SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1586 (47), Friday, June 25, 2010
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TITLE: Gay March To Be Held Despite Ban, Extremists
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A gay pride event will be held in St. Petersburg on Saturday despite threats from extreme nationalists and City Hall’s continued refusals to authorize the rally, organizers said Thursday. 
“I blame the Russian authorities for any possible attack on us and any possible damage that we suffer,” said the organizing committee’s chair Maria Yefremenkova.
Earlier Thursday, Yefremenkova filed a lawsuit against City Hall’s law, order and security committee over the rejections, which she described as “derisive.” The committee declined two applications and six routes and sites for a march and standup meeting that the organizers had proposed, without offering an alternative place and/or time as required by law, she said.
The second refusal, which was received by the organizers on Wednesday, was issued on grounds such as the fact that one of the proposed sites was close to a children’s store, and holding a meeting there “would interfere with the store’s normal work.” Yefremenkova submitted a third application listing three other locations the same day. There was no answer from the committee Thursday.
“The St. Petersburg tolerance program is applied to national minorities only, but not to gays or lesbians, and I hope our action will show the true face of this St. Petersburg tolerance,” said Yefremenkova.
“Our governor [Valentina Matviyenko] has recently been praised by UNESCO for promoting tolerance and non-violence — where is her much-lauded tolerance?”
Yefremenkova described the event as a human rights demonstration. 
“We are coming to state our human dignity,” she said.
“Our slogan is: ‘If all the human rights are guaranteed, a person can live in dignity.’ The other slogan is ‘From Openness to Equality.’”
Nikolai Alexeyev, the head of the Gayrussia.ru project who has been organizing gay pride events in Moscow since 2006 and who is in the city to take part in the event, said the St. Petersburg authorities act in a more covert way than Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov — who is notorious for his homophobic statements — but to the same end.
Alexeyev said that the St. Petersburg organizers had contacted foreign consulates, but failed to garner support, adding that the situation was the same in Moscow.
“Every consulate, along with the European Commission, rejected [the requests] in various, often derogatory formulations, but yesterday we heard that the British ambassador in Sofia had supported a gay pride event there. 
“We realized that Europe has forgotten about human rights in Russia. Gas, oil, and resources are OK, but the human rights issue is no longer relevant.”
Several extreme nationalist organizations have issued threats against the event and are preparing an attack on participants, said Yefremenkova.
The group discussing plans for an attack includes members of the Russian Imperial Movement, Russian Imperial Union Order, Slavs, Russian Anti-Liberal Movement, Narodny Sobor (the People’s Council), Russian Nation, and the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), she said.
“I don’t know how it will manifest itself, whether they will block us in, throw things at us or really come at us with their fists,” she said.
In April, the Dream Flash event, whose mainly teenage participants gathered to blow bubbles in the city to celebrate spring, was attacked, apparently by extreme nationalists who had heard that a number of gays and lesbians were planning to join the event, which was held near Gorkovskaya metro station. 
Several people were beaten before the police, who were present at the site in large numbers, intervened.
On Monday, Yefremenkova applied to the prosecutor’s office and the police, asking them to investigate the threats and prevent the planned attack. She also called on them to investigate the April attack, whose organizers and participants have not been prosecuted.
The organizers expect 500 to 600 people to take part in the event if it is authorized, or “far fewer” if it is banned. A group of activists from Moscow and Minsk have already arrived in the city to participate.

TITLE: U.S. Points to Success as Medvedev Visits
AUTHOR: By Desmond Butler
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is showcasing what it sees as one of its main foreign policy successes — warmer relations with Russia — as it welcomes President Dmitry Medvedev to the White House.
The Russian president arrived at the executive mansion on a blistering Washington morning, out of the view of the media. He was holding an Oval Office meeting with Obama and then an expanded discussion with the president and their teams in the Cabinet Room before the two leaders were scheduled to address reporters.
Struggling with problems in Afghanistan, the Middle East and elsewhere, administration officials can point to signs that efforts to reset relations with Moscow have delivered tangible results. They cite Russia’s support for sanctions against Iran and the signing of a major nuclear treaty.
Conservative critics, though, see Obama as too conciliatory to Russia, and say he has not resolved disputes over issues such as Moscow’s human rights record, missile defense and Russian tensions with neighboring Georgia. They charge that by speaking softly on those issues, the United States is compromising its influence among Russia’s neighboring countries.
“We are paying a huge price for the reset policy,” says Ariel Cohen of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Administration officials say they have stood their ground on disagreements with Russia but have shifted the tone away from conflict, which they say is a sign of a maturing relationship.
Thursday’s agenda is modest. The two leaders are looking to expand their countries’ limited levels of trade — Russia has the world’s eighth-largest economy but ranks 25th among U.S. trading partners — and are expected to sign some joint statements on cooperation. No major new developments are expected.
“The true significance of Medvedev’s visit is that it brings us closer to a relationship that doesn’t require Cold War-style summits to sustain itself,” says Sam Charap, a Russia analyst at the Center for American Progress. “The lack of headlines is actually a sign of progress.”
The two leaders are likely to discuss nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea, arms control and unrest in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, which both countries would like to see resolved.
After meeting with Obama, Medvedev was to attend a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event to underscore ties among business leaders of the two countries.
Ahead of a trip to Canada to attend a G-20 summit, Medvedev began his U.S. visit in California, a sign of his emphasis on economic innovation. The Russian president toured Silicon Valley high-tech firms as part of his push to establish a similar high-tech center in Russia. (See related story on page 14.)
Russia has been drawing closer to the Obama administration, first with the agreement to reduce the two countries’ stockpiles of nuclear weapons and then in helping pass new UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Thursday’s meeting was the seventh between Obama and Medvedev since the U.S. president took office 17 months ago, and they have spent hours upon hours on the phone, negotiating details of security deals.
Touchy bilateral disputes remain, though, from missile defense to the legacy of the Russia-Georgia war of 2008. Moscow recognizes the independence of rebel Georgian provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both governed by Russia-friendly separatists. The United States still considers the provinces sovereign Georgian territory.

TITLE: Rabbis Gather in City for First Congress
AUTHOR: By Katerina Don
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg welcomed a delegation of international rabbis to the city’s Grand Choral Synagogue on Tuesday and Wednesday for its first Congress of Rabbis. 
Delegations from former Soviet republics as well as rabbis from major Russia cities congregated in the city to discuss current problems facing the Jewish community. The guest of honor was Shlomo Amar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, while Russia’s chief rabbi Berl Lazar and St. Petersburg’s chief rabbi Menachem Pewzner presided over the congress. 
During a series of seminars on Tuesday, participants discussed topics such as the correlation between the Jewish Halakha law and the law of the Russian Federation, as well as the development of Jewish Internet resources.  The congress, which is organized once every two years, is an opportunity for rabbis to share experiences and learn from one another. 
“Rabbis are not political figures, nor are they economists; however, we are part of a nation and must act according to its laws,” said Lazar at a press conference on Wednesday. “The situation in Russia has changed drastically in the last 20 years, the government not only helps but also promotes the community. There are laws being drafted in the Duma concerning the return of property to religious groups. This is very important for us because something does not stop being sacred if it is taken away. We as rabbis must all work at locating these sacred properties,” he said.
The opening of a new prayer hall in a building recently returned to the Jewish Community at 42 Ulitsa Dekabristov is a sign of the community’s prosperity. The building was constructed on communal lands in 1897 not far from the Choral Synagogue, and was funded by donations. During the Soviet era, it was confiscated and turned into a children’s hospital. The building was returned to the community on Dec. 8, 2006. The first floor now houses the Synagogue of the local Georgian Jewish community, while a medical center for the underprivileged, a day center and classrooms are planned for the remaining three floors. 
 St. Petersburg has always had a large Jewish community. At first the city was considered unsuitable by Jews due to the difficulty in establishing solar prayer schedules, but from early on in the city’s history, Jews have played a key role. Many of the city’s streets bear the names of prominent Jews such as Ulitsa Rubinshteina, named after the composer. 
“Many cultures have left their mark on this city; this is evident in the architecture,” said Mark Grubarg, chairman of the Jewish Community of St. Petersburg. “Russian culture as a whole is interwoven with Jewish motifs, and it is impossible to understand one without the other. Russian Jewry is one of the warmest, and we must spread not only outwards, but also inwards.”   
The population of Russian Jews today, at about one million, is much lower than it was in the Soviet Union, due to factors including large-scale immigration and intermarriage, however there is far more freedom and support from the government than in Soviet times. An independent and institutionalized Jewish community now exists in Russia — the Federation of Russian Jewish Communities — and is actively supported by the government. 
“We must thank God for the good government that exists in Russia today, and as a gesture of our gratitude we must work harder in his name,” said Amar. 
There are more than 500 Jewish communities in Russia, and new local community groups are constantly being formed. Many, however, are non-practicing Jews, and it is the role of rabbis to spread good deeds and educate those who have lost touch with their traditions, said Lazar. 
“This is not a missionary program,” he said. “We are not bringing in people of other faiths. We want to reach out to our own people, to enlighten and raise them. And I do not mean that only young, grown men can be young in their faith,” he added. The country’s chief rabbi also stressed the importance of using Internet resources to promote the community and spread information. 
 “The source of all conflicts between people, groups, nations, is always the same,” said Amar. “People think that they are indisputably right. But we must turn to the sacred writings where it is written that every person must follow the path of his faith — and we must follow the path of our faith,” he told the congregation. 
In the past, Amar has criticized Pope Benedict’s negative remarks on Islam. In a letter to the Pope, Israel’s chief rabbi wrote that “even when there is a struggle between nations, it must not be made religious.”

