SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1559 (20), Friday, March 26, 2010
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TITLE: Daimler Accused Of Bribing Russians
AUTHOR: By Maria Antonova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — German carmaker Daimler paid more than 3 million euros ($4 million) in bribes to Russian government officials, largely to secure the sale of cars to the police and Federal Guard Service, the agency that provides transportation for Russian and visiting dignitaries, the U.S. Justice Department said in a lawsuit.
The maker of the Mercedes sedans favored by top officials “made improper payments at the request of Russian government officials or their designees in order to secure business from Russian government customers” between 2000 and 2005, when government purchases comprised 5 percent of all sales in Russia, the Justice Department said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Daimler is accused under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery and requires transparent bookkeeping. Although Daimler is a German company, it is traded on four U.S. stock exchanges and uses U.S. bank accounts, which makes it subject to some U.S. laws, according to the Justice Department’s 77-page court filing, a copy of which was obtained by The Petersburg Times.
Daimler’s spokeswoman in Russia declined to comment Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other media outlets reported Wednesday, citing unidentified sources, that Daimler planned to plead guilty on charges regarding its subsidiaries in Russia and Germany and has agreed to pay $185 million to resolve the dispute.
A U.S. federal court will hear the case against Daimler on April 1.
The Justice Department said Daimler made improper payments worth “tens of millions of dollars” to officials in at least 22 countries, including Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Latvia and China in the decade from 1998 to 2008.
Daimler engaged in a “long-standing practice” of bribing foreign officials through offshore accounts, “deceptive pricing arrangements” and other schemes under which it registered transactions as “commissions” or “special discounts,” the filing said.
The company has no central oversight of its sales and a “corporate culture that tolerated and/or encouraged bribery,” it said.
Daimler has been a strategic player in the Russian car industry since purchasing a 10 percent stake in the KamAZ truck maker as the financial crisis struck the car market in December 2008. Daimler increased its stake to 11 percent last month, and stakeholders have discussed a further boost. Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov has said the company might control KamAZ by 2017.
The wholly owned Russian subsidiary of the company involved in the bribery allegations is Mercedes-Benz Russia SAO. The Justice Department described Daimler’s business in Russia as “substantial” and named its main government clients as the Interior Ministry and the Federal Guard Service, as well as the military, and cities of Moscow, Ufa and Novy Urengoi.
It said Daimler made improper payments worth more than 3 million euros in connection with those sales, with most bribes going to officials in the Interior Ministry and the Federal Guard Service’s Special Purpose Garage.
A total of 1.44 million euros was paid in connection with Daimler passenger car contracts to the Interior Ministry, including some made on purchases for the Moscow traffic police, the filing said.
Daimler paid 1.4 million euros for passenger car contracts with the Special Purpose Garage between 2001 and 2005, it said. 
Of the payments, 928,023 euros was deposited in the Deutsche Bank account of a single person, identified in the filing as a “government official at the SPG.”
The Special Purpose Garage is a subsidiary of the Federal Guard Service and manages transportation for Russia’s top officials as well as visiting heads of state.
Russian drivers routinely accuse government officials of hypocrisy for advocating the purchase of Russian-made cars while widely using foreign luxury cars, mainly Mercedes, themselves.
Daimler also made cash payments to officials in the government-connected firms Dorinvest and Mashinoimport to promote the sale of Unimogs, German-made all-wheel-drive trucks, the filing said.
Mashinoimport is 100 percent-owned by the Federal Property Agency, while Dorinvest is a unitary enterprise controlled by the city of Moscow. 
Both acted as purchasers of Unimog cars for Moscow. In total, Daimler paid 433,000 euros in bribes for Unimog purchases, which totaled 17.89 million euros from 2000 to 2005 and included acquisitions by the military and the cities of Ufa and Novy Urengoi, the filing said.
Daimler sold 13,435 Mercedes cars and vans in Russia in 2009, accounting for 0.9 percent of all new car sales, according to the Association of European Businesses.

