SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1512 (74), Friday, September 25, 2009
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TITLE: Georgia May Take In Gitmo Prisoners
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Georgia is negotiating with the United States about accepting Guantanamo Bay prisoners, a process that highlights the tricky relationship between President Mikheil Saakashvili, one of Russia’s harshest critics, and President Barack Obama, who wants to reset relations with Moscow.
Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze discussed the issue with U.S. diplomat Daniel Fried during talks late Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Interfax reported.
Fried, who is the State Department’s special envoy on closing Guantanamo, told reporters after the meeting that if Tbilisi agreed, a small number of detainees might be sent there. But he stressed that no decision had been made.
Vashadze said the issue was so far purely theoretical. “Georgia has not given an answer yet on the question of receiving Guantanamo prisoners,” he said.
Government officials in Tbilisi declined to comment further on the matter Wednesday.
Guantanamo is a political hot potato for Obama at home, and he has ordered that the detention camp be closed by January. But the Obama administration has faced a struggle over what to do with more than 200 detainees who might face human rights abuses if they are returned to their home countries.
Fried visited Tbilisi in August, and The Washington Post later reported that Georgia was among those countries with which the United States had held “positive talks” on resettling Guantanamo detainees.
Georgia was one of the United States’ staunchest allies under the administration of former President George W. Bush and quickly volunteered to send troops to Iraq. Tbilisi has been anxious to keep warm relations with Washington, although Obama has vowed to improve ties with Moscow.
At a meeting with Saakashvili in New York on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised Washington’s continued support for Georgia’s territorial integrity.
Analysts on Wednesday dismissed a Georgian media report that said Clinton and Saakashvili had also talked about plans to open new U.S. military bases in the country. The United States could open six bases for up to 25,000 troops in Georgia by 2014, the Resonansi newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials. It said the bases were lobbied for by a group of Republican congressmen.
The report received broad attention by Russian media on Wednesday.
But Alexander Khramchikhin, an analyst with the Institute for Military and Political Analysis, said military cooperation with Georgia would be impossible if the Obama administration wanted to improve relations with the Kremlin. “The U.S. understands very well how much that irritates Russia,” he said.
Khramchikhin said new bases in Georgia would be of little value to the United States because it already has bases in eastern Turkey.
The sensitivity of military cooperation with Tbilisi was highlighted last month when then-Georgian Defense Minister Vasil Sikharulidze had to retract a statement that U.S. training for Afghanistan-bound Georgian troops could also be used in the event of a new conflict with Russia. Georgia’s military was routed by Russian forces in a five-day war last year.
The United States sent a small group of military instructors to Georgia this summer to train a Georgian battalion to be deployed in Afghanistan next year.
Sikharulidze was fired by Saakashvili a week after his remarks on grounds that the country needed “a stronger hand” to rebuild its military.
Both Guantanamo and the Georgian Afghanistan contingent are possible bargaining chips for more U.S. assistance, said Ghia Nodia, a former minister in Saakashvili’s cabinet and a professor of political science at Tbilisi State University. “Of course Georgia always hopes for more,” he said by telephone from Tbilisi.
He said while the United States would be very cautious about any open military cooperation, it was sufficient that Washington had continued in its moral and political support.
“Remember that Obama stressed the differences over Georgia when he visited Moscow,” he said.
Obama noted U.S.-Russian differences over Tbilisi when he visited Moscow for a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev in July.
The Obama administration has been mired in a quandary over what to do with Guantanamo detainees. Various U.S. states have refused to take them, and so far only nine people, members of China’s Uighurs Muslim minority, have found new homes — four in the British overseas territory of Bermuda and five in Albania.
Palau, a Pacific Island nation, has offered to take another 13 Uighurs, but only four have agreed to move, The Associated Press reported last week. Washington reportedly offered Palau $200 million to accept them.
Russia took seven of its own citizens from Guantanamo in March 2004. Russian authorities failed to implicate the seven of any crime other than illegally crossing the border and released them. The men, natives of predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus and Volga region, had been detained by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

TITLE: Putin to Cut Cell Phone Bill by 20%
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Cabinet approved a draft 2010 budget Wednesday after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stressed that it would severely cut spending on government offices and offer ballooning payouts to retirees.
“Spending on running ministries and other government offices is being reduced more than it has ever been reduced, I think, in all recent history,” Putin said in his opening remarks to the Cabinet session.
That said, the cut will be of paltry dimensions, 18 billion rubles ($600 million), compared with overall budget spending that is projected to reach 9.89 trillion rubles ($330 billion).
Officials ranging from the president to ministers and lawmakers will have to spend 20 percent less on maintenance of their cars, cell phone bills and office renovations, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters after the Cabinet session.
Putin once again stressed a record 46 percent increase in spending on pensions next year, which will take 4.4 trillion rubles from the federal budget and the Pension Fund.
“This will be 10 percent of the national gross domestic product, which is an absolutely unprecedented figure,” Putin said in the opening remarks. “There has been nothing like this in the history of this country.”
The budget — with revenues of 6.95 trillion rubles and a deficit of 6.8 percent of GDP — has to be approved by the State Duma and signed by the president to become law.
Putin cautioned ministers against relaxing as news of a nascent economic recovery trickle in from countries around the world, including Russia.
“I want to say it again today: We can’t afford unjustified optimism,” he said.
Anti-crisis measures will continue into the next year, including financing to support exports and state guarantees on corporate loans, Putin said.
Other steps to pull the economy out of the crisis will include a potential exchange of government bonds worth up to 250 billion rubles for preferred shares in banks. That would enable lenders to borrow from the Central Bank by pledging the bonds as collateral. A reserve of 70 billion rubles has been set aside for economic contingencies.
By earmarking 1.6 trillion rubles for building roads, bridges and support of high-tech industries, the government wants to continue modernizing the economy, Putin said. He didn’t say whether the funding would be higher than this year’s, but a Cabinet source said Tuesday that spending on the national economy would shrink next year.
The modernization money will include 10.8 billion rubles for a new state program to develop digital radio and television broadcasting starting next year, Putin said.
On top of higher pensions, there will be other additional social expenses next year. The budget will start paying out so-called maternity capital to families that had a second baby in 2006 when Putin initiated a program to encourage births. Under the program, the government deposits more than 200,000 rubles on behalf of the family once the baby is born, allowing it to draw the money three years later. An estimated 300,000 families will receive 102 billion rubles next year, Putin said.
The government will again increase spending on buying apartments for military officers, to 81 billion rubles next year from 50 billion rubles this year, Putin said.
Next year’s budget is heavily tilted in favor of current spending, such as anti-crisis measures and pensions, to the detriment of longer-term investment, said Alexander Morozov, chief economist at HSBC.
“The potential for reducing investment spending any further has been exhausted,” he said.