TITLE: New Braille Atlas to Help Guide Blind Around City
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The All-Russia Society for the Blind has published a unique Atlas of St. Petersburg in Braille script for blind residents of the city and blind visitors to the city. The book is aimed at helping them to find their way in unfamiliar areas of the city.
“Until today, the city’s blind lacked any kind of Braille guide or map of the city. One can only imagine how hard it must be for them to orientate themselves in the conditions of a megalopolis,” Alexei Kolosov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the All-Russia Society for the Blind, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The last maps of St. Petersburg to be published separately appeared back in the Soviet era, Kolosov said.
“However, the city is constantly developing, new metro stations have opened up, bus routes and addresses of organizations are continually changing, so there’s a huge need for this guide,” he said.
The new atlas contains listings and contact information for social, medical, cultural and some commercial organizations, as well as information on bus stops and routes, a metro map and description of the stations. There are also geographical maps of the city’s administrative districts and the main transport thoroughfares with their connections to metro stations.
“You have to remember that before leaving home a blind person has to think through his route in detail if he doesn’t want to get lost, so an atlas like this will be a real help for us,” Kolosov said.
“Our task was to help blind people to feel more comfortable in society,” he said.
Kolosov said loss of vision is particularly difficult to deal with for adults, the adaptation period proving prolonged and often leading to depression. 
“During such a period in their lives, we need to take them outside and show them that they can move around and show them how they can do so,” he said.
The atlas was created by City Hall, which provided equipment for printing the book, Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which sponsored the project, and the All-Russian Society for the Blind.
JTI, which supports a range of charity projects for the underprivileged, as well as in the cultural sphere, said as an organization it felt obliged to get involved in the project.
“We regard this project as the beginning of a long-term partnership, and its central goal is to help blind people to adapt to society in the best way possible, especially in the conditions of such a large city as St. Petersburg,” said Anatoly Vereshchagin, director of JTI’s charity and sponsorship projects in Russia. 
The 900 copies of the book printed in the first edition will be distributed for free among blind people in St. Petersburg who can already read Braille. 
There are more than 10,000 people in St. Petersburg who have serious problems with their sight, 40 percent of whom are entirely blind and about 60 percent of whom are able to make out the contours of objects at close distances, Kolosov said.
Many are unable to read Braille, having not been taught, Kolosov said.
Vereshchagin said that assistance in the teaching of Braille could become the next stage in JTI’s collaboration with the Society for the Blind. 
Alexander Rzhanenkov, head of the city’s Social Policy Committee, said the infrastructure for blind people in Russia is generally underdeveloped, especially in comparison with Western European countries.
‘We need to think about details such as Braille signs in elevators, on medicines, in stores, and in other socially important places. For instance, in Europe there are even Braille signs on monuments,” Rzhanenkov said.

TITLE: Dispute Over iPhone Gift for President
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev become the first Russian owner of an iPhone 4 after Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented him with the new smartphone an hour before it went on sale in the United States on Wednesday.
But the president may not be entitled to keep the gadget for himself.
Government officials are only allowed to accept presents that cost less than 3,000 rubles ($100), and iPhone 4 pre-orders in Russian online shops range from 85,000 to 95,000 rubles ($2,700 to $3,000).
The phone, which will not go on sale in Russia before this fall, retails for up to $600 in the United States.
Medvedev, who already owns an older iPhone model, used the new phone during the meeting with Jobs to make a video call to his economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich, who was accompanying him on a tour of California’s Silicon Valley on Wednesday, RIA-Novosti reported.
It was unclear whether the president’s secret service planned to examine the new iPhone to deem it safe for use by Medvedev. The Federal Security Service and Federal Guard Service could not comment on the issue for The St. Petersburg Times on Thursday.
In California, Medvedev also fulfilled a promise to create personal accounts on the Twitter microblogging service, establishing two of them — in Russian (@KremlinRussia) and English (@KremlinRussia_E) — during a visit to Twitter’s headquarters. He typed out his first Twitter message in the presence of Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone: “Hi everyone! I’m on Twitter, and this is my first message!”

TITLE: Bill Threatens 40 Percent of Green Spaces
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The city’s Legislative Assembly passed an environmental bill Wednesday that could ultimately result in the city’s green spaces shrinking by a staggering 40 percent in coming years.
Under the new law on green spaces, only 1,388 out of St. Petersburg’s 2,398 parks, gardens and green areas retain their status as areas protected from construction.
According to Alexander Karpov, head of the Center for Ecological Analysis, the consequences of this governmental move will be devastating for St. Petersburg if it takes shape. The future looks particularly depressing for the Vasileostrovsky district, where the volume of green space could plunge from 6.1 square meters per person to 3.2 square meters.
The law also divides the management of green areas between federal authorities, which will be in charge of forest areas, and municipalities, which will gain control over the parks and gardens within their territories.
The driving force behind the law was the United Russia faction. Vadim Tyulpanov, the parliament’s speaker and head of the United Russia faction, praised his party’s initiative, claiming the law “would facilitate the management of green areas.”
In the meantime, local environmental groups, supported by the Just Russia and Communist factions of the city parliament, argue that the law gives a “green light” to real estate developers as it leaves a vast number of green spots without protection.
“Take, for instance, the Chernobyl Survivors Alley in the Nevsky district — everyone who lives in the area knows this beautiful park with hundreds of lime trees,” said Oleg Nilov, head of the Just Russia faction in the assembly. “This area, for example, was not included in the list of protected green spaces, so if one day someone decides to build a trade center there, getting access to the land would be an easy job. And such examples are countless.”
Members of the Communist and Just Russia factions tried to prevent the law from being passed by submitting several hundred amendments. The majority of the lawmakers, however, were quick to find an escape route, and voted to form a package of amendments, excluding anything that did not fit a certain pattern and leaving the opposition toothless against the pro-government United Russia lobby. For example, the lawmakers voted not to review any amendments that suggested including green areas of less than half a hectare in size on the list of protected green areas. They also declined to consider any proposals to expand the size of a park, garden or other green space by less than 10 percent of its size. 
Hundreds of amendments were as a result never reviewed, and large numbers of green spaces have lost their status as a territory protected from construction. Several representatives of the Just Russia faction left the meeting in protest after they saw that more than 200 of their amendments had been turned down.
Dmitry Artamonov, head of the city’s Greenpeace headquarters, said that a federal law on green areas passed in 2003 is not enforced in the city. The law stipulates that if a company or any organization destroys a green zone to build within the city limits, it must plant trees in other areas to compensate for the loss.
In-fill construction in St. Petersburg appears to be taking place without any such compensation and many disputes regarding the issue are proceeding through the courts, Artamonov said.
Under the law, in each residential quarter there should be at least six square meters of green space for each resident. This norm is violated in several districts of St. Petersburg, particularly in central districts where vacant land plots are more of a rarity and hence more valuable, he said.
“As a result of in-fill construction in zones with fully established infrastructure, not only are locals deprived of leisure areas, children’s playgrounds and places to walk domestic animals,” said Artamonov. “With more private transport entering the areas, the air is full of exhaust fumes.”
Mikhail Amosov, a member of the political council of the local branch of the liberal Yabloko party and former head of the Town Planning Commission in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, said one of the key problems is that not all parks, gardens and lawns are registered as such. For bureaucratic reasons, some of the spots are recorded as wasteland and vacant plots of land in official documents.
“After the war, local residents often planted trees on wasteland on their own initiative, but those sites weren’t then registered as parks and gardens and still appear as vacant land on paper,” Amosov said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Naturally, it is easy for a construction company to seize wasteland.”
This bureaucratic loophole relieves construction companies of any legal responsibility to plant trees elsewhere.

