SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1549 (10), Friday, February 19, 2010
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TITLE: Abkhazia, 
Russia Sign Accord 
On Base
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia on Wednesday signed a deal to build a Russian military base in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia, a move likely to further stoke tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi and further strengthen Russia’s influence in the region.
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Abkhaz counterpart, Mirab Kishmaria, signed the agreement on military and technical cooperation Wednesday in the Kremlin. 
The base will accommodate at least 3,000 Russian land troops, already stationed in the Black Sea territory, for at least 49 years, Abkhaz officials said.
“This agreement creates a foundation for the development of Abkhazia as an independent state,” President Dmitry Medvedev, flanked by Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh, said at the signing ceremony.
The agreement was signed during a visit by Bagapsh, a charismatic Abkhaz nationalist who was re-elected as the region’s president earlier this month, who met with Medvedev for talks in Moscow on Wednesday.
Russia recognized Abkhazia as an independent state in August 2008 after the Russian military crushed Georgian forces attempting to retake another rebel Georgian region, South Ossetia, which Russia also recognized as a sovereign nation. Russia’s support of the separatist government in both regions has angered many Western governments. 
Only three other countries — Nicaragua, Venezuela and the small Pacific island-nation of Nauru — have followed Russia in recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia effectively broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s, and most residents in the two regions hold Russian passports.
Nikolai Silayev, a Caucasus specialist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, or MGIMO, said Russia needed to build a military base in Abkhazia to counterbalance the presence of NATO forces in the region. Black Sea countries Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria are NATO members, while Georgia and Ukraine — also on the Black Sea — have sought to join the military alliance in recent years.
Russia started negotiations about building military bases in Abkhazia following the August 2008 war. Last year, a deputy head of the General Staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said Russian military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be built in 2010 and would each host 3,700 Russian troops. A naval base on Abkhazia’s Black Sea coast would also be built, Nogovitsyn said.
Georgia, backed by Western powers, opposed the initiative, describing it as a further violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. On Tuesday, Georgian parliamentary speaker David Bakradze told reporters in Tbilisi that plans for the new base are illegal.
“Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Georgian territories, and the deployment of foreign troops on the territory of another country is called an occupation,” Bakradze said, Reuters reported. “Since the Russian aggression in 2008, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have become one big military base for Russia.”
Senior Russian and Abkhaz officials Wednesday also signed cooperation agreements concerning transportation, including air transport, said Agrba, of the Abkhaz foreign ministry.
One of the agreements will restore direct flights between Russia and Abkhazia and oblige Russia to help repair the Sukhumi airport, she said.
Paata Davitaia, deputy speaker of the Georgian parliament, called on the Georgian leadership to ask the International Civil Aviation Organization to close Sukhumi’s airport, saying an agreement on direct flights between Russia and Abkhazia “violates all international laws,” Rosbalt reported.
The regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in bloody wars in the early 1990s, are almost completely dependent on Russia.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia use the ruble as their currency and Moscow has issued most residents with Russian passports.
The new base is one of several that Russia plans to build in the sliver of land that lies near NATO-member Turkey.

TITLE: Moscow Hosts U.S. Innovation Delegation
AUTHOR: By Rachel Nielsen and Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A U.S. delegation of White House officials, technology executives and social media enthusiasts arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a weeklong visit with their Russian counterparts to discuss innovation.
Formally, the meetings are an extension of the Bilateral Presidential Commission, created by the Kremlin and the White House in July. The “Innovation Delegation” — including the heads of Internet powerhouses Twitter and eBay — is here to speak with government, corporate and civic leaders about social media and civic issues, said a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
“That’s what this group is all about — using social media for the public good,” said Jonathan Korach, deputy press attache at the embassy.
But the high-power group arrives just as Russian officials are revving up efforts to bring in foreign investment, technology and brainpower.
No less a figure than Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has taken over the government’s commission on modernization, Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff and a longtime advocate of modernizing the economy, said in an interview to Vedomosti published Tuesday.
Additionally, President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a meeting in Tomsk last week with some of Russia’s top business leaders, whom he called on to invest in new technology.
The 13-member U.S. delegation met top Kremlin officials including Surkov on Wednesday and was slated for a host of meetings throughout the coming week.
Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev was due to meet the group Thursday, along with Yandex chief executive Arkady Volozh and Valery Zubakha, head of the Electronic Government project at state telecoms operator Rostelecom, ministry spokeswoman Yelena Lashkina said.
Korach, the U.S. Embassy spokesman, said the delegation would also meet officials from the Education and Science Ministry and the Health and Social Development Ministry.
Delegation member Jason Liebman, the chief executive of how-to video company Howcast Media, wrote on his Twitter page Wednesday evening that he was “just leaving kremlin after a great two hour brainstorm with vladislav surkov and arkady dvorkovich.”
In his interview with Vedomosti, Surkov made waves with his statement that “consolidated power is the instrument of modernization.” Dvorkovich is Medvedev’s top economic aide and another prominent modernization advocate in the Kremlin.
The visit is being spearheaded by Jared Cohen, a technology whiz with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s policy planning staff, and Howard Solomon, the Russia director for the National Security Council.
Executives in the group include Jack Dorsey, founder of the microblogging web site Twitter; Padmasree Warrior, chief technology officer at networking giant Cisco Systems; and John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, whose arrival coincided with a Kommersant report that the Internet auction site was launching a Russian-language version.
The delegation also includes officials from Mozilla, EDventure, the Social Gaming Network and the New York Academy of Sciences.
Another delegation member — the world’s most-followed Twitter user, Ashton Kutcher — asked his 4.5 million fans what Russian phases he should know for the trip.
One user suggested the Russian Internet meme “Preved Medved,” which is based on a picture of a bear interrupting a love-making couple in the wilderness.
The phase, a distorted version of “Hello Bear,” has enjoined added success since the tech-savvy Medvedev — who has his own video blog — took office in 2008.
The U.S. delegation is scheduled to fly to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Thursday night, said Yevgeny Savin, director of the Unova.ru, an innovation news web site, who is familiar with the group’s itinerary.
The Novosibirsk leg will probably to include meetings with Kendrick White, general director of venture investment firm Marchmont Capital Partners, which is based in Nizhny Novgorod. White told The Moscow Times that he planned to tell the delegation that “there is tremendous technology opportunity here, but there’s very little smart money.”
He will also recommend that Russia develop a number of “innovation clusters,” such as his adopted town of Nizhny Novgorod.
The idea has long been kicked around in the government, but previous efforts have had little success. Medvedev disbanded the Federal Agency for Special Economic Zones in October, just three years after its creation.
But the Kremlin is planning to create a new research and development center, which it has dubbed the Russian Silicon Valley.
During his meeting with business leaders last week, Medvedev said it would be a “city of the future, which must become the largest test site of the new economic policy.” Surkov said in his interview that it would need to attract the best of the best, like Soviet-era scientific centers.
State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, a member of the Duma’s Information Policy Committee, said on his blog that the world’s “IT gurus” would meet with Novosibirsk regional officials, stop by an advanced secondary school and spend an evening at the city’s drama theater.
They also will get together with young innovation companies based in a research center outside the city, including the Siberian Center for Pharmacology and Biotechnology, Uniskam, Alekta and Data East, Ponomaryov said. They will also hold a round table with the regional entrepreneurs.
Unova’s Savin said the U.S. officials and business leaders would return to Moscow on Sunday for meetings with Russian businesspeople and social-networking web sites.
Savin said he was organizing a round table discussion Monday at the request of the delegation, with the session to be dedicated to venture funding.
Russian Venture Company director Igor Agamirzyan will take part with representatives of web projects such as Actio.tv, Iii.ru, Tutu.ru and Kupivip.ru, Savin said.
“These kind of visits are not for immediate goals,” Savin said. Business executives “will make their own judgments and will build their Russia-related business based on what they saw.”

