SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1547 (8), Friday, February 12, 2010
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TITLE: Finns See Opportunity Amid Masses Of Waste
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Riches from oil, gas, metals and timber have beckoned dozens of multinational companies to Russia, but just one has set up shop here to cash in on the country’s abundant supply of garbage. 
And when many of those same industrial giants had to cut down on business during last year’s economic slowdown, the Finnish firm Lassila & Tikanoja faced no disastrous drop in the amount of waste — and so it kept investing. 
“It’s good to be in a different kind of business than all the others,” said Jaana Mulari, L&T director for Baltic countries and Russia. “In many cases, we are like pioneers. We are proud of it.” 
She described waste recycling as “untouched ground” in Russia. The 2 million euro ($2.7 million) solid-waste sorting plant that the company is building in the Moscow region would be one of just a handful of its kind when completed next year, said Mulari and Kirill Dzyuba, the company’s waste management director for Russia. 
But as with all foreign investments in Russia, the waste management business is not without its risks. Lucrative markets like Moscow have been cornered by companies with close ties to the local government, while even smaller cities in the surrounding region can reconsider contracts on whim. 
Present in Russia since 2005, L&T has been providing environmental management services — such as sorting and collecting waste — for corporate and municipal customers. It also does property cleaning inside and outside office buildings and industrial facilities, a business that is as large here as the waste handling, Mulari said. 
At home, L&T is the market leader in environmental services and the runner-up in property maintenance, she said. Traded on Nasdaq OMX Helsinki, the company earned 33.1 million euros of profit in and outside Finland last year, compared with 40 million euros in the previous year. It also operates in Sweden and Latvia, but does not break down its results by country. 
Tempted by the big Russian market, L&T entered the country by acquiring the Moscow company Alfa Clean, but the different business culture and the economic downturn dampened the growth rate, Mulari said. 
“Expectations we had about growth were much bigger,” she said in an interview at the company’s office in northern Moscow, near the Sviblovo metro station. “We didn’t understand all the difficulties that we would face here. We just thought that Russia was big enough for us to grow.” 
In waste removal, the majority of work is done for municipalities — in the Moscow region towns of Noginsk, Sergiyev Posad and the areas in and around the towns of Dubna and Taldom, she said. The pitfalls here stem from elections, because incoming mayors sometimes overhaul local waste management systems, Dzyuba said. 
“There are political risks,” he said. “The stronger and more stable the authorities, the easier it is for us to work.” 
The crisis knocked out some of the corporate customers or made them cut spending on waste management, but it did not reduce the amount of residential waste, except for trash that comes from renovating apartments, Dzyuba said. 
“People didn’t start to consume tangibly less, in our view,” he said. The company has avoided offering its waste management expertise in Moscow so far because the market is full of competition and complicated “relationships,” Mulari said. 
“It can be difficult to go between those relationships,” she said, in an apparent reference to the city’s notoriously corrupt bureaucracy. 
In Noginsk, the authorities are moderately positive about the Finnish waste manager. 
“There have been changes for the better,” said the town’s maintenance chief, Vladimir Ageyev. “They work with more quality than the company that used to do it before.” 
L&T uses new trucks and more powerful waste compressing equipment, which allows them to run fewer trucks, he said. They have also installed 800 plastic dumpsters with lids that prevent trash from flying off with the wind, he said. Preparations are under way to introduce a separate waste collection system for recyclable items, he said. 
Ageyev also said the company had things to work on, declining to elaborate. 
Marina Blokhina, a manager at waste removal company Eko-Peresvet in a neighboring town, pointed out the flaws. L&T workers do not sweep the area around the often-overflowing dumpsters, sometimes leaving behind untidy sites, she said. 
The Finns charge at least 10 percent more than their Russian rivals, she said. 
But Mulari says the cleaning business is also not seamless. Customers, usually Russian ones, often back out of long-term contracts after just a year of services or flout agreements by delaying the start of their implementation, she complained. 
“Planning is not usual for the Russian business culture,” she said. “It’s not so organized.”

TITLE: Hundreds Protest Closure of City Market
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Hundreds of business owners who used to work at the Khasansky market in the East of the city came out in protest this week against its closure to make way for the construction of a new market complex, saying the closure was illegal and would leave up to 4,000 people unemployed.
“We’ll stay here until we win!” said Viktor Dovzhenko, head of Khasansky market’s council of business owners, on Thursday. “And we’ll make the city authorities take us into consideration, because the market’s closure is a complete violation of our rights.
“The closure of the market will leave up to 400 entrepreneurs who own businesses here jobless, along with thousands of other workers such as salesmen, loaders, suppliers and others,” said Dovzhenko.
Olga Kozlova, 53, whose entire family worked at the market, said the closure would bring her family to a “financial collapse.”
“My daughter-in-law owned a clothes shop here,” said Kozlova. “I worked at her shop as a saleswoman, and my husband as a security guard at the market.  So we have all lost our jobs. At our age, neither I nor my husband will be able to find any other decent job now,” she said.
The protests reached their peak on Tuesday, after the deadline set by the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court for vacating the market’s premises expired, and an unidentified construction company began building a construction fence around the market. OMON special-task police detained 10 of the market’s protesters the same day. The events prompted most of the market’s traders to take away their goods for fear they could be damaged.
After Tuesday’s protests, Khasansky market’s business owners went to the office of the Russian President’s representative in the northwest region, Ilya Klebanov, to hand over a request to investigate the situation.
Vladimir Zolotov, 55, an entrepreneur who used to own two car-parts outlets at the market, said most of the market’s businessmen had “invested years of work and a great deal of money into the place to build up its infrastructure.”
“And now we don’t want to lose it all just so someone else can make a profit,” said Zolotov.
“Of course, it’s profitable for the city to get its hands on this place, which already has a full infrastructure that would save the place’s new owners lots of money. Nobody cares about our situation,” Zolotov said on Thursday, standing in front of the market’s empty kiosks, whose owners had taken away their goods, fearing they could be damaged if the traders were forced out.
On Thursday, several police cars and an OMON truck stood outside the construction fence at the market, though no action was taken.
Dovzhenko said there was no legal basis for closing the market. He said that during the last two years, the Khasansky council of business owners had made various offers to City Hall for the reconstruction of the market and offered to invest in the project, but they had been ignored by the city’s administration.
Instead, the market’s traders were advised to move to the Irinovsky market, which does not offer appropriate conditions, Dovzhenko said.
“Irinovsky market consists of tarpaulin tents with no electricity, heating or water,” said Dovzhenko. “The rental costs at the market are twice as high as at Khasansky, and the location is very inconvenient for customers.” 
Vladimir Dmitriyev, head of the Communist Party faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, voiced the market traders’ appeal at a parliament session Wednesday.
“The council of business owners of Khasansky Retail Complex says that they need a dialogue with the authorities,” Dmitriyev said, Interfax reported. “The traders are prepared to vacate a part of the territory and then to move trade around gradually to make space for the construction. They are prepared to take part in the project for the new complex if the city gives them the land, and the business owners can carry out the construction.”
St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said last year that the reconstruction of Khasansky market would begin in 2010.
“We have decided to set up a combined food and merchandise market here that will be run by the city,” Matviyenko was quoted by Interfax as saying at a government meeting.
Many of the market’s clients expressed concern about losing a place where they could buy goods and food at discount prices.
Lyudmila Miroshnichenko, 73, who came to the market with her husband on Thursday only to find the kiosks and shops mostly empty, said they were “very angry” at the decision to move the market out of the territory.
“We’ve been using this market for years because it’s very close to our home and the prices are very reasonable here,” Miroshnichenko said. “For instance, two days ago we bought excellent tangerines here for just 30 rubles a kilogram and wanted to buy some more today, but unfortunately we were not able to. If they build a new fancy market complex here, the prices will inevitably get higher, and that’s not what pensioners can afford.”
About 155 markets, or four percent of the total number, were closed in Russia in 2009, including the country’s largest market — Cherkizovsky market in Moscow. Most of the markets were turned into retail centers, supermarkets and other modern trade facilities, Interfax reported.