TITLE: City Gets Boost For Computer Literacy
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Two computer literacy centers opened last week at the rehabilitation center of St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) as part of Microsoft’s “Your Course” initiative. 
The global IT giant has the ambitious intention of training more than one million people at 100 literacy centers throughout Russia during the next three years. 
In St. Petersburg, the center will train 500 students a year, focusing on people who have no other access to IT training, such as pensioners. The city’s labor and employment committee will help candidates who struggle to find a job because of their computer illiteracy. 
This year’s global e-Government survey ranked Russia 59th on the E-government development index. Online interaction with the government is not a developed sphere, though President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly enjoys using his IPad and cannot tolerate governors taking part in video conferences with piles of paper instead of laptop computers.
While the president battles digital incompetence among government officials, 63 percent of the population still has no access to the Internet. 
“Today many talented people are not recognized because they haven’t been taught digital literacy,” said Tatyana Zudilova, the ITMO center coordinator. The organizers cite success stories such as that of a pensioner from the city of Vladimir, who became a public figure after completing a course and creating her own web site, where she published documents useful to elderly people. Another woman who missed her son was taught how to use a webcam and Skype so that she could communicate with him via the Internet. 
The IT literacy courses at ITMO, which will be taught by volunteers, will comprise lectures, animation and simulations to teach basic computer concepts and skills for no charge. The course, which has been adapted to Russia, is also available on the Internet, meaning it can be taken both at home and under the supervision of a teacher or volunteer.
The basic course consists of 5 modules; each of which last for three hours. A special course has been devised for pre-users with no practical experience, covering basics such as typing or using a mouse. 
The topics most in demand are “How to create a CV,” “How to find a job online,” “How to make a simple business plan,” “Telework” and others. The courses aim to provide students with all the skills required to work with Office and Internet Explorer.
Microsoft’s objective is to make innovations accessible for everybody. The company’s developers work in cooperation with the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance and Assistive Technology Industry Association, and the latest version of Windows 7 is fully adapted for disabled users.

TITLE: Lawmaker Wants Behavior Code
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A St. Petersburg lawmaker has called for the drafting of an etiquette handbook for the imperial capital that would advise foreign visitors to speak only in Russian and to avoid wearing national dress — similar to a behavior code planned in Moscow.
Yelena Babich, a city deputy with the Liberal Democratic Party, said she was moved to act after seeing people in cotton robes and house slippers walking down St. Petersburg’s main street, Nevsky Prospekt, local web site Fontanka.ru reported Wednesday.
She said such incidents damaged the city’s reputation as a “cultural capital.”
Babich has filed an official request with St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko to develop the behavior code.
It was unclear how a behavior code would go down in St. Petersburg, the country’s biggest tourist draw with sites such as the Mariinsky Theater and Peterhof Palace.
Moscow City Hall said last week that it was collaborating with diasporas and scientists to create the “Muscovite’s Code,” a list of nonbinding behavior guidelines to be presented to every foreigner who moves to Moscow.

TITLE: Hotels Face Compulsory Certification
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Every hotel, beach and ski resort in Russia will soon have to obtain an obligatory classification as the country gears up to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Previously, Russian hotels obtained star-category classification on a voluntary basis, but obtaining certification will become obligatory after an order signed in June by Vitaly Mutko, minister for sport, tourism and youth policy, comes into force.
There are 471 officially certified hotels in Russia — about 10 percent of the total number of 4,500 hotels, according to data from the Federal Tourism Agency. St. Petersburg has 88 three-, four- and five-star hotels, of which only 14 of them have star certification, according to data from Colliers International. In Moscow, 31 hotels have star certification.
“There are no international unified standards for awarding stars to hotels,” said Sergei Korneyev, director for the northwest of the Russian Tourism Industry Union. “Each country has its own system, and this is inconvenient for tourists, since, for example, Egyptian stars differ from European ones. There have been many misunderstandings.”
There are currently about 30 national systems of hotel classification around the world. 
“Among them are the letters system used in Greece and the crowns system used in the U.K., though the most widespread system is the star classification,” said Yevgenia Tuchkova, senior consultant at the consulting department of Colliers International.
The first attempts to introduce classification standards in Russia were made in the Soviet era. In 1984, a document was drawn up dividing hotels into seven categories. The regulation existed until 1994, and was followed by three more certification documents. Finally, in 2005, a new system of state classification of hotels guesthouses was launched, taking into account European experience.
The new regulations examine all possible criteria according to which hotels are divided into five categories. Each hotel will be awarded a number of points depending on the number of rooms and the services offered.
For example, the waiting time for an elevator in four– and five-star hotels should be no more than 30 seconds, or 45 seconds in a three-star hotel.
“The new system should correspond to the nuances of the hotel business,” said Korneyev. “For example, some of the demands will make it impossible for mini-hotels to obtain five-star status, though in general they correspond to it.”
“The system is quite good, but the mechanism for its implementation has not been spelled out,” he said.
The hotel categories will be evaluated by a special committee of representatives of the Federal Tourism Agency and other ministries.
The classification will be a paid procedure, and mandatory certification is expected to cost less than voluntary classification, which according to data from the Russian Agency of Law and Judicial Information currently costs about $1,500 for three- to four-star hotels with less than 100 rooms. 
“Hotels should also find out what they will get as a result of the certification,” said Korneyev. “Before there were a number of bonuses, such as advertisement in various state publications.”
As the procedure was not cheap, many hotels declined to apply for classification. 
“Such hotels could give themselves as many stars as they wanted, but the obligatory classification will regulate the hotel system,” said Yekaterina Vasilyeva, deputy PR manager at the Grand Hotel Europe. “For hotels offering luxury services, the certification is not a threat. They will just have to improve some services to meet these requirements,” she added.
“Many hotels that are located in old buildings will need to invest a lot in engineering infrastructure and additional facilities to get the necessary number of points to obtain the certification and get the stars they want,” said Tuchkova.
Hotels that fail to declare their status under the new rules will pay a fine, for which documentation is currently being prepared by the State Duma.
“Hotels without certification won’t have the right to use their unofficial rating in advertisements and furthermore, limits may be applied to the activity of such hotels,” said Tuchkova.
Certificates will be issued for five years, but hotels will have to reaffirm their status twice a year.

TITLE: Gas Flows To Belarus  Resumed
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Gazprom resumed supplies to Belarus in full Thursday after both sides paid bills, at levels lower than demanded.
“There are no problems that could hinder gas transits,” Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for the Russian gas export monopoly, told reporters in Moscow.
Gazprom paid $228 million for past transit fees in line with their base contract rate, rather than the $260 million that Belarus was demanding, as no agreement to raise the price has been signed, Kupriyanov said. The company received $187 million from Belarus for past fuel deliveries, he said. Gazprom had demanded $192 million.
The dispute over the debts lowered gas deliveries to Lithuania, an EU member, as Gazprom cut deliveries for Belarus 60 percent by Wednesday and accused the neighboring country of siphoning off 20 percent of EU exports. Gazprom supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas, sending about 20 percent via Belarus and the rest across Ukraine.
Belarus’s debt arose as it continued to pay $150 per 1,000 cubic meters, demanding the right to pay Russian domestic prices.