TITLE: U.S. Soldier’s Story Puts Relations in Focus
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The latest exhibition to open at the State Russian Museum this week puts the extraordinary wartime experiences of one U.S. soldier into the broader context of U.S.-Russia relations.
“A Hero for Two Nations” celebrates the life of “Jumpin’ Joe” Beyrle, who is believed to be one of just a handful of U.S. soldiers to fight for both the Soviets and Americans during World War II after escaping from a German prison camp.
The exhibition was opened at the Stroganov Palace on Thursday by Beyrle’s son John — the current U.S. Ambassador to Russia.
“Although people call my father a hero for two nations, my father did not consider himself to be a hero,” said John Beyrle on Thursday. 
“He always said that heroes were those who did not return from the front. He never forgot how, when he escaped from prison camp in 1945, when he was hungry and helpless, the Soviet soldiers helped him. He fought alongside them for two weeks, they saved his life in a field hospital and helped him to get to the American Embassy in Moscow.”
Joseph R. Beyrle was captured by the Germans after parachuting into Normandy on D-Day in June 1944. Sergeant Beyrle, a member of the 101st Airborne’s “Screamin’ Eagles,” was moved through seven Nazi prison camps, tortured and interrogated. 
His parents were told he had been killed in action, after American troops found his dog tags on another body — presumably a Nazi spy — on Utah beach. A memorial service was held for him in his hometown of Muskegon. But four months later, they received a postcard from their son, sent with the help of the Red Cross, telling them that he was a POW in Germany. 
In January 1945, on his third escape attempt, Beyrle succeeded and broke out from the Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz. He decided his best option would be to try and locate the Soviet troops — the only U.S. ally fighting in the area.
Once he encountered a Soviet tank brigade, Beyrle approached them with his hands in the air. “I knew two words of Russian: ‘Amerikansky tovarishch’” (“American comrade,”) Beyrle would later recall. In his own account of his adventure, he reported winning their trust by using his demolition skills to blow up trees hindering the tank brigade’s advance. 
He advanced with the unit toward Berlin, fighting alongside the Soviets and liberating the same POW camp from which he had escaped along the way. After being badly wounded in a German attack, he met Russia’s celebrated commander, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, at the field hospital where he was being treated. 
Zhukov gave Beyrle a letter of transit to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There, he had to convince the Embassy to take his fingerprints before they would believe he really was who he said he was — after all, Joseph Beyrle was supposed to be dead. Finally he was allowed to make his way home to Muskegon.
The items on display at the Stroganov Palace include the telegraph sent by the U.S. War Department to Beyrle’s parents telling them he had been killed, a postcard written by Beyrle to his parents from a German prison camp, his army uniform and other personal effects, as well as historic photos of the D-Day landings and some modern pieces of art inspired by Beyrle’s story and created especially for the exhibition.
Anatoly Tabunshchikov, 81, a Russian war veteran who attended the opening on Thursday, said that the exhibition “underlined the importance of the Soviet, American and British coalition that made it possible to break the backbone of Hitler’s machine.”
Tabunshchikov, who fought the Germans in Stalingrad (now Volgograd) when he was a teenager, said the exhibition depicted the real friendship between Soviet and American soldiers who fought together against a common evil.
The exhibition reflects a broader theme than the extraordinary wartime achievements of one man. Sixty-five years after victory in Europe was declared, it is a celebration of U.S.-Russian cooperation during the war, and a source of inspiration for current U.S.-Russia ties. 
The exhibition, which will move to Moscow on May 6 — three days before Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9 — and later to Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, is accompanied in St. Petersburg and the capital by seminars devoted to the theme of U.S.-Russia relations. Historians, veterans and their relatives, and U.S.-Russia relations experts including Ambassador John Beyrle will be among those gathering to discuss past cooperation between the two countries, the current state of affairs and opportunities for cooperation in the future. 
“My father’s story is more than the story of one man,” said Beyrle on Thursday. “It’s a symbol of the alliance between our two great nations, and of what we can achieve when we join forces. I think that serves as a very good signal for us in the 21st century, when we’re facing huge threats on a global scale, that America and Russia need to be together to face those challenges.
“As ambassador, I always say that there is far more uniting us than dividing us,” he added. “I hope that with this exhibition and seminars, we will be true to this idea.”
Beyrle, who was a Russia specialist at the U.S. State Department before becoming Ambassador to Russia, said the wartime experiences of his father, who returned to the Soviet Union and Russia several times from the late ’70s until his death in 2004, had inevitably had an influence on his career choice.
“Even at the height of the Cold War, in my family we always had a different attitude toward the Soviet Union,” he said. “My father always said that Russian medics saved his life, and that could not fail to influence me. There is never a day when I don’t think about what my father went through and how grateful he was to the Russians.”

TITLE: Telman Ismailov Considers Investing in Chechen Projects
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — Businessman Telman Ismailov and his son, Sarkhan, have returned to Russia and are investing in Chechnya, the republic’s press service said in a statement.
Sarkhan Ismailov was named a vice president of the Grozny football club Terek, the statement said. The announcement came after the Ismailovs met with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on Monday evening.
“I made the decision to entrust Sarkhan Telmanovich with this serious post in Terek. His concept for developing the club interested us. I’m certain that Sarkhan Ismailov will be able to solve many problems,” Kadyrov, the club’s president, said through his press service.
The elder Ismailov was briefed on a series of investment projects and expressed interest in studying them with his specialists so he could decide which to invest in, the statement said.
Senator Ziyad Sabsabi, who represents Chechnya in the Federation Council, said they were discussing a hotel complex in Grozny and a canning factory that would be built in either Argun or Gudermes.
Ismailov would most likely be interested in the hotel complex, Sabsabi said, adding that no sums were discussed during the meeting but that the projects would require several tens of millions of dollars.
A source in the prosecutor’s office said neither of the Ismailovs or their partners were accused or suspected of involvement in smuggling dangerous goods found at Cherkizovsky Market. A criminal smuggling case is being conducted by the Investigative Committee.

TITLE: Russians Close to Reaching Lake Vostok
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russian scientists have 100 meters of ice left to drill in order to reach the waters of the unique subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica. 
The scientists expect to reach the lake in 2010-2011. To make future research more effective, they have made a three-dimensional map of the shore and bottom of the lake, said Valery Lukin, head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition.
The scientists have also developed new equipment to ensure that their entrance into the lake’s sterile waters will not result in external contamination, which has been a source of concern among the international scientific society, Lukin said.
“The new borehole is currently 3,650 meters deep, and the total depth of ice above the lake is 3,750 meters,” Lukin said at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society on Wednesday dedicated to the 190th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica.
Last year, Russian scientists began drilling the ice from a new position after the dredger in the initial hole got stuck at a depth of 3,677 meters in 2008. The scientists diverted the route and began drilling again from a depth of 3,590 meters, Lukin said.
Lukin said the scientists hope to find live organisms in the waters of the lake, particularly near to the bottom.
“It’s very possible that we could find microorganisms that we’ve never known existed, those that lived in the waters of the lake millions of years ago,” he said.
Lukin said that the upper waters of the lake are probably fresh, while the lower depths are mineralized.
In order to secure the sterility of their intrusion into the waters of the lake, Russian Antarctic researchers and scientists of St. Petersburg’s Nuclear Physics Institute have developed special equipment. 
The equipment still needs to be tested, but researchers believe it should be successful, Lukin said.
Lukin said the development of a three-dimensional map of the lake would help researchers to plan their experiments more efficiently when they reach the waters.
Lake Vostok, estimated to be about a million years old, is located under the territory of Russia’s oldest polar station, Vostok, which was opened in 1957. The ice above the lake is estimated to be 400,000 years old. The water of the lake is fresh, but the oxygen content in it is approximately 50 times higher than in regular fresh water. Scientists say the lake may turn out to be similar to the subglacial water reservoirs on Jupiter’s satellite Europa.  
The lake is located almost four kilometers beneath the ice, and its surface is 252 meters lower than sea level. Lake Vostok is as big as North America’s Lake Ontario, at 250 kilometers long, 50 kilometers wide and 750 kilometers deep.
Russian Antarctic explorers began drilling down toward the lake in 1995. Work was temporarily stopped in 1998 due to concern among international scientists that no appropriate boring tools had been developed to make it possible to enter the lake’s sterile waters.
Other focus areas of Russian exploration in Antarctica traditionally involve research into Antarctica’s role in global climate change, and studies of the regions’ microbiological diversity and its ecological system, Lukin said.
Contemporary work in Antarctica also includes the development of GLONASS — the Russian satellite navigation system.
Lukin said that polar researchers expect the development of more infrastructure and transport lines at Russian Antarctic stations in the near future — in a year or two they plan to have Russian planes flying to Antarctica to deliver cargo and expedition crews. Currently American planes are used for that purpose.
“We also continue to modernize the infrastructure of our stations, which were mostly completed back in the 1980s. For instance, at Novolazarevskaya Station we have installed new heat insulation and windows, lowered power input, and engineered the reception of two TV channels,” Lukin said.
Viktor Boyarsky, head of St. Petersburg’s Arctic and Antarctic Museum, said Russian polar stations both in Antarctica and the Arctic are in serious need of modernization, which they have largely missed out on in recent decades due to the country’s economic difficulties.
Another novelty at Novolazarevskaya is a modern banya (Russian sauna) presented to the polar researchers by St. Petersburg’s Greenside construction company. The banya, which is made of laminated wood, is a unique construction in Antarctica, since until now, no timber buildings could be built on the continent due to its climate. Greenside developed new technology to enable a wooden construction to survive in conditions of strong ultraviolet radiation, low temperatures, heavy winds and sharp humidity drops. As a result, Novolazarevskaya’s banya made it into Russia’s Record Book and is a candidate for the Guinness Book of World Records.
“We really wanted to provide good conditions for our polar researchers at the station when we were building the banya, and we wanted them to have something special,” said Sergei Dobrego, head of Greenside, at the meeting Wednesday.
Russia currently has five polar stations in Antarctica. In total, there are 45 stations on the continent belonging to 28 countries.

