SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1590 (51), Friday, July 9, 2010
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TITLE: Chapman’s Ex Recalls Secretive, Kind Girl
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — When Vyacheslav Serkov got a phone call last week from a friend asking whether his former high school sweetheart had been arrested in New York on suspicion of spying, he could not believe his ears.
Serkov, 29, has known Anna Chapman, 28, since they attended eighth grade together at a school in Volgograd. He got the phone call on June 29, a day after the U.S. Justice Department announced that it had arrested Chapman and nine other suspects on suspicion of working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
While Serkov said Chapman was sometimes secretive, he insisted that there was nothing wrong with that and expressed chagrin at the portrait of Chapman painted by the media.
“She has always been secretive and warmhearted at the same time. There have always been a lot of friends around her,” said Serkov, who dated her for more than a year when they were about 15.
He said they had kept in touch even after the breakup and her brief marriage.
“I know her as a very good person, smart and always kind-hearted,” he said in a telephone interview from Volgograd.
Chapman — whom Serkov knew as Anya Kushchenko, a diplomat’s daughter living with her grandparents in Volgograd — has become the most famous of the 11 suspects in the U.S. spy case, with the media likening her to a foxy James Bond-style spy and her British ex-husband Alex Chapman sharing topless photos and intimate details about their life with the tabloids.
“I’m upset and try not to look at what the media write about her,” Serkov said in a sad voice. “I don’t believe what they say, that she was a spy … .”
Chapman founded a successful real estate web site with her younger sister, Yekaterina, before she moved to New York last year, ostensibly to pursue her career in real estate.
Her sister and mother, Irina Kushchenko, who live in Moscow, also said they could not believe what has happened.
“At first we thought it was some sort of PR trick to attract visitors” to the real estate web site, Yekaterina Kushchenko told Lifenews.ru.
Her mother said Chapman, who was described by U.S. prosecutors as a “highly trained agent “and a “practiced deceiver,” had called her parents shortly before her arrest and sounded “frightened” and “shocked.”
“Anya called her father and said that someone was trying to frame her,” the mother said, Lifenews.ru reported.
Chapman’s lawyer, Robert Baum, told journalists last week that his client reached out to her father, veteran diplomat Vasily Kushchenko, a day after an FBI agent posing as a Russian consulate employee asked her to deliver a fake passport in a sting operation.
“He advised her not to hand over anything to anyone and that she should go to the police as soon as possible,” her mother said.
The mother said she and her husband would like to hire a good lawyer for their daughter, but they can’t afford one. She repeatedly said she believes in her daughter’s innocence.
Chapman’s friend Serkov said she never was an outspoken Russian patriot and took no interest in politics.
“The only thing she was interested in was business,” he said.
Chapman, a 2005 economics graduate of Moscow’s Peoples’ Friendship University, created her real estate web site several years ago.
Serkov said she was always smart and got top grades in all subjects in school.
“Her main hobby was studying English,” he said, adding that she learned it well while living in Africa with her parents.
Her father served as a diplomat in Kenya and Zimbabwe, but they wanted her to get a good education so they sent her to stay with her grandparents in Volgograd during her school years.
“She missed them when they were away,” Serkov said.
He said Chapman has changed very little since they dated, so he had trouble reconciling the woman her knew with the one described by her ex-husband.
Chapman met her now ex-husband in London at a party in 2002, and they got married later that year in Moscow. They divorced in Britain four years later. In addition to sharing lurid details about their life together, Alex Chapman has indicated that he had no reason to doubt that his ex-wife was a Russian spy.
“In my personal opinion, he might be just taking revenge on her,” Serkov said.
TITLE: Russia, U.S., Prepare to Exchange Spies
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — The largest Russia-U.S. spy swap since the Cold War appeared to be in motion Thursday, with a Russian convicted of spying for the United States reportedly plucked from a Moscow prison and flown to Vienna. Defense lawyers in New York say they expect an immediate resolution for their 10 clients charged with spying in the United States.
A swap would have significant consequences for efforts between Washington and Moscow to repair ties chilled by a deepening atmosphere of suspicion.
Ten people accused of spying for Russia were set to go before a New York judge later Thursday at a hearing in federal court. An 11th person charged in the case is a fugitive after jumping bail in Cyprus.
Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms control analyst serving a 14-year sentenced for spying for the United States, told his relatives he was going to be one of 11 convicted spies in Russia who would be freed in exchange for 11 people charged in the United States with being Russian agents. They said he was going to be sent to Vienna, then London.
In Moscow, his lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, said a journalist called Igor Sutyagin’s family to inform them that Sutyagin was seen walking off a plane in Vienna on Thursday. However, she told The Associated Press she couldn’t get confirmation of that claim from Russian authorities.
Russian and U.S. officials have refused to comment on any possible swap.
Special riot police had beefed up security around Moscow’s Lefortovo prison early Thursday and a gaggle of TV cameras and photographers jostled for the best position to see what was going on. A convoy of armored vehicles arrived at the prison, thought to be the central gathering point for people convicted of spying for the West, including Sutyagin.
Police cars and prison trucks left the prison all morning but it was unclear if they carried any passengers.
“A swap seems very much on the cards. There is political will on both sides, and actually by even moving it as far as they have, Moscow has de facto acknowledged that these guys were spies,” intelligence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Thursday.
Five suspects charged with spying in the U.S. were hurriedly ordered to New York on Wednesday, joining five others already behind bars there, after Sutyagin was transferred from a forlorn penal colony near the Arctic Circle and spilled the news of the swap.
Dmitry Sutyagin said his brother remembered only one other person on the Russian list of spies to be exchanged — Sergei Skripal, a colonel in Russian military intelligence who in 2006 was sentenced to 13 years on charges of spying for Britain.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or deny a possible London tie to the spy swap. “This is primarily an issue for the U.S. authorities,” spokesman Steve Field said.
But defense lawyers in Moscow and New York have expressed confidence that their clients’ fates would be settled very soon.
In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday, the ten suspects in New York and an 11th person, who was released on bail by a court in Cyprus and is now a fugitive, were formally charged.
The indictment charged all with conspiring to act as secret agents and charged nine of them with conspiracy to commit money laundering. It demanded that those accused of money laundering return any assets used in the offense.
Attorney Robert Baum, who represents defendant Anna Chapman, said the case might be settled when she and the other nine people arrested in the United States appeared Thursday for arraignment on the indictment, raising the possibility of guilty pleas to the lowest charges and deportation from the U.S.
“Of certain events that might occur, the fact the indictment is minimal makes perfect sense. This is a crazy situation,” said Robert J. Krakow, an attorney for defendant Juan Lazaro.
Prosecutors released a copy of the indictment as federal judges in Boston and Alexandria, Virginia, signed orders directing that five defendants arrested in Massachusetts and Virginia be transferred to New York. All were charged in Manhattan.
The defendants were accused of living seemingly ordinary lives in America while they acted as unregistered agents for the Russian government, sending secret messages and carrying out orders they received from their Russian contacts.
All are in U.S. custody except for a man identified as Christopher R. Metsos, who is charged with being the spy ring’s paymaster. Metsos, traveling on a forged Canadian passport, jumped bail last week after being arrested in Cyprus.
Sutyagin, who worked as an arms control and military analyst at the Moscow-based U.S.A. and Canada Institute, a think tank, was arrested in 1999 and convicted in 2004 on charges of passing information on nuclear submarines and other weapons to a British company that investigators claimed was a CIA cover. Sutyagin has all along denied that he was spying, saying the information he provided was available from open sources.
His case was one of several incidents of Russian academics and scientists being targeted by Russia’s Federal Security Service and accused of misusing classified information, revealing state secrets or, in some cases, espionage.
TITLE: City Theater Thrives Thanks to Banana Mogul
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Want to support Russian ballet and opera? Have a banana.
The Joint Fruit Company, or JFC, imports every third banana that comes into Russia, and its principal owner, Vladimir Kekhman, doubles as director — and major benefactor — of St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theater, which once had to survive on meager City Hall funding.
While it’s not unusual for major businesses to support the arts, company executives who take the reins of a cultural establishment are few and far between.
Kekhman left his job as chief at JFC, which is responsible for 36 percent of banana imports to the Russian market, in favor of running the theater in 2007.
