showroom of 1,900 square meters that can display up to 30 cars. The first floor of the premises houses an exclusive Audi Studio, where all the Audi models with individualization packages will be showcased, while the center has developed a new architectural solution for the storage of new cars by creating an area of 1,600 square meters up on the roof.
With the opening of the new center, its management has installed new equipment and increased the number of employees to 150 people, and expects as a result to shorten the waiting time for clients. The bodywork repairs area has doubled in size, as has the number of workers in that department.
Most of the personnel are experienced workers who used to work at Rus Auto, but 20 percent of staff are new.
“We were the first Audi dealers in St. Petersburg and always held the leading position on the market, said Ryzhikh. “Therefore we have brought all the best from Rus Auto to the new center.But Audi Center Petrogradsky still has a new level of quality.”
Rus Auto, which is part of Mega Auto holding, was the first official Audi dealer in St. Petersburg and the northwest of Russia when it opened in 1999.

TITLE: Kadyrov Promises to Avenge Car Bombing
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov vowed revenge Wednesday for the assassination attempt against President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who was badly injured in a car bombing this week. 
Kadyrov made a surprise trip to Ingushetia’s capital, Magas, where he met with Ingushetia’s acting leader, republican Prime Minister Rashid Gaisanov, to discuss joint police operations against insurgents. 
President Dmitry Medvedev empowered Kadyrov this week to hunt for insurgents on Ingush territory. 
“We will conduct our investigation in line with the law of the mountains and our revenge for Yunus-Bek Yevkurov will be ruthless,” Kadyrov said at the meeting with Gaisanov. 
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although suspicion has focused on insurgents or corrupt Ingush officials, both of whom were at the center of Yevkurov-led crackdowns. 
Kadyrov, accused by human rights groups of resorting to brutal tactics in an attempt to maintain order in Chechnya, also denied that there were any plans to unite Ingushetia and Chechnya. In Soviet times, the two were one republic. 
Former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, meanwhile, offered to return to office Wednesday to replace Yevkurov. “I am ready to return and head the republic while Yevkurov is being treated and until he gets well, if this can be arranged legally,” Aushev said on Ekho Moskvy radio. 
The Kremlin, which appoints regional leaders, had no immediate comment on the offer. 
Aushev would likely be welcomed by the Ingush public. A decorated veteran of the Afghan war, he was a popular Ingush president from 1993 to 2001, when he left office amid a conflict with the Kremlin over the military campaign in neighboring Chechnya. Aushev was a proponent of peace talks with separatist Chechen leaders, a position rejected by then-President Vladimir Putin. Aushev now lives in Moscow and heads a public organization of Russian and Soviet veterans who have fought abroad. 
In his remarks Wednesday, Aushev also called for a consolidation of efforts to fight corruption, social injustice and crime in Ingushetia. “Everything should be solved together,” he said. 
Yevkurov, 45, remained unconscious in a serious but stable condition at Moscow’s Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery on Wednesday after sustaining a concussion, ruptured liver, torn lung, broken ribs and burns in Monday’s attack. 
Yevkurov’s press secretary Kaloi Akhilgov said the president’s wife and son were being guarded by police.

TITLE: Ex-Senator Tried on 12 Murder Charges
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A former Federation Council senator went on trial this week on murder charges that he has linked to his refusal to sell a mansion near Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s residence.
Former Bashkortostan Senator Igor Izmestyev and 12 co-defendants are accused of forming a criminal group that killed 12 people, plotted to kill several others and carried out other criminal offenses including bribery and banditry, Interfax reported.
The Moscow City Court has decided that the trial, which started Tuesday, will be heard by a jury and be held behind closed doors because of classified materials submitted by investigators, court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said Wednesday.
Jury selection will take place July 9, she said, Interfax reported.
Izmestyev has denied any wrongdoing.
In a 2007 interview with Kommersant, he said his travails stemmed from his refusal to sell “for peanuts” his $40 million mansion near Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence to unidentified people close to the Federal Guard Service.
The Moscow City Court on Wednesday rejected requests by defense lawyers to return the case to prosecutors to eliminate violations and to send the case to the Supreme Court for the trial, Usachyova said.
The court also rejected an appeal by a purported victim, Izmestyev’s former business partner Yury Bushev, to return the case to prosecutors and exclude several charges against Izmestyev, Usachyova said.
Bushev dismissed as unfounded charges that Izmestyev had ordered three attempts on his life and organized the killing of his wife, Moscow notary Galina Perepyolkina, who was murdered in the summer of 2001, Interfax reported.