TITLE: Drunk Policeman Runs Over Woman
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A police officer slammed his car into a female pedestrian on a central Moscow sidewalk while driving drunk, injuring the woman, senior police officials said Wednesday. 
Police major Alexander Razumnykh, a senior officer with the Basmanny district precinct, was drunk when he ran over the woman with his Mercedes at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Moscow traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev said in a statement. 
The woman, a 31-year-old resident of the Kurgan region who had temporary Moscow registration, was hospitalized with fractured ribs, Kazantsev said. 
The Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday that officers with the city’s traffic police and the Basmanny precinct committed a gross violation of protocol by not informing prosecutors of the incident. The committee learned of the accident first from the media, the statement said. 
Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev will fire Razumnykh and has asked city prosecutors to pursue possible criminal charges against the officer, city police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said. 
Kolokoltsev also fired the officer’s supervisor, Yury Bykov, deputy head of the city police’s central district branch, citing a “low level of work with his personnel, which has led to a number of incidents,” Biryukov told Interfax. 
The police force remains one of the country’s least trusted institutions. It has come under fire recently for rampant corruption and abuses, including several deadly traffic accidents. 
Former city police officer Roman Zhirov will go on trial next week at Moscow’s Nagatinsky District Court on charges of running over a pregnant woman crossing the street in southern Moscow last May, RIA-Novosti reported. Zhirov purportedly fled the scene, and the woman died of her injuries in a hospital.

TITLE: Court Suspends Ukraine Vote Results
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV — Ukraine’s presidential election results giving the victory to Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych were suspended Wednesday pending review of his rival’s appeal.
Ukraine’s Administrative Court said it would rule on Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s appeal by Feb. 25, when lawmakers had planned to inaugurate Yanukovych.
Tymoshenko has refused to concede, claiming that the election was marred by fraud. Instead of stepping down as Yanukovych prodded her, she ordered her Cabinet to work out a plan for economic reform for the next five years.
Tymoshenko also attacked her rival on another front, launching consultations in the parliament to derail Yanukovych’s inauguration set for next week. Her campaign chief, Alexander Turchinov, said Wednesday that Tymoshenko’s faction in the parliament would introduce a motion to postpone the ceremony.

TITLE: President Says Pipeline to Revive Greek Economy
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The struggling Greek economy may get a boost from oil and gas pipeline projects with Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Greek counterpart said Tuesday, signaling a new urgency for the projects to start up.
Moscow and Athens vowed to achieve progress with the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline in the near future, even as Bulgaria, another partner in the plan, has suspended its participation for additional scrutiny.
Tuesday’s statements showed that Russia still counted on building the Balkan line despite being discouraged by Bulgaria, which prompted the government in Moscow to seek joining an alternative pipeline, through Turkey.
“We have a mutual desire to do so,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said at a joint news conference with Putin after they held talks. “I don’t see any major obstacles for us to move on more dynamically.”
The pipeline — from Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast to Greece’s Aegean Sea coast — would take oil around the dangerously congested Bosporus straits.
Sofia took a timeout last summer to study the environmental impact of the proposed construction after a new government took office. Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said at the end of last year that Bulgaria also questioned its financial gains from the deal.
Greece has a newfound motive to speed up the project: its troubled government finances that have become a headache for the entire European Union. Papandreou suggested that work on the pipelines would revitalize the economy.
“The difficult situation will foster their implementation as soon as possible,” he said.
He said Monday, before the visit, that construction might begin within half a year, RIA-Novosti reported from Athens.
Putin said large projects are a tool to overcome crises. In the case of Greece, they would also attract the desperately needed investment from the global financial market, he suggested.
“There’s enough money for this type of projects,” Putin said. “There would be absolutely no problems with funding them.”
Moscow’s support for the Turkey route around the Bosporus leaves a question of which of the two pipelines will materialize or have an economic sense. Both compete for the same Russian and Kazakh oil that will be sufficient to fill just one of them to capacity, said Alexei Kokin, an oil analyst at Metropol.
Russia and Turkey agreed to step up their efforts to build the $2.5 billion Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline at a meeting between Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month. Currently, Turkey’s private company Calik Energy and Italy’s state-controlled Eni are partners in the project through a 50-50 joint venture.
Moscow, which had previously snubbed Samsun-Ceyhan, would clearly prefer the Balkan option, largely for reasons of diversification, Kokin said, pointing out that Turkey also controls the Bosporus straits. The Balkan route is also shorter and cheaper to construct, he said.
The South Stream pipeline — for Russian gas to travel to Europe under the Black Sea — is a more distant prospect, but with the same kind of uncertainty from Bulgaria. Papandreou said Tuesday that Greece was ready to set up a joint company with Gazprom to design the country’s stretch of the gas line.
Gazprom chief Alexei Miller met Bulgaria’s president and prime minister Tuesday, but a statement from the world’s largest gas company didn’t appear to indicate that he secured positive backing from the country’s government.
The sides only agreed that the immediate goals included a feasibility study for the Bulgarian leg and creation of a joint venture to do the design, Gazprom stated. Miller and his counterparts also proclaimed the importance of the new route for Europe’s energy security, the company said.
The South Stream would bypass Ukraine, the transit country that engaged in frequent gas trade disputes with Russia, which often prompted supply disruptions westward.

??Putin also played down Greece’s economic troubles on Tuesday, telling Papandreou that the United States was no better than Greece in handling its debt and fiscal deficit.
“As we all know, the global economic crisis started neither in Greece, nor in Russia, nor in Europe,” Putin said, Reuters reported. “It came to us from across the ocean,” he said, referring to the United States.
“[In the United States] we can see similar problems — massive external debt, budget deficit,” Putin added. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office projects U.S. debt to hit 60 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2010, while Greece’s debt has reached 112.6 percent of GDP.

TITLE: List of Government IPOs Will Be Announced Soon
AUTHOR: By Alex Anishyuk
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A list of state-owned companies set to be privatized will be announced within a few weeks, but the government will wait until the economy returns to full health before carrying out any of the sales, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday.
“We’re currently preparing the list, and … the priority will be given to transportation, logistics, shipping companies, as well as airports and seaports,” he said Tuesday at the Economist’s Russia Business Roundtable. “Be patient, wait for another few weeks, and you will have the list — we believe the first quarter is not the right time.”
In order to ensure that the government can make money on the sale and investors can generate the necessary returns, a fair price must be reached on the privatizations.
“This compromise is hard to reach during the crisis, especially since it was difficult to sell these assets at their pre-recession prices,” he said.
But Dvorkovich sees hope for the flagging economy, just as he sees hope for the poorly performing Russian Olympic team.
“I spend a lot of time watching the Olympic games, and unfortunately, the Russian team is not doing very well, but I hope we will catch up soon,” he said.
“The same I hope will happen with the Russian economy,” he said, adding that he was watching the Olympics on television until late each night, which has affected his working schedule.
Dvorkovich said a large-scale sell-off of state assets is necessary in order for the country to modernize. Modernization has become the motto of President Dmitry Medvedev, who hopes to kick Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels and develop a high-tech economy.
Last December, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the government would sell off most of the state enterprises slated for privatization through an initial public offering,
The government said last year that it planned to sell stakes in 14 strategic companies this year, as well as 435 other state-owned enterprises, for a total of 77 billion rubles ($2.5 billion).
But President Dmitry Medvedev last week ordered the Cabinet to sell off more government stakes in major strategic companies to private investors over the next two years and come up with a list of assets to sell by March 15.
The assets floated for sale last year contain such potentially attractive companies as the airline Aeroflot, television company Channel One, telecoms operator Svyazinvest, oil producer Zarubezhneft and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft.
Dvorkovich called on businessmen to support the government’s push to modernize the economy, saying the cooperation could be mutually fruitful.
“The government should share the risk with business. It has some resources,” he said. “We will share these with the companies that work in industries that we deem priorities, and we may reduce taxes for them. Which in its turn will improve the balance sheets of these companies and incite banks to participate more actively [by lending more].”

TITLE: Government Raises Foreign Aid 4-Fold
AUTHOR: By Alex Anishyuk
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The government nearly quadrupled the amount of aid that it gave to poor countries in 2009, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday, bringing Russia closer to its OECD peers in terms of foreign development assistance.
“Russia allocated $800 million from the federal budget, according to preliminary estimations, in order to provide aid to developing countries,” Kudrin said Wednesday. “Meanwhile, $220 million were allocated for these purposes a year earlier.”
In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin signed a framework document that called for the country to increase its participation in international development assistance programs and outlined several key points that the country intended to follow.
According to the document, Russia’s policy on international development assistance was to be carried out through grants, debt relief, loans and technical assistance for countries developing national institutions such as health and education.
In 2007, Russia wrote off 90 percent of $11.3 billion of Afghanistan’s Soviet-era debt and more than $20 billion of debt from poor African countries.
Although not all sovereign donors managed to maintain their level of foreign aid during the last year and a half, “the world managed to keep financing in accordance with the approved indices,” Kudrin said.
In 2008, international donors spent $119.7 billion on aid programs, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Kudrin said international aid has more than doubled since 2003, growing from $53 billion to $121 billion in 2009.
The UN Millennium declaration, a protocol of intentions behind international donation programs, aims to halve the proportion of those who suffer from hunger and those with incomes below $1 a day by the year 2015, as well as to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million people who live in slums by 2020.
Although Russian assistance through international financial institutions and UN agencies increased almost 20-fold to an estimated $800 million in 2009 from $47 million in 2003, the country still falls short of the sums donated by other developed countries.
According to OECD data, the top five donors in 2008 were the United States, which gave $26 billion or 0.18 percent of gross national income; Germany ($13.9 billion or 0.38 percent of GNI); the United Kingdom ($11.4 billion or 0.43 percent of GNI); France ($10.9 billion or 0.39 percent of GNI); and Japan ($9.3 billion or 0.18 percent of GNI). The $800 million Russia donated in 2009 would put it at an estimated 0.05 percent of GNI.