“There is such a notion as being 40 years old,” Kekhman, 42, said in a recent interview at the theater. “Many people, including myself, begin to think about what’s next. When I learned about the theater and saw it, I realized that I belong here.”
“I liked the address — No. 1, Arts Square,” he said in a stage voice, which blended well with his suit and bow tie, adding that he hadn’t been inside until he received the appointment.
Mikhailovsky receives enough money from City Hall to stage one premiere a season. Even so, it is on track to stage six such performances — including Peter Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake,” Antonin Dvorak’s opera “Mermaid” and Giuseppe Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” — by the time the season is over later this month, thanks largely to Kekhman’s personal contributions and money from other donors, channeled through a support fund.
The theater had been in the doldrums before Kekhman took over and has improved since then, especially in ballet production, said theater critic Raymond Stults. It remains in an inferior class though, if compared with Mariinsky or Bolshoi theaters, he said.
“The ballet is OK. Their ‘Swan Lake’ has been considerable success,” Stults said, adding that he based his assessment on opinions in the community of critics.
Kekhman valued JFC’s sales last year at $680 million, saying the company controls 5 percent of the global banana-growing market. While it is the biggest Russian banana trader, it ranks below global leaders Dole, Chiquita and Fresh Del Monte in terms of sales.
JFC also sells bananas under the brand named Bonanza in European countries such as Italy and Austria, as well as in the Middle East, including Iran and Iraq, and former Soviet republics.
In his artistic capacity, Kekhman recently drew the spotlight when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended a charity concert hosted by the theater on May 29. During tea before the concert, he witnessed the tense exchange about democracy that erupted between Putin and rocker Yury Shevchuk, front man for the band DDT, who challenged the authorities for blocking political opponents from rallying.
Commenting on the conversation — where Putin largely defended the practice of breaking up opposition protests, citing the need to discourage traffic disruptions — Kekhman described it as “brilliant” and “democratic,” but declined to say whom he supported.
“It was a talk of two men. One of them asked questions and got answers,” he said. “It was proper in form. I have no comment as to the content.”
The day after Putin and Shevchuk spoke, police violently dispersed opposition protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, detaining more than 180 and prompting a public outcry.
Over the tea with artists in May, Kekhman asked for a law that would govern theaters specifically and called for the government to withhold potential cuts to the country’s culture budget. He spoke after Shevchuk.
Putin answered that he was unsure whether such a law would do any good and said spending on culture decreased this year because of the need to reduce the budget deficit. He separately told Kekhman, jokingly, that the banana business benefited from the recent opening of a shipping line between St. Petersburg and Ecuador, raising expectations of more theater donations from Kekhman.
Putin also praised Kekhman for the theater’s better maintenance and repertoire.
“It’s an evident fact,” Putin, who previously hadn’t been known as a theater connoisseur, said about the improvements. “It’s definitely so; one can see it with the naked eye.”
As soon as Kekhman assumed the office, he hired stars, including the Mariinsky Theater’s principal dancer Farukh Ruzimatov and Bolshoi Theater’s outstanding mezzo-soprano Yelena Obraztsova, to help with productions. Famous Slovak maestro Peter Feranec joined the theater last year as chief conductor, as did renowned Russian-born choreographer Mikhail Messerer.
Stults said Feranec’s tenure at the Bolshoi last decade turned out to be a “tremendous failure,” but he described Messerer as a very capable specialist.
Kekhman also bankrolled a costly renovation.
All that, coupled with a drastic rise in attendance, allowed him to say that the theater, once frequented by Tsar Nicholas II, reclaimed its fame as the city’s “high-society theater of choice.”
“We think that’s what things were like in the imperial theater,” he said, before quickly calling a visiting Ecuadorian ambassador. “I think that’s how things must be in an imperial theater.”
With tickets selling in the range of 200 to 2,500 rubles ($6 to $80), however, the theater is affordable not only to the well-heeled crowd, but also to those on a budget. Unlike many other establishments in St. Petersburg and across Russia, it doesn’t charge a separate, higher admittance fee for foreigners.
TITLE: Russians Spend Longest Waiting in Line
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: People spend an average of 27 minutes waiting in line in Russia, longer than anywhere else in Europe, according to a new survey.
Russia’s dismal showing is mainly because of long lines at post offices and banks, as well as the fact that workers at places where Russians line up never do anything to reduce the lines, said Oksana Aulchenkova, head of the Nextep marketing company, which carried out the survey.
Italy had the second worst result, with lines taking 14 minutes on average, while Sweden and Britain provided the fastest services, with two- and three-minute lines, respectively.
The 18-country study examined lines in grocery stores, banks, post offices, drug stores, fast food restaurants, bus stops and train stations.
The average time that Europeans spend in a line has doubled from five to 10 minutes since 2008, the survey said.
TITLE: Famous Pianist Faces Boy Rape Charges
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Acclaimed pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev flew to Moscow on Thursday proclaiming his innocence after being charged in Thailand with raping a teenage boy.
Thai authorities arrested Pletnev on Monday but allowed him to leave the country on Thursday on condition that he return following a concert appearance in Europe.
Pletnev told reporters after he arrived at Domodedovo Airport that he would honor those terms.
“After the completion of my performance, I intend to return there again and see this matter to its conclusion. I hope that Thai justice and the court system will be equal to the occasion,” he said.
“I can say directly that I committed no kind of crime,” he said.
Thai police official Omsin Sukkanka said he expected Pletnev to return after the concert “given that he is famous and that he claims that he is innocent.”
Pletnev is scheduled to conduct in Ohrid, Macedonia, on Monday, and his next planned appearance after that is in August.
Pletnev has said the charges were the result of a misunderstanding. Russian media reported that Pletnev planned to return to Thailand on July 18.
Pletnev was released on 300,000 baht ($9,000) bail following a court appearance in Pattaya on Tuesday and ordered to report to the court every 12 days.
The musician could face up to 20 years in jail and a fine of 40,000 baht ($1,200) if found guilty.
Pletnev founded the Russian National Orchestra, the country’s first independent orchestra, and was its first principal conductor, according to the orchestra’s web site. Today, he is the artistic director.
The granting of bail to Pletnev — and allowing him to leave the country — while he faces such serious charges was unexpected, though not unprecedented. Both police and court officials declined to directly address the issue.
“Why the judge let [Pletnev] go is a question that has struck in many of our hearts. There are some questions that need to be answered,” said Supagon Noja of the Child Protection and Development Center.
Thailand has long been known as a haven for sex tourists and pedophiles because of widespread prostitution and lax law enforcement. Authorities have voiced intentions to crack down on such offenses, and Pletnev’s arrest is one of the most prominent cases to date.
Police said the musician was detained following a tip from Traipob Boonmasong, a Thai national who was charged with child rape for purported involvement in a child prostitution ring.
Omsin said evidence in the case included a statement from a 14-year-old boy who said Pletnev had raped him twice at Traipob’s home.
He said Pletnev had appeared in some photographs with the boy, but no suspicious activity was depicted.
Internationally known as a pianist, conductor and composer, Pletnev won a 2005 Grammy for an arrangement of Prokofiev’s “Cinderella,” which was recorded with him and Martha Argerich on piano.
Pletnev owns a restaurant and the Euro Club — which includes a swimming pool and badminton courts — in Pattaya, where he reportedly lives in a palatial compound.
The resort town is known for its raucous nightlife, playing host to foreign criminal gangs and police suspected of corruption. It is also a major destination for Russian tourists.
The newspaper Pattaya Daily News said Pletnev has lived in Thailand for the past 15 years. It quoted him as saying in an interview that Traipob helped care for his properties when he was on the road, and that he had no knowledge about the man’s supposed involvement in a child-sex ring.
TITLE: Nokia Enlists Police in Prototype Wrangle
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: HELSINKI — Nokia, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, said Wednesday that it has asked the Russian police to help retrieve a smartphone prototype from a Moscow-based blogger who riled the company by posting information it calls confidential.
Eldar Murtazin, editor of Mobile-review.com, published a detailed review of Nokia’s forthcoming N8 smartphone based on a working prototype on April 26. Nokia then requested the unit back in a post labeled “one of our children is missing” on the company’s official blog.