TITLE: HSBC Opens First Petersburg Branch
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: HSBC opened its first local branch on Wednesday.
Stuart Lawson, chief executive officer of HSBC in Russia, said the bank already had an office for corporate bank services in St. Petersburg.
“Today we are further expanding our investment in the city with the launch of our retail banking,” Lawson said at the opening ceremony on Wednesday. “We see tremendous opportunity for continued growth in St. Petersburg and view the city as a strategically important growth market for HSBC,” he said. 
The bank, which markets itself internationally as “the world’s local bank,” has other plans for the further development of the chain in Russia, Lawson added.  
St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said that HSBC was “among the many international investors in St. Petersburg that make an important contribution to our city.”
“The opening of HSBC’s inaugural branch in St. Petersburg is a testament of the bank’s belief in the amazing potential of the St. Petersburg market,” Matviyenko said.
The city’s first HSBC branch, located at Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa 7A will offer a wide range of retail products in St. Petersburg under its ‘HSBC Premier’ and ‘HSBC Plus’ services.  
HSBC Premier is a unique global banking service that will enable HSBC customers in St. Petersburg to access premium services through any HSBC Premier branch anywhere in the world.
HSBC Plus provides a full range of in-branch, telephone and Internet banking services.  
All HSBC retail customers have free access to the bank’s extensive international ATM network, as well as to free withdrawals at all ATMs throughout Russia.
“If St. Petersburg is a window to Europe, the bank’s affiliate and Bolshaya Morskaya are a window to the world,” said Johan Sekora, head of personal financial services at HSBC Russia.
“Our customers in St. Petersburg automatically gain access to markets across the globe where HSBC has a retail presence,” he said.
HSBC currently provides retail banking to more than 120 million customers in 63 different countries.
Yulia Topolskaya, head of HSBC in St. Petersburg, said the bank could be especially proud of “the unparalleled quality of our service, for which we are famous in every country in which we operate.”
“We will adhere to the very same service standards in St. Petersburg as we do in every other city around the world,” Topolskaya said.
Earlier this month, HSBC announced the launch of retail business in Russia, where the bank has been present since 1998, and opened four branches in Moscow. In 2008, HSBC group invested $200 million into the capital of its Russian daughter company, increasing investment to a total of $300 million, Lawson said, Interfax reported.
The Russian branch of HSBC was registered in 1996. It obtained a license for banking operations in 2000, and in May 2007 received a general license that included the right to attract the deposits of private individuals in both rubles and foreign currency, Interfax reported. HSBC services are available to Russian clients in more than 62 countries of the world.

TITLE: European Watchdog Lashes Out at Courts
AUTHOR: By Ira Iosebashvili
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s court system came under attack from Europe’s top human rights watchdog on Tuesday for “politically motivated abuses” that it said have especially victimized two companies, Yukos and the Hermitage Fund. 
The Council of Europe issued a report that deals with legal abuses in Russia, France, Britain and Germany. But roughly half of the document was devoted to Russia, where it said companies must contend with a litany of abuses, including judges who are pressured to deliver convictions at any cost. 
Russia, which is a member of the Council of Europe, has rejected criticism of its courts in the past, and it was unclear what effect Tuesday’s report might have on the legal system. President Dmitry Medvedev, a lawyer by training, coined the term “legal nihilism” in January 2008 in calling for a crackdown on corruption and a strengthening of the rule of law. 
Companies said the Council of Europe testimony was an important step in increasing international pressure on Russia to comply with worldwide standards in legal proceedings and to allow companies operating within the country to bring their cases before international courts. 
“This report makes official what so many of us knew all along. The criminal justice system is Russia is broken,” said William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Fund, once the largest foreign investor in the Russian stock market. Browder was barred from Russia as a national security threat in 2005 after battling Gazprom over high corporate spending and Kremlin-linked oil major Surgutneftegaz over its murky ownership structure.