TITLE: Russian Railways Invests In Education of Its Employees
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russian Railways and the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) in St. Petersburg signed a memorandum last week on continuing their collaboration via their modular executive MBA corporate training program. 
The corporate training program corresponds to the first year of study at SSE, with two semesters divided into modules composed of lectures and interactive seminars. The top two graduates this year will be enrolled on a full-time course in Stockholm.
“It is important to have well-educated professionals in our company,” said Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin at the signing ceremony. 
SSE President Lars Bergman said that the school’s close collaboration with one of Russia’s biggest structures was an honor for SSE, which works with 110 companies.
Local HR experts gave the program a positive assessent.
“Unlike the MBA, EMBA programs enable students to improve their management skills, acquire new knowledge and the ability to think strategically without taking a break from their work,” said Svetlana Lavrinenko, head of recruitment at Ancor. 
“During the training course, students are given business cases that have been specially created to suit the company’s needs. Therefore each student can practically apply all of the knowledge gained,” she said. 
There is a strict selection procedure for candidates, and only Russian Railways employees with “management experience, leadership potential, career progress, motivation for training, and teamwork skills” can enter the course. Seventy percent of the course fees are paid for by the company, and the other 30 percent is paid by the candidate. 
According to The Wall Street Journal, the return on investment for the SSE Executive MBA program is 306 percent in five years. SSE is ranked second on the list of Executive MBA programs outside the U.S. by the newspaper. Russian Railways’ corporate training program enjoys considerable demand: 35 specialists have already graduated from the course, and this year 40 people will be awarded certificates. 
Russia was ranked 63th in the Global Competitiveness Index 2009-2010, and many companies are realizing the need to invest in their employees’ education. 
“The competitiveness of the Russian economy depends on many factors, including the quality of the human resources,” said Lavrinenko. “Vocational training, refresher courses and advanced training courses aren’t up to scratch, and this can be attributed to the fact that cooperation between business structures and universities hasn’t yet been established. Unfortunately, training programs can’t be quickly adapted to changing market conditions,” she said.
Yakunin declared his desire to see only competent people with a good command of foreign languages in his company, and promised to show no mercy.
The Stockholm School of Economics opened in Russia in 1997, and managed to survive the financial crisis that broke out a year later. The school, which last year celebrated its centenary, offers programs in both English and Russian, including corporate programs created specifically for corporate clients. According to its site, the SSE’s objective is “capitalism with a human face.”

TITLE: Medvedev Gets Backing From Governator
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev won Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s backing for his bid to build Russia’s own Silicon Valley late Tuesday, saying he aims to create “powerful” ties with California companies.
“My goal is not just to see what it is like. This is not an excursion,” Medvedev told Schwarzenegger in San Francisco. “I would like us to start full-fledged relations as a result of this trip that will lead to establishing powerful cooperation.”
The Kremlin leader arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday for a three-day visit that will include talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington. Medvedev was scheduled to meet with executives from companies including Apple, Cisco Systems and Twitter on Wednesday.
Schwarzenegger said he would put together a trade mission of technology executives to travel to Moscow to help with the Skolkovo project “in any way possible.”
The president in March asked oil and metals billionaire Viktor Vekselberg to oversee the creation of a Russian Silicon Valley in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo, where tax breaks and other incentives will be offered to lure investment to spur innovation and production of high-technology products.  
Vekselberg, whose assets include a stake in TNK-BP, said Tuesday that Cisco would join Skolkovo and that Boeing would sign an accord to do the same on Thursday. Cisco will establish a research and development center in Skolkovo to support innovative products, Vekselberg said.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt agreed to join Skolkovo’s board and will meet Medvedev’s delegation during the California leg of the U.S. trip, Vekselberg said.
“We are working out formats of cooperation,” Vekselberg said. “Signing won’t happen as part of this visit, but I think it will in the future. The result of this visit will be the establishment of qualitatively new relations between Skolkovo and our partners.”  
After arriving, Vekselberg pledged funding to maintain a Californian park that Russia established as a Pacific Ocean trading post in the 19th century.
Vekselberg’s Renova will donate at least $1 million a year to support Fort Ross, the billionaire said in San Francisco after signing an accord with Schwarzenegger on Tuesday.
Operating hours at Fort Ross have been slashed as California struggles to stem its record budget deficit. Fort Ross was established by the Russian-American Company, a commercial hunting and trading venture chartered by the tsarist government. Russians inhabited the fort from 1812 to 1841. 

TITLE: Salaries Edge Past Their Pre-Crisis Levels
AUTHOR: By Olga Kuvshinova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW —  Russians’ real salaries surpassed pre-crisis levels in May, according to a Bank of Moscow report, but the gains are primarily thanks to low inflation rather than generous employers.
Salaries in May rose 1.5 percent above their September 2008 all-time high, said Kirill Tremasov, director of the bank’s analytical department, while their average level in the first five months of the year was 3 percent higher than in the same period of 2008.
The figures consider so-called real salaries, which account for inflation as well as cyclical factors such as periodic bonuses and fluctuating work and salaries in certain sectors, said Igor Polyakov, an analyst at the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting.
According to Polyakov’s calculations, the average was 0.7 percent higher in May than at its peak in September 2008. “The figure is within the margin of error. You could say the pre-crisis level has been reached, but not surpassed.” But the average salary from January through May is 1.6 percent higher than in the same period two years ago, he said.
That would make real salaries the first of the main economic indicators to exceed pre-crisis levels, Tremasov said. When comparing the first quarter of this year with the second quarter of 2008 — the last before the effects of the crisis began to be felt in Russia — the other main indicators are lagging.
Gross domestic product is still 7.3 percent lower, industrial production is 9.4 percent behind, commercial freight shipments are down 6.9 percent, retail trade volumes have fallen 2.8 percent, capital investments are 9.6 percent weaker and construction volumes are off by 22.5 percent.
Tremasov and Polyakov were in agreement that low inflation was the main factor providing the growth in real wages.
Since May 2008, inflation has fallen to an annual 6 percent, from 15.1 percent. Even last year, nominal salaries rose, gaining 11 percent in the first five months of 2009, according to data from the State Statistics Service. But when inflation is taken into account, wages fell 2 percent over the period.
From January through May of 2010, nominal salary growth was nearly unchanged, at 11.4 percent, but wages grew 4.4 percent in real terms.
The leading industries in the first five months have been the financial sector, which saw real wages grow 17 percent, and the railroad sector, with an increase of 16.9 percent. Workers involved in raw materials extraction saw real earnings rise 11.2 percent over the period, while processing industries had salary gains of 14.2 percent.
Nominal gains in the public sector have been in the range of 4.4 percent to 6.8 percent, meaning a drop in real terms.
Some employees at Sberbank, the country’s largest lender, have already seen their salaries rise above pre-crisis levels, and the employment budget has risen 15 percent this year, said Alexander Morozov, director of the state bank’s financial department. Russian Railways, the country’s largest employer with a staff of 1.03 million, raised salaries on average by 12.9 percent last year — to 25,316 rubles ($820) — and another 3.9 percent on May 1, a spokesperson at the state-run company said.
But not everyone was seeing rising salaries during the crisis, as an average of 410,000 people had their hours cut or were sent on unpaid vacation.
Russian Post, which employs 415,000 people, raised salaries in the midst of the crisis last year, but a spokesperson at the state-run company said this was because of the “extremely low” level of wages in the sector. The current average monthly salary of industrial workers at AvtoVAZ, Russia’s largest carmaker, is 17,591 rubles ($566), or about 8.6 percent lower than in June 2008, a company spokesperson said.
X5 Retail Group, the country’s largest food retailer, reduced the number of workers during the crisis rather than cutting salaries, a spokesperson said, adding that in March 80 percent of staff received raises of 14 percent to 15 percent. Employees at grocery chain Magnit earned an average of 13,100 rubles ($421) per month in 2008, a figure that rose to 13,700 last year, the company said.
Mobile TeleSystems, the country’s biggest mobile operator, did not reduce salaries in 2009, and raises of 10 percent are planned for this year, a spokesperson said.
According to monitoring of 96 major industrial companies in Pyrnes Group’s PYNDEX, 58 percent plan to raise salaries this year by an average of 10 percent, meaning a real growth of 4 percent if the official forecast for 6 percent inflation is accurate.
But in absolute terms, salaries in Russia remain low. According to sampling data from the State Statistics Service, which excludes small firms and freelance workers, every 10th person receives less than 5,000 rubles ($160) per month. The median salary is about 13,200 rubles, while the mathematical average is currently 18,287 rubles ($590).
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and employees in the government have lower salaries than before the crisis, said Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary. “Bonuses were cut, and they have still not been restored,” he said.
The prime minister’s earnings fell a nominal 17 percent in 2009, while the president’s compensation was reduced by 20 percent. Meanwhile, the average State Duma deputy was earning 4.6 percent more this year than in 2010, including all bonuses and additional compensation.