“Several weeks back, we formally requested the return of all unauthorized Nokia property from Mr. Murtazin and he declined to respond,” Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson said in an e-mail. “As a result, we have contacted the Russian authorities to assist us in the return of all unauthorized Nokia property.”
The increasingly competitive smartphone business has attracted a pool of bloggers and analysts scrambling to be the first with specifications of new products, which companies would prefer to unveil at a time of their choosing. Apple enlisted the California state computer crime task force in April to seize computers from an editor whose blog bought an iPhone 4G prototype the company said was stolen.
Murtazin did not respond immediately to an e-mailed request for comment.
On his personal blog, Murtazin said he has made repeated attempts in the past two months to get in touch with Nokia and never heard back from the company.
“Nokia says there has been a trade secret infringement,” Murtazin wrote. “But we have never signed any non-disclosure agreements with them and Nokia knows that very well.”
Nokia said in a post on its official blog that Murtazin has identified himself as a consultant to other mobile-phone manufacturers.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Straight Parade?
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A state-sponsored attempt to compete with St. Valentine’s Day was marked in St. Petersburg on Thursday with a concert of romantic, patriotic and disco songs and games on St. Isaac’s Square.
The holiday, St. Peter and St. Fevroniya’s Family, Love and Fidelity Day, has been held in Russia since 2008. The St. Petersburg event this year featured 70 pairs of newlyweds and 75 married couples celebrating their marriages.
“Our event is dedicated to the Orthodox holiday of family, love, and fidelity of St. Peter and St. Fevroniya,” a spokesman for the Young Guard of the ruling United Russia party was quoted by local media as saying.
“We want to show that love between a man and a woman is a family. And the family is a prototype for government. Man, woman, family, home, country — everything is connected. We are for a strong family and a strong government.”
Young Guard was active in preventing Gay Pride events from taking place in St. Petersburg last month.
Heat Record Beaten
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The mercury rose in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to break a record that had stood for almost 40 years. A heatwave has pushed temperatures to a record 31.4 degrees Celsius, beating a record set in 1972 by just 0.2 of a degree.
For the next couple of days St. Petersburg will be trapped under an anticyclone, although local media reported that southwest regions might receive some relief from expected storms and winds.
Deputy Governor Hurt
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Deputy Governor Roman Filomonov was seriously injured in a boating accident on Tuesday night, local media reported. An investigation is taking place but details of the incident have not been released.
It is known that Filomonov slipped and fell overboard from a yacht and was sucked into the propellers, sustaining injuries to his legs. Six passengers were reported to have been aboard the yacht, and all were said to have been sober at the time of the accident.
Local media reported that Filomonov’s condition was stable, but that he remained in intensive care on Thursday.
Water Deaths Reported
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The bodies of an 8-year old boy and a 45-year old woman were found Wednesday in what are feared to have been separate drowning incidents, local media reported.
The boy, identified as Maxim Fomin, was found in the Roshinka river near Vyborg. He had been reported missing from a summer camp Monday.
The body of the unidentified woman was found in the Chertogo Lake near Zelenogorsk, local media reported. An investigation is taking place to determine the cause of her death.
TITLE: BSH to Build $25 Mln Plant in Strelna
AUTHOR: By Kristina Aleksandrova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: BSH Bytovye Pribory, the daughter company of German company Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH) in St. Petersburg, is to spend $25 million on a washing machine plant in Strelna, outside St. Petersburg.
BSH has already laid the foundations for the washing machine factory, which is due to be built by 2012 and will produce 300,000 machines per year, according to Harald Richter, commercial manager for BSH Bytovye Pribory.
On Tuesday, the plant launched a new line of washing machines and a second line of refrigerators at its existing plant in Strelna. It also announced the expansion of its logistics center.
“It is really profitable to produce household appliances here,” said BSH Bytovye Pribory commercial manager Harald Richter. “St. Petersburg has a lot of advantages. The presence of the airport, ring road and port help us to export our goods.”
In addition to 22 refrigerator models, the company’s factory will now produce three washing machine models. The refrigerators produced at the plant in Strelna, which occupies about 24.3 hectares, are exported to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the EU, as well as being sold in Russia.
Russia’s household appliances market is fourth by size in Europe. BSH occupies 17 percent of the market, putting it in third place.
“We are seeing great demand for our products here,” said Richter.
Production in Russia is profitable in terms of logistics, Alexander Onishchuk, president of the Russian association of electronic and household goods companies, told Vedomosti. The biggest producer on the market is Indesit, he said. Onishchuk said that sales of household electronics had fallen by 50 percent during the crisis due to a slowdown in sales of apartments, adding that the real estate market has now picked up, and demand for technology is returning.
The Strelna factory employs 420 people, and expects to create 100 new job opportunities with the expansion of the production line.
BSH has high requirements regarding personnel, and could run into a lack of specialists, Yelena Kolkova, director of the St. Petersburg branch of Staffwell, told Vedomosti newspaper. She estimated the salaries of production staff at BSH at 30,000 to 35,000 rubles ($965 to $1,125) per month.
Electrolux closed its washing machine assembly plant in St. Petersburg in the second quarter of this year because it was not profitable, and does not plan to resume manufacturing, Fatima Gazanova, an Electrolux representative, told Vedomosti.
Retailer M.Video predicts that the household appliances market will grow by 10 percent this year. The washing machine market will grow by three to five percent compared to the crisis period, and competition will increase, particularly in the low-cost segment (items costing less than 13,000 rubles or $418), Gazanova told Vedomosti.
Nadezhda Kiselyova, an M.Video representative, said that the most demand is seen in the mid-price segment.
TITLE: Pugachyov’s Bank Makes 1st Default
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Mezhprombank, the lender controlled by lawmaker Sergei Pugachyov, became the country’s first bank to renege on its foreign debt since 1999 after defaulting on $453 million of bonds.
Mezhprombank, or IIB, said it had not repaid 200 million euros ($253 million) of 9 percent notes due Tuesday and sent a default notice on $200 million of bonds maturing in 2013, according to a statement Tuesday. The bank proposed a one-year maturity extension on the 9 percent notes and said holders who vote in favor of the new maturity date by July 14 will get a payment amounting to 5 percent of the principal they are owed, according to a 17-page company report released Wednesday.
IIB’s cash shortage stems in part from its reliance on Central Bank funding rather than retail deposits to finance new lending, said Yaroslav Sovgyra of Moody’s Investors Service. IIB made most of its loans to industrial companies controlled by Pugachyov, according to Trust Investment Bank.
While a default by IIB may have a “short-term negative effect” on investor confidence in Russian bank debt, the lender’s problems are not indicative of the wider financial system, Sovgyra, a senior credit officer at Moody’s, said Tuesday before IIB’s announcement. “The vast majority of investors understand that this is a pretty specific case which should not be extended to other banks,” he said.
IIB’s 9 percent eurobonds were trading at 50.25 cents on the euro as of June 30, the last day Bloomberg compiled prices for the debt, plunging from 97.75 cents at the start of the June. The 11 percent dollar bonds due 2013 closed at 58.50 cents on Wednesday, Bloomberg data show, down from 100 cents when the notes were sold in February. Credit Suisse Group and VTB Capital were joint lead managers of the February issue, Bloomberg data show.
“February was a very hot market where investors seemed already much less cautious on their buying, that is why this kind of issue could be placed,” said Sebastien De Prinsac, director of fixed-income international sales at Trust Investment Bank. “Some investors probably didn’t realize that they were buying not just a bank, but the risk of a complex industrial group.”
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters Wednesday that he “hopes” IIB will resolve its problems without losing its banking license.
The failure of some banks today may be “healthy” because the country still has too many lenders, said Ashmore Investment Management’s Jerome Booth. The number of lenders in Russia has fallen to 1,039 as of June 1 from 1,058 at the start of 2010, according to the Central Bank. Hundreds of banks disappeared after Russia defaulted on $40 billion of ruble debt in 1998 and devalued the currency.
“If they collapse, they collapse,” Booth, who helps oversee $33 billion as Ashmore’s head of research, said at a press conference Tuesday. “You can’t say there won’t be pain, but it will be healthy. You want to have a banking system which unconditionally punishes irresponsible behavior.”
IIB asked noteholders to accept a new maturity date of July 6, 2011, according to the company report Wednesday. The bank will hold a meeting with creditors in London on July 21.