TITLE: Renaissance Taps BlackRock Exec Monovski for Funds
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Renaissance Group, the parent company of the brokerage half-owned by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, hired former BlackRock manager Plamen Monovski to revive its fund business.
Monovski, who co-managed as much as $9 billion at BlackRock’s Emerging Europe fund until last May, said he was named chief investment officer-designate of Renaissance Asset Managers following a decision to split Renaissance Investment Management into a fund manager and a wealth-advisory unit.
“Our aim is to build the leading emerging markets asset management business,” Monovski said late Tuesday. “It is an ambitious goal, but we have the strategy and team in place to achieve it.”
Monovski’s hiring comes a week after Stephen Jennings, the New Zealander who co-founded Renaissance Capital in 1995, returned as chief executive officer to guide the investment bank’s expansion into Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Jennings, who remains CEO of Renaissance Group, also hired four senior managers, including Nick Andrews from JPMorgan Chase, as global head of equities.
Jennings, 49, is rebuilding RenCap after the record rout in Russian stocks in the fourth quarter of 2008 forced the brokerage to fire 40 percent of its staff and sell half the business to Prokhorov for $500 million.
Monovski, a native Bulgarian based in London, said he would create a flagship Eastern Europe fund that will comply with the European Union’s UCIT standards to reach investors seeking easier trading, transparency and regulatory protection. Renaissance Investment Management’s existing Cayman Islands-registered funds will be moved to Luxembourg, which will boost transparency and liquidity for investors, he said.
“We will be rolling existing Caymans-registered RIM funds into UCIT structures and moving to an environment that is more transparent, more liquid and more regulated,” Monovski said.
The value of assets managed by RIM, which Jennings started with Andrei Movchan in 2003, peaked in September 2008 at $7 billion and then halved over the following four months as stock prices tumbled and clients pulled out.

TITLE: Dispersing the CIA Myth
AUTHOR: By Yevgeny Bazhanov
TEXT: It has become customary in recent decades to blame the United States for every catastrophe afflicting the planet — from tsunamis to revolutions. Before the United States, it was the Jews who were blamed for the world’s problems. In medieval Europe, for example, Jews were said to have spread the plague — and, ironically, the accusations were most virulent in those regions where Jewish people didn’t even live.
Governments have often blamed foreign elements for instigating revolutions. Opponents of the 1789 French Revolution considered it the fruit of an English and Lutheran plot, and Russian authorities considered the Decembrists to be French agents. Bolshevik leaders were thought to be agents of the German military, and Adolf Hitler viewed the Bolsheviks as part of a global Jewish plot. The capitalist West invariably implicated Moscow in national liberation movements of the 20th century, and the Kremlin was convinced that every right-wing dictator was a puppet of Uncle Sam.
But the truth is that all of these political upheavals were the result of internal forces. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many Russians thought that it was caused by the Central Intelligence Agency. No doubt, Washington did concoct various schemes during the Cold War to weaken the Soviet Union and possibly hasten its collapse — for example, drawing Moscow into an arms race by launching the “Star Wars” program and conspiring with Saudi Arabia to precipitate the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s.
But accusations that the CIA alone caused the Soviet Union to collapse are ridiculous. Why do Russians seemingly hold the CIA in such high regard? It can’t even uncover the simplest intelligence, much less cause the collapse of the Soviet Union. Take, for example, the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Shah Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi, a close ally of the United States, had been ruling the country, and various individuals operating as U.S. agents filled his inner circle. Nonetheless, the Islamic revolution, which had been brewing for years, came as a complete surprise to the shah and his cohorts. Then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter summarily fired the CIA chief and decided to conduct a thorough housecleaning at the agency.  
Nor did anybody in the CIA expect that the collapse of the Soviet Union would occur as soon as it did. After it happened, the U.S. Congress ordered an investigation to determine why the intelligence service did not predict the Soviet collapse, much less organize it.
The key reasons for the Soviet collapse had little to do with the United States. The reasons were internal, of course — not least among them were the perestroika reforms introduced in 1987 under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who understood that the economy had no chance of surviving without at least a modicum of democratization and economic liberalization. But those democratic reforms ultimately caused the already weak Soviet foundation to collapse. The political kettle had been boiling for years, and as soon as Gorbachev opened the lid even a tad, the country experienced a violent overflow of opposition to Soviet rule in the Baltic states and an outbreak of interethnic fighting in the Caucasus. The political explosions sharply exacerbated the country’s acute economic woes.
Things did not go well for the former Soviet republics either after they gained independence. People expected conditions to improve, but instead they witnessed the emergence of oligarchic “bandit capitalism,” which resulted in a huge gap between the few rich and the many poor. The great disappointment, disillusionment and chaos in the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union paved the way for new “color revolutions” in three former Soviet republics. The West may have funded some of the opposition forces, but it is ridiculous to claim that it caused these revolutions.
The Feb. 7 Ukrainian presidential election proved that the hyped-up claims of Western subversion in its color revolution was patently false. Conservative groups in Russia love to claim that the Orange Revolution was designed in Washington and that Yushchenko’s victory allowed the United States to control Ukraine and dictate Kiev’s “anti-Russian” policy. But when Yushchenko received only 5 percent of the vote in an election declared democratic by all international monitoring groups, this was a crushing defeat not only to Yushchenko, but also to the fearmongers in Russia who claimed that Washington had completely orchestrated the Orange Revolution. On the contrary, thanks to the democratic Orange Revolution, Ukrainians were able to remove an unpopular, pro-Western president through free elections.

Yevgeny Bazhanov is vice chancellor of research and international relations at the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy in Moscow.

TITLE: Liberals Lie, Too
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: A couple of days ago, I was sitting in a restaurant with an acquaintance who had started his government career working with Anatoly Chubais and Yegor Gaidar and who is now a high-ranking bureaucrat.
“How could Andrei Illarionov write that it is not true that Gaidar saved Russia from famine?” he protested.
“But it’s true. He didn’t,” I answered.
“It might be true, but Illarionov had no right to say it!”
We usually think that the words we speak should convey information, but some words or phrases are more like pheromones, which are “word hormones” of sorts that are used to trigger an appropriate reaction in a member of the same social group.
The ruling elite have a slew of such code words and phrases. One example: “Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saved Russia from falling into the abyss.” We often hear this phrase, but if this is true why are there hundreds of cases of Russian law enforcement officials killing innocent people?
“Putin saved Russia” is not meant to convey information per se. It is a pheromone that is “secreted” to indicate that the speaker supports the Kremlin line.
Here is another: “The United States is forcing its new world order on everyone else.” Russians are not alone in loving this phrase. It is equally popular among South American dictators, African extremists and Islamic terrorists.
Not to be outdone, liberals secrete their own pheromones as well. One of them is: “Gaidar saved the country from famine and civil war.” Upon closer examination, it turns out that this statement is nothing but a series of sounds not backed up by any objective facts. Of the 15 republics that gained independence after the Soviet Union collapsed, none — with the exception of the Baltic states — has implemented effective reforms or suffered famine, and only a few have experienced civil wars.
As Illarionov, a former adviser to then-President Putin from 2000 to 2005, rightfully pointed out, Russia did have a civil war of sorts. After all, Chechnya is part of Russia. Gaidar did, in fact, protest against the first Chechen war in 1994-96, but he did not save Russia from it.
At its core, the phrase “Gaidar saved the country from famine and civil war” differs little from “Putin saved the country from falling into the abyss.” It has no meaning other than, “I respect Gaidar.”
Liberals have another code phrase: “Putin blew up Moscow apartment buildings in 1999.” The Wahhabists have been carrying out major terrorist acts on Russian territory for more than 10 years. Not one person who believes that Putin was behind the apartment building explosions has been able to determine conclusively who blew up a market in Vladikavkaz in 1999 or the Nevsky Express train in December.
But there is one major difference between the code phrases spoken by the authorities and the liberals. Of course, the ruling regime needs lies because it has nothing to offer without them. But what I don’t understand is why liberals need to lie. What is the point in making the false claim that “Gaidar saved the country from famine” when he has enough real accomplishments to his credit? And why join the Islamic terrorists by saying that “Putin blew up Moscow apartment buildings”?
Lies never saved anyone. All lies lead only to ruin.