TITLE: Ex-IKEA Boss Bares Russia’s ‘Chaotic Reality’
AUTHOR: By Maria Antonova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — While the dust is still settling over the recent firing of two IKEA managers amid corruption claims, the former head of the Swedish furniture giant’s Russian operations has packaged his love and hate for Russia in a new book.
But Lennart Dahlgren, who stepped down in 2006 after setting up the first IKEA stores in Russia, holds no apparent grudge against the country, where he jumped through bureaucratic hoops, faced threats and trod a fine line between IKEA’s stringent ethics and Russia’s “chaotic reality.”
He said the “chaotic reality” pushed him to write down his adventures during sleepless nights for inclusion in the eventual book.
“When yet another mayor would go back on his previous promises, it would drive me crazy, but it was good for the book,” Dahlgren said at the presentation of the Russian-language book in Moscow this week.
The book is titled “Despite Absurdity: How I Conquered Russia While It Conquered Me,” and it differs significantly from the Swedish version “IKEA Loves Russia,” which came out in November to a “rather silent reception,” Dahlgren said. No English version of the book has been released.
The 230-page book offers short anecdotes, cultural stereotypes and rants about things like insolent black SUVs with flashing blue lights. Dahlgren optimistically concludes that Russia has a big future after a new generation replaces the one currently in power, whose members “took part in the development of five-year plans and later the explanations of why they have not been fulfilled yet again.”
The book is hitting stores a month after Dahlgren’s successor, Per Kaufmann, was fired along with Stefan Gross, IKEA’s director for real estate in Russia. The company says the two “turned a blind eye” to a corrupt transaction between an IKEA subcontractor and a power-supply company to hasten the resolution of a power-supply problem at one of IKEA’s malls in St. Petersburg. The decision was the first of its kind in the company’s history and capped a scandal that unraveled after a series of articles in Swedish tabloid Expressen exposed the deal.
Dahlgren was thrust into Russia as he mentally prepared for retirement. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who had long wanted to expand into Russia, sent him and his family to Moscow on Aug. 17, 1998 — the day that the Russian government defaulted on its debt, starting the 1998 financial crisis. Within months, flights “full of expat families” were fleeing Russia, taking their business with them, Dahlgren said. Amid the economic turmoil, Dahlgren got down to work, driving around Moscow to look for potential store sites.
While the book is chock-full of anecdotes about corruption, the tone is lighthearted and at times over the top. “I am waiting for the head of the Solnechnogorsk district, Vladimir Popov,” Dahlgren writes at one point. “He is usually late in meeting with us, the simple businessmen. … Finally Popov arrives! He arrives in a huge elephant, with a flashing blue light tied to the elephant’s head … and knocks Zhigulis and Volgas out of the way.
“Was it really like this? Since the time that I first came to Russia, it’s hard to surprise me,” he writes. “What I lived through in Russia is so beyond belief that hardly anybody will believe me.”
Authorities in the Solnechnogorsky district of the Moscow region, where IKEA built a distribution center in 2003, became a problem after the dismissal of Deputy Governor Mikhail Men, who was working with the company, he said. He accuses then-district head Vladimir Popov of using the police to halt construction of the center and says work resumed only after IKEA contributed $30 million to assist elderly people and agreed to work with a contractor recommended by the regional government.
Popov, who lost elections last year and now works at the Moscow Agro-Engineering University, said the book is “far from reality.”
Dahlgren “had one goal — to construct stores, preferably for free, without taking municipal interests into account,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda earlier this month.
Numerous attempts to open a store within Moscow city limits failed as a result of City Hall’s unclear priorities, Dahlgren said.
Several attempts to build a store on Moscow’s Kutuzovsky Prospekt were disrupted by smear campaigns, including the placement of flyers in neighborhood mailboxes that resembled a letter from Dahlgren on corporate letterhead. Mayor Yury Luzhkov then proposed that IKEA move into a newly built complex, but the company passed because the structure “was a futuristic architectural fantasy that did not have much to do with reality.”
Although Luzhkov seemed interested in bringing IKEA’s first Russian store to Moscow, talks stalled right away when the city demanded an “astronomical price tag” for the land desired by IKEA. “Buying land on these terms would make it impossible to keep low prices on products,” Dahlgren said. IKEA went to the Moscow region, and Moscow held a grudge for years, he said.
Repercussions over IKEA’s decision to break off talks were felt when the company was barred from advertising the June 2000 opening of its first Moscow region store in the Moscow metro because of “studies concluding that people have unstable psyches underground … so our ads could be dangerous,” he said.
Dahlgren also linked City Hall with difficulties that IKEA faced building an off-ramp to its first store, in Khimki. Authorities said the off-ramp would desecrate a nearby war memorial.
No one at City Hall’s press service was available for comment on the book Wednesday.
Dahlgren said he met regularly in a restaurant overlooking the Kremlin with a stranger in a green suit to discuss the problems surrounding IKEA’s store in Khimki and to listen to gossip from then-President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. “I never knew his name or what he does,” Dahlgren said, “but soon we had permission to build the off-ramp.”
The off-ramp was built by a company recommended by Moscow regional authorities, but it took three times longer than necessary to build and cost $5 million more than it should have, Dahlgren said.
While some officials worked against IKEA, others, such as in Tatarstan, helped to open stores in record time. “It took less than a year between the first meeting with Kazan’s mayor and the store’s opening — a record impossible to break anywhere in the world,” Dahlgren said.
Despite stereotypes to the contrary, Dahlgren said, thefts at Russian stores are fewer than in other countries, and Russians drink less at corporate parties. He added, however, that he made it a habit to drink a glass of milk before informal dinners with Russians, whom it is “inadvisable to compete with in resistance to alcohol.”
IKEA’s public struggles — which may have contributed to its brand recognition in Russia more than anything else — have been seen as a litmus test of sorts for the government, which has promised repeatedly to root out corruption.
“Officials regularly make public statements about increasing the war on corruption, bureaucracy and abuse of office,” Dahlgren said. “But we did not notice any positive changes over all this time.”
While some legislation has changed for the better, “the authorities have not,” he said at the book presentation.
Dahlgren attempted to arrange a meeting between his boss, Kamprad, and Putin in 2005 but was told by a high-ranking official that it would cost $5 million to $10 million. “I sensed that it would be better not to get into that discussion any deeper,” Dahlgren writes, adding that he is still unsure whether they were speaking seriously or joking.
The 83-year-old Kamprad — who threatened to stop investing in Russia last year over corruption problems and reportedly wept when informed about last month’s St. Petersburg scandal — has yet to meet with Putin or his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev.

TITLE: Limonov Files Complaint at Constitutional Court
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Moscow oppositional politicians filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court in St. Petersburg on Wednesday against what they say is an “unconstitutional” law on public assembly. Speaking at a press conference, author Eduard Limonov, whose National-Bolshevik Party (NBP) was banned in 2007, and Left Front’s Konstantin Kosyakin argued that the law violates the Constitution and makes it easy for the authorities to ban any public rally they find inappropriate.
Initiated by Limonov and backed by the Left Front and other oppositional organizations as well as human rights activists, Strategy 31 – an ongoing campaign of rallies defending the freedom of assembly – has been persistently banned by the Moscow authorities since it was launched in July, 2009. When it was held for the first time in St. Petersburg in January, it was also banned.
In order to defend the frequently violated Article 31 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to assemble, the campaigners urge concerned citizens to gather at the same site in every city on the 31st day of months that have 31 days in them. In Moscow, Triumfalnaya Ploshchad was chosen for these rallies, while in St. Petersburg a Jan. 31 protest was held outside Gostiny Dvor, on Nevsky Prospekt.
“Previously, the opposition has never had far-reaching goals,” Limonov said.
“It’s always been one-shot affairs. One event is held, then forgotten about, then held again next year, or many small events are held. It’s clear now that this doesn’t work. There has always been a need for a long-term plan. And at last it has come about that we have a definite plan.”
Although all seven Moscow events were banned, and people attending were beaten and arrested by OMON riot police, Limonov argued that Strategy 31 works. Each time it draws more people – up to 1,000 in Moscow on January 31, he said. (160 were arrested.) In St. Petersburg, 41 of the more than 200 protesters were detained.
“We are fighting for an elementary thing – for the freedom of assembly – and we’re winning it back,” Limonov said.
The complaint, drafted by Kosyakin with lawyer Gleb Lavrentyev, asks the Constitutional Court to review whether the Law on Assemblies, Meetings, Demonstrations, Marches and Pickets, signed in 2004 by the then-President Vladimir Putin, contradicts the Constitution. In Lavrentyev’s view, it violates two clauses, as well as Article 31, which guarantees the “right to assemble, peacefully, without weapons.” 
The complaint also refers to Article 19, which guarantees the “equality of the rights and freedoms of the individual and the citizen,” and Article 55, which forbids the adoption of laws that cancel or diminish rights.
“I remember the first law when [the then-Russian president Boris] Yeltsin signed it in 1991. It was so small that they fitted it onto a single page. It was a law on notification: we had to notify the authorities and [then we] could hold a rally without any problems,” Kosyakin said.
“In the 15 years that have passed since then, it has been amended five times or so and today it’s eight full pages. That’s how scared the authorities are: they want to narrow the scope of our activities.”
In Moscow and other cities, the campaign has been backed by human right activists and liberal oppositionists, most notably Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a veteran of the Soviet dissident movement, and Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and one of the leaders of the Solidarity democratic movement.
In St. Petersburg, however, the liberal opposition, including the United Civil Front (OGF) and Yabloko, as well as the Human Rights Council, announced that on March 31 they would hold a protest on Palace Square, rather than on Nevsky Prospect, where the January 31 event was held. Limonov criticized the move as “unethical”; the local organizers of Strategy 31 urge people to come to the old location near Gostiny Dvor.
The March 31 events have been banned both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but will go forward in any case, the oppositional spokespersons said.
From the Regional Press Institute, where the press conference was held, Limonov, Kosyakin and a few supporters drove to the Constitutional Court, followed by what appeared to be a surveillance car. Outside the court, they were met by a large group of policemen and a plainclothes officer who filmed them with a video camera, but they were not prevented from submitting the complaint.