Pugachyov is a member of the Federation Council, and his United Industrial Corporation, the parent company of IIB, also has assets in mining and shipbuilding.
TITLE: Mysterious Buyer Gets Compromat Portal
AUTHOR: By Anastasia Golitsyna and Anastasia Kornya
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — Andrei Rutberg, a little-known private investor, has purchased the portal Compromat.ru, the Internet’s largest source of compromising information and allegations about Russian politicians and businessmen.
The web site’s founder and former owner, Sergei Gorshkov, told Vedomosti about the sale, which Rutberg confirmed. Gorshkov said the deal took place in the fall of 2009 but that under their agreement, the transaction could not be announced until now.
Gorshkov and Rutberg declined to disclose additional terms of the sale.
Two years ago, the Compromat.ru domain was reregistered from Gorshkov to the firm Neave Limited, which is now controlled by Rutberg, the businessmen said.
Gorshkov, who developed the notorious portal for more than a decade, said the time had come to work on “other projects,” declining to elaborate. He said Rutberg purchased the site on behalf of a “third party,” a claim Rutberg denied.
Rutberg said he did not live in Russia and was a professional investor working with several companies. He said he was opposed to letting Compromat.ru become associated with any industrial holdings or investment groups.
Gorshkov said he was no longer involved in Compromat.ru. When the deal was signed, it was informally agreed that the new investor would not get involved with the site’s editorial policy, he said.
A political analyst, who asked that his name not be given, said he sought to place an article on Compromat.ru this winter but the editorial staff was unusually reluctant to post it. Since July, the web site has almost completely stopped posting regional news, said political analyst Mikhail Tulsky.
Rutberg said no changes had been made to the site’s operations.
Compromat.ru, founded by Gorshkov in 1999, is among the most famous resources on the Russian-language Internet. The site has regularly been accused of posting incorrect information and has been attacked repeatedly, leaving it unavailable for long periods.
Gorshkov trademarked the site’s name in Cyrillic and has won court cases against the owners of web sites with similar names, gaining control of Kompromat.ru and antiCompromat.ru, Tulsky said. The businessman sold his heavily promoted and nearly monopolist site at the peak of its popularity and value, he said.
According to the traffic counter Top.Mail.ru, Compromat.ru had more than 870,000 visitors in June.
The site has a fairly loyal and substantial following for a project that does not make money on advertising, said German Klimenko, founder of the statistics service LiveInternet.ru.
Such sites are typically worth $2 million to $2.5 million, said Vladislav Kochetkov, president of Finam. Compromat.ru’s best asset is name recognition, while its downsides are image and financial risks for the owner, he said.
Officials at media and Internet companies surveyed by Vedomosti said they were certain that the purchase was linked to the 2012 presidential elections, noting that the famous and influential site could be used in the run-up to the vote.
But Tulsky said he thought that businessmen, rather than politicians, were most likely behind the purchase.
Russia’s political life has already been eliminated, but businessmen could profit from control of the country’s largest pool of compromising information, he said.
TITLE: Russia’s Self-Defeating ‘But’
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Voinovich
TEXT: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions that without normal democratic development, there is no future for Russia. We Russians are pleased to hear these enlightened words, yet Putin invariably adds a “but” to these soaring statements, which weakens them considerably. In fact, Putin’s “but” renders his points senseless.
We have hated the coordinating conjunction “but” ever since the dawn of the Soviet era. Then we were told that freedom is good, but that we can’t live in an individualist society without common concern for the Communist state. Democracy is great, we were told, but only in the interests of the working class.
Now Putin tells us that democracy is indeed great, but that public protests cannot take place in public places, say, around hospitals and the like.
President Dmitry Medvedev does understand — with no “buts” — that “freedom is better than no freedom,” that “legal nihilism” is bad and democracy is good. He understands that Stalin was a criminal, that his order to murder Polish officers in Katyn was an act of depravity that has no excuse or explanation. Unfortunately, we don’t understand the role Medvedev plays in Russia. He says all the right things, yet they don’t seem to be reflected in reality.
The Dissenters’ Marches, which take place on the 31st of every month to mark Article 31 of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of assembly, could be — and are — easily dismissed as a marginal protest of a few hundred people with no common goals or ideas. Putin and Medvedev’s poll numbers are so high, many argue, that they don’t need to care about a few dissenters. Besides, most Russians support the government with no dissent at all, they say. This doesn’t say much, however, because the Russian majority always supports the government, regardless of the policies it implements.
Today’s dissenters are indeed a minority and of course can be disregarded, but only up to a point. After all, this minority is made up of the country’s best thinkers — musicians, artists, writers, and those who develop science, technology and economic innovation. Such people cannot be dismissed as useless, since we need the innovation that they deliver even if we think Russia doesn’t need democracy. True, not all members of the thinking minority attend the dissenters’ marches, yet many more of them silently oppose the regime.
Russia’s leaders talk obsessively of the country’s industrial modernization, of their support for innovations, such as nanotechnology, that can help the country catch up to the developed world. In line with Soviet traditions, a nanotechnology project was given a chunk of land, financing and assigned a grandiose name: Innovation City. The best brains in Russia will gather in one place and move the country forward. The hope is that Russians at home, and especially abroad, will be overcome with patriotic feelings. Drawn by high salaries, emigres will return to make themselves famous and their motherland proud.
A wonderful plan, but I fear that it won’t work. For example, imagine a genius who left Russia many years ago. He has achieved prominence in a foreign country for inventing something outstanding. Now he is asked to come home: Your motherland is waiting for you, it values your contribution, it forgives your betrayal, and it will pay you more than what you are getting elsewhere.
To give the plan the benefit of the doubt, the brilliant scientist is nostalgic for the birch trees, his old friends, his ex-wife and children from the first marriage. He wants to come back, to revisit all that he has left behind, while also helping his nation become economically strong, technically advanced, and prosperous. Yet before making the final decision, he turns on the radio, watches a bit of television, browses the Internet and finds out what Russia is like. Journalists are killed, scientists are accused of espionage, and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky remains unjustly imprisoned. He reads the confused and confusing speeches of our leaders: freedom is good, but …
This brilliant scientist learns that Vasily Aleksanyan, the terminally ill former Yukos lawyer, was held in prison in inhuman conditions; that corporate lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in pretrial detention after being refused medical treatment; and that human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov was gunned down on a Moscow street. Then this scientist will be surprised to discover that Russians voted Stalin the third most popular “Face of Russia.”
In the meantime, his junior colleague in Russia does not attend the Dissenters’ March, but simply emigrates — perhaps the highest form of protest.
In Soviet times, Communist leaders tried to lure people into the collective farms with promises of great crops and spectacular meat production. Nothing worked because the agricultural system was incompatible with high achievement in the long run.
Similarly, in a country where the concepts of democracy and freedom are balanced by “but,” achievements in science, technology and the economy are impossible.
The thinking minority needs an effective system of laws and institutions, genuinely free and fair elections, a working parliament with opposition parties and a judicial system that is independent, rather than subservient to orders from above.
Vladimir Voinovich, a former Soviet dissident, is author of “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin.” © Project Syndicate
TITLE: A Country Ruled by Amoebas
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: Moscow road workers closed the bridge on Leningradskoye Shosse without any forewarning, leaving only one of three lanes open in one direction and backing up traffic to Sheremetyevo Airport for hours. As a result, thousands of passengers missed their flights and Aeroflot suffered losses of 700,000 euros ($877,000) on the first day alone.
This kind of stupidity happens only in Russia — or maybe Zimbabwe as well. Where else would the authorities effectively shut down the only road leading to an international airport? Europe has to contend with volcanoes. Moscow has to contend with Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Sheremetyevo Airport director Mikhail Vasilenko said the problems were an underhanded attempt by Luzhkov to drive people away from using Sheremetyevo and toward the city’s other major airport, Vnukovo, which is opening a new terminal this month and happens to be owned by Moscow City Hall.
But Vasilenko’s claim is based on an implausible assumption — that an amoeba is capable of making a plan. It can’t. An amoeba can only eat.
The reaction of the authorities to the closure on Leningradskoye Shosse was even more telling than the actual traffic jams themselves.