TITLE: Church Calls on Debtors to Repay or Face Hell
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Court marshals are putting their faith in the Russian Orthodox Church to ease their workload as a growing number of people default on debts amid the economic crisis.
The Federal Court Marshals Service and the Moscow Patriarchate have signed an agreement under which priests will denounce the failure to repay debts as a sin in sermons and during private meetings with debtors organized by court marshals, the court marshals service said Wednesday.
“Priests will say that unpaid debt is the same as theft in Christianity,” a spokesman for the court marshals service told The Moscow Times on customary condition of anonymity.
Regional court marshals have “occasionally” involved Orthodox priests, as well as Muslim and Buddhist religious leaders, in their efforts to encourage people to make good on their debts in recent years, but the new agreement will take the cooperation with the Orthodox Church nationwide, the spokesman said.
Talks with Muslim and Buddhist religious leaders to sign similar agreements are under way, he said.
In Islam, an indebted person can’t make the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that every Muslim has to make at least once in his life, the spokesman said.
Buddhists, who teach reincarnation, believe that people’s debts remain with them in each of their afterlives and “burden their karma,” he said.
Some Orthodox believers, who face the prospect of hell if their unpaid debts are counted as unforgiven sins, expressed disdain with the church’s involvement in the court marshals’ debt collection drive.
“It is not the church’s business to make people return their debts,” said Gennady Titov, 37, a Moscow office manager with an outstanding bank loan. “Court marshals have no right to use the church for this.”
A request for comment left with the Moscow Patriarchate’s department on cooperation with military forces and law enforcement agencies, which signed the agreement, went unanswered Wednesday.
Court marshals have said their workload has increased amid the crisis.
Twenty-six percent of Russian families have outstanding debt, according to a survey conducted by state-run VTsIOM this month. A total of 52 percent of respondents said the economic crisis had made it more difficult to repay their debt, while 41 percent said the crisis had not affected their ability to pay.
The church has cooperated with the authorities in the past. In December, Orthodox priests took to the streets with Penza region traffic police and preached to violators who were flagged down, Noviye Izvestia reported at the time.
In February 2007, priests in a Tolyatti church integrated traffic rules into their sermons at the request of the traffic police, Noviye Izvestia said.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <strong>Entrepreneur Center</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A center for entrepreneurs has opened in St. Petersburg as part of a city program to promote small- and medium-sized businesses, Interfax reported Monday.
The House of the Entrepreneur opened Monday on Mayakovsky Ulitsa in the former headquarters of opposition party Yabloko as the result of what a city press release called Smolny’s desire to create a “one-stop facility” for small- and medium-sized business. The center will offer business-owners free legal advice, consultation on obtaining credit, and information on all 17 government programs for the support of entrepreneurship.
In her remarks at the opening ceremony, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko called small- and medium-sized business the “foundation of the city economy,” noting that it accounts for almost a third of the gross regional product. Matviyenko said that financial support for small business will increase by half over the course of the year and that an agreement has been signed with the Ministry of Economic Growth on additional subsidies for entrepreneurship.
The occasion of Monday’s opening ceremony was used by representatives of the Staraya Derevnya market, which has been slated to be replaced by a shopping center, to stage a protest at the destruction of their workplace, Fontanka.ru reported.

<strong>$1.95 Bln for Pulkovo</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A consortium led by VTB Bank Europe and two European firms has won the right to reconstruct and manage St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, Interfax reported Thursday.
According to a source with knowledge of the results, a consortium comprising VTB, the Greek firm Copelouzos Group and the German firm Fraport Group, which operates the airport in Frankfurt-am-Main, won the competition and plans to invest 1.4 billion euros ($1.955 billion) in the project. 
The contest winner must reach an agreement over the project with City Hall by Nov. 2, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said Thursday.  According to stipulations of the contest, the agreement must be valid for a period of 30 years with the possibility to extend it, after which all holdings will be transferred to the city.