TITLE: Lovers Donate Blood for St. Valentine’s Day
AUTHOR:  By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As Russian hospitals struggle with shortages of blood, the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Red Cross and the St. Petersburg  Blood Transfusion Center are organizing a blood donation project aimed at loving St. Valentine’s Day couples. The volunteers of the “Heart to Heart” program believe this is exactly what a loving couple might consider: sharing some of their warmth with the people in need.
Spending Valentine’s Day in a blood transfusion clinic may be a little too unorthodox a way of marking what is internationally known as “lovers’ day,” so couples are being invited to donate blood on the weekdays falling from Feb. 8 through 12.
Last year, 35 local couples took part in the Red Cross initiative and donated their blood.
“Most people may not be aware of it, but every day doctors ask relatives of their patients to find blood donors,” said Andrei Dyachkov, coordinator of the project in St. Petersburg. “It would be heartless to just leave these people facing this problem on their own.”
Each couple could help in saving up to six human lives: one dose of donor’s blood can be enough to provide for transfusions for three patients.
As a remembrance token, at the St. Petersburg Blood Transfusion Center, donor couples receive red rubber hearts, similar to rubber exercising devices used to enhance blood circulation during a blood donation.
Donors will be welcomed at blood banks at the St. Petersburg Blood Transfusion Center, St. Yelizaveta Hospital, City Hospital no.31 and the oncology department of the St. Petersburg Otto Insitute for Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“There is nothing more precious than a human life, and sharing the experience of saving someone’s life should create a strong bond for any couple, whether they’ve long been married or are just taking their first steps in their relationship,” said Roza Fedorova, a retired manager, who donated blood for 30 years. “I agree with an ancient Oriental saying that to save one life is to save the whole world.”
Over the past 10 years the numbers of blood donors in Russia has shrunk from 4 million to 1.8 million people, according to state statistics. In St. Petersburg there are 12 blood donors per 1,000 people, which is slightly below the national average of 13 donors per 1,000 people, and a far cry from the actual number needed. Doctors are extremely concerned about the blood shortage and say that at least 40 blood donors per 1000 people are essential to avoid emergency situations.
Russian clinics on average currently possess only 40 percent of the blood stocks and 10 percent of plasma stocks that they need to operate.
Most blood donation propaganda campaigns in Russia target younger generations. According to official statistics, most blood donors in Moscow are students. Viktor Grigorenko, head of the Moscow Blood Transfusion Service said universities are generally much more responsive to their requests than industrial enterprises or private companies.
As Dyachkov pointed out, blood donation in Russia is made difficult by an enormous number of senseless bureaucratic hurdles. Blood banks do not usually receive donors on weekends, except for one station, which is only open on one Saturday per month. “It may sound ridiculous, but while first-time donors can come to a local blood bank with only their passport with St. Petersburg registration, the regular donors have to provide medical certificates from their therapists confirming that they haven’t been exposed to any infectious diseases,” Dyachkov said. “This means that it takes a regular donor two days to make their contribution. This is absurd.”

Links: http://www.volonte.ru

TITLE: Yanukovych Consolidates Election Win
AUTHOR: By Peter Leonard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV, Ukraine — Stanislav Krasnov marched with the hundreds of thousands demanding a pro-Western government during Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution.
That government’s final days seem near now. A preliminary count of Ukraine’s weekend presidential vote shows Russian-leaning candidate Viktor Yanukovych narrowly beating Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the blond-braided heroine of the Orange Revolution.
Tymoshenko’s supporters are claiming fraud but Krasnov is indifferent. The 52-year-old security guard despises the current administration, and says he won’t protest even if Yanukovych pushes Tymoshenko from her post as promised.
As Yanukovych consolidates power, the era of revolutions in Ukraine appears to be over for now. The once-flamboyant Tymoshenko has kept herself under wraps, apparently deciding on her next move.
“I came to the demonstrations. But that won’t happen again,” Krasnov said, dismissing the idea with a wave of his hand. “No one will come out onto the streets for her now. She’d be standing here by herself.”
With Orange rule all but over, some Ukrainians fear Yanukovych’s rule could mean a shift to a Russian-style system with tighter control of the political opposition and media, along with deepening energy reliance on Moscow.
Election officials said Wednesday that Tymoshenko was 3.5 percentage points behind Yanukovych, who’s trying to build a parliamentary coalition to oust her. A Yanukovych ally in parliament said there is “hope” that legislators will remove Tymoshenko as prime minister in the next few days.
“The people have clearly come out in favor of change of power, and the prime minister should make the right decision and move to the opposition,” Yanukovych said in a televised address after the announcement of the provisional count.
A crowd of more than 5,000 gathered outside the Central Election Commission cheered raucously.
“At last, the victory that we have been waiting for!” shouted 43-year-old chef Galina Khomchenko. “This Orange nightmare has finally come to an end.”
Tymoshenko canceled two press conferences at the start of the week, and yet another one on Tuesday. Exasperating the press, she then canceled Wednesday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, opting instead to fly to an industrial town far from the capital, Kiev, to attend the funeral of an aircraft engine designer.
Her allies nonetheless say they still plan to give no quarter in challenging the apparent outcome in the courts, and have demanded recounts at more than 900 polling stations across the country — despite the fact that the vote received glowing praise from international monitors.
With more than 4 percent of voters casting their ballot for the “Against All” option, and 1.2 percent spoiling their ballot, Yanukovych seems to have won only the slenderest of mandates. That will severely hinder his ability to lead a deeply divided society and implement desperately needed political reforms.
Tymoshenko’s insistence on challenging what most observers called a clean election could give her the chance to chip away at her foes’ credibility and power. It could also give her a platform for a future run.