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

TITLE: For freedom
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A charity concert to aid political prisoners in Russia scheduled for Friday was on the brink of cancellation on Thursday, when the venue’s administration called the promoter to say that the planned concert could not take place due to an unspecified plumbing or roof leak. 
Mikhail Yeliseyev, spokesman for the United Civil Front (OGF), the oppositional political movement that is organizing the show, said he got the call when walking with Viktor Shenderovich, the Moscow-based satirical author and the concert’s compere, to the local studios of Ekho Moskvy radio to advertise the event.
“We have one more day to eliminate this leak, but to do so we’ll have to find out where exactly the leak is — in the head of the local district administration or in [City Governor Valentina Matviyenko’s offices in] Smolny,” Shenderovich said on air. After the program, the venue called again to say the promoters could go ahead with the show.
“It was a clever decision,” Yeliseyev said by phone on Thursday. “Because if people come to a concert and find that the doors are closed, they could hold a spontaneous protest rally.”
Called “For Your Freedom and Ours” — the slogan of the 1968 demonstration on Red Square in Moscow against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, whose participants were arrested and imprisoned — the event follows the tradition of charity concerts promoted in Moscow last year by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. 
As the union has no branch in St. Petersburg, the local show is being organized by the local branch of the OGF, the democratic movement established by former chess champion and oppositional politician Garry Kasparov.
As well as Shenderovich, who will present the concert’s program and has his own entertainment slot, actress Larisa Dmitriyeva, singer/songwriter Mikhail Kane and rock musician Alexander Chernetsky, who fronts the band Razniye Lyudi, will take part. Actor Alexei Devotchenko and rock musician Vadim Kurylyov of the Electric Guerrillas will not participate as previously announced, as they were both hospitalized with various illnesses days before the planned concert.
Sergei Davidis of the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, which organizes events to support political prisoners and monitors the situation, estimates the current number of political prisoners in Russia as “about 50,” which includes both those already sentenced by court and those still under investigation but facing prison sentences.
“For example, Artyom Loskutov in Novosibirsk — we consider him to be a political prisoner without a doubt; he spent a couple of months in preliminary detention, now he has been released without the right to leave the city and the trial is going on,” Davidis said by phone from Moscow this week.
Anarchist artist Loskutov, one of the most prominent participants in the “Monsterations” — colorful May Day events featuring artists and musicians, was arrested on drug charges in May, and maintains the drugs were planted on him by the police.
“We know how easily drugs are planted,” Davidis said.
“The combination of circumstances, of what we know about the person on one hand, and about the case and procedural violations in this case on the other, allow us to say that these charges have been fabricated, and obviously, we consider such a person a political prisoner.”
According to Davidis, legal persecution for political dissent in post-Soviet Russia is connected to Vladimir Putin, who was head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and prime minister before his presidency. Igor Sutyagin, an arms control and nuclear weapons specialist who was arrested on espionage charges in 1999 and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in 2004, is registered as a political prisoner by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and is considered by Davidis to be the first political prisoner in modern Russia.
Cases of political prisoners can be split into categories, said Davidis — “spy” cases of scientists such as Sutyagin, “Muslim” cases, economic cases, journalism cases and Natsbols cases concerning members of author and oppositional politician Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP).
“The Natsbols are the most obvious case,” said Davidis.
“There is a concept of prisoners of conscience, people who are not in fact guilty of anything and who are persecuted for fulfilling their legal rights as stipulated by the Russian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. These rights include freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom to distribute information, and freedom of religious belief. These are pure and classic examples of illegal political repression.
“This is the category to which the Natsbols belong, undoubtedly, regardless of their views. It’s obvious that they are persecuted illegally.”
According to the OGF, 150 members of the NBP have served time in prison, along with almost 60 people related to the Yukos case (most famously Mikhail Khodorkovsky) for what human rights activists describe as “political” motives during the past 10 years. The most shocking cases will be presented in displays in the foyer at the concert, the organizers promise.
Davidis said the idea of charity concerts came about after his organization held a number of street protests and small charity events, such as sending birthday and holiday postcards to political prisoners. Singer/songwriters Yuly Kim and Alexander Gorodnitsky lent their support to the idea of charity concerts, taking part in the first concert in May in Moscow, alongside Shenderovich.
The May concert raised around 300,000 rubles ($9,975), while the second Moscow charity concert in October brought in more than 70,000 ($2,327), according to Davidis.
According to the promoter, the proceeds from the St. Petersburg concert will be used to buy medicine, personal hygiene items and warm clothes for the prisoners, among other things. “To list all their needs is not possible,” the OGF said in a press release. 

“For Your Freedom and Ours” charity concert in support of political prisoners in Russia will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Finland Station Concert Hall, 13/1 Arsenalnaya Nab., Metro Ploshchad Lenina. Tel.: 542 0944. Tickets cost 400 to 900 rubles ($13 to $30.)

TITLE: Chernov’s
       choice
TEXT: January saw the demise of several popular local hangouts: <strong>A2</strong>, <strong>Mod</strong>, <strong>Achtung Baby</strong> and <strong>BubbleBar</strong> all closed their doors due to differences with the owners of their premises, and are now busy either looking for new locations or, like Mod — which has already found rooms just around the corner from its former location — repairing new premises to reopen some time in the spring.
February is another story. <strong>Glavclub</strong>, shut down for 60 days by a court for fire safety violations in December as part of the national anti-fire campaign that followed the Dec. 5 deadly Perm nightclub blaze, returns to the scene this week (see gigs for listings.)
The seminal club <strong>Fish Fabrique</strong> will launch a new concert hall on the other side of its courtyard with a concert by <strong>Kolibri</strong>, one of the city’s favorite indie-pop bands, on Friday.
Unofficially, it previewed the new room — named <strong>Fabrique Nouvelle</strong> — with a “friends-only” party and <strong>Tequilajazzz</strong> concert late last week. “Friends-only” means it was attended by almost every decent band in town, including members of Markscheider Kunst, Pep-See, Spitfire, Volkovtrio and Simba Vibration.
“As a person who depends on venues, I’m glad when any venue opens in the city,” Tequilajazzz frontman Yevgeny Fyodorov said by phone Thursday. 
“It’s good that it’s in the center, in a place where something happens — I mean Pushkinskaya 10 [alternative art center], and I’m sure that something good will be happening there, because I know those people.”
Tequilajazzz performed at the opening of Fish Fabrique’s first location back in 1994, and now celebrates the joint anniversary of the club and the band with concerts. 
“It’s just happened that we play at every Fish Fabrique opening and closing; it’s a tradition,” said Fyodorov.
“As of last week, we are entitled to free services at Fish Fabrique. We’ve earned this [privilege] — we’ll hardly use it, it’s more like a joke. So we played a short set, which does not represent us as we are today, because now we’re more complex technologically. 
“Those were more or less the same songs with which we opened the first club [in 1994].”
On Saturday, Tequilajazzz will perform a longer, proper set at Glavclub, which Fyodorov described as a “concert by request.”
The show will include the 25 songs best loved by fans, following voting on the band’s web site.
“Every artist is asked to play some songs by the audience, and we haven’t played those songs in years. We just wanted to see what people want to hear. The triumph of democracy.”
This week will also see <strong>For Your Freedom and Ours</strong>, the first local charity concert in support of political prisoners in Russia at the Finland Station Concert Hall on Friday (see article, page 5). 
And don’t miss <strong>Ian Brown</strong>! The former Stone Roses frontman will make his local debut at Glavclub on Tuesday.

<em>— By Sergey Chernov</em>

TITLE: Music at the museum
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Already famous for its rich art collection, the State Hermitage Museum also appears to be overflowing with original ideas at present. A performance by Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta chamber orchestra under the baton of Oleg Snetkov will herald the opening of the Seventh International Musical Hermitage Festival on Saturday.
Running through the end of February and fusing jazz, belcanto and baroque music in its playbill, Musical Hermitage encompasses a series of chamber concerts and jazz evenings in the Hermitage Theater, as well as in the Glinka Chamber Philharmonic Hall and the State Academic Cappella. The event’s international participation is by no means modest, with musicians and ensembles from Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Germany joining their Russian counterparts.
Founded in 1988, the Tapiola Sinfonietta has evolved into one of the most distinguished chamber ensembles in Europe. The company’s extensive repertoire ranges from baroque music to contemporary works by living composers. Saturday’s concert at the Hermitage Theater with a program of Mozart and Mendelssohn will mark the orchestra’s first performance in Russia.
Among the concerts of particular interest is a recital by mega-star British countertenor Michael Chance and Musical Petropolitana soloists Dmitry Sokolov (cello) and Irina Shneerova (harpsichord) on Feb. 26. The celebrated British singer will perform a program of Handel, Bach, Monteverdi and Vivaldi. 
Winner of the prestigious Grammy award for his participation in Handel’s Semele (where he sang Athamas) for Deutsche Grammophon with John Nelson and Kathleen Battle, Michael Chance maintains a globe-trotting schedule, with his engagements taking him to Vienna, Amsterdam, New York, Buenos Aires and Sydney. Chance’s vast repertoire includes operas by Handel, Gluck and Montverdi, Elizabethan lute songs and new works written especially for the singer by composers as diverse as Tan Dun and Elvis Costello. 
According to The Guardian newspaper, “Despite the abundance of younger star countertenors these days, none of them yet match Chance’s intelligent delivery and supreme ability to get inside the English language.”  
“The pivotal figure, on stage and in Britten’s score, is Oberon,” reads another review in The Guardian, describing Chance’s appeareance in Peter Hall’s 2001 staging of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Glyndebourne festival. “Michael Chance is a seasoned exponent of what is still the best countertenor role since Handel’s time, and every word, every malicious intention is crystal clear.” 
More baroque music comes from the Ensemble Cordevento which will perform a program of French, German and Italian music from the 16th to 18th centuries at the Hermitage Theater on Feb. 23. The internationally renowned Dutch trio — Eric Bosgraaf (block flute), Izhar Elias (guitar) and Alessandro Pianu (guitar) — recently created a sensation at Amsterdam’s Annual Music Festival on the Canals.
“Izhar Elias is a musician of outstanding ability, whose unique approach to his art betrays a maturity beyond his years,” reads a 2006 review in Classical Guitar Magazine.
Virtuoso French violinist and conductor Pierre Amoyal, who has performed alongside Herbert von Karajan, Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, George Solti, Gennady Roshdestvensky and Simon Rattle, will conduct the Camerata de Lausanne Orchestra in a program featuring Tartini, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn at the Glinka Philharmonic Chamber Hall on Feb. 22.
“A genius…the beauty of his sound, a transcendent technique…everything is united so that Pierre Amoyal profoundly moves us as soon as his bow touches the strings of his Stradivarius,” reads a review in Le Figaro.
The musician plays one of the most beautiful violins in history, the famous “Kochanski,” a Stradivarius that was stolen from him in 1987, and then miraculously recovered and returned to Amoyal four years later by the Italian police.
The spectacular Italian jazz duo Musica Nuda, which features singer Petra Magoni and double bassist Ferruccio Spinetti, will present a contemporary jazz evening at the Hermitage Theater on Feb. 27, while on Feb. 21, the State Academic Capella will host a jazz duel between the Moscow Art Trio and the Petersburg Modern Trio.
The festival closes on Feb. 28 at the Hermitage Theater with a Belcanto Evening. A string of laureates of the Spoleto Competition for Young Opera Singers will perform popular arias by Italian composers alongside the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Swedish conductor Mats Liljefors.