TITLE: Preparing for Round 2 of War With Georgia
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Peacekeepers deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe must leave Georgia by June 30 after Russia vetoed on June 15 all attempts to keep their mission in force. That is about the same time General Nikolai Makarov, commander of Russia’s forces in the war with Georgia in August and the commander of the “Caucasus 2009” military exercises planned for June 29 to July 6, announced that “Georgia is brandishing its weapons and is preparing to solve its territorial problems in any way it sees fit.”
This raises a question: If Georgia is really planning to start a war, why is Russia going to such lengths to expel international observers who will be able to testify to the whole world how Georgia started the war?
The Akhalgori district is key to any future war in Georgia. In violation of all agreements signed by Moscow at the conclusion of the August war, Russia never withdrew its troops from Akhalgori — territory that was previously under Georgian control and located only 30 kilometers from Tbilisi. If Russia starts a war, Akhalgori would be the obvious launching area. If, however, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili initiates the war, Akhalgori would be one of his first military targets.
Only a few journalists have managed to visit Akhalgori, but those who succeeded have painted a somber picture of conditions there. Marauding and killing by South Ossetian “civil guardsmen” have become part of everyday life. Alkhalgori has been transformed into a military base: It was from Akhalgori, by the way, that Russian Sergeant Alexander Glukhov deserted into Georgian territory in January.
Is Akhalgori just a big mismanagement problem? Perhaps, but if Russia intends to strike Tbilisi from Akhalgori it naturally does not need any witnesses hanging around — above all journalists and international observers. One way is to control events is to deny journalists access and veto motions to continue OSCE peacekeeping operations. Another way is to get rid of other witnesses by using the South Ossetian “civil guardsmen” as a blunt instrument to remove them.
Russia’s foreign policy did not become more peaceful following the war with Georgia. To the contrary, it fought a “gas war” with Ukraine in January and has recently fought a “milk war” with Belarus. If before the war with Georgia, Russia’s position toward the rest of the world was “They don’t love us.” Now it is “They attacked us.” 
Of course, Russia would be crazy to start a new war with Georgia now. Unfortunately, it was just such madness that prompted its “gas war” with Ukraine. 
Throughout most of this year, the Kremlin has tried to convince the world that Georgia started the war. Clearly, the more innocent the Kremlin considers itself to be, the more likely it will feel justified in starting a second war with Georgia to settle scores. 
In private talks, OSCE officials ask that no one should take advantage of the fact that its peacekeepers will not be around to arbitrate — or prevent — new conflicts in Georgia. But by leaving, they are making another Russian-Georgian war more likely.