TITLE: RusAl Asks State For $45 Million To Pay for Two Innovations Plans
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Terentyeva and Natalya Kostenko
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — United Company RusAl has requested 1.4 billion rubles ($45 million) from the government for the development of two innovation projects.
No other company has ever requested such a large sum.
The commission for modernization and technological development has approved the two RusAl projects, a source close to the commission and an official in the presidential administration told Vedomosti. The decision is preliminary, they said, and there will be a final list of projects approved later.
RusAl says the development of a heavy-duty electrolytic cell will cost 2 billion rubles, while technology for producing aluminum via the use of inert anodes will run 1.07 billion rubles.
RusAl asked the government for 1.4 billion rubles through 2014 for the projects — the biggest request made by a single company.
A total of 168.9 billion rubles has been assigned to the commission for 2010 to 2012, but it is asking for an additional 92.5 billion rubles.
RusAl will not invest much more into the two projects because the main part of the investment has already been made. 
The company has been working on electrolytic cells since 2001 and has invested 808 million rubles in the highest capacity model. 
Now it needs to build and launch a pilot installation, which it says will happen in 2011 or 2012 and require 1.09 billion rubles. 
The company is investing 199 million rubles and will request another 1 billion through 2014.

TITLE: Luzhkov Wants Tower Trimmed
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Moscow’s City Hall may force developer Don-Stroi to lop several completed stories off a giant luxury apartment complex in southwestern Moscow, saying the extra floors were built without prior approval.
A source in the Mayor’s Office told RIA-Novosti on Wednesday that as many as 22 stories could be ordered demolished, although City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi told Russian news agencies later in the day that eight or nine floors could be enough.
“Everything that was built without documents needs to be brought into accordance,” Oleg Mitvol, prefect of Moscow’s Northern Administrative District, told The St. Petersburg Times.
Mitvol, who campaigned against illegal housing in his previous job as a federal environmental inspector, said Mayor Yury Luzhkov called the illegal construction “impudence” and that it was “time to stop it.”
Moscow officials have recently stepped up their attempts to punish illegal construction, including the controversial demolition of homes in the Rechnik neighborhood this winter.
But knocking floors off a high-rise seems to contradict Luzhkov’s stated goal of eliminating the city’s old, five-story apartment buildings by 2012 to make way for high-rise housing to accommodate the city’s burgeoning population.
Luzhkov’s commission to combat illegal construction met late Tuesday and decided that the extra floors might need to be removed, since they were not part of the initial agreement with city authorities.
The skyscraper, known as Dom na Mosfilmovskoi, consists of two towers — one 47 stories high, the other 32 — and a seven-story bridge section, according to Don-Stroi’s web site.
The development is undergoing interior work, which is slated to be finished this year. The 213-meter building’s 564 apartments will range in size from 59.3 square meters to 389 square meters, the site said.
Don-Stroi might have to return money to clients who have already bought apartments in the building, Mitvol said, recalling a similar situation in his district when a developer built 30 percent of an office center without prior approval.
Mitvol said he did not know how many floors needed to be razed.
Developers were given a freer hand after legislation intended to ease oversight of small businesses passed last year allowing construction companies to be inspected only once every three years, he said.
A spokesman for City Hall could not be reached on his mobile phone.  
Don-Stroi denied that it had received any orders from the city to demolish part of the project.

TITLE: Reviving the OSCE
AUTHOR: By Denis MacShane
TEXT: It is 20 years since leaders from across Europe and North America met to set the seal on the end of the Cold War. The result was the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, a visionary statement signed on Nov. 21, 1990 by most European governments, Canada, the United States and the Soviet Union. The statement was intended to replace the divisions and rivalries of the past with new institutions of common security stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok and was the basis for the formation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Participating states pledged to improve their relations, to treat security within the Euro-Atlantic area as indivisible, and to work together on the basis of mutual respect and common democratic values.
The OSCE was meant to be the organizational expression of this pan-European vision.  The informal mechanisms established by the Helsinki Accords 15 years earlier were replaced with permanent structures designed to prevent conflict, institutionalize security cooperation and strengthen democratic reform and human rights. Heads of state and foreign ministers were to meet regularly to resolve Europe’s security problems and set priorities for the future.
Regrettably, the promise of that historic vision has not been honored. Instead of being a central pillar of the post-Cold War European order, the OSCE is more often an afterthought in the continent’s most important security deliberations. Russia’s authoritarian turn has weakened the base of common values that participating states are meant to share, with Moscow becoming openly hostile to the OSCE’s human rights and election monitoring functions as well as to media freedom. Russia’s intervention in Georgia, disputes over energy supplies, and a failure to resolve the frozen conflicts have added to a climate of mutual recrimination.
At the same time, though, it would be wrong to lay all the blame for the OSCE’s decline at Russia’s door. There has been no summit of heads of OSCE member governments since 1999, and many Western leaders give the appearance of having lost interest in the organization.  Some complain about the absence of a substantive agenda that might command their attention. But if Western countries were committed to realizing the goals envisaged for the OSCE in the Charter of Paris, they would be working to develop a substantive agenda of their own. It is Western passivity as much as Russian obstructionism that is at fault.
But there are now tentative signs that relations between Russia and the West might be changing for the better. U.S. President Barack Obama’s reset policy has already produced an important nuclear disarmament agreement.  Europe, Russia and the United States are cooperating constructively again on Iran. In addition, the Russian government’s sensitive handling of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre has opened the way for a rapprochement with Poland.
These are all encouraging developments. The violence in Kyrgyzstan, an OSCE member, shows the need to handle security problems in the Eurasian space in a cooperative rather than a competitive manner. The OSCE should be the vehicle that permits a defusing of the crisis. Russia, together with the member states of the European Union and NATO, should support the efforts of Kazakhstan to solve the crisis in its capacity as chair of the OSCE. With the backing of these countries, the OSCE could play an important role in facilitating the honest and stable government Kyrgyzstan needs, thereby making a valuable contribution to the security of Central Asia as a whole.
Russia and the West should be seeking to build on this opportunity. President Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal for a new European security treaty has obvious problems. It is widely interpreted as an effort to sideline the OSCE, paralyze NATO and divide Europe into spheres of influence. But instead of summarily turning down Medvedev’s security proposal, the West should embrace the challenge of renewing Europe’s security architecture and make a counterproposal designed to uphold its own values while acknowledging Russia’s legitimate role and aspirations. At the same time, the OSCE should condition Russia’s role in European security on the Kremlin’s adherence to the values and principles enshrined in the Charter of Paris and the Helsinki Final Act.
Meanwhile, Western governments should be developing a package of proposals designed to reform the OSCE and strengthen its ability to meet the security challenges ahead.  These should be explored at a heads of government summit to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Charter of Paris in November. There is certainly plenty to discuss. With Kazakhstan the first Central Asian and the first majority-Muslim nation to chair the OSCE, it is a symbolically significant moment to address some of the big foreign policy issues of our time — how to accommodate the rise of Asia, improve cooperation in the fight against terrorism, and bring security and stability to Afghanistan.
These are all areas where Russia, Europe and North America should recognize their shared long-term interests in working together. The OSCE will either become the forum within which a new security partnership is forged, or the promise of 1990 will continue to fade to the detriment of all.
A new thaw appears to be taking place in relations between Russia and the West. Now would be the ideal moment to revitalize the OSCE and breathe new life into the vision of a Euro-Atlantic community that is united in the common pursuit of peace and progress.

Denis MacShane is a British member of parliament.

TITLE: Oil Spill is BP’s Chernobyl
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the huge oil spill that resulted has led to a predictable reaction from many liberals — curses directed at profit-obsessed transnational corporations, calls for introducing exorbitantly high taxes on offshore drilling and appeals to abandon hydrocarbons completely and live in harmony with nature.
In reality, however, many technological disasters are not the result of negligence, ignorance or malice but are the consequence of highly complex technologies in unexplored areas that often have unpredictable results.  
We often believe that if something is created by man, we know exactly how it will perform. But this is far from true.
There were several other major disasters prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union that were caused by negligence and stupidity — for example, the Alexander Suvorov ship tragedy. On June 5, 1983, the ship’s crew attempted to pass under a low section of a bridge spanning the Volga River, tearing away the upper deck and claiming the lives of 177 people.
But Chernobyl was a different disaster. What proved fatal for the Chernobyl reactor was something known as the “end effect.” This is when the reactivity of the reactor undergoes a short-term increase instead of the anticipated decrease. One good analogy is if you press down on a car’s brake pedal and instead of slowing the vehicle it causes a brief surge in speed because of a freak situation in which the pedal’s position suddenly changed.
The same thing is true of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling platform was equipped with every imaginable safeguard, and although the particulars of what actually happened are still unknown, it was clearly something that nobody had ever anticipated. Of course, some might argue that there should have been 33 levels of emergency response safeguards on the platform instead of only three. But in reality, nobody ever has that many backups in place.
There will always be sequences of events that are impossible to prevent because of the enormous complexity of the technical systems used — in the same way that it is impossible to predict an earthquake with 100 percent certainty.
There are a huge number of liberals, nature lovers and entrenched opponents of technological progress who are always eager to say offshore drilling and nuclear power plants should be banned because our ancestors got by quite well without them. What’s more, they didn’t pollute the oceans or die from radiation exposure.
But if we go as far back as our hunter-gatherer ancestors who lived in harmony with nature, few lived to 40, they were defenseless against epidemics and occasionally ate human flesh.
A modern individual living in a technologically advanced society lives longer and better than the typical caveman. Think of unpredictable catastrophes like the oil spill as a “tax” that we have to pay for technological progress.