TITLE: Prime Minister Promises a Cleaner Baltic Sea
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised Baltic statesmen Wednesday that Russia would curtail its sewage dumping and reassured them that the Nord Stream pipeline would not harm the Baltic Sea, as Finland was nearing a decision on the final permit for the pipeline.
Putin, who was in Finland for a Baltic Sea environmental summit, also said Russia could extend its low duties on timber exports to Finland, an apparent attempt to encourage a positive pipeline verdict.
Finland will make a decision on whether to issue a water permit, clearing the project of any pollution risks, within the next few days, the country’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said Wednesday. It would be the last of three permits required from Finland and the last for a Gazprom-led consortium, including BASF SE/Wintershall Holding, E.On Ruhrgas and Gasunie, to begin work.
The consortium, Nord Stream AG, said in November that it was aiming to get the permit by the end of last year to start construction by the end of March. The pipeline would carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Putin emphasized that Gazprom and its partners made a considerable investment of 10 million euros ($13.74 million) to study the ecology of an area the size of Denmark and even gave way on concerns that he described as “speculative.”
“We acted in accordance with the well-known Russian proverb, ‘Measure seven times, cut once,’” he said, addressing the Baltic Sea Action Summit in Helsinki.
Putin, in colorful terms, expressed his confidence that Europe would continue to rely heavily on Russian gas over the next couple of decades, despite the progress made by alternative energy sources and competition from suppliers of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which is gas cooled to be liquid for transportation by tankers.
“Unfortunately or fortunately, neither solar power, nor woods nor dried manure — nothing — will replace hydrocarbons in the next 15 to 20 years,” he said.
Pipeline gas will “always” be cheaper than LNG, he stated.
He also noted that discussion of Nord Stream was more emotional than other European energy plans, saying other underwater pipelines — which carry more than a third of gas deliveries to Europe under the Northern, Black and Mediterranean seas — didn’t raise as many concerns on the planning stage.
In addition to ensuring Nord Stream safety, Russia will do more to make the Baltic Sea cleaner, Putin said. The government will present a federal program to that effect in May and has been consistently funding the upgrade of sewage treatment facilities in and around St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, he said.
Last year, Finnish authorities already granted Nord Stream a permit to begin clearing old, underwater munitions and use the country’s exclusive economic zone. The remaining water permit is the responsibility of the Western Finland Environment Permit Authority.
Putin said Russia was studying whether it could extend the freeze on higher timber export duties, a relief for Finland’s sprawling timber processing industry, beyond this year. Russia initially planned to introduce prohibitively high duties in 2009 to prompt foreign investment in local processing facilities but delayed the move twice at Finland’s request.

TITLE: United Russia Doesn’t Want Alexei Kudrin
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — United Russia does not want Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as a member because of fundamental disagreements over economic policy, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday.
Gryzlov, who chairs United Russia’s executive committee, reacted to Kudrin’s comments Monday that he was unhappy with United Russia’s left-leaning policies and its abuse of its status as the ruling party.
“[Kudrin] says he will not join United Russia — well, nobody has invited him to join our party,” Gryzlov said, Interfax reported.
He added that the question was a moot point because of “principal differences” with Kudrin over economic policy. “Every time he comes to the Duma, he comes under fire and faces unflattering questions,” Gryzlov said.
The rare quarrel between Kudrin, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and United Russia, which Putin heads, comes on the heels of another highly unusual conflict between United Russia and A Just Russia, the country’s second pro-Kremlin party.
That quarrel was settled Monday when Gryzlov and A Just Russia’s leader, Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov, promised to cooperate on key issues such as foreign policy. The two agreed that A Just Russia would continue to maintain its own position on economic policy.
Both conflicts originated in Vladimir Pozner’s talk show on state-controlled Channel One, leading to speculation that they were orchestrated by the Kremlin.

TITLE: State Vows to Defend Paris Land Purchase
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The government vowed to “defend our rights” on Tuesday after French holders of tsarist bonds valued at as much as 100 billion euros ($137 billion) threatened to sue the Kremlin and seize property it owns in Paris.
“May God help them,” said Viktor Khrekov, a spokesman for the Kremlin’s property department, after the Paris-based International Federative Association for Russian Bond Holders, or AFIPER, pledged to sue to recoup part of the century-old debt.
 “We have experience defending our property abroad,” said Khrekov. “Russia and France settled this debt a long time ago, so if they are planning to sue they will also have to deal with the French government. But they’re welcome to file a lawsuit; we will defend our rights.”
AFIPER’s announcement Monday came after the French Budget Ministry said Russia had purchased the Meteo France building near the Eiffel Tower in Paris for an undisclosed sum.
France was a key market for Russian bonds before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, with royalty to workers buying them for savings. Holders of tsarist debt have clamored for a better deal since 1996, when Russia made a $400 million payment that France said “definitively” settled debt incurred to it before 1945.
Some creditors accepted about 50 euros per bond as part of that agreement while others said the bonds should be valued at up to 10,000 euros each.
“The Russian state owes the French people a lot of money and there is no date limit for that, even if some of this debt is more than 100 years old,” said Eric Sanitas, director of AFIPER, which estimates that as many as 10 million tsarist bonds may be in French hands.
Sanitas said AFIPER can only take legal action if Russia doesn’t designate its Paris land as diplomatic property. The Kremlin says it will build a “cultural-spiritual center” on the banks of the Seine river.
“A church can’t be a diplomatic territory — well, not usually,” Sanitas said.
The new plot will be used to build an Orthodox cathedral, said Khrekov, who declined to comment on details of the sale. Construction will begin after Meteo France vacates the building in 2011 and may take two years, he said.
“The construction of an Orthodox cathedral will become a symbol of friendship and spirituality between the two countries,” Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Fyodor Ryabikh said. “This means the French government is paying attention to the development of relations with our country.”
Sanitas said a recent French court ruling that handed Russia ownership of an Orthodox cathedral built in the coastal city of Nice on the orders of Tsar Nicholas II may play to his organization’s favor.
The Cathedral of St. Nicholas, the largest Russian church outside the country, and its contents including hundreds of precious religious icons belong to Russia, a Nice court ruled on Jan. 20. The Kremlin argued that the tsar bought the land for the state and not his family.