“The most important thing,” said Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, whom Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed to deal with the problem, “is why the work was started during the peak of the travel season. Why wasn’t the work conducted in the spring, fall or winter?”
So what Ivanov was saying was it is unacceptable to close the only road to Sheremetyevo in summer, but permissible in the winter or fall?
Ivanov obviously is unaware that Sheremetyevo is not the only airport in the world served by a road that passes over bridges and through interchanges.
The problem is not that the authorities blocked passage to an international airport and brought it to a standstill. The problem is that the crumbling bridge has been in need of repair since 2000, and nothing has been done since 2000 to build an alternate route to the airport. The other problem is that most of the land on both sides of Leningradskoye Shosse — territory that is desperately needed to expand the road — was sold a long time ago to commercial entities.
Moscow City Hall did build a new interchange on Leningradskoye Shosse near the Sokol metro station, but it cost 60 billion rubles ($2 billion). That money was spent senselessly because the newly expanded six lanes in one direction on Leningradskoye Shosse at Sokol nevertheless turn into a huge bottleneck when, several kilometers north in the direction of Sheremetyevo, those six lanes turn into three when they pass over the ill-fated bridge.
Last week’s transportation debacle on Leningradskoye Shosse is a good example of the possible collapse of Putin’s Russia. Both underscore our leaders’ complete lack of strategic planning, their habit of stealing everything they can get away with, and the absurdity of Russian reality when the stupidity of a minor official can cause a complete disaster affecting millions of Russians.
Regardless of how loud Putin shakes his fist and cries, “Solve the problem!” he is helpless. The only thing to do now to prevent traffic jams is to deploy tanks alongside Leningradskoye Shosse and break up the traffic jams by bombing every other car to clear the way. But it would come as no surprise if the tanks end up being devoid of ammunition and fuel because both had already been sold on the black market.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: Being John Malkovich
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: John Malkovich portrays the charming serial killer Jack Unterweger in an opera version of the true story of an Austrian maniac at the Mariinsky Concert Hall on Sunday as part of an international tour of “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer.”
Written and directed by Michael Sturminger, “The Infernal Comedy” brings together Malkovich, several sopranos and a baroque orchestra to tell the story of Unterweger, who killed 11 prostitutes in Europe and the U.S. by strangling them with their own bras.
In an interview with The St. Petersburg Times, the U.S. actor explored the human face of monsters, his role in the cult film “Being John Malkovich” and discussed the healing properties of art.
Q.: A baroque orchestra, two singers and an actor is a rather unorthodox stage format. How do you find it?
A. The St. Petersburg production is quite different in that we will have five singers. Normally we have two, and they share the arias. I have loved this experience. I know nothing about baroque music and really nothing about classical music. It has been a fantastic experience and fantastic education for me. I have loved working with something that is so powerful and so irrepressible as this music. It is kind of like having an incredible perfect acting partner.
Q.: Following a campaign by Austrian intellectuals, Unterweger was pardoned and granted an early release by then-Austrian president, Kurt Waldheim — only to commit another string of murders within the first year of his release. How do you think he managed to fool everyone? When you watched the recordings of Unterweger being interviewed in a TV talk show and insisting he was a reformed character, did you find you find his acting convincing?
A.: Not so much, actually. When I go somewhere and, say, watch a performance, I am perfectly capable of believing it, and I often do, but that presupposes the performance is believable — and I simply did not find him believable. I am not an expert on crime, and I do not speak German, but of course I knew of him and had read his writing; but having said that, no one could have known what he would do once he was out of prison. My feeling was essentially an instinct.
I think a lot of people were actually able to see through him. There was a group of people who said he had redeemed himself and was rehabilitated because this fit in with their worldview, and their political persuasion. Another group of people said he had not redeemed himself, and that fit in with their worldview. Very often,
you just cannot know what people can do and what they are capable of doing. That is part of the human condition. Whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, and, of course, whether we do it or not, does not mean we are not potentially capable of a lot of not very nice things.
Q.: Do you see anything in common between actors and criminals, perhaps in the sense that both have to be good at making people believe their stories?
A.: I do not think this is a unique quality for actors. This is exactly how most people conduct their lives. You want someone to believe you are like this or like that. Maybe actors feel more comfortable in game-playing or role-playing than, say, the general populous. And serial killers are of course quite accomplished at gaining people’s trust; that is how they do what they do. Whether actors are as good at gaining people’s trust, I do not know.
Q.: Do you always seek to make each of your characters believable, or do you see some roles as a way to make a particular point?
A.: No, I never do that. I do not make points. I am not a football player or tennis player. I try to play a role, and just let the chips fall wherever they may. When I am offstage, of course, I am happy to judge all of the things we all judge every day. But when I am on stage, it is not for me to judge, it is not in my code.
Q.: And what is in your code?
A.: To give my characters the fullest, most complex life you can in the time you have. And present them to the public, and let the public then make a judgment about what they saw. I am not a judge.
People’s reactions will always be different. “The Infernal Comedy,” for example, has had very different reactions in just about every city we have been in, and I think it will here, in St. Petersburg. You never know. Some people have seen the production as an attempt to glorify Jack Unterweger. But it is really not that.
“The Infernal Comedy” is an attempt, in a way, to create the situation that arose when Unterweger was released from prison. Here comes this guy, he is in a white suit, he is charming, he is funny, he tells silly jokes, he is childish. People generally are charmed by him, but then they begin to find out who he is. And that recreates the experience I think that a lot of the Austrian populous had. I do not see it as in any way glorifying him at all. I cannot say all monsters, because I do not know, but a lot of monsters have a human face. They have some human feelings, maybe even a lot of them. Maybe they have some good qualities — maybe a lot of them. This piece shows it, but I do not think the production glorifies the monster in any way.
Q.: In what way, if any, was acting in “Being John Malkovich” a different experience from your other roles?
A.: It was not special. It was just a different story. I did not feel that an extra effort or any kind of a different skill was required of me. It was just like any other role.
When I first read “Being John Malkovich” many years before it was made, my producing partner and I discussed it. And he met with Charles Kaufman, and we offered to produce it, and for me to direct it, if he made it about someone else. In other words, not about me, but, for example “Being Sean Penn,” or whoever. Charles did not want to do that, and so we did it the way we did. So for me it was not the role, in particular, I just thought it was a fantastic script, a hilarious, very creative and very odd script. I also loved Kaufman’s voice, and I loved [the director] Spike Jonze, when I met him, and I loved his take on what he wanted to do with the material. But to me the role itself is in no way related to me.
Q. Are there any myths or misconceptions about you that you would really like to dispel?
A.: Whenever you are a known figure, there will be people who love you, without even any knowledge of you. There will be the vast majority of people, for whom you will remain unheard of, and they will remain uninterested in you. Then there will be another body of people who will hate you. And I think this is one thing you have to get used to. The only thing that I ever try to dispel is when — and I have to do this all the time — people print really damaging stories about you that are fictitious. I do not mind when people hate me. This is OK. If I knew them, I may hate them also. If I knew them, I may like them. I would go as far as to say, I would like to think I’d understand the reason and even empathize with the reason some people hate me. That sort of thing would not make me jump off a building. I will live my life, and when it is over, that will be that, and the poor people who dislike what I do may be occasionally haunted by an image or two of me when they run across a film or two that I did. I understand that. Hatred is part of human nature. I think it is unfortunate that it is human nature. People I dislike, or, say, known people or celebrities that I dislike, although there are very few, I just do not think about. But I do not hate them. I may not be fond of someone’s acting, or I may find one’s personality irritating, but I do not have time in my life for that sort of contempt. And dispelling misconceptions about me — what is the point? Once you become a public figure, people are going to take their shots. Occasionally, when something is really egregious and goes on and on and on — things like that have a life, you know — if some journalist in Catalonia announces that I am paid 200,000 euros per show, I have to do something about it. It is utterly untrue, and very, very damaging to me. So, I respond. I’d rather not be interested.
Q.: You have appeared, both in film and on stage, in thrillers, horror, comedies and costume dramas. How do you decide to take up a particular role?