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

TITLE: Lost Century of Italian Art Makes Russian Debut
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A spectacular display of 20th-century Italian art from several private collections in Tuscany opened Monday at the city’s Manezh Exhibition Hall. Totaling 535 artworks, the exhibition, according to its curators, is the world’s largest itinerant exhibition of modern Italian art.
The exhibition, which covers the period from 1910 to 2000 and can be seen until July 12, is something of a breakthrough in Russia: as a consequence of the Iron Curtain, 20th-century Italian art remains a missing link for the vast majority of Russian audiences. Some of the most important names on display include Mario Sironi, Paolo Lapi, Giorgio dal Canto, Enrico Castellani, Piero Tredici and Roberto Crippa.
This period of Italian art is not represented in Russia’s art collections, which adds to the appeal of the exhibition. There is a great deal of admiration for Italian art in Russia, though it is limited almost exclusively to antique pieces.
The exhibition at the Manezh portrays the past 100 years of Italian history through the eyes and the works of Italian artists. The names, styles and genres are plentiful but the curators have thankfully avoided the pitfall of making the large display chaotic. Cubism, expressionism, abstractionism, realism and neorealism create a whimsical artistic palette that is delightful to explore.
“The policy of our exhibition hall is to intensify its integration into the European arts scene,” said the exhibition’s curator, Marina Dzhigarkhanyan. “This element has long been missing, and we very much appreciate the opportunity our Italian colleagues have given us to give it a massive boost.”
The brains and driving force behind this grandiose project is Francesco Bigazzi, an Italian journalist and writer who formerly served at the Italian Consulate in St. Petersburg as Culture and Press attache. During his tenure at the consulate, his contacts with the city’s arts community including the Manezh were numerous and productive.
The exhibition was organized jointly by the Peccioli Arts Foundation and the Belvedere Association with the support of the St. Petersburg Culture Committee.
Peccioli is a small, historic town at the heart of Tuscany, a short drive from Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena. The city’s authorities have expressed a keen interest in sponsoring the arts and promoting cultural programs.
“This is a lesser-known yet magnificent part of Tuscany,” said Silvano Crecchi, the mayor of Peccioli. “Half of the items on display [in St. Petersburg] belong to the joint stock company Belvedere, in which the municipality of Peccioli is the main shareholder. It is a recycling enterprise, and much of the profit is spent on purchasing works of art and supporting and promoting exhibitions and cultural projects. This is a good example of public administration.”
The Belvedere Association currently has 1,800 artworks in its possession.
Bigazzi’s bond with Peccioli dates back to November 2000, when the journalist donated his impressive collection of Russian icons to Peccioli. The city created a gallery around the collection — which has since become a highly successful globe-trotting display — and opened a school of icon restoration and a laboratory specializing in restoring Russian icons connected to the gallery. Every year, Peccioli hosts a conference on religious issues.
Andrei Zonin, director of St. Petersburg’s Institute for Cultural Programs, praised the Manezh exhibition hall for serving as the city’s museum of contemporary art, in the absence of a permanent establishment.
“Unlike most other large European cities, Moscow does not have such a museum either, but they have a number of big private art galleries that fill this niche to a certain extent,” said Zonin. “In St. Petersburg, all private art galleries are very small in terms of exhibition space and not very influential, so we are very lucky to have the enthusiasts at the Manezh.”

The exhibition is open daily except Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through July 12 at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall: St. Isaac’s Square 1, tel: 314 4979. www.manege.spb.ru. M: Sadovaya/Sennaya Ploshchad.

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: After years of rumors and abortive attempts to bring <strong>Morrissey</strong> to Russia, the Smiths’ former frontman looks set to arrive, at last. Morrissey’s first Russian concerts are sandwiched between dates in Finland and Estonia. 
Now on tour in support of “Years of Refusal,” his ninth full-length album, following the 2006 solo album “Ringleader of the Tormentors,” Morrissey gives audiences a taste of his latest material by performing several numbers from the new album, but also sings a number of Smiths and Morrissey classics, such as “This Charming Man,” “Ask,” “How Soon Is Now?,” “Girlfriend in a Coma” and “Some Girls Are Bigger than Others,” judging by the setlist from his recent concerts in Germany and Norway.
According to reports, Morrissey stopped his concert in Oslo on Saturday when somebody threw a plastic glass of beer at him and did not resume until the troublemaker was found and evicted.
Morrissey is scheduled to perform at St. Petersburg’s Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa on Monday. He will then go to Moscow, where he is due to perform at B1 Maximum on Wednesday.
Support comes from <strong>Doll and The Kicks</strong>, a female-fronted eccentric pop band from Brighton, U.K.
Some music fans, however, are complaining about ticket prices, which are an unbelievable 2,500 rubles ($80) per ticket.
Meanwhile, <strong>Howe Gelb of Giant Sand</strong> canceled his Thursday date at Griboyedov — due to problems getting a Russian visa. As an American living in Denmark, he couldn’t get it in time for his planned trip to Russia.
This week’s international visitors also include <strong>Bloodhound Gang</strong> (Glavclub, Tuesday), <strong>Faith No More</strong> (Yubileiny Sports Palace, Tuesday) and <strong>Lou Rhodes</strong> (A2, Wednesday).
Rhodes, who is a member of British trip-hop band Lamb, came to St. Petersburg to perform at BubbleBar on April 25, but canceled due to a throat problem. When performing solo, Rhodes, who has released two albums of her own, plays guitar and sings her folk-influenced songs.
A group of artists that held a 14-day hunger strike earlier this month against police <strong>arbitrariness</strong> and the detainment of then-imprisoned Novosibirsk artist <strong>Artyom Loskutov</strong> have announced they will hold an outdoor exhibition to show the work they painted while protesting near City Hall.
The hunger strike was primarily sparked by events at the May 1 demo, when 300 artists, musicians and anarchists who came to hold an authorized event called <strong>Pirate Street Party</strong> were thwarted by the OMON special-task police, who arrested over 130 people on ridiculous pretexts.
Inevitably, the subjects of their art are the lawlessness of the police and bureacrats, and freedom of expression.
The exhibition is due to open on Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa near the Gogol monument at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
For listings this week, see Gigs online, at www.sptimes.ru.