TITLE: St. Petersburg Builds Bridges to Bavaria
AUTHOR: By Elmira Alieva
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The innovations, high technology and automobile industry of Bavaria will play a huge role in advancing the economy of St. Petersburg, according to participants in the Days of the Bavarian Economy event that has been taking place in the city this week.
A delegation of representatives of about sixty small and medium-sized companies from Bavaria, headed by Martin Zeil, Bavaria’s economics minister and deputy prime minister, visited the city to build contacts with local businessmen and officials. They have been discussing opportunities for cooperation in spheres including the automobile industry, energy-efficient construction, resource-saving production methods, innovative methods of waste recycling, modern medical technologies and the development of efficient traffic control systems.
“The aim of the event is to coordinate our cooperation on an equal footing in order to build a two-way dialogue,” said Alexander Prokhorenko, Chairman of St. Petersburg Committee for External Relations, in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times. “We are interested in work with a whole range of Bavarian clusters. We have export production that we can offer them and investment potential in the city: research facilities and highly skilled specialists. We have identified reference points and have discussed the opportunity that we have to conclude a cooperation agreement between St. Petersburg and Bavaria1,” he said.
Bavaria is Germany’s largest federal state and is located in the heart of Europe. Once a predominantly agricultural state, Bavaria has developed into an engine driving the German economy. In 1985-2005, Bavaria’s GDP grew by 28.2 percent — a rate of growth that was double that of the rest of Germany. Well-established research institutes in Bavaria contribute to the region’s international competitiveness in areas such as the automobile, air and space industries, electrical and mechanical engineering, and the production of medical instrumentation. One third of German enterprises operating in Russia are from Bavaria.
Germany is one of St. Petersburg’s leading trade partners. Its share in the city’s foreign trade turnover reached 10 percent in 2008. Bosh&Siemens and Knauf are among the global players from Bavaria represented on the St. Petersburg market. Bilateral trade between St. Petersburg and Bavaria totaled 10.9 billion euros ($14.98 billion) in 2008, but dropped by 40 percent in 2009 as a result of the global economic crisis. 
“However we have an optimistic forecast for 2010,” said Zeil in a statement. “There are signs that the crisis is being overcome, so I’m confident that this year will offer new opportunities for Bavarian enterprises on the large Russian market2,” he said.
“Before the crisis, Germany occupied third place among St. Petersburg’s trade partners. According to the results of the first 9 months of 2009, Germany has maintained this position proportionally to the shrinking of the market,” said Prokhorenko. “German investors have not left our market, having appreciated the anti-crisis programs that the city’s administration has implemented. We hope that Bosh&Siemens will continue to develop its production facilities in the Strelna region [to the south of the city],” he said.
The Days of the Bavarian Economy are being held in St. Petersburg for the first time, although they are already a regular event in Moscow, having begun in 1998. Active cooperation between St. Petersburg and Bavaria was encouraged in previous years by a working visit of St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko to Munich and by the participation of a Bavarian delegation at the St. Petersburg Innovation Forum. 
“One of the major outcomes of the current event is the increased interest of Bavarian companies in large infrastructure projects in St. Petersburg,” said Prokhorenko. “The results of the discussions will help us formulate a joint plan which will become an integral part of the agreement. This plan will include mutual commitments, time schedules and also establish the executors: state structures and business. We aim at long-term and fruitful cooperation with Bavaria,” he added.

TITLE: Leading Indicator Predicts Q1 GDP Growth of 3.5%
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Economic growth in Russia will likely be swifter than expected this quarter, with gross domestic product rising 3.5 percent from the last quarter of 2009, according to RenCap-NES’s leading indicator, released Wednesday.
The figure was revised up to a seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent GDP growth, up from an earlier estimate of 2.8 percent.
The revision was driven by strong performance in retail service, which the researchers said jumped 7.3 percent in seasonally adjusted terms in December, and some “sharply increased” Russian Economic Barometer indexes, which are a survey of economic conditions taken by firms throughout the country.
For growth in the second quarter, the indicator shows a more modest 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter growth.
The report also estimated that real GDP this quarter would rise 7.4 percent year on year, and that second quarter growth would be 8.1 percent year on year.
“Until recently, the recovery of the Russian economy has been fragile, in particular in manufacturing,” RenCap economist Alexei Moisseyev said Wednesday in a report presenting the indicator.
But the most recent official data “have started to show signs of improvement,” he said. The indicator projects an annualized 14.8 percent quarter on quarter growth in the first quarter, and that “suggests that recovery might well be on a solid footing.”