TITLE: St. Petersburg Prepares to Host Day of Europe Event
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Day of Europe comes to town on Saturday, featuring a host of film screenings, gastronomic feasts, intellectual discussions, classical music concerts and cutting-edge art exhibitions. 
Organized by the European Commission’s Russian office jointly with local consulates and cultural centers of the EU member states, this grand-scale culture festival will plunge locals and visitors to St. Petersburg into the world of European diversity.
The event opens on a serious note, with a political debate titled “Twenty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall” which starts at 10 a.m. in the Grand Hotel Europe. Taking part in the discussion will be numerous highly respected European scholars and experts, including Greek scientist Loukas Tsoukalis, German politician Gunther Pleuger and Polish dissident journalist Adam Michnik. Oleg Kharkhordin, the rector of the European University in St. Petersburg will moderate the discussion. 
In Russia, the Day of Europe is being held simultaneously in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and Arkhangelsk.
“Any local resident can take part in the festivities,” said Paul Van Dooren, acting head of the European Commission's office in Russia. “All it takes to join in is to be curious about what contemporary Europe — the unified Europe — is. We are convinced that every visitor to the Day of Europe will be able to discover something unique and special to them about Europe.”
The Day of Europe is linked to the history of the foundation of the European Union. Following the end of the Second World War, European leaders sought economic cooperation and political consolidation. The unification process began on May 9, 1950, with the Robert Schuman declaration. Schuman, then serving as the French Foreign Minister, suggested that Germany, France and other European countries unite their coal and steel industries. Having secured the support of Germany’s Konrad Adenauer and other European politicians, Schuman was successful with his plan.
“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the undertaking of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it,” read the declaration. “The contribution which an organized and living Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations.[...] Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nations of Europe requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of France and Germany. Any action taken must in the first place concern these two countries. With this aim in view, the French Government proposes that action be taken immediately on one limited but decisive point.”
On April 18, 1951, the six founding member states — Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Luxemburg — signed the Treaty of Paris that established the European Coal and Steel Community. In the wake of the initiative’s success, the Treaties of Rome, signed in 1957, created the Economic Community and the Nuclear  Non-Proliferation Community. Today, the European Union incorporates 27 member states. 
At 11 a.m., the Institute of Finland, the Danish Culture Institute, the Goethe Institute, the French Institute, the Dutch Institute and other cultural organizations of the EU member states will all welcome guests to exhibitions, lectures, language classes and discussions.
Throughout the day. from 10.30 a.m. until 11 p.m., Rodina cinema will be showing films by some of the finest up-and-coming European directors. The program begins with a Latvian animation film, “The Three Musketeers,” followed by the Estonian cartoon “The Adventures of Lotta in Samodelkino.” Later in the day, audiences can enjoy the German documentary “After the Music,” Swedish film “Darling” and other movies.
The MonaKo art-hall is organizing a sophisticated display juxtaposing jewelry objects and photography — both by Yekaterina Sisfontes, a Swede of Russian origin. Entitled “Timeless,” the exhibition introduces a collection of the artist’s minimalist jewelry items launched in 2008.
In the evening, the House of Scientists will host a Children’s Fashion Show — an unusual event for this venerable academic institution — while the Bezborodko Chancellor Palace (which is now home to the Popov Museum of Communications) will welcome audiences to a classical concert by the St. Petersburg International Youth Orchestra at 7 p.m. The musicians will perform works by Mozart, Dvorak, Britten and Pergolesi. Comprised of St. Petersburg State Conservatory students from Portugal, France, Italy, Denmark and other European countries, in 2007 the orchestra made a very successful European tour of more than 14 countries.
Fourteen St. Petersburg restaurants, including Mama Roma, Polenta, Oliva, Cote Jardin, Kukhnya, Gourmet Club, the Belgian Beer Cafe Kwaken and other venues will serve up special dishes and set menus created especially for the festival.

Links: http://www.eur.ru

TITLE: Luzhkov Sues Politician for Corruption Claim
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Mayor Yury Luzhkov has sued Right Cause party co-leader Leonid Gozman for libel after Gozman said the mayor should be held responsible for corruption in Moscow.
“I’ve said that I believe that Luzhkov, as the city’s manager, bears direct responsibility for the level of corruption in the city,” Gozman told The St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday, repeating a claim that he made on July 14 on Ren-TV’s “24” news program.
Luzhkov is asking Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court to declare the televised comments libelous and to order Gozman to pay him 500,000 rubles ($16,640) in compensation, Right Cause said on its web site.
“Any accusations without a court order are offensive,” Luzhkov’s spokesman Leonid Krutakov said by telephone.
Right Cause also posted an open letter to Medvedev on Netlujkovu.ru, or “No to Luzhkov,” a web site created by party supporters several days ago, asking President Dmitry Medvedev to dismiss Luzhkov in connection with the level of corruption in Moscow, Gozman said.
Gozman said more than 100,000 visitors had signed the letter by Tuesday night, when the web site went down because of “a professional hacker attack that cost big money.”
Another Luzhkov spokesman, Sergei Tsoi, said Wednesday that Luzhkov was considering filing a second lawsuit against Gozman for “faking votes” in support of the letter to Medvedev, Interfax reported.
No one was available for comment at the Kremlin’s press office Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.
Tsoi got support in his allegation of “faking votes” from the chief programmer of LiveInternet.ru, Maxim Zotov, who said by e-mail Wednesday that his company had sold software that counted the number of web site visitors to the administrators of Netlujkovu.ru but that they posted fake figures instead of the real ones determined by the counter. He did not provide the real figures.
But Tsoi said Tuesday that the real number of visitors to the site was 8,155 on Monday, while the counter showed 170,000 at the same time, Interfax reported.
Tsoi said Wednesday that Luzhkov would not file the second lawsuit if Gozman publicly admitted to faking the votes and publicly apologized to the mayor.
Gozman denied that the votes were falsified.
Gozman said Right Cause would hold a series of rallies in Moscow starting next week to collect signatures that carried the “legal force” for Luzhkov’s dismissal, because Internet signatures have no legal force.
Luzhkov, who has overseen a construction boom in the capital, has been accused of corruption and of helping advance the business interests of his wife, billionaire Yelena Baturina. Luzhkov has persistently denied allegations of wrongdoing and has rarely lost a libel case.
The Medvedev letter reiterated those earlier accusations.  
The allegations and lawsuit come during campaigning for Moscow City Duma elections on Oct. 11.

TITLE: Chinese Traders Will Staff New Market
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — Chinese and Russian investors plan to open a new, 10,000-square-meter complex near the Vladykino metro station, the first market of its kind since the closing of Cherkizovo in June.
The market will be manned primarily by Chinese merchants and is expected to do more than $1 billion per year in sales, its owners said.
The market — which will be called Charoit and is slated to become operational at the end of 2009 — is planned as a wholesale footwear complex selling products from over 200 Chinese factories, co-owner and managing director Oleg Sumarokov said.
All of the market’s retail spaces have already been subleased to merchants, Sumarokov said.
The project’s main investor is Mikhail Chao, a Chinese immigrant who runs a construction business in the Chita region. The third partner in the complex is Chinese entrepreneur Ju Dzen Liu, Sumarokov said. Liu confirmed his involvement in the project.
Charoit will rely solely on wholesale trade, Liu said.
“The time for ugly forms of trading, such as wholesale-retail markets, is now over. Large wholesale complexes need to be operated separately from retail points,” he said.
Traders from Cherkizovsky will not be working at Charoit, Sumarokov said. Footwear will go through official customs procedures.