www.hermitagemuseum.ru

TITLE: Belarussian sitcom
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Last week, The New York Times web site wrote about a Belarussian sitcom — not two words you often see together — that the makers of a U.S. show say ripped off their ideas without buying the rights.
The Belarussian sitcom on Minsk’s CTV channel is called “Theorists” and is about scientists working on building a nuclear power station. Too close to revealing state secrets, you might think, but the nerdy heroes are distracted from splitting neutrons by Natasha, the blonde who works at their canteen.
This plotline bears an uncanny resemblance to “The Big Bang Theory,” a U.S. sitcom in which two nerdy physics researchers live next to a streetwise blonde waitress. The U.S. producer Chuck Lorre wrote a note in the show’s credits saying Warner Brothers lawyers had advised him not to bother suing “because the TV production company that is ripping us off is owned and operated by the government of Belarus.” He poked fun at Belarus’ major export of “cattle byproducts” and demanded compensation in the form of felt hats.
I thought that a Belarussian sitcom would be in the Belarussian language, but it turns out that it’s in Russian — as are almost all Belarussian television shows. The makers said in a news broadcast that they hope to sell the show to Russia and Ukraine.
Only a few clips are available on the Internet, as Belarussian television doesn’t seem to have gone in for YouTube in a big way. In one clip, chemist Vsevolod nervously attempts to flirt with the seductive Natasha as he buys buns. “You’re as beautiful as a fibroblastoma,” he fumbles. “I suppose you’re going to say my eyes are like photons,” she parries, as he nods shamefacedly. It turns out that Natasha is more interested in the luxuriantly sideburned caretaker, who treats her to free buns.
In another clip, two of the brainy heroes ruin the caretaker’s coffee break by answering all the clues of his crossword in split seconds.
The male characters wear primary-colored clothes, and the blonde reveals plenty of cleavage. Somehow, I doubt that Belarussian power stations are really like this. But it’s a fascinating insight into the world of Belarussian television.
Flicking through the schedules, I found that the Belarussians are subjected to an almost unremitting diet of old Russian series. But they also have their own shows, many of which bear a strange resemblance to Russian equivalents.
Russia has a daily show called “Good Night, Little Ones,” which lulls small children off to sleep with rather drab dog, pig and bird puppets and former Miss Universe Oksana Fyodorova. The Belarussian answer is called “Good Evening, Little One,” and it is hosted by two puppets wearing night caps called Ugo and Lyoka. I read a rumor on the Internet that the show was pulled off the air when Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez visited.
Other shows are similar to Russian ones but with a local twist. One show is called “The Magnificent Five” and pits teams from companies and organizations against each other in a singing competition. There is a similar show on Russian television called “Singing Company,” which features telecoms companies and supermarkets. But the winners of the Belarussian show are rather different — the latest were the Emergency Ministry and the Dzerzhinsky chicken combine. Among the contestants in the latest series are the Spetsnaz, or Belarussian special forces, possibly singing “Feelings.”
I also liked the sound of an aerobics show called “Simple Exercises.” The presenter has a team of female sidekicks, and the channel promises that they are “a visual example of how wonderful you can feel at 78.”

TITLE: Indian victory
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Considering the size and diversity of St. Petersburg’s dining scene, Indian cuisine is disappointingly underrepresented in the city. Furthermore, the city’s only two real Indian restaurants — Tandoor and Tandoori Nights — are located in the same building at the beginning of Voznesensky Prospekt, geographically limiting the availability of one of the most delectable cuisines in the world even further.
The opening of Jai Hind, which means “Victory to India,” at the very end of last year was therefore extremely welcome news. Unlike the duo located opposite the Admiralty, which are similar in price and most other things, Jai Hind has positioned itself as more of a cafe than a restaurant, and has sensibly opened at the other end of the city center on Ulitsa Ryleyeva, just a few doors down from the Indian Consulate. 
If the amateur reviews on local web sites are anything to go by, few visitors have been impressed by the interior of Jai Hind. Indeed, those who frequent St. Petersburg’s most glamorny cafes and restaurants may feel a little out of place in its brown, velour-dominated surroundings. But they should remember that Jai Hind has no Ginza Project-style aspirations — it is an unpretentious cafe with an interior and prices to match.
Others would argue that the setting is really quite cozy and agreeable.  The cafe consists of two compact rooms, the first of which contains eight tables, including two comfortable booths on one side. The second is even smaller and would be a good place for a private celebration for up to 16 guests. The dark carpet, copper-colored tablecloths and stacked slate-effect walls combine with the mock fire on the wall beside a corner bar and a disco ball on the ceiling to create an overall ’70s-effect, enhanced by the beaded curtains that divide the two rooms and separate off the small corridor leading to the toilet. 
Overall, the atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, almost like being in someone’s living room. This impression was added to by the small electric heaters dotted about the room. Again, you probably wouldn’t expect to see such a thing at some swanky new place — where you would be expected to shiver and bear it instead — but they ensured the bitter cold stayed firmly outside.
The warmest welcome, however, came from the cafe’s charming waitress, who was dressed in a white sari with jeans underneath (the elegance of the sari cannot be topped, but it clearly didn’t evolve to be worn in temperatures approaching minus 20 degrees Celsius.) The waitress was thoroughly helpful and pleasant throughout the evening — a far cry from the cold politeness that is usually the most to be hoped for from local wait staff. When Baltika beer turned out to be temporarily unavailable, she brought us more expensive Carlsberg but promised we would only be charged the price of a Baltika (90 rubles, $3, for half-a-liter.)
The menu at Jai Hind is big, without being overwhelming. Tomato soup with ginger and garlic (130 rubles, $4.30) is recommended in the menu as a cure for colds — sure to be popular at this time of year. Slightly creamy, it was spicy and comforting — the perfect warm-up. Hot and sour soup with vegetables and spices (160 rubles, $5.30) was packed with onion, cabbage, chili and other vegetables and was as spicy as our waitress had promised — the chef at Jai Hind is happy to make dishes more or less spicy, depending on diners’ tastes.
For main course, Murgh tikka (360 rubles, $12) was deliciously dry and tender, and nicely offset by a salad of cucumber, cabbage and lemon. Vegetable jalfraize (250 rubles, $8.30) was so rich and hearty that it regrettably proved impossible to finish — especially after devouring crispy garlic naan bread (70 rubles, $2.30.)
Even the plasma TV was for once a welcome addition, showing a mixture of Bollywood films and Indian MTV that were in pleasant contrast to the snow and ice outside the window.  With that in mind, milky, slightly piquant Indian masala tea (90 rubles, $3) was a perfect ending to the meal and suitable preparation for heading back into the snowy streets.

TITLE: Dubai Accuses Mossad of Assassination
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Britain and Ireland called in Israel’s envoys Thursday over the use of fake passports by the killers of a Hamas chief last month, as Dubai’s police chief said he was sure Mossad was behind the murder.
Israel’s ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, was called in for talks with a senior official at the Foreign Office, the day after Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded an “full investigation” into the row over the passports.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin was also to hold “frank” talks with Israel’s envoy — diplomatic code for potentially angry exchanges — saying he regarded the use of false Irish passports as “an extremely serious incident.”
“We will have a frank discussion with the ambassador,” said Martin ahead of the meeting. “We are putting pretty direct questions and seeking assistance and clarification. We want to get answers as quickly as we possibly can.
“You can decode what I am saying. It is a very serious situation,” he added, shortly before the talks between Israeli ambassador Zion Evrony and the head of Ireland’s civil service. 
Diplomatic tensions have mounted over the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month in a luxury Dubai hotel, ever since the emirate’s police chief revealed that 11 European passport holders were allegedly involved. Austria is now investigating whether Austrian telephones were used to plan the killing.
No government has directly accused Israel but speculation about the killers has centred on Israel’s Mossad intelligence services, which have used agents with fake passports for such operations in the past.
Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he was 99 percent sure Mossad was behind the murder, The National newspaper reported on Thursday.
“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of Mabhouh. It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent that Mossad is standing behind the murder,” the Abu Dhabi-based English-language daily quoted Khalfan as saying.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday there was no evidence to suggest the Jewish state’s spies were responsible.
“There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief,” he said. 
Dubai’s police chief this week released the photos and names of the 11 European passport holders — six from Britain, three from Ireland, one from Germany and one from France — accused of being behind the murder.
All the countries except Germany have insisted the passports were faked.
Britain had abstained from talking about a possible Israeli link but on Wednesday said it wanted to clarify matters with Israel, calling in Prosor for talks with Peter Ricketts, the head of Britain’s diplomatic service.
Amid growing demands for answers from lawmakers, the Bitish prime minister has promised a full investigation. “The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care,” he said Wednesday.
“The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened.”
Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency will lead the probe in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates authorities, a government spokesman said.
In Austria meanwhile, authorities said they were investigating whether the killers used Austrian phone numbers or SIM cards to plan their hit. 
The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, a portable memory chip, holds personal identity information, cell phone number, phone book, text messages and other data.
“Apparently Austrian phone numbers were used,” interior ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia told Agence France Presse. 
“But we can’t say anything further. The investigations are underway and we’re in contact with Dubai police.”