TITLE: Porn Hacker Jailed for Drugs
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Siberian hacker who streamed a pornographic film on an electronic billboard in central Moscow in January has been sentenced to five years in prison for selling marijuana, Life News reported Wednesday.
Igor Blinnikov, 41, was sentenced by a Novorossiisk court for selling 20 grams of marijuana to undercover narcotics officers in a sting operation last May, the report said.
Blinnikov was briefly detained at the time and released with a written promise not to leave town.
His porn stunt made national headlines in January when he hacked into a server of an advertising agency operating a billboard next to the Interior Ministry building on the Garden Ring.
Blinnikov inserted a two-minute clip with an interracial sex scene into the queue of video ads shown on the billboard, causing a traffic jam during the 20 minutes that it played.
Investigators tracked down the hacker — who used servers in Novosibirsk, Nalchik and Grozny to cover his tracks — a month later. Blinnikov told them that he had done it for fun.

TITLE: Perelman’s $1M Prize At Center of Media Storm
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “I have got everything I need,” was the response Grigory Perelman, the reclusive St. Petersburg mathematician  who was this month been awarded the prestigious $1 million Millienium Prize by the U.S.-based Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare conjecture, threw at reporters through the closed door of his humble apartment in the southern part of the city.
“When I make a decision, you will find that out from the Clay Institute,” the scientist added and ended the conversation.
The conjecture, formulated in 1904 by the French mathematician Henri Poincare and often described as “one of the most burning mathematical questions of all time,” essentially claims that any three-dimensional space without holes in it is a sphere. Many distinguished mathematicians had struggled with the problem. The Poincare conjecture was one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems established by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000.
While the Russian mathematician remains silent about his intentions concerning the prize, the media coverage and bloggers’ commentary has quickly soured. The stories have moved on from praising the mathematics genuis for his extraordinary achievements and concentrated instead on what are referred to as his “peculiar ways,” with some even suggesting that the scientist “stop being a drama queen,” “get over his insecurities” and donate the money to one of a number of Russian charities.
The idea of Perelman handing the money over to a charity was first voiced by a group of St. Petersburg communist politicians. 
“The money could also be used to support the country’s up-and-coming scientific talent,” said Sergei Malinkovich, the leader of the Communists of St. Petersburg party. 
Several charities, including the St. Petersburg-based Tyoply Dom (Warm House) have already volunteered to become recipients of some of the money, should Perelman decide to make a donation.
Partly as a result of of Perelman’s refusal to give interviews, numerous myths and speculations have sprung up about him. A number of publications have already wrongly reported that the scientist has rejected the prize.  
The mathematician has a history of turning down respected awards. In 2006, he rejected the prestigious Fields Medal awarded by the International Mathematical Union, which is seen as the world’s highest honor in mathematics. In refusing the prize, Perelman questioned the jury’s professionalism.
According to the mathematician’s friends, who spoke on condition of anonimity, Perelman’s split with his alma mater, the Steklov Mathematics Institute, in 2005, left the scientist deeply wounded, with the story becoming a taboo subject. The friends suggested that the lack of recognition at home, which lasted for many years, left its mark on Perelman and may have affected his reaction to awards.
Grigory Perelman, who sports a large black beard and lives in spartan conditions in a small flat that he shares with his elderly mother, has also been likened to Grigory Rasputin for his looks and mysterious lifestyle in some reports in the Russian media. 
Some publications have printed commentary from the country’s leading psychiatrists, who offered their views and analysis on Perelman’s non-communicative behavior. 
In an interview with the Rosbalt news agency, St. Petersburg psychiatrist Oleg Dmitriev compared the mathematician with the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who lived in a barrel, and drew parallels with the mental breakdowns of Goethe and Byron, noting that genius and mental disorders often go hand in hand.
There have been some attempts to defend the scientist’s privacy. 
“First of all, peering into other people’s pockets is not a respectable habit,” said Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the Council of Federation, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. “Grigory Perelman deserves, first and foremost, our admiration and deepest respect. As for accepting or rejecting the prize, the decision is going to be his own and exerting pressure on the man is unfair.”
In the meantime, blogger Yevgeny Basin has launched an Internet vote aimed at promoting the idea of granting Grigory Perelman the prestigious status of Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg. The title is awarded by the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. There are currently 32 honorary citizens in town, including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Zhores Alfyorov.