TITLE: Politicians and Celebrities Protest Tower's Approval
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: City Hall on Tuesday approved the 403-meter Okhta Center skyscraper that Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, intends to build in the historic center of St. Petersburg, despite opposition from local residents and both Russian and international cultural bodies. 
Members of the Yabloko Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the city government on Wednesday, as architects, politicians and artists protested the decision. The planned tower will be four times taller than the height permitted by law.
Members of St. Petersburg’s government voted for the exemption from the height limit unanimously, without discussion. “So much has been said about this that any comment is superfluous,” Governor Valentina Matviyenko said just before the vote. “All legal questions are in strict accordance with the law, no departure has been made.” 
The vote was not on City Hall’s written agenda, but was taken on the spot. Smolny Institute, the home of City Hall, was heavily guarded by the OMON special-task police on Tuesday. Two protesters were detained.
In their lawsuit, Yabloko members Mikhail Amosov, Boris Vishnevsky and Maxim Reznik pointed out that Russia’s Town-Planning Code allows for exemptions only under one of four conditions, none of which apply in the case of Okhta Center, also known as the Gazprom Tower. 
City Hall’s decision also violates citizens’ rights guaranteed by the federal law on cultural heritage, they said, requesting that the court declare it illegal and overrule it.
Sergei Mironov, the Federation Council speaker and leader of the pro-Kremlin A Just Russia party, described the decision as a “challenge to St. Petersburg residents; a challenge to Russian and international public opinion.”
“It is definitely not a mistake, because it’s impossible to make a mistake when you are being called on not to make such a mistake from every quarter,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
City Hall was not authorized to take the decision, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Secretary-General of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, said on Wednesday.
“As St. Petersburg’s historic center is represented on UNESCO’s World Heritage List by the Russian government, it is the federal government’s responsibility,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
The skyscraper, designed by the British firm RMJM, will dwarf St. Petersburg’s 18th-century low-rise skyline and affect many views in the historic center if built, experts say. Last month, UNESCO warned that the city center may be removed from the World Heritage Site list.
On Thursday, a group of famous St. Petersburg residents including boxing champion Nikolai Valuyev, actors Oleg Basilashvili and Sergei Yursky, film director Yury Mamin and rock singer Yury Shevchuk addressed President Dmitry Medvedev in a letter. 
“What value is a law if it can be ignored for the sake of the commercial interests of a company that is close to the authorities?” they wrote.
“We’re asking you as the guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation to intervene in the situation immediately to prevent the unlawful action.”
Tuesday’s decision was preceded by a meeting of the Land Use and Development Commission on Sept. 17, and a public hearing on Sept. 1 during which some opponents of the tower were arrested. 
Sergei Malkov, the Legislative Assembly’s Communist deputy, who was one of three members of the Land Use and Development Commission to vote against the tower, (11 voted in favor of it) said he attempted to question the results of the Sept. 1 public hearing, as many arguments against the tower were excluded from the official results, published in Nevskoye Vremya newspaper on Sept. 11.
“I tried to raise this question, especially because I received a letter from the VOOPIK [the Russian Association for the Protection of Monuments], where the VOOPIK wrote directly that their proposals had not been included in the hearing’s protocols at all,” Malkov said.
“To that I received the very simple answer that there had been a court session so there was no point in considering this question. I said that the session was about a slightly different subject [the organizer’s failure to inform the public properly and in due time], but [I was told], ‘It doesn’t matter, there was a court hearing, we won’t consider this question.’”
Opponents’ letters brought to the commission were ignored in the session, which reportedly lasted less than 30 minutes, Malkov said. “In fact, everybody present complained that they had been bombarded with letters from the public,” he said.
“For this, [Vice Governor Roman] Filimonov ordered the commission’s personnel to prepare a generic reply, so that this reply could be sent to all citizens automatically. That was all about letters from the public.”
Although the St. Petersburg Union of Architects, UNESCO and other experts have warned the tower will adversely affect St. Petersburg’s skyline and architectural views, the commission admitted that a historical and cultural review had not been held, according to Malkov.
“I put the question to [Alexei] Komlev, a representative of KGIOP [the Committee for the Use and Preservation of State Monuments], who was present, and he confirmed that such a review had not been held,” Malkov said.
“In response to the demand to postpone the question until a review had been conducted, a lawyer who was present was consulted and said that the historical and cultural review was only required at the planning stage.”
Last week, the Institute for Urban Economics Foundation in Moscow, the institution that developed Russia’s Town-Planning Code, said that the reasons presented by the developer were not sufficient for exemption and contradicted the law. The foundation also pointed out that the exemption clause in the Town-Planning Code only allowed marginal, rather than “cardinal” changes like the construction of Okhta Center.
Russia’s Ministry of Culture expressed its concern and suggested that the decision be postponed until all the organizations concerned had held a conciliation meeting last week, while Rosokhrankultura (the Federal Service for Monitoring Compliance with the Cultural Heritage Protection Law) said it had not authorized any changes to St. Petersburg’s protected zones. 
“St. Petersburg’s historic center is a UNESCO site, it’s not in our interests to receive reproof from our international colleagues,” the agency head Alexander Kibovsky told Ekho Moskvy radio on Wednesday.
In addition to legal action, Okhta Center’s opponents are preparing a number of protests, including the March for the Preservation of St. Petersburg on Oct. 10. The web site Bashne.net (No to the Tower) had collected more than 12,600 signatures against the skyscraper on Thursday, despite a continuing powerful DDoS attack which from time to time left the site unavailable.

TITLE: Russia May Support Sanctions
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Moscow is not ruling out new UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, Russian news agencies cited an official in the Russian delegation in New York as saying Wednesday.
The reports are the first indication that Russia could support additional measures to punish Iran for its defiance of the international community, and come less than a week after President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap U.S. missile defense plans that deeply angered Russia.
But, the official, who was not identified, suggested Russia would use its clout as a veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council member to blunt any measures it considers too tough.
“We do not rule out participation in working out new UN Security Council decisions on questions of sanctions in relation to Iran, if there are objective grounds,” state-run RIA-Novosti quoted the official as saying.
The official emphasized, however, that Russia would not rush to judgment against Iran and would be skeptical of Western arguments for sanctions, according to RIA-Novosti, ITAR-Tass and Interfax.
For Russia, “the criteria are not individual evaluations, not guesswork, but the report and recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the official was quoted as saying — a reference to the UN nuclear agency.
The official also said that Russia and other nations “differ in terms of the scale, volume and depth of sanctions,” though it was unclear whether that was reference to past measures or potential new sanctions.
The official was part of the Russian delegation in New York, where President Dmitry Medvedev was attending the UN General Assembly. Russia and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the Iran nuclear problem was to be “No. 1 on our agenda” in Obama’s talks with Medvedev on Wednesday, and the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany were meeting ahead of planned talks with Iran on Oct. 1 — the first since 2008.
The planned talks come despite persistent Iranian defiance of international demands that it halt uranium enrichment and reveal full information about its nuclear activities.
Obama last week announced his decision to shelve plans for missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic — removing a major irritant in relations with Russia, which claimed the system was meant to weaken it.
Obama said his decision had little to do with Russia’s objections, and poker-faced Russian officials have left it unclear whether they would respond by edging closer to the U.S. on issues that divide them.
Any shift in Russia’s stance on Iran would be widely seen as payback for the U.S. missile move. But Russian officials have signaled there was little room for change in their approach to Tehran.
Russia, which has close ties with Iran and is building the country’s first nuclear power reactor, has approved three sets of sanctions against Iran, but has joined China in watering down more aggressive proposals backed by the United States, which accuses Iran of attempting to make nuclear weapons.

TITLE: U.S. Embassy Says Sex Tape Is 'Fabricated'
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has complained to the Russian Foreign Ministry about a sex tape that U.S. officials call a smear of an American diplomat.
The State Department is calling the video that appeared on a Russian web site a fabricated montage that includes some real footage of Kyle Hatcher, a married diplomatic liaison to Russian religious and human rights groups.
“Mr. Hatcher has been the subject of a smear campaign in the Russian press and on the Internet to discredit him and his work,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. “We deplore this type of smear campaign.”
The video shows Hatcher making telephone calls on a darkened street. Then it cuts to a hotel room, where Hatcher can be seen in a hotel room, apparently from a hidden camera. Later, the video appears to show a man and a woman having sex in the same room with the lights off. It is not clear that man is Hatcher.
In an interview recorded with ABC News, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle blamed the Russian government.
“Clearly the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated,” he said. “We had our security office back in Washington take a look at that and they are convinced Kyle has done nothing wrong. I have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here at the embassy.”

TITLE: Utilities Get Creative to Collect Bills
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Utility companies are having to get creative to find ways to collect payment for electricity and heat as consumer debt grows and winter approaches.
In addition to using debt-collection agencies, the utilities are having to act as court marshals themselves, and even going as far as publicly shaming offending consumers.
“We give out information on our debtors to the local television station, and they read it to their viewers in the news,” the Tver electricity sales company’s Natalia Yefimova said. “It does work.”
The Market Council, the electricity industry watchdog, estimated that the sector’s overall debt stood at 33.1 billion rubles ($1.1 million) as of Sept. 15 because of rising unemployment and falling household income. Market players expect the figure to grow after the heating season begins.
Other firms have become gumshoes, conducting investigations into their customers in order to help out the court marshals.
“There is always a lack of court marshals so we sometimes help them do their work,” said Mikhail Korotkov, a spokesman for Udmurtia Electricity Sales, controlled by IES Holding. “We find out what bank our debtors have an account in so that the court marshals can get the debt money from it.”
“It is legally hard to turn off the power to an apartment in a multistory building, so we have to use other methods,” Korotkov said.
If customers do not pay their electricity and heat bills for more than three months the electricity sales company has a right to sue the debtor.
If the debtor does not pay before the court hands down a verdict, the company can file a suit to the Federal Court Marshals Service, which can seize the debtor’s property or income and prohibit the debtor from traveling abroad until the debt is paid.
“We just turn off the power for those consumers who do not pay for more than six months and we have no problem with that,” said Alexander Shkolnikov, deputy chief executive of Smolensk EnergoSbyt.
IES, which has electricity sales companies in Perm, Sverdlovsk and four other regions, hired a collection agency but refused to work with it because of extravagant methods the collectors used, chief executive Mikhail Slobodin said.  “They plugged the sewerage pipe of a house in which many debtors lived, which, of course, led to a disaster with the whole building,” Slobodin said. “These bizarrely creative people also called debtors in the middle of the night.”
Slobodin said using court marshals was a safer method. “When they come to the apartment and start taking inventory people tend to magically find money quite quickly,” he said.
Slobodin cited as a success a new system one of his sales companies tested in the Nizhny Novgorod region town of Dzerzhinsk.
The company in August placed portraits of debtors on billboards under the words “Hanged as Promised.” The debtors’ names and the amounts they owed were also written on the billboards.
“All of them gave us written permission to have their portraits hung there,” Slobodin said. “They must have thought they could become famous this way.” The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said on Sept. 17 that it had opened an investigation into the Dzerzhinsk sales company’s campaign. A preliminary hearing will be held Oct. 14.