TITLE: Innovative Leap Backward
AUTHOR: By Vladislav Inozemtsev
TEXT: It seems that every time Russia’s leaders proclaim an “innovative leap forward,” the West publishes fresh statistics indirectly proving that such a leap is impossible. For example, a recent report on the number of patents registered with the U.S. Patent Office over the last five years shows that Denmark has more than twice as many patents than Russia, Sweden has 6.8 times more, and Canada — 20 times more. What’s more, Germany registers more patents in one year than the Soviet Union and Russia combined over the last half century.
In addition, Russia produces just 2.6 percent of all articles published in international scientific and academic journals, placing it 14th worldwide. It seems that scientific progress is practically at a standstill in Russia, while in leading industrial countries science is taking giant strides forward.  
Why is Russia falling so far behind? The standard explanation is inadequate funding. Russia’s 2009 budget for research and development was less than 170 billion rubles ($5.45 billion). By comparison, China allocated $136.2 billion. Russia spends only 0.75 percent of its gross domestic product on scientific R&D, while Japan, Israel, Sweden and many other countries spend more than 3 percent of GDP.
In the rest of the world, scientific achievements are first transformed into manufactured goods before they become a part of the national economy. In no country does the income from the sale of patents and licenses exceed 3.5 percent of total exports. This demonstrates that the driving force for progress is demand from the real sector, which is practically nonexistent in Russia. U.S. companies spend an average of 3.5 percent of their earnings on R&D, and in the European Union that figures averages 3.2 percent. In particular, pharmaceutical companies spend from 13 percent to 16 percent of earnings on R&D, and telecommunications companies — up to 19 percent. In Russia, that indicator does not exceed 0.5 percent, and such national flagship corporations like Gazprom and Rosneft spend no more than a meager 0.17 percent on R&D. Automobile and aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding and electronics — sectors that drive scientific and technological progress in other countries — are weak in Russia.
The second important factor is the overall deterioration of the country’s education system — not only in the sense that it is underfunded, but also in its loss of prestige. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Russia experienced a major brain drain to other countries. At the same time, there has been a sharp rise in the number of university students, while the number of professors has declined. To make matters worse, it is quite easy to simply purchase a “candidate” degree (something roughly between a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in the West) and even a Ph.D. in Russia without actually studying or writing the required dissertations. There are enough artificial holders of these degrees that their overall value has dropped markedly — even for those who earned them honestly.
The third major factor is the closed and fragmented nature of the country’s scientific community. Among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 22 percent of all scientific articles published are written by an international team of authors. In Russia, that number is less than 1 percent. Foreign professors account for 11 percent to 43 percent of teaching staffs at EU universities and about 9 percent in the United States. In Russia, the number is statistically insignificant. The quality of Russia’s scientific journals is rapidly declining. In Holland, natural science journals have a readership 40 times larger than Russia’s.
Can Russia ever become innovative? Highly unlikely. The government has made superficial attempts to build an “innovation economy” by throwing money at ventures like Rusnano, but little is being done to develop innovation from the bottom up. Moreover, the government is spending much more money on supporting the raw materials sector. This is a clear indication that the state is more interested in maintaining the status quo than developing innovation.

Vladislav Inozemtsev is a professor of economics, director of the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies and editor-in-chief of Svobodnaya Mysl.

TITLE: Letting Poor People Vote Is Dangerous
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Viktor Yanukovych’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election — not unlike the victories of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Adolf Hitler — once again raises doubt about the basic premise of democracy: that the people are capable of choosing their own leader. Unfortunately, only wealthy people are truly capable of electing their leaders in a responsible manner. Poor people elect politicians like Yanukovych or Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
When the Orange Revolution hit Ukraine five years ago, the people arose in a united wave and did not allow themselves to be deceived by the corrupt elite. That elite had reached an agreement with the criminals and oligarchs of Donetsk to make a minor criminal, who could not string two sentences together, the successor to former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
Five years ago, the Ukrainian people gave President Viktor Yushchenko a mandate for reform, but he failed. The country remains highly corrupt. One example: Yushchenko himself allowed the murky scheme in which all Russian gas came into the country through the intermediary firm RosUkrEnergo.
Whenever a weak leader is incapable of managing the state, he starts looking for enemies and begins stoking nationalist passions. Yushchenko singled out Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as his enemy and engaged her in a heated polemic over the Holodomor.
Another strategy used by a weak leader boils down to: “If I can’t achieve a certain goal, then I’ll do everything possible so that my opponent doesn’t achieve it.” Yushchenko adopted this policy, calculating his every move to make life as difficult as possible for his successor — and, as a result, for the Ukrainian people as well.
A key step in Yushchenko’s deliberate campaign of destruction was his decision to sign a law raising salaries and pensions by 20 percent, thus increasing the budget deficit by $9 billion in a single stroke. Right now, Ukraine is bankrupt and survives only with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund. Although the IMF warned that it would cut off its support if Yushchenko signed the law, he signed it anyway at the end of his term, knowing that his successor would have to deal with the severe consequences.
Yushchenko’s term in office proves that the weaker the leader, the more the leader praises the “greatness” of the country. But Yushchenko’s failures do not compromise the idea of democracy; they only compromised his own reputation.
It’s a different story with Yanukovych. Can you imagine U.S. voters putting a leader in the White House who is a puppet of the ruling elite and criminal clans?
Ukraine’s recent election witnessed the convergence of democracy’s two greatest weaknesses — the tendency to fear strong individuals (Tymoshenko) and the tendency to vote for simple-minded people (Yanukovych).
Poor people are capable of feats of bravery and revolution. They can storm the Bastille, overthrow the tsar or stage an Orange Revolution. But impoverished people are incapable of making sober decisions and voting responsibly in a popular election. And this, unfortunately, applies to Russia as well. In the unfair presidential election of 2000, Vladimir Putin emerged the winner.
Who would have won in an honest election? Mayor Yury Luzhkov?