TITLE: Spat Flares Between Mironov, Gryzlov
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A bizarre fight between the main pro-Kremlin parties returned to the political stage Wednesday when United Russia officials accused A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov of conducting a “frenzied campaign” against the ruling party.
Analysts said that despite a Feb. 8 truce, the burgeoning rivalry was there to stay because of the very nature of both parties, created by the Kremlin to keep control of the political system.
The attacks centered on Mironov’s remarks in an online interview with readers of the liberal Gazeta.ru news portal, in which he lambasted Clean Water, a tap water purification project sponsored by United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov.
Mironov called the project’s engineer, self-styled inventor Viktor Petrik, a charlatan and questioned Gryzlov’s trust in him.
Gryzlov and Petrik filed a patent for a water filter in 2007 that they say turns radioactive water into pure drinking water.
Andrei Isayev, a senior United Russia official who chairs the State Duma’s Labor and Social Policy Committee, said Mironov had unleashed “a frenzied campaign against United Russia” and suggested that A Just Russia was supporting producers of bottled water.
“United Russia won the March 14 elections. But now some of the losers — an aggressive minority — are trying to impose their will on the majority,” Isayev told a Duma plenary session, according to a transcript posted on his party’s web site.
“Producing, bottling and selling water undoubtedly is a very profitable business. … This business will be undermined when each family can drink clean tap water,” he said.
United Russia Deputy Ruslan Kondratyev accused Mironov of being a greedy fat cat. “You get the impression that he does not understand his own words lately,” he said in comments released on the party’s web site. “You can compare such frenzied criticism with those fat cats interested only in lining their pockets and never thinking about people’s welfare.”
Isayev also repeated an earlier comparison of Mironov to an evil character in Slavic folklore. “Like Koshchei the Immortal, he sits on water bottles,” he said.
Mironov on Wednesday called United Russia leaders fairy-tale dimwits — echoing his remarks in a previous dispute. “Those Ivan the Fools are not calming down — and I stress fools,” he told reporters in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported.

TITLE: Singing Diplomats Prepare for Charity Event
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A party scheduled for Sunday in the Astoria Hotel’s Winter Garden may create something of a diplomatic coup. Titled “Cafe Oriental,” it promises “a dazzling cabaret program in the alluring spirit of the Orient,” with tunes performed by Russian, Polish, German, British, Argentinian, Australian, Slovenian and Turkish artists — most of them amateurs and half of them professional diplomats.
It is not often that members of the diplomatic corps are persuaded to put their party pieces on stage, but there is a good cause behind Sunday’s event. “The objective is fun, enjoyment and entertainment... and the raising of a little money for local charities in the process,” said British composer Peter Dyson, a member of “The Club of Singing Diplomats and Co.”
The driving force behind the project is Mila Khafizova-Jahnke, who is the wife of the German Consulate’s accountant, Olaf Jahnke. She has already organised similar groups in their previous postings abroad.
With tickets priced at 1,000 rubles ($34), the Sunday concert is the club’s second local event. The first “trial run” was held in November last year at the German Consulate and was so successful that the members have been spurred on to do more.
The beneficiary of the “Cafe Oriental” evening will be the Perspektives charity, founded in St. Petersburg in 1992 and financed by private German foundations, including the Kindernothilfe fund. Initially created to help homeless children as one of society’s least protected elements, the organization later turned its focus to aiding mentally disabled children and adults. Its volunteers work at the St. Petersburg Orphanage for the Mentally Disabled in an assistance program.
Over the years, Perspektives has brought nearly 100 German volunteers to work in St. Petersburg through the various projects it runs. They normally come for one-year stints.
In 1998, the program set up a permanent local office and began attracting Russian volunteers as well. In addition to its assistance for the Pavlovsk orphanage, Perspektives works with a home for mentally and physically disabled adults in Peterhof and provides assistance to local families with handicapped children.

TITLE: Public Offered a Say in Police Reforms
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev called on the public Wednesday to help draft legislation to replace a 1991 law on the police, which he blamed in part for the corruption surrounding his agency.
Nurgaliyev told Militseiskaya Volna radio that the new legislation would “carry a new spirit” and “its main principle will be to protect the rights and freedoms of our citizens.”
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered Nurgaliyev to reform the country’s police force, whose reputation has been ravaged by a series of scandals involving corruption and violence. Nurgaliyev is supposed to submit his proposals for the reform to the president by the end of March.
Nurgaliyev said Wednesday that a draft of the new legislation would be published on the Interior Ministry’s web site for public review on April 1.
“Every voice will be heard and counted. We know that there will be criticism and debate, but we are prepared for that,” Nurgaliyev said.
He warned, however, that work on the legislation would not be driven by “emotions from the incidents that have taken place.”
Corruption and violence have plagued the police force for years, but the problem took center stage after a senior Moscow police officer went on a shooting rampage last April, killing two people. A steady stream of incidents involving police extortion, cover-ups and murder have filled the media since then, provoking widespread public anger.
Speaking about the 1991 law, Nurgaliyev said it carries references to more than 200 other laws and internal regulations, some of which contradict one another, and thereby opens the door for individual interpretation.
Nurgaliyev said the Interior Ministry has established a task force of human rights activists, politicians and seasoned police officers to draft the new legislation. The task force will be chaired by Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Bulavin.

TITLE: World Bank Warns Of Unemployment
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s economy will see a robust recovery in 2010, but unemployment will remain high, the World Bank said Wednesday.
Unemployment is expected to stay at about 9 percent in the first quarter of 2010, “with some improvement throughout the year, mostly a result of higher seasonal employment,” the bank said in a report.
The government should have done more to stimulate job growth through employment programs during the economic crisis, particularly those aimed at stimulating the startup of small and medium-sized businesses, said Zhelko Bogetich, World Bank economist and country coordinator for Russia.
“There was some support of small and medium-sized enterprises in the government’s anti-crisis package, but probably not as much as would have been warranted, given the … hit that this sector has taken during the crisis,” Bogetich said, speaking in English, at a news conference. “So I think there’s a case here for a more active policy.”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday rolled out a new 13 billion ruble ($441 million) plan to support small business. The measures, if approved by lawmakers, will more than double the spending that the federal budget earmarked to help the sector this year, Putin said.
The government also plans to increase a program that provides financial assistance to entrepreneurs starting their own businesses, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said earlier this month. The program, initiated by the government last year, currently provides 60,000 rubles ($2,000) in subsidies to jobless people who want to start their own business and can present a successful plan.
Bogetich said the funding “could play a catalytic role” for small and medium-sized enterprises, but steps to tackle problems like corruption and to educate the labor force would also support the sector.
“Money is part of that, not everything,” he said.
Bogetich also said the growth of small and medium-sized firms was key for the diversification of Russia’s economy away from its heavy dependency on the oil and gas sector. “I think Russia definitely needs more small and medium-sized enterprises,” he said.
The World Bank said it expected that employment in Russia would show a slower recovery than the national economy as a whole.
The unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in February, down from 9.2 percent in January, the State Statistics Service said Monday.
According to the World Bank’s forecast, the economy will likely grow by 5 percent to 5.5 percent this year before registering a more moderate increase of 3.5 percent in 2011.