TITLE: AvtoVaz 
To Lay Off 27 Percent Of Workers
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — AvtoVAZ, the country’s largest carmaker, said on Thursday that it has agreed to cut more than a quarter of its work force as the producer of the iconic Lada struggles with a sharp decline in demand for its cars, Reuters reported.
AvtoVAZ, part-owned by French carmaker Renault, has agreed with trade union leaders to cut up to 27,600 jobs at its plant on the Volga river, the company said in a statement.
“The enterprise is working on one shift and at 65 percent of capacity. Lowering personnel numbers is essential in such a situation,” said the company, which employs a total of 102,000 people.
Russia’s leaders are wary of simmering unrest in one-factory cities across the country and have made social issues a priority in tackling the economic crisis, which has pushed Russia into its first recession in a decade.
AvtoVAZ, also part-owned by state conglomerate Russian Technologies, has cut workers’ incomes and reduced the working week at the plant in Tolyatti, a city 900 kilometers southeast of Moscow built in the 1960s to serve the car plant.
Those to be dismissed will include 13,000 pensioners, who are expected to leave in September or October, as well as 5,500 people approaching pensionable age.

TITLE: Indebted Car Owners Resort to Reporting Their Cars Stolen
AUTHOR: By Alex Anishyuk
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Car owners had debt outstanding for half of all stolen cars that were insured by Rosgosstrakh in the first half, suggesting a big increase in insurance fraud over the period, the insurance company reported Monday. 
The share of thefts of cars that were not yet paid-off increased 30 percent year on year to 266 vehicles in the first half of 2009, Rosgosstrakh said in a statement. 
“These statistics can be seen as the reflection of the crisis in the country,” Rosgosstrakh vice president Alexander Mozalev said in e-mailed comments. “Many debtors lost the ability to pay down the loan after losing their job. And unfortunately, some of them chose to turn to crime.” 
“Owners sell their cars for a small portion of the market price to chop shops, who dismantle them for spare parts, and claim that the car was stolen, getting both the insurance payment and the cash gained from the illegal deal,” said an independent insurance agent, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. 
About 44 percent of cars stolen are worth less than 500,000 rubles ($16,400), the highest share of this value range in years, the report said. 
“Cars costing less than 500,000 rubles were most popular before the recession and were purchased on credit by the lower middle class, which suffered layoffs most severely last fall,” Mozalev said. “Now imagine a person who lost his job and still has to pay down the debt.” 
The average insurance fraudster is a 27-year-old male who lives in a big city and has a university degree, according to research conducted by the insurance firm. 
“Before the recession, insurance companies tracked all insurable events, especially theft, that occurred within a month from the date of the car insurance policy, as most fraud attempts were carried out during that period,” the insurance agent said. “Now insurance companies have to track the thefts of all cars bought on credit.” 
Insurance companies’ security departments try to pursue such fraud cases, but they have too few resources to do that, and the cases in which fraudulent car theft is proven are few, he said. 
“We verify all car theft claims if specific facts appear that make us investigate the theft more seriously,” Mozalev said. “Especially in the cases where a car with a low resale value is stolen.” 
Every year, 7 percent to 9 percent of those claiming car theft with Rosgosstrakh are revealed to be conducting fraudulent activities, he said. 
“In addition to that figure, we track 2 percent to 3 percent of potential fraudsters before signing the insurance policy,” he said. 
Fraudulent activities account for 15 percent of all overdue loans, debt collectors say, and it is hard to estimate how many of those are car loans. 
One popular scheme involves playing fast and loose with the car’s certificate of title. Banks require the car buyer to deposit the original certificate with the bank until the loan is paid off, however the owner can claim a copy of the document from the traffic police, alleging the original was lost, and sell the car using the copy. 
“Debtors who are insolvent are interested in selling the car quickly, and this sometimes makes them choose il- legal methods,” said Irina Poddub- naya, deputy head of the Sequoia debt-collecting agency. 
Rosgosstrakh received 563 claims of car thefts in the first six months of 2009, up 7.3 percent compared with the same period in 2008, and the total damage claimed will reach 390 million rubles ($12.9 million).

TITLE: AvtoVaz 
To Lay Off 27 Percent Of Workers
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — AvtoVAZ, the country’s largest carmaker, said on Thursday that it has agreed to cut more than a quarter of its work force as the producer of the iconic Lada struggles with a sharp decline in demand for its cars, Reuters reported.
AvtoVAZ, part-owned by French carmaker Renault, has agreed with trade union leaders to cut up to 27,600 jobs at its plant on the Volga river, the company said in a statement.
“The enterprise is working on one shift and at 65 percent of capacity. Lowering personnel numbers is essential in such a situation,” said the company, which employs a total of 102,000 people.
Russia’s leaders are wary of simmering unrest in one-factory cities across the country and have made social issues a priority in tackling the economic crisis, which has pushed Russia into its first recession in a decade.
AvtoVAZ, also part-owned by state conglomerate Russian Technologies, has cut workers’ incomes and reduced the working week at the plant in Tolyatti, a city 900 kilometers southeast of Moscow built in the 1960s to serve the car plant.
Those to be dismissed will include 13,000 pensioners, who are expected to leave in September or October, as well as 5,500 people approaching pensionable age.

TITLE: SUEK Prepares To Hold Initial Public Offering As Exports Rise
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Siberian Coal and Energy Company plans to sell shares as its exports to China increase and it seeks more Asian deliveries by solving transport difficulties.
The company, known as SUEK, intends to hold an initial public offering “as soon as market conditions allow,” deputy chief executive Anna Belova said Wednesday. SUEK has increased exports to China, the world’s biggest energy consumer after the U.S., tenfold this year, Belova said, without giving specific figures.
Supplies to Asia are restricted because of limited railroad capacity in the Far East and the company is in talks with Russian Railways to try to eliminate bottlenecks, she said.
The port in Vanino, in the Khabarovsk region in the Far East, handles 700,000 tons of export coal a month while its annual capacity is 12 million tons and can be doubled, Belova said.
Fuel-power producers are not likely to benefit from an Aug. 17 accident at RusHydro’s Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, which claimed 75 lives, the SUEK deputy CEO said.
“Coal power stations have increased production to substitute the destroyed hydro capacity, but the level of tariffs imposed by the government makes this production loss-making,” Belova said.
The utilities SUEK manages include Kuzbassenergo, Yenisei Territorial Generating Company and Yakutskenergo.