A.: That really depends. When I do a role in a theater, I want to be assured that it has sufficient depth and coloring that will allow me to investigate it, to do my work at length. With a movie, that does not matter. You do it one day per scene, normally. There is no time for an in-depth examination of that material. You have to make a quick decision — OK, I see this person like this — and go about it. Movies are about a few good seconds or good minutes a day, or merely that appear to be good — cut in a certain way. I am trained in both now, but when I started I was only trained to do theater. Film is not actually my natural milieu, it is not my instrument, although I’ve had a fantastic opportunity to learn it. If I was a football player, I would say, it is not my natural position.
So when I choose a role, I have to bear that in mind in the theater in a way that does not matter in movies. I have to be assured that I am not going to run out of space or possibilities with the role I choose in the theater. When I have made that mistake, nothing is more miserable than doing a play that you cannot make live. And nothing is more fun than being in a play that you can make live. Movies are not about that. It is about a totally different set of factors, many of which have their charm: You have to make a quick sketch of your character. I love to do “Saturday Night Live,” which is all little quick comic sketches, it is fantastic — but I would not necessarily want to do those sketches for a year. They are funny to rehearse three times, and they may be really funny to watch, even 20 years later, but I would not want to do it every night for a year.
Q.: What do you find rewarding in film, compared to theater acting?
A.: You know, it is funny, the things I like about movies are really weird things. They are all quite technical. Obviously, I like to work with my fellow performers, and I love the quick sketch aspect, but I am also attracted to the technical aspects of film-making: You act with the other people, but you act with the camera, too. The camera can do close-ups and a lot of things you cannot do in theater.
Q.: What do you regard as your big breakthrough?
A.: It was when I agreed to go with some of my classmates to start Steppenwolf Theater, which I thought would maybe last a day, or a month. What made the company last was a lot of respect among the members of Steppenwolf for the work of the others in Steppenwolf. That was the main thing. There were so many close friendships, and lots of love between us and lots of humor and farce and tragedy shared. But what it boiled down to is we liked to watch each other work — and that is probably the reason it lasted.
Q.: What makes a theater production last?
A.: That it is living. It should be lifelike — not realistic, but lifelike, meaning it reminds you of life. It is ephemeral.
I always compare acting to surfing, which I do not do; I just watch. Theater is like riding a wave. The performer is not the wave. The wave is created by the collision of the material and the public. And then you just ride it, and, yes, sometimes you fall off, and sometimes you wipe out, and sometimes you ride better than others. And that is what theater acting is to me.
What makes a production alive is the sense that the public does not know what is going to happen.
Q.: Do you agree that art can heal?
A.: Maybe I’m a sucker, but I think there is truth in that, from what I have witnessed in my life. I don’t know if it is healing, but at times it certainly makes you not ashamed to be part of the human race when you see what real artists are capable of creating. There are a lot of times when one could feel not so overjoyed about being a human being, when you look around the world and see what we do and what we have done, and all that sorrow and chaos. But when you listen to a beautiful piece of music or read a fantastic book or go to the Rijksmuseum to see Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch,” I think it is at least comforting to know what people are capable of doing artistically.
Q.: Which works of art would you like your children to see?
A.: That would probably be a lot of things. Just a few weeks ago I said to my son as I was watching the Italian composer Ennio Morricone’s work “The Mission” played by a symphony orchestra in Verona, “Just see what a man — say, a composer — can do all by himself with a pencil and a piece of paper, and a piano.”
I want to give my children exposure to many different things. Nothing of mine, but of other people. I want to show them human talent and the various possibilities.
“The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer” is performed at the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall on Sunday.
TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: Tantsy, an alternative music club located amid beautiful ruins between Gorokhovaya Ulitsa and Sennaya Ploshchad, has announced a series of outdoor Gastarbeiter Parties (guest worker parties) — night-time events aimed at the local expat community.
“The main thing is that we are putting it all in the hands of foreigners — the DJs will all be foreign and they will bring their friends,” said art director Denis Rubin, who came up with the idea.
“For the first time they’ll get a large space, rather than a small club. We’ll see what happens. We hope that the public itself will orientate toward us and coordinate with us.
“They’ll definitely come up with their own forms of entertainment, special games and special drinks that they’ll suggest to be mixed in the bar.
“The idea is to let expats feel at home, as if they are throwing their own party, once a week. We’ll provide them with a space where they can feel free.”
The expat parties will be held in Tantsy’s courtyard on Sundays from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Called Tantsy. Leto (“Dances: Summer”), the club’s courtyard space was opened on July 1 and features a bar, DJ equipment, tables and seats, and a basketball hoop.
The place’s specialty is pilaf rice (plov), cooked on the spot in a large iron skillet and sold for 100 rubles ($3.22) a plate.
Tantsy is located through the arch at 49 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa. Entrance is free.
Another summer place is Mod, which opened a rooftop terrace on Friday.
The owner of the club, which closed in its former location in January alongside three other venues on Konyushennaya Ploshchad, was quick to find a new location for the popular music venue.
With Mod’s new premises still under repair, the club’s now-functioning rooftop terrace has a DJ, a bar with drinks and snacks — and a novuss table, the fondly remembered Lithuanian game that featured at the old Mod and its predecessor bar, Novus.
Mod is now located at 5 Kanal Griboyedova. Enter the anonymous door between restaurants Barkhat and Konyushenny Dvor and look for the sign in the courtyard.
The roof terrace is open daily, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (although there are plans to open the place during the daytime as well). Entrance is free.
The Yusupov Gardens will host the Neva Delta Blues Festival from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday. Julius E. Green, a U.S. rhythm-and-blues singer and former member of The Platters who co-wrote “Good To Me” with Otis Redding, will be headlining.
The Yusupov Gardens are located at 50a Sadovaya Ulitsa. Tickets will cost 600 rubles.
This week’s concerts include French avant-rockers My Own Private Alaska at Tantsy on Tuesday and ex-Guns ‘N’Roses guitarist Slash at Glavclub on Thursday.
— By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: Going underground
AUTHOR: By Matthew Brown
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: One author who is no stranger to these pages has an almost pathological aversion to restaurants located in basements. Sadly for him, they are an all too common phenomenon in St. Petersburg. Pogreeb, which opened earlier this summer on the newly rebuilt corner of the Griboyedov Canal and Cheboksarsky Pereulok, now adds to the list.
The clue is in the name, a play on po grib (by Grib-oyedov) and pogreb (cellar). With a premium usually placed on eateries with ceiling-to-floor windows on top floors that allow diners to take in the sweeping vistas of the city’s magnificent skyline, the owners of Pogreeb have tried hard to make light of its subterranean setting with a large number of lamps placed in its three dining rooms.
However, the choice of a mahogany and cream color scheme, seen in the upholstery and tableware and on the walls and vaulted ceilings, makes the place more gloomy than intimate. It was a shame that the high quality linen napkins had off-puttingly acquired moisture from the clammy cellar air.
Perhaps it is petty to pick at such nits in high summer, because in other ways Pogreeb actually offers welcome hints of dining sophistication. Cool jazz plays softly as the waitresses glide unobtrusively between tables. They even wear spotless white gloves reminiscent of a snooker referee or a liveried traffic policeman. And the food certainly has a lot going for it.
The main course menu features judiciously selected, Italian-influenced dishes based on duck, rabbit and fish such as sea bass and salmon, prepared with an emphasis on herbs and sauces rather than starch-heavy garnishes. There is even a full-fledged vegetarian option with dish based on zucchini (390 rubles, $12.50).
The foot-long, lime-green legume had been baked with a filling of goat’s cheese and cherry tomatoes, served with grilled beef-heart tomatoes and oregano, and decorated with slices of dried zucchini powdered with turmeric. The dish was enlivened with generous scatterings of herbs such as basil and rosemary, and was considered a pleasing if unspectacular course.
Another main course was described on the menu a little sloppily as Cod in Clare with Cannelloni a la Russe (320 rubles, $10.30). This isn’t anything to do with a fish dish originating in a county in the west of Ireland with a pasta twist, but simply a transliteration of v klyare — in batter. Russian-style cannelloni, it turns out, are two fat blini filled with mashed potato and dill. So the dish is almost like an artfully presented version of fish and chips, albeit made with powerfully flavored fresh ingredients and accompanied by a sea of excellent homemade tartar sauce, lime wedges and chives.