TITLE: City Presents 5-Year Plan for Tourism
AUTHOR: By Nikita Savoyarov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg presented the latest results of its five-year program for the development of tourism and reconstruction of the city’s international airport at the ITB Berlin travel trade show earlier this month.
City Hall is paying a lot of attention to the issue of security for tourists, said Marianna Ordzhonikidze, head of the tourism department of the city’s Committee for Investments and Strategic Projects.
The decrease in the level of crimes committed against foreign citizens confirms the efficiency of the steps taken to combat the problem, she said. At present, tourists do not consider security to be the biggest concern like they did three to four years ago. 
Cruise tourism to the city increased greatly last year — for the first time, the inflow of foreigner visitors arriving by sea reached 428,500 tourists, compared to 291,000 tourists in 2007. This can partly be explained by the St. Petersburg passenger terminal project and new federal statute that allows foreign visitors arriving by ferry or cruise liner as part of a tourist group to stay in Russia for up to 72 hours without a visa.  Another key project expected to boost tourist numbers is the development of Pulkovo airport into an international hub with a handling capacity of 22 million people per year by 2025. 
St. Petersburg was represented by travel agencies including Neva, Versa, Comintour, Nika and Mir on the city’s stand. Some changes were however visible among the exhibitors from the city — there were no mini-hotels this year, for example. But some newcomers from St. Petersburg occupied places at the Russian national stand, such as Madvis travel company, which was participating in ITB for the second time. 
The stand of the City Tourism Information Center was a central part of the overall display. Galina Gromova and Alexander Martynov from City Hall’s Committee for Investments and Strategic Projects, who represented the information center, estimated the number of visitors to the stand as no less than in 2009. 
St. Petersburg-based Rossiya airline had its own stand opposite that of the city. 
On the eve of the ITB, the 13th annual International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) took place in Berlin from March 8 to 10, attended by 1,600 people.  More than 58 countries were represented at the three-day conference, with about 25 delegates from Russia, including some from St. Petersburg.
European hotel rooms under construction are focused in the U.K., Germany and Russia, which together comprise 53 percent of rooms under construction. Despite the presence at the event of key figures in charge of Russian development projects such as InterContinental Hotels Group and Rezidor, no emphasis was given to the Russian investment opportunities during the panel discussions this year. 
Vyacheslav Ivanov from the St. Petersburg based company Venture Investments and Yield Management, who attended the event, explained that players have enough knowledge of the Russian market now, and require more networking for the current projects here in order to attract new partners. St. Petersburg is a key market in Russia for hotel investment due to its advantageous geographic location and high attraction for tourists, he added.

TITLE: The Makarova miracle
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Her art made Ingmar Bergman cry, and she gave autographs to Liz Taylor on her own used pointe shoes. She was nicknamed the “Stradivarius of dance,” and what she did on stage was referred to as “the Makarova miracle.”
This week the legendary ?migr? ballerina Natalya Makarova is making a pilgrimage to her hometown as an honorary guest of the Ninth International Ballet Festival Dance Open, which opens at the Mikhailovsky Theater on March 28. The world-famous dancer will also attend a ballet gala evening at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall on April 2 featuring some of the finest dancing talent from Russia and beyond.
In an interview with The St. Petersburg Times, the world-renowned dancer compares Odille and the mysterious heroine of Alexander Blok’s romantic poem The Stranger, and tells how she arranged a corps de ballet of birches outside her house in San Francisco to soothe her nostalgia.
“I remember St. Petersburg with tenderness, yet sometimes I cannot help wondering how on earth I could have lived in this place when the cold gets into your bones, and even your eye-lids turn into little icicles; a place where I would spend ages at a bus stop waiting and freezing,” the ballerina said. “And those endless queues! We were often late for our rehearsals [at the Vaganova Ballet Academy] simply because it was impossible to squeeze ourselves into the buses and trolley-buses already packed like tins of sardines, so we literally ran to the classes, pushing our way through the crowds.”
Remarkably, only after she left Russia and emigrated to the U.K. in 1970, did the dancer realize that what she missed most about her homeland is the Russian forest. Back in the 1980s, before Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika, when Makarova was regarded as “non-returner” in her homeland, a Soviet newspaper asked her during an interview where she would go if she ever had the chance to travel home. Back then, Makarova replied that she would probably go for a walk through the woods immediately after arriving at the airport. “I even specially planted birches outside my home in America to give me some good energy,” the dancer said.
As someone who performed virtually everything there was to dance in the 20th century in all its stylistic variations, from Marius Petipa and George Balanchine to John Neumeier and Maurice Bejart, the legendary Russian ballerina feels closest to the neoclassic.
“I am a child of the 20th century, and neoclassical ballets suit me best,” Makarova said. As for the classical ballets, the dancer compares them to a good, old book, such as Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” or Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” — when you go back to them after a while, you perceive the plot differently. “You can never really get bored of your favorite books,” the dancer said. “In a sense, they ask you to pass a maturity test when you get back to them. It is the same with classical ballets. As I was getting older and evolving as a person, my approach to and view of my ballet characters was changing accordingly.”
The dancer always plunged herself completely into her characters — their inner lives, emotions and troubles. 
She never simply got by with easy answers. Rather, Makarova always made every effort to turn her characters into real people. She perceives ballet as a dramatic art, and is convinced that if everybody on stage treats their characters as human beings, the show becomes a far more powerful and overwhelming experience. 
It’s an experience that can also be overwhelming for Makarova. “Every time I dance Manon Lescaut, one of my favorite ballet characters, I continue playing a French woman in real life for about two weeks afterwards,” the dancer recalls. “It concerns everything, from the way I move to the way I speak to other people, trying to demonstrate true French courteousness. When I am preparing for a new production [Makarova also plays dramatic roles in the theater], I often read the role aloud to myself or to the people who are closest to me, to immerse myself fully in my character.”
Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” has always been the greatest challenge for the ballerina. What attracts Makarova to Odette is a combination of self-sacrifice and wisdom. “In Tchaikovsky’s music you hear both the romantic hopes and the bitterness coming from the feeling that the ideal love is never going to happen,” Makarova explains. “Odette’s Adagio is a story where the heroine knows there will be no happy ending for her love yet she chooses to go through with it to the very bitter end. As a human being, I understand this attitude very well.”
Tchaikovsky’s original version of the ballet had a tragic ending, while the Mariinsky Theater still runs Konstantin Sergeyev’s Soviet-era version of the ballet, where love wins through in the end. Makarova — who has staged her rendition of the ballet for some of the world’s finest stages — agrees with the composer.
“The most important thing for me is that in the end Odette forgives Siegfried; it was her love for the prince that made her capable of forgiving, and in my understanding, their reconciliation is stronger for the fact that death separates them,” Makarova explains. “In a way, Odette’s forgiving overwhelms of tragic ending, yet the characters can only be together in the next world.”
The role of Odile, by contrast, was the most difficult for Makarova. It took the dancer many years to find her own approach to the character. “I’ve never possessed any of the qualities of a femme fatale essential to the role, so I had to look around — at people or literary characters — for inspiration,” Makarova remembers. “I finally found my key to the voluptuous, sexually aggressive Odile in Alexander Blok’s poem “The Stranger.” I emphasized the mystery and enigmatic charm of my heroine, allowing the audience to imagine the rest of it.”  
For Makarova, a psychological approach to her roles is essential. In ballet, she loves the poetics, the transcendence and the symbolism. “Ballet allows me to soar above the prose of life, to switch and move to another dimension,” the dancer smiles. 
Makarova’s strongest impression in ballet came when she was watching Galina Ulanova play Juliet in a televised version of Leonid Lavrovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,” to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. “When I saw Ulanova running passionately to the monk Lorenzo, enflamed with emotion, this image was forever imprinted in my memory. This is actually an incredibly difficult thing — to run on stage and not to fall out of your character. Ulanova’s Juliet has served as my icon and inspiration throughout my career.”