TITLE: 8 Obstacles to Better NATO Ties
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kozin
TEXT: NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen rightly acknowledged that NATO-Russia relations have a great deal of untapped potential during a major policy speech in Brussels on Friday. However, he said, relations are burdened with misperceptions, distrust and differing agendas. Rasmussen believes that NATO and Russia spend too much energy focusing on issues over which they disagree, rather than concentrating on common interests.
Rasmussen, who took office in August, made the reasonable suggestion that NATO-Russia relations be given a “new beginning” and that “greater realism” should prevail. At his first news conference on Aug. 3, he announced the need to establish a positive strategic partnership between NATO and Russia, and on Friday he said the relationship should become “far more productive in the future.”
The NATO chief made three concrete, interrelated proposals toward that goal. First, he said NATO and Russia should quickly work to strengthen their practical cooperation in areas where both sides face common risks and security threats. Second, they should infuse new energy into the NATO-Russia Council with the aim of using it as a forum for open and dispassionate dialogue on ways to provide peace and stability in Europe. Third, he called for a joint review of new security challenges in the 21st century and the laying of a firm foundation for future cooperation.
These are all well-founded and logical suggestions. Carrying them out would help break the deep impasse where NATO-Russia relations have fallen as a result of NATO’s large-scale use of force against Yugoslavia in 1999 and Georgia’s military aggression against South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers in August 2008.
Unfortunately, the destructive elements in NATO-Russia relations continue to outweigh the constructive components. Creating an additional burden are the heightened expectations both sides have following the end of the Cold War. Rasmussen rightly pointed out that “there are some fundamental issues on which NATO and Russia disagree, and they will not disappear overnight.” However, there has been no practical application of the sound and far-reaching statements that both sides included in the NATO-Russia Founding Act, and officials at NATO’s headquarters still find little time to focus on areas that could unite the alliance’s 28 member countries with Russia.
The attempts both sides made this year to correct that imbalance during renewed sessions of the NATO-Russia Council and ministerial meetings on the Greek island of Corfu failed to produce any tangible results.
The eight main obstacles preventing full-fledged cooperation between Russia and NATO, and the establishment of a truly substantial “strategic partnership” between them, are the following:
• Attempts by many NATO member states to maintain an anti-Russian mood within the alliance, and attempts by at least six of them to pursue policies antagonistic to Moscow in countries bordering Russia and the former Soviet republics;
• NATO’s continued willingness to expand its membership, with the possible inclusion of Ukraine and Georgia — a position Rasmussen confirmed in his Friday speech;
• NATO’s desire for military superiority over Russia in nuclear and conventional weapons, despite the fact that the alliance already possesses 1.5 times more nuclear weapons and three times more conventional weapons than Russia. What’s more, NATO member countries — like Russia — participate in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe but — unlike Russia — have yet to ratify it;
• The increasing number of NATO military bases and other installations near Russia’s borders, with nine of the additions resulting from the first wave of expansion alone;
• Plans to deploy elements of modernized U.S. land- and sea-based missile defense systems as part of the “new missile defense architecture in Europe” announced by U.S. President Barack Obama last week, as well as closer U.S. cooperation with NATO to create a “missile defense shield,” not only in Poland and the Czech Republic, but in all 28 member countries, thereby placing a greater number of weapons close to Russia’s borders. (In his Friday speech, Rasmussen said, “These plans will involve an even greater role for NATO with regard to missile defense in Europe.” However, Rasmussen also commented on the need to “explore the potential for linking U.S., NATO and Russian missile defense systems at an appropriate time.” In this connection, it is worth asking which country’s tactical strike weaponry and detection and tracking systems would be used, and against whom such an integrated system would be directed?);
• Stepped up activity by the air forces and navies of a host of NATO countries along Russia’s borders, including the Baltic and Black seas, sometimes with ships carrying nuclear weapons;
• The fact that Russia remains the primary potential adversary in NATO’s military and strategic orientation and in its military doctrine for the use of nuclear and conventional weapons;
• NATO’s rejection of President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for a new European security pact to include Russia as an equal partner. (It also would make sense to consider Rasmussen’s call for NATO and Russia to review common threats and challenges in this light).
NATO cannot blame Russia for pursuing a less than friendly course with regard to the above-listed issues. The fact that Russia cooperates with NATO on nuclear nonproliferation issues and on combating international terrorism, piracy and drug trafficking cannot be viewed as a breakthrough in relations. The two sides should continue working together on those problems regardless of the condition of their relations because these are global threats affecting everyone. A real breakthrough can only be achieved by removing once and for all the direct and continual threat to Russia’s security posed by NATO policies and practices.
In his Friday speech, Rasmussen said, “NATO-Russia cooperation is not a matter of choice, it is a matter of necessity.” But that intention should be backed up by concrete actions from the alliance, keeping in mind that Russia will never consent to be relegated to the sidelines of the civilized world — in neither the political, economic nor military sense.

Vladimir Kozin heads the political analysis and forecasting section of the department for general Asian affairs of the Foreign Ministry. The opinions expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect official Russian policy.

TITLE: Today Putin, Tomorrow a Prison Toilet
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: There is a rather wealthy fellow named Andrei Boiko who co-owns the Burevestnik Yacht Club on the Moscow River. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently paid a visit to the club. Boiko couldn’t have been happier. He showed the prime minister around, saying, “This is mine, and that over there is mine, too.” A week later, Boiko was in jail.
Maybe Putin didn’t like the club members’ opulent lifestyle during the economic crisis. Or maybe someone in Putin’s retinue has his eye on Boiko’s business. Either way, it is a decidedly bad sign when someone lands in jail just seven days after receiving the prime minister as a guest.
A couple of months ago, a kebab house called Anti-Sovietskaya opened up in Moscow. There was nothing so unusual about the name. It just happens to be located opposite the Sovietskaya Hotel, and so that spot — a virtual cult hangout for writers in the 1970s — came to be called the Anti-Sovietskaya. Unfortunately for the restaurant’s owners, however, the new district prefect, Oleg Mitvol, heard about the kebab house with the unpatriotic name. He sent his men over with orders to, “Pull down that sign by 6 o’clock this evening.”
It is just such little pleasantries that make up daily life in Russia. Today you’re sitting next to the prime minister, and tomorrow you’re sitting next to a prison toilet. Today you buy a swanky restaurant and turn it into an affordable kebab house, and tomorrow you’ve got Oleg Mitvol and his minions breathing down your neck.
At the same time, we’ve got President Dmitry Medvedev trying to correct the situation with his article “Go, Russia!” and the suggestion that the government consider a proposal by a blogger named Maxim Kalashnikov to build a prototype city of the future. Kalashnikov is not alone — I can also make a few recommendations to the president on ways to improve conditions in Russia. For example, he could use a fortuneteller to tweak the future and an astrologist to clear the channel between his body and his mind. Or I could toss the president the phone numbers of a couple of people who could put him in direct communication with the star Sirius on any cloudless night of his choosing.
Clever political analysts hurried to interpret the president’s article to mean that a rift had formed between Putin and Medvedev. Forget it. How could there be a rift between the one man who holds all the power in this country firmly in his grasp and his obedient sidekick who never had any power to begin with?
I think Medvedev’s article, like the blogger Kalashnikov’s pipe dream, is the symptom of a completely different illness — the complete and total paralysis of authority in Russia.
Russia has become completely ungovernable. Imagine if Medvedev wanted to issue a weighty command — and not even something really serious like freeing jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky or firing Putin. Consider what would happen if the government decided to reduce customs duties. The smugglers would make sure that the law never passed. Or what would happen if Medvedev decided to oust Mayor Yury Luzhkov? The wheels of government would grind to a halt for a full year. If it took Medvedev four months to name a replacement for the Moscow police chief, imagine how long it would take to find someone to replace Luzhkov.
And when the mechanism of government has stopped working, leaders are forced to busy themselves with the semblance of activity: writing inspirational articles, considering proposals by unknown bloggers and renaming harmless restaurants.