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

TITLE: Two for the price of one
AUTHOR: By Katharine Helmore
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The city got its second new museum of contemporary art in as many weeks with the opening Monday of the Erarta Museum and Gallery of Contemporary Art — a five-floor complex dedicated to contemporary Russian art. 
An unprecedented project that has taken three years of preparation, it is the largest contemporary art space in Russia, with more than 2,000 works by 140 artists on show in the gallery alone. Uniquely, the striking building housing Erarta contains both a museum of not-for-sale works alongside a gallery where works will be sold. 
The second private art museum to open on Vasilyevsky Island this month, Erarta was originally scheduled to open in November last year, but was delayed. Unlike Novy Muzei (New Museum), which opened June 4 and is devoted solely to non-conformist art, Erarta encompasses a broader period from the end of World War II up until the present day. 
The brainchild of Marina Varvarina, the widow of the wealthy businessman Dmitry Varvarin who was murdered in St. Petersburg in 2000, the ambitious project is housed in a striking yellow building decorated with white columns and has been divided into two wings — the right wing houses the gallery, and the left the museum. The building has undergone a complete overhaul to transform it into a fittingly modern space for its new contents, and is hard to miss, juxtaposed opposite the tired-looking Soviet Palace of Culture.  
“The need for a museum and gallery of modern art has been evident to everyone for some time,” said Mikhail Ovchinnikov, the museum’s curator. 
In order to find new talent, Erarta launched a contest last year. Together with the gallery’s curator, Viktoria Dudenko, Ovchinnikov traveled extensively throughout Russia hunting for undiscovered talent. 
“We promised to exhibit the works from the competition for six months, which is why at the moment the gallery is only half-occupied,” said Dudenko. Eventually, the gallery will spread across the five floors parallel to the museum wing, she said. 
The goal of both the museum and the gallery remains to seek out new talent in remote regions of Russia, as well as in more developed areas. According to Dudenko, this approach is unheard of: “Until now, if an artist thought they were any good, they had to come to either Moscow or St. Petersburg and rent a studio, otherwise simply nobody would know about them.”
A recent trip to the southern Russian city of Stavropol uncovered the work of Pyotr Gorban, who painted prolifically in the 1980s. Impressed by the deceased artist’s work, Ovchinnikov snapped up the entire collection from his family, and it is now exhibited on the fifth floor of the museum wing. The works are riveting and entertaining to look at. A series of small satirical sketches with thick brush strokes on small canvases hang along one wall. Particularly engaging is a work titled “Bread” depicting an overweight woman with red nails and pouting lips standing proudly behind a counter. On a plaque above her head, the word “khleb” (bread) is boldly spelled out in Cyrillic letters.  
In an adjoining room hangs a series by Pavel Krishin titled the “Last Supper” (2010). An original interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece shows 13 figures draped in heavy jute in the center of the room, above which hangs a huge installation of a crown of thorns. On the surrounding walls hang a series of black and white sketches depicting the New Testament on one side, and the Old Testament on the other. 
The first room of the museum’s fourth floor houses Sergei Karayev’s installation “Worm Trace” (2009-2010), which consists of a huge piece of metal curled around one half of a room. On the opposite wall hangs the fittingly dark-toned canvas of Vladimir Migachev’s painting “Oil.” The image of a train is partly obscured by drips of oil medium and paint and areas of thick impasto. Continuing the industrial theme of the room, Ilya Gapanov’s work “Parallel Kuzbas” (2007) depicts mining machinery (thirty percent of Russia’s coal is mined in the Kuzbas region in the province of Kemerovo). 
Nikolai Kopeikin’s iconic canvases of elephants are displayed together in one section on the fourth floor. “Incident in the Elephant Enclosure” (2008) is a canvas filled with a group of angry-looking elephants demonstrating human expressions and amusing gestures such as pulling tails and punching one another. Another canvas, “Motherland,” depicts an elephant from behind leaning against a tree, looking out to sea. The same room contains a section dedicated to Yury Tatyanin, whose works were recently exhibited by the Russian Museum, and which includes “Black Venus” (2003) and “Ministry Of Health”(2007). 
Current exhibitions in the gallery include “and…Las Meninas” (through July 16) on the first floor, an exhibition of 30 St. Petersburg artists who were asked to create their own interpretation of Velasquez’s famous masterpiece. At a press conference devoted to the opening of the museum last week, Dudenko credited local artists Anatoly Belkin, Vladimir Kozin and Vladimir Dukhovlinov with coming up with the idea.  
One interpretation by Irina Vasilyeva, “X-Ray Picture” has been simplified to a black and white print of skeletons on paper that remain in the same positions as the original work. Another painting in oil and pastel titled “The Annunciation” by Vladimir Dukhovlinov depicts just two of the characters from the original work using a combination of abstract and realist techniques. Dukhovlinov said he chose to isolate these characters in order to capture “the special state of anticipation and inexplicable love.”  
Ovchinnikov believes there is only one prerequisite for an artist working today, which is to have “objective ideas as art continues to evolve and be redefined.” 
“We want to leave a legacy that will delight viewers for centuries to come,” said Ovchinnikov at the press conference last week. “Art should enrich the viewer, and bring new impressions and experiences into their lives.” 
The project’s mission to promote up-and-coming talent makes it possible for unknown artists to exhibit their work alongside established ones. Erarta encourages artists with a budding talent to send in slides of their work, and promises that even if it does “not fit the current program,” it will be exhibited on Erarta’s site on the “Artist Boulevard,” where work can be put up for sale. 
Ovchinnikov says the museum is not looking for a particular mold or style, but is captivated by “freedom, originality and craftsmanship.” What they are not looking for is artists restricted by “political, economical or professional factors” which, Ovchinnikov says, “automatically ruins the authenticity,” quashing the freedom that is so essential to the development of contemporary art in Russia today. 
“Even people in Moscow believe this project is five steps ahead of what they have, and they have a much more developed gallery culture … essentially we didn’t have anything until now,” said Dudenko, noting it has been difficult to promote the project in the Russian art press, as “there are simply no magazines in which to advertise.”
Erarta is to publish its own magazine aimed at drawing people’s attention “to controversial questions of art history and to discussing contemporary culture in Russia today.”

Erarta is located at 2, 29th Line of Vasilyevsky Island. Galleries are open from noon to 8 p.m, the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. 
(closed Wednesdays). Tel: 324 0909. www.erarta.com. M: Vasileostrovskaya / Primorskaya. Entrance is free through July 5.