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

TITLE: Still standing
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Chufella Marzufella is pure rock and roll. One of the best local live acts, the garage rock band inspired by the early Rolling Stones and Who has been pumping out great music since its first performances in the early 1990s. 
With its comical lyrics, the band was a breath of fresh air after the poetry-conscious Russian bands of the 1980s, playing no-frills, rough rock music without sounding like an imitation of Western bands.
Years later, they have not lost their youthful energy, even after frontman Pavel Ryabukhin quit his crazy dance routines — to the disappointment of some of the band’s early fans — and picked up a guitar when the band was in need of a guitarist in 1999. 
At a rehearsal on Wednesday, the five-member band prepared for a show scheduled for Saturday at the underground club Zoccolo, performing both old and new songs one after another, without a mistake or false start.
“We’ve changed as a band as much as we’ve changed ourselves — or maybe we haven’t changed,” said Ryabukhin, driving in his Kia car after the late-evening rehearsal on Wednesday.
“We didn’t really learn to play; we play as a band, rather than individually. Of course, everybody tries to play as best they can, but everything depends on the individuality of the group as a whole. The lineup is indispensable.”
Ryabukhin and guitarist-turned-bassist Alexander Nikolayev, both 41, are the only original members to remain with Chufella Marzufella, having played together since they were naval cadets at the Navy Submarine School in 1991. The band made its public debut at hippie club Sterkh in May 1993, and became a local underground favorite after they first performed at the pioneering alt-rock/punk club TaMtAm in January 1994.
“When we first formed the band, there were three of us, three comrades,” said Ryabukhin.
“It was just a band of three idiots, three fools, I would say. Everybody looked at us as if we were losers. We played two gigs, and before the second gig we were thinking, ‘Well, we’ve played enough already, let’s split.’ We didn’t plan anything. To devote yourself to music — why, who needs it?”
“Then things took a wild turn, with Ivan [Malikov, drummer] and Vitaly [Vasilyev, bassist] joining [in 1993] and starting to teach us to play.”
On Wednesday, during a tea-and-cigarette break in their rehearsal studio in the basement of a typical Soviet building on the city’s northern outskirts, the band members poked fun at a message from a girl who had asked them to “stop pretending and admit that your lyrics are just stupid,” and discussed how many people had downloaded their albums from Torrents.ru, Russia’s main torrent tracker, where they were made available by the band for free.
According to the web site, the band’s latest album, “Zapakh Khvoi” (Scent of Pine Needles) has been downloaded 557 times, while 110 downloaders went for the set of the band’s four other albums. During the interview, the musicians admitted they did not hope to sell many copies and were happy that so many people had shown an interest.
The Russian rock concert-going public is conservative, and generally prefers to go to a show by Akvarium or DDT — bands that have been active since the 1970s or 1980s, respectively. Both bands are very serious about their lyrics, with the music taking a back seat. The obsession with lyrics, which are often vague, coded and only seemingly poignant, stems from living during a period of censorship and lack of freedom under the Soviets.
“People expect a rock band to have a Pushkin, with a guitar and curly-haired — like Makarevich,” Ryabukhin said jokingly. Andrei Makarevich is the frontman of the Moscow rock band Mashina Vremeni, who is notorious for his didactic and “poetic” lyrics and who was indeed curly-haired during the band’s heyday in the 1980s.
According to Ryabukhin, he had no illusions about his band’s commercial potential. 
“I didn’t expect anything when we started,” he said.
“There were certain people who were expecting some profit, but I told them from the start. With lyrics like those I write, what profit could there possibly be?
“Of course, I probably wanted a bit of fame, but I didn’t think about the money. It was a necessity, in the same way as you need girls. A man needs women. It’s the same urge. Like if you are used to swimming all the time, and then the water is taken away. And nothing is good enough for you anymore.
“When you start to write, you get hooked. We got hooked, without thinking about it. But what’s interesting is that we only do things that we get pleasure out of. We find pleasure in making music like this, so we do it. We don’t play much, and we don’t record much.”
The gaps between albums (the latest one is Chufella Marzufella’s fifth and the first in five years) and concerts may stem from the fact that all the members have professional careers outside of music.
“I can say that if I had lived on the profits from our music, I would have kicked the bucket a long time ago,” Ryabukhin said.
“It hasn’t brought us any profit – only problems.
Chufella Marzufella recorded “Zapakh Khvoi,” which was released last July, as a trio.
“There were three of us in the band at the time and we recorded it in five hours,” Ryabukhin said.
“Then we lost it -- somebody’s hard disk burnt down and the album disappeared, so we recorded it again three months later. We came and recorded it in another five hours. Then people came and added brass, keyboards and some more guitar, so it took longer.
“But we did it with no takes, even. We just played it, and that was it.”
Ryabukhin, who admits to listening to Frank Zappa, jazz drummers and 1960s garage bands, said the new bands shown on music channels leave him indifferent. “There’s no rebellion as such,” he said. “But what is there to rebel against? Everything is OK. Guitars? You can buy as many guitars as you want – you just have to have the money. You can’t rebel against money.
“But it’s OK to immerse yourself into hippie aesthetics and universal love for a while. I like it. We keep on rebelling – on the level of our band.”

<i>Chufella Marzufella performs at Zoccolo, located at 2/3 3-ya Sovietskaya Ulitsa, at 8 p.m. on Saturday.</i>

TITLE: Speechless cinema
AUTHOR: By Elmira Alieva
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Cinema doesn’t necessarily need words to be expressive, according to the organizers of a year-long festival titled “Silent Film + Live Music” that kicks off in the city this weekend.
The festival, in which classic American silent films will be shown accompanied by live music performed by contemporary local musicians, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first Hollywood film. The event is organized by the Rodina film theater and the Tour de Film company, with the support of the U.S. General Consulate in St. Petersburg and under the auspices of the Presidential Bilateral Commission established by presidents Obama and Medvedev during their July 2009 meeting in Moscow.
The groundbreaking film “Flesh and the Devil” (1927) starring the remarkable Greta Garbo will open the festival on Saturday, with musical accompaniment from Vladimir Volkov, one of St. Petersburg top contrabass players.
“The idea of showcasing silent movies accompanied by live music is quite popular in Europe and the U.S.,” said Marina Korotkova, the project’s organizer and director of Tour de Film. “I have talked a lot to young people who come to our film theater, and I realized that they are not aware of the origins of cinema; they don’t know anything about silent movies.” 
In 2008, Rodina began showing silent movies, but concentrated mostly on European films. “It was Eric A. Johnson, Consul for Press and Culture of the U.S. Consulate General in St. Petersburg, who suggested organizing a festival of American silent movies to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hollywood,” said Korotkova.
“One day when I was thirteen, I fell in love — quite unexpectedly — with silent movies,” Johnson told The St. Petersburg Times. 
“My parents dragged me against my will to see Buster Keaton’s “The General” (1927.) Like any right-minded kid, I was wondering why the hell I had to watch an old film which was not only in black-and-white, but didn’t even have any sound! At first, I tried to watch Buster Keaton’s masterpiece with all the skepticism that a stubborn teenager could muster. But even today I can still remember the exact moment when my jaw dropped and I fell in love. It was thanks to “The General” that I learned that you can tell the perfect story without ever using a single word.
“When I arrived in St. Petersburg, I was thrilled to find out that the Rodina cinema was hosting a series called “Silent Film + Live Music,” and I made a point of attending as many of the film showings as I possibly could. Later I asked Rodina if they would be interested in doing something in 2010 to honor the 100th anniversary of the first movie ever filmed in Hollywood (a Griddith short.) As my colleagues at Rodina had already come up with a similar idea, it was easy for us to reach an agreement over this joint festival,” Johnson explained.
The repertoire of the festival, according to its organizers, includes only legendary American films — true works of art that influenced the history of cinematography. Every month from February through November, Rodina cinema will showcase the best American silent movies including “My Best Girl” (1927) with Mary Pickford, “Broken Blossoms” (1919) with Lillian Gish, “The Son of the Sheik” (1926) starring Rudolph Valentino, “The Black Pirate” (1926) with Douglas Fairbanks, and “Tumbleweeds” (1925) starring the first Hollywood cowboy, William S. Hart.
After peaking with D. W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” (1916) in August, the festival will switch into a lighter mode with films starring Hollywood’s greatest comedians: Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin. Each film will be introduced by a speaker who will provide context for modern audiences while explaining the great impact that immigrants — especially those from the former Russian Empire — had on Hollywood.
“The musical accompaniment during the festival will be performed by professional musicians, with whom we have already worked,” said Korotkova. “The music must match the video, and it must be contemporary. I want the showing of every silent film to be accompanied by modern musical interpretation of black-and-white cinema,” she added.
“I think that the true wonder of silent film as an artistic medium is that it forced directors, writers, and actors to tell stories without using any words,” said A. Johnson. “While the story lines of modern films often get lost in all the special effects, sound effects, and other noise which surrounds them, a good silent film focuses all of its attention on the story — even if this story is presented as an abstract painting or collage of black and white images”.