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

TITLE: The return of the salon
AUTHOR: By Larisa Doctorow
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: If you have ever dreamed of being invited to an elegant drawing room and finding yourself among like-minded guests, attending a concert where the finest opera music is performed by renowned opera singers from Russia and Italy, and concluding the evening exchanging views with the musicians and other guests — all while gazing out at the enchanting panorama of a city that Italian architects helped to create, and listening to music to which Italian musicians made a significant contribution — then a new initiative titled, “The Vernissage of Arts. An invitation from Fabio Mastrangelo to performances of Russian and Italian opera singers” should be just your cup of tea.
The management of the Ambassador Hotel, which is sponsoring these events, aims to bring together the performing arts and fine arts in order to recreate the atmosphere of the evening salons of the past, where music and art met. 
During the course of this year, there will be ten such evenings, the first one having taken place on Sept. 15. The timing was excellent, given that the event took place just before the beginning of the new theater season, when a number of arts festivals are launched all at once.
Anatoly Sharapov, the Ambassador Hotel’s general manager, said he and his team were inspired to sponsor a musical event by their address on Prospekt Rimskogo-Korsakova, the street named after the great composer. The hotel found willing support from City Hall and recruited Italian maestro Fabio Mastrangelo to take control of the artistic direction. The performances are structured around soloists of both Russian and Italian opera houses, as well as musicians from the St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk Philharmonics. Mastrangelo is an accomplished musician with broad international experience. After studying in Italy, Switzerland, England and Canada, he worked in Toronto, Arena di Verona and Nice. In his native Italy, he is now the main guest conductor of the opera house in Bari.   
The maestro has been living and working in Russia for seven years, conducting orchestras across the country. He recently announced to journalists that from the start of this season he has been appointed principal conductor of the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater. In spite of his busy schedule, Mastrangelo has promised to devote time and effort to formulating and arranging monthly musical events at the Ambassador Hotel.
At a press conference, the organizers explained how the project should evolve: “We don’t want these evenings to turn into club entertainment with a list of members, annual fees and so on. We hope to keep it informal. At the initial stage, entrance is free and will be by invitation only, because we need to see how our idea will be accepted and to prepare the next steps. 
“We are also launching this initiative as a precursor to a much bigger project. At present, we are involved in a project to renovate a building close to the hotel that we hope to turn into a large concert hall with a seating capacity of 800 people. After the renovation is completed, we will have great opportunities to invite both top names and young talents and entertain people.”
For the inaugural evening, Mastrangelo invited his compatriot, the soprano Daniela Schillaci, who is a soloist with the National Theater of Rome and Malibran theater in Venice to participate. Schillaci was joined by two soloists from Yekaterinburg: The tenor Vladimir Cheberyak, and soprano Yekaterina Neizhmak. The three singers performed arias and duets from Italian and Russian operas. During the two-hour-long concert, Mastrangelo accompanied his singers in the Italian repertoire and entertained the public with his favorite arias from Russian and Italian operas, focusing respectively on Tchaikovsky and Puccini. 
Neizhmak needs no introduction to the St. Petersburg audiences, who have often heard her perform at the Mikhailovky Theater.
After Schillaci dazzled the audience with an aria from Tosca — “Vissi d’arte” — Mastrangelo regaled the audience with a bit of local color, saying: “Imagine how she would have sung if she had had a normal night’s sleep!” It turned out that the Italian soprano had only received her entry visa for Russia in Moscow at five in the morning on the day of the concert — after spending the whole night in Sheremetyevo airport. Needless to say, she was heartened to hear promises from City Hall to grant her a multi-entry visa for future visits. 
Vladimir Cheberyak told The St. Petersburg Times that he was very satisfied with the first concert, saying it could be described as “a calling card for Siberian singers.” His hit of the evening was Lensky’s aria from the opera “Eugene Onegin,” which won strong audience approval. Since his graduation from Omsk University in 2001, where he studied both stage directing and singing, his career has gone from strength to strength. He has amassed enviable experience working in Kaliningrad and now Yekaterinburg, where he has been a soloist since 2006.  
The concert concluded with a scene from Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades,” performed by Cheberyak and Neizhmak. Their emotional singing and compelling acting caused the audience to forget that this was a concert and not a staged rendition.
Cheberyak is back in St. Petersburg this weekend to sing the title role in Verdi’s “Don Carlos” at the Conservatory Theater on Saturday. 
 In addition to music, guests at the opening event had the chance to appreciate work by St. Petersburg painter Vitaly Kasatkin, who specializes in relief painting and whose workshop continues the tradition of his family — who combined the images of Russia and Italy.

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: St. Petersburg youth activists held an unauthorized rally called <strong>Extremist Demarche</strong> — as part of national campaign protesting Vladimir Putin’s Law on Extremism, and the “E” (anti-extremist) Centers – on Sunday. 
Two dozens participants sporting weird clothes and red clown noses approached police officers on Nevsky Prospekt near Gostiny Dvor, surrounded by OMON special-task police, and asked them if they really considered them “extremists.”
In July, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev wrote in the state-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta that “the number of participants of different extremist movements — from nationalist organizations to groups of fans under surveillance of the criminal police — is in the vicinity of 200,000.”
There is a strong suspicion that the figure is exaggerated as the police tend to see rights activists, political opposition and even music fans as “extremists.” 
Earlier, The St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office admitted that local music fans are under police surveillance — officially as a measure to counteract “extremist activities.”
The city’s Primorsky District police “have organized the exposure of members of informal entities, whose activities may have an extremist nature, on a permanent basis,” the web site of the Prosecutor’s Office reported in July.
The district’s criminal police have identified and included on a register 88 people who attribute themselves to informal entities such as ‘Skinheads,’ ‘Aggressive Football Fans,’ ‘Punks,’ ‘Emos,’ ‘Black Metallers,’ ‘Fans of [now-defunct Russian pop-rock band] Kino,’ ‘Alternative Rock Fans,’ ‘Anarchists’ and others.’ 
Despite a heavy police presence on the site (at least three police and security service cameramen were documenting the event), no arrests were made.
Two major music events are taking place in the city this week, <strong>Ethno Mechanica</strong>, a two-day world music event held at the Sergei Kuryokhin Modern Arts Center, and <strong>Apositsia</strong>, an annual experimental music forum held at two venues this year, GEZ-21 and Manege’s Small Hall, located at 103 Kanal Griboyedova.
<strong>Ethno Mechanica</strong> will open with a performance by Belarus folk trio Troitsa on Friday and will feature Norwegian singer Mari Boine, a duo of Alexander Balanescu, the Romanian-born violinist and founder of the Balanescu Quartet, and local accordion player Evelina Petrova, as well as a number of other artists from France, U.S., Finland, Ukraine and the Netherlands.
<strong>Apositsia</strong>, or Aposition, will follow on Thursday, opening with a concert dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the legendary avant-garde jazz label Leo Records. Leo Feigin, the man behind the label will present new releases of his company and talk about its history, while Alexej Lapin, Gebhard Ullmann’s Clarinet Trio  and Sainkho Namtchylak will perform.

<em>-- By Sergey Chernov</em>

TITLE: Lady in red
AUTHOR: By Kevin Ng
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Just before the Mariinsky Ballet 2008/09 season closed last month, Yekaterina Kondaurova, a rising star and soloist at the Mariinsky Ballet, spoke to The St. Petersburg Times at the end of the company’s two-week season at the Royal Opera House in London.
Kondaurova, having risen to prominence in the past two years, looks a likely candidate for promotion to principal dancer in the future. At Covent Garden she had a heavy workload in the second and final week of the tour, dancing several roles almost non-stop within the space of a week — Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake,” the lilac fairy in “Sleeping Beauty,” and, perhaps most demandingly, three roles in the Balanchine program — the waltz ballerina in “Serenade,” the second soloist in “Rubies,” and the adagio ballerina in “Symphony in C.” On the day that we met she had just finished taking the morning class, and there was only an hour to spare before the general rehearsal for the Balanchine program in the early afternoon. 
Kondaurova is affectionately known as “Big Red” to the New York ballet-going public. It would be easy to imagine that it was simply down to Kondaurova’s red hair. “No,” she explained, “it was actually because of my costume in ‘Don Quixote.’ I danced a variation in the last act of the ballet. I shouldn’t have done, actually, because at the time I didn’t have a costume for that variation. And I wore the only costume available at the time for that ballet, which was a big red tutu. And after that they started calling me ‘Big Red.’”
 This summer, Kondaurova was the face of the Mariinsky’s London tour, with the publicity poster and booking brochure featuring her as the waltz ballerina in Balanchine’s “Serenade.” A week after the London tour, Kondaurova celebrated her 27th birthday in Barcelona where she spent three weeks with her husband and fellow Mariinsky dancer Islom Baimuradov. 
Looking forward to the new 2009/10 season, which ballet does Kondaurova particularly hope to learn and dance? “I really hope to be able to dance ‘La Bayadere’ next season.” Last season she finally made her leading role debut at the Mariinsky Ballet in “Swan Lake.”
“I made my Mariinsky debut in the autumn of 2008, partnered by Danila Korsuntsev. But actually I had danced “Swan Lake” first with the Petrozavodsk Ballet, whose director is Kirill Simonov. It’s Simonov’s own version of “Swan Lake.” I learnt this classic in just two weeks before my performance with the Petrozavodsk Ballet in a festival in Finland. For my Mariinsky performance last year I had about a month to prepare and rehearse the role. In July, I got good reviews for my ‘Swan Lake’ during the Mariinsky tour to Amsterdam. One critic wrote that I should have danced the opening night instead of a matinee!”
Kondaurova continued, “Actually, when I was much younger I didn’t really like ‘Swan Lake’ as a ballet. But, of course, having now danced the ballet several times, I’ve come to love it. It’s fascinating, this dual ballerina role of the black and white swan.” So, which side of this suits her best? “Some people think that Odile, the black swan, suits me more than Odette, the white swan. But it really depends on my emotions on the day. I love dancing both the black and white swans.”
Kondaurova joined the Mariinsky Ballet in 2001. “Really my career breakthrough was after I danced the William Forsythe program. I danced Forsythe’s ‘In The Middle’ and then his ‘Steptext’ and ‘Approximate Sonata’ later.” 
Kondaurova and Baimuradov created the leading roles in “The Glass Heart” choreographed by Kirill Simonov which opened the 2008 Mariinsky Festival, as well as roles in Noah Gelber’s “The Golden Age.” 
Kondaurova married Baimuradov, a distinguished principal character dancer, in early 2008 in a very low-key manner. “We just went to the registry that day at 8 a.m., before our daily class. My mother didn’t even know. We were joined by two of our friends who acted as our witnesses. After the ceremony, we went to take class in the Mariinsky Theater as usual.” Didn’t they host a party that night? “No, we didn’t have a party. We had to dance in a performance of ‘Swan Lake’ that evening!”
Their home is about 10 minutes’ walk from the Mariinsky Theater. “I am interested in fashion design and cooking. Islom and I love to cook and try new recipes. Actually both of us seldom talk about ballet at home.” Are they planning to start a family soon? “Maybe later we’ll have a baby, but not now. I want to spend more time with my husband first.”