TITLE: Google Plan Faces Stiff Opposition
AUTHOR: By Larry Neumeister
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — Google’s effort to create the world’s largest library by scanning millions of books for use on the Internet faces a courtroom fight as authors, foreign governments, corporate rivals and even the U.S. Department of Justice line up to challenge it.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin already has read more than 500 submissions about a $125 million settlement aimed at ending a pair of 2005 lawsuits brought by authors and publishers and clearing legal obstacles to a gigantic online home for digital books.
On Thursday, he was to hear statements from interested parties before deciding whether changes made to a deal first announced in October 2008 are sufficient to withstand constitutional scrutiny. It’s unclear when he’ll rule.
In court papers submitted last week, Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, defended its deal with authors by saying its digital library lives up to copyright law’s purpose of creating and distributing expressive works.
“No one seriously disputes that approval of the settlement will open the virtual doors to the greatest library in history, without costing authors a dime they now receive or are likely to receive if the settlement is not approved,” said Google, which already has scanned more than 12 million books.
The Department of Justice said Google and the plaintiffs in the fall made substantial improvements to the original settlement, but it said “substantial issues remain.”
It said the new deal raised antitrust concerns and suffered from the same core issue as the original agreement by establishing forward-looking business arrangements that “confer significant and possibly anticompetitive advantages on a single entity — Google.”
Still, the Department of Justice said it believes an approvable settlement may be achievable, perhaps by requiring rightsholders to opt in to the settlement.
France and Germany, which oppose the settlement, noted they support a European book-scanning project, Europeana, because it is in compliance with their laws and requires permission from copyright holders before books are scanned.
Obtaining permission beforehand is what Amazon.com said it did when it engaged in a similar book-scanning project. Amazon’s lawyers oppose the settlement and have asked to address the court. Other Google rivals including Microsoft and Yahoo also oppose it.
Among authors opposing the deal are folk singer Arlo Guthrie and writer Catherine Ryan Hyde, whose novel “Pay it Forward” was adapted and released as a movie.
“While I believe that the proposed Google Books Settlement has the potential to provide authors with additional exposure and perhaps additional sources of revenue for their works,” Hyde wrote, “I continue to believe that the proposed settlement as amended remains critically flawed and is unfair to authors in a number of crucial respects.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs who brought the 2005 lawsuits defended the settlement in a submission saying that there were relatively few complaints considering the ambitious plan to digitize all the world’s books.

TITLE: Dalai Lama’s Visit to U.S. About Appearance
AUTHOR: By Foster Klug
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The Dalai Lama’s meeting with President Barack Obama will be more about style than substance.
What the Dalai Lama and Obama say to each other will matter less than how the White House portrays the meeting, as Obama welcomes the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists in a visit that has infuriated China.
Chinese officials will be watching closely to see how great a stage Obama offers to his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a man Beijing accuses of being a separatist. The Chinese want to know: How long will the meeting last? Will Obama’s wife attend? Will the White House put out a written statement or answer questions about the visit at daily press briefings? Will cameras be allowed to film any part of the encounter?
“The optics of this thing are incredibly important to the Chinese,” said Michael Green, former President George W. Bush’s senior Asia adviser. 
“The Chinese government is preoccupied with protocol and how things look.”
China’s feelings matter because the Obama administration needs Beijing’s help to confront nuclear standoffs in Iran and North Korea, to fight climate change and to boost the world’s economy. U.S.-Chinese relations have been strained lately, because of the Dalai Lama’s visit and the Obama administration’s approval of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its own.
Obama has to balance dealing with Chinese anger against criticism from U.S. lawmakers and activists that he already buckled to Chinese demands by not meeting with the Dalai Lama when the monk came to Washington in October.
It may not seem inflammatory to Americans accustomed to presidential meet-and-greets, but a public Dalai Lama-Obama appearance would enrage China, which believes that official foreign contact with the monk infringes on its sovereignty over Tibet.
With China in mind, the White House appears to be opting for a low-key meeting. There is unlikely to be a joint public appearance or photo opportunity before reporters. Instead, the White House will release an official photo. The visit will take place in the mansion’s Map Room, where presidents stage private meetings, not the more stately Oval Office, where Obama frequently meets with world leaders.
The Dalai Lama’s envoy, Lodi Gyari, said even a private meeting with Obama is a boost for Tibetans feeling marginalized by China. Green said just the “fact that they spend time together in an intimate setting means everything for the Tibetan cause.”
Although the Dalai Lama is revered in much of the world, Beijing accuses him of seeking to overthrow Chinese rule and restore a feudal theocracy in the expansive mountainous region. The Dalai Lama and analysts say that is untrue.
The Dalai Lama has met with U.S. presidents for the past two decades, but mostly in private encounters.
George W. Bush also met behind the scenes with the Dalai Lama. Bush broke with tradition in a big way, however, when he appeared at the public presentation in 2007 of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland to India in 1959 with members of his family and fewer than 100 other Tibetans during a failed uprising against China. Chinese troops had taken over Tibet in 1951.
Charles Freeman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that while he does not believe Thursday’s meeting will cause lasting damage to U.S.-China relations, short-term repercussions could include a postponement of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s expected visit to Washington in April.
Despite China’s angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.

TITLE: Fewer Airline Crashes in 2009, But More Deaths
AUTHOR: By Joan Lowy
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Fewer airline crashes occurred around the world in 2009 than during the previous year, but deaths were up, an industry group said Thursday.
There were 18 fatal airline accidents last year compared with 23 fatal accidents in 2008, the International Air Transport Association said. However, there were 685 fatalities in 2009 compared with 502 the previous year, the association said. Those numbers include both jet and turboprop planes.
The major accident rate for 2009 — 0.7 accidents per million flights — was the second lowest ever and is more than a third lower than the rate 10 years ago, the association said. The rate is based on Western-built jets destroyed, substantially damaged or written off as losses by air carriers.
The annual number of deaths has fluctuated over the past decade, peaking in 2005 at 1,035, the association said.
The best news is that the current accident rate is only about half what it was in the 1990s, thanks in part to technology advancements, said Jim Burin, director of technical programs at the Flight Safety Foundation, an international aviation safety organization in Alexandria, Virginia.

TITLE: A Capital Holiday – a Weekend in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson and Nadia Orekhova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: For St. Petersburg residents and tourists alike, a trip to Moscow can be a great way to experience Russian culture at its heart. With the capital’s historic sights and contemporary attractions just a train ride away, even a weekend trip will allow for ample sightseeing. And with the Defenders of the Fatherland national holiday on Tuesday adding an extra two days onto this weekend, what better time to head for the onion domes and Stalin-era skyscrapers of the biggest city in Europe? 
As well as the usual year-round tours of the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow has plenty of fun winter activities to more than fill a break in the capital. A visit during the winter offers the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go ice-skating on Red Square. This is best done in the daytime, as the country’s most famous rink tends to get quite crowded — the attraction of skating on the historic square, surrounded by the Kremlin, GUM department store and the iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral is more than many locals and visitors can resist. Less crowded skating rinks can be found in Gorky Park, the Hermitage Gardens or Sokolniki.
Visitors to wintertime Moscow can also use the opportunity to go sledging — something that’s far more commonplace in the hilly capital than in uniformly flat St. Petersburg. Take the metro over the Moscow River up to Vorobyovy Gory (Sparrow Hills) for the best views over the city and the steepest ice slope. Thrill-seekers who don’t have their own sledge can rent a rubber tube on site.
For somewhat warmer forms of entertainment, a good bet is the State Tretyakov Gallery, which is unlikely to leave any visitor cold. The second largest showcase of Russian art in the country after St. Petersburg’s State Russian Museum is housed in a striking building designed by the artist Viktor Vasnetsov to house the rich collection of his friend, the 19th-century industrialist and patron of arts Pavel Tretyakov. The collection comprises thousands of works of art ranging from 11th-century icons to early 20th-century masterpieces.
Alternatively, the New Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val is devoted to 20th-century Russian art, covering trends from avant-garde to socialist realism. The collection includes works by Malevich, Kandinsky, Chagall and contemporary artists.
For the hippest in cutting edge creativity, the Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art is hard to beat. Seven red-brick sprawling buildings covering 20,000 square meters in an industrial part of Moscow behind the Kursk railway station have been converted from a winemaking factory into one of the capital’s most up-and-coming modern art centers. The complex includes nine galleries along with an avant-garde clothing store and caf?, and when it opened was compared by The New York Times to “SoHo way back when.”