<i>— By Sergey Chernov</i>

TITLE: Retro refuge
AUTHOR: By Emanuelle Honnorat
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: With the constant buzzing of cafes and swarming crowds along Nevsky Prospekt, it sometimes seems impossible to get away from the ostentatious terraces hording St. Petersburg’s most famous street. But App?tite Caf? on Canal Griboedova, just a few steps away from busy Nevsky, proves that being located in the center does not necessarily entail clamor, even on a Saturday evening. The caf? is easy to miss, since there is no prominent logo — unlike the ubiquitous Coffee House situated right beside it — a hint of the intimate retreat that lies within. 
Tinted glass doors are all that separate the sounds of streetcars from sultry lounge-jazz music and a surprisingly undisturbed tranquility amid dim retro chic lighting. This Zen ambiance is enhanced by the dark chocolate walls and booths and complements the Asian-style ebony tables and chairs. 
The restaurant consists of one non-smoking room and the two smoking areas, with everything to satisfy hookah enthusiasts. The three large plasma screens hanging in each room add a rather odd note to the atmosphere, showing as they do the pretentious and superficial Fashion TV, which is curiously mesmerizing. 
Would-be Casanovas will be gratified to learn that the servers at App?tite are all young, attractive women, barely distinguishable from the Slav models flickering on the wall above — though instead of designer ensembles, they are decked in elegant black Asian-style outfits that add to their gracious and polite appearance. 
The menu, complete with pictures, offers a wide choice. Although it is mainly filled with Japanese and Italian specialties, there are some standard Russian favorites too such as Beef Stroganoff with mushrooms and red wine sauce at 320 rubles ($10). 
Service was speedy, beginning with the Tom Kha soup. A tangy yet delicate Thai concoction of coconut milk with shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, carrots and spring onions was a bargain at 110 rubles ($3.50), though there was only one solitary shrimp to munch on when it arrived. 
From Thailand to Japan, the soup was followed by Unagi Maki at 270 rubles ($8.70) with eel, avocado and cucumber, and Kanadsky roll for 240 rubles ($7.70). The latter was only a slight variation on the first roll, with salmon rather than eel. While all the ingredients tasted fresh, the avocado could have been left to ripen a little longer in order to give its usual satisfying mushiness. 
A dish that consists of one immense bowl of white rice, with breaded pork and eggs forming a thick layer on the top and shreds of spring onion sprinkled over it goes by the name of Katsudon and costs 210 rubles ($6.70). Once the sauce was mixed in with the garnish and perfectly salted, it was dangerously moreish, though even half the platter would suffice for an average human being.
After glancing at the dessert pages, Millefeuille with strawberry at 160 rubles ($5) looked tempting, as did the Ruglie carrot cake at 190 rubles ($6). Heads having conquered stomachs — for we were already more than satisfied — we opted for the timeless Italian Tiramisu at 180 rubles ($ 5.80), which looked very modest on the menu. The little monster came in a bowl that was only fractionally smaller than that of the Katsudon, and was drowned under what seemed to be an ocean of whipped cream. The legendary splash of rum that should soak the thin layer of cake seemed to have been sadly replaced by a sweet syrup, and though the dessert was delectable enough for a simple sweet-tooth, recommending it to a Tiramisu connoisseur would definitely mean trouble.