The Mariinsky Ballet’s 2009/10 season will open with “Shurale” on Tuesday.

TITLE: Going rustic
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Ferma (farm) does not take its name lightly. A wooden feeding trough stacked full of pumpkins and root vegetables stands inside the entrance, beside another planted with heather of varying hues. One wall of the restaurant houses a collection of small, brightly-painted model cows, and an old stove that has been decorated with painted animals flanks the administration post. 
This is not to say that the theme has been taken too far, or that it has been done without a hint of irony — in the lavish toilets, the sounds of gentle mooing and chirpy birdsong are piped out of discreet speakers, and comically close-up photographs of farmyard animals adorn the walls. On the contrary, the restaurant’s light and airy interior design cannot be faulted. 
Despite the cavernous interior, the restaurant has a warm and cozy ambience due to the warm tones and tasteful furnishings in which it is decorated, as well as an abundance of candles and low lighting. The large main room is divided into two raised seating areas — one for non-smokers — by a path leading to an elaborate wrought iron staircase, and at the top of the stairs is a small balcony that would be an ideal location for small celebrations. For larger-scale private functions, there is an entirely separate private room with a capacity of 50, also located on the second floor.
Giant wheel-shaped chandeliers that were reportedly modeled especially for Ferma hang from the restaurant’s high ceilings, while an impressively large wine rack occupies one wall all the way to the top. The dominant style, in keeping with the restaurant’s theme, is “shabby chic,” with painted wooden paneling, a tiled floor, stripy white-and-beige tablecloths, comfortable chairs and floral cushions in light tones. It seems no expense was spared on the design of the restaurant, which opened last month, and the effort has paid off. The occasional potted plant, copper kettle and bovine idol add to the agreeable surroundings, creating an overall effect that is cozy yet uncluttered.
Such attention to detail in the design sets great expectations for the cuisine, which is a sweeping range of Italian, French and Russian dishes. Beef Carpaccio (310 rubles, $10.30) did not disappoint. Served with arugula and Parmesan, it was fresh, tender and crucially, just the right temperature. Another Carpaccio — this time of tomato (360 rubles, $12) was crowned with a hefty lump of Mozzarella that more than justified the price, and garnished with fresh basil and arugula.
Ferma has a genuine pizza oven, which, like the rest of the open kitchen, can be seen from the dining area. Since pizza in St. Petersburg so rarely comes anywhere close to deserving the title, ordering one seemed a good way to see what Ferma’s chef is really made of. Pizza Vegitariana (340 rubles, $11.30) rose to the challenge with aplomb: thin, zesty and piled generously with vegetables, though one diner complained it needed more cheese.
The only hiccup in the excellent service (the waitress was extremely pleasant and even had a sense of humor — not always a given in Russian eateries, sadly) was that there was a 20-minute interval between the arrival of the pizza and of the leg of lamb (420 rubles, $14). Served on a compact cube of cous-cous with roasted cherry tomatoes, the meat was cooked to perfection and served in a sublime gravy. 
Ferma’s winning combination of top-notch service and food in extremely agreeable surroundings has, it seems, already proved a hit on the local dining scene, for it was doing a lively trade on a recent weekday evening, despite its not entirely enviable location on the Vyborg Side, across the bridge from the Avrora. The large French windows look out onto the heavy traffic on Finlyandsky Prospekt — not the best view in the world — but after a carafe of warming house wine from Chile (800 rubles, $26.60), the sight of the fluttering stripy canopies over the windows and the tree-lined pavement outside, accompanied by the gentle strains of accordion music, may almost fool you into thinking that the cars are racing not to a bridge over the nearby Neva, but to the Seine.

TITLE: In the Spotlight: Slutsker vs. Slutsker
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Confessional, tell-all interviews used to be about ex-lovers, not children. But recently, Russian celebrities have been casting reserve to the wind and giving us blow-by-blow accounts of their custody disputes.
This week, gym mogul Olga Slutsker talked of her painful custody dispute in Hello! magazine — posing next to poignant photographs of her two children and curling up on a sofa with a toy elephant.
Slutsker, a former fencing champion who built up the World Class gym empire, is divorcing acrimoniously from her husband, Vladimir Slutsker, a Federation Council senator. They have been married for 20 years and have two children — not that you would guess from Olga Slutsker’s shots in a minidress.
In June, Slutsker gave her first interview about the divorce to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, saying that she was barred from her house and from seeing her children. They are “surrounded by strangers, psychologists, my husband’s kabala students and armed guards,” she said.
GQ wrote in 2007 that the best conversational gambits to use with Olga Slutsker were healthy lifestyle and kabala, but apparently the kabala later lost its appeal. Vladimir Slutsker is a former president of the Russian Jewish Congress.
Things got ugly in July when a man calling himself Olga Slutsker’s former driver talked to an obscure web site called VIP Novosti. He alleged that she went out every night and swore all the time. Scandalously, he also claimed that a top official at Gazprom Neft was her lover.
In the latest interview, Olga Slutsker says that she still hasn’t seen or spoken to her children, aged 10 and 5, since June.
She blamed her husband for spoiling them, saying he lets them play PlayStation and watch cartoons all the time, and now they aren’t even going to school.
She also called the heavily guarded atmosphere of the family’s house, “like a prison camp.”
At the same time, pop singer Kristina Orbakaite and her former partner, Chechen businessman Ruslan Baisarov continued their very public wrangle over their 11-year-old son Deni.
The story has had an extraordinary amount of coverage, not just in the tabloids but also in the more turgid state media, mainly because Orbakaite has been famous since she was a child.
Her mother is pop diva Alla Pugachyova, whose every move, hairstyle change or new husband has been the subject of furious discussion since 1975. By contrast, Baisarov is more prominent on the business pages and has kept a low profile until now.  
The story has been in the tabloids since the week before last, when Orbakaite gave a news conference at RIA Novosti’s offices. Wearing a black dress and minimal jewelry, she came across as confident and unfazed by journalists, even if she was oddly imperious with her lawyer.
The week after, Deni was asked whether he wanted to live with Mommy or Daddy in the responsible, psychologically nonthreatening environment of a news conference thrown by Daddy at the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper’s office.
A Grozny court awarded Baisarov custody this week.
I think the turning point came in February last year when pop producer Yana Rudkovskaya decided to climb over a fence into her family’s house in full view of the journalists. Her ex-husband, Viktor Baturin, who is Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s brother-in-law, had not allowed her to see their 6-year-old sons.
She also recorded a conversation with one of her sons and allowed Komsomolskaya Pravda to post it on its web site. In the end, she gained custody over the children.
The depressing link between all these cases is that powerful men have tried to withhold access to children from their less powerful mothers. In which case, all methods, including glossy magazines, are possibly fair play.