TITLE: Word’s worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Êîäåêñ ìîñêâè÷à: Muscovite’s code
Just when I thought I had mastered the complexities of being a longtime foreign resident of the Russian capital, the Moscow City Duma has decided to produce êîäåêñ ìîñêâè÷à (Muscovite’s Code) to help us foreigners assimilate.
Although it’s still being discussed, a few suggestions for proper behavior were given as examples. Some are easy to follow: Íå ðåçàòü áàðàíà âî äâîðå (Don’t slit the throat of a sheep in the courtyard). No argument from me on that one, and besides, I think it’s against the law. Íå æàðèòü øàøëûê íà áàëêîíå (Don’t grill shashlik on the balcony). I don’t have a balcony and besides, I think that’s also against the law. Ðàçãîâàðèâàòü ïî-ðóññêè (Speak Russian). Potential problem. Does that mean I can’t speak English with a friend in public? And finally: Íå õîäèòü ïî ãîðîäó â íàöèîíàëüíîé îäåæäå (Don’t walk around the city in national dress). Big problem. Do I have to throw out my jeans, sneakers and down parka?
I appreciate that a large influx of foreign workers into a city may create tension and misunderstanding. Since the code’s compilers plan to consult with members of the various diasporas, as a member of a diaspora I’d like to offer some suggestions on how to fit in with Moscow life based on the behavior of some of the native Muscovites I see and engage with on a daily basis.
1. Ãðîìêî ðóãàéòåñü ìàòîì íà óëèöå (Swear loudly on the street). This is an ancient tradition, testified to in the earliest descriptions of the city. Although swearing on the street waned during the Soviet period, it seems to be making a spectacular comeback in our days. For example, I am awakened every morning at 7 a.m. by a foreman swearing loudly and creatively at the construction site next door. Why, just this morning I learned a fascinating new use of prefixes.
2. Ïàðêóéòå ìàøèíó òàì, ãäå äóøà ïîäñêàæåò — íà òðîòóàðå, íà äåòñêîé ïëîùàäêå — è æåëàòåëüíî òàê, ÷òîáû îíà òîð÷àëà íà ïðîåçæåé ÷àñòè èëè áëîêèðîâàëà äðóãèå ìàøèíû (Park your car wherever and however you feel like — on the sidewalk, on a playground — and preferably so it sticks out onto the roadway or blocks other cars). 
3. Êîãäà âû âûïèâàåòå â ïàðêå, ñïðàâëÿéòå ìàëóþ íóæäó çà êóñòîì (When you are drinking in a park, relieve yourself behind a bush). Walls are also acceptable, as are entryways and even elevators.
4. Åñëè âû ðàáîòàåòå â ìàãàçèíå èëè ðåñòîðàíå, ïîìíèòå: ïîêóïàòåëü âñåãäà íåïðàâ (If you work in a store or restaurant, remember: The customer is always wrong). And if you work in a bank, learn how to snap your window down on the hands of a client who has been waiting for 45 minutes as you say: Ïåðåðûâ! (It’s my break!)
Unfair? Absolutely. But honestly, have you ever seen someone killing sheep in your courtyard? Are you upset by the sight of colorful native garb? Do you care if street cleaners chat among themselves in Tajik?
The code may be a good idea, but only if it’s given to everyone.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.

TITLE: Life through a lens
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Leading photographers from around the world are due to congregate in St. Petersburg for an international summer photography workshop that opens Sunday and runs for a week. 
“Ways of Photography,” which is organized by the FotoDepartament Foundation for Informational and Cultural Projects, will consist of seminars and lectures devoted to explaining various photography techniques. 
The workshop consists of seven courses, and participants can devise their own program, choosing from lectures, daylong master classes or workshops. 
The workshops look set to be of particular interest due to the organizers’ decision to revive rare techniques of manual printing. The most expensive course available to program participants is a course run by Alexei Alexeyev devoted to wet collodion photography. This time-consuming and dangerous technique invented in 1851 was one of the earliest photography processes. Other antiquated methods, such as cyanotype and gum bichromate, will be introduced during a course titled “alternative manual printing.” 
For art photographers who prefer to express themselves without a camera, Alexander Kitayev will hold a photogram workshop, in which participants will be taught to create spectacular shadowy pictures using different objects, light sources and photo-sensitive surfaces.
More practically oriented students can choose courses on documentary photography or photojournalism. The U.K. photographer Vanessa Winship said she would not talk about technical aspects in her course, “Storytelling: Portrait Within the Environment,” focusing instead on producing ideas and concepts while creating a project. 
The U.S.-German artist Michael Ackerman, who is celebrated for his grainy images, will help beginners to express their personal vision. Participants in this workshop have already been set to work — Ackerman gave them the task of creating a set of portraits that will be discussed during the seminar. 
The Dutch master Pieter ten Hoopen has promised to “talk to each student to understand their motivation and help them to achieve their goals” during his workshop, which will discuss the process of creating large-scale photo stories. At the end of the course, titled “Storytelling,” each student’s story will be published in the online pdf-magazine F.
In an age when almost everyone can afford to buy a digital camera, and Internet blogs are turned into platforms for personal exhibitions, the line between amateurs and truly talented photographers can sometimes be unclear. One of the biggest problems faced by beginners is how to make their images stand out. The Moscow art critic Viktoria Musvik, a columnist famous for her publications in Vogue, Elle and Officiel, will talk about the basics of photographic creativity and lecture on art history and “visual competence.”
One of the photography workshop’s key objectives is to recognize young talent and help artists to improve their skills. For that purpose, a portfolio review will be held at the close of the week, in which all the participants will be given the chance to get feedback from Russian and international experts. The review is also a space in which to build business contacts with gallerists and potential future employers.
FotoDepartament continues to support creative artists. An exhibition of work by young photographers under the title “Something Strange” will open as part of the Summer Photoworkshop at the Mayakovsky Library. According to the organizers, the title refers to the special sensation “of one person at a moment when everybody else heard nothing.” The exhibition, which focuses on the importance of linking a set of pictures with one overall theme, will comprise both art and documentary photographs.

TITLE: Please be seated
AUTHOR: By Tobin Auber
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: For years (the last 15, to be precise), these premises housed Bremen, a German restaurant. Back in 1848, however, the same location was home to Chairs, a newly opened restaurant that would go on to attract guests such as Anna Pavlova, Grigory Rasputin, and ballerina and courtesan to Russia’s imperial family Matilda Kshesinskaya, not to mention leading literary lights such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and H.G Wells. Recently reopened after a major, somewhat eclectic renovation, it’s certainly worth investigation, not least for the 40 percent discounts currently being offered on weekdays before 5 p.m., the parties at the weekends and the live jazz every weeknight. 
The first thing that strikes you as you walk in is the pack of Harleys lined up in the archway that leads to the restaurant’s inner courtyard — rumor has it that, rather than just being part of the d?cor, the bikes are owned and regularly driven by the restaurant’s owners. The threat of rain sent us scurrying inside to two dark, cozy and very ornately decorated rooms. The restaurant’s publicity bumph tells us that the restaurant is done out in the style of a luxury dining cabin, but maritime motifs are in fact few and far between, and your attention is far more likely to be attracted by the black-and-white erotic art photos on the walls and pinned to the ceiling, the chairs that have also been pinned to the ceiling, assorted Rat Pack memorabilia (Sinatra and Dean Martin are also playing on the sound system) and the incredibly tight black hotpants worn by long-legged waitresses. Unexpected when you’re nipping out for something to eat at lunchtime. 
As well as the two main rooms, one of them complete with a stage, there is also a secluded VIP dining room for 28 and smaller private alcoves that can be curtained off. This, then, is somewhere you might head if you’re trying to keep a low profile. 
The food was similarly eclectic, ranging from weird and wonderful to simply weird. We started with a sorrel soup (248 rubles, $8), which was an absolute gem — a vast bowl of potato and lush sorrel leaves, with a dab of smetana that somehow managed to be rich and filling while also creating a light, summery impression. 
Another cracking starter was the fresh romaine leaves in a ginger-nut sauce with marinated duck or veal (348 rubles, $11.20), a large, filling portion that again managed to create an impression of lightness with the freshness of its ingredients, which included nuts and a white sauce (the hint of ginger was delicate, bordering on the entirely absent). 
Rather than broaching a full main course, my dining companion opted to follow her salad with another starter — grilled scallops with pasta stuffed with pumpkin and truffle oil (348 rubles, $11.20). It’s not exactly something you order every day, and it’s not something you’ll find on the menu at McDonald’s any time soon. The verdict was bemused, rather than outraged, although it was a touch too heavy on the oil.
The salmon stuffed with homemade cottage cheese, cowberry, white grapes and mint with a creamy vanilla sauce (548 rubles, $17.60) was similarly far out — essentially, a hillock of tvorog cottage cheese with a roofing of salmon packed on over the top. The sauce was excellent, but in short supply, the combination of the cottage cheese and the fish proving quite dry and the lush grapes failing to provide sufficient moisture. 
Certainly not your average meal, then, but the convenient location just off Nevsky Prospekt and the intimate ambience certainly make 48 Chairs worth a visit.