TITLE: Chernov’ choice
TEXT: There is something rotten in the kingdom of rock and roll. The Jam! Showbiz reported this week that <strong>Iggy Pop</strong> vowed to stop stagediving after none of the audience bothered to catch him at a recent concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. “The crowd parted and he landed flat on the floor,” the publication said. The incident left Pop “battered and bruised.”
“When I landed it hurt and I made a mental note that Carnegie Hall would be a good place for my last stage dive,” it quoted Pop, 62,  as saying. “The audience were just like, ‘What are you doing?’”
Glavclub announced Pop will perform in St. Petersburg on June 6 (although his tour schedule on his official website does not yet include any Russian dates.) Pop’s most recent album was “Preliminaires” (2009).
Pop performed in St. Petersburg once, with the Stooges in 2008, though the choice of the Ice Palace as a venue was ill-advised; the stadium looked emptyish. Glavclub’s premises look more appropriate – but now there’s no hope for Pop’s stage-diving routine.
Other shows announced by Glavclub include <strong>Enter Shikari</strong>, which formed in 2003 in St Albans, Hertfordshire in the U.K. The band, whose music has been described by LondonTourdates as “uneasy, socially-aware, dance-rock,” released a new album called “Ambush Reality” earlier this month. It is scheduled to perform on May 29.
<strong>Brendan Perry</strong>, formerly of Dead Can Dance, is schedule to perform at Glavclub on Apr. 6, while <strong>Bad Religion</strong> is due on July 19.
This week the British extreme metallers <strong>Napalm Death</strong>, will perform at Arctica on Sunday and <strong>Tito & Tarantula</strong>, is due to play Zal Ozhidaniya on Wednesday.
Stemming from Los Angeles, Tito & Tarantula is best known for the role in Robert Rodriguez’s film From Dusk Till Dawn, where it had the role of the band that performed at Titty Twister, the strip club in Mexico where the film’s main action took place. The band also performed some music for this film as well as Rodriguez’s previous release, “Desperado.”
It is amusing that Wikepedia has a section called “Fame” in the article on the band where it analyses where the band is popular or not. “Though a successful band in their own right, Tito & Tarantula seem to be very poorly known,” it says, whatever that means.
Israeli born American guitarist and composer <strong>Eyal Maoz</strong>, whose music is described as rock, jazz and avant-garde with a touch of radical Jewish-middle-eastern music, will play twice in the city this week. In a trio with local musicians Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and Ilya Belorukov, he will perform at Chinese Pilot Jao Da on Tuesday and GEZ-21 on Wednesday.
Last but not least, the Finnish world music pioneers <strong>Piirpauke</strong> (formed in 1974!) will perform at JFC Jazz on Friday.