The menu at Pogreeb is something of a sensation in that it offers starters, desserts and even sandwiches that rival and outperform the main courses. Although nothing very original, its salad with warm chicken breasts and croutons (340 rubles, $11) was basically Caesar Salad without the sauce — but all the more fresh and light without it. Meanwhile, a salad of goat’s cheese and forest berries was an amazing revelation (460 rubles, $15).
Filo pastry parcels of goat’s cheese nestled on a bed of lollo rosso and rocket leaves that were studded with pine nuts among a cornucopia of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. While the sweet/savory combination may not be to everyone’s taste, the dish was certainly the standout in a generally satisfying meal.
Unfortunately there was no room to sample desserts such as Mango Blues (fresh mango, mango mousse and mango sorbet) or an apple tart with basil made by the renowned pastry chef Lyubov Spiridonova, but the choices were all alluring.
Such treats might even be enough to tempt a basement-hating restaurant critic into dining downstairs at Pogreeb in the not-too-distant future.
TITLE: ‘Psychic’ Octopus
To Predict Winner
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BERLIN — Paul the “psychic” octopus, who has become a global star after correctly forecasting all six of Germany’s World Cup games, will predict the final, but only if his hefty workload has not exhausted him.
The mollusc medium, who stunned Germany by tipping Spain in the semi-final — spot on as it turned out, will on Friday make his prediction for the third-place Germany match with Uruguay, a spokesman for his aquarium told AFP.
Paul’s handlers will follow the now familiar routine. Two boxes will be lowered into his tank, each containing a tasty morsel of food and the flags of the two opposing teams.
Whichever box Paul wrenches open is adjudged to be the winner.
Afterwards, Paul will be offered boxes with Spanish and Dutch flags, the two teams in Sunday’s showcase final, but only if he is deemed not too tired and still hungry, the spokesman said.
“We do not want to overburden him,” the spokesman said.
The eight-legged oracle forecast German wins over Australia, Argentina, England and Ghana. Proving he is not just attracted to the German flag, he also correctly predicted losses to Serbia and Spain, the latter live on national TV.
But as many World Cup stars have discovered in South Africa, the footballing gods can quickly snatch fame and favor away.
Bitterness at Germany’s 1-0 defeat to Spain turned to anger with some sections of the 350,000-strong crowd in Berlin insulting both Paul and his mother.
Even crueller, some fans have begun posting recipes on the Internet, believing that Paul’s reward for his clairvoyant powers should be a meeting with the barbecue or the paella pot.
TITLE: Dozens Killed as Violence Rises in Baghdad
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD — At least 12 people were killed Thursday by bombs targeting the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who defied violence to take part in the final day of a Shiite religious holiday, officials said.
The deaths came one day after nearly 60 people were killed in attacks in and around the Iraqi capital, most of them by a suicide bomber who targeted pilgrims heading to a mosque in northern Baghdad to mark the anniversary of the death of a revered Shiite figure.
While violence in Iraq has plummeted since the height of the insurgency a few years ago, the attacks targeting devout Shiites who walk from across Iraq to take part in the holy occasion underscore the tentative nature of the security gains and the persistent attempts by insurgents to once again foment sectarian divisions.
The attacks come as Iraq is struggling to seat a government a little over four months after the March 7 election failed to bring about a clear winner to lead the country. As opposing political blocs jockey to form a ruling coalition, the ongoing political uncertainty has raised questions about whether insurgents will try to destabilize the country just as American troops are reducing their numbers to 50,000 by the end of August.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but similar incidents in the past have been blamed on Sunni extremists who view Shiites as nonbelievers and object to the Shiite-led government that took over Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Six people died in eastern Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded Thursday morning as pilgrims were walking home from the mosque in the Kazimiyah neighborhood, while a car bomb in southern Baghdad killed another person.
Five more people were killed by a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad, said Iraqi hospital and police officials.
Despite the violence, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis continued to stream through the city visiting the shrine as the ceremonies peaked Thursday, which is also for many the beginning of their long walk home. The pilgrimage, although not the most important among Iraq’s Shiite-majority, is considered significant.
Hlail Hussein, 33, was eating rice and soup at one of the many tents erected along the roads to the twin-domed shrine for pilgrims to get food and drink for their journey.
“These terrorists and their bombings increase our love for our Imams and increase our determination to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our Imams,” said Hussein, who came to Baghdad five days ago from the southern city of Nasiriya.
A woman pushing her mother in a wheelchair said she would continue despite the violence.
“Even Saddam’s regime could not prevent us from taking part in this march,” said Athraa Ali, 30. “We cannot stop living because of these explosions.”
Officials raised the death toll from Wednesday’s single most deadly attack to 35. The attack by a suicide bomber came as Shiite pilgrims were just about to cross a bridge from the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah on Wednesday evening into the predominantly Shiite area of Kazimiyah where the shrine is located.
The Imams Bridge connecting the two neighborhoods was also the site of a deadly stampede in 2005 sparked by a rumor that a suicide bomber was among the crowd; 900 people were killed in the ensuing melee.
Iraqi security forces have blanketed the city with about 200,000 personnel, and a vehicle ban has been in place across the Kazimiyah neighborhood in an attempt to thwart attacks.
But the sheer number of pilgrims as well as the spread-out nature of the religious event — with roads around the country blocked to allow pilgrims to walk to and from Baghdad — make it almost impossible for security forces to protect everyone.
Two people were also killed near Ramadi, 115 kilometers west of Baghdad, when insurgents blew up the houses of three policemen. An official with the Ramadi police department said the policemen were not in the houses at the time.
Ramadi is the provincial capital of Anbar, where police and security officials are often targeted by insurgents who view them as collaborators with the Shiite-led government.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
TITLE: Spain Faces Holland in World Cup Final
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: JOHANNESBURG — Football fans cheered in Madrid and shed tears in Berlin as Spain set up a World Cup final showdown with Holland at Soccer City on Sunday.
Carles Puyol, the mop haired Barcelona veteran deployed to prevent rather than score goals, settled a Durban semi-final thriller by dashing forward to head an Andres Iniesta corner into the net on 73 minutes.
The goal broke the deadlock in a match Spain took a vice-like grip on from the start as a German team becoming used to scoring four goals a game found themselves on the receiving end of a masterclass in possession and passing.
When Puyol scored the Madrid fan park erupted as Spaniards celebrated a fifth successive victory after the World Cup campaign got off to a shock start with a loss to modest Switzerland.
‘Red Fury’ supporters leapt in the air, waved red and yellow scarves and football was the sole topic of Madrid conversation as night fell on the Spanish capital and the country looked forward to a first final appearance.
“It is over! We are in the final of the World Cup! It is historic, what joy!” shouted a commentator from television channel La Cuatro as the final whistle blew.
Stunned Germans, told a few days before by legend Franz Beckenbauer that the team was “perfect” after drilling four goals past Australia, England and Argentina, openly wept at another failure against Spain.
The countries also met in the 2008 European championship final in Vienna and the result was the same with Liverpool striker Fernando Torres the scorer on that occasion.
“Germany is upset and tears are flowing up and down the country,” admitted mass-circulation German daily Bild. “No matter how tough it may be to accept, the defeat was deserved.”
Spain and Netherlands have been competing in the World Cup since 1934 but have never met, which only adds to the intrigue ahead of a final that will attract a sell-out 90,000 crowd to a western outskirt of Johannesburg.
Pre-tournament favorites after only two losses in two years — against the Swiss and the United States in a 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final — Spain will retain that status going into the climax of the month-long event.
But the Dutch, runners-up to hosts West Germany and Argentina in the 1974 and 1978 finals, have an even better record at this World Cup than Spain, winning all six matches.
They reached the final with a 3-2 victory over tournament surprise packets Uruguay in a Cape Town clash settled by goals from Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben within four second-half minutes.
Like Dutch counterpart Bert van Marwijk, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque pleaded with his celebrating stars to keep their feet on the ground ahead of the second all-Europe final in a row with Italy defeating France in Berlin.
“Of course we must celebrate this victory but we will do so with moderation. We will not be blinded by success. We will enjoy this and then start preparing for the final,” stressed the former Real Madrid coach.
“There is nothing more difficult or precious than to win a World Cup. But we still have to play the final. We cannot start bragging or get too conceited yet.