TITLE: Sweet Georgia?
TEXT: When God was distributing portions of the world to all the people of the Earth, the Georgians were having a party and doing some serious drinking. As a result, they arrived late and were told by God that all the land had been distributed. When they replied that they were only late because they had been lifting their glasses in praise of Him, God was pleased, and gave the Georgians that part of Earth He had been reserving for Himself.

— A popular Georgian legend

Kabanchik, the newly opened Georgian restaurant a short walk from the Chernashevskya metro stop, is not the embodiment of God’s private kingdom, and certainly not the embodiment of His cuisine. 
Kabanchik, its name the Russian diminutive for wild boar, is the fancy new outpost of a Georgian caf? on Vasiliostrovskya of the same name. The restaurant, housed in two modestly sized rooms, the back one non-smoking, steers clear of the rough wood and brick interiors central to the bulk of the Georgian restaurants in the city. The only Georgian symbol here is a small Niko Pirosmani painting leaning on the top of a cabinet beside the door.
The restaurant — with its high ceilings, decorative moldings, and grandiose chandelier — looks like a refurbished palace. The front room, where we sat, with its half-dozen tables covered in white linen and large oil paintings of what appeared to be Italy, was more than a little reminiscent of an upscale Italian restaurant. This, however, make sense — the premises used to be home to an Italian restaurant. Or, as the “Il Ponte” emblazoned on the menu and check would have you assume, still is.
On a recent Saturday the restaurant had few tables filled — though one occupied by a predictably raucous Russian birthday celebration, punctuated by song and dance, helped approximate the noise levels of a bustling eatery. The service was acceptable, though perhaps not as attentive as it could have been in view of the sparse smattering of diners.
The chakapuli (200 rubles, $6.50), a lamb and tarragon soup, was thin and one-dimensional. The khachapuri sloyonyi (180 rubles, $6) — a filo dough-esque layered version of the classic Georgian cheesy bread khachipuri — was full of flavor, but not the best example of the popular dish St. Petersburg has to offer.
Kabanchik’s menu offers a considerable variety of wine, beer, and spirits, including a palatable and reasonably cheap house wine (120 rubles, $4 a glass), though they seemed to be having trouble with their beers on tap, as my Kronehberg (110 rubles, $3.50) was only a third choice.
The main courses, both from the “chef recommends” section of the menu, were disappointments. The pirosmani (300 rubles, $10), a veal and mushroom dish cooked in a special clay skillet, was boring and the meat tough. The tbiliso (250 rubles, $8), a similarly prepared dish, with the addition of chicken and covered by a layer of suluguni, a pickled Georgian cheese, was richer in flavor and an improvement.
For dessert, the pakhlava (120 rubles, $4), or baklava as it is known in many other countries, was overly dense and dry.
The best Georgian cuisine is an engrossing and complex journey: rich, hearty and comforting, as well as exotic. Kabanchik’s dishes were all palatable, if overly salty for the most part, and didn’t take you anywhere.
Putting on our coats, we saw a middle-aged man — one of the birthday revelers — passed out in an overstuffed chair by the door, his head wrapped in a curtain. 
I guess when the food can’t quite take you on a journey, alcohol’s there to pick up the slack.