<em>— By Sergey Chernov</em>

TITLE: Stone free
AUTHOR: By Sasha de Vogel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: For some, their name is synonymous with mystery, political intrigue and conspiracy theories. For others, they are tied to morality, learning and creativity. They are brothers in a secret society, bonded by esoteric knowledge and a coded language of rituals, symbols and signs. Among their number are some of the most influential men ever to have lived—celebrated state-builders (George Washington), world leaders (Vladimir Lenin), and artists of unparalleled genius (Leonardo da Vinci). They are none other than the Freemasons, and several of their members have gathered in the elaborate Sheremetyev Palace on the bank of the Fontanka River, at the newly opened “Music and the Masons” exhibit housed in the Museum of Music.
In recent years, conspiracy theories about secret societies like the Freemasons, Rosicrucians and Knights Templar have enjoyed a pop cultural heyday, due in large part to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” franchise. While the exaggerated arcana of these organizations makes for dramatic plot lines and thrilling fantasy, it is easy to overlook the very real influence that these groups and their members had during their peak. “Music and the Masons” brings to light the fascinating connection between Freemasonry and some of the greatest musical minds of all time, in a sophisticated exhibit that still manages to indulge our taste for the mysterious and bizarre.
Though the ranks of the Freemasons are diverse, “Music and the Masons” brings a close focus on the composers and musicians among the group. The musical Masons comprise a virtual pantheon of the classical greats, including Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Glinka and Debussy, who ascended to the highest Masonic rank. Although these artists may have lived in different time periods, their portraits, in elegant etchings, are ever-present in the exhibition hall, creating the feeling that the visitor has happened upon a gathering of masters. 
Vasily Pashkevich, a founder of the Russian National Opera, the violin prodigy Michael Wielhorsky and William Bull, founder of the Norwegian National Theater are also present, among others. The Freemasons were founded on strong moral standards, and Freemasons swore to serve a higher power in their work. It is suggested in “Music and the Masons” that this emphasis on outstanding work in creative and scientific pursuits, along with the bond of fraternity, attracted these geniuses to the group. The exhibit explores the role that these celebrated men played in Masonic society as well as the impact of Masonic membership on their work. In particular, the exhibit highlights the ways these prominent artists influenced each other’s work and included Masonic themes in their compositions.
Music also had a prominent role in the rituals of the Freemasons. As a result, a portion of “Music and the Masons” is devoted to the trappings of these rituals, some of which are so ornate that they stand out even against the lavish backdrop of the Sheremetyev Palace’s gilded moldings and richly embellished rooms. Numerous gold keys bearing the famous Masonic emblem of the interlocking stonemason’s square and compasses can be inspected; this traditional symbol represents virtue and directing action to the advancement of mankind. Jewel-encrusted brooches are also on display, featuring symbols of the Rosicrucians set in gemstones and diamonds. 
Visitors can see ceremonial glassware etched with a secret symbolic language as well as songbooks used at services, dating as far back as the early 1780s. Two large flags with detailed embroidery are also on display, one bearing a series of skulls and cross bones in black and green, one in gold with a silver swan. A black hooded robe from the 1920s will satisfy more sinister tastes. Helpfully, an interactive computer presentation provides further information.
Despite the recent popular interest in the Freemasons, this exhibit required a tremendous amount of effort to bring together. Although the Russian Freemasons Branch has existed since the late nineteenth century, the eternally controversial organization was repressed in the Soviet period. This repression not only stunted the development of Freemasonry, it all but eliminated academic exploration of the group. When research for “Music and the Masons” began, museums, libraries and archives that held potential material had no record of documents relating to Freemasonry in their inventory. The ultimate success of the exhibit is due to the exhaustive research conducted by the curators. Much of what they found had never before been exhibited and is extremely rare. 
Though the Freemasons remain, to this day, cloaked in mystery, “Music and the Masons” shines some much-needed light on the often-overlooked artistic impact Freemasonry had on the most prominent minds in music. 

“Music and the Masons” runs at the Museum of Music in the Sheremetyev Palace through May 16. Nab. Reki Fontanki 34, tel: 272 4441. ?M: Mayakovskaya or Gostiny Dvor.

TITLE: Black mountain magic
AUTHOR: By Jan Meyer
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Balkan peninsula and the countries bordering the Mediterranean are sadly the subject of certain prejudices related to their lack of politeness and tidiness, the quality of their gastronomy and the restaurant service. Anyone who has traveled to Serbia or the Adriatic coast will be able to rectify these cliches, and those who can but dream of a voyage to Croatia or Greece can debunk the stereotypes for themselves by visiting the restaurant Montenegro, and enjoying the cuisine and hospitality of the Mediterranean lifestyle. Just like the country, the restaurant is located on the sea, on Primorsky Ostrov.
Although the exterior is a little unimpressive, on the inside visitors are greeted by a light and open hall, with windows sadly facing all sides except the Gulf of Finland. This arrangement evokes an atmosphere of transparency and illumination. A quaint pastel painting only adds to the Mediterranean feel of the place — even the pale yellow fire extinguisher fits in perfectly. 
The menu, provided in both Russian and English, offers a vast range of salads and starters, as well as pasta and risotto dishes for very reasonable prices starting at 275 rubles ($9.40). The choice of “customary” food, (a mere ten different dishes), covers all different kinds of meat from veal to chicken to lamb, the latter being the most expensive dish at 810 rubles ($27.70). The fish is listed separately. 
We decided on the meat. My companion chose venison in cowberry sauce with mashed potatoes and chanterelles (455 rubles, $15.50) — a huge portion that she struggled to finish. The meat was delightful, the sauce surprising, but the mashed potatoes were unconvincing, and declared to be too conventional for a side dish. 
Onion soup with cheese (255 rubles, $8.70) bedewed the palate with a delicate velvety sensation. The oven-baked rabbit leg in red wine sauce with roasted potatoes and mushrooms (395 rubles, $13.50) that followed was a feast for the eyes. The potato-mushroom stack resembled a little hut with some green salad for a roof, and perfectly complemented the flavor of the rabbit leg. Etiquette and cutlery were abandoned in the enjoyment of the experience.
For dessert we shared panna cotta with forest fruits (275 rubles, $9.40) which was, according to our friendly and obliging waitress, prepared by a chef who is exclusively responsible for desserts. The wine card consists of various wines from all over the world including, of course, Montenegro. During the evening, guests were entertained by a live band consisting of three young women playing golden oldies from the past 50 years on their stringed instruments. This feast for the ears can apparently be enjoyed every Friday and Saturday. 
If there is a place in your dreams in which you can bask on a holiday under the Mediterranean sun, and delight in delicious Latin specialties after a bracing walk along the windy seafront, watching the sunset over the Gulf of Finland, then Montenegro may well be the place for you.