TITLE: A Special Farm in the Leningrad Region for Special Needs
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: SVETLANA, Leningrad Region — When Dima, 18, first came to the village of Svetlana, he wasn’t able to button his shirt and needed snow to be swept away before he could step onto a sidewalk. As a child, he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability and was used to being assisted with everything.
Now, less than a year later, he not only dresses himself in the morning but has become a happy and productive member of his community. During a recent visit, he was helping in a garden, moving a wheelbarrow of compost with a broad smile on his face.
“He never would have been able to achieve these results if he had stayed in some state institution for the disabled, where you have to take a dozen pills a day,” said Anatoly Nagalsky, while fussing around an oven, where he bakes bread for the village.
An oceanologist by profession, Nagalsky moved to Svetlana from Odessa, Ukraine, last fall, but he has already become an integral part of the community as its baker.
He seems overwhelmed with enthusiasm, hurrying around his kitchen to finish a fresh batch of bread in time for lunch.
Set in the countryside some 150 kilometers east of St. Petersburg, Svetlana doesn’t look like a typical Russian village. The population is young, and the houses are Norwegian-built. About 40 people live here, roughly split between those with special needs and volunteer residents, also known as co-workers.
The village is a part of the worldwide Camphill movement, founded in the 1940s by Austrian physician Karl Konig. The movement stresses that all people — regardless of physical or mental conditions — be treated as equals.
And while Camphill communities have become world-renowned for their positive results, Svetlana’s attention to personal development is an anomaly in Russia, where the intellectually disabled often live in poorly funded state institutions that have to focus on supporting people rather than helping them.
The co-workers — many of whom come from Western Europe — say residents with special needs usually change greatly after just a few months in Svetlana. They gain weight and break out of the routine of being constantly sedated with endless pills. They start smiling.
People come from all over Russia to live in Svetlana. The disabled are usually brought by their relatives, some of whom don’t have the means to care for them or just don’t want them to live in medical institutions.

Living Together
“It not so scary for foreigners to come to a Camphill site in Russia, as it is a world-known movement and they know what to expect, rather than at a completely Russian organization,” Sarah Hagnauer, a Briton who leads the Svetlana community, told The Moscow Times. “Some of those who come don’t speak Russian, but they have to learn, as you can’t do without it.”
She said teenagers who arrive from affluent Western societies are full of enthusiasm for helping the disabled.
“A lot of them come here without any real meaning to their lives — they’re living like robots. But life in Russia is entirely different, and it’s really a strong experience for people who come here and realize that they really can help,” she said.
Pierpaolo Bettoni, 32, came from Italy to improve his Russian once heard about Svetlana.
“I’ve spent just a few days here, but I really enjoy it,” he said.
Bettoni is helping with a cowshed, which is run by resident Sergei. With admiration in his eyes, Sergei looked at a row of his cows, saying he “gave names to each of them.”
In addition to some 20 cows, the farm has two horses, pigs and geese. The village also owns about 60 hectares of land, mostly used for farming.
Residents also work in the bakery and dairy, or practice woodcarving and other crafts in the village’s many workshops. Every hour of each busy day is scheduled.
The dairy is run by Sven Dietsch, who works there as an alternative to doing compulsory service in the German military, and villager Yulya, 18. With a shy smile, she said she liked to spend her days making different kinds of cheese, sour cream and butter. The dairy was initially built specially for her.
“I also like to go to the market to sell what we make,” she said, with flushed cheeks.
The villagers use most of the milk and dairy products themselves, but some of the goods are taken to a nearby town to be sold. Svetlana’s milk sells for an average of 30 rubles ($1) per liter, while others sell milk for 37 rubles, the residents say.
Constant activity is what makes residents’ lives here so much more fulfilling than in the city, where they are often forced to stay in their wards and beds, Nagalsky said. “It’s important to keep them occupied, interested in work.”

A Thriving Village
According to village lore, Svetlana was named in honor of the woman who first intended to build a Camphill community in Russia, back in the 1980s. She learned about the movement from a Norwegian exchange student, who was staying with her and her disabled daughter.
Svetlana wanted to bring the movement to Russia but died of cancer before she could start the village herself. A group of volunteers who established the village in the early 1990s decided to name it after her.
The community was given 60 hectares by the administration of the local Volkhov district in 1992, when vast expanses of land became available as the system of collective farming was collapsing. In 1994, the first houses were built.
The movement, however, dates back much further.
Inspired by the works of philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner — collectively called anthroposophy — the Camphill organizers started working with children who had developmental disabilities. Steiner considered anthroposophy to be a science of the spirit and a path of self-knowledge.
By the end of the 1940s, five Camphill centers had been set up in Scotland to allow people with special needs to live within a supportive community.
The communities were initially designed to make it possible for each individual to share his or her personal life ambition and develop their abilities. Christianity is a key part of village life in Svetlana, although its religious activities are nondenominational.
The movement now has more than 100 communities in 22 countries, primarily in North America and Europe, but also in southern Africa and India.
While driving to Svetlana from the nearest bus stop, about 10 kilometers away, the travelers pass decaying wooden houses and occasionally a few elderly residents.
There are many dying villages in Russia, where virtually everyone has either left or are drinking themselves to extinction. And that’s partly why Svetlana has been so well received, said Hagnauer, the village leader.
“Only we have children for three kilometers in any direction, because all the young families from nearby places have moved to St. Petersburg,” she said.

‘Problems of Their Own’
Svetlana was given its land, but the community doesn’t receive any help from the regional or local government. And frankly, Hagnauer said, it doesn’t want any.
“We don’t want to fulfill government programs. If the government creates a program saying ‘this should happen in the Leningrad region, and we’ll give so much money for you to do it,’ then you become dependent on the program and have to do exactly what the government says,” she said. “We have a very different kind of life here, in many ways.”
Even a quick visit to the region is enough to see that the Leningrad region has plenty of other ways to spend its money, with roads in disrepair and an aging population living on small monthly pensions.
“They have enough problems of their own. Some things are getting better, but you still can’t compare it to Moscow,” Hagnauer said.
Like any nongovernmental organization, Svetlana welcomes financial support, however, because more equipment — like a bus for trips to the city or a video projector for studies — is always needed.
In February, a nursing home fire in the republic of Komi, in northwestern Russia, killed at least 25 people, leading the government to order fire-safety checks at all nursing homes and other public institutions.
As a result, fire officials demanded that Svetlana update its alarm system or abandon the site. Installing the new equipment became a costly enterprise for the village, which managed to survive thanks to private donations obtained despite the financial crisis.
The village began receiving broader support from the public since a documentary about it was broadcast last fall on the state’s Channel One television. Now, they receive many more calls from people all over Russia who would like to move to the village or settle their relatives there.
Hagnauer said it was hard for her to turn them down, but the village is currently full. Even if it were to grow, Svetlana alone would not be able to accommodate all Russians with special needs.
The Health and Social Development Ministry estimates that there are more than 13 million people living with disabilities in Russia.
Many of the people who call say they like the village’s philosophy of sharing and cooperation, but so far no one has attempted to build on its success, Hagnauer said.
“The problem is to find someone to live in a village with enough strength and vision to carry it through,” she said.
Nagalsky, the baker, said he thought there was too little willingness from the government — and too many disabled people — for any quick improvements. Svetlana has succeeded because it’s a European movement, but there is no such project on the national level, he said.
“Camphill villages alone can’t solve these problems,” he said
Dima’s mother, Yelena, who declined to give her last name, arrived with her son from Ukraine to live here and believes that more communities like Svetlana should be created. She said she was planning to establish a Camphill community in Ukraine.
“The communities can bring more humanity to society,” she said. “They might not be able to solve the whole problem, but at least it’s a part.”