“We looked to win the ball and keep it for the entire match and the players did their job magnificently,” said the man who courageously axed misfiring Torres for the semi-final.
“The triumph is even bigger because of the size of the opponent. You could say Germany were less strong than expected but that was because our team did a great job. The bottom line is we played better than they expected.”
While Spain and Netherlands moved to the South African financial capital, Germany and Uruguay headed for the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth and a third place play-off on Saturday.
TITLE: Al Qaida Suspects Arrested
In Norway
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OSLO — Three suspected al-Qaida members were arrested Thursday morning in what Norwegian and U.S. officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans in New York and England.
The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year.
Two of the men were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, according to Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway’s Police Security Service. She declined to give further details of the locations.
Kristiansen said one of the men was a 39-year-old Norwegian of Uighur origin, who had lived in Norway since 1999. The other suspects included a 37-year-old Iraqi and a 31-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, both of whom have permanent residency permits in Norway.
Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year’s thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11. On Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the existence of a related plot in Manchester, England. Officials believe the Norway plan was organized by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaida’s former chief of external operations, the man in charge of plotting attacks worldwide.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The Norwegian Police Security Service said only that the three were arrested on suspicion of “preparing terror activities.”
Al-Somali, who was killed in a CIA drone airstrike last year, has been identified in U.S. court documents as one of the masterminds of the New York subway plot. Two men have pleaded guilty in that case, admitting they planned to detonate explosives during rush hour. A third man awaits trial.
Officials said it was not clear the men had selected a target for the attacks but they were attempting to make peroxide bombs, the powerful homemade explosives that prosecutors say were attempted in both New York and England.
U.S. and Norwegian counterterrorism officials worked closely together to unravel the Norwegian plot, officials said. Kristiansen traveled to the U.S. this spring to discuss some of the closely held intelligence that been gathered in the case.
Officials did not say why Norway was a target, but al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has called for attacks on Norway, among other countries.
TITLE: Cuba to Ease Plight of Jailed Dissidents in Deal with Spain
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: HAVANA, Cuba — Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said his country is willing to take in 52 Cuban political prisoners set for release by Raul Castro’s government.
“The Spanish government has accepted the proposal that all those who are released travel to Spain, if they so wish,” Moratinos told reporters at the conclusion of his visit to the island.
He also said that Castro, during their six-hour meeting Wednesday in Havana, assured him that “family members may accompany them,” and that relatives and the exiles themselves would be able to return to visit Cuba — a measure that would imply a change in the communist government’s immigration policy.
“The prisoners themselves who wish to return would have to apply for authorization to return, but that does not exclude the possibility of their returning,” said Moratinos, who added that Havana said it would not confiscate the property of the released prisoners who left the country, as it has done with exiles for the past 50 years.
President Castro — who took over from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2008 — met with Moratinos and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega to discuss the fate of the 52 prisoners, including five dissidents, all of whom were part of a group of 75 dissidents rounded up in 2003 and sentenced to jail terms of six to 28 years.
Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, was informed that in the coming hours, the five dissidents “will be released and will leave shortly for Spain in the company of their families,” according to Roman Catholic church officials in a statement.
The remaining 47 will be freed within the next three to four months by the island’s Communist authorities, the statement said. The church began a dialogue with the government on May 19 in the face of hunger strikes that drew attention to the plight of dissident prisoners.
TITLE: Is it OK to Cheat in Football?
AUTHOR: By Peter Singer
TEXT: Shortly before halftime in the World Cup elimination match between England and Germany on June 27, the English midfielder Frank Lampard had a shot at goal that struck the crossbar and bounced down onto the ground, clearly over the goal line. The goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, grabbed the ball and put it back into play. Neither the referee nor the linesman, both of whom were still coming down the field — and thus were poorly positioned to judge — signaled a goal, and play continued.
After the match, Neuer gave this account of his actions: “I tried not to react to the referee and just concentrate on what was happening. I realized it was over the line, and I think the way I carried on so quickly fooled the referee into thinking it was not over.”
To put it bluntly: Neuer cheated, and then boasted about it.
By any normal ethical standards, what Neuer did was wrong. But does the fact that Neuer was playing football mean that the only ethical rule is: “Win at all costs”?
In football, that does seem to be the prevailing ethic. The most famous of these incidents was Diego Maradona’s goal in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup match against England, which he later described as having been scored a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God. Replays left no doubt that it was the hand of Maradona that scored the goal. Twenty years later, he admitted in a BBC interview that he had intentionally acted as if it were a goal, in order to deceive the referee.
Something similar happened last November, in a game between France and Ireland that decided which of the two nations went to the World Cup. The French striker Thierry Henry used his hand to control the ball and pass to a teammate, who scored the decisive goal. Asked about the incident after the match, Henry said: “I will be honest, it was a handball. But I’m not the ref. I played it. The ref allowed it. That’s a question you should ask him.”
But is it? Why should the fact that you can get away with cheating mean that you are not culpable? Players should not be exempt from ethical criticism for what they do on the field, any more than they are exempt from ethical criticism for cheating off the field — for example, by taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Sports today are highly competitive, with huge amounts of money at stake, but that does not mean it is impossible to be honest. In 1996, Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was awarded a penalty for being fouled by the Arsenal goalkeeper. He told the referee that he had not been fouled, but the referee insisted that he take the penalty kick. Fowler did so, but in a manner that enabled the goalkeeper to save it.
Why are there so few examples of such behavior from professional footballers? Perhaps a culture of excessive partisanship has trumped ethical values. Fans don’t seem to mind if members of their own team cheat successfully. They only object when the other side cheats. That is not an ethical attitude. (Though, to their credit, many French football followers, from President Nicolas Sarkozy down, expressed their sympathy for Ireland after Henry’s handball.)
Yes, we can deal with the problem to some extent by using modern technology or video replays to review controversial refereeing decisions. But, while that will reduce the opportunity for cheating, it won’t eliminate it, and it isn’t really the point. We should not make excuses for intentional cheating in sports. In one important way, it is much worse than cheating in one’s private life. When what you do will be seen by millions, revisited on endless video replays and dissected on television sports programs, it is especially important to do what is right.
How would football fans have reacted if Neuer had stopped play and told the referee that the ball was a goal? Given the rarity of such behavior in football, the initial reaction would no doubt have been surprise. Some German fans might have been disappointed. But the world as a whole — and every fair-minded German fan too — would have had to admit that he had done the right thing.
Neuer missed a rare opportunity to do something noble in front of millions of people. He could have set a positive ethical example to people watching all over the world, including the many millions who are young and impressionable. Who knows what difference that example might have made to the lives of many of those watching?
Neuer could have been a hero, standing up for what is right. Instead, he is just another footballer who is very skillful at cheating.
Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at the University of Melbourne, is author of “Practical Ethics, One World” and “The Life You Can Save.” © Project Syndicate.
TITLE: U.K. Gives Asylum to Gay Refugees
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Two gay failed asylum seekers in Britain who said they would face persecution because of their sexuality if they were sent home won their Supreme Court appeals against their deportation on Wednesday.
The men, identified only as “J” from Iran and “T” from Cameroon, had been refused asylum on the grounds that they could avoid ill-treatment by behaving discreetly or keeping their sexuality secret in their native countries.
The Supreme Court said that ruling went against the Convention on the Status of Refugees and sent their cases back to the lower Court of Appeal to be reassessed in the light of their verdict.
Interior Minister Theresa May welcomed Wednesday’s ruling.
“We have already promised to stop the removal of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution,” she said.
“I do not believe it is acceptable to send people home and expect them to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution.”
TITLE: Two Gored During Pamplona Bull Run
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PAMPLONA, Spain — Two people were gored Thursday during a tense and dangerous second running of the bulls at Spain’s famed San Fermin fiesta, and at least five other people were hospitalized after falling or being trampled by the hulking beasts, officials said.
Thousands took part in the dash to keep ahead of six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers tasked with keeping the beasts together along the 930-yard course from a holding pen to the northern town’s bullring.
The run lasted just under four minutes and produced panic when some bulls separated from the pack.
Television images showed the first runner being gored in the chest and hurled like a rag doll to the cobblestones of one of the narrow streets where the bull run takes place in Pamplona’s historic old quarter. He remained on the ground dazed until he was taken away by rescue workers.