TITLE: Mariinsky Scores a Hit in Hong Kong With ‘Don Quixote’
AUTHOR: By Kevin Ng
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: HONG KONG — For the final weekend of this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Mariinsky Opera will open its short tour on Friday under the baton of Maestro Valery Gergiev with Benjamin Britten’s opera “The Turn of the Screw.” On Sunday, Gergiev will star again on the closing night of the Festival conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra in another concert.
Last Saturday, the Festival also presented the Mariinsky Ballet returning for a third tour to Hong Kong. The story of “Don Quixote”, the classic given six performances here, is about Kitri being in love with the barber Basilio instead of a rich man that she has been betrothed in a marriage arranged by her innkeeper father. She finally succeeds in marrying him thanks to the help of the knight Don Quixote. 
“Don Quixote” is a perfect showcase to display the huge 200-strong company’s achievement in classical dance. This Mariinsky production is simply the best in the world. It is entirely based on pure dancing, instead of theatrics, and radiates an irresistible delight in dancing. It’s more satisfying than the Paris Opera Ballet’s Nureyev version shown in an earlier Hong Kong Arts Festival in the 1990s.
The character dancing was stylishly performed too. The dances of the matadors in Act 1, the Gypsy dance in Act 2, and the Fandango in the last act were exhilarating as usual. Unfortunately some dances have been cut for this tour. The need to omit the puppet’s dance by the Vaganova Academy students, who couldn’t be flown to Hong Kong as well, is understandable. But there is no reason to cut the wonderful Oriental dance in Act 3 which is always a highlight of this production. Also, why was Basilio’s Act 1 solo also excised for this tour?
On the other hand, the local audience was excited to see a live horse ridden by the Don on his entrance, supplied by a riding school in Hong Kong which was as good as the Mariinsky’s own horse in St. Petersburg. Pity there wasn’t also a donkey for the Don’s servant Sancho Panza! The first two nights in Hong Kong won the loudest applause heard from a ballet audience here for a while. The audience even clapped enthusiastically when the curtain rose in the Don’s dream scene in Act 2 revealing the sumptuous floral backdrop depicting the Dryads’ kingdom. 
The opening night’s Kitri, Alina Somova, was technically dazzling. This ballet suits her better than a purer classic such as “The Sleeping Beauty,” which I saw her dance in the London tour last summer. She flew like a javelin in her spectacular jumps. Vladimir Shklyarov looked perhaps a shade too young, and perhaps smiled excessively. His solo dancing was strained and something of an effort on this occasion, his form in performances in St. Petersburg was better.
The second night’s cast was actually better matched with an appearance by the golden couple, Denis Matvienko and his wife Anastasia Matvienko. The temperature in the auditorium rose even higher than the opening night. Anastasia Matvienko demonstrated formidable technique and far greater allure. Denis Matvienko, who joined the Mariinsky a year ago from the Mikhailovsky as a principal dancer, is an asset to the troupe. His solo was danced with amazing power, his jumps and turns were sensational. And his hilarious “suicide” scene drew loud laughter from the audience.
The printing deadline prevented the third cast of Elena Yevseyeva and the talented coryph?e dancer Alexei Timofeyev, who was due to make his debut as Basilio, on Wednesday night, from being reviewed.
The Mariinksy’s female corps de ballet, still the best in the world, has in recent times lost some of the unrivalled upper-body uniformity which made it look so glorious in the past. Karen Ioanissyan was a dazzling Espada, though not on the same level as Andrei Merkuriev, who had left to join the Bolshoi. Oksana Skoryk was impressive as the Queen of the Dryads. And above all, Vladimir Ponomarev was a most dignified Don Quixote. 
Is there another ballet company in the world that tours as much as the Mariinsky? After this Hong Kong tour, they won’t have much rest this weekend, as there will be another tour to Helsinki next week from March 31, featuring “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and “Jewels.”

http://www.hkaf.org.hk/en/
http://www.mariinsky.ru/en

TITLE: Oscar-Winning Director Bigelow Recalls Working in Russia
AUTHOR: By Katherine Tulich
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Currently “hot” in Hollywood, following a Best Director win at this year’s Oscars for a tense Iraq war drama, “The Hurt Locker,” 58-year old Kathryn Bigelow has strong links with Russia, and St. Petersburg in particular.
Bigelow has spent her movie-making career creating action-packed films that have usually been deemed the domain of men. From the surfer cop movie “Point Break,” to biker gangs in “Loveless,” to the apocalyptic “Strange Days”, Bigelow has always shown she is a director that can pack a powerful cinematic punch. 
Nevertheless, her passion for history, details and delving into the military psyche was first evident back in 2002 when she tackled the controversial Cold War story of the Russian nuclear sub, K-19 (“K-19: The Widowmaker”). 
Bigelow fondly recalls her experience of working in Russia. “When I was shooting K-19 I really fell in love with your country [Russia] and the incredible strength of the people I met there,” she says. “Even the woman in the hotel who delivered coffee spoke five languages and also had a degree in atomic physics! I left Russia wishing the educational system in my country could be half as effective.” 
It took her five years to research and prepare the script for K-19. She was consumed by the story after seeing a Russian documentary on the atomic submarine’s ill-fated maiden voyage that National Geographic had broadcast for western audiences. Bigelow felt personally committed to telling the submariners’ story. “It was a fascinating story. I thought the story was a vital slice of history that should be told.”
“In mainstream Hollywood at the time, the Russians had not been treated as heroes,” she recalls. “But I felt that if a member of the audience could begin to identify with these submariners and want them to survive, then you crossed the Rubicon so to speak. That’s what set me on my journey.”
When she first traveled to Russia to research the story she met with resistance. “I wanted to speak to the survivors. I don’t speak Russian, so I had to use an interpreter and there was a lot of suspicion, not only because I was an American film maker and a woman, but because Hollywood mainstream films had not portrayed Russians in a way that was respectful. I tried to talk them through it to show them my commitment and understanding of the story and that it was meant to be a tribute.”
Not only did the survivors begin to open up, but the Russian government did as well. She was finally able to achieve her ultimate goal, setting foot on the deck of the actual K-19, becoming the first Western civilian to visit the Russian Northern Fleet Naval Base in the Kola Peninsula.
Perhaps her tenacity shouldn’t be a surprise, coming from a woman who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, enjoys deep-sea diving and was once married to “Avatar” director James Cameron. Much was made of the two going head to head at most of this year’s major awards ceremonies, but the two have remained friends after their divorce, with Cameron producing both “Strange Days” and “Point Break.” In fact, after he accepted his Golden Globe for best director in January, he said: “Frankly I thought Kathryn was going to get this and she richly deserves it.”