TITLE: Relief Greets Obama Pick for Commander
AUTHOR: By Deb Riechmann
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s Afghan and international allies embraced the choice of General David Petraeus to run the war in Afghanistan, hoping the architect of the Iraq surge will seamlessly pursue the strategy laid down by his predecessor and smooth over divisions that led to his dismissal.
By naming Petraeus, President Barack Obama managed to replace General Stanley McChrystal without derailing the mission at a critical juncture in the war, when casualties are rising and public support in the West is waning.
Still, the jury is out on whether the counterinsurgency strategy that Petraeus used to turn around the Iraq war will show results in Afghanistan by July 2011, when Obama wants to begin withdrawing U.S. troops.
The split between the U.S. civilian and military team in Afghanistan has not disappeared with McChrystal’s departure. Those fissures, laid bare in disparaging remarks to Rolling Stone magazine, led to McChrystal’s dismissal Wednesday.
Petraeus inherits myriad challenges. Among them:
• Eighty international troops have died so far this month, making June the deadliest month of the nearly 9-year-old war.
• A major offensive in Helmand province earlier this year has yielded mixed results. McChrystal himself acknowledged that the security campaign already under way in neighboring Kandahar province is going more slowly than expected.
• While NATO has worked hard to train a growing number of Afghan soldiers and police, their ability to go it alone without their more skilled NATO partners at their side has yet to be tested.
The politically savvy Petraeus probably would have a better shot at convincing Obama that the strategy needs more time and slow the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Petraeus helped train the Iraqi army and is on a first-name basis with defense officials in capitals that provide troops to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
Initially, NATO leaders in Brussels played down the Rolling Stone article, which suggested that powerful players in the Obama administration still disagree on the unproven U.S. counterinsurgency strategy of routing the Taliban, securing major population centers, bolsterindg the Afghan government’s effectiveness and rushing in aid and development.
They were relieved when Obama selected Petraeus, who pioneered the same basic counterinsurgency strategy when he commanded U.S. forces in Iraq.
“The strategy continues to have NATO’s support and our forces will continue to carry it out,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement. “We will stay for as long as it takes to do our job.”
Some critics have questioned whether a strategy aimed at bolstering the Afghan government can ever succeed in a country with ethnic divisions and a history of tribal rule.
“The situation in Afghanistan is in obvious disarray and it’s not because of personnel. It’s because of policy,” said U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican). 
“The frustration expressed by McChrystal and his aides highlights the failure of our current policy in Afghanistan,” she said.
Despite those doubts, there is simply not enough time to recraft the strategy before Obama’s July 2011 withdrawal date.
“This is not the time for a new commander to come in to rethink strategy,” said Malcolm Chalmers of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.
The prospect of having to deal with a third NATO commander in little over a year was an unwelcome prospect for Afghan leaders, who had spent months building rapport with McChrystal, the lanky commander who had become President Hamid Karzai’s most trusted U.S. partner.
They had expressed hope that Obama wouldn’t fire McChrystal, but in the end, internal U.S. politics trumped their desires.
“General McChrystal was a fine soldier and a partner for the Afghan people,” Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said. “But we believe Gen. Petraeus will also be a trusted partner.”
Omar said the Afghan leadership hoped replacing McChrystal would not impede progress in the war.
“We know General Petraeus. He knows the country. He knows the strategy,” Omar said. “He is the most informed person and the most obvious choice for this job.”

TITLE: Train Crash Kills 12 
By Spanish Beach Party
AUTHOR: By Joseph Wilson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CASTELLDEFELS, Spain — An express train barreling through a seaside station in northeastern Spain plowed into youths cutting across the tracks to get to a midnight beach party, killing at least 12 people, injuring 14 and turning a night of celebration into one of carnage and tragedy.
It was Spain’s deadliest train accident since 2003.
A large group of people — many of them Latin American immigrants — got off a commuter train in the beach resort of Castelldefels south of Barcelona shortly before midnight Wednesday to head to the party. As the crowd jammed an underpass heading to the beach, about 30 people climbed down off the platform and tried to scurry across the tracks instead, witnesses said.
Seconds later, a long-distance train that does not stop at the station crashed into the youths at high speed, its whistle shrieking.
Marcelo Cardona, who was on the commuter train, said everyone on board had been looking forward to dancing around a bonfire on the Mediterranean shore.
“The euphoria of getting off the train immediately became screams. There were people screaming, ‘My daughter! My sister!’” said Cardona, a 34-year-old Bolivian. He said he saw “mutilated people, blood everywhere, blood on the platform.”
As an investigation got under way Thursday, the chairman of the state railway company RENFE, Teofilo Serrano, said he was “almost certain” the long-distance train was not exceeding the speed limit as it traveled through the station. He said he did not know how fast it was going.
The Spanish news agency Europa Press quoted unnamed RENFE officials as saying the train was doing 139 kilometers per hour (87 mph) and the driver tested negative for alcohol and was in shock. RENFE refused to confirm or deny the report.
The beach festival was part of a nationwide ritual around the summer solstice called Noche de San Juan, or the night of St. John. It is celebrated in much of Spain but with particular zeal in Catalonia. People light bonfires in town squares and on beaches, dance around them and set off fireworks.
Felipe Elmaji, a 29-year-old Moroccan traveling with Cardona, said he heard a “thump, thump of the train hitting people.”
Cardona’s sister Candy recalled the shrill, piercing sound of the train’s whistle as it tried to warn people to get out of the way. “It was horrible. I can’t get that sound out of my head,” she said.
Cardona said the underpass was jammed with the overflowing crowd from the train. Mayor Joan Sau blamed recklessness for the deaths.
“If the underpass had been used, we would probably not be talking about this tragedy right now,” she said.
Catalan regional Interior Minister Joan Saura said the identification of the mutilated bodies “will not be easy and it will not be fast.”

TITLE: French Strike Over Hike in Retirement Age
AUTHOR: By Christina Okello
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — Trains stood still and children played instead of studied as workers around France went on strike Thursday to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age to 62.
Neighboring countries suffered along with Paris commuters, as walkouts by drivers delayed or canceled trains from Italy and Switzerland. Some flights were dropped or delayed.
Boisterous crowds of protesters filled Marseille’s port and wide Paris avenues, as unions staged nearly 200 marches in several cities over a broad reform to the money-losing pension system, part of efforts around Europe to cut back on growing public debts.
“Sarkozy, Don’t Touch our Pensions!” read one banner at the Paris march, near a cardboard coffin marked: “Here lies Roger. He’s 60, and he died before getting his retirement.”
France has one of Europe’s lowest retirement ages, allowing workers to retire at 60 in most sectors. The government says the reform to the money-losing pension system is an “obligation,” given France’s burgeoning deficit and its aging population.
Unions say money for the pension system should come from higher taxes or charges on those who are still working, and see cost-cutting in the pension system as an attack on a hard-fought way of life.
Sebastien Sihr, secretary general of the SNUipp union, called the reform “a step backward.”
“They are refusing to imagine other sources of funding,” he told The Associated Press at the Paris march, where a crowd of thousands whistled and cheered, waving red, white and blue balloons under a hot summer sun.
Commuters, meanwhile, made do, some cramming into sweaty, overcrowded buses and subway trains.
Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Rome’s main train station Wednesday when the overnight train to Paris was canceled because of the strike. 
Authorities were putting the passengers on buses instead. Swiss national railway company SBB said about 60 percent of trains between France and Switzerland have been canceled because of the strike.
The French civil aviation authority, DGAC, asked airlines to cancel 15 percent of their flights out of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports because of strikes by air traffic controllers. Air France said long-haul flights would remain unaffected.
Commuter Stephanie Larcher, a 29-year-old town planner from Buressuryvette on the outskirts of Paris, said she’d had to add an extra hour onto her daily four-hour journey.
“I find it completely irritating, especially because train workers go on strike for any little thing,” she said.
About 20 percent of French teachers were on strike, according to the Education Ministry. Utility workers, postal workers, dock workers, workers at planemaker Airbus and some hospital workers also took part in the one-day walkout.
The French pension reform pales in comparison with more drastic changes elsewhere in Europe. Germany, for example, plans to gradually raise its retirement age from 65 to 67, starting in 2012.
Bernadette Douisson, the secretary general of the FSU union, said the French government’s real concern should be boosting employment in a country where large numbers of young people and seniors can’t get jobs.
Labor Minister Eric Woerth says the reform will save nearly 19 billion euros ($29.3 billion) in 2018 and should bring the pension system back into the black that year.

TITLE: Police Raid Offices, Home Of Retired Archbishop
AUTHOR: By Robert Wielaard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BRUSSELS — Police raided the home and office of the recently retired archbishop of Belgium on Thursday, carrying off documents and a personal computer as part of an investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, officials said.
Police and prosecutors would not say whether former Archbishop Godfried Danneels was suspected of abuse himself or simply had records pertaining to allegations against another person.
The raids followed recent statements to police “that are related to the sexual abuse of children within the church,” said Jean-Marc Meilleur, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
Police took documents but did not question Danneels at his home in the city of Mechlin, just north of Brussels, said Hans Geybels, the spokesman for the former archbishop.