TITLE: Markets Snub EU Pledge to Help Greece
AUTHOR: By Aoife White
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BRUSSELS — Currency markets on Thursday snubbed European leaders’ vague pledge of support for Greece in case it defaults on debt, sending the euro down against the U.S. dollar and doing little to halt fears of market contagion.
The euro traded back near eight-month lows just above $1.37, having been as high as $1.38 earlier in the day on hopes of more substantive Greek bailout news. It was $1.51 in December.
The 16 countries that use the euro said they were ready to take “coordinated measures” if necessary to help out of its debt crisis.
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, speaking at a summit of 27 EU leaders in Brussels, gave no firm offer of financial aid to Greece, and insisted that Greece hadn’t asked for any.
“Euro area members will take determined and coordinated action if needed to safeguard stability in the euro zone as a whole,” he told reporters, reading out a statement agreed by all euro members.
This failed to soothe traders seeking concrete assurance that the 27-nation European Union can help Greece stave off a default and keep the crisis from spreading to other vulnerable countries, threatening Europe’s hesitant economic recovery.
Analysts said markets are disappointed. Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital said, “it just looks like a pledge of solidarity, but no actual details of a program which is why the euro is still in the doldrums.”
“Unless, there’s further news out later this afternoon, the markets will consider the EU summit response as a disappointment,” he said.
Markets see Greece at risk of defaulting on its massive borrowings because it faces several years of sluggish growth and mounting debt that current austerity plans may not be able to stem. Those fiscal problems have shaken the euro and exposed the vulnerability of Europe’s monetary union in times of crisis.
Euro members countries agree to limit their budget deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic output because overspending can undermine their shared currency. 
But those deficit rules have been broken repeatedly and have not been enough to keep Greece and other countries from getting into trouble.
Hopes of details on how euro governments could help Greece had earlier helped the euro climb higher. By early afternoon London time, it was trading over a cent higher on the day at just under $1.38.
EU leaders are meeting through Thursday afternoon at a summit delayed by snow and buffeted by winds that toppled flags of EU nations as leaders entered the meeting hall. The leaders may come up with more comments on Greece later in the day but there was no sign money was being put on the table.
Among possibilities for Greece that have been floated in recent days are EU member countries guaranteeing Greece’s debt, a special credit line for the Greek government, and bilateral loans.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked down a full financial bailout, but said other European governments would not leave Greece in the lurch.
“We won’t let Greece be alone but there are rules and they have to be respected and based on that we’ll issue a statement and an explanation,” she said.
French government sources said France and Germany want to offer only “political support” at this stage and that more precise plans of real help would come at a later stage. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, did not provide specifics.
A senior German official said that “no concrete aid measures are being considered for Greece or other countries” and that “there is no financing need at the moment” for Greece.
He said he expects Greece to come clean with details of spending cuts this year, going far beyond general promises to overhaul its public sector and reform pensions and health care. 
Greece needs to borrow euro54 billion (nearly $75 billion) from bond markets this year to plug its budget gap. So far it has been able to borrow from markets but is facing increasing interest costs as markets price in higher risk of a possible default. 
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has promised to reduce Greece’s deficit to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product this year, from 12.7 percent last year, the highest in the EU and four times above an EU limit. 
But markets doubt Greece’s credibility after it admitted falsifying statistics for years to make the deficit look smaller. They also worry that Greece can’t carry out any cuts because it risks social unrest. 
Greek workers shut down schools, grounded flights and walked out of hospitals Wednesday to protest austerity measures, and a much broader strike is planned for Feb. 24.

TITLE: Iran Claims Success In Enrichment
AUTHOR: By Nasser Karimi and Ali Akar Dareini
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions.
Ahmadinejad reiterated to hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a “nuclear state,” an announcement he’s made before. He insisted that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons.
It was not clear how much enriched material had actually been produced just two days after the process was announced to have started.
David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said that any 20-percent enriched uranium produced just a few days after the start of the process would be “a tiny amount.”
The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying the program is just geared toward generating electricity.
“I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists,” he said.
Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons if enriched further to 90 percent or more.
“We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don’t enrich (to this level) because we don’t need it,” he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
Iran announced Tuesday it was beginning the process of enriching its uranium stockpile to a higher level. The international community reacted by discussing the imposition of new U.N. sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury Department went ahead on Wednesday and froze the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs for their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.
Tehran has said it wants to further enrich the uranium — which is still substantially below the 90 percent plus level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads — as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.
But the West says Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the uranium to make nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad restated Iran’s position that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.
“When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb,” he told the crowd. “If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it.”

TITLE: Obama Report: 95,000 Jobs to Come Monthly
AUTHOR: By Philip Elliott
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The United States is likely to average 95,000 more jobs each month this year, while personal savings will remain high as credit remains tight, according to a White House report released Thursday.
The Council of Economic Advisers also trumpeted the $787 billion economic stimulus package, which it said has saved or created about 2 million jobs.
In a message to Congress, President Barack Obama pointed out that the economy he inherited was losing 700,000 jobs each month.
“I can report that over the past year, this work has begun. In the coming year, this work continues,” Obama said in a letter he sent to the Capitol attached to his economic update to lawmakers. “But to understand where we must go in the next year and beyond, it is important to remember where we began one year ago.”
Casting its first year as positive, the administration’s 462-page report served as a summary of its logic and a pitch for Obama’s future agenda.
Recognizing voters were likely to hold Obama to account for the economy, the White House team cast blame on their predecessors and unpopular Wall Street bankers.
“I think there’s just no way to understate how huge the economic challenges facing the country have been this past year,” said Christina Romer, head the Council of Economic Advisers. “So everything obviously from the financial crisis, the terrible recession, but the longer-run problems — the stagnating middle-class incomes, soaring health care costs, the failure to invest in education, innovation, clean energy — we certainly inherited an economy with a number of economic problems.”
It’s not clear whether the it-didn’t-break-on-my-watch message would resonate with voters. Republicans were quick to describe the document as propaganda masquerading as governing.
“The Obama administration’s report is full of blame for the policies of years past, praise for its own failed policies of the past year and promises about their ideological agenda to grow government,” said Republican House Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.
“Instead of praising themselves and blaming others, a greater focus on small businesses and smart solutions to reduce uncertainty and create jobs would be welcomed and is long overdue,” Cantor said.
Indeed, even adding an average of 95,000 jobs each month, unemployment is likely to remain around 10 percent through this year and not fall below 6 percent until 2015. And while Americans are likely to save more for big-ticket items such as homes or cars, it means a slower recovery for a nation that has lost 8.4 million net jobs since this recession began in December 2007.
Obama’s economic report predicts the economy could grow at a rate of 2.5 percent, in line with what the administration’s economists predicted last year.
Mark Zandi, founder of Moody’s Economy.com and a frequent adviser to lawmakers, said the White House economic projections track his own. A jobs bill worth $100 billion to $150 billion, he said, would accelerate a decrease in unemployment.
That also lines up with a bipartisan Senate proposal that promises to add 80,000 to 180,000 jobs over a year.
“If we go back into recession it will be very difficult to get out of it,” said Zandi, who advised Obama’s rival, John McCain, in the 2008 presidential election.

TITLE: Haiti Death Toll Unclear, Disputed
AUTHOR: By Michelle Faul
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TITANYEN, Haiti — Wildly conflicting death tolls from Haitian officials have raised suspicions that no one really knows how many people died in the Jan. 12 earthquake.
The only thing that seems certain is the death toll is one of the highest in a modern disaster.
A day after Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue raised the official death toll to 230,000, her office put out a statement Wednesday quoting President Rene Preval as saying 270,000 bodies had been hastily buried by the government following the earthquake.
A press officer withdrew the statement, saying there was an error, but then reissued it within minutes. Later Wednesday, the ministry said there was a typo in the figure — the number should have read 170,000.
A death toll of 230,000 would equal the number killed in the tsunami that devastated a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean following a magnitude-9.2 earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004.