GETTING THERE

A bit of planning will help guarantee that your travels are budget-friendly and stress-free.
Prior to buying railway tickets, consider the variety of train options available. High-speed trains can cut your travel time in half, with the Sapsan and Aurora clocking in at four and five-and-a-half hours, respectively. These tickets tend to be pricier, however, so be prepared to spend at least 3,000 rubles ($100) per seat. 
For travelers on a budget, night trains are substantially cheaper and take about eight hours. With this option, you can choose to travel either platskart or kupe class. Kupe cars hold four passengers in a cabin separated by a door, while platskart cars contain dozens of bunks in close quarters. A platskart ticket can cost as little as 600 rubles ($20), depending on the departure time, while kupe beds run anywhere between 1,900 rubles ($63) to 2,400 rubles ($80) or more. 
Although buying tickets online may seem convenient, vendor web sites are unreliable and often difficult to navigate. A trip to St. Petersburg’s Moskovsky Vokzal (Moscow train station) or one of the train ticket offices located throughout the city is a safer bet, and waiting for separate counters with a friend will ensure you spend minimal time in line. When your turn comes, make sure to specify which class you plan to travel and your preferred departure times. Requesting a good price or a “nizhnee mesto” (bottom bunk) can also help the cashier find you a suitable ticket. Payments are best made in cash, since not all ticket offices accept credit cards. Regardless, you’ll need to provide a passport or copy for each traveler to complete the purchase.

A selection of what to do and see this weekend in Moscow:
 
CONCERTS and STAGES
Saturday, Feb. 20:
Psoi Korolenko and Klezmasters
Apshu. 10 p.m.
Prince Igor. The concert version of Alexander Borodin’s opera.
Novaya Opera. 7 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 22: 
Alexander F. Skylar with a solo program. FM Club. 9 p.m.
Ian Brown. B1 Maximum. 9 p.m.

EXHIBITS
State Tretyakov Gallery Mikhail Odnoralov. Retrospection. Nonconformist art. In the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery. Through Feb 28.
New Tretyakov Gallery: All the World’s a Stage: Engravings from the 17th to 20th centuries from the collection of artist Mikhail Larionov. Through Sept. 26.
Regina Gallery at Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art: Sergei Bratkov shows photo and sculptural works from his Ukraine series inspired by Nikolai Gogol. Through March 21.
Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art: Best Photographs of Russia 2009. Through March 14.
Central House of Artists: Propaganda Posters and Photographs From the Front. 1941-45. Through March 14.
 
A comprehensive set of listings and the addresses for all venues can be found at www.themoscowtimes.com

TITLE: Brazilian Fashion Industry Has Russia in Its Sights
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: SAO PAULO — Originally it was the Brazilian models — Gisele Bundchen, Caroline Ribeiro, Adriana Lima — who sparked an interest in the country as a fashion destination. When fashion experts who research emerging trends started travelling to Brazil, however, they quickly noted Sao Paulo as an emerging international fashion Mecca.
Established in 1996 by Brazilian entrepreneur Paulo Borges, the Sao Paulo Fashion Week stormed onto the international fashion scene and now rivals in its scale and importance the prestigious “Big Four” — the fashion weeks in Milan, Paris, London and New York. Brazilian brands are rapidly winning over the U.S.., Asian and Western European markets, and, according to Alessandro Teixeira, president of ApexBrasil, the country’s trade and investment promotion agency, in coming years the export focus is to be on expansion in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with Russia seen as a particularly attractive market.
“On a recent visit to Moscow Fashion Week, I once again saw that there is a vast niche for Brazilian designers to fill,” Teixeira said in January at the 28th SPFW. “There is a lack of color, a lack of diversity and a lack of inspiration.”
To the uninitiated, the words Brazilian fashion are often closely linked to tropical exoticism and one bright image in particular — a colored bikini. Some would expect the country’s fashion weeks to be something of an echo of Rio de Janeiro’s carnival. What stuns newcomers is that the local designers observe the industry’s key rule: To become a fashion capital you have to offer designs that are at the same time both unique and cosmopolitan, which is to say universally appealing.
Fashion in Brazil is not ethnic in character, yet some collections by certain designers do occasionally reflect the influence of a folk tradition. This year, at the 28th SPFW, the winter collections of the 39 designers represented at the event were inspired by subjects as drastically diverse as the choreography of Pina Bausch, the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, the spirit of African Safari, the martyrdom of Jeanne of Arc and detective games a la Sherlock Holmes.
Designer Alexandre Herchkovitch,  who is something of a Brazilian fashion icon, relished his moment in the limelight with his menswear show, themed around Ingmar Bergman’s legendary “The Seventh Seal” which has a medieval knight playing chess with Death. Herchkovitch created a poignant, dramatic show, with the catwalk covered with a thick layer of black leaves and shaven-headed models made up like skulls presenting edgy goth raincoats, jackets and anoraks with a plethora of skull accessories.
Romanticism reigned on the catwalk during the Isabela Capeto womenswear show, the epitome of captivating feminine charm. Capeto’s colorful and sophisticated yet sublime dresses featured intricate tapestries covered with beads.
Ronaldo Fraga, who deservedly enjoys a reputation as Brazil’s most intellectual and conceptual designer, remained faithful to his provocative theatricality. His collection, dedicated to the art of the late contemporary German choreographer Pina Bausch, was a funky, sassy drama that started with a female dancer playing accordion and featured models wearing large puppet masks worn back to front. Rich in color and refined in shape, Fraga’s chic and sophisticated creations — experimenting with volume and cut — are meant to be striking. Watching the show, you begin to wonder if an experimental, cutting-edge theatrical troupe such as the famous Catalonian La Fura dels Baus might be tempted to make off with the whole collection for its own productions. 
More highlights came from Huis Clos (French for behind closed doors) in the form of delicate, beautiful, flowing satin dresses with extremely fine textures. Osklen, a favorite with New York’s buyers, offered three-dimensional geometrical shapes, subdued colors and felt-wool as the collection’s core fabric. Rosa Cha swimwear — created by Alexandre Herchkovitch — blurred boundaries between swimming suits and lingerie, while Reinaldo Lourenco dazzled with a glamorous military-style collection with a tangible note of pre-Second World War retro aesthetics.
Unlike Russian fashion designers, Brazilian couturiers can rely on the massive support of the country’s highly developed textiles industry, allowing them to experiment with a vast range of fabrics, ranging from organic cotton and leather to the finest velvet to innovative materials fusing the finest silks with metallic threads.
Brazilian fashion offers an astounding fusion of faces and voices. One of the most ethnically diverse regions on the planet, the country is inhabited by more than 200 ethnic groups representing local nationalities as well as descendants of immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
“Brazil is a melting pot of various cultures and traditions,” said SPFW creative director Paulo Borges. “The fashion industry enjoys the benefits of this stunning variety.”
Although many would argue that Russia desperately needs diversity, it is not an easy market to win over. “With the exception of Moscow, this country is a fashion cemetery,” recently commented the director of an influential St. Petersburg fashion company that runs a string of the city’s most prestigious boutiques, including a Versace store.
“We bring whatever sells, as do our colleagues who deal with upper class clientele,” he explained. “Yes, the way people dress here is a nightmare: regardless of their income, they buy mostly black, whether it is winter or summer, and even, if they have the money, when they are buying top brands.”
In Russia nobody, it would appear, wants to stand out from the walls that surround them, whether it be by making a political statement that runs against the grain or by making an original fashion statement. Standing out, regrettably, is not in the traditions of the Russian people. Similarly, the majority of people have failed to acquire that mindset in their more recently acquired perceptions.
“Clothes do not make the man,” “pretty is as pretty does,” “never judge a book by its cover” — such sayings reflect an attitude that has reigned in the country for decades. 
In Brazil, however, most people dress to project a message about themselves, their character or even their mood on a certain day. In the South American state, fashion is regarded as a communication tool, and people are afraid of looking boring. Indeed, you struggle to find a dull-looking person on the streets of Sao Paulo, whether you’re in the bohemian Vila Madalena, the chic Oscar Freire street adorned with boutiques or the renowned gastronomic food halls of Mercado Municipal.
In both countries the gap between the rich and poor is staggering yet, unlike in Brazil, in Russia, fashion is an issue that still serves to divide society. A fashion statement in Russia is de facto a financial statement, and most discussions about buying certain pieces of clothing usually revolve around whether or not you can afford a certain brand item. Lower social status is generally seen as presenting barriers to entry into the world of fashion.
The inspired Brazilians are out to change all that. 
“We bring to the catwalk the Brazilian way of life, celebrating sensuality, openness, sincerity and happiness,” Borges said. “Brazilians are extraverts, noted for their body-consciousness. Naturally, I would not call us narcissistic; yet many of us take pride in our physical shape and invest happily in our looks and health. Most people in Brazil are interested in fashion, which brings people together regardless